From Kathmandu I went to Pokhara from where I wanted to go on some trekking tour.
I fancied doing the “pancake trek“ around Annapurna. Though touristy and crowded, you could trek from lodge to lodge and get food there as well, so there was no need to carry to much provisions.
Unfortunately, though October and November were considered the best months for trekking in Nepal, it was raining all the time in October, so I just stayed in Pokhara and chilled there.
I don´t know what´s it like today, but in those days Pokhara was known for magic mushrooms.
There were elderly Nepalese farmer ladies coming to the guesthouses, supplying the tourists with all sorts of mushrooms in different shapes and sizes. To my surprise the smaller ones were actually the most expensive ones.
“Golden Spot, very strong.“ was the expert lady´s explanation.
Since I was not comfortable with taking halucinogenics, never tried any in my whole life, I didn´t buy any, but it was sure interesting to see the goods and I thought it would be funny if we had elderly farmer ladies going from house to house selling mushrooms in Germany, maybe then us Germans would be a bit more relaxed.
After altogether one month in Nepal I crossed from Nepal to Darjeeling with my new six months India visum, because I had been invited by Nipponzan-Myohoji, the Japanese Buddhist order I had stayed with in Leh, to participate in the inauguration ceremony of a new Shanti Stupa there in November.
This was basically also the reason why I did not stay longer in Nepal, waiting for better weather for trekking in November.
I met quite a few of the monks and nuns I had got to know in Leh again, so it was all very nice and felt like family. This time I did not have the luxury of my own room, instead I slept on the floor, in a big room with lots of people, but that was also a good experience and it was just for a few days anyway.
The new Shanti Stupa was also impressive and the inauguration ceremony colorful and grand, with lots of locals attending.
Darjeeling is not only world famous for, in my not so humble opinion, the best tea in the world, where you can also visit some tea gardens, it is also famous for trekking.
Since I had not done any trekking in Nepal because of the rain and my epic Kashmir trek had been a while ago, I felt definitely ready for some mountain adventure again.
So I went for a very nice trek in Darjeeling for a few days where you basically follow a ridge north towards Kanchenjunga with epic views of the big Himalayan mountains, like Everest, Makalu, Lhotse and of course Kanchenjunga. And the best thing, the trek was not too hard, once you were on the ridge, and there were guesthouses along the route.
I remember one day when we, the other travellers I met on the trek and I, got up in darkness to walk to some peak, to watch the sunrise over the Himalayan range and now, writing this, I still get tears in my eyes, remembering the absolute beauty of it, sitting there in silence, in absolute awe of nature.
Words cannot describe this moment, but to give you an idea about my fulfillment, in that moment, I thought, if I would die now, I would die perfectly happy, no regrets, since I had seen the ultimate sunrise, I was absolutely at peace and so thankful to be able to see and experience such beauty.
We also had the opportunity to try Tongba, the local millet drink in those guesthouses. It´s some kind of fermented alcoholic beverage, you get it in some traditional jar and drink it through some kind of pipe, like a big straw.
After that I went to Sikkim.
In those days you could only visit four places there with your tourist permit, Gangtok, the capital, Rumtek monastery and two other places I forgot the names of.
To go to the really interesting northern part, where the forest gave way to a barren Tibetan style landscape you would have needed to go with a certified trekking agency to get a permit for this region. That was quite expensive so I did not go there.
In Rumtek there was some Tibetan festival going on, monks playing the typical Tibetan horns and overtone singing, so that was also quite some experience.
After Sikkim it was time to go to “Hey Calcutta, gay Calcutta!“ as one photo of a billboard in my guidebook announced. If you now think, “Hey, how progressive!“, I have to disappoint you.
Whoever in city marketing came up with this slogan had no homosexuals in mind, but was using the word gay in its original meaning of merry, cheerful etc.
I have now combined all my Pakistan travel stories into one chapter, which can be found here.
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