So I’ve been in Nepal for three weeks now, and I’ve gotten to experience a good bit. The focus of this post will be on the three-day motorcycle trip Lea and I went on last week. Our host Nischal took us (for pay) with a friend of his, Manish, and we got to do and see some cool stuff.
We left very early last Wednesday morning for an incredibly unremarkable sunrise on a hill just outside the city proper. It was completely pointless because the visibility was too poor to see the mountains, which is the entire reason we went. But it was a fun little ride through the city, and we at least got to get some breakfast and tea afterwards. I think stopping for tea is my favorite part of ay endeavor here.
After breakfast we set out on the first leg of our trip proper, which took us outside the city to a Buddhist temple (a recurring theme in Nepal of course). The temple itself was somewhat unremarkable, but it wasn’t a waste of time. Apparently there were four of these temples in the city—north, south, east, and west. This sounded to me like something out of a Legend of Zelda game, but anyways our particular temple was the east one.
After this we set out on a much longer drive through some proper wilderness. We passed over some low mountains on incredibly poor dirt roads (bumpbumpbumpbumpbump), which was both harrowing and exciting. We had an obligatory tea stop somewhere along the way, and at another stop us men threw rocks off the cliff. I don’t know why men are so attracted to this, but we just are, you must understand. I had a similar experience at multiple points during my trip to Tunisia. Man lives to throw big rock off cliff.
If you have never done it, riding on the back of a motorcycle can be a bit scary, especially at speed. The issue is compounded by the fact that most Nepali people seem to be terrible drivers. There is tons of violent acceleration and deceleration, and lots of jerking the bike around, for instance to get around cars. Smooth driving is foreign to these people. And furthermore, as I alluded to in the first Nepal post, there is no real order on the road, which makes everything ten times worse. Drivers are generally selfish; everybody is constantly cutting each other off at intersections and generally treating every other driver as a moving object to be avoided, rather than another human being also trying to get somewhere. It’s not just like aggressive drivers on the highway, and it’s hard to explain without showing you. But the motorcycles especially just do whatever they want, including driving using the opposite lane to pass cars. And they’ll do this on blind corners too, and they blare the horn to let oncoming traffic know. They blare the horn for a ton of things like this, so it works, but God is it incredibly annoying and uncivil.
Anyways, because the violent acceleration makes you feel like you will fall off at first, there is a tendency among newbies to grab at the seat or back bar for stability. But this is apparently unnecessary, because when I look at Nepali people none of them are doing the same. So I’ve been practicing riding no-hands since being here, and I’m getting a lot better. Because the main way to get around as a solo traveler is motorcycle taxis, I get a lot of practice.
After our harrowing drive through the mountains we arrived at our first real activity for the day: a river. And God did this make me so happy. A little known fact about me is that I am fifty percent Labrador Retriever, by which I mean that I’m inherently attracted to swimming in bodies of water, not unlike my own Black Lab (I miss you Tahoe). Oceans and lakes are cool, but really my favorite thing is rivers. Not sure why, but it has to do with something far-reaching inside my personality. It’s the rushing water. It matches my inner intensity and need for motion.
It took all of two minutes max for me to take off all my clothes (save for my underwear) and jump into the water. And man was it cold, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The water invigorated me and cleansed my spirit of all my ails; I truly was reborn coming out. Alright, perhaps I am being a bit dramatic, but I do not exaggerate when I say this (along with the later waterfall) will be highlights of my entire trip around the world—alongside whatever water I find in Southeast Asia. Oh, I’m going to Thailand next month by the way.
After swimming around for a bit Lea and I found a flat rock in the river and in the sunshine to play lizard. I basked for a great period of time, and eventually I went back to get my phone for photos. Then Nischal told me to take my time getting out, so I took that to heart and went down the river and back, rock-hopping for a solid half-hour extra. Man, that water felt so good. When I think of the highlights of my life all I think about is swimming in rivers and waterfalls. There was the Three Sister Falls in Northern California, the waterfall in Ecuador, and now the river and waterfall here… the Lab is so happy.
After the river we drove on for another hour or so before getting our first glimpse of the lake itself. Nischal drove us through some local villages until we arrived at the lunch spot. Here we got some orders of buffalo momo, which was great. A little spicy for my western belly, but I’m doing my best adapting. Then just a little bit further down the road, we came to the resort where we would spend our first night. And it was beautiful! We had an incredible view of the lake, and the room was nice too. Generally a lot nicer than I expected any of our accommodations to be.
Not much else happened that first day. We all took a much-needed nap after waking up so early, and we had dinner together and played some cards. I’m having fun learning the Nepali card games.
The second day we packed our bags and embarked on a long hike that would occupy the majority of our day. We ha a great, fulfilling breakfast at the resort before heading out. We walked through lots of random villages, occasionally broke for tea with random people (it’s good to have a guide who speaks the language), and found some company of dogs that would end up following us all day. That was really cool; one of the dogs actually even followed us through day three. They were like our extra-local guides for the day.
After hiking for a decent bit we had lunch in some tiny village alongside a small creek, and we were treated with some surprisingly good chow mien. And after that we continued, now wrapping our way around the lake, and we got some great views of the valley and water. We also got to hike through forest for the first time, which was wonderful and made me feel like I was home.
The hike wasn’t so strenuous until the end, when we had to surmount a brutal staircase that weaved it’s way all the way up a huge steep hill. But it was the last stretch, so we found the motivation to push through. Plus, I knew there was a waterfall up there, and that’s what I had really come here for. So we rounded the top and found again a small little village, this the one we were to stay in tonight. And we were led to our room, which was… less than ideal, but it was only one night so whatever. It was very ‘rustic.’ Two low beds, hard as rocks, one dim little light. Very romantic.
But afterwards I got to swim in the waterfall!!! This has been a highlight of my travels thus far. Unfortunately nobody really wanted to swim with me. Some of them took a token dip (not even their heads smh), but I was left alone to frolic to my heart’s content. I had a ton of fun exploring the lower and upper falls, climbing on rocks, trying to not inadvertently kill myself on the slippery stones.
We ended the day much the same as day one: dinner (more momo), cards, and everybody but me smoking a copious amount of cigarettes.
Day three was pretty chill. We went without Manish up on a hike even higher into the hills, and we got to see lots of local farm life on the way. It was someone interesting, if a little too hot and sweaty, but alas. At the top Nischal asked some people to make us tea, and we hung out with them for a little bit. We had a great view of the mountains up here, but unfortunately it doesn’t translate well to photos at this distance.
Also, Nischal bought a chicken for his pregnant wife. And they say romance is dead!
The rest of the trip concerned getting back to the resort, where we had left our bikes. We hiked down from this higher village, and in the village where we stayed Nischal had someone butcher our poor chicken. For my part, I again went to swim in the waterfall, this time all alone. I explored further down the river and laid in the sun for a good bit. Simple things.
After this we gathered up our stuff for the last time and set off back towards the lake, where this time we actually cut down to the shore and hopped on a little rowboat. This was a lot of fun and made me think of kayaking in New England. We crossed the lake and ended up back at the resort, and there we took lunch before heading back to Kathmandu.