Thursday, October 18, 2007
NEPAL – Gateway to the Himalaya
We got up at 04:30, just in time for another power outage, and left for one of the local mountains just after 05:15 AM. The goal was to fly right after sunrise and not to be seen by any locals or the many airplanes carrying tourists for scenic flights through the Himalaya; there's Maoists everywhere, we'd been told, and this might land us in serious difficulties.
NOW WHAT'S THIS?!! Believe it or not, at 05 AM ALL Nepal were on their feet! The streets were crowded just like during daytime. How's this possible? We were told this was kind of a morning sport.
Whatever the reason, it meant problems for us. We continued through army checkpoints and finally made it to some high-up viewpoint. It was still dark, and we could easily smuggle the heli (I had completed it during the short night under candlelight conditions) covered with a blanket to the only suitable place for take-off.
About one hour later around 07 AM, the sun came up behind the mountains, and far down to our feet lay a mountain valley, partly covered with clouds. What a look! The bad thing was, a number of other tourists also showed up, and the Himalaya was still hidden in the clouds. We had chosen Pokhara for two reasons: First, you could go there by car (most of the cities in Nepal are not connected by streets), and second, you have a great view of the glowing Himalaya, first and foremost of the famous Machhapuchre mountain. Very distinct shape, and similar to the beautiful Matterhorn in Switzerland (from the South it's even hard to tell the difference).
The bad news was: The clouds were thick, and we had a clear view only for half a minute every now and then. The problem was that after lift-off the time was ticking, and we would have to leave the spot within minutes for reasons of safety. So we finally decided to not lose more time and reveal what's under our blanket. After all, we still had another 6 hours of going back to Kathmandu before us.
The flight was smooth without problems, and the people were much more civilized (or reserved, if you will) than in India. We had brought sweets for the kids, but that wasn't even necessary. We think we have a few worthwhile shots which will look good in the final WSF film. We shot no AFD panorama this time since the location would have made an unusual place to fly, but the magic of the glowing Himalaya was blurred by overcast skies.
Nepal was quite an experience and there's certainly something to it, but we never really felt safe. When returning to Kathmandu it started to rain, and the next day it was just pouring. After all, we think we got the maximum out of Nepal and we were glad to finally board the plane to Bangkok/Thailand. That's where we are right now – and the adventure continues …
Labels: Himalaya, Machhapuchre, Maoists, Nepal, Pokhara
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
NEPAL – times of upheaval
The political situation in Nepal is complex, and there have been many changes since 2001. The king has only got representative functions since last year, and the seven major parties have formed an alliance to establish democracy in the country. The only exception is the communist party of the Maoists (rebels) who fight for abolition of both the caste system (actually there is several in Nepal) and the monarchy. In late 2006 the 12-year long civil war has officially been ended, but discrimination and exploitation of minorities, the lower castes, women and children still create a war-like situation at least in some parts of the country. The German foreign ministry as well as many local voices warned us not to leave the capital Kathmandu.
Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries, and except from the tourist quarter Thamel in Kathmandu, this is visible all over the place. The staff at our hotel advised us that attempting to fly a toy model helicopter :-) in Kathmandu was not a good idea; we might get shot easily, or at best have to stay in the country for weeks or months until all formalities had been cleared. Having said this, except for the royal palace and the monkey temple there was nothing suitable for the WSF project anyway. What's more, Nepal is famous for something else, and that's what we came for: The Himalaya!
Several people told us the world-famous mountain range was visible from the capital – well, this is not true at all, and so we were suddenly pressed for time to find a good viewpoint. Very unfortunately, this turned out to be a big, big problem.
We'd initially thought of Mt. Everest which is the highest mountain of the planet (depending on how this is defined), but you'd have to travel up to 2.5 weeks into the Himalaya until you can see it, plus it involves going to places that are controlled by the Maoists. Travelling into a war zone is nothing that would have stopped us, but the time span was totally unrealistic; and second, Mt. Everest looks like any plain mountain – nothing special about it at all. If you look at a panorama, you will not be able to tell which one it is; so this is a WSF knockout criterion.
Instead, we decided to drive to the city of Pokhara, the second largest of the country. It's only 150 - 200 km away, but it takes 6 hours to go there. The ride was bumpy and bad, sometimes the road had been washed away by a landslide, sometimes we had to cross small rivers with our taxi. It was almost an off-road trip, and our transport cases and parts of our equipment got damaged. Our guide spoke almost no English which made things even more complex, and it didn't help either that the engine of the car quit every now and then (we think it was running too lean :-) ). The driving itself was even worse than in India! We'll most likely comment on this in ROTOR 12/2007. The picture below shows a part of the road that had been cleared after a landslide.
We arrived in Pokhara late at night, and while still checking in at the guest house, there was the first power outage. Quite funny, the city was totally dark, like if it didn't exist, and the staff in the lobby were using their mobile phones as torches. Nobody lost a single word about the situation, and this tells you it is nothing uncommon. The picture below shows our lunch + dinner that day.
Labels: Himalaya, landslide, Machhapuchre, Nepal, Pokhara, safety problem
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