Journey to Nepal Deutsche Version

Impressions of a Journey

7 days to Manang on foot….

5 days at our sponsor school "Lophelling"

For three years already students of our 8th grade have been supporting four kids at the Lophelling Boarding School Manang. The whole teaching staff of the Gymnasium Schongau sponsors the Tibetan teacher Ngawang Kunlek.
In the Easter holidays finally a small group of teachers, some with their spouses, could visit Lophelling School at Nepalese Manang District. The tickets for the flight already had to be bought about a year in advance, as the period around Easter is considered to be most favourable for a trip to the Annapurna region.
Now the enormous advantage of e-mail paid off. The numerous e-mails to Nepalese trekking agencies which had been sent off in the evening  were already answered several hours later including their offers. After quite some bargaining  I found the suitable agent in "fairsteps" and the best tour. We had finally discarded the long way around the Annapurna across the Thorong-la  Pass. Thus we hoped to have sufficient time for our stay at our sponsor school.
We succeeded in organizing a lot of goods in the following months: 120 pairs of  hiking shoes for kids, 75 tooth brushes, solar panels, LED torches, English literature, many tennis balls, hundreds of air-balloons...
In the end the seven of us arrived a the Qatar-Airways check-in counter with 300 kgs of baggage. We could hardly believe we were allowed  to take all this extra baggage on board. Turbulences above India, clouds, no mountain top of the Himalayas to be seen – should the Monsun already have begun and spoil our trip? With a time shift of 4 hours 45 minutes (unique in the world), we landed at Kathmandu.
At the airport reception with the Kata, a scarf  Tibetan buddhists offer as a  gift of reverence. Our Nepalese agent Kumar has our bags packed on top of a van. Driving on the left, rikschas, kulis, temples, holy cows, trucks stacked up high with goods,… the first impressions of this Asian capital seem to overwhelm us. Floods of rain shortly after our arrival at the Nirvana Garden, our hotel in the ancient city center of  Thamel. Kumar, fairstep trekking's boss invites us to reception dinner. Tschang, Nepalese beer, hot spices, excellent Asian cooking make my secret fear of the monsun disappear.  We talk about the details of our planned tour.
Getting accustomed,  another day at Kathmandu, innumerable impressions of different cultures that peacefully merge here: a hinduistic burial ceremony on the banks on the ghats (banks) of the Bagmati, the holy river, the Hindu temple of Pashupatinath, prayers and chants of the monks in the buddhist monastery, the sound of musical instruments: Radong, drums, … the giant Stupa Bodhnath with her peering eyes and innumerable flags,… Of course we could stay her for some other days watching, gaping...
But we want to arrive at Besisahar after only 170 km, but a six hour drive in our van.  Still 10 more km by Landrover, from now on we will not be seeing  or hearing any car or engine. Nine porters bind our bags together every  morning from now on, each weighing about 35 to 46 kgs, put the belts on their heads, unbelievable what these guys can carry that way – we already start sweating with our personal load of 10 kgs.
Two sherpas: Ginesh and Ghanesh, lead us up river along the, first in the subtropical part on a sea level of 800m. The ridges in the valley are terraced to enormous heights: cereals, potatoes, vegetables and now and then even marihuana (pot) are grown here.
Even though we stay in a lodge only 300 – 400 m. higher everyday still we make a lot more height. The road, it is the only one to Manang, leads up and down. We meet carriers, are overtaken by caravans of mules, on long, swinging  suspension bridges we cross the river.
At the first high peak appearing at the end of the V-valley we ask our company about the name of the mountain. "Nameless hill, not more than 6.000 meters!", we are told.,
In the morning we are welcomed by a bright blue sky, later more and more clouds appear. Our lodge at Timang, we call it a farm in the mountains already is at 2270m. The night is cold. We warm ourselves up in the smoky kitchen, the only room that is heated by an open fireplace. Hot Masala tea helps a bit; after a short while delicious freshly made Momos are served. Already at 6pm. it grows dark. We soon withdraw into our sleeping  bags.
In the early morning hours we discover that ice has covered our bags. At 6 o'clock the mountain range is dimly lighted by the  rising sun. Our sherpas serve the early moring tea at the bedside.
The valley broadens, around us now are mountains with names like Lamjung Himal (6.932m), the Pisang Peak (6.092m), the Annapurna II (7.939m) …, indescribable these majestic mountain ranges. In Ghyaru we have finally reached our highest stop at 3.670m. The air becomes thinner and first signs of this can be felt. On Good Saturday after seven days of hiking we arrive at our sponsor school Lophelling.
"Namaste", "Tashi deleg" we are welcomed by 70 Tibetan and Nepalese kids who cordially receive us standing in line, their hands up in the air as for prayer, their heads slightly bowed. They have put on their new school uniform: dark blue silk jackets and trousers. Again a teacher puts the Kata around everyone's neck, a hearty welcome. The school is situated in a lonesome place at 3.300 m., at the edge of a partly wooded ridge, that is marked by erosion. We have to walk for another hour to reach our cabin. At Braga we are going to stay at the same lodge for five days.
We spend the days at Lophelling School (awakening spirit). We install two photovoltaik-elements on the tinroof of our school (donation by Hirschvogel company , Peiting).  By simple means we built a "chandelier" with 5 LED lamps which only use about 0.7 watts (donated by Steca company, Memmingen) and bring light into the office and private rooms of the headmaster Mr Kunga. With some difficulty we had managed to buy 50m of cable and a maintenance-free solar battery at Kathmandu..
Our "medidine man" Ottola (Otto Bauer) provides the Healthworker Sunam with more than 46 kgs of medication (donated by pharmacies and doctors from Schongau, Peißenberg and Hohenpeißenberg). As the German doctor he even has to treat patients who have walked to the school for many hours.
In the maths lesson the division is introduced by Heike Reek. A school with 72 kids divided into five groups of learners, a situation with small classes we can only dream of in Schongau. The biggest difficulty is to make the kitchen a "smoke-free" zone. The stove doesn't work properly; smoke has blackened the face of Amala and her kitchen helpers. Moist wood, a broken stove lid and a pipe which is too tight; how to solve this problem? Our "technician" Rolf Roew had already constructed a monstrous machine; a fan that blows off the smoke when attached to the stove. This works quite well when the lid is closed. But the lid of the stove only remains closed if one of us is in the kitchen. They had always cooked with the stove open...
It’s a special honor for Mr Ngawang, the Tibetan teacher who is sponsored by the Schongau teaching staff to invite us to lunch. The fried rice his wife, mother of two children has prepared tastes delicious.
An enormous logistic problem is to provide the 72 kids with shoes. At Schongau the parents of our students had donated 120 used pairs of hiking boots. About 80 pairs had been on the plane. Now each kid should get some shoes that fit. They will probably have to exchange them among each other later on.
The kitchen team and the teaching staff is equipped with LED torches we had bought cheaply at Lucido company Eurasburg, including solar batteries.
The days at our school "on top of the roof of the world" pass too quickly. In our honour a school festival is organized. The children show Tibetan dances, and sing traditional songs. In the tug of war the Tibetan boys win against the girls; three German teachers lose 0:2 against Tibetan boys. What a joy.
For none of us it is easy to say good-bye to this place amidst the mighty mountains, with a grand view of the Annapurna range.
Because of the good weather we do not have to use our "buffer days". With a small prop plane , "Twin Otter", we had chartered , we return to Kathmandu. We still see the landing on the STOL run (short take off and landing!) before our eyes. Some shaking at the start , then a calm flight of 40 minutes back to Kathmandu.
We use the two remaining days for a visit of Kathmandu and Baktapur, one of the most beautiful royal cities in the Kathmandu valley. For the last rupies we buy Thankas, cult masks, tea and spices.

Namaste Lophelling, namaste Nepal!

An unforgettable trip!

Thanks a lot - Tashi teleg to all the sponsors for shoes, solar panels, LED lamps, medicine...

Thanks alot - Tashi teleg to all the visitors of the "Tibetan Week" at Schongau who have so generously donated at our slide show and film report. This money is directly given to the Lophelling Boarding School, Manang.

Wolfgang Martin