
After leaving Chitwan National Park we made our way on a rickety old bus for a 6hr journey to Pokhara. Some parts of the journey were a little bit hair raising due to the meandering roads and tight bends over the hills and with what now is the standard crazy Asian driving but we arrived in Pokhara safe and sound and without any problems - which must have been a first so far on this trip.
We had arranged a hotel via our Lodge manager at Chitwan however we only stayed there 1 evening as it wasnt what we expected, and as we were staying in Pokhara for 10 nights we wanted something more comfortable. The following day we had a look around Pokhara and found a a nice new room for $12 per night, bargain.

I have to apologise to my family and friends for my lack of appearance on photographs on this blog, I can promise that it is not because Andrew wants all the photos to be of him. As most of you will know, I hate having my picture taken and therefore as I have full editoral control of any shots it means that there arent really very many of me... I promise, I will try and be on a few more over the next few months.
Our time in Pokhara was spent wandering the streets, shopping and just enjoying being in Nepal. We took a taxi out for the day and visited places of interest in Pokhara. We went up to the World Peace Pagoda, which had views of Pokhara and beyond which was great. Then we went to Devis Falls (which if honest weren't that amazing but only because it wasn't monsoon season, so not much water to see) and we also went down to see some caves, which was a rather damp experience and involved walking up and down many stairs.
Us at the World Peace Pagoda
Andrew on the steps of the World Peace Pagoda



Pokhara is a small town filled with gift shops, bars and restaurants as well as many Thangka shops which house Buddhist art. Some of these paintings take months to paint and they have intricate detail, they really are beautiful - we treated ourselves to a couple to decorate our future house. This is an artist working on a painting; as you can see it is quite a painstaking process.
Our 11 days in Pokhara was up and our next destination was Kathmandu. Again, the journey was going to be made by bus, and was due to take about 7 hours. However, the day before we were to leave we were told by a bloke in a bar that there was another strike planned the sameday and we wouldn't be going anywhere. We were starting to panic as we had already made plans in Kathmandu. Luckily the strike was postponed 1 day. Thank God! Of course we didnt get to Kathmandu as planned due to the fact that there had been mass panic about a strike the following day and so hundreds of cars and trucks on the road, all going to the only route across the windy hills to Kathmandu. So, we pulled into the bus station 5 hours later than planned and feeling rather grotty after sitting in car fumes for hours on end.
In fact on the bus I had started sneezing continuously but I put it down to the dust, unfortunately it wasnt turned out to be a rather bad cold which meant that I was laid up in bed for a few days so I had nurse Andrew looking after me (he tried really hard to look after me and I was really grateful but I dont think he should give up his day job!).
Our friend at Honeys (a restaurant in Goa), Thapa, had kindly arranged (thank you very much for you help) for his brother Hari Darlami and his wife Bismu to help us out during our time in Nepal's capital. They had sorted out us out a lovely hotel right in the heart of Thamel a surburb of Kathmandu (he he.. you should have seen Andrew's face - he nearly had a heart attack when the receptionist told us it was $80 per night, especially as we had been paying $12 previously). We managed to get them to reduce the price down to $45 per night with breakfast, although this was still too much for Andrew to stomach so he went off the next day to try and find somewhere equally as nice for a cheaper price (which was impossible and it turned out the hotel was a great find).
Despite being poorly I really wanted to have a look at Kathmandu especially as on the journey through it looked good. If honest, I was expecting it to be similar to a big Indian city i.e. dirty, scattered with beggars and generally not very welcoming. However, we were both pleasantly surprised. We had a walk through Kathmandu, stopped on our way to buy a facemask due to the smog from the traffic and we stumbled across many beautiful temples on every corner.

Andrew donning a facemask outside a Temple in Kathmandu

Bumped into a ceremony on Durbar Square, the Nepalese people were giving presents to the little girls. We were not entirely sure what was going on, but the girls were dressed like the Living Goddess, who resides in Durbar Square



Ever since watching the Michael Palin series "Himalaya" one of the places I wanted to visit was Pashupati, it may sound a bit strange as it is the place where dead people go to be cremated. We have found that in Nepal and India, death is not hidden as the same way it is in the West - bodies are burnt in the open for all to see.



As we wondered through the grounds of Pashupati a Buddhist wedding was taking place
Before we entered Pashupati we saw this cow and cart surrounded by people, as took a look closer it contained another cow with music blaring out and people touching the cow and giving it offerings of money - cows are sacred in Hindu religion but this was a cow with a difference - it had 6 legs!! At first I thought the cow was giving birth but it was just 1 cow with six legs - weird!


We found a lovely Japanese restaurant in Kathmandu called Momotarou which we visited a few times. On one occassion in Momotarou with met a Buddhist Monk, Stefano aka Italy Lama (originally from Italy but has lived in Nepal for nearly 40 years). He was a very knowledgable man and we enjoyed talking to him about his life as a monk so much that we arranged to met him him again, but this time at his Monestry.



We left Nepal on 17th December by Plane (!!) to head back to Goa to spend Christmas in the sun, which was much needed as Nepal can be rather cold and our tans had started to fade. But Nepal is a beautiful place and we advise anybody to go there, it really is worth the trip, it has been our favourite place so far on our journey and we just loved it. I think that we will definetly go back in the future. Bye Bye for now!
Have a look at our new world food blog website The Food Atlas.com for world food recipes and stories.
Are you interested in food recipes from around the world? Have a look at www.thefoodatlas.com
Computer speed problems? www.systemoptimizer.org
Hi!
ReplyDeleteWow this trip looked amazing! A cow with 6 legs! Glad your having a lovely time still, and thanks for the updates! LOVE reading them. And miss you! Soooooo wish i could come out and see you. A trip back with Tom wold be ideal, then i could pop to goa and see you, but my job hunt is really the priority at the mo - and could be onto something this week. Fingers crossed. xx Take care!