Enigma
"BackInKathFrm15DayTrek2ABC Grt.Tired.Spnt4DaysInPokhara/R&R. ThenTookElepntRideThruJungle.SawRhinos@RoylChitwanNat'lPk."That's an example of our E-mail communication 'home' from Kathmandu and Pokhara. E-mail services there charge 60Rs to send and receive 1 kb of data (rather silly I thought), so we've resorted to cramming as much information as possible into one message.
"InKathman4/1Wk.GoingRugHntg."After our trek we stayed in Kathmandu for a week, primarily learning everything we could about Kashmir silk carpets. Every shop owner was the ultimate salesman. Each one gave us a lesson on quality, knot counts, fakes and originals. For all the talk we heard, no two people seemed to be telling us the same thing. Then we moved to the better shops and learned the truth. We learned how to count knots, how many knots per square inch are possible in a carpet, how to detect a silk on cotton billed as a silk on silk, buffed cotton sold as silk, the difference between single and double knotted carpets (the best are all single knotted), how to test silk to see if it's real, the different types of silk and the list goes on. Armed with all this knowledge we went from shop to shop looking, listening, now knowing when we were being sold a bill of goods.
We were interested in looking at 4x6 size carpets, but the shopkeepers always managed to squeeze in a 3x5 or a 5x7. "Just look. You don't have to buy." We saw double-sided magic carpets; we saw incredible pieces woven by master weavers, patterns on the backs so fine that they looked like artist's lithographs. At the end of three days we were overwhelmed by the choices.
"SawLoads.SomeBeauts.Diff2Choose.UShouldCome2Nepal."But in the end, we didn't buy any carpets. The prices, although inexpensive by Western standards, were still too much for our pocketbooks to handle. There's always a next time, and at least then we'll be informed buyers.
"Trying2DecideWhere2Nxt."Alas, all this carpet hunting didn't help us decide where to go next. We hadn't really planned beyond Nepal. Russia? Mongolia? Beijing? Europe?
We ruled out Russia because of the difficulty and length of time required to obtain the necessary VISAS. A lot of 'Russian' around would be required as well as an additional month in Nepal just to get a flight to Moscow. Moscow is the only Russian city we could get a VISA for from Nepal. If we went to Russia overland through China, we'd have to apply for the VISA into Siberia from there and from everything we've heard, the Russian embassies in China are difficult at best. Of course then we would have the issue of obtaining a Chinese VISA as well.
We ruled out Beijing because our plans in China would have entailed going from there overland to Russia (see above). Mongolia too was losing ground on the short list. The latest BBC reports indicate that Mongolia is burning to the ground with sweeping, uncontrollable fires. So that left Europe. But where in Europe?
Well we'd love to tool around again in a VW camper van. The thought of having a permanent place to put our packs is too good to resist. Add where do they make camper VW's? Germany, right! "Two tickets to Frankfurt please."
I've made the decision sound a bit easier than it really was. Actually Nepal has been the hardest place to leave, not only because we love it here but also because this time our future plans were non-existent. Previously we'd had a game-plan. In Nepal we spent our entire month without really giving our next destination a thought. So we started thinking and going crazy, reading every travel book we could find, asking questions and talking to consulates at embassies. Wow! There was a whole world out there.
"WeLeaveTomm.Talk2UFrmGermany."We spent the last few mornings in Kathmandu with people we'd met on our trek. Reza, the Iranian, met us at Pumpernickles for breakfast and we ran into Cami (the magnetic American) and Wil. Wil is interested in using some of our photographs for a book he's writing (stay tuned for details if anything develops).
Departure morning left us saying good bye to a quiet Kathmandu. John ran
out early to get us rolls for the plane, but other than the bakery most
everything was still closed when we left the hotel. I looked out of the
taxi window as we headed to the airport and wondered when I'd see those
streets again. I'll miss them. I didn't have to say it, but I did.
"John, put Nepal on our list of places to visit again."