Advertisement
Finally we were on our way to Nepal for this is what I was looking forward to. We both got sick of something we ate in Delhi (which was not that surprising after I saw the kitchen) but it got to Dari faster than it got to me, resulting in Dari emptying here stomach at 30000 feet up in the stratosphere (there must be a first for everything). So even it was only a short flight it seemed to take for ever to Dari feeling really bad at that moment for all she wanted to do was sleep. But first we had to get through immigrations to get our visa. This really easy in Nepal if you have the right currency and all we had was Indian rupees which they really don't like in Nepal. So I first had to go through customs to get to an ATM to get some Nepali rupees than I had to change them for dollars with which I could pay for the visas, so if you ever go to Nepal do bring some Dollars 😊.
By taxi we went to our guest house “Sanus guest house” which is run by a very nice lady. The
price was amazing, a double room costs 7 euro per night and for 1 euro a day she will prepare you breakfast and dinner.
That first evening Dari was to sick to do anything and decided to go to sleep and because there was nothing to do and nobody to talk to in the guesthouse I decided to explore our surroundings. Our guesthouse was not in the tourist center of Kathmandu but in one of the southern districts called Patan.
Kathmandu as I understand exists out of several districts which were formally cities by them selves but grew together to be swallowed up by Kathmandu.
Walking through the small streets of Patan a feeling of relief came over me, compared to India something, beside the constant smell of decay, was missing... nobody was trying to push me in to buying something from them and most people would smile to (or at) me friendly and even if they did want to sell you something a simple “no thank” you was enough for them to stop, Great!!!!!
For a while I sat and talked (tried to talk) to a guy that made all sorts of Buddhist sculptures, if I would have had
room in my rucksack I would have bought one from him but he didn't even asked if I wanted to. Everywhere I looked I would see small temples and shrines and small stupas where people would lay all kinds of offers like flowers and herbs. Further down the street I came to Durbar square Patan, which was full of larger temples one more beautiful than the other. In mean time Night was falling and fires and candles would be lit by the people everywhere making it look even more amazing. I stumbled upon a temple where a lot of people were gathered making offers and burning herbs which made it smell rather nice there. It was all interesting to see but all of a sudden I remembered that I locked Dari in the room (it just got to me) and I felt I should get back before she would be aware of it 😊. In my amazement I found out I had been out for more than 3 hours already there it only felt like 15 minutes. Quickly I made my way back to the guesthouse where I found Dari still sleeping like a princess and never aware that she
had been imprisoned, that is until she will read this 😊
In the mean time electricity had come back on which gave us a little bit more lights at things (Kathmandu must do without electricity for about 16 hours a day) and I had something to eat cooked by our host who also made a fruit salad for Dari.
The Next day Dari felt better and although she still felt very weak we went to explore the area together so we went towards Dubar square where I now found out that you had to pay to get in 😊 we hanged around the square for a couple of hours after which we wanted to make our way towards
Thamel. Thamel is an other district of Kathmandu where all the tourists are and where all the travel agencies are. We went there by “Micro bus”. A Micro bus is nothing more than a minivan in which you would normally transport 8 people, but the more people you get in to your minivan the more money you make of course😊 the highest amount of people I have counted on our trips with these Micro buses was 26!!!😊 with the “conductor” hanging
on the out side of the minivan😊
We wanted to find a trekking trip through the Mt. Everest area and we needed to book a bus ticket back to India. There we found out that we did not have enough time for the Mt. Everest area unfortunately, so that was a kind of a bummer, I mean we could have gone there but it would have meant that we would only get the taste of it and than had to go back already, so we decided there and than that we would come back to Nepal for a longer period and do the whole trip. We did manage to buy a ticket to the border of India and Nepal 8 days later.
That night we figured that the best thing to do would be to go to Pokhara and trek through the Anapurna region.
So the next day we got up and went back to Thamel to arrange everything which was just a bus ticket because we were going to do it without a guide or porter😊
So we bought a bus ticket in combination with a rafting trip half way to Pokhara after which an other bus would bring
us the rest of the way. We also bought some provisions for during the trek and 2 brand new sleeping bags to add to our ever increasing weight 😊 Later we bought us permits to walk in the Annapurna region for it is a protected area. To get them we had to make our way through a large protest, this is something they often do in Kathmandu, this time it was for the right for people working in tourism, undoubtedly they wanted more free days for working is not one of their favorite activities 😊
In the mean time my stomach was growing worse, still from the food from Delhi but I didn't feel bad or anything but I couldn't eat anything my stomach wanted to keep😞
That night we had our last dinner in the guesthouse and payed the host who seemed to be embarrassed to ask for so much money “I not like make big bills” she said and handed us a small piece of paper on which was written the equivalent of 20 euro in exchange for 3 nights 3 times breakfast and 3 times dinner for 2 persons 😊
The next morning we had to wake-up
early to catch the bus, we left some of our luggage at the guesthouse so that we could travel a little lighter and pick it up when we would come back to Kathmandu.
Pokhara and the Annapurna trek.
Early in the morning we made our way to the bus stop to catch the bus to our rafting starting point somewhere in the middle between Kathmandu and Pokhara. As usual the bus ride was wild with and extra edition that most of the ride was along cliffs deep ravine where we later heard 2 mini vans drove in to that day which apparently is not a uncommon event. After this exiting event we arrived at the start of the rafting tour.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.128s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 6; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0673s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb