So mum and dad dropped me off at the airport and after a couple of farewell drinks (courtesy of dad) it was time to head through security and board my flight to Nepal. I was so excited, but after some food I managed to get to sleep before stopping in Muscat as I had the whole row to myself. I landed in Kathmandu around 4pm local time, sorted out my visa and quickly got shoved in to the back of a taxi without much choice and enjoyed the very bumpy ride on a seat that had less springs in tact than a uni matress to my hostel Alobar 1000. Alobar had such a cool vibe, and a roof top terrace overlooking the city. Within 5 minutes I had already met people in my dorm and we wandered in to Thamel to get some money out and have a look around. That evening we had a huge plate of fried vegetable rice for about 80p and headed in to town, had a couple of beers and listened to a Nepali rock band covering english power ballads...it can only be described as passionate!!
First day in Kathmandu was spent exploring the city with Amy, Katy and Oli. We walked for about an hour and a half and up about a million steps to reach Swayambhu or monkey temple as it is also known. I've seen a lot of temples but this one is cool...once you get to the top, if you weren't attacked by monkeys, you are hit instantly with the smell of incense, buddhist chants and the sound of prayer bells being spun. We had lunch at the temple on the roof of a small cafe, ate vegetable momo's and drunk lemon and ginger tea and chilled out for a couple of hours in the sun. Roisin had arrived at the hostel when I got back so we had some beers on the hostel roof and we all went out for dinner. We sat on the floor huddled round a low table and shared fried snacks and questionable curries, the restaurant guys then took us out to a bar which was sweet, until we ended up in a Nepali nightclub...definitely NOT the one!!!
Nepal is everything India is missing...friendly and helpful locals without feeling like you have to give them money even to get a smile!! It is great. We also headed to Durbar Square by cycle rickshaw, the wheels didn't fall off!! It was bustling, hectic, full of touts and street vendors.
On Friday 8th March we left Kathmandu and took the 7am bus to Chitwan national park. The bus took about 7 hours speeding through the mountains on bumpy roads. We saw a guy being rescued from the side of the mountain on a stretcher...not sure if he was ok! And the girl sat next to me was sick all over herself...a great journey!! We stayed at Tiger Residency in the buffer zone of the national park, its the ultimate tourist hub not sure if I was overly keen. If it wasn't for tourism nothing would exist here. We walked along the river at sun set and saw wild rhinos and crocodiles chilling in the evening sun. This evening the hotel owmers invited us to drink with them, the only thing was they were drinking something like 50% home brewed whisky, i think we drank through gritted teeth, that stuff was lethal! the next day was spent canoeing down the river looking for crocodiles and birds, we walked through the forest to try and find a tiger (no luck there!!), we also went elephant riding and saw a few rhino grazing. This was all too touristy for me. We borrowed some bikes from the guesthouse and cycled down to the river for sun set. we sat on a couple of loungers on the river side, watching the elephants bathe whilst drinking 2-4-1 cocktails as the sun went down. It was such a lovely evening. It got quite late and dark and the guesthouse owner, who we called grandad, came to look for us on his motrobike as he was worried we got lost. He was so lovely and funny, all he ever did was laugh at us!!
We then headed to Pokhara on a local bus, sketchy as anything, but it is ok there was a first aid kit which consisted of a toothbrush and a razor by the looks of things! Our accommodation was dirt cheap at 1 pound 50 a night and was fine! Spent the arvo chilling then had a big night out in town at Busy Bees met a couple of sound guys and had fun with rum and coke all night! so hungover the following morning however we thought we should be active and DO something....and what better way to get rid of a dirty hangover than to go paragliding over the lake and snow capped mountains! Wow! It was absolutely stunning! Drove up to the top of a mountain where there were so many paragliders hanging out waiting to jump off, our flight was half an hour and it was a beautifully clear day. Ahhhhh it was amazing I could do it over and over....apparently it only takes a couple of weeks to get your pilot license...!!
The next couple of days were spent at a yoga retreat...did i enjoy it ermmmm maybe...would i do it again ermmmmm NO! Being woken up at 5am to do 1hr 30 of meditation, followed by mornning yoga, nasal cleansing and a walk all before breakfast ermmmm no thank you. At least we can say we did it, and hey the home cooked nepali food was absolutely amazing so at least that was something!! Full of aboslute wierdos as well, a couple we were certain were using it as rehab and then the other were clearly trying to find themselves or force them in to a chilled out hippy person when really they are uptight snobs. merrrrr wierd.
The next three days were spent trekking the Annapurna Himal, we did a 4 day, 3 night trek which was 60km and we reached an altitude of 3200m. We walked about 8 hours a day as the route we did was supposed to be done in 5 days however we did not have time for that. Along the route there are many tea house where you stop for food and sleep for the night. They are very basic huts, but have great food and a warm shower so its not all bad. The views were absolutely amazing and on our way we crossed many valleys. The time of year we were trekking was when all the flowers are blossoming, beautiful pink patches of colour spread across the valley. The second day was hard for the first hour as we had to climb a gruelling 3300 steps one after the other getting steeper and steeper. On the third morning we got up at 5 am so we could reach Poon Hill for sunrise, one of the most famous view points. From Poon Hill we could see 4 of the main Annapurna Mountains, including Annapurna South, Macchapuchare and I cannot remember the other two!! I never wanted this to end, the sunw as reflecting off the snow and the mountain peaks were glowing orange. WOW so good. The trekking was amazing however it was ruined a bit by a couple of the other people in our group and the fact we had really dodgy guides. We could of easily done the trekking ourself as it wasn't overly hard and I wish this is what we had done. Our guides were rubbish...moral of the story pay more for a better experience, at one point the american girl Laura in our group got the tourist police involved because they were that bad. Luckily we hadn't fully paid for it and we are not going to either. The final part of the trek was a local bus journey down the mountain side, i have NEVER been so scared in my life. A big bus, on a single track with rocks covering it, sharp bends and all we could feel were the tyres slipping underneath us. Shit it was horrible. We sat there squeezing eachothers sweaty hands discussing what we were going to do if we fell off the cliff. I said we don't really need to plan as our fate would have been decided for us wheras Roisin decided that putting her contact lenses in her pocket would be helpful so she could see when her glasses smash!! hahahahaha. We nearly walked. Aside from that the views were amazing and the locals were super friendly, so between Laura, Roisin, myself, a good ipod and a caring russian guy we did on the whole enjoy it. I would love to trek the whole 30 day circuit one day in the future.
I could not wait to get back to Pokhara...we sat lakeside drinking gin and juice watching the sun go down before another great night out with the friends we had made from last time.
After a 9 hour bus journey with a hangover we made it back to Kathmandu for our final night in Nepal...whilst hiding from the trekking guides!! Spent the evening shopping, eating and drinking in the backpacker area of Thamel before my flight the following morning to Thailand.
