Habib Khan, Quetta: Nepal was visa-free for Pakistanis (at least) in 2009, and Kathmandu had a direct PIA flight from Karachi (which I’m sure no longer operates). When I asked the tour operator for a booking, I was told there were no seats available for the next six weeks, so we had to reschedule our holiday.
We arrived at the airport three hours prior to the flight departure time, expecting the plane to be packed with Karachiites or at least Pakistanis from the north.
At the entrance, the guard checked our tickets and mumbled to himself, “Kathmandu? I’ve never seen passengers going there.” We laughed thinking he was new and knew little about the usually packed flights to Kathmandu. However, when we reached the check-in counter, we found the clerk yawning, seemingly delighted to see us, and immediately checked us in.
Where are the other passengers?
It finally turned out that there were a total of 5 passengers from Karachi: the two of us, one Nepali student, and two people from the embassy staff. As we were discussing whether our tour operator had misled us about full flights or something else, a rumbling sound was heard.
A door in front of us (which I had thought was an emergency exit) opened, and a sea of giggling boys and girls, all Nepalese rushed in. The mystery of full flights became evident as the flight was running on transit passengers from Oman.
The guard was proved right; there were only us (as tourists) from Pakistan.
The flight and the immigration process were comfortable and after staying a day in Kathmandu and after enjoying the famous and only Nepali dish “Daal Bhat Tarkari Achar” we proceeded to Pokhara from where we had to take a three day trek in the Annapurna region.
The bus and the road were more or less similar to the Quetta Noshkay route, and it took us almost 5 hours to reach our destination.
The next morning we met our guide “Krishna” and the porter (can’t recall his name) and took a cab for a half an hour ride until we reached the starting point of the trek and started hiking to the village of “Dhampus” our destination for the first night.
The hike was quite steep and it took us almost 4 hours to reach our “Tea House” (the mountain Lodge) and got a room almost similar to a sleeper compartment of a rail car.
There was a common bathroom with a solar water heater, and a dining hall with benches, resembling a fouji langar, where we could enjoy the traditional “gurung bread” and some small talk with other trekkers from different parts of the globe –some of them were on a month long trek or so, many of them continued having fun in the dining area until late in the night, however, we slept early looking forward to another tiring but memorable day among the breathtaking scenery of the peaks, “Dhaulagiri”, “Massaputhre”, (fishtail) (“how could have angrez badsha not poke their nose with their own name?) and others of the Annapurna range.
We were carrying light luggage and we didn’t even know that a porter will be available but some people were carrying ridiculously large luggage (some even with suitcases ) making full use (or misuse) of their porters.
Krishna was a good looking and well dressed boy and looked more like our actor “Shan” and so we addressed him “Shan” for which he was very happy. The porter was a quiet young boy who was trained to take instructions only from Shan, and who until the last day, in every meal took just Daal Bhat Tarkari Achar.
The next day we moved mostly cross-country and kept enjoying the gurung bread that we were carrying and I noticed that Shan was not very familiar with the routes and was just moving using tukka (fluke) to identify the splitting ways, which we enjoyed a lot as we were in no hurry to reach our next tea-shop which would be Sarangkot.
The tea-shop in Sarangkot was more of a hotel and the receptionist was surprised seeing our passports making the familiar comment that we were the first Pakistanis in their hotel.
Tired from the day’s trek, we slept early and woke up to watch the sun rise on the peaks, a view that was not only marvelous but also differentiated the highest peaks from others as the first rays fell first on the highest peak.
The third day we moved mostly along different villages and witnessed some pooja festivals where cows and dogs were decorated and were fed in a special manner.
Taking advantage of the festival, the village children had the permission to block ways of the trekkers demanding money (ransom) to clear the way.
We had many cups of tea and cold drinks and chatted with the villagers along the route who were mostly selling their handicrafts.
We reached Pokhara in the evening and had a full Dal Bhat dinner before going to bed.
Then the same bus journey to Kathmandu where we were given a hotel to stay in a place called “Tamil” and in Tamil there were only foreigners and Pizza and Tacos and Sushi and Steak but we used to take a cycle rickshaw to the Nepali area enjoying the remarkable Daal Bhat Tarkari Achar.
