More Notes on Nepal

Here are a few extra notes on Nepal that i didn't get around to putting in my previous entries.

--------------------------------

In Kathmandu we come across a parade of army men or more likely police marching down the street. Some of them are carrying rifles but most of them are carrying sticks about a metre long and 2 1/2 cm thick.

At first this looks comical but then you see the way they carry them - very professional - and they have a steely eyed serious gaze that tells you, you don't want to mess with them, because they know how to use those sticks. And even though the sticks look primitive they are delibertely designed to inflict only a limited amount of damage.

After all, if they really wanted to, it wouldn't be difficult for them to sharpen those sticks.

-------------------------------

The word of the day is "morthings".

A sign in a lodge window advertises "Yak cheese and many morthings are avaiable here horses rant".

I think I am on a constant search for morthings (such as horses that rant).

-------------------------------

Tekay showed us a match puzzle. I was more interested in the matches. They are little brown twigs with phosphorous tips.

-------------------------------

On the trek Tekay suggests we should all come back to Kathmandu and climb to the top of Ama Dablam together. I say "Sure Tekay. But maybe I'll stay down the bottem and I'll pay you 10,000 US dollars to tell everyone that I got to the top first."

-------------------------------
Food

The food on the trek is all very similar.

The typical menu contains noodle dishes, rice dishes, egg dishes, potato dishes and pizza which typically come with the options - with veg, with egg, with cheese, with tuna and sometimes with meat.

These are also the available filling for steamed or fried momos (dumplings) and "spring rolls", which are kind of like pasties.

Also soups, regular, noodles or egg drop soup. Tomato or mushroom soups are from packets. Potato, Garlic or Onion Soups are made fresh.

Toast, pancakes, chapati or Tibetan bread (puri) with butter, jam or honey.

The ingredients are all brought into the area from elsewhere - even the nak cheese (which just tastes likes regular cheese). Only the potatoes are grown locally.

It is bad sign when you order a pizza because it looks like one of the healthier dishes on the menu.

More than once while I am walking I think about how much I would like one of those salads my friend Anne makes.

Paradoxically, if salad was on the menu I probably wouldn't order it for fear that the ingredients may have been washed in contaminated water.

Tibetan Tea

On the way back from Namche I tried a cup of Tibetan tea - Yak butter tea.

If you want to know what this tastes like I am guessing that the following recipe will probably be pretty close.

Make a regular cup of milk tea. Add a teaspoon of salty butter. You might need to add a couple of pinches of salt. Stir it well. Skim off any oil that might be floating on the surface.

You can probably imagine how it tastes. Do you like it? No? Well, I guess you don't have to actually make it then.

-------------------------------

The night we finished the trek Tekay served us up some mustang coffee. Some coffee mixed with butter and sugar and the local roxi which is made from millet and is not as strong as the rice roxi that they serve in Kathmandu.

The mustang coffee is actually drinkable (although Kylie disagrees and Michael has reservations). Kathmandu's rice roxi is more like methylated spirits.

-------------------------------

I take a lot of photos. A lot. Maybe 300 a day. I like to take photos with people in them so I end up taking lots of the people I am treking with. This can get a bit tiresome for them. If they know they are being photographed they get self concious and hide from the camera.

Michael tolerates the photos. Kylie has asked me to email her if I have any good photos of her. At the same time she makes it difficult because she keeps turning away or hiding behind Michael.

I have quite a few good shots of Lukpa smiling broadly and lots of shots of him talking on the mobile phone.

Tekay is always a good subject. Whenever we stop he rests with one leg raised up on a rock, knee bent, gazing at distant mountains. He looks strong and fit and master of everything he sees. If he notices the camera he will smile or wave or strike a pose.

-------------------------------

I came prepared.

My pocket computer has 40 novels on it. my mobile phone has over 1000 songs and 8 hours of tv shows. I spent most of my free time reading or writing my journal.

Kylie and Michael didn't bring anything to read. Kylie bought a novel in Namche and she also got a deck of cards.

I taught them to play 500, poker and blackjack. That helped pass a few hours.

-------------------------------

There is big difference between the trek below Namche and above Namche.

Below Namche there are more people. They are more likely to wear western clothes and have mobile phones. They are more farms. There are more mani stones.

Above Namche there are a few towns where people are more likely to wear traditional clothes but after that you have places that only have lodges for trekers.

Below Namche you have cows and half breed crosses between cow and yak. Above Namche you only have yaks.

-------------------------------

All the lodges have bench seats around the walls of the dining hall. This serves as extra accomodation when the lodges are full.