The Annapurna Chronicles Day 1-To Besi Shahar

The traditional start of the Annapurna Circuit, my Nepal trek of choice is Besi Shahar, headquarters of the Lamjung district. At one time, this was the end of the road, or at the least the road for cars. The famous Annapurna Circuit continues for 210km along a foot highway, but only a main river for many tributary trails that branch out, linking some of the most remote villages to the main part of Nepal, thousands of meters below.

All roads lead up, into the heart of the Himalayas, crossing the Thorong La, largest pass in the world. Somehow, the pass finds a way through the seven and eight thousand meter peaks with only an altitude of 5,416m, taller than any mountain in the continental United States. The highway then splits in two, one way heads up to the Upper Mustang region a Tibetan border area, and the other goes back down to Pokhara. The south road is the second portion of the circuit.

Things have changed since the first hippies came to confuse the foreigners, prompting locals to wonder why so many long haired white folk, smoking bhang (hashish) and walking through are walking through the villages. The tourist dollar has turned many of those small villages into larger small villages. Nearly every village along the trail has hotels and restaurants geared for tired hikers, thus giving much of the trekking in Nepal the name "teahouse trekking". Suddenly, these subsistence farming communities found ways to make money. With the money and newfound traffic and demands, electricity, heated water, and internet came to these once destitute communities. And then the demand for more food and supplies made the mule trains insufficient to transport all the goods, so next came roads and jeeps.

It is the same story as what happens everywhere. Annapurna is slowly becoming comodified. Now anybody's grandmother if reasonably fit can hike in the area. The road on the Lamjung side now goes 27km to Ghermu and from the Mustang side of the pass, it stretches to Muktintath, just below the pass. Now, this is great for the villages, but not for the hikers. Now hiking along a road for 40% of the trail, many hikers are abandoning the trek, not just because of sharing the road with vehicles, but with the road also comes toys and modernization. Trekkers coming to see the quaint rural life of Himalayan Nepal, now see teenagers on cell phones, people walking around with iPods, amongst the goat herders and rice farmers. The people all desire more; and they should have more, but with the modernization, the crowds may leave, choosing a more rustic hike and leaving these villages without income. Though, it could become like another Chitwan National park, only in the mountains, where people can visit fake traditional villages showing life in the Himalayas as it never was. If the circuit dies, then the hikers will go elsewhere for their "real Nepali" cultural experience and the cycle will begin anew.

Even though buses run to Buhlbuhle, one of the greatest town names ever, I chose to start in Besi Shahar like in the past. To get there, I had to ride a bus for four hours from Pokhara.

All of my Nepal transportation experiences were, thus far, only in tourist vehicles. Since the ride was short, I decided to venture out into the world of Nepali public transportation. I wanted to ride with chickens and goats; I especially wanted to ride on top.

The bus was quite empty in Pokhara and I thought I'd seem like a tourist if I rode on top despite ample seating. Getting a seat was surprisingly easy. I just went to the bust station which was merely a long line of buses along a street and asked every driver down the line if he was going to Besi Shahar. Every bus seemed headed to Kathmandu. One bus tried to load me on, but i quickly jumped off when I realized they were roping me into going to Kathmandu. I then just looked for the ticket stand, which was easy to find with some honest help. The ticket was only 150 rupees, which was half of what the tourist bus was charging.

The driver was a long-haired young man with a persistent smile and a Dubai tourism t-shirt. once he found out where I was from, he gave me a big hug. "I love America!" He gave me three more hugs in the 45 minutes I waited until departure. I suspected he was a bhang head, like most young Nepalis. I admit, I was quite happy when he left the bus and another smileless fat driver stepped behind the wheel.

Before departing, an older man rode up with his bicycle and giant plastic sack, with a big mickey mouse printed upon it; from my observations, this seems to be the national bag of Nepal. I also have always wanted to load the top of a bus, so I spidermanned my way to the top and helped lift the bike and bag. The man seemed appreciative. "You are a very good person to help me!" I didn't know how to tell him that my seeming act of altruism was merely a selfish whim to tack more random experiences to my ever growing "list". He looked like an older John Tuturro, but thankfully was unlike any of his many characters. We talked most of the way despite the language barrier. He pointed out his lovely rice farm in the hill on the way, before he took his bicycle and left. He gave me his address, so now I have a Nepali penpal named Buddha Ras!

I stayed my first night at a cute guest house ran by an affluent family. They seemed to do good business as back room was filled with people having a meeting and drinking tea. Their son seemed fascinated by me for some reason and followed me around everywhere, even offering me a tour of the town in the dark. I declined his offer, choosing instead to stay at the hotel and eat dal bhat and writing in my journal. He sat down next to me and watched attentively as I wrote. Finally, I could no longer take the staring.

"So, what is your name?"

And thus we began a nice conversation. Despite being only nine years old, they boy spoke fluent English and was quite smart.

"Do you like Nepal?" he asked.

"I love Nepal. It is very beautiful and the people, they seem so happy and friendly."

"The people are very poor."

"But they seem to recognize the richness of friendships and family."

He agreed and told me a bit about the people and their attitudes. Next, he told me all about some Nepali festivals, including the current one Desain. He particularly liked Dessain; there was no school and his father always built a nice swing for him to play. In fact, his description of every festival involved a swing. We looked through his geography text book and he taught me many things about Nepal, even grasping the very important problems facing south Nepal. Since it has the most fertile land in the country, people flock there to live, but the more people that live there, the less fertile the land becomes and the more houses that get placed upon land that should be used for farming. Most amazing of all, the child told me all of these things in nearly perfect English. He wanted to become a doctor some day, and with his smarts, he should have no trouble achieving his dream and since his family had a nice guest house and restaurant in a tourist area, he would also have the money for his dreams. The child was one of the lucky ones in Nepal, for as he said, many people in Nepal are very poor.