Welcome to Nepal and the Monsoon

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After a very long 24 hour journey from Cape Town, 3 flight changes and 7 hours in Abu Dhabi airport (very small) we arrived in Kathmandu Nepal. Relieved from being off the smelliest planes of our lives (evidently some cultures don't know how to flush airplane toliets) we headed through immigration. Got our visas on arrival which beats standing in the line at the Nepalese Embassy before we came.

Headed outside to catch our transfer to the Kathmandu Guest House and were told by our pickup that "today is a very expensive day in Nepal" after which he asked us for 900 Rupees for the trip. After a bit of debating and calling the hotel we finally got our lift into the city. What a hassle. Lately there have been strikes in Nepal over everything from rubbish collection in the city to taxi strikes and student strikes for not getting their textbooks on time due to the transport strikes. This country although incredibly beautiful doesn't seem to have it together politically. Ever since the murder of the king and his family in 2001 the country has been in politically termoil and now having recently ousted the new king they are hoping for a new president and prime minister soon.

We arrived in Thamel and relaxed in our room for the night. The next day the city seemed so much nicer. Still manic as anything but wonderful in it's own way. The streets are lined with food shops, bakeries and restaurants. We checked out the local grocery stores and book shops that will buy my old used books and got a rickshaw to Durbar Square. The rickshaw with us on the back must have been a sight. Our Nepalese "driver" pedalled his little heart out as he biked us through the streets. Around the potholes, piles of trash (still there due to the strikes) and people to the main Square.

Durbar Square was the former palace of the Nepalese kings before the next palace was built in the 1900s. Now it is the main tourist attraction within Kathmandu. We headed into the square and were offered every type of souvenir imaginable to the temple that holds the living goddess. The living goddess is a young Hindu girl picked every few years. The young girl must be beautiful and have no mark on her body. She is then kept in this temple on her own away from her family until she hits puberity when they kick her out and they find a new living goddess. Very strange you may say. However this role is quite good for the young girl as she will be fully educated during her time there which is a gift for a young girl in Nepal.

We then went to the old Palace in the middle of the square to visit the museum about the former kings. Walking through the museum we saw a massive amount of photos, clothing, the old rooms of the palace, pictures of royal visits abroad and much more. We also ventured up into the eight story palace. The palace was huge and well worth the 250Rupee entrance fee (about 4 US dollars).

We caught our rickshaw back to Thamel and booked our tourist bus for the next day to Pokhara. We also met another American named Janelle who decided to come with us to Pokhara for a short stay away from her orphanage volunteer work outside Kathmandu.

Our journey was beautiful. After leaving Kathmandu and breaking into the countryside the scenery just exploded. Beautiful valleys and mountains, farming communites and stepped agriculture the whole way to Pokhara. We followed the river through the valley to our included lunch stop (bargain)!

After the 7 hour journey we arrived into Pokhara which sits on Phewa Lake at the base of the Annapurna Mountain Range. Many travellers come to Pokhara to embark on a trek lasting from 1 to 30 days. After our time camping in Africa and Ev's leg we decided instead to spend our time in Pokhara relaxing by the lake. Little did we know the monsoon has arrived in Pokhara and now it rains every day. We did get a good deal on a hotel with AC, TV, ensuite bathroom and the occasionally cockroaches and have spent the past few days frequenting the cafes and restaurants and bargaining for lightweight clothing and some other souvenirs.

Today was a beautiful, sunny and very humid day so we decided to head up to the World Peace Pagoda only to find the road washed out and the only other way through the leech infested woods (i think i'll PASS). Instead we settled on the Devi Falls, named for the Swiss woman and her husband who drowned there after taking a bath in the river (only in Nepal). We were going to head to the caves across the road but decided against it after a poor recommendation from a fellow traveller.

Going to stay in Pokhara for the next week and pray for no rain and then head back to Kathmandu before our flight to Singapore. Hopefully we will see those snowcapped mountains before we go!

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