Welcome to the start of our around the world trip 2013. Nepal was our first stop since we left Birmingham on the 2nd January 2013. We had
limited knowledge of what to expect from Nepal and were shocked to find it much as we had imagined it's bordering neighbour, India. On our flight out I lost part
of my awesome headphones (which I still haven't got over) and Kat's rucksack cover was damaged by emirates airport staff. Luckily I managed to fix the latter and
find a new pair of the former during our transfer at Dubai Airport.
Upon arriving at our hotel we were presently surprised to be greeted by our Tour Leader. This was a great surprise to us since our tour didn't start for two more
days. Thankfully this gave us some time to get over the jet lag we both had after having almost no sleep on the way to Nepal.
Monkey Temple
On the first of our two days without the group we decided to see some of Kathmandu's highlights which we knew were not going to be covered by the tour. The first
of these was the Monkey Temple. After managing to successfully hail a taxi while being offered drugs and surviving the crazy taxi ride we arrived at the monkey
temple. The first thing which came to our immediate attention was the 350 near vertical steps which we now had to climb. Even though it was winter in Nepal the day
time sun and temperature made this a difficult climb. The ascent was not helped by the hagglers trying to get you to buy something knowing you were too un-acclimatised
to run away up the steps. Upon reaching the top we were greeted with the sight of the Monkey Temple glistening under the midday sun. Immediately we noticed that
the Nepalese people had set up shops all around the temple, this kind of made the whole experience a bit less enjoyable since someone was always haggling you. We
did however manage to find several back areas which were much less populated and you were generally only bothered by monkeys.
Durbar Square
Next we visited Durbar Square. This is an area of world heritage in the middle of Kathmandu. Unfortunately as of late tourism has declined in Kathmandu, as such
we were hassled by a couple of local guides. We also had lunch here at a rooftop bar overlooking the square. We ordered Nachos, a decision we grew to regret upon
receiving a plate of soggy, drenched in cheese potato chips. After lunch we enjoyed the sights and then decided to walk back to Thamel where we were staying via
all the markets. We did almost get lost while doing this but fortunately we had brought a map in the morning just in case.
Pashupatinath
That evening we met with our tour group and were presented with the opportunity to take an early scenic flight to see mount Everest. We took this opportunity but
were unfortunately greeted by heavy fog upon arriving at the airport at 6.30am. After constant delays we decided to stop waiting as the chance of our flight taking
place was near minimal.
Next we re-joined the rest of the group and went on to Pashupatinath. This is a location on the ganges river where hindu's burn their dead. We happened to be there
on the day where a great nepalese poet was being burned. The army were present and played the national anthem. There is something strange about watching human flesh
burn and the smell is something to behold.
Bodhnath Stupa
Our next stop on the first day with the group was Bodnath Stupa. This is a great Buddhist monument. We were then able to watch Buddhist monks paint
meditation paintings and proceeded to purchase one since half of the money was being donated to local orphanages.
Bhaktapur
During the early afternoon of our first day with the group we were given the afternoon for free time. We, along with some of the group decided
that we should go and see Bhaktapur. Upon arrival we were greeted by a Nepalese student who offered to guide us all around for two hours for
the mere sum of £2 for the whole group. The man in question had very good english, even better than our actual tour guides and had lots of
information. We were happy to see that Bhaktapur was much better than Durbar Square.
The next morning we had a 7am start as we had to get a 7 hour bus from Kathmandu to the Chitwan National Park. This drive was down a very dangerous mountain pass
with crazy Indian truckers coming head on up the pass. The bus was very cold and we were breathing condensation for the majority of the journey. The cold was
compounded by the lack of sun light on the pass.
Upon arrival in Chitwan (which was soon to be nicknamed by some as Shitwan) we were informed of the available activities. On the night of the first day we were
all sat round a bonfire in order to keep warm and ended up with us all having a song and dance Nepalese style. This was very enjoyable since the owner got his
enitre family involved and we some of us had a try at the Nepelase dance.The next morning we went on an Elephant Safari into the National Park. We didn't see much
other than the elephants, peacocks and a stag but the journey was still enjoyable. That night we had signed up to experience a local Nepalese village dance which
they used to perform to scare off predators at night. We enjoyed a few Nepalese beers for £1 a 650ml bottle before heading to bed. That night a rhinoceros came
into our camp in search of food since it was winter and the local vegetable patch was too enticing for it. In the morning we woke to find that all the cauliflower
had been eaten.
The next morning we departed for Lumbini.
Lumbini was the birth place of Budda. We were pleasently suprised by the condition of our lodge upon arrival. As was seemingly always the case outside of Kathmandu our lunch took over 90 minutes from the time of ordering to its arrival at our table. This didn't really bother us since the food was always great. After lunch we proceeded onto the birth place of Budda and the peace memorial park. The park was nice but the Budda side of it was a bit tacky. On the positive we got to see lots of Monks around the grounds. We had to take our shoes off to enter the grounds and unfortunately this meant dodging bird poo and other mess while walking around bare foot.
We left Lumbini for the Nepealease / Indian Border. We were due to depart at 6.45am since we had a 90 minute drive to the border, then we needed to cross the border and then we had a 9 hour bus ride through India to a place on the ganges river called Varanasi.
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