Hi there,
It's going to have to be quite a quick and sloppy blog I'm afraid to say. We leave to Hong Kong in a couple of hours and I still have to enjoy my last bowl of egg thupka and momo's before we depart.
Nepal has been fantastic and my favourite country so far, I loved Pokhara which is West Nepal set beside a huge lake with beautiful mountain views and it has a certain tranquility about it especially when it's out of season!. I learnt to ride a bike in Pokhara... finally at the age of 23 and I impressed myself...although I fear I'm still shaking 6 days later!
Daniel and I are currently sat in the Kathmandu Guest House using their computers as they're the fastest and cheapest we've found in Thamel (it still takes an hour to upload 15 photo's). We fly to Hong Kong this afternoon but have a long wait at Delhi airport before we get our connecting flight. I'm intrigued to see what Hong Kong has install for us, the only thing I do know is that in the 5 days we stay there we'll probably spend more than we did the whole time we were in Nepal! So it's just a quick one to let you know that we're all well and enjoying our fantastic adventure!
x
Sunday 18 July 2010
Sunday 11 July 2010
Tamang Village Trek - Nepal
Day 1:
It was an early start of 6:30am, the butterflies were already doing somersaults in my stomach in anticipation of the trek. Binay met us at Siesta Guest House and we started our journey to the bus station. We walked through Thamel and the quiet streets that are usually manic any later in the day. After 15 minutes or so we came to the disorganised chaos that is a bus station. Transport of all shapes and sizes crammed in wherever possible and the intoxicating fumes of the old chundering engines made you feel dizzy! I'm so glad that Binay was leading the way as there was no way of knowing what bus to catch and it seemed that everyone just wanted to pull you onto their bus for the extra money...even when they were going in the opposite direction. We climbed aboard and found ourselves a seat, we were safe at last. The first bus was no way near as bad as I expected it to be and we stayed seated for an hour and a half before reaching Banapour where we we due to change after a small break at a cafe some samosas and milk coffee.
We shortly boarded the next bus that had a huge queue and I can only presume Binay must of tipped the bus driver a bit extra to reserve our seats, even then an older man headbutted Ellie out the way to get on the bus first... Don't worry it wasn't hard but a bit of a surprise never the less! We finally sat down and started to relax when even more people started to pile on, I thought the bus was full already as all the seats were already packed with adults and children sat on knees, the isle had people standing and even the roof had people on it but apparently that's no way near maximum capacity in Nepal as what seemed like a full class of school girls boarded, 10 large bags of rice piled up at the front of the bus, 3 huge baskets of tomatoes and even more people that clung to the side of the bus, including an elderly women in a sari who joined the rest of the people on the roof! Ellie and I had a quick estimate and bet on over 200 people! Impressive. Our porters then joined the bus with all our camping equipment and food! Just when you think it couldn't get any more packed!!!
We finally arrived at a town near Dulikhel in the Central Valley of Nepal east of Kathmandu, the weather was a sweltering 36 degrees and we were sat in what I can only describe as a shaded bus stop until the porters and cook were ready to sit us down to dinner, this is when the staring from the locals began, they were all very intrigued with us. We sat down to lunch in a stable type room on a plastic sheet in the corner out of the sun. Our guests for dinner included a lazy dog, a hen with 6 little chicks and a drunken man who wanted some tea. It was a very strange experience. After we joined the rest of our team, a group of 10 that were there just to look after us. Binay was our main guide and a very good friend, Raju - the secondry guide and a wonderful dancer, Basanta - Fantastic Chef and very charasmatic, Yoube Raj - Boisterous 15 year old commie chef, Bhim - Smiling kitchen helper and porter, Ramesh - Head Sherpa and excellent drum player, Ram & Laxhu Man - Happy twins and very hard workers and the last two were the youngest they couldn't be much older than 12 Ngama & Amrit who were also Porters. We were a bit gobsmacked that we had 10 helpers to just 4 people but on seeing all the equipment we needed we all understood why!
We had our first 3 hour walk with Binay and Raju along the rice fields, the weather was very warm even at 4pm and balancing on little mud walls in between paddy fields was a challenge to say the least. We walked for what seemed like miles until we came upon a very stoned holy man sat outside a Hindu Temple he was called Baba which means father in Nepali. We walked along a river and enjoyed the last part of the sun before heading part way up the mountain where the team had set up camp. It was a hard first day walk but nothing compared to what was to come, at dinner we sat on the mountain watching the clear stars and fighting off rather large flying bugs while we ate a home cooked pizza and enjoyed banana fritters for dessert. Our first nights sleep was horrendous filled with strange callings of the jungle, a hard ground and waking up half way down the tent due to the slant we had pitched on.
Day 2:
No rest for the wicked with a sharp wake up call at 6:30am after a sleepless night. A warm bowl of water was brought to our tents, this would be the only form of a wash for the next 4 days, good thing I showered just before we left! We sat down to breakfast at 7am and enjoyed some apple pancakes with honey and hot black tea. The local children had obviously heard us camping and had come to stare from a distance, this was something we very quickly got use to. This day was the hardest day by far as we had to scale the steepest part of the mountain. We set out at 7:30am in the extreme heat my face soon turned an interesting scarlet colour and many breaks had to be had accompanied by large gulps of water. Part way up we stopped at a locals house which literally consisted of one room, a bed, a table and a side table and we all sat down and tried the local drink "Chang". Chang is made from fermented flour and local plants and is very slightly alcoholic, it taste very sour and personally isn't my drink of choice but Daniel managed to guzzle down a whole bowl of the stuff! We carried on until we couldn't go any longer and took a lunch break at about 12.30pm.
We carried on up hill shortly after through jungle, corn fields and rice fields and an almost vertical angle. We climbed across small ledges with sheer drops by them but kept close to each other and took little breaks to take breathtaking pictures at every opportunity. After a very emotional and agonising 10 hours throughout the day we came to our camp for the night on top of the first part of the mountain top. It was really strange as you could look down at different mountain ranges either side of the mountain that we were already on top of and also easily see the walk that was in due course for the following day. The little village where we were had a small pond full of frogs and at night time the frogs covered the grass that we had camped on, one even jumped at Chris and Ellie's tent...."Well that wasn't there last night".... A better night sleep was to be had but unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well.
Day 3:
I woke up dazed and confused feeling awfully sick, as soon as I opened my tent I had 10 kids stood staring at me to watch my next move. The next move was grabbing the wash bowl quickly emptying it and throwing up a fair few times....I wasn't good this was followed by visits back and forward to the toilet tent much to my embarrassment and I very quickly became dehydrated and unable to stomach water. Everyone thought I must have got sun stroke the day before but I really can't remember much about the first part of the day apart from feeling extremely weak and really having to concentrate to put one foot in front of the other. Lucky for me it was an easy day of what was suppose to be a 2 hour walk.... this very quickly turned into 5 hours! Along the way Binay paid a medicine man to do a healing ritual on me, different but worth a chance. The old gentleman took a home made incense stick stuffed with herbs and spices, grains of rice in his right hand and a strange clay type soil in which whilst preforming a repetitive chant slowly poured it over me. Well a few hours later I was feeling much better although I think more than likely it was due to the Imodium and copious amounts of water that was more likely to be my healing medicine....who knows!
We set up camp this time in a small schools playground, which we were now wrapped in the white clouds that hovered near the summit. We sat in the schools classrooms to get out of the rain. The class room was nothing more than mud walls and an earthy floor and a couple of pictures pinned on the ceiling. We sat down to eat that night and Daniel ate an impressive 11 large momo's as well as dessert. The temperature being much cooler I finally got a decent nights sleep as well as the well needed rest.
Day 4:
Friday was my favourite day, I woke up refreshed from a good nights sleep and feeling back to my normal energetic self. We did the usual morning routine of wash, breakfast and then set out on our way. I wondered why this time Binay and Bisanta were carrying long wooden sticks with something in material in the end tied with rope. When I asked Binay what it was he simply said "It's the medicine stick"... "Medicine stick? For what?" I asked, and then there it was the word I could only describe as the worst possible word I could imagine to come out of his mouth...."Leeches" he said it so innocently...yeah just bloody leeches...blood sucking slugs! GREAT!
The rain began to pour down which brought the leeches out in force, I had by this point covered every inch of my clothes and exposed legs in deet and salt in hope to fend of the disgusting creatures. When we finally summitted I totally forgot about the leeches and we all sang and danced on top of the mountain, we were all so proud of ourselves and all we had to do was go down from there. We quickly headed off and carried on through the narrow pathways of the jungle where leeches stretched off every leaf in hope to catch a ride and a free meal, luckily Binay was never far behind with the medicine stick! We arrived at the cheese factory and sat down to eat, I saw the hugest worm of my life (3ft long or so) and thought to myself what mum would do if she saw it!!! After lunch we quickly moved on and I was glad to know that the rain had stopped and we were out of the leech territory, we had also acquired a couple of very loyal dogs that walked us to the next stop, Binay's Village!
On arrival at Binay's village two little boys crabbed Chris' hands and lead the way to Binay's home it was really sweet. Everyone was so lovely and welcoming and we sat down and shared what little words we could put together and Binay kindly translated the rest. Dinner was fantastic with some authentic Dal Baht and a massive cake for dessert which Bisanta our chef had baked especially to give us a goodbye send off! We spent the rest of the night singing and dancing before going to bed in a real house!
Day 5:
The trip down the rest of the mountain was tough, we all were covered in blisters and poor Chris barely had any shoes left as they had been shredded on the descent! We were totally miserable and ready for a cold shower by the time we hit the bottom, every part of our bodies ached and worst of all the lads and the porters hadn't even broken a sweat!! The bumpy car journey back went reasonably quickly and we were glad the we didn't have to injure another 5 hour bus ride! The shower I had when I got home lasted 1 hour and I am still aching total and no doubt will be again tomorrow! All in all a fantastic experience that I could never capture fully in a blog!
It was an early start of 6:30am, the butterflies were already doing somersaults in my stomach in anticipation of the trek. Binay met us at Siesta Guest House and we started our journey to the bus station. We walked through Thamel and the quiet streets that are usually manic any later in the day. After 15 minutes or so we came to the disorganised chaos that is a bus station. Transport of all shapes and sizes crammed in wherever possible and the intoxicating fumes of the old chundering engines made you feel dizzy! I'm so glad that Binay was leading the way as there was no way of knowing what bus to catch and it seemed that everyone just wanted to pull you onto their bus for the extra money...even when they were going in the opposite direction. We climbed aboard and found ourselves a seat, we were safe at last. The first bus was no way near as bad as I expected it to be and we stayed seated for an hour and a half before reaching Banapour where we we due to change after a small break at a cafe some samosas and milk coffee.
We shortly boarded the next bus that had a huge queue and I can only presume Binay must of tipped the bus driver a bit extra to reserve our seats, even then an older man headbutted Ellie out the way to get on the bus first... Don't worry it wasn't hard but a bit of a surprise never the less! We finally sat down and started to relax when even more people started to pile on, I thought the bus was full already as all the seats were already packed with adults and children sat on knees, the isle had people standing and even the roof had people on it but apparently that's no way near maximum capacity in Nepal as what seemed like a full class of school girls boarded, 10 large bags of rice piled up at the front of the bus, 3 huge baskets of tomatoes and even more people that clung to the side of the bus, including an elderly women in a sari who joined the rest of the people on the roof! Ellie and I had a quick estimate and bet on over 200 people! Impressive. Our porters then joined the bus with all our camping equipment and food! Just when you think it couldn't get any more packed!!!
We finally arrived at a town near Dulikhel in the Central Valley of Nepal east of Kathmandu, the weather was a sweltering 36 degrees and we were sat in what I can only describe as a shaded bus stop until the porters and cook were ready to sit us down to dinner, this is when the staring from the locals began, they were all very intrigued with us. We sat down to lunch in a stable type room on a plastic sheet in the corner out of the sun. Our guests for dinner included a lazy dog, a hen with 6 little chicks and a drunken man who wanted some tea. It was a very strange experience. After we joined the rest of our team, a group of 10 that were there just to look after us. Binay was our main guide and a very good friend, Raju - the secondry guide and a wonderful dancer, Basanta - Fantastic Chef and very charasmatic, Yoube Raj - Boisterous 15 year old commie chef, Bhim - Smiling kitchen helper and porter, Ramesh - Head Sherpa and excellent drum player, Ram & Laxhu Man - Happy twins and very hard workers and the last two were the youngest they couldn't be much older than 12 Ngama & Amrit who were also Porters. We were a bit gobsmacked that we had 10 helpers to just 4 people but on seeing all the equipment we needed we all understood why!
We had our first 3 hour walk with Binay and Raju along the rice fields, the weather was very warm even at 4pm and balancing on little mud walls in between paddy fields was a challenge to say the least. We walked for what seemed like miles until we came upon a very stoned holy man sat outside a Hindu Temple he was called Baba which means father in Nepali. We walked along a river and enjoyed the last part of the sun before heading part way up the mountain where the team had set up camp. It was a hard first day walk but nothing compared to what was to come, at dinner we sat on the mountain watching the clear stars and fighting off rather large flying bugs while we ate a home cooked pizza and enjoyed banana fritters for dessert. Our first nights sleep was horrendous filled with strange callings of the jungle, a hard ground and waking up half way down the tent due to the slant we had pitched on.
Day 2:
No rest for the wicked with a sharp wake up call at 6:30am after a sleepless night. A warm bowl of water was brought to our tents, this would be the only form of a wash for the next 4 days, good thing I showered just before we left! We sat down to breakfast at 7am and enjoyed some apple pancakes with honey and hot black tea. The local children had obviously heard us camping and had come to stare from a distance, this was something we very quickly got use to. This day was the hardest day by far as we had to scale the steepest part of the mountain. We set out at 7:30am in the extreme heat my face soon turned an interesting scarlet colour and many breaks had to be had accompanied by large gulps of water. Part way up we stopped at a locals house which literally consisted of one room, a bed, a table and a side table and we all sat down and tried the local drink "Chang". Chang is made from fermented flour and local plants and is very slightly alcoholic, it taste very sour and personally isn't my drink of choice but Daniel managed to guzzle down a whole bowl of the stuff! We carried on until we couldn't go any longer and took a lunch break at about 12.30pm.
We carried on up hill shortly after through jungle, corn fields and rice fields and an almost vertical angle. We climbed across small ledges with sheer drops by them but kept close to each other and took little breaks to take breathtaking pictures at every opportunity. After a very emotional and agonising 10 hours throughout the day we came to our camp for the night on top of the first part of the mountain top. It was really strange as you could look down at different mountain ranges either side of the mountain that we were already on top of and also easily see the walk that was in due course for the following day. The little village where we were had a small pond full of frogs and at night time the frogs covered the grass that we had camped on, one even jumped at Chris and Ellie's tent...."Well that wasn't there last night".... A better night sleep was to be had but unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well.
Day 3:
I woke up dazed and confused feeling awfully sick, as soon as I opened my tent I had 10 kids stood staring at me to watch my next move. The next move was grabbing the wash bowl quickly emptying it and throwing up a fair few times....I wasn't good this was followed by visits back and forward to the toilet tent much to my embarrassment and I very quickly became dehydrated and unable to stomach water. Everyone thought I must have got sun stroke the day before but I really can't remember much about the first part of the day apart from feeling extremely weak and really having to concentrate to put one foot in front of the other. Lucky for me it was an easy day of what was suppose to be a 2 hour walk.... this very quickly turned into 5 hours! Along the way Binay paid a medicine man to do a healing ritual on me, different but worth a chance. The old gentleman took a home made incense stick stuffed with herbs and spices, grains of rice in his right hand and a strange clay type soil in which whilst preforming a repetitive chant slowly poured it over me. Well a few hours later I was feeling much better although I think more than likely it was due to the Imodium and copious amounts of water that was more likely to be my healing medicine....who knows!
We set up camp this time in a small schools playground, which we were now wrapped in the white clouds that hovered near the summit. We sat in the schools classrooms to get out of the rain. The class room was nothing more than mud walls and an earthy floor and a couple of pictures pinned on the ceiling. We sat down to eat that night and Daniel ate an impressive 11 large momo's as well as dessert. The temperature being much cooler I finally got a decent nights sleep as well as the well needed rest.
Day 4:
Friday was my favourite day, I woke up refreshed from a good nights sleep and feeling back to my normal energetic self. We did the usual morning routine of wash, breakfast and then set out on our way. I wondered why this time Binay and Bisanta were carrying long wooden sticks with something in material in the end tied with rope. When I asked Binay what it was he simply said "It's the medicine stick"... "Medicine stick? For what?" I asked, and then there it was the word I could only describe as the worst possible word I could imagine to come out of his mouth...."Leeches" he said it so innocently...yeah just bloody leeches...blood sucking slugs! GREAT!
The rain began to pour down which brought the leeches out in force, I had by this point covered every inch of my clothes and exposed legs in deet and salt in hope to fend of the disgusting creatures. When we finally summitted I totally forgot about the leeches and we all sang and danced on top of the mountain, we were all so proud of ourselves and all we had to do was go down from there. We quickly headed off and carried on through the narrow pathways of the jungle where leeches stretched off every leaf in hope to catch a ride and a free meal, luckily Binay was never far behind with the medicine stick! We arrived at the cheese factory and sat down to eat, I saw the hugest worm of my life (3ft long or so) and thought to myself what mum would do if she saw it!!! After lunch we quickly moved on and I was glad to know that the rain had stopped and we were out of the leech territory, we had also acquired a couple of very loyal dogs that walked us to the next stop, Binay's Village!
On arrival at Binay's village two little boys crabbed Chris' hands and lead the way to Binay's home it was really sweet. Everyone was so lovely and welcoming and we sat down and shared what little words we could put together and Binay kindly translated the rest. Dinner was fantastic with some authentic Dal Baht and a massive cake for dessert which Bisanta our chef had baked especially to give us a goodbye send off! We spent the rest of the night singing and dancing before going to bed in a real house!
Day 5:
The trip down the rest of the mountain was tough, we all were covered in blisters and poor Chris barely had any shoes left as they had been shredded on the descent! We were totally miserable and ready for a cold shower by the time we hit the bottom, every part of our bodies ached and worst of all the lads and the porters hadn't even broken a sweat!! The bumpy car journey back went reasonably quickly and we were glad the we didn't have to injure another 5 hour bus ride! The shower I had when I got home lasted 1 hour and I am still aching total and no doubt will be again tomorrow! All in all a fantastic experience that I could never capture fully in a blog!
Sunday 4 July 2010
Patan Dubar Square - Nepal
Hello! I am doing quite well with all these updates, one of the advantages with the pictures taking so long to upload is that I have time to kill in-between! Yesterday we went to Patan Dubar Square which is just on the outskirts of Kathmandu and was highly recommended by the lonely planet. An early start of 8am for the coffee run before being picked up by our driver which is costing us a mere 2.00GBP a day each! He has this very sporty looking black car which seems extremely out of place in the dusty city of Kathmandu, arriving with his music blaring through the speakers, music such as Akon and Jamie Bieber...not exactly to out taste but hilarious never the less! A super nice guy as well, with little English but good interpretation!
We arrived in Patan with the sun beating down on us...not quite the monsoon season I was expecting after India. Patans Dubar Square is beautiful but very similar to all the other Dubar Squares with exception of it's incredible museum, a converted temple. We spent a few hours wandering round chatting and getting hassled by touts before jumping back into the then boiling hot black sports car to travel back to our guesthouse.
We spent the rest of the afternoon lazily soaking in the sun and enjoying browsing the shops before going out for a lovely dinner at the Yak (I hear it's Gary's favourite). Daniel also tried a traditional Nepali dish called Tungba, it's made of Millet and is brought to you in a huge wooden jug where you then have to pour boiling hot water over it and wait 2 minutes then repeat once empty...I personally thought it smelt and tasted a bit weird but the lads seemed to enjoy it!
Today we are preparing for the trek, packing, organising etc. Also I want to say a HUGE Happy Birthday to my wonderful friend LUKE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAL...sorry I couldn't get on line to say it yesterday!!
Goodbye for now....
We arrived in Patan with the sun beating down on us...not quite the monsoon season I was expecting after India. Patans Dubar Square is beautiful but very similar to all the other Dubar Squares with exception of it's incredible museum, a converted temple. We spent a few hours wandering round chatting and getting hassled by touts before jumping back into the then boiling hot black sports car to travel back to our guesthouse.
We spent the rest of the afternoon lazily soaking in the sun and enjoying browsing the shops before going out for a lovely dinner at the Yak (I hear it's Gary's favourite). Daniel also tried a traditional Nepali dish called Tungba, it's made of Millet and is brought to you in a huge wooden jug where you then have to pour boiling hot water over it and wait 2 minutes then repeat once empty...I personally thought it smelt and tasted a bit weird but the lads seemed to enjoy it!
Today we are preparing for the trek, packing, organising etc. Also I want to say a HUGE Happy Birthday to my wonderful friend LUKE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAL...sorry I couldn't get on line to say it yesterday!!
Goodbye for now....
Saturday 3 July 2010
Slow Internet!
The Internet here in Nepal is sooo slow! It's driving me completely insane! So anyway I thought I would have a quick rant on my blog about it...the pictures might take us several days to get anything near the amount we have taken and each day we are taking more. Please don't think it's my laziness.
Meeting Ellie and Chris at the airport and seeing their faces made my day on Wednesday! They were totally shocked! As a wise man said "it was executed with perfection". We are staying in the Siesta Guesthouse in Thamel, I love it, we are treated as family and everyone is so friendly here. Already I know I will be visiting Nepal again!
We have done the usual site seeing around Thamel and Kathmandu, the temples here are beautiful. The people are beautiful and the place....other than a bit polluted is beautiful.
On Tuesday we set out on a 5 day trek around the Kathmandu Valley where we visit local schools and local people, on the 2nd day we embark on a hardcore hike up a large hill and camp in the jungle in tents with Binay, cooks, Sherpa's and guide. I can't wait!
So far I have uploaded 15 photo's in 40 minutes! Just another 300 to go then :)
Nepal is more expensive than expected but that has been the same with everywhere and I can honestly say it has been 100% worth it's money!
Anyway I'm going to get back to the uploaded in the hope that only having one page loaded at a time may shorten the upload time...
x x
Meeting Ellie and Chris at the airport and seeing their faces made my day on Wednesday! They were totally shocked! As a wise man said "it was executed with perfection". We are staying in the Siesta Guesthouse in Thamel, I love it, we are treated as family and everyone is so friendly here. Already I know I will be visiting Nepal again!
We have done the usual site seeing around Thamel and Kathmandu, the temples here are beautiful. The people are beautiful and the place....other than a bit polluted is beautiful.
On Tuesday we set out on a 5 day trek around the Kathmandu Valley where we visit local schools and local people, on the 2nd day we embark on a hardcore hike up a large hill and camp in the jungle in tents with Binay, cooks, Sherpa's and guide. I can't wait!
So far I have uploaded 15 photo's in 40 minutes! Just another 300 to go then :)
Nepal is more expensive than expected but that has been the same with everywhere and I can honestly say it has been 100% worth it's money!
Anyway I'm going to get back to the uploaded in the hope that only having one page loaded at a time may shorten the upload time...
x x
Thursday 1 July 2010
Leaving India and Onto Nepal...
First of all I will say this is probably the fastest blog I will ever write so please excuse the terrible grammar, ill spelled words and so on! We left Goa last week to climb on board a 26hour train to Delhi! It was much better than I had imagined it would be and the time passed quickly between reading books, playing cards and general chit chat. Although typical India the meant to be 26 hour train very quickly turned into the 30 hour train and so we sadly had to wave goodbye to our hopes of seeing the Taj Mahal that afternoon! We were obviously disappointed but we were relieved to know we didn't have to cram too much in before our flight from Delhi.
When we arrived at Delhi train station the usual hustle and bustle was to be expected. A race to get off the train that I never quite can understand, the intense heat from outside blasted us as if we stuck our heads in a rather large oven. The rickshaw wallahs who pulled at our sleeves and the children making gestures with their hands to their mouths, money for food! After pushing our way through we managed to queue up for the pre-paid rickshaw service to take us to Pahar Ganj, a district within Delhi where all the backpackers go. We arrived unharmed and in one piece after a very bumpy ride and some rather impressive maneuvering on our drivers behalf! Our room was standard, overpriced and damp...the usual then.
Our flight left the next morning from Delhi's International Airport and left without a hitch a few hours later! Delhi airport was nice and clean, Daniel and I sat read our books, wrote in our diaries and sipped some coffee. A 2 hour wait is nothing after a 30 hour train!!!
On arrival at Kathmandu dusty and slightly rundown airport, Binay was waiting for us with arms open wide and quickly took us to a car that his friend had picked us up in! Free of course which makes a change to the usual welcome at train stations and airports! They took us straight to Thamel. Thamel is made up of small roads lined with stores selling Thangka, Buddha statues, paintings, Tibetan hats and the other tourist memorabilia. This little part of Kathmandu has everything and restaurants line most corners along with bars and hangouts! I have to say I love it! We have seen loads already thnanks to Binay.
Binay is a good friend from Nepal and he has been fantastic, it really does help when there's someone to point you in the right direction. There was no messing about and we got straight to investigating the local area within the first couple of hours. The first few nights we stayed at The Kathmandu Guesthouse, very famous hotel in Nepal and one of the first Guesthouses ever built, it has seen everything from backpacker status to the rich and famous such as The Beatles, it hosts a range of rooms from anything from $2 a night to $160 a night. Daniel and I went for the $12 but only because the cheapest were taken!!!
Anyway there is so much more to tell and so much we have done but for now I am running out of Internet time and have to say Goodbye!
Speak soon!
When we arrived at Delhi train station the usual hustle and bustle was to be expected. A race to get off the train that I never quite can understand, the intense heat from outside blasted us as if we stuck our heads in a rather large oven. The rickshaw wallahs who pulled at our sleeves and the children making gestures with their hands to their mouths, money for food! After pushing our way through we managed to queue up for the pre-paid rickshaw service to take us to Pahar Ganj, a district within Delhi where all the backpackers go. We arrived unharmed and in one piece after a very bumpy ride and some rather impressive maneuvering on our drivers behalf! Our room was standard, overpriced and damp...the usual then.
Our flight left the next morning from Delhi's International Airport and left without a hitch a few hours later! Delhi airport was nice and clean, Daniel and I sat read our books, wrote in our diaries and sipped some coffee. A 2 hour wait is nothing after a 30 hour train!!!
On arrival at Kathmandu dusty and slightly rundown airport, Binay was waiting for us with arms open wide and quickly took us to a car that his friend had picked us up in! Free of course which makes a change to the usual welcome at train stations and airports! They took us straight to Thamel. Thamel is made up of small roads lined with stores selling Thangka, Buddha statues, paintings, Tibetan hats and the other tourist memorabilia. This little part of Kathmandu has everything and restaurants line most corners along with bars and hangouts! I have to say I love it! We have seen loads already thnanks to Binay.
Binay is a good friend from Nepal and he has been fantastic, it really does help when there's someone to point you in the right direction. There was no messing about and we got straight to investigating the local area within the first couple of hours. The first few nights we stayed at The Kathmandu Guesthouse, very famous hotel in Nepal and one of the first Guesthouses ever built, it has seen everything from backpacker status to the rich and famous such as The Beatles, it hosts a range of rooms from anything from $2 a night to $160 a night. Daniel and I went for the $12 but only because the cheapest were taken!!!
Anyway there is so much more to tell and so much we have done but for now I am running out of Internet time and have to say Goodbye!
Speak soon!
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