nepal trek (oct 2007)
Namaste. I came back to Singapore on Monday midnight. It was a spectacular trek and a meaningful vacation. Nepal evoked strong emotions in me: it awed; it charmed; it filled me
with admiration, frustration and indignation, yet all the time intriguing me to know more and alluring me to return. The majestic mountain 
ranges, the crisp fresh air, the panoramic views, the friendliness, the world heritage sites, the awesome porters, the resilience of the people, and its intriguing history with Mongolian and Aryan roots evoked curiosity, gratitude, and wonder(click on pic for popups and rest cursor to see titles). But blackouts, a huge traffic snarl, the dung, the corrupt king, the dirt, the inept politicians, the dung, awakened pungent feelings. You can’t travel and meet people of this mountainous nation of 22 million, mostly Hindus, without awakening dormant pathos.
The initial apprehension was whether we were physically ready and whether we could gel as a group as there were several new additions to the usual group. Right from the onset of our Ghorepani-Ghandruk trek we had a foretaste of things to come in Birethani: it was cold; there was no light; we all shared a common bathroom and toilet. Surprisingly everybody adjusted and survived the night and the other nights as well.
The trek itself was full of surprise and pleasure after pleasure unfolded at every turn. The panoramic scenes were a feast for our eyes, we who are used to having our range of sight interruppted by HDB walls and skyscrapers. Gurgling streams and rapids and waterfalls
and a visual buffet of all shades of greens, blues, golden yellows, greys, whites, browns as well as the occasional accents of reds. The diversity 
was a treasure to behold: we trekked by snowcapped mountains and verdant valleys, deep gorges and high ridges, streams and waterfalls, through forests green and by golden rice terraces, up stone steps and down wet mud tracks, across streams, over five days of four to six hours daily, without hurry, stopping ever so often to drink, eat, talk or just feast the eyes and say a quiet prayer in cool temperatures. We were in Lord of the Rings country without the running, tension, danger or urgency. It was a fellowship of the trek: the friendship, the light banter and humour, the patience and kindness, the shared hardship, bonded us.
We gathered at 3am to trek an hour to Poon Hill under a clear star-filled sky, to view the majestic sunrise on the Annapurna and another mountain range. It was an easy but cold trek and as the light dawned there was a big crowd of foreigners filming, gazing, photo-taking, oohing and ahhing. The excitement was infectious.
We saw God’s gracious and faithful hands upon us turning a potential spoiler of bad weather into a fine sunrise and beautiful day without any need to use our raincoats. We
were told the Maoists have started collecting “donations” from trekkers and thank God we were spared the full toll and were content with a token at Ghorepani. Some were not feeling well and near the end of the trek were fighting against time and falling darkness to make it to the next village inn in Tadapani. Everyone reached safely despite several using their torches and two just relying on moonlight. We also saw his hand when our bus broke down, and while we had coffee and tea, an empty bus came by and all of us could go on!
We also river rafted on the way back and the next day we flew a Beechcraft propeller driven plane to view the Himalayan range, including Mt Everest.
What a meaningful and healthy vacation: creation in its grandeur and majesty and beauty! How can we walk in the midst of all this and not believe in a wise, loving and powerful
God who created it all? The trek was healthy: besides the daily walk we were limited to a mainly vegetables and carbo diet. We were oxygenated with fresh pure mountain air. The trek was more pleasant and manageable than we expected, no Kinabalu exhaustion or challenge here. What I missed most was my wife, who had to sacrifice her trek because my daughter’s “A” level exams had moved to an earlier date than anticipated. But the company of trekkies was great…..but more about that in the next post!
7 comments November 1st, 2007
