around the world in 180 days

Anna and I were both very much ready to leave India. As I may have mentioned, we were sick most of our time there, the shopkeepers and merchants were pushy and rude, there were many touts and many people who lied frequently and there were just too too many people. It was exhausting and we’d had enough.

I don’t want to give the impression that all Indians are rude and pushy, quite the contrary, we found many Indians to be honestly helpful, sincerely wanting to practice their English and tell us what they could about their country. There were also shopkeepers that weren’t interested in cheating us, but in getting a fair deal for their product or service and nothing more. The problem we had was telling the difference. Many people who seemed to be nice, caring and honest later turned out to be lying, cheating liars. It was frustrating to always have to be on guard, and it was frustrating not to be able to take people at face value.

Nepal, so far anyway, is different. We’re staying in Thamel, an area in Kathmandu that is the main tourist hub. The streets are narrow and lined with shops. restaurants, hotels, internet cafes, travel agencies and the like. It’s exactly the sort of place Anna talked about wanting to avoid (we wanted to “experience the real culture of the countries we visit”) and we love it.

People come to Nepal to trek in the Himalayas, so every 10 or 20 meters, there’s a gear store filled with gore-tex coats, north face fleece, down jackets, sleeping bags, trekking poles, and every other piece of gear a person could want. They’re like mini-REI’s, only the shopkeepers are Nepali and you can haggle with them a bit (not like in India, just a few hundred Rs). We picked up two sets of trekking poles and a platypus-style bladder for our trip for $50 total. Anna has also wanted a nice Nepali sweater for a long time, so she got a fleece-lined, zip up sweater and a set of fleece-lined wool mittens for $18, and I got a sweater and a hat for about $14.

I’ve also wanted to have a suit tailor made for me during our trip. I’d heard that suits are cheap in Thailand, so I’d planned on having that done in Bangkok, but we stopped into a tailor here in KTM to check prices.  They were so reasonable that I’m going in for a preliminary fitting later this evening. The guy was such a good salesman that we ended up getting Anna a suit as well. We’ll both be so well dressed when we get back that people will be lined up to give us jobs and the hard part will be choosing which one we want.

This is something that I think Indian salesmen and shopkeepers could learn from the Nepalis. In Indian shops, you are almost attacked for showing the slightest interest in anything. This makes me want to leave and not buy anything no matter what price they are offering. I don’t like pushy salesmen. In Nepal, the shopkeepers let you browse, they let you leave if you aren’t interested, and they aren’t so pushy. This approach has led Anna and I to spend way more than we did in India. It also helps that the Nepali rupee is much weaker than the Indian rupee.

Tomorrow we leave for the Annapurna Circuit, a 128 mile hike around the Annapurna mountain range in the Himalayas. It gradually rises (about 1,000 to 2,000 ft. per day) for about 10 days, when we’ll cross a pass at a high point of 5400 meters, or about 17,000 feet. It’s a popular trek, and we’ll be staying in teahouses along the way. The teahouses are pretty primitive, but it’s not camping, so we’ll be able to get by with a lot less gear that usual. I’m hoping to have a pack that’s around 20 lbs, maybe less.

While we’re on the trek, I’ll have limited internet access (maybe none at all), so updates will be limited. I will write often and post as often as I can, but it might be 3 weeks before I see another computer with an internet connection. Check back for updates, but don’t be surprised if there aren’t any.

Tags: Annapurna Circuit, India, Kathmandu, Nepal, Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 5:44 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.