CH : 21 Travelling to Nepal

21 Travelling to Nepal

6 February 1974, Nepal Tribhuvan International Airport.

As Henry already decided to recruit a group of orphans, of course, he would choose the best. If you want to talk about which are the strongest ethnicities, my answer would be Gurkha. What is Gurkha?

The term Gurkha refers specifically to inhabitants of the mountainous Gorkha region, an independent kingdom until the unification of Nepal in 1768. They serve Nepal's own national army, and Gurkhas have formed part of the British Army since 1815 when they were recruited to help suppress uprisings in India. Around 3,600 Gurkha men serve in the British Army Brigade of Gurkhas now.

They are physically the best of the best. The 200-300 men who join the Brigade of Gurkhas every year from a pool of more than 20,000 applicants are the products of a gruelling recruitment process.

Their fighting abilities are without a doubt the best, especially when it comes to close combat. They use a distinctive curved knife named Kukhri. There is a saying that if one Gurkha man is armed with a Kukhri facing 10 ordinary armed men in close combat, the Gurkha man would win.

This makes Gurkha people favoured by many mercenaries, army, and security companies. The living condition of Gurkha is very harsh as they live in a cold region of mountainous terrain. This makes many Gurkha live in poverty. So many Gurkha decided to serve in various mercenaries, armies, and security organizations.

Henry came to Nepal to recruit these orphan Gurkhas. Henry came alone as he wanted to personally pick his own bodyguards. If nothing goes wrong, the orphans he recruites here will be protecting him and his family safety in the future. Henry believes in his own choice as he has faced many people in his both past lives as Osborn or Adam.

Especially Norman as Osborn had faced some of the greatest heroes and biggest villain of the marvel world.

As this was Henry's first visit to Nepal, he found himself completely disoriented, akin to a headless fly, wandering aimlessly for two straight hours. Despite his limited grasp of the Nepali language, he had managed to learn a few basic words before arriving. Finally, a kind airport staff member noticed Henry's predicament and offered assistance in English.

"Sir, do you need some help?" the airport staff asked.

"Yes, could you arrange for a guide? I'd like to explore the country. I've heard Nepal is incredibly beautiful, so I decided to vacation here. It seems that English is not widely spoken," Henry admitted, feeling a bit embarrassed by his situation.

"Please wait here, sir. I'll find someone to assist you," the airport staff assured before hurrying off.

Henry settled into the waiting room, surveying his surroundings. Ten minutes later, a burly young man approached him.

"Excuse me, sir, would you be interested in hiring a guide? For just $10, I can accompany you for the entire day and show you around," the burly man offered, his English slightly broken.

When Henry heard that, he thought this may be the guide that airport staff looked for so he accepted the offer. Then Henry took his luggage and told the burly man to go to a decent hotel as he wanted to take a nice shower and put his luggage. 5 minutes later, the airport staff earlier came to the waiting room with a man. But when he looked and saw there's no sign of that western man, he looked around in confusion.

The burly man and Henry came to the only 4-star hotel in whole Katmandhu. Nepal in 1974 is very backward, even the capital of it, Kathmandu looked like some countryside in the United States. $1 can be exchanged for 1000 NPR and the cost of avarge second class family daily living in Kathmandu is only $3. So one could imagine how backward it was.

Henry then told the burly man to wait as he wanted to take dinner after showering. Of course, the burly man raises no objection as Henry already paid $10 for his guide. $10 can feed his family for 3 days, so of course, he did not want to displease Henry.

After 1 hour of showering and rest, Henry then set out with the burly man to a nearby restaurant. Henry wanted to taste Nepali Cuisine, so he ordered the burly man to take him to the best Nepali restaurant.

Henry then eats delicious Nepali Cuisine like Momos, Gundruk, Bara and many more. When he was eating, Henry offered the burly man to eat with him. Even though the burly man was embarrassed, he still accepted Henry's offer as he was truly hungry and forgot to eat breakfast today.

While eating, Henry chatted with the burly man and found out this burly man is named Sajit. Henry then told about his purpose to come here to see where the Gurkha live. Sajit then told Henry that the Gurkha live in the deep mountainous Himalayan. Sajit says he himself is a Gurkha, but long ago left the tribe as he wanted to experience the outside world.

Even though Sajit has long left the tribe, he still remembers where the Gurkha tribe lives. Henry, of course, ecstatic about this discovery as he did not expect the random guide would be a Gurkha. This would make things much easier as with a Gurkha as a guide, the recruitment would be easier.

Henry and Sajit chatted for 2 hours about various things about Gurkha. Henry then found Gurkha quite offensive to the outsiders if they approached the tribe's living space. Henry feels quite fortunate about this as he did not yet went to the Gurkhas. Now with Sajit as a guide, everything would be easier.

Henry and Sajit decided to go to the Gurkha region 2 days later as Sajit must say goodbye to his family as the journey would take at least a week for a round-trip. The Gurkha region is deep in the Himalayan area, so to reach there, they must take a carriages drawn by donkeys.