Sunsets, Bon jovi and red carpets

We spent our last day in Pokhara relatively slowly, and in the evening we took a car out to Sarangkot, which is a mountain that you can climb to get amazing sunset views across the Annapurna Range.
It wasnt a bad way to spent Flower & Card Retailers Day (Valentines Day), looking across the Himalayas as the sunset, and the colours changed. The romantic occasion was only enhanced by a group of about eight Nepali boys from Kathmandu loudly singing "It's my Life" by Bon Jovi as they climbed the hill. Ahhh, the serenity. Unfortunately, the tradition of Valentines day has made it to Pokhara, with bars and restaurants decorated for the occasion, and offering special deals, dances and DJs. It's quite surreal.

We left Pokhara on Monday morning, and spent 3 hours in the airport waiting for our delayed flight. The flight in a tiny 20 seater plane was amazing, with fantastic views as we flew alongside the Annapurna Range.
This time our arrival to Nepal was met with Red carpets and polished brass flower pots. This time we werent upstaged by the Nepali Asian Games Team, just the King! We discovered if we were an hour later, the airport would have been completely shut down for his Arrival.

We checked into a hotel connected with the place we stayed in Pokhara, and have spent our few days in Kathmandu exploring, finding interesting cafes and doing a touch of shopping.
Yesterday we travelled away from the main tourist area and tracked down some fantastic fair trade shops to do a bit of shopping.

While eating lunch in a garden cafe, we discovered that they screen weekly movies in the evenings (Pirate of course!) so we headed back there to watch Invictus. It was a great film, and the vibe was great, with a mix of locals, ex pats and travellers. We met a woman from Phoenix who is a professor in Gender Studies and development in the US, establishing and supporting micro finance organisations over here. It's been nice to do a few things like this as part of our travels, as it gives a bit of a glimpse of the more genuine parts of life. Kathmandu is a strange mix of traditional and western culture all thrown in together, and as you'd expect of a tourist focused area, sometimes the impact of the western culture feels a bit sad.

All the same, we've enjoyed our time here, and are really glad we've made it to Nepal. We leave this morning and head back to Bangladesh to meet up with Alison again, and head down towards the sunderbans. We've got a tight transfer between plane and train this evening, with only a few hours to spare, so we're hoping it all works out!

Internet access is much harder to find in Bangladesh, so it might be sometime before we write again.

Pottering around Pokhara

We have very much enjoyed the softer, gentler demeanour of the Nepali's. While in Dhaka you need to scratch below the surface a little to find this, the Nepali's welcoming, open smiles bring a real friendliness to the streets. It may be partly a result of the huge tourist industry over here. And Pokhara, where we are based at the moment, is the next biggest tourist destination after Kathmandu, offering majestic views of the Himalayas. Dhaka on the other hand, has barely dipped it's toe into the tourist industry - one of the biggest differences we have noticed during our travels... I guess that might sound obvious!!?? An enterprising young Bengali, who joined us for dinner on our first night, assured us that there were plenty of wonderful tourist experiences to be had in Bangladesh and that there was no need for us to go to India (where we had planned to travel at that stage). I like the lack of pretentiousness of Dhaka and it's ability to simply be itself.
     We have spent the last couple of days pottering around Pokhara. We took a mammoth walk yesterday up to the Bhuddist World Peace Pagoda - the tall dome at the top can be seen just above the treetops at the top of a mountain from the main street of Pokhara. The walk was pretty much a climb vertically straight up some stone steps (the scenic route, as our hotel manager had described it!!)... Jeff and I heaved and huffed our way up cursing our lack of fitness the whole way and doubting our ability to make it.

With great celebration we made it to the top, and were not disappointed with the views we got of the mountain peaks, the lake and the much-larger-than-anticipated district of wider Pokhara - it's hard to believe there can possibly be so much "development" this high up with so few resources!!

We enjoyed the earlier part of the walk, wandering through a more normal suburb of Pokhara where there were less tourists and more people just going about there business - old women climbing down the mountain with huge baskets of collected wares on their back, parents bathing their children in the front yard, men sitting outside their small general stores watching the world go by... it is these experiences that I most enjoy about travel. We have enjoyed some delicious food in local restaurants, our favourite called "My Favourite Cafe"(the name says it all!!) on the lake with open doors all around, an open fire (particularly attractive on our first day here which started out with drizzle and freezing cold!!), a deck to sit at and watch the activity on the lake and a cat to curl up on the seat beside you in the sun (when if finally came out!).

We also enjoyed some beautiful clear skies yesterday and some brilliant views of the Himalayas at sunset from the roof of our hotel... the stuff of documentaries that makes you pinch yourself to check that you really are in fact experiencing it. It really is a different experience in the flesh!!

It's not Danger, It's Excitement

We woke at 5.30am this morning, ready to make the journey toward Pokhara.
After breakfast that involved the hired cooks being woken up to feed us, we walked to the bus stop with Mr Chandra, who is the travel agent who has helped us out so far in Kathmandu. After imposing on the cooks for our early breakfast, I felt a strong return of some of the uncomfortable feelings that I often felt in India, of putting others out significantly, just because I'm white and I'm wealthy. However, at least on the surface, there seems to be no animosity, just warm hospitality and willingness to please. Something I dont know that I'd be too good at after being woken up at 5.30am to cook some foreigner breakfast!

The first half of the bus trip was on a tourist bus, and we wound our way up the Hills out of Kathmandu. It was great to see the sunrise over the haze (although the haze wasnt that positive!) and watch the little settlements start the day as we joined the throng of buses and trucks heading towards Pokhara. The roads are so windy and narrow in parts, that they make the Great Ocean Road and the Black Spur seem like multilane freeways. Every now and then we turned towards amazing glimpses of the himilayas, presiding over the surrounding area. The hilly country is almost comletely terraced to provide more productive agricultural land that captures the water and is easier to work. Comprehending the work invoved in building all these terraces is almost impossible.

After several hours of winding through the Hills we were deposited on the side of the road with two Korean  travellers, ready for our next stretch of the journey via white water raft!
We met our guide Krishna, who proudly informed me that his name meant God, and then waited for another member of the group arrived. The place where we waited was a school building slash tourism office, and we got a great snapshot of everyday life in this tiny roadside settlement, as children finished exams on little wooden clipboards, played together in the dusty school ground, women washed clothes at the communal tap, and men gathered...(and didnt seem to do much!!) This photo is taken where were sitting.

Eventually we were ready to go, and headed off to raft the Trisuli River, along with the two Koreans, and a very cheery man from Beijing, whose family would meet us at the end.
The rafting began quite smoothly, and Krishna had glimpses of an over the top Australian adventure tour guide, with lame jokes (life jacket save your life, helmet save your head) and hi fives with the paddles after fast rapids.

There is an amazing contrast between gently floating along the river in a big inflatable blue raft, to suddenly swirling around a rapid with a face full of water. Neither of us had done anything like this before, but we had a great time. We did up to a class 5 rapid (supposedly!?!) and saw some amazing country as we floated down stream. There were a few scary moments, particularly when our guide got us stuck in a whirlpool / rip that was bigger than he anticipated. We were pounded by rapids for over 10 minutes, we all got thrown about, lost sandals and water bottles, and at one point Ginge got thrown out. We pulled her back in the raft, and eventually got out of the rip and relaxed a bit. Krishna was a bit apologetic, but upbeat when the man from Beijing asked "why so dangerous." Repeating back Krishnas response, the man laughed and exclaimed "It's not Danger, It's excitement!" Fair enough!!  Our accompanying kayaker then suddenly appeared with Virginia's thongs, and both our water bottles that he'd fished from the river downstream!
When we realised that the traveller from Beijing had lost one shoe he laughed nervously and said "it no matter...I have my life!!

We rafted for 3 hours or so, and after drying off at another roadside shack, we had a packaged sandwich lunch, and then hailed a local bus to Pokhara. This took 3-4 hours, but was great to be amongst locals as they got on and off, from work, school, visiting and even weddings! We met some friendly people who guided us where to get off, and had several conversations in broken english, which was fun! It should be noted that public buses aren't designed for western men with long legs, and I could only just move when we finally got off in Pokhara, in the dark on the side of the road, and suddenly surrounded by touts and taxi drivers.

We made it safely to our Hotel in Lakeside Pokhara, although we were accompanied by a man who would have liked to convince us to stay at another hotel. Alas, it was a wasted trip for him!

After settling in, we had a surreal dinner of fantastic pan crust pizza, gnocchi and tasty tomato bruscetta overlooking the lake, and then headed back to the hotel for a much needed sleep!

No problem, No problems...

We left our hotel in Dhaka on Wednesday morning, squeezed into a CNG with our luggage and headed to the Airport. CNG is short for Compressed Natural Gas, which all the auto rickshaws around Bangladesh are powered by, as well as some cars and buses. CNG reduces inner city air pollution, and is part of some strong steps the Bangladesh Government has made towards environmental protection. It's almost impossible to get a plastic bag in bangladesh, and there are significant levels of recycling. There is also an increasingly powerful system of environmental courts that preside over significant environmental issues. Perhaps Australia could learn a thing or two from this highly populated developing country.

Flying towards Nepal was an amazing experience, as the plane banked to the left and we caught a breathtaking view of the snow capped Himalayas for the first time. Despite being such a well known scene, there's something awe inspiring about seeing it in person...it has a real presence.
Flying over much drier hillside villages set steep into the range, the contrast in landscape was amazing. Dry muddy looking river beds cut massive swathes throughout the country, obviously teeming with water when the snow begins to melt in the hills.

We arrived in Nepal with a little apprehension as we had to get a visa on arrival, and werent sure how easy things would be. We were met by a smiley immigration official, who led us through, literally bouncing across the airport. We had a visa within 10 minutes and were on our way! Nothing to worry about.

Travelling in countries like these is quite unpredictable, but so often things just kind of work. Never exactly how you planned, but rarely as complicated as you imagined. I've got a lot to learn, as my tendency is to over plan everything, and make sure I have all my bases covered. Generally that seems to be a waste of energy, as things just slot into place, the gaps in time and the waiting offer up lots of surprises, and above all, no one else seems to be worried. At various points I've been asking advice, likemaking sure buses connect etc, and generally overthinking things, only to be met with a smiley face and the confident response of "No Problem, No Problems" accompanied with that great little head waggle! Most of the time...they're right!

We walked out of the airport to be met with much fanfare; a brass band, a throng of media cameras and journalists, and lots of banners. We thought this was a bit over the top for a couple of Australian Tourists, but the Nepali Asian Games Team walking out behind us seemed to quite appreciate it!

Our driver met us with wreaths of marigolds to welcome us, and drove us to "Hotel Magnificent View" in Thamel, which is the touristy hub of Kathmandu. We organised our travel for Pokhara for the following day and wandered around the town, which contrasts strongly with Dhaka due to the strong focus on Tourism, and the tourist dollar. Widespread tourism hasnt really made it to Dhaka or Bangladesh yet, and you really notice it in the lack of touts, internet cafes and pushy sales people.

You can really feel the mountain air up here, and we rugged up in our thermals and warm clothes before heading out to dinner at the Cozy Cafe, a quaint little candle-lit upstairs restaurant with views over the busy streets below.

A land of contrast and contradiction...

It has been wonderful to see Ally again and to see her in this environment which we have been hearing about in bits and pieces since last July. She has looked after us, booking us flights and trains and trips here and there.

One of our most memorable experiences so far has been visiting the hospital where she has been working; ICDDR, B . We took a rickshaw for the trip which took us through some of the slum areas of Dhaka, and through the bustling Mokohali Markets. We were reminded of our time in Old Delhi, when we visited a friend who works in a drug rehab centre. The streets were narrow and potholed, and life was happening right before our eyes on the sides of the road. I have been struck by the public nature of life in Bangladesh, particularly for the poor. A bit different to our private, fenced off (and in our case buzzer-bound!!) world of Melbourne!! Our rickshaw ride, and our visit to the hospital certainly gave us some insight into poverty in Bangladesh. The hospital was a whole new experience. I have always said I could never be a nurse... this probably confirmed my suspicion, albeit a particularly intense experience of hospitals. The wards are large rooms with wall to wall rows of beds covered in plastic sheets. A large majority of the beds are occupied by children (60% of patients in this, the "cholera hospital", are under 5 years) with mothers and other family (mostly aunties or sisters or other female relatives) crowded around sharing the bed, nursing their sick child. It was confronting, and humbling, and inspiring and challenging all at once!!

Similar to some of our experiences in India, we have once again been struck by the contrasts and contradictions in Bangladesh. We have been left wondering whether visitors are confronted to the same extent by the contrasts and contradictions in Melbourne...??? Later in the evening, after all these experiences, we sat debriefing our day in a flash upstairs ice-cream sundae shop surrounded by women who looked as though they had stepped straight out of a Bollywood film set, and were all acutely aware of the contrast and of our priviledge. Some familiar discomfort sat with me. However, I want to make an effort not to allow white, middle-class western guilt to overwhelm my experience, but rather to learn what we can about the poverty we see, to do what we can to honour and be in solidarity with the poor, and to make the most of the opportunities our priviledge affords us.

Welcome to Dhaka...

Our welcome into Dhaka consisted of a delay getting off the plane as the electricity in the airport was all out and they needed to bring in a generator. Once we finally got off, a two hour wait to get through immigration, the immigration police meticulously ensuring that all of the i's were dotted and the t's crossed on everyone's immigration paperwork!! Ally and the other AYAD's have come to be unsurprised at such idiosyncracies and have a saying that is constantly used... "This is Bangladesh!!" It is a country rich with it's own idiosyncracies and uniqueness, always with some particularly Bengali explanation for anything a westerner might question.
We were pleased to discover how much of the small amount of Bengali we had learnt for a previous trip to Kolkata (also in West Bengal) came back just when we needed it. Jeff in particular has received numerous compliments on his Bengali and we are forever enjoying the reactions from unsuspecting rickshaw wallahs with our odd smatterings of Bengali.

On our second evening in Dhaka (having stayed our first night at Ally's place), we set out to find our hotel. We had a slow day as we were still tired from our plane flight, but in the evening had joined Ally for a farewell dinner for a fellow Australian who was heading home after finishing a PHD in public health at the same hospital where Ally works. Would you believe... dinner at an Italian Pizza Restaurant right in the heart of Dhaka!!?? Anyway... we had planned to find our hotel earlier before it got dark, but got distracted. It was 9:30 before we got back to Ally's and picked up our luggage. She had pointed out the hotel the day before, but we had not anticipated how different the streets would look in the dark. Ally found us an autorickshaw (known as a CNG in Bangladesh), who VERY unconvincingly assured us he knew how to find the road we needed. Sure enough, after a couple of stops to ask some local passers-by where to find the road he dropped us off. We knew we were not in the right spot, but got out as we were fairly sure by this stage the CNG driver had no idea about where we needed to go. In the dark, we managed to find a main road that was familiar to us. As we wandered down, a very friendly young rickshaw wallah (driver of a cycle rickshaw) sidled up beside us. A combination of Jeff's Bengali and the rickshaw wallah's impressive English enabled us to discover that in fact he was quite sure where our hotel was, and he showed us the way. We chatted on our way, and - much to our delight - he was most complimentary of Jeff's Bengali which got us out of a sticky bind!!

Several days later, as we again travelled back in a cycle rickshaw from Ally's place to our hotel (a route we came to know well!), we heard someone call from the other side of the road "Hello Jeff" in an accent. It was too dark to see who it was, and we couldn't believe that we had already become known after only a couple of days in Dhaka. Sure enough, as our rickshaw pulled up at the end of the street, it was the rickshaw wallah who had helped us find our hotel on the first night. He stopped and had a chat... his English was MUCH better than our Bengali!! We had obviously made a friend, and are hoping we might bump into him when we return to Dhaka for our final weekend.

Setting off...

Virginia tells...
Last November we decided that we should not miss the opportunity to visit my sister, Ally, for a few months who has been living and working as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development in Dhaka, the capitol of Bangladesh. This was an opportunity to travel and spend some time actually experiencing life with someone living and working in a different culture and country. We knew from our previous experiences of travel that some of the most enriching travel experiences can come from just "doing life" in a different country. So we left for Bangladesh last Friday feeling much less prepared than usual for this chunk of overseas travel. The month leading up had been hectic with the usual Christmas pulava, kicking off the new year and organising ourselves to leave our jobs for a few weeks. But, as predicted, once we boarded our plane the excitement and anticipation kicked in!

I had not planned on blogging our travels this time, but as we have pondered our experiences together I have felt myself itching to write and reflect so here goes. We will see how long our resolve lasts...