With just three days in Kathmandu between returning from India and the upcoming back-to-back motorbike ride-trekking-jungle adventures, it seemed sensible to use two of them to rest and one for a day hike, in the spirit of preparing for the Annapurna circuit.
So it was that yesterday, Maria, Henry (my two trekking companions), their friend Judith and myself set out with Dil (our guide for the day and one of our porters-to-be on the Annapurna trek) for a day hike in the Kathmandu Valley.
My time in Kathmandu city is so nearly at an end. Today is my penultimate full day here. I have one more on May 6th between returning from the jungle and heading to Australia. I had only one more sight that I was determined to see in the Valley and that was the Changu Narayan temple. That's also the start point for several hiking routes, so it was decided we'd visit the temple and walk from there.
I've lost track of the number of temples I've seen in the last two months but I can say without a moment of hesitation that this was my favourite. Dating from 1702, it is exceptionally beautiful, with its bright colours, intricate carving and particularly fine roof struts. There was far more detail than one can reasonably absorb in any one visit.
For all the fineness of the temple, the real gems of this Unesco World Heritage site are the 5th-7th centruy stone statues representing various Hindu deities that are dotted around the courtyard. These are supposedly the finest sculptures in the whole of Kathmandu Valley and it's easy to see why. The quality of the carving is extremely high but there's more to it than that and I'm struggling to find the word for it. Perhaps 'elegance' comes closest. Whatever it is, they're absolutely captivating. Here's a photo of some detail from a 7th century stele of Vishnu:
Although we'd set out at 7am, it had taken nearly 3 hours just to get to the temple (such is Nepali public transport, for Changu Narayan is only 22km from Kathmandu) and, after half an hour at the temple, the group was keen to get on with the hiking. With an estimated six hours of walking ahead of us, we still had a long way to go.
The morning section of the walk was from Changu Narayan to Nagarkot, a village noted for its spectacular Himalayan views. The first half of the walk there was nice enough, but I guess I must have been pretty spoilt for views recently when this, to me, was only so-so:
The second half of the walk to Nagarkot was even less interesting and solidly uphill. By the time we finally collapsed for lunch at our destination, at 2:30, four hours after setting off from Changu Narayan, we were all so tired and hungry that we could barely string a sentence together. The next half hour, during which tantalising smells drifted from the kitchen and our food resolutely did not appear, was agonising. But the wait was eventually worth it, because the freshly prepared thali (the traditional Nepali meal consisting of rice, lentils, vegetable curry, pickles and papad) was absolutely delicious. Thankfully, ordering thali at a restaurant is an all-you-can-eat affair and half an hour later we were all so full that we thought we might have to roll down the hill to our next destination, Sankhu.
By the time we finished lunch it was already 3:30 so we opted not to spend time observing the Himalayan views for which Nagarkot is so famous, safe in the knowledge that we'll have plenty of equally if not more spectacular views to behold on our trek.
The guide book promised an easy 2 and a half hour walk along a dirt road from Nagarkot to Sankhu. Dil, however, opted to take us along a shortcut which was anything but easy. The steep single-file path lead almost sheer down the hillside. It was brilliant - the kind of steep where you pretty much have to run down it - and it was fantastic to be so far off the beaten path. The only slight downside is that because we had to pay so much attention to where we were putting our feet, and hurtling down at such a pace, we couldn't really appreciate the view. We passed no other foreigners, only Nepali porters carrying heavy loads up that steep path, wearing only flip-flops. Quite how they manage that is beyond me.
After about half an hour we heard the sounds of a waterfall and soon after it came into view. It was beautiful, cascading down through the rocks and trees into a sparklingly clear river. There was a gentle breeze in the air and a general sense of lushness that radiated through the core of my being. We continued down until we were walking alongside the river, with terraced wheat fields on either side. Everything about the scene was perfect. It was unutterably lovely, the kind of beauty that gets you thinking about what actually constitutes beauty (hiking definitely puts you in a contemplative mood).
In very high spirits, we continued on to Sankhu, where we caught the bus back to Kathmandu, about one hour and forty five minutes after setting off from Nagarkot. I was too happy to even care about how squished I was, the bumpy roads and the traffic, instead focussing my attention on the sunset. I felt exactly the right kind of tired. It had been hard work but in a satisfying way. I could feel it but wasn't exhausted. Most importantly, I felt I could do the whole thing again tomorrow, which was lucky because on the trek I'll be doing that much walking for 16 consecutive days. It was definitely one of the best days of my gap year so far.
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