the technicolor sleep

Stories from our travels

Barely a week ago we returned from a nine-day long trekking in the Langtang area up in Northern Nepal, and now we’ve finally reached the modern and stressful Bangkok after twenty lush days with sunsets over the Himalayas on a daily basis and less tourists in the streets. In total, we’ve traveled through India’s New Delhi, Agra, Orchha and Varanasi, while Nepal offered us with Lumbini, Chitwan National park and my own favorite, Pokhara, where we spent a few lush days by the beautiful lake eating chicken momos and the local thukpa, or to the little more extreme, paragliding over the rice fields and valleys over Sarankgot, where we also watched the sunrise over the Himalayas.

India’s beautiful city Varanasi (and our last stop before crossing the border to Nepal) had my love at first sight, located alongside the Ganges river that breathes both life and death in and out of the city, as the Hindu people wash their limbs in the same water as the ash of their dead relatives is spread.

After a memorable boat ride downstream the river both at sunrise and sunset, it was impossible not to fall in love with the purity (if you forget about the relatively dirty water of Ganges) and peacefulness of Varanasi, which has slowly become a paradise for lost backpacker souls from every corner of the world. Unfortunately our time schedule was a bit tight, and the short romance with Varanasi was soon replaced with a bumpy bus ride over the Nepali border to Lumbini, Buddhas birthplace.

Other than experiencing the annual colour festival better known as Holi, Lumbini was not so interesting compared to the wild jungle landscape and countrylife of Chitwan, where the days went by swimming with the local kids in the river, visiting small villages in the outskirts of our nearest town and riding on elephants through the jungle, in hopes of catching a glimpse of a tiger or rhino.

After traveling through the already mentioned Nepali paradise Pokhara, we faced north to Kathmandu, spending hours getting lost in charming alleys and streets around the Darbur square, eating lunch in the afternoon sun leaning our sunburnt backs against one of the many temples spread around the same area, munching on locally made potato dumplings filled with delicious spices and mashed vegetables.

We had already decided to do a week-long trekking in the mountains, but had literally no idea about where to go. I wanted to do the Annapurna Circuit myself, but this trek lasts for nearly 20 days and was therefore too long for our time schedule. Finally (after speaking to no more than seven different trekking agencies) we decided to do a slightly more customized Langtang trekking, which is still considered to be the road less traveled for tourists, a perfect option for myself who wanted to experience more remote villages not so affected by all the tourism.

After riding for eight hours on the local bus through muddy roads, waterfalls (literally) and small villages where people would jump on or off the roof with a goat or two under their arms, we finally reached the tiny mountain village Syabru Bensi - the starting point of our trekking in the Langtang area of Nepal. The chicken wrap me and my three other Norwegian friends had in Kathmandu the day before decided to declare war on our stomachs during the first night, and we started the journey with green faces the next day, going from 1700 to 2420 meters above the sea level. The higher we got, the thicker the surrounding tropical forest grew up the hills, until finally vanishing at around 3000 meters, replacing its scenery with a deep, upgoing valley of rocky landscapes and snow covered peaks in the distance.

It didn’t take me long to realize how polite and helpful Nepali are. Just let me say this: if you confess them with the tiniest problem, they will solve it as it was their own problem. In comparation to the sometimes more aggressive tone we received in India, Nepal is completely the opposite, making our stay here alot more peaceful and calming than in the rural cities of India, naturally enough.

At Kyangin Gumba (3749 m) we spent one freezing night, before climbing up at the Kyangin Ri mountain (4700 m) meters the next morning, getting a stunning panorama view over the surrounding Himalayas. Just the thought of being so far away from safe ground is quite dizzy, but easy to forget about with such a breathtaking landscape of dramatical, snow-covered peaks pointing so peacefully up at the unnaturally blue sky above.

With Kyangin Gumba and the charmingly tiny Langtang village behind us, our journey finally faced what I had been looking the most forward to during this trek; the mountain villages. Following the main path the same way as we had come, by the turquoise Langtang river rushing through the tropical forest paradise, we took a tiny path up the hill and followed this for a couple of hours until we reached the picturesque village Sherpa Gawn, bathing in the glory of the afternoon sun. Spending the overnight here, we finally got a stronger taste of the Nepali culture, eating Dal Baht (rice, potatoes, spinach and lentil soup) by the bonfire in the small cottage, and later in the evening sharing a fantastic Nepali chocolate cake with Ganesh and the boys.

The next day we continued following the path downhill to the astoundingly green village —-, where I had been hoping to do some portraits, but due to the weather the next day (and evening) I had to realize it was a dead case. Instead, we watched piracy Bollywood films on a tiny TV, drinking local wine by the fireplace and eating delicious foods and Nepali snacks.

The following day we walked the remaining three hours down to Syabru Bensi (the starting point of our trek), catching the local bus back to civilization again.

As already mentioned, I’m writing this from an Internet cafe in the heart of the backpacker area in Bangkok, but we’re soon heading down to the beautiful island Ko Chang to chill out with hippie people for a few days (lol) before crossing the border to Cambodia. Can’t wait to see the ocean again!

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