Namaste Nepal

Luke Weber
Nov 1, 2023
8 min read

The year is 2080, and we’ve been transported into the future. Although at times it felt like we have been transported back in time.

On our evening flight from Singapore in 2023 to Kathmandu in 2080, we sat next to a chatty Nepali man who was a Christian theology teacher living in San Francisco for the past 30 years. He initially fled religious persecution in Nepal, but now returns twice a year to work with orphans and contribute to his community there. It was great to get some local insights, and made the 5.5 hour flight ‘fly’ by. We asked him about the odd time difference - most time zones are on equal hour differences, but Nepal strangely differs by an increment of 15 minutes. Apparently it is to do with wanting to be different from their neighbour, India. The difference in year is due to the Hindu Bikram calendar. Regardless of the date and time, we knew we were heading somewhere pretty unique and different from anywhere we had been before!

Tribhuvan International Airport was an organised chaos - comparable to, but certainly not as overwhelming as Cairo, Egypt. We felt glad we had a plan of how to best navigate the system (or lack of). With USD in hand and our pre-completed online visa registration evidence, we joined several lines to eventually receive our 90-day entry visas and enter the country. We picked up a $10 SIM card with 88GB of data (what the heck?!), collected our bags and met our driver, ready to take us to our hotel in Thamel. We were quite tired, Jelley still not having recovered from jetlag in Singapore, and immediately wondered if we should increase our budget once we arrived to our room. Luckily we were upgraded to a much nicer room the next day and we started to feel a little more at home.

It had been a while since we were in a hectic Asian capital city (that wasn’t Singapore or Japan!), and Kathmandu was an immediate assault on the senses. It was super overwhelming navigating the narrow alleyway streets and trying to avoid getting hit by vehicles endlessly swerving past us while tooting their horns. There was also the odd electrical cable dangling into a puddle that we had to look out for too. A huge contrast to Singapore’s cleanliness and efficiency. We weren’t overly enthusiastic about being in Kathmandu, but we viewed it as a bit of a necessary evil to start off our time here in Nepal.

We had a list of tasks to achieve in Kathmandu before we set out on our first trekking adventure and we got straight to work on day 1. The first stop was withdrawing cash, and heading to the local tourism office to arrange our permits for the Annapurna Circuit. We made a massive rookie mistake and ended up accidentally leaving our debit card in the ATM when withdrawing cash. As soon as we realised what we had done, Luke quickly ran back across town to the ATM, and, by a huge stroke of luck, our card was sitting neatly on top of the ATM with no money withdrawn. We felt extremely lucky - there are not many places in the world where this would happen, not even in our own countries! Our opinion of Kathmandu turned around, and we felt a strong sense of security being here.

Obtaining our Annapurna Park Permits was a semi-straightforward process which involved a visit to the local Nepalese Tourism Board and paying our permit entry fee. We handed them our passports and info and got our permits in no time. Luckily, Jelley’s attention to detail paid off as she picked up on an error of her permit being printed twice, with Luke’s photo attached to it! It would’ve been a pain to rectify at the checkpoints on Annapurna Circuit Trail, and we were happy to get this rectified. Everything online stated that all trekkers also needed to obtain an additional “Trekkers Information Management System (TIMs) Card”. However, when Jelley went up to the permit counter to obtain this, a government representative cryptically held up a handwritten piece of paper “no TIMs needed” and showed it secretly to her so as to not garner any attention. It was a little puzzling, and we hoped this wouldn't come back to bite us later on, but we were happy to not have another expense so we went on our merry way.

It was very hot in Kathmandu. The summer monsoon season had been extended this year and we were feeling it! After the excitement of the ATM incident, and feeling hot and tired, we escaped for an iced coffee and AC in a very touristy bakery.

Jelley was exhausted, but Luke was finding his groove in the city and enjoying wandering the narrow streets. He went out for his own adventure for the afternoon, to get a different SIM card. With 2 different telco’s and various pockets of coverage across the country, we decided to diversify our options and get one of each. While Luke was out, he met a friendly local who informed him that there was a local festival that had just started in Kathmandu. He followed him around for a bit until he realised that there were many other foreigners who seemed to also be in a similar situation to him and so he feared that it could have been a scam so he thanked his new “friend” and went on his way.

We knew we would be returning to Kathmandu multiple times during our trip to Nepal, and with the summer heat still lingering, we decided to save the majority of our sightseeing for a future visit. One spot we did decide to explore was Swayambhunath (or the Monkey Temple). True to its name, the steep steps to the temple were surrounded by monkeys, including cute baby ones, and it felt good to stretch the legs and get a walk in. This is one of the oldest religious sites in Nepal, with its history dating back to the beginning of the fifth century CE.

We got talking to a couple from Nebraska (of all places) although she was originally born in Nepal, it was his first overseas trip outside of the USA, and it’s safe to say he was even more overwhelmed than we were ! We were glad to get to the temple early before the intense heat of the day, and really enjoyed wandering around the temple complex and taking in the views of Kathmandu from above.

We were trying to eat as many home comforts as possible before our trek (thinking we might be eating Dal Bhat curry for the next 3 weeks!), but we did branch out and try some Nepalese food, with Momos for lunch. Momos are the Nepalese take on dumplings, and they were quite delicious! We had made a conscious decision to be vegetarians while in Nepal to assist with hygiene and food safety, a decision that was reinforced while walking past butcher shops with slabs of meat hanging in the heat surrounded by flies.

Our first quick stop in Kathmandu was complete, and we knew we still had plenty to look forward to on our return in a cooler month. It was time to head to the second largest city in Nepal, Pokhara. Only 200km/125mi from Kathmandu and a 25 minute flight, we were travelling by bus and we had heard nightmares stories that the usual 6 hour journey was taking as long as 12 hours due to ongoing road construction. It was an early start to walk to the bus stop and make sure we got our allocated seats near the front of the bus, and we were pleasantly surprised by the comfort of the ‘sofa bus’, the most luxurious option available.

We had downloaded plenty of content for the journey, and enjoyed the scenery as the road followed the scenic Trishuli River. It was slow progress, and seemingly the entire highway was under some sort of construction. It took us 11.5 hours to eventually reach Pokhara, but this wasn’t the worst bus journey we’d ever taken. The price tag of $10USD per person compared to a flight of $100USD seemed worth the effort.

We stayed at the Pokhara Backpackers Hostel, keen to meet some other trekkers who had either recently completed or were setting out on the nearby Annapurna Circuit so that we could collect some intel on the journey. We were in luck with the first guy we talked to, an interesting Australian who had been living in the USA for the past 5 years and was midway through a 6 month long journey back to Sydney via Asia. He had conveniently just completed the Annapurna Circuit trek we were preparing for, and was eager to share his experiences and learnings. Perfect!

It was still very hot, and we melted as we went for a walk down to the Phewa lakefront to get our bearings of Pokhara. We still had a bit of admin to achieve before our Annapurna Circuit trek, and were relieved to spend the heat of the day in our air-conditioned room. We hadn’t seen the Annapurna mountain range since arriving, but at sunset the beauty finally revealed itself momentarily, giving us a glimpse of what was to come.

We were feeling a little out of hiking shape after the winter of work, and keen to get a warmup walk in before our big adventure. We decided to head up to the World Peace Pagoda on a neighbouring hill. Most people take a boat across the lake and walk 45 minutes up to the stupa, or even take a taxi all the way to the top, but we started out early and took a 2 hour walk up through a local village and jungle trail instead. A friendly dog joined us and led the way, and we were pleased to only learn after we reached the top that there were indeed leopards and snakes in the jungle we had walked through. The monkeys were enough entertainment for us, as our dog chased and played with them.

We were relieved to reach the top and rest in the shade at the World Peace Pagoda. The views were stunning from up here, and it was interesting to learn about the 80 Peace Pagodas throughout the world, a movement started by Japanese Buddhist Monks after World War ll. We returned via the shorter trail to the lakefront, and found a rower happy to take us back to Pokhara. The temperature again became unbearable, and we bought our last minute snacks and returned home to relax and pack. We were hopeful the temperature would drop at least 10 degrees by the time we returned in a couple of weeks.

Not for the first time in our recent travels, we again thought that perhaps maybe we are a bit old to stay at the backpackers hostels now - they are great for meeting people and have helpful reception staff for local advice and transport bookings, but we weren’t down for a rowdy Saturday night of drinking and we had an early start in the morning before our trek. It is tough to find the balance between the social vibe of a hostel vs the quietness of staying at a quieter hotel. It had met our needs for the purpose of this quick trip, and we were glad to store our luggage here that we wouldn’t need for the next 16 days.

We felt prepared and ready to tackle the Annapurna Circuit! A great adventure awaited us, and we were excited to hit the trail. Just one more tortuous bus trip stood in our way, then we would be out in the fresh mountain air. We hoped our legs had the strength to carry us nearly 200 kilometres.

Until then,