NEPAL

3 - 21 Nov 1996

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Watching sunrise at Sarangkot with Fishtail in the background.

Nepal was my first major photo trip ever since I had taken up photography. People had been telling me that Nepal was one of the most photogenic place on earth. There were beautiful scenery of the Himalayan mountain ranges and a great ethnic diversity rich in traditional cultures.

"The sun's never directly overhead in Nepal! You can shoot from dawn till dusk!" , a fellow shutterbug had been telling me repeatedly in excitement.

I had actually wanted to join a photo trip organised by a photo club. To my disappointment, the date clashed with my reservist in-camp-training. Another friend of mine seemed a bit uncertain to confirm the trip later in December. Anyway, I didn't really like the idea about going in December as the weather would be turning cold and might not be great for photography. I decided to go alone with a 2-week Annapuna Base Camp (ABC) trek and another week to shoot in Pokhara and Kathmandu.

Since this would be my once-in-a-lifetime trip, I decided to bring along almost all my arsenal despite some advice from the net to travel light. I got myself the following weaponry:

2 EOS 100 bodies
Russian made 15mm fisheye
20-35mm f3.5/4.5
28-105mm f3.5/4.5
70-200L f2.8
2X Converter
Manfrotto 190B Tripod with 168 ballhead
81B & Polariser Filters
80 rolls of Sensia 100
About 10 rolls of negative print films
8 spare batteries

I was ready for war!

Katerine & Lili at Bodhath Stupa

I did not turn out to be a lone ranger for the trip. Katerine and Lili were going for the same 2-week trek as I before they headed for water rafting and the safari at Chitwan. We spent the first 2 days in Kathmandu sight seeing while the travel agent helped us to prepare our trekking permits. We were staying in Thamel and the place was packed with tourists and full of activities.

"Change money? Good rates!", the man from the carpet shop stopped me as I passed by. Instead of selling carpets to me, he was offering to change currency for me. The black market for foreign exchange was well established, especially at the carpet shops, and offered better rates than authorised dealers.

"From Japan? You wanna see? Very nice and cheap!", a Tibetan woman, who had mistaken me as a Japanese tourist cajoled, tried to sell me her accessories of rings and colourful stones that she lugged around in a bag. Many of the Nepalese could tell that I was from Singapore though.

"Shoes polish?", a young Nepalese boy asked hopefully even though he could see that I was wearing my pair of brown Reebok trekking shoes that needed no polishing.

There were indeed many places of interest in Kathmandu and around the valley. There were several Durbar Squares and numerous temples to visit. However, coming from a clean and orderly city like Singapore, I found that the air pollution was abnormally bad. Even some of the locals masked themselves to filter the air. The number of traffic accidents was amazing low given the chaotic traffic and reckless driving conditions.

The Nepalese were very friendly and hospitable people, especially in the mountain areas. Namaste was a Nepali greeting word that all visitors should learn. When used properly and formally, the Nepalese would put his 2 hands together in a prayer-like position.

We flew to Pokhara on the 3rd day. I was lucky to have a right hand window seat where I had a good view of the Himalayan ranges throughout the half an hour flight. I had earlier asked for a right hand window seat for my SQ flight to Nepal and they gave me a seat next to the emergency exit with no windows!

Pokhara was a much quieter town than the capital Kathmandu. The air was fresh and the traffic was less congested even though we stayed at the bazaar area along Phewa Tal lake. We popped into a restaurant by the lake side for a cheap and nice meal and enjoyed the view of the beautiful lake and the magnificent Himalayas.

It was not uncommon to see some small provision shops having computer terminals at the cash counters. I had even gone into shops to send email back home via Internet! My perception of Nepal as a backward, 3rd world country was changed.

Me with the kids in a school compound

It surprised me that even in remote mountain areas, you could see kids dressed up smartly going to schools.

"90% of the kids go to school and receive their free primary education. They even receive free textbooks from the government.", an owner of a restaurant was telling me.

We started trekking on the 4th day. The trek turned out to be different from what I had expected. We were walking on narrow track most of the time and having to climb up and down several mountains to reach the base camp. Villages along the trek were really small and looked more like guesthouses to me. Certain treks were rather steep and neither easy to climb nor descend. By the 3rd trekking day, I left my heavy 70-200L lens with my porter and switched to the much lighter 28-105 lens.

Our guide

We had a guide and 2 porters. Although our guide was not able to communicate fluently in English, he had been taking good care of us. The 2 ladies felt safe to have him as the guide and I was particularly grateful to him for helping me to carry my tripod throughout the whole trek.

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Resting outside the guesthouse

A typical day would start off with our guide taking our orders for breakfast before we started off walking at about 8am. We would leave our main backpacks to the porters and only carry our essential day packs. Katerine was always the one leading the way and was the fittest although she claimed that she hardly did any exercise. I would normally be the last (the guide was always the last person though), just behind Lili. We would stop by a guesthouse at noon for lunch before reaching another guesthouse by 3 or 4pm for an overnight stay. Dinner would be served by around 6pm and there were not many activities thereafter.

Dinner at a guesthouse

Food and accommodation were luxuries throughout the trek. Food mainly consisted of simple meals like noodles, rice, bread and pasta. Softdrinks like Coke were available even up at ABC. However, I found that hot lemon tea was the best to quench thirst and keep warm in the cold weather. The guesthouses provided clean and comfortable beds and some even had hot shower facilities straight from the tap!

It was the peak trekking season and we encountered many trekkers along the way. Towards the upper part of the trek near ABC, there was increasingly a shortage of sleeping rooms. I had to share the same room with the 2 ladies.

I did not reach all the way up to ABC. I was half way up from Machhapuchhare Base Camp (MBC) and could already see that I was surronded by snow tipped mountains. I began to understand why the trek was also named as Annapurna Sanctuary Trek. It took you right into the centre amongst the mountains of the Annapurna Ranges! As I continued to climb, my vision started to get blur and had difficulties in breathing. These were some tell tale signs of altitude sickness that could be deadly. I decided to give ABC a miss and back trekked. Lili was determined to see snow and pressed on even though she wasn't feeling well throughout the night before.

Although we had an extra day for our trekking schedule, I did not consider staying an extra day at MBC to acclimatize myself before going up to ABC again the following day. The weather had not been good and was rather cloudy. I didn't regret for not reaching ABC as my main purpose for the trip was for photo taking and trekking was only secondary.

We were 2 days ahead of our trekking schedule by the time we returned to Pokhara. I called my travel agent to arrange for an earlier flight back to Singapore on the 21 Nov.

One of my main objectives for the trip was to photograph the Himalayan mountain ranges early in the morning as seen from Phewa Tal lake in Pokhara. I stayed in Pokhara for 3 days after my trek. Each day, heavy mists of clouds hung over the mountains and the ranges were nowhere in sight.

I took a bus back to Kathmandu after I parted with the girls who headed for their water rafting and safari. I had planned and expected to have heavy shooting for the next few days. However, a day after I was back in Kathmandu, I was down with a serious diarrhoea after consuming some chicken that was not properly cooked. From then onwards, I stopped all photography activities.

As Nepal had poor medical facilities, I couldn't wait to return home. Thanks to my travel agent, they managed to get me an earlier flight in spite of the peak travel season in Nepal.

My camera equipment had also taken some severe beating during the trip. The 28-105 lens had become gritty when I turned the lens to zoom in and out. Thanks to the sand storms created by the propeller of the aircrafts at the airport. The kids at a guesthouse had knocked down my camera with the 70-200L lens which was mounted on a tripod. Trying to capture star trails had caused dew and moisture to form on my lens and camera. Walking on the trail had also subjected my camera to dust and on high altitude areas, moisture and damp air were the main foes.

It turned out that I had only shot 27 rolls of slides instead of 80. For film, I had only finished slightly more than 2 rolls. Nevertheless, there were a few pictures that I was rather satisfied with.

Photos from Nepal Trip

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