Monday 7 March 2016

I’ve hired a jeep today at great expense to visit some of the sights of Pokhara. My driver speaks little or no English, or chooses not to. First stop is the World Peace Stopa atop of a hill on the other side of the lake to where I am staying. The road up is very rough, which explains why you can’t catch a bus up here. It’s around 9am and the early light on the Stupa is stunning. It was built in 1973 by a japaneses Buddhist sect and is painted white with gold ornation. It’s beautiful. On each of its four sides are inset figures of Buddha in various forms. The white and gold is so bright that it burns my naked eyes. It’s difficult to look at without sunglasses. This is a sacred place and signs everywhere ask for silence but sadly they are ignored. Mothers yelling at children and youth with music blaring from mobile devices pay little respect. Reminds me of Australia. 

This is one of 80 stupas built by the Buddhist sect around the world and its one of two constructed in Nepal. The other is in Lumini, the birth place of Buddha. As well as building peace stupas around the world, this sect is also know for organising huge pilgrimages to promote peace and anti nuclear sentiment.

From here my unfriendly driver takes me to a waterfall and a cave. I expected this would be out in the country but no, he parks his car in a part of the city and gestures to me to follow the signs. Sure enough there is a sign to a waterfall, in the city. I’ve seen waterfalls before so I wasn’t expecting anything too special. It’s crowded because today is a holiday for Nepal. It’s a Hindu festival called Shivaratri, to worship the God Shiva. It’s also the one day of the year you can legally smoke hash.

Anyway it’s a holiday and the waterfall is busy with visitors. The waterfall is a bit bizarre. There isn’t a great flow of water from height as you might expect. It’s a creek at ground level that flows through conglomerate rock wearing it  into all sorts of shapes. Huge holes in the rock and wells are everywhere. But then the water drops into a pit that we can’t see the bottom of. This is in the city of Pokhara. There must be a huge cave system under the city. Across the road from here is the access to the cave. Unfortunately this access is also part of a Hindu shrine, which is very busy today because of the festival. There are people lined up with plates of food to offer Shiva. Access to the cave is closed.

We next ho to a museum dedicated to the mountains of Nepal and to those who climb them. It’s fascinating also because it explains the different ethnic groups of Nepal and their traditional dress. We saw this on out trek and Garnesh would explain the different groups and their dress to me. The museum also helped to explain. I would have spent a couple of hours here, which probably pissed my driver off more.

From here we had to drive across the other side of town to a museum dedicated to the Gurkhers. The British army has had an association with these fearless fighters since 1814. As I understand it, in 1814 the British East India Company (BEIC) took on the King of Gorkha who was busy annexing surrounding provinces into a united Nepal. A particular battle had 3000 BEIC soldiers up against 600 Gorkhan soldiers and while under bombardment from the Brits, a soldier parted the dust and smoke and walked into the British camp. He had been shot in the jaw and wanted medical assistance. After the British doctors patched him up, he demanded to be allowed to return to his troupes to continue the fight. They let him go. Unable to beat the Gorkhan soldiers militarily, the Brits tried to starve them out but the survivors escaped. Such bravery and cunning clearly impressed Britain because from then on, they have been recruiting fighting men from the Ghorkha region. They became known as Ghurkas and to this day are known as the Royal Gurkhas. Members of the Royal family have their own Gurkha regiment. The Gurkhas have been involved in so many areas of conflict since their formation and have done so with extraordinary distinction. For a small fighting force they have a large number of VCs. More recently they’ve been involved in peace keeping in Timor Leste with the UN and they have a permanent association with the Sungapore police. They recently marched at our ANZAC day parade.

Big day for me and I was happy to part with my cranky driver. I was to go into town to witness the celebrations of Shivarati day but I’m not feeling well. I suspect it’s something I ate. From my bed I can here crude fireworks going off and lots of cheering and singing, well into the night. I suspect fueled by hash!