Blogs from Nepal, Asia - page 18

After a solid 17ish hour journey we arrived in Kathmandu. Wow we’ve missed Asia! As soon as we landed we felt the humidity and heat again, there was a plethora of taxi drivers wanting to be your best friend AND our bank card was playing up again -just like old times! We met “Binayle” and helped us out with a cheap fair for the 3 of us into Thamel (one of the districts in Kathmandu). He was kind enough to walk us to an ATM and our hostel, Shantipur. The streets were dusty, narrow at times, cows all over the show and loads of smiling faces. The streets were decorated with flags pinned up like bunting and the goods in the shops looked awesome! Also the prices were a welcome treat too. When we got to ... read more

I had a pretty lazy morning catching up on some sleep, tucked into some momos for lunch - they are amazing steamed dumplings packed full of spices and flavour - a couple of strong coffees to set me up for my afternoon tour. I was picked up at 3pm and the first stop was The Great Boudha Stupa, this was a few km’s away from the hotel but didn’t take too long in the minibus. We stopped on a main road and we’re told “we’re here”, initially, I was a little confused as all I could see were commercial buildings, what seems to be typical potholes the size of a house in the road and loads of rubble and dust and no sign of any world heritage site! Our guide took us down an alley way ... read more

Pokhara R&R and reflections Well after three weeks on the trail we have arrived back in civilisation with a couple of days R&R in Pokhara. I won’t bore you with a detailed journal of our time here but needless to say we are enjoying the good food, some different beers and doing some shopping for our loved ones back home. I had a haircut and beard trim which felt like heaven followed by a massage on the first day. It was so good I’ve convinced the other guys to try a massage in Kathmandu before we depart of Friday. We did meet Himal, Suman and Tom for lunch and an opportunity to thank them for their hard work sharing the Manaslu/Tsum Valley with us. Himal brought along his son Yushan who is six. Lovely boy albeit ... read more

Jagat (1300m) – Nadi Bazaar (930m) Well somewhat sadly today is the last days treking for us. I’m going through the intial stages of divorcing my backpack, firstly telling it how despite my respect for it I no longer love it. Later today I may go as far as thinking about possible replacements or perhaps introducing other things to the relationship such as a day pack. Before the end though we do have one more day to complete, essentially along the Annapurna circuit. We decided to finish at Nadi Bazaar primarily because from there we can catch a public bus to Besisahar and connect with the regular busses to Pokhara. After breakfast at Jagat we set off, initially, on the road towards Besisahar. The porters remained at Jagat waiting for a suitable Jeep or tractor that ... read more

Bimtang (3590m) – Tilije (2300m) Awoke in Bimtang to a fairytale scene of fresh new snow everywhere with icicles on the trees, clear blue sky and surrounded by high peaks on all sides. It really was beautiful, albeit freezing cold! Once I’d packed up and was waiting for the other guys I sat by the fire/stove in the kitchen and watched the lady make the breakfast for us. One interesting thing was that Tibetan bread and chipate are the same, that is a dough of barley flour and water, the difference is that the Tibetan bread is fried whereas the chipate is cooked over a naked flame. It was silly hats day today so as you’ll see from the photos we started out in silly hats although due to the warming day they were discarded by ... read more