Kathmandu, Pok Hara and the small world

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Flying into Nepal was simply magical. First you see all the little villages in the mountains, with those farm grounds around them that look like staircases. And once the plane flies over those mountains, you get an amazing view of the valley, which is filled with colorful apartment buildings. Really nice.

When I got off the plane, I was immediately confronted with the fuel problems Nepal has been having: There were no busses and the taxi's were extremely expensive. See, the Nepali and Indian government had an argument and as a result India has stopped exporting certain things to Nepal, one of which is fuel. Because of this the prices of a lot of things have gone up, because the transportation costs are so high.

When I found my hostel, the owner was really nice and gave me a private room instead of putting me in the dorm that I'd booked. After a month of dorm rooms, it was super nice to have a room to myself. So I decided to unpack everything I had and reorganize it a little. After that I went out and bought myself a real warm Nepali sweater, made of fleece and Nepali wool. I also booked a bus ticket to Pok Hara for the next morning and went to bed quite early.

The next morning I took a cold shower (fuel shortage) and then walked over to the bus station. Even though this was a tourist bus, most of the people were Nepali and I was put in the back seat with the other foreigners. There was a guy from Spain, one from South Korea and two girls who had worked in an orphanage together, one from France and one from China. It was quite a long bus ride, but we had fun talking, eating and trying to take a nap every once in a while.

Once we got to Pok Hara I was picked up by Yam. Good friends of my family had been to Nepal a couple of times already and they had given me his contact info. When we got to his home, I met his kids Dina (15) and Chris (10). We all had dinner together and went to bed quite early.

The next day the weather was really great, so Yam and me walked over to the Lake Side and walked along the water and the shopping streets for a while. It's a really beautiful city and the views of the mountains are really cool. When we got home we had dinner and played some games.

The next day I got picked up around 10:00 to go paragliding! It was so awesome. We drove up the mountain in a van and after a cup of tea it was time to get ready. I got a sort of backpack strapped on, that would turn into a seat after take off. Then my tandem guide gave me some instructions and before I knew it we were in the air. It was such an amazing feeling to fly and the view was great. We could see the mountains and the lake and there were even a couple of eagles flying with us. My guide had a GoPro, so we could take some pictures and video's. At the end he asked if I wanted to do some tricks. And when I said I did, he started swinging us to the sides in big infinity signs. At some points it felt like we were almost horizontal. Quite scary, but super cool. Apparently the winds weren't great that day, so we were in the air a lot shorter than planned. But they gave me a huge discount and I got the pics and videos for free, so it all worked out. I had an amazing time!

Yam met me back at the paragliding shop and he had to go pick up something nearby. So I took that opportunity to do a little shopping. I'd seen these really cute duffel bags with elephants on it, so I went ahead and asked a couple of stores about their price. Got a really pretty one for a good price😊

After that we went over to Yam's sister in law, where we would pick up Yam's wife Purnima. She'd been away for a couple of days. We had lunch there and I spend some time feeding their goats. When we got back home, i helped Chris with his English homework, until it was time for dinner. After dinner we played some games again.

The next morning we packed a small bag and set out to go on a little trek. It took us quite a while to get to the beginning of the trek. The journey there included two bus rides in local busses that are too small for me to stand up in and a ride in the back of a truck 😊 The beginning of the trek was quite hard: the first hour was just walking up an seemingly endless flight of stairs. After that it got a bit easier and after a while we decided to take a little detour to visit Yam's family that lives in the mountains. On a piece of land both of Yam's brothers live with their wives and children, and the wives' parents. And lots of chicken, goats a d some buffalo. After some chai, one of the grandmas made us a drink that consisted of hot buffalo milk and butter. It wasn't horrible, but it's also not my new favorite drink 😉 After that I asked if I could help with anything, which the grandma thought was hilarious. So she got me a big basket, loaded it with some grains and had me walk it over to a different place. After that I helped her separating the seeds and big pieces from the fine wheat. She kept saying stuff in Nepali to me and when I didn't understand she'd start laughing so hard. It was really funny.

They asked if we wanted to spend the night with them, instead of making our way up to the village. So we decided to stay there. I had some fun making drawings with the kids until it was time for dinner on the front porch. It got quite cold out, so I was really glad I'd bought myself a nice big, Nepali sweater. 😊

The next morning I got up quite early, to watch the sunrise over the mountains. It was beautiful. After that we walked over to the village we were supposed to go to. We had breakfast with another great view and after that started walking down again.

We got back home around two and after a quick shower I went to see a Nepali movie with Purnima and her mom. This movie was just as unrealistic as the Bollywood movie I'd seen, but still quite funny. After the movie we visited a couple of markets and shops and then took the bus back home. After dinner I played some more games with Chris and Dina and went to bed quite early.

The next morning Yam took me to the bus station at 7:00, so I could take the bus back to Kathmandu. At the first toilet break I got out to stretch my legs and then I ran into two of the people I met on the bus ride to Pok Hara a couple of days earlier! Such a small world. They were on a different bus, but they all stop at the same places. So I saw them again at the next stop. We figured out we all had flights the next day around the same time, so we decided to share a cab to the airport.

After a bus ride that took longer than expected, I found my way to Elbrus Home. Phil, one of the Aussies I met in Chennai, was staying there. He had a room with two beds, so I could stay with him. 😊 At six we went out to dinner with a group of people who knew each other through cycling. We went to a nice Nepali restaurant where we had a very interesting drink. It was a big jug full of millet, onto which you had to poor hot water. In the hot water, the millet would start fermenting. The first couple of sips are a bit weird, but after a while it's actually quite nice 😊 We had a really fun night.

The next morning I had my first hot shower in over a week, which was amazing. And after that Phil and I had nice breakfast in the front yard. Around 10:00 I was picked up by a taxi with the two people from the bus already in it. At the airport, we all check in and tried to spend our last Nepali money. Then we hung out at the gates, until it was time to leave Nepal.

Nepal is such a fascinating country and I'm so glad I got to experience the real Nepali life with Yam and his family. 😊

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