Mountains calling

After some intense hours of extreme shopping in outdoor-shop-central, Thamel, my Nepali mountain extravaganza can begin. Finally I am geared up and ready to jump into a little plane to the most dangerous airport in the world, Lukla. The blog will take a 3 week trekking-break around the Gokyo Lakes, Mt Everest and some higher passes.

Stay tuned and wait for more photos once I made it back. See ya

Tenzing-Hillary Airport Lukla - image source: internet 

Pashupatinath - Nepal

It is my second visit at Pashupatinath, Nepal's most important Hindu temple. It is located along the banks of the Bagmati River. The Bagmati is a holy river and, like Varanasi on the Ganges, a popular place to be cremated.

It is a powerful place, only disturbed by the hords of tourists (one of them is me) and feral monkeys - ah well there is also one holy man dressed as a monkey. I sometimes don't know who is the monkey here, the tourist or the monkey itself. Some of them are barely covered and almost push the mourning people aside while they gather around their cremation gath only to get a got shot for the family album. Guys, please cover up, be discreet when taking pictures and show respect. Respect as much as you would expect when you go to the funeral of your mother. Thank you.

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Along the holy Bagmati river.

Cremation ghats

Body being washed and prepared.

Monkeys everywhere

A holy man poses for some cash (or you have a long lens)

The monkey is a man

Kids fishing for offerings in the river...and the rare golden teeth.

More monkeys everywhere...

...and more...

...and more.

Nyetamaru Ajima - Durbar Square Kathmandu

This week I was lucky. Somehow I ended up at Durbar Square in Kathmandu and ran into a rare performance of the sacred Nyetamaru Ajima masked dance. It was hidden in one of the courtyard of the buildings dated back up to the 13th century. Most dances are only held annually while certain dances like this one are only performed once every 12 years. Wow...next time the dance will be on I will be 50 years old - unthinkable.
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Free Tibet

Does anybody still care? - Monkeys at Swayambhunath Temple. 

Seeing Hands - Blind Massage in Nepal

If you want to support a charity but also want to get a fantastic professional massage, don't miss to visit Seeing Hands in Kathmandu. The difference is that it is a massage clinic for blind therapist which has been set up by a UK charity to offer employment oppoprtunities for blind people. 35% of the cost of a massage goes directly to the therapist while the rest is required to run the spotless facilities. In my time in Nepal, I haven't seen any cleaner and better maintained facilites - well done.

Breathing heavily through the hole in my headpieceof the massage table - while lying on my front - Santosh discovered in seconds my little issue of my shoulder after cramping around the jungle with a heavy backpack on my shoulders and was telling me about my bad posture. Wait a second - how could a blind man tell me about my bad posture? Well, he is a trained professional who just passed his exam - he proudly told me - after telling me all the latin names of my bones and muscles which would be affected. Well done Santosh and I feel so much better today.

If you are not in Kathmandu or Pokhara, you can also support them by a little (or big) donation, just follow the link on their website.

Santosh - portrait copyright 2011 Bernard Henin

Chasing (and being chased by) Rocky the Rhino - Chitwan NP Nepal

I am not sure what is more uncomfortable: sitting for an hour and a half on the back of a moving elephant with three Chinese tourists or sitting for two hours on a roof with 85 Nepalese men staring at me as I would have come straight from the moon. Well, both on one day for sure made my back side hurt a little bit... Anyway, this is not what I want to share as it was only the end of some fantastic days hiking through the Chitwan National Park.

No shit, do you think you would see a lot
with a group of yelling tourists?

After my little disappointing attempt to spot the big kitty - The Royal Bengal Tiger - in the Sundarban National Park, Bangladesh I told myself not to go on the main tourist trail and try harder to find some wildlife. This time it should be real wildlife - not any in cages or fed by some so called 'rangers'. Well yes, just before I left I jumped with the Chinese on an elephant just for the sake of it, but that was about it. And surprise surprise, if the Chinese yell after seeing a little bird something to their friends on the other of the 58 elephants, the chance to spot Rocky the Rhino would be zero. The idea to use elephants to use for rhino spotting makes actually a lot of sense. Rhinos are basically half blind but can smell and hear very well. Sitting on 5 ton elephant who poos and pees every so often - by lifting up its tail in 90 degree angle - the smell of the human is for sure covered. If there wouldn't be the noise...

Lift your tail and let it drop - it swims!

Anyway, I opted for a walk for two and a half day/ two nights through the jungle with two guides and two Dutch boys. I wasn't actually aware that Chitwan has a huge number of Bengal Tigers until we stepped over some tiger poo and saw heaps of footprints. Is it really safe to walk to overhead high gras not seeing more than 5 meter? Well, I remember the safety instructions of our ambitious guides: if a tiger comes towards you stay together, look the kitty in the eyes and make some noise. Quite encouraging I would think as running away or climbing on a tree wouldn't make sense anyway. Our guides had some cane sticks, enough to send a kitty to nirvana? OK, sadly we didn't see the kitty but when I returned to the lodge two days later, some other guys showed me proudly some images of two tigers on their camera - they are around.

tiger poo with bones and fibres of fur of a deer

Kitty, where are you? Or, do I really want to see you that close?

Ok, now the real target, Rocky the Rhino. Safety instructions here, if it charges at you - and as they are a little aggressive they ususally do - run in zickzack and climp on a tree. Don't forget to throw your bag down before the 3.5 tons of solid meat comes sprinting towards you. Not long after we started to walk in the 43 degree heat, the guide stood still and pointed to the front. Where? What? By the time I pulled my camera and so on I made enough noise for the ears of Rocky - this time in form of a massive bull - to point toward us. Time to... run. Not funny a big bull, too big to cuddle. The next Rocky looked like an easy target for the lens, it was lying in mud bath - as they usual do. We walked closer but suddenly the face of our guide turned a little paler and he pointed to the little Rocky behind the big Rocky - only one way here...run. Not funny a mom with her little one. Several rhinos later we found one nicely in his mud bath. Oh, watch his ears, they are moving...towards us, so be quiet. Rocky moved his bum out of the mud to turn his head around so that his nostrils were facing us. I was sure by then I was myself more smelling like an elephant than a human but there was only one option again...move quickly but move.

Where is Rocky?

Safest but maybe not the most attractivest way to see Rocky - from behind

Rocky can smell me, Rocky can hear me, time to run...

Rocky can't hear or smell me...hehe

Rocky can hear me...

Time to... well you know the drill now. Run.

Anyway, we spend one night along the river where te locals brought their domestic elephants for a well deserved bath and the seond night in an indigenous village of the Tjaru people. The way back was via local bus - well on the roof as it was rather full.

Hairy bum?

The future has come to the village

Village homestay - we even had real wall paper!

Relaxation Nepali style - for Elvis only.

Rockstar?

Shower head with 1000 different muscles

Nepali shower

Overall, forget about taking a jeep or an elephant, the only way is on foot. And you need time and we walked about 40km in two days in 43 degree heat. Lucky the Western boys didn't get a cold beer in the local village as their was no power...

In random order we saw the following: deer, peacock, spotted deer, elephant, rhino, wild boar (pig), crocodile (ghinera and fresh water), all sorts of birds, monkey, tiger (prints and poo)...
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