Momo

So James still wasn’t back to his usual self, but at least he managed to get some breakfast down him. Things might be looking up after all. After a lazy morning we went for a wander down the main drag to grab some lunch.

The place we found seemed good enough for a small lunch, nothing heavy needed after the big breakfast. I wanted to try the momo’s (Nepalese local dish, like dumplings) but I was told they would take a long time to prepare (which had been the case at a few other places) so I opted for the veg chow-mein. As big brother wasn’t feeling up to much he went for the chocolate ice-cream; not a bad choice for someone who has been poorly. My dish came soon after and it was massive! I knew I’d never finish it and I didn’t want to be rude so I forced down as much as I could and then we went our separate ways – James ambled back to the hotel and I went for a hike round the lake.

I had thought about hiring a bike and trying to get to one of the lakes outside of Pokhara or heading up to the caves up north, but they all seemed just a little bit of a stretch too far. Instead I decided to head round the lake and see the second biggest city of Nepal from the other side of the lake. I set off and passed a multitude of other hikers, bikers and trekkers, including the regular local folk all going about their business.

A mediocre view of Lake Phewa

I didn’t make it all the way round to the other side of the lake, it was just too big. But I did manage to get covered in red dust and get almost tipped into the lake by a Dutch guy in a canoe. I wandered back as I knew that James would be waiting for me – I said that I would be back by 6 and to only get worried if I was later than that.

Just off fishing...

For the evening we tried a new venue on the main drag and James’s appetite was on the comeback as he went for some spicy chicken wings. I plumped for the chilli chips again and an order of vegetable momo’s as they would only take 10 minutes, so he said. They were good, a bit like a dumpling crossed with a samosa, and I’m glad I tried them in the end. Not much happened after that. Sorry.

Sorted!

In actuality it hadn’t been the horrendous night I had envisaged. James managed to keep everything in and didn’t get up once during the night. He obviously wasn’t feeling 100% still so I went down for breakfast by myself. It was alright, perhaps a little better than the Peak Point, which may have been the source of the illness for James, we will never know.

After I had eaten I found James up and out of bed, which was a good sign, although he obviously wasn’t his usual chirpy self. I spent the morning trying to work out the best way of getting us into Delhi or Agra, but it still seemed like an unenviable/impossible task. I also had a look into what other things there were to do in Pokhara, but it seemed that most things were well outside the city and would need some form of transport to get to them. James spent most of the morning asleep, with the occasional foray into consciousness, only to drift off again minutes later. With overland options now looking like it would end in tragedy if James didn’t get better or had a “double-dip” I checked out flights. We would have to fly from Kathmandu into Delhi and I had seen prices for about £100. When I checked them out again it was now £120 which wasn’t sitting well with me and I knew that it would be the same with James too. But after a little bit of snooping around I managed to find a price of about £80 with Spicejet. I had flown with Spicejet before on my last visit to India and it was spot on so I had no qualms about going with them again. When James woke up I told him the good news and went through to book the tickets. It turns out that the price I had been quoted was in Nepalese rupees and not Indian rupees so it actually came in at only £50 each. Bargain!

And that was one weight off our shoulders and we could relax – it would also be one less train journey/overnighter on a coach which was fantastic news. In addition we would also be able to stay an extra day in Pokhara which we had been keen to do ever since we had arrived. We were loving the nice peaceful atmosphere and had hoped to extend our stay and the hotel were happy to keep us for another night, no problem.

We took a stroll out and about the main street on Pokhara where all the cafes, shops and restaurants are but at a much-slowed pace due to James’s lack of energy. We wandered down to the lake and the view was spectacular. A slight bit of fog/pollution hanging around, but that didn’t detract from the view of the snow-capped mountains reflecting in the lake. We didn’t hang around too long though as my convalescing brother needed to get back to the hotel and rest up some more. We did so and then I left him to it whilst I went out for a wander round on my own. I went down the same street as before and mooched around the shops checking out what trinkets they had on offer, as I still had a little bit of room left in my bag to bring some things home with me. After an hour or so I was bored (Pokhara isn’t that big) so I moseyed on back to the hotel to check on James.

Lake Phewa

That evening we went out for a bite to eat but as James only ordered the chicken soup I decided that I would be “eating for two” that night and ordered the pizza with a side of chilli chips (we do eat local foods, but we need to break it up some nights). It was a challenge to get both platters down, with a big bottle of Everest beer, but I managed it just before the stodge sweats kicked in. The walk home was a slow one, and not because of James this time, but to ensure that I kept everything where I had put it at the dinner table. 

Ummmmm, Seatbelts Please!

With enough time to have a relaxed breakfast and finish off packing our stuff we were happy with our decision to get the micro/mini-bus to Pokhara. Pretty much everyone else we had spoken to had advised us against the mini-bus and said that we should get the tourist buses instead. But they left at 7:00am so we would have to up very early and also miss out on a paid-for breakfast! So we had gone for the mini-bus option. We needed to get a taxi out to the pick-up point out west and to our unsurprised eyes a small white Suzuki turned up - these are everywhere in Kathmandu and are very much beat-up old bangers that are small enough to navigate through the small streets and around tourists. With our luggage in the back and passenger seat next to me we set off, both a little disappointed but not surprised that there were no seatbelts to speak of, so we just hung on for dear life to anything that we could.

One of the many Suzuki taxis, in good condition

As soon as we arrived at the pick-up point there were heads forced in through the windows barking at us, asking where we were going. Once we had managed to get out of the taxi we negotiated a price with one of the better-looking mini-buses (but even this had a massive crack through the entire windscreen) and climbed inside. The bags went on top and we were assured that they would be tied down so they didn’t fall off. We sighed as we realised that there were no seatbelts in this vehicle either, so we just tried to settle our nerves as best we could. With several seats still empty we set off, in the opposite direction, then turned around and came crawling back down the same street we had just been on. It looked like the traffic police were moving everyone on after a while but these guys wanted a full van to get to Pokhara. After 20 minutes we had a full quota and began our trip to Pokhara that should take about 4 hours (website/forum advice) or 6 hours (everyone else).

Inside the mini-bus

We had heard that the mini-buses are fast and the journey is scary, but we were assured that they had good brakes and then again it couldn’t be much worse than Bangkok to Cambodia. Yes it was a little heart-in-mouth at some points – overtaking buses/lorries, screaming round blind corners and seeing crashed busses and lorries by the side of the road – but we were confident in the drivers ability. His accomplice was constantly shouting out of the window at passers-by in the small villages in an attempt to cram more people into the van, but all the seats were taken, so we didn’t know where they would sit. It turned out that they put a wooden board across the aisle in order to create another seat and we were upping the numbers constantly as we continued our journey. Long the way I noticed a few white vehicles drive by with huge blue letters on them spelling out “UN” but we never saw what they were doing or where they were going.

The view at "lunch"

We had stopped for lunch for a half-hour and then carried on along the crazy, weaving mountain road. We eventually made it into Pokhara at about half 4, 6 hours after getting into the mini-bus. We jumped into a taxi with a friendly local guy who managed to tell the driver where our hotel was and we pulled up outside the Hotel Orchid. It looked nice from the outside, but we have been caught out before on first appearances.

But thankfully it was a right nice gaff. Apart from the fact there was still no power. This was getting ridiculous, but at the same time we don’t want to spend all day in a hotel room. After the crazy journey into Pokhara James took a snooze to get refreshed and I unpacked and began to settle in. With the clock approaching dinner time I was looking to get out of the hotel and into town to find a good restaurant as a pipe of Pringles for lunch is just not a proper meal. But James wasn’t feeling too hot. A trip to the bathroom confirmed this. Oh dear.

I would be searching the streets of Pokhara to find a place to eat by myself that night for James would absolutely not be joining me. I picked up some more water and things on the way back and he was still in a bad way so I had a night in and caught up on some more admin (getting to Delhi, Christmas shopping, house-hunting, etc) as James spent most of the night wrapped in the duvet in the bathroom. By the end of the night I believe that most of his illness was out but I still braced myself for a nice of disturbances as James dashed from bed to bathroom. I crossed my fingers, placed the swing-bin by his bed and hoped for the best…

Table for one, please

Bad Joo-joo

Sometimes it seems that something is not all well in the Universe. You cannot explain it, just that every now and again things just don’t go your way. That was exactly what happened on our last day in Kathmandu.

It didn’t get off to a great sight when after breakfast we were treated to the sight of a man just finishing a bowel movement in the allotment outside our hotel. Thankfully we were high up enough for it not really to affect us, but it isn’t something you want to see first thing in the morning. Or ever, for that matter. We had realised that we would need to do a spot of admin to ensure safe passage through to India, as it seemed a less than well-travelled route. No trains in Nepal and the options looked like a 36-hour bus ride across the border, or to travel back to Kathmandu and fly into Delhi. The other choice would depend on whether or not we would be able to get a train from the Indian town of Gorukhpur to Delhi, after having got a bus/taxi from Pokhara to the border and then another into Gorukhpur, which looked lengthy and expensive. Plus we needed to work out how to get to Pokhara in the first place!

With the time fast approaching midday we decided to nip out and grab some food and do a few chores before cabin fever set in. We decided to try a travel agent to see if we could buy Indian train tickets in Nepal for our journey through to Delhi. After a bit of miss-communication he finally got the idea and jumped on the phone to call the Indian railway and see what he could arrange. We didn’t want to buy them there and then, just see if it were possible. When he put the phone down he claimed that it was fully booked. Oh well, we would just have to find another train. And we didn’t really believe him anyway, especially as we hadn’t even told him which train we needed!

I needed to find an internet café that would let me make an international phone call to Barclays to sort out my debit card. There was one just round the corner and I crept in through the dimly-lit corridor and tried to explain that I needed to call the operator and/or get the call charges reversed. He didn’t understand, so in order to get it all sorted and to get some money in my pocket again I dialled direct and made sure that I would get a receipt to forward on to Barclays.

"Hello? Barclays Fraud Department? I have a bone to pick with you..."

“I am sorry, the service you require is temporarily unavailable” came the voice down the other end of the line. I was fuming. I had tried emailing them, to no avail. I had already lost about a fivers worth of call credit trying to take their automated call. They never replied to any emails. And now when I pick up the phone to call them direct there was a problem and no mention of when it were to be fixed! Gah! I stormed off and just got that feeling that things weren’t going to go well.

Back at the hotel we experienced yet another power cut and then realised why Barclays weren’t available – the guy in the internet place had his clock wrong for England so it had been outside opening hours. Sheesh! So after lunch we went back in and I made my call. They understood what had happened and they advised that my card would now be usable. We would see about that…

We found another travel agent online that seemed pretty legit and should have train tickets for us so we set off to find it. Sadly it wasn’t just round the corner and was a hefty hike away. We never found it. But we did try another travel agent only to get the same response…fully booked. Oh dear.

As we were heading East we decided to stop off at the Hindu temple Pashupatinath. This was where they burned the bodies of their dead and we would be able to witness this and many other delights. When we arrived we were pretty tired from the long walk there but paid our 500 Rupees and wandered inside. We dismissed the offer of a guide and had a look round the place. We were told we weren’t allowed inside the main temple, which was fair enough, but once we were inside it seemed like there was precious else that we could see. Apart from monkeys. Always with the monkeys.

OK then, we will just look in from outside

So as we cursed our luck and headed for the exit I spotted the top of a temple that looked like something we might be able to see. As we walked down to it an armed policeman asked us for our tickets and a local came up and explained that this was where they burned the bodies. Hmmmm, maybe things were looking up. Another local chap accompanied us inside and showed us the ceremonial burning plinths and began telling me all about it. James had wandered off and I smelled a scam/someone on the take. I tried to dismiss him as diplomatically as I could and he left me alone.

Inside the temple - the bit we were allowed in

Whilst walking round we noticed a Sadhu (Hindu holy man) sitting down near to the river. James desperately wanted a picture with one whilst on our travels so he gave him a donation of 50 Rupees and sat down next to him. I snapped away and then James ushered me to sit next to him; apparently he had paid for me too! So we swapped places and James clicked away, but then the Sadhu asked me for a donation too! Cheeky. So as I had huge notes and small notes I found a 20 Rupee note and handed it over. The cheeky fella kept mumbling “one hundred” as I was searching around in my wallet, but he would have to settle for the 20.

The Sadhu and me 

After we had got our snaps we found the other plinths where a body was being prepared. There were many people lined up on the other side of the river all watching in quiet respect. We waited as they continued the ceremony but as the clock was ticking we had to leave before it finished. It was another lengthy trek back to Thamel and as it was after dark we were allowed into Durbar Square without paying an admittance fee. It seemed quite nice inside, but as it was after hours and it was the end of a long day we didn’t really get the full feel of it. We had also found Freak Street on the way, but again, it was nothing like Khao San road in Bangkok which is what I was expecting.

We were very hungry by that point so we decided to have another slap-up meal in the Cosy Cafe & Restaurant, if anything just to avoid Omar from the Rock Café. It started well when the owner greeted us wearing a Liverpool FC coat. We settled in and ordered the buffalo steak (for me) and the Biryani (for James) and supped away on two large Everest beers. Bliss. It was a good end to a troublesome day, and hopefully the bad joo-joo would be gone by the time we got to Pokhara.

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.