The final leg of my journey has brought me to the city of Surkhet. Surkhet is a district (the size of a large county which functions more like a state) in the south west of the country. Not terribly close to the majesty of the great Himalayan mountains.
A picture of our small team and a translator at the terminal in Kathmandu airport just before boarding our plane.
Surkhet is a part of the newly formed Karnali Province, (new as in 2015 new) and it is one of its ten districts. lt is located about 600 kilometers west of the national capital Kathmandu and can be accessed by plane in a little over an hour or if by car, eight to ten hours... yeah.
Birendranagar is the district headquarters of Surkhet it is also the capital of Karnali Province and is the city in which I will be staying for four days. Believe it or not about 99% of this district is considered either tropical or subtropical. Not quite what I normally picture when I picture Nepal.
One of my first sights after leaving the airport
Actually this part of Nepal has more in common with the are of India I traveled to some years ago than any of the picture of Nepal most of us usually see. This province is the least densely populated province in Nepal. (Think of the difference between eastern Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts.)
I am struck by how remote this place feels. It seems like I am so far away from anything familiar and anything I have experienced. At times it feels like I am in a random spot that was cut out of a jungle - it is not the Nepal I was expecting, perhaps it will be the Nepal I need to see or perhaps it is the Nepal that needed to see me.
Talk about culture shock! One needs to gather themselves very quickly and get on with it in a situation like this!
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