Day 336 - Gemma goes it alone

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Once Ed had been up for a few hours it was evident he would not be joining Gemma on the trek today, so as he crawled back into bed, Gemma joined Nabaraj and Mahesh for an excellent day of exploring the villages of the south-west of the Kathmandu valley.

It was a special and very well organised day due to the places we visited and the company Gemma was in. The historic towns we walked through with their own 7th to 17th century temples and places of interest, were just like the touristy Bhaktapur and Patan areas but without any other tourists or entrance fees.

From the car for the last month or so we have been watching the countryside roll by and seeing the step fields that are carved into the steep hillsides. We witnessed the developments, as the rainy season approaches, of the farmers preparing and planting the paddy fields. Today Gemma was walking among these paddy fields along the beam like earth mounds that separate the fields to cut the corner of the road.

Nabaraj and Mahesh’s enthusiasm and knowledge of the area was very in depth and that gave Gemma a really good insight into the way of life and day to day roles that happen in and out of the local villages.

Some of the highlights of the day's walk were feeding the thousands of catfish puff balls that meant they clambered on top of one another to get to the food, visiting the temples with no other tourists about and seeing what a local worshipping place is really like, the dal lunch that Gemma was included in and the surprise Temples that we added to the day's trek in among the forest.

Returning to Kathmandu exhausted and recounting to Ed the glorious day, we managed to get Ed out of the room for a while for some food. Here we found ourselves in the middle of an electrical storm which took out the whole power of Kathmandu for a while.

We would highly recommend the tour company Wayfarers Himalaya Adventures, for their professionalism, enthusiastic, reliable and knowledgeable staff and for the tours they provide for a traveller, a different take on what could be and what we have seen time and again in tourist areas as cliché tours.

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