Trekking in Nepal

What takes 12 days to walk takes 20 minutes to fly!

For the last 12 days we have trekked 110 km through hillside strewn villages, across dry pre-monsoon riverbeds, past mystical waterfalls emerging through impressive boulders in the jungle-like forest, ascended into the Himalayan valley alongside the adorning snow-capped peaks of the world's biggest mountains, traversed the desert moonscape of northern Nepal, and finally ascended to Muktinath, a holy pilgrimage site for the world's Hindus, where we bathed in the 108 showers and 2 pools to cleanse our souls of all sins. The experience of trekking in Nepal has been nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Through speechless beauty, piercing physical pain and exhaustion at 4000m above sea level, we trekked through one of the most beautiful countries either of us has ever seen. With each passing day the landscape, people and culture were utterly transformed from traditional Nepali villages, through remote minority mountain peoples, to the northern Tibetan settlements and barren Buddhist districts.

We walked along 1000 year old mountain paths, linking the salt and grain trade route between Nepal and Tibet, down countless stone steps, past numerous mule caravans, along steep cliff side paths, up breathtakingly steep switch back trails, through deafeningly windy valleys, and through the Tibet-like barren moonscape of the north. As much as it was physically trying at times, it was exponentially more rewarding.

As we walked we learned of Nepali politics and royal family massacres conspiracy theories, of Hindu gods and their fantastical stories, of poverty and why it is often more valuable to keep children at home rather then sending them to school (which is free), and how it is possible for a group of socially minded trekking guides to rescue child labourers who had been sent to the mountain villages under the false promises of a better future and a good education. Nepal has as much to offer the mind as it does the eyes. And there is hope.

Nepal is in the midst of massive political change, with the Maoist insurgents and rebels being replaced with members of parliament and official political representation, to the national discussion on the future of the much maligned King and a royal family which is widely accused of lining their pockets with the nation's wealth, as the Nepali people have been left to struggle for decades, between the emerging powers of India and China. With elections in the fall, the fate of Nepal's future and monarchy lie in the balance. With less corruption the hope is that the Nepali masses will start to benefit more from the rich resources that Nepal has to offer. Maybe then it will not take 4L-of-cooking-oil-incentive to allow a family to let a child go to school (a government program, funded by international aid has begun which gives a family ~4L of cooking oil a month so that their children can go to school, an attempt to offset the additional money the child would earn for the family if they were to remain home and work.)

I would recommend Nepal to anyone, for its incredible richness of both culture and nature. With luck and leadership, hopefully Nepal will be able to ride the tides of success being experienced in India and China, and no longer feel like the forgotten kingdom sandwiched between two emerging behemoths. I will always remember Nepal the beautiful, Nepal and kind, and Nepal the hopeful of a bright and better future. I hope others will have the chance to experience this Nepal too.