New Year’s Eve in Nepal – Happy 2075
The next morning rewards with a wonderfully clear view of the Himalayas and a homemade Tibetan breakfast with omelette, freshly baked bread and yactee. This is a special Tibetan speciality made from butter, salt, milk and tea and tastes like a mixture of milk tea and broth. It takes getting used to, but okay. Then we say goodbye to our host family and our host mother presents us with a white scarf. That’s what Tibetans do every time they say goodbye to someone. Then we drive a few kilometres further to Fewa Lake, which lies south of Pokhara.
In the afternoon we finally visit the lake, where there is quite a hustle and bustle. No wonder, today we are celebrating New Year’s Eve here and in a few hours we will start the year 2075 together with Nepalis. if you want to travel further into the future, you should try Tibet, because it is already 2148 there.
In the middle of the lake is a small shrine, to which all the local pilgrims are going today. The panoramic view of the lake between the hills is simply wonderful and I just can’t get enough!
For a while we’re thinking about renting a boat and rowers. But since the weather looks less promising right now, we decide against it. Not a bad decision as it turns out a little later, because in only half an hour the sky has completely darkened and there is a thunderstorm coming up.
Our Swiss family, whom we meet at every station here, is meanwhile in distress at sea and 6 rowers come paddling to initiate a rescue. Instead of the 6 rowers just one is enough to bring the little boat to the safe harbour and of course the Nepalis can’t miss to write down all names and to record the hero action of the day in an official document with photos of the rescued one. Maybe there’s extra money for every rescued foreigner, who knows?
Fair in Pokhara
On the way to the lake we spotted a Ferris wheel and we want to take a closer look in the evening. After all, a fair in a country like Nepal promises a lot of curious things and all kinds of encounters that are questionable in terms of safety.
After a 20 minute walk we reach the area in a park and there is first confusion at the ticket counter. Of course we don’t find a single English letter and the entrance fee of 750 rupees, which is about 7 euros, seems a bit expensive by Nepalese standards. A look at the price tag doesn’t help us either, because the Nepalese have other numbers and due to the crowds of people here there is currently no internet and no doctor google. After a few questions we learn that it should only cost 250 rupees and we sneak unobtrusively to the next ticket counter to try our luck with less money.
Here my stretched out five hundred is immediately accepted and fortunately I do not have to discuss. There you go!
A few metres further on is the fenced-in entrance area, where I discover the first security staff. I am actually impressed, I would not have expected any real control. Well, that’s relative, of course, because the local officer just says Namaste and lets me through without asking how many weapons I carry in my backpack. Well, it could also be because my cloth bag is much too small for a Kalashnikov. But a hand grenade would have fit in!
Once inside, we are both absolutely thrilled, because it seems to be a mixture of festival and fair. In the back part a stage is set up, on which a Nepali cover band just smashed some Guns´n Rose’s songs into the microphone and half of the village youth has arrived to really let loose. Honestly, I could throw myself right into the fray and sing along. The mood seems to be at its peak and everyone’s going crazy.
A little later an announcer enters the stage and announces the next artist. Of course, we don’t understand anything except the name of the singer, who is now shouted by the announcer and the audience in choir. Mi-des, Mi-des, it booms from all sides and some teenage girls scream so wildly that I soon believe it can only be minutes before the first one faints.
Meanwhile, the security forces have also mixed into the action to take mobile phone videos. By the way, they are all equipped with long wooden truncheons, not very trustworthy. Fortunately, Mides seems to be much more interesting than beating people with a stick, so we seem to be lucky again!
We leave Mides to the teenagers and take a closer look at the carousels. The first thing that strikes me is the old Viking swing, which must have been at least from before the war. Below the paint peels off and the whole thing is driven by huge diesel generators, which spread a noise and a stench as if you were standing in the middle of a German motorway at rush hour. I wonder how they do the brakes here. Are there any at all or do they just rock until it stops on its own at some point? And if there are any, I am pretty sure that every german TÜV inspector would have a heart attack when he sees them.
Other carousels are in no way inferior to the Viking swing. For children there are colorfully painted cars and horses on a rotating device. The difference to the European version is, however, that the things turn so fast that actually every child should be sick within minutes.
So before a gush of children’s vomit falls in front of my feet, we turn to other sights. By the way, the absolute highlight is the Ferris wheel, because this is by no means such a boring, slowly spinning thing as at home. When the fairground master really turns up, the wheel reaches a speed of at least 50 km/h and the small gondolas are standing almost horizontally in the sky. The ride is accompanied by a lot of screaming of the guests, which I can fully understand.
Because the small gondolas alone are enough to drive the fear sweat out of the safety-conscious European’s forehead. They are small metal cages with a very large hatch that cannot be closed either. And you won’t find a kind of safety bar here either. I’d really like to know how many times someone has been thrown out of the gondola at full speed. In my opinion, there must be at least one accident a day!
I am also particularly amused that in between the power goes out again and again and the entire festival area lies in the dark. Fortunately, the Ferris wheel from hell is powered by diesel, so the ride can go on. Perhaps not the worst thing that can happen to the occupants, because then you won’t see the huge unsecured access hatch anymore.
After we have admired everything appropriately, we make our way back towards Lakeside, that’s how the area around Lake Fewa is called. Here the numerous New Year’s Eve celebrations are in full swing and even the whole street was closed so that the many people have enough space. The fact that there is a closed road in Asia for pedestrians to walk on has not yet come to my attention either! I am thrilled! The streets are full to the brim and every restaurant probably makes its complete annual turnover in just one day. All Nepali are dressed up and you can see the youth even in hot pants and short skirts. Shortly before midnight an announcer is standing on the street counting down and at 12 there are actually 3 rockets of dubious origin. I’ll tell myself they’re TÜV approved. Happy 2075!
Continue: Anapurna Base Camp