So the plane ticket is booked, I’ve got a tick list of rivers and a Nepal Lonely Planet Guide. I’m really excited to be going back to Nepal, its been way tooooooo long, 10 years too long in fact. 2 weeks kayaking, depart 1st Aprilm fly back 16th April. Currently the tick list includes Kali Gandaki, Marshyangdi, Madi Khola, Modi Khola, Belephi Khola and Bhote Khosi
I’m not sure whether I can get across just how excited I am about this. The 2 post monsoon seasons I did safety kayaking there in 1999 and 2000 left a huge impression on me, both where truly life changing experiences. God help anyone who knows me over the next month as I’m very likely to be a complete Nepal bore. I can feel it happening.
But for now I want some help from folks. I need some recommendations on some new music for the trip. Now its not just as easy as just listing some tracks or an album, recommendations have to fit into categories as listed below. First I explain the background to this and then the catagories.
In 2000, while in Kathmandu I brought a mini disc player and I thought it was great. Recordable, digital quality and compact (by the current standards), what a great bit of kit. I needed some music to go on it though. I decided I could justify 5 albums on cost and space grounds. The pirate CD shop in Thamel would burn the CD’s to minidisk for me at no extra cost. But what to buy with so much to choose from. To narrow things down I came up with the following catagories listed below and chose albums to go with them.
1. For on the buses – Bob Marley- Legend. Kayaking in Nepal involves a lot of time travelling on buses and Bob Marley was the perfect soundtrack for the chilled out vibe inside a rafting bus.
2. For on the roof of the buses – Jimi Hendrix- The Ultimate Experience. Travelling on top of a rafting bus through Nepal still is up there as the coolest experience on the planet and Hendrix defines cool. Listening to this with sitting in the wind, watching landscapes and people pass by was unbelievable and will NEVER leave my memory.
3. For chilling out of an evening – Morcheeba- The Big Calm. I really don’t know why I brought this album then, I guess I just got really lucky. I remember evening spent at Borderlands listening to this album. Candle light, tired body from the days paddling and great company having just shared the Bhote Kosi experience with this album playing was just perfect.
4. For the sound track to the video – The Offspring – Smash. I felt like I was living in a surf video during these trips and The Offspring always provide the full on sound track to that.
5. The band that I should have at least one album of – U2 – ?. At the time I didn’t own a U2 album and I figured I should. The band have produced some fantastic classic tracks (Beautiful Day and Vertigo are my favorites) but to be honest I’m not a huge fan.
4 of the 5 albums are still hugely important to me in the way that those albums are that seem to define a moment and provide punctuation in ones life
So those are the catagories:
1. For on the buses
2. For on the roof of the buses
3. For chilling out of an evening
4. For the sound track to the video
5. The band that I should have at least one album of
Unfortunately my minidisc collection was stolen from the camper van. I still have the player somewhere but its long been replaced by a series of mp3 players which are changing the way I listen to music. I still like to listen to an album as the artists recorded them but I do find myself listening to playlists more and more too.
So please help me out find some new music and add a new sound track to this Nepal trip using the comment box below or on facebook where I’m about to post the link to this blog entry.
Dhanybhad (thank you in Nepalese according to this)
Ian
Ian Ganderton 