You always leave with a laughing eye and a crying eye. (Proverb, author unknown) The leaden end How should one spend the last day? Do the crazy, LSD trip-like walk through this crazy city again? Feed your lungs with dirt and exhaust fumes for the last time? Chicken momos for the last time in the beloved restaurant...
The circle has come full circle, I am back in Kathmandu. So bad air again, worst traffic, lungs like a chain smoker. And yet it still feels like a homecoming. A few hours earlier I leave peace behind with Chitwan. Silence. Nature. The place where I felt comfortable. Despite some findings that do not...
When I wake up, it's still night, I turn on the iPhone out of old habit, and there, a few drum bars, and then a melody emerges as if from a thick fog, a fragile voice. Joy Division. My favorite band of the late 70s. Ian Curtis. Your fragile frontman. As I listen to Curtis' sonorous voice with my eyes closed...
My Apple Restaurant spoils me with toast with butter and jam, two fried eggs (sunny side up) and black coffee. You could say the day started as it should. In addition, it is still pleasantly cool, only around midday does the thermometer rise incessantly to over 30 degrees and only stops at...
Something is going a bit strange this morning. No breakfast in the company of my feathered friends (too early for the cook?), but a strange tasting something in the village. The bus doesn't leave promptly at eight, but is left in the shadows for a full hour. The taxi that is supposed to take me to Dumre stops...
Today is one of those days that could be called a breather between two storms. It seems fitting to me to start the day with a breakfast on the roof terrace, accompanied by countless bird songs, while looking out over the hills glowing in all shades of green and brown. Like yesterday, the…
It's rare that I stay in the same place for more than a week, and even rarer that I find it so difficult to say goodbye. But the city, although hectic and a tourist trap of the first order, surprised me with its charm and relaxed atmosphere. Farewell without joy And so at 6.15 I eat my...
The stupa towers high above the lake and the city, an ideal place to send a message of peace to the world. My bucket list for Pokhara is slowly coming to an end, so I set off early in the morning to climb the hill with the World Peace Stupa. But is a…
Actually, an old, rickety women's bike would have been enough for me to complete the planned tour through the city, but of course the rental companies prefer the much more expensive mountain bikes. So you finally set off for 500 rupees, a bright green, fairly new-looking bike under your ass, with an estimated 100 gears and a carbon-hardened frame (that's what...
Then the big day. The birthday present to myself. The sky is clear and completely blue, as it should be, a slight shimmer of clouds around the Machapuchare, nothing exciting. The view of the Sarankot hill shows green and brown and yellow, forest and more forest and above that the peak. The starting point. Perfect prospects for…
A lot has changed in the last almost 45 years. Nothing remains of the quiet, remote town, the smelly streets littered with rubbish, but where you could buy wonderful cakes. The only foreigners who were still viewed with suspicion were hippies like us. Somehow out of place. I remember our campsite,...
So today we're heading west to Pokhara. I said goodbye to Sitaram, it was difficult for us to say goodbye. He was an excellent guide, not only in terms of his knowledge of the local fauna and flora. Above all, he lightened me by a few kilograms when the old man was on the verge of collapse. I wish …
From Syabrubesi back to Kathmandu Before the return journey to Kathmandu, the paths of good old friends finally part ways. Some people take a jeep to get around faster, others, less fortunate, like the two of us, take one of those terrible buses that are already standing in front of the various hotels at seven, smoking and roaring. Ready to leave The sleeping bag is...
From Bamboo Village to Syabrubesi Then the last part of our adventure. Since we are already far down, today will be easy and fun. A day to enjoy before we start the boring journey back to Kathmandu tomorrow. Bye-bye Bamboo Crawling out of the sleeping bag for the second last time, it's already...
From Langtang to Bamboo Village Something is wrong early in the morning at six. The concert of birds and the distant voices of the kitchen staff have been joined by a rhythmic knocking on the roof. Looking out the window reveals the whole truth. It's pissing on all cylinders. That can not be true. Rain! And how! Rain in the morning...
Kyanjin Gompa up the valley then back to Langtang The morning, like all the previous ones, is a showcase of the unique beauty of the mountains. The blue of the sky is not just blue, it is the blue of a lapis lazuli that flickers in the light. The mountains are not just mountains, they are monuments, frozen in time, and stand out like...
From Langtang to Kyanjin Gompa It is reassuring that the system works reliably. Great exertion, physical or mental, is corrected with plenty of sleep. There is nothing that cannot be corrected by a good dose of deep sleep. Same now. A 10-hour deep sleep phase caused the stricken spirits to return. Sitaram's...
From the Lama Hotel to Langtang After the bad night in question, I wake up my roommate at 5 from my short sleep. He rummages around in his things for almost an hour and a half, I don't have the slightest idea whether he's looking for something or putting things in order or is just awake so early and has nothing better to do. Olfactory…
From Syabrubesi to Lama Hotel It's sometimes good when you don't know what to expect. Otherwise there is a risk that you will throw in the towel before the start and go crying into a corner. But as I said – thank God everything in life is unpredictable. As I have sometimes...
From Kathmandu to Syabrubesi So first farewell to Kathmandu, the next eight days are a leap into the unknown. This also seems to have a noticeable effect on my sleep. Every few minutes, or so it seems to me, I wake up, thoughts racing. Have I packed everything? Isn't the backpack too heavy? (he is!) Are they enough…
In itself, the path to Swayambhunath, the most famous and holiest of all Kathmandu's shrines, is not too far, but - as the saying goes - the path to heaven is paved with sins. In this case, it's not my sins, but the city's. Short and sweet – the route is somewhere between 2...
The rain pounding on the window in the middle of the night doesn't really fit with the ideas I had in mind before the Langtang Trek. Was I mistaken? Should I expect bad weather or even snow on the trek? Kali Gandaki The memories of trekking along the…
The traveler's sleepy eyes open up to the view of the plains of northern India lying far below in the haze. A dry, brown world in the dazzling light of the morning sun, and there, like a glittering greeting - a snake rolling through the plain - the Ganges. The map on the monitor shows Patna 78 kilometers. Memories …