Poinsettas in the Himalaya

---

Happy holidays everyone! Before this brief entry I want to apologize to those I've been meaning to email and haven't been able to, connections here are quite poor and expensive, and I've been busy busy busy arranging travel details, I WILL have more time as soon as I get back to Thailand so expect emails! Sorry again!

Leaving Kathmandu I travelled to the small town of Bandipur, a place only briefly mentionned in the Bible (aka Lonely Planet) and which I stumbled upon by chance, catching glimpse of a small advert suggesting travellers break up the Kathmandu-Pokhara march by spending a couple nights in an apparently enchanting hill-top town, with gorgeous views of the Himalaya. Having no real plans for my time in Nepal after deciding that it's too effing cold to do any real outdoorsy stuff, I signed on, and had a lovely couple of very relaxing days. I stayed at a great place called the Old Bandipur Inn and was treated like royalty, perhaps because I happened to be the only guest! The manager showed me around the town, as well as leading me on a walk up to a village nearby... And can I just say that nothing will make you feel as out of shape as huffing and puffing up a small trail winding around a mountain, and being overtaken by a) schoolkids under the age of 10, bedecked in uniforms and carrying bookbags, and b) wizened old women carrying heavy loads of wood, who apparently march along much longer segments of the trail every day? This is such an ironic country, it's filled to the gills with 'adventurous' tourists in $1000+ "trekking" outfits and all sorts of gear, walking the same trails used by the Nepalese to get from point A to point B.

After my sejour in Bandipur, I meandered over to Pokhara, though with the amount of food the guys working at the Inn served me perhaps waddled over is more accurate. Pokhara is very similar to Kathmandu in that it has a very touristy district, but it didn't seem as overrun with Westerners as Thamel. Although it's best known as the launching point for various treks to the Annapurna region, I was doing much trekking, so I continued the hard life of reading, sleeping in late, and eating. I spent Christmas there and I must say that Christmas without family and friends is, well, ass. I spent most of the day moping in bed (cue a very tiny violin) before dragging myself outside to watch a film at a restaurant... A group of other travellers quickly took pity on me and brought me into their makeshift family, and I spent the latter part of Christmas in a very amusing Nepalese hip hop club with them. The next day one of the guys and I set off to sight-see, and hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda, a very Christmassy kind of sentiment, and having a fabulous view of the Annapurnas washed most of my Christmas blues away. However, I will DEFINATELY be home next Christmas, and I'm very much looking forward to New Years Eve in Bangkok with Simone!

Hope everyone's Christmas was happy!

---