Blogs from Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia - page 14

There is only one way to describe Kathmandu - IT'S NUTS. Most people here stay in single bed hotels, however I decided to stay in a 5-bed dorm in Hotel Silver Home and have the entire room to myself. So lucky for only £1 a night. ... read more

Have had an unreal few days in kathmandu....visited a whole lot of temples and Durbar squares - Boudnath (big buddhist monument), , Pahipati (where they cremate people by the river) and Patan (Durbar square), met up with the group - 8 people all single and in 20s/early 30s (except for the old couple). Im the only Aussie. The Drago crew seems pretty nice. Had a massive night in Kathmandu at Tom and Jerry's Pub. The Nepalise people are so chilled and relaxeD. And the weather is sooo hot! Left Kathmandu today and drove for a few hours through amazing green lush countryside, muddy roads (if you could call them that). So beautiful. Called the Last Resort because it is literally the last resort before coming to the Nepal- Tibet border. OMG - massive suspension bridge across ... read more

The Maoists called off their blockade of Kathmandu one day prior to our arrival which we were both jolly pleased about. I flew direct with Thai but poor Darren had to endure a connection in Hong Kong plus a touchdown in Dhaka, Bangladesh meaning a late arrival into Kathmandu on Sunday night. I arrived at lunchtime and as I was pretty much expecting it was sensory overload as soon as I left the airport. I was met by the Kathmandu Peace Guest House 'rep' and transfered to our luxury $18 a night accomodation in a rusty old minibus which took 4 attempts to start and stalled 3 times enroute. It was a long transfer as traffic was hideous plus of course napping cows in the middle of the road always delay things a tad. The guest ... read more

The title is purely because we rather liked the name of this mediocre cafe - it bares no other significance than this. This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Two of our beautiful children, Sunita and Sushil were taken without warning to Pokhara. Their family belong to a group called the Maoist, who are currently trying to expand their numbers, but quite literally collecting all Maoist children together. Sunita and Sushil's mother has a history of mental illness and has been in an Indian hospital for 3 years. She was badly beaten by the Nepali army and their father was killed in the same event. So on Wednesday, their mother and her new husband (a Maoist leader) came unexpectedly to Happy Home to take the kids to a Maoist camp near Pokhara. ... read more

Hey guys, We arrived safely in Kathmandu after another 8 hr bus journey through mountainous terrains. The ride was quite scary as there were several bus wreckage's, where they had come off the road and down the mountain, which didn't' fill me with much confidence. Anyway we got to Kathmandu about 4pm, and finally gave into a guy persuading us to go to his reccomended hotel. We arrived accepted that the room was fine and luckily it all worked out ok, about 4 pounds a night, though the water was brown and as with Pokhara the electric only works after 6:30pm. We later found out that the reason for the lack of electricity is due to the low water levels as Nepal's electricty is provided by hydro-electricity and in the monsoon season everything is fine, but ... read more