Bad Mutha Trekkers

So why do people go to Nepal, you might ask. Well, the obvious answer is for the trekking. The Himalayas are pretty famous and most people fancy their chances at a week or two long trek up to Everest Base Camp of some such place, to test themselves. We would be doing just that. Well, I mean “testing ourselves” as we were only to be going for a day hike rather than a week or two. But it a Nepalese hike nonetheless and we were very much looking forward to it.

As we were being picked up at 10:00am we had time for breakfast…a BIG breakfast. We scoffed down everything in the knowledge that we would be needing the energy for our trek up into the mountains. Our taxi arrived promptly and we were introduced to our guide, Bikesh. We had a half-hour drive to get to our starting point and it was good to see the parts of Kathmandu that most tourists probably don’t see. When we arrived at our starting village the taxi driver left us and the three of us began our trek.

First off we ambled through the small village to see the traditional buildings and for Bikesh to fill us in on some (lots!0 of gaps in our knowledge about Nepal and its culture. It was great to speak to someone from the country as they can tell you so much that you just wouldn’t get otherwise. From first glance it seemed that it wouldn’t be a very strenuous trek – Bikesh had rocked up in what looked like his “going out” clothes, with black smart (ish) shoes, a shirt and a leather jacket. We had been preparing for icy climbs and snowy peaks, but it looked like we had overestimated what was to be involved.

James and Bikesh in the local village

We began our hike from the small town where the taxi driver dropped us off at and after only a few minutes I was already pulling off my fleece top. Having come from Beijing and the below-freezing temperatures that we had experienced there we were thinking that it might be similar up in the hills of Kathmandu, but the weather was just fantastic. Not a cloud in the sky and a lovely warm sun beating down on us, the perfect conditions for a mountainous hike.

Just keep on trekkin...

As we trekked up and up we chatted about everything and anything and it was great to have Bikesh as company. We quickly learned that the trek we had thought we would be going on wasn’t exactly as challenging as we had believed and would not take all that long either, so we began to slow the pace down a little. Our end point was Nagarkot, a small village up in the hills that is being quickly turned into a hotel hot-spot for wealthy sight-seers. But it didn’t seem all that far and certainly not much of an incline that would trouble any of us.

Locals going about their business 

We trekked our way through a few smaller villages and began to close in on Nagarkot. As we rounded a corner we were treated to a spectacular view – the Himalayas. I’m not sure what we were expecting, but to see one of the most famous mountain ranges in the world laid out in all its glory in front of us was just amazing. It was then that I suggested that we walk up a smaller hill nearby as we would have too much time in Nagarkot otherwise, if we pressed on to our finish point. Bikesh had never been up there but agreed to lead the way and we followed him up a steep incline into the forest.

Not bad, eh?!

We found a hidden Hindu temple. He had no idea it was there and began to explain everything to us about it, and how it was there because it was too far for the villagers to get to the main temple on a regular basis so they built a smaller one there. Fascinating stuff. And only a few metres up the way we came across a burial ground where they would bring the bodies of their deceased up into the hills and cremate them before burying the ashes in the ground. I didn’t really know what to say or thin at that point, it was information overload.

The (previously) undiscovered Hindu temple

Then we finally made it to Nagarkot we ended up sitting on the roof of an unfinished hotel to fully appreciate the view of the mountains. It began to get a little chilly up there with the wind blowing across us as high as we could get so we clambered down after we had had our fill and went for a coffee in a local café.

Nagarkot......obviously!

As it was nearing sunset we left the café and found the main spot to see the sun set, along with a number of other tourists, mainly Chinese. Again, it was a great sight, especially as the orange glow of the setting sun cast a glorious hue onto the snow-capped peaks of the surrounding mountains. When it had finally set it got really cold, so we ended up in a very much local place for a small cup of local tea whilst we waited for our taxi to pick us up. It was a very authentic experience and I couldn’t help but notice that both little coffee houses had chickens running amok in them and that babies had their nappies changed pretty frequently.

Just after sunset, and before the local tea!

It was a lengthy drive back to Kathmandu, and made slightly lengthier by an unscheduled stop due to the engine overheating. A large bottle of mineral water seemed to do the trick and then we were back at the hotel and ready for some food. Boy, were we ready for some food! The Rock Café, across the road from the restaurant we had been in the night before, was our choice and a decent one at that. Good food and a big bottle of beer was just what we needed  before returning to the hotel for yet another power cut. 

Kathmandu Monkey See Monkey Do

To say that we hadn’t shared a double bed since Melbourne it wasn’t the worst nights sleep in the world. In fact it was pretty good, and with the offer of a slap-up breakfast before 11:00am we hit the restaurant nice and early. When I say “restaurant” I obviously mean the small room next to reception that had a couple of tables and chairs in, but it functioned as exactly that. We both plumped for the American breakfast once again and it was clear that most people have a big breakfast so that they get the energy for a big hike later in the day as it was too much for me. Toast, eggs, potatoes, cereal and coffee, it was just one step too far. But it set us up nicely for the day ahead.

Peak Point Hotel...

We had spoken with the manager of the hotel about doing a day trek into the mountains at some point and we furthered that discussion after brekkie. He laid out a good proposition for us and we accepted – after we had done a little bit of research on the matter, but it seemed like it was a good enough deal all round. I also enquired as to the availability of phone boxes nearby and he said there were plenty. Barclays had frozen my account as they think there is suspicious activity on my account, even though they know that I am in Asia until December 20^th. Somehow I would need to reverse-call them to explain it all. Gnnnnnng!

Oh, and then there was the matter of changing rooms. After breakfast and the trek discussion we were pleased to learn that our new room was ready so we switched all our belongings into the twin deluxe room we should have had from the start. And then we were ready to go and explore Kathmandu.

The first place on our list was the Swoyambhu temple, just west of our hotel and about a half hours walk. It gave us plenty of time to see the city in the daylight and get our bearings with the local area.

Ummmm.......a normal day in Kathmandu? 

The temple itself was pretty incredible. Not just because it was set on top of the hill overlooking the city, but there were hundreds of monkeys everywhere. We were witness to numerous monkey fights, dogs sleeping around in the sunshine and a great number of tourists and locals all mingling about the place spinning prayer wheels and such-like. There was (of course) a number of people selling all manner of items, but they weren’t forcing anything on us, which was a nice change. The view of the city was spectacular and I won’t have enough space to put all the pictures on here but it was a great start to our sight-seeing in Kathmandu that’s for sure.

Monkey business!

After we had been “monkeyed-out” we walked back to the hotel to have a cheapo lunch (a Bowl Noodles of some sort) and so that I could quickly sort out my Barclays problem. As we entered the room we felt that something wasn’t quite right. Another power cut. Great. So no kettle to boil the water and no power to check my emails form Barclays. This was getting ridiculous.  

After lunch (we got the hotel to boil up a pot of water for us…somehow) we wandered around the streets trying to find Durbar Square. We managed to find it, by walking very slowly down a packed road for a long time, and when we got there we weren’t allowed in. Well, we were, but it would cost us £5 to get into the square and also the museum. We hadn’t counted on this so we turned round and headed for the Narayanhti Museum where the fruit bats swarm out from the trees at sunset, and is supposedly quite a sight.  

Near to the Durbar Square

When we found it it was long shut, and didn’t even look like a museum. Or that there were any fruit bats. So we called time on our exploring and made for the Peak Point Hotel to get ready for going out for dinner. According to Tripadvisor (now a readily-used bookmark on Google Chrome) the Cosy Café & Restaurant was a decent place to go eat so we set off to try and find it. The directions were less than great, but we managed to find it amongst the thousands of signs above our heads and walked into a dark “restaurant” on the first floor. As we were staying in the tourist area of Kathmandu we were expecting to pay over-the-odds for food and drink, but this place seemed good value and the manager/cook/waiters seemed very friendly and cheerful. After a slap-up meal, including another power cut, we made our way back to the hotel via the supermarket. We would need one more beer, just to take the edge off.

Is That A Nepal I Can See?

Why? Just why was there a bleeping noise emanating from the TV? Oh yes, I remembered… we had to get up and make sure that we didn’t have a repeat of the Terracotta Warriors day when we overslept massively. It was 4:00am and we needed to get our stuff together and be checking out by 4:45am. This shouldn’t have been a problem, but the girl on the 24 hour check-out desk was clearly sound asleep when we rocked up and sparked her into consciousness. She somehow got the bill wrong so had to re-do it which took up valuable minutes. We had pre-booked a taxi for 5:00am and needed to make sure that we got it as there didn’t seem to be much out and about on the streets of Xi’An at that time in the morning.

We got the taxi with time to spare and bombed through the empty streets on our way to Terminal 3 of the airport. It was a new airport and thankfully not too busy at that time in the morning. No problems with tickets or security so we headed through to the waiting lounge where I managed to catch a few z’s before we boarded the plane. The plan was to listen to a few tunes and maybe catch up on my book but we both spent 98% of the journey sound asleep. In case you were wondering, the other 2% was eating the snack laid on by the airline.

Nice new airport......nice!

We had a lay-over in Kunming airport for about 4 hours whilst we waited for our onwards flight into Kathmandu. The bonus of the wait was that I found an almost fresh deck of cards, but the 7 of Diamonds is slightly marked, so it will serve as an emergency deck as and when mine finally disintegrate through over-use.

We landed in Kathmandu and adjusted our clocks accordingly – bizarrely, they are 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of the UK, so as not to confuse them with India who are 6 hours ahead. We had to get our visa for Nepal on arrival in the airport and it took me three attempts to complete the document, mainly because I couldn’t spell my own name (I was still half asleep). Then we had to queue up and pay $25 to the visa man and then return to the back of the queue to go to the visa issuing officer who was sat next to the money collector. It was madness and took ages before we finally got through and claimed our bags. We were getting picked up by the hotel and there would be a chap waiting outside for us with a sign saying “James Gray” which made us feel like celebrities.

It was a bit of a melee outside the airport but we found our guy and made our way to his taxi. As we did another chap picked up my bag and carried it to the taxi where the driver was waiting. They dumped the bags in the back and then told us that the driver worked on tips and we needed to pay him now, in English money. We made our excuses and jumped in the taxi. They were still trying to get us to pay the man as he began to drive of, with the doors of the car still open. It was only about 20 minutes to the hotel but it took about an hour or so, due to a manic traffic jam at a cross-roads just down from the airport. It was hot, dusty, loud and we were knackered so it was a blessed relief to arrive at the Peak Point hotel just before 6:00pm.

First impressions weren’t great as it was down a back street and we were given a double room instead of a twin, but for one night we didn’t mind – they would be sorting out the deluxe twin for the next day. So, unable to fully unpack or get a wash on the go we decided to go out for a wander and see what grub we could get, whilst being wary of the dreaded First Night syndrome.

The "balcony"

We found a place that seemed just what we were after, if a little on the pricey side of things, but this was our first night so we were used to taking a hit in the wallet. The music wasn’t really suited to the place, a non-stop drone of background trance music. As we tucked into our Gorkha beers (with unknown alcohol quantity) we waited for our pizza and pasta to arrive. James’s pizza was first, after a lengthy wait, and I continued to anticipate my pasta with gusto. I would have to wait a little longer for my dish as after about 5 minutes after James had begun to devour his nosh there was a power-cut. We had heard that these were pretty frequent in Nepal but didn’t think that we would get one within the first couple of hours of being there! A great cheer went up as all the lights went off, but I remained quiet and rolled my eyes in the dark – this had the feel of the time in Krabi when the gas bottle ran out before they had cooked my meal. Thankfully the lights came back on quickly, presumably from a generator round the back, and my teeny tiny bowl of pasta turned up shortly after. After they tried to add on two coffees (that we didn’t order) and then added the statutory 10% service and 13% VAT charge we were ready to get the heck out of there and choose a better place for our next time out in Kathmandu.

Christmas Shopping

We were staying in a 4 star hotel, and we wanted to make use of the hotel room more than usual. It was still chuffing cold outside and as Christmas was approaching we decided that we would have a more relaxed day than normal and try to order a few bits and bobs online to get delivered at home in time for Christmas. So we spent a relaxed morning surfing through Amazon and such sites trying to get some inspiration for Christmas presents for our friends and family.

Obviously we needed food, so we left the warmth and comfort of the hotel and went down to the south gate to find one of the markets that our friend Haven had told us about. It was down Calligraphy Street, and it seemed so-called as there were so may brushes and parchments for sale it was untrue. We managed to do a little bit of wheeler-dealering  down there before grabbing some well-earned fodder.

We had visited the main market street on our first day in Xi’An but hadn’t really bought much as we wanted to get a feel for the place first. Now it was our last day in China we needed to up our game a little as I had a long list of things I wanted to get people and only an afternoon to achieve it. We had our fair share of good and bad sellers down there, to the point whereby we walked away in disgust at some of the prices, and to the point where we nearly got spat on and chucked out of the shop when we entered our low opening offer. But we had great success and got pretty much exactly what we wanted and headed back to the hotel with a smile on our face to out the kettle on and warm up again.

Hmmmmm, I just don't understand....

The afternoon was spent checking through all details for our trip to Kathmandu on the following day and packing all our stuff, for we would be setting the alarm for 4:00am to make sure we would get to the airport in plenty of time. We revisited the Japanese place across the road and James still had trouble asking the staff for a fork, and ended up having to shovel the rice and beef dish down with a hefty spoon. We watched the final episode of Catterick (which I implore you to watch) and settled in for a few hours of sleep before the alarm would be bleeping us into consciousness from across the room.

The Terracotta Warriors

The plan was to wake up at the usual time, sneak upstairs for some breakfast and then walk the half hour to the train station and get the bus out to the Terracotta Warriors. It didn’t exactly go to plan. With my watch alarm set for 8:00am pretty much every day, somehow neither of us heard it go off in the morning. However, we were woken up by someone knocking at the door repeatedly. This has happened a couple of times and it seems to be people who have organised a tour which leaves early in the morning but the tour person has got the wrong room. James jumped up and told whoever it was to get lost and we settled back in to sleep. The next thing I know James has thrown off the duvet and exclaimed “it’s 10 to eleven!” whilst rushing into the bathroom. Oh dear.Looks like we would have to get our own breakfast.

Even though we had a late start we managed to get ourselves ready and down to the bus stop for just after midday. It was a very chilly day, something that we hadn’t really expected after Haven had said that Xi’An was generally warmer than Beijing. We soon identified our bus, number 306, and jumped on board. The fare was 7 Yuan and we couldn’t help but shake our heads at the people who paid well over the odds to have a private car/minibus take them there when it is easy to get the bus and save your hard-earned.

At the back of the bus, for the legroom!

It took us a while to identify the ticket booth as we walked round in the cold surrounded by people selling all manner of Terracotta Warrior tat. Just to ruin the image further there was a KFC standing proudly at the entrance. Gnnnnngh! With our tickets purchased and the numerous offers of guides refused we headed back up the road to the entrance.

Inside it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It seemed to be much more of a museum-style arrangement with fresh new buildings presumably housing the warriors. We found the biggest building (Pit 1) and entered with all the other tourists keen to see the clay feast that awaited us. I did my “Grand Canyon trick” of looking at the floor until I knew I would have full view of the army and then lifted my head to see them all laid out in front of us. It was a fantastic sight. There are hundreds of them, all unique in their design, and it is hard to believe that they are well over 2,000 years old.

The Terracotta Warrior army

We wandered round Pit 1 taking numerous pictures and marvelling at the army of clay soldiers that stood below us. We made our way through to Pit 2 and Pit 3 and saw many more of the warriors and learned some of the history behind them. It was still pretty darned cold out there so we were happy to climb back onto the coach after the few hours we had seeing the army. Again, another 7 Yuan back to Xi’An and within 45 minutes we were back at the train station.

Pit 2... I think 

After another power-walk back to the hotel we decided to try out the ramen/noodle place over the road from the hotel and I was thoroughly pleased with the place. Nice and cheap, some English on the menu, but absolutely none spoken by the staff. Still, it didn’t matter to me, I was well away with my chopsticks and dumplings, etc, but it was a different story for James as they didn’t understand “fork” in English. It looked tricky eating duck noodles with two thin spoons.

Nom nom nom!

I Want To Ride My Bicycle...

It had felt bloody ruddy good to sleep in a nice warm and comfortable room after the Beijing hotel so we woke refreshed and ready to nip upstairs for a bit of brekkie, included in the price for our stay. It was a great spread too and we sat and wondered why we didn’t pay a couple of quid extra to stay in somewhere nice in Beijing too. Maybe we have been getting a little soft as our travels have gone on.

There was only one real thing on the agenda for the day – cycle the Xi’An city walls. It is supposedly the thing to do in Xi’An, when you are not visiting the Terracotta Warriors, of course. And also it is best to do it on a tandem bike. Well, we were well up for it, until we actually saw the tandems.

To get to the bikes we needed to trek the few km to the South Gate where we would be able to hire said bikes. It is a pretty impressive sight when you come face to face with the big grey walls that surround the inner city. We paid for our ticket to get up onto the walls and mooched around trying to find the bike station. As I said before, we quickly turned down the opportunity to do a tandem ride – mainly because of the bikes, but also because we knew how uncoordinated we would be on it.

On second thoughts........no!

We paid the girl for the bikes and clambered on. We would have 100 minutes to do a full circuit of the wall. No problem we thought, we used to always be out on our bikes when we were young, just like Karl Pilkington was. And we were off!

Much better! 

It was a very bumpy ride along the wall and we stopped numerous times to check out the scenery and generally muck about, as you do when you are cycling along an ancient city wall in China. There were a few others on top too, but nothing like how many there would be in summer, so it was nice that we almost had the place to ourselves, even though it was jolly chilly up there!

Hello! I'm riding a bike!

We made it round in plenty of time and even had a few minutes to spare as we handed the bikes back. Thankfully there had been no accidents so we wouldn’t need to be calling up the insurance arm of Barclays anytime soon. It certainly got the old blood pumping, which is something that hasn’t happened for quite some time so it was definitely a positive experience. After the bikes we tried to find the Great Mosque but got lost in the maze of narrow streets again. We did find our way out (obviously) and ended up in Lianhu Gardens. There was a small lake and a group of people gathered round a karaoke machine with some “Bez” dancing around like a fool, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. The outdoor karaoke seems to be quite a big thing over here as we saw it in plenty of other places on our travels through China.

Back at the hotel we took the weight off our feet and James had a little snooze through an episode of Catterick. I tried to do a bit of Christmas shopping online, but didn’t really get anywhere. We did manage to find one of the restaurants that we had been researching, but it was one heck of a walk! All the way down to the south-east part of the city, about a half hours walk. It was decent enough grub, but I doubt we would go back again. Especially as on the way back we saw a place right next to our hotel that looked like it would be just the job for the next night, after we had been to see the infamous Terracotta Warriors.

China vs Google

It was an early wake-up call…7:30am to be precise. We hadn’t been disturbed throughout our entire trip, apart from clunking into the occasional train station, but we were getting used to that by now. We would be arriving at just after 8am so we collected our things and readied ourselves for another cold morning start.

Jumping off the train and beginning to arrange the straps on my luggage to clamp it to my back I thought to myself how nice it was now to get off a train and not have a taxi driver rush up to my face and ask if we needed a taxi, as per Thailand. No sooner had I thought it someone came up to me and did that exact same thing, but I managed to pass him off explaining that we were walking it to our already-booked hotel.

We have been able to use a combination of media to track down our accommodation when we first arrive in a new city, but due to China vs Google my Maps application just wouldn’t function. In addition to that we hadn’t been able to use Google Maps in Beijing to see where it was anyway due to the same problem so we were almost working in the dark. Thankfully the hotel was on the main drag so it shouldn’t be a problem finding it.

As usual, whenever I utter those immortal words we had trouble finding it. It turns out that we had walkd right past it without noticing, but in our defence the only indication was some small writing on the handles of the doors. And a gigantic sign up on the side of the building, but as we were walking under it we couldn’t see it. Anyway, we entered and were pretty pleased with our choice. 4 stars no less……a slight step up from a cold, smelly fish-pond-containing, putting-your-waste-paper-in-the-bin farce of Beijing. The room was just what we needed when we got in, and rivalled the LVH in Las Vegas and the Angkor Pearl in Cambodia for Best Hotel Of Our Trip……so far. In dire need of some extra sleep and a shower I flaked out on the bed for an hour or so and then jumped in the shower. A hot shower. A shower that didn’t mean that the entire floor of the bathroom was wet. A shower that was powerful enough to rinse the shampoo out of your hair. A shower that did not pulse freezing cold/scolding hot water onto you every 10 seconds. It was bliss.

4 star luxury...?

And then we needed a wander. Xi’An was at our mercy so we headed out and south towards the Bell Tower. This stands proudly in the centre of the city and has a smaller, similar tower (The Drum Tower) nearby, but that was under lots of scaffolding getting repairs done. We were essentially heading towards the Tourist Information centre so that we could get a better map than the one the hotel gave us and then have a snoop round the place proper.

The glorious Bell Tower

We found the information centre and got the map. Then we found a small market street and had a snoop. There was one item I was searching for, a three-legged toad, but nobody had any small wooden ones, just huge brass ones that weighed a ton! The search would continue. Before we knew it we were lost with no idea where the heck we were and how to get back to the main road. After a wander through the maze of tiny roads we managed to find the main road through the city and made it back to the hotel.

Very nice, but how about a road sign guys?

It was late by the time we made it back out, mainly because we had tried to identify somewhere good to go and eat, as the first night in a new place is always a little troublesome. And without Google Maps we were struggling. We never found it in the end, but we had a contingency plan; we always have a contingency plan. But we couldn’t find that one either. So by the time we stumbled into a shopping centre that had a Pizza Hut it was gone 8:00pm and James’s belly was starting to overpower him. After one look at the menu we turned away in disgust and found a traditional Chinese place just down the way. With no apparent English spoken we were a little wary at first but then they ushered us in and sat us at the swanky table at the head of the restaurant, the one that was closed off and no lighting in until we were shown inside. We felt like kings! But then the ordering process was a little tricky as the young waitress spoke very little English, but we managed to get the message across as to what we wanted and we sat back and waited for our grub to arrive.

Living the good life! Kinda....

Thankfully the order was bang on, but my chicken dish came on-the-bone which I cannot stand. It’s just such a pain to have to pick your way around the bones and gristle. And that’s not even mentioning the salty coating and the chillis! My gosh were there a lot of chillis. It was OK for a first attempt in Xi’An but we couldn’t help feel that the First Night syndrome had hit once again.

Can I have some chicken with my bowl of chillis, please?