10th May - Flying with Eagles over the Himalayan Foothills

Awesome day but frustrating day.....

I got up at 7.30 and tried to contact the guy I had planned to accompany me in a boat this morning while I swam across the lake but he did not answer his phone. I got ready and headed to the cafe that rent boats and arranged for the local guy who rents out the boats to come with me. In the water for 8.15 and swan across the lake (1.25 miles) by 9. I have not done much outside swimming over long distances before and I was not sure how I would feel. When doing breast stroke my left knee hurts but my muscles were fine and I did not find it particularly challenging to swim back again. It was good to have the boat there just for saftely though. Miranda was right that it was a sensible thing to do. This is a picture of the lake that I swam across and back (taken from the air later on in the day).

I felt nicely exercised afterward. It is the same distance as the swim for iron man and it was good to gauge how far it is and how I would feel afterward.

I raced back to have a quick shower and some muesli and fruit at the local cafe and then rushed into town to get 4 passport photos, money from the ATM and photocopies of my passport and insurance documents so that I could give them to the trekking company to get my Trekking licence. It is expensive. I need a Tims permit ($20 USD) and conservation permit another 2000RS. Total was about 3600RS I think - about £30.

I had forgotten my trainers for the flight and so rushed back to my guest house to pick some up and asked the owners at the same time if I could rent a rucksack. I managed to do so for 40RS per day (about 33p :-)).

When I got back I still had a few mins to wait for the jeep to pick us up to take us to the mountain and so I went and organised the white water rafting trip for the way back to Kathmandu.

The jeep ride up to the top of a mountain took about 30mins, the last 10mins of which was on a dirt road track. I was really excited and not at all nervous as I have no illogical fear of heights and I have been paragliding before. I met my Korean instructor at the top. He has been working here for 7 months, flying for 7 years and he does 3 flights per day. That's enough experience for me!

We took off in literally minutes of us arriving at the top of the mountain. For the first 5 minutes he could not find a thermal and we descended reasonably close to the hill side but then he found one and away we went. It was amazing!

I was expecting great views and to really enjoy it - what I was not expecting was to have eagles flying within about 1 meter of the parachute. They were just having fun and coming to say hello! I was so surprised. We were at just under 2000m and so the eagles could not possibly be hunting from that height. They were enjoying flying past and checking out what we were doing! They are such beautiful creatures. If I am reincarnated please can I return as an Eagle?

Most of the flight was very relaxing and as it was for 1 hour I could really just sit back and get into the experience. We climbed into cloud a couple of times and had to leave as quickly as possible as it is not safe as you can't see other people flying and might bang into them. The views of the mountains were not fantastic today as it was hazy but I could still see for about 60 into the distance.

The instructor has an extension pole attachment for his camera so that he could take great photos and videos of us from a distance during the flight. Unfortunately the company wanted £15 for this (2 days budget) and I had already blown my budget by going on the flight and so I said no. He took the pictures and video anyway and showed me the 10 photos and 1 video. I still said No. I was happy enough to get some great photos of Eagles at 2000m :-)

On the way down he did some tricks which made me feel a bit sick. It is a fast way to descend but essentially puts you at 90 degrees from the ground. I was giggling all the way.....

The whole flight took 1 hour and cost £88. It was a treat that was well worth it. The driver was at the lakes edge to take us back to the office for about 1.30.

When I got back to the office after the flight I picked up my trekking permit and then went shopping for some equipment that I need and do not carry on my bike at the moment. It was pretty cheap to get knock-off equipment. I don't need it to last very long. I bought hiking shoes, hat, gloves, scarf, compass, head torch (another one as backup), water purification tablets, batteries and a cable for my glasses - all cost £20. It took a couple of hours and I got caught out (again) in the thunderstorms.

When I got back to pick up my bike I found that the wheels were buckled (all the spokes were tightened to different tensions) and the gears had not been tuned and were all out. I ended up leaving them too it as I was getting frustrated watching them trying a failing to fix the gears. They seemed to be even worse than I am at it!! Arrgggg. It is so disappointing after it was running so well when the guys in Kathmandu had tuned it all.

I went back to my guest house and picked up my laptop and tried to catch up on my blog at "My Favourite Restaurant". The thunderstorm this afternoon was really impressive. The wind was crazy and water came through the roof.








I went to pick up my bike just before 8 and it seemed that the gears were much better and so I paid and left. I seem to be hemorrhaging money right now. However, it was still much cheaper than the UK (£34 for 2 new wheels).

I met Miranda for dinner in town. We had fresh mango juice and coconut on the way to a lovely restaurant all "Olive" (I thing). It was a REAL restaurant and served grown-up food. It was not the sort of food that I could cook myself (as in most of the tourist restaurants I have eaten in recently). I had a lovely Thai meal and then shared a cheesecake thing for desert.

We chatted with another Brit called Mark who was sitting at the table next to us. He has been traveling in a camper van with his girl friend for the last 2 years and had just completed the Annapura circuit on a mountain bike over about 10 days. Cool.

They were planning on driving through Tibet and into China but apparently the boarder has just been closed by China and they are not letting anyone through. So I would not have been able to go that way at all even on a tour! Thank goodness I have booked a flight to Kong Hong instead. I feel sorry for the cyclists that I met on the way from Kathmandu that were planning to go the same way I was. Mark now has to rethink his plans too.....

I don't think I was very good company this evening. I was all flustered for most of the evening as I was thinking about all of the things I need to do to get ready to go trekking first thing tomorrow morning and I could not decide whether to go trekking tomorrow or the day after. I am still not feeling 100%. I did not manage to do all of the paper work/email stuff I needed to either this afternoon as the power went off. On the way back to the Guest house I tried riding my bike only to find that the back wheel was flat and the gears were not changing properly. Having run round like a mad thing trying to fit everything in it is frustrating not to go tomorrow morning. It also means that I will not have enough days to make the base camp if I do not go tomorrow morning.

However, the fact that my bike was not ready to go and that there was no electricity so that I could see enough to pack all my things easily and fix my bike made me decide to just stay 1 more day in Pokhara. At least I can spend another day with Miranda and also catch up on my blog etc.

9th May - Pokhara organisation day

Woke up through the night coughing and eventually got up at 8.15. Showered in bucket of cold water (great to get back on budget) and met Miranda at the Language center where she has Nepali Lessons everyday from 8-9.

We had coffee (proper pot of coffee :-)) and tea at a small cafe next to the center and chatted with a few friends of hers. We then took ourselves off to the Freedom Cafe to have breakfast and use the fast wireless internet. It is one of the most expensive places but very lovely and has great views of the lake. It has little wooden huts and a moat in the middle.

Miranda has some work that she had to complete but then we had a good natter. It was great to catch up with her and find out what she has been up to over the last few months and also to see where she has been living and working. Miranda was traveling here a year or so ago and started volunteer work at a center for Empowering Women of Nepal.The organization's goal is to improve the lives of disadvantaged women in Nepal. They do this by training women in tourism and to become trekking guides and porters so they can be in control of their own income.

Through her work with the center she traveled to different parts of Nepal and learnt a lot about the culture and the plight of women here. She came up with the idea to do a documentary about her experiences and 1 year on is now still volunteering at the center (for the last 3 months) and also doing research and fundraising for the documentary. She will be starting filming with an editor friend of her's in November. Her work is really impressive. Please help this cause if you can.

http://mirandatravelsblog.blogspot.com

www.shaktipictures.com

www.indiegogo.com/Daughters-of-the-Curved-Moon

After breakfast I took a walk into town to find a bike service center that had been recommended by one of Miranda's Nepali friends. It turns out that both the front and back rims of my bike are broken! It really was one hell of a bang. They said that they can replace both wheels by tomorrow evening. I decided to go with the rims they have in stock rather than waiting an extra day for new Mavic rims to arrive from Kathmandu. As they also do trekking, rafting and paragliding trips I spent a while with them planning my next few days. I have booked to go paragliding tomorrow morning at 11 and I will then go trekking for a few days after that. I will then go rafting on the way back to Kathmandu. The rafting will break my trip back to catch the flight to Hong Kong to meet Jacob.

When I got back I was too late to go swimming with Miranda as she had to go to work and so I went on my own. She had mentioned that she had swum across the lake the other day and I then really wanted to do it. The views of the lake really are fab and it is very hot in the middle of the day. Perfect place to swim. Apparently the lake is much more polluted than it used to be but not really bad. Loads of tourists and locals swim there. Miranda pretty much goes for a midday swim every day.

I saw a boy that I thought was about 1/4 of the way out and swam back and forth to it 10 times to work out whether it was possible for me to go across the lake and back (without a boat to bring me back). It was not a problem and so I am now planning on doing it tomorrow morning. Miranda has persuaded me to go with a boat just in case through.

After my swim I popped in to see Miranda's work and find out about trekking etc and meet her colleagues. I then went for a run along the lakeside. I did not get very far though as I am not back up to full strength with this cold. I still have a sore throat and can't breathe properly..... Arrgggg.

After a shower I went back to Freedom cafe but found that there was a power cut and so the Wi-Fi does not work and so I walked to another cafe (called "My Favorite Restaurant)" in the middle of a thunderstorm. The second cafe was supposed to have Wi-Fi even when the power is off. I got drenched on the way and found that for some reason the Wi-Fi was not working. Arrrgg.

Nepal has major infrastructure problems at the moment. There are regular power cuts (off for 8 hours at a time pretty much daily), major petrol and fuel shortages and nationwide strikes every couple of weeks. This is just part of daily life for people and they just find work rounds.

The weather here is very similar to Kathmandu. Sunny mornings and warm and then around 2 or 3 the thunderclouds arrive and then it pours really heavily for about 3 hours. The pre-monsoon season is about 1 month early this year. Apparently down to global warming....

Where does all the time go? I have no idea how I ever managed to fit in a full time job. Right now I still have no desire to head back to England and settle down again. I am enjoying traveling too much. I miss my close friends and family but I have made several close new friends along the way that I think I will stay friends with for a very long time.

I did not manage to catch up much on my blog as it took ages to exercise and then faff and get connected once the power came back.

Miranda and I went for an OK just down the road from the guest house at a restaurant called Night and Day.I had a wood oven baked pizza and a buffalo salad. Ummm..... A good day exploring the area and organising the next few days.

8th May - To Pokhara - Major Bike Problem

I had put the alarm on for 5.30 to get going before the road got really busy but felt rubbish when I woke up (still have bad cold) so went back to sleep till 8ish. The lady that ran the guest house was cooking a fab smelling chicken dish as I was leaving and so I had some of that for breakfast and then got on the road.

It was a beautiful sunny morning and really hot. Very different from Kathmandu. The scenery is fantastic and the busy road did not bother me too much. This is the route that I did in a jeep on the way to Kathmandu a couple of weeks ago. I had seen a cyclist doing it on that day and wished that I was on my bike.... Oh well it turned out :-) I did not think then that I would be going to Pokhara rather than through Tibet.

The road is reasonably flat considering it is going through the foothills of the Himalayas. I felt very different today to yesterday. There was far less pollution on the road and it is difficult to be in a bad mood when it is sunny and the scenery is amazing. I am still fighting off this cold though and my legs are not feeling strong.




As I was cycling along I heard a snapping sound and my saddle felt all funny. I stopped to see what was wrong and found that one half of the metal supports which hold the saddle together has broken in two. Arrggg. Not the end of the world if the other one holds for a bit - but it does make a rather uncomfortable ride. I need to get a replacement asap. The problem is finding a comfortable women's specific saddle in Nepal. It might have to wait until Hong Kong now.




At about midday I met 2 German cyclists that are doing a loop back to Germany over the course of 1 year. I think they are about 6 months in to their trip. It turns out that they are planning the same route home that I am: China, Mongolia, on and off the Trans-Siberian railway through Russia and then home to Germany. They are also planning on getting to China through Tibet as I was planning on doing. It was interesting to chat with them. I had found out that it is almost impossible to get into China this way and even if it is possible, it is extremely expensive. They are planning on getting a bus tour from Kathmandu to Lhasa and then getting a Chinese Visa a the Tibet Chinese boarder. From asking around in Kathmandu I thought that this is not possible at the moment.

Apparently some friends of theirs did this 3 years ago and so maybe it is possible and I just asked the wrong people. I wish them the best of luck with their route. I hope they make it but as the same time if they do then I will be disappointed not to have done this myself. At least this way I get to meet up with Jacob in Hong Kong. There is not way that he would meet me anywhere else in China as he does not "do developing nations sweety".




I had lunch over looking the river and sat and read about Nepal and investigated the trek which I am planning on doing. I can spend hours looking at maps. The views really are fantastic along this road. I saw many people white water rafting. Apparently this is the place to do it and all of the groups from Kathmandu and Pokhara come here to this river. I found out that I could just turn up in the morning on the way back to Kathmandu and get on a raft. Awesome. I might do that....





The road got quieter the later it became and was almost dead once I had taken the turn off to Pokhara. This main highway across Nepal is very busy and quite unsafe through. I saw about 8 lorries or coaches abandoned on the side of the road after an accident. They do take a while to clear these off the road but it did not look like any of them had been there for more than a few days. There was a man on the top of this lorry asleep, waiting for help I guess.




I was just doing the last 10km push (after doing over 100km) to find a guest house when I turned a sharp corner to find that the tarmaced road disappeared and there was water covering the gravel road. I braked hard but hit the water at speed only to find a drop of about 1 foot and a lip on the other side. My bike banged into the ledge with one hell of a force and all of my panniers flew up into the air. I just about managed to control the bike and not come off as both of the wheels jammed. I jumped off the bike to run and pick up my bags on the road before the on coming traffic ran over them. Once I had everything out of the way of traffic I checked my bike to find that the back wheel was done for. There was a huge dent in the rim and the wheel could not turn through the brakes. The inner tube was budging out of the side of the wheel. There was no way that I could cycle it!

So unfortunate! After riding on horrendous unsealed roads in India I was not expecting this on a good quality highway in Nepal. I had just replaced the back wheel in Kathmandu and the bike was running better than it has done since I left the UK!

As the wheels would not even turn there was no way that I could cycle. Fortunately, in a very short amount of time a micro van bus heading for Pokhara came along and stopped to help. They spoke fantastic English and helped me put my bike on the roof of the van. I then traveled for 2.5 hours to Pokhara in the van. The journey was actually very pleasant even though I would have preferred to be biking it tomorrow morning instead. Most of the trip was in day light so I could take in the scenery and the other passengers were really friendly and spoke very good English. I might meet up with a Nepalese man that I chatted with when I return to Kathmandu. The ride cost £3.

I arrived in Pokhara town in the dark and got taxi with my bike to meet Miranda (a friend I met in India and one of the main reasons for me going to Pokhara). It was really lovely not to have to worry about where I was going and lovely not to be arriving in the dark on my own for once.

I had a good look at the town on the ride through to the tourist area (Lakeside). The town itself is like most other Nepalese towns but then there is major change as you get towards the lake. There are hundreds of restaurants, guest houses and trekking shops. It is a bit like Thamel but not as claustrophobic.

It was about 8.30 when I met with Miranda at her work and we then did the short journey to her guest house (Bishnu Lodge in North Lakeside) where I checked in to a room. We chatted for a while and I then headed for an early night as I was pretty tired by this point.

7th May - Goodbye Kathmandu

Up at 5.30 to go to breakfast with Johnnie and see him off to the airport. He has been a really great friend over the last few months since I met him in South India. I will miss his company and his ridiculous "toffness" (oh so very English)....

I had a nap after breakfast and then spent about 1 hour re-organising my bags and left my 2 front panniers at the hotel with equipment that I do not need over the next couple of weeks. It was great to organise and throw away all my rubbish and just be carrying the bare minimum again. Emma has kindly taken some of my things that I had in India back to England with her so that I do not have to post them home. I am only about 20kg on my Kingfisher Flight to Hong Kong and so it will be a real problem to not get charged any excess on this flight - I will just be carrying what is absolutely necessary.

I checked out at 12 and then went for a swim for 1 hour in the lovely pool before getting on my bike. It took a while to get across town and as I was passing close to Thamel I popped in for a salad at the Northfield cafe one last time.

It was a miserable day. The sky was gray and I got rained on several times. The pollution in Kathmandu is terrible and with my cold I really did not feel great. 3 weeks ago in India I was really fit and healthy and biking really well. Leaving Kathmandu I had a bad headache and no strength in my legs. Spending the last 2 weeks with chain smokers and terrible pollution did not do me any good even though I thoughily enjoyed their company and for the first week or so it was great not to be moving on to a new place every day and to have some down time.

It took 3 miserable hours to get out of Kathmandu into the countryside in the rain. I was too pissed off to even take photos of how gray and wet and built up it was. I do not recommend getting out of Kathmandu this way. On the way back I will take a bus through this area.

However, it was lovely to get back on my bike again as it was so well tuned and clean and I am not carrying very much equipment to go to Pokhara. I was not going very fast though even though it was manly downhill most of the way. Kathmandu is at about 1400m and I dropped to about 500m this afternoon.

Fortunately by about 5 the weather turned sunny again and put me in a better mood. I found a guest house at about 5.30 and decided to stop as several locals told me that it was about 30km to the next lodge and I was not in the mood for pushing. I had only done about 70km by this point. I still had a headache from the pollution and the oppressive weather. The guest house that I stayed in had a lovely little garden but the room was very basic and just had an outside swat toilet. There was a power cut too. I did not care as I just wanted an early night. The family cooked me a Nepalese Thali and I was in bed by 8.30.....

6th May - Dwarika's Hotel

Johnnie was desperate to leave the flee pit as he called it (mid-range hotel to most normal people). We met for breakfast at the Funky Budda Restaurant. Although we had a lovely meal there last night this mornings breakfast was poor as the service was bad and it took about 45 for our breakfast to arrive even though there was no one else in the restaurant. It was a shame as I was really looking forward to eggs florentine. My food was good but Johnnies was poor and the coffee was rubbish and took ages.

We decided not to go to the Monkey temple and instead get out of Thamel as fast as possible and go to a place recommended by Miranda close to the airport for Johnnie's early morning flight tomorrow.

I popped into a local shop and bought some snacks for the hotel (so that we do not have to pay for the mini bar) and I also bought 6 beers for all of the guys at Everest Mountain Bikes and then dropped off the beers to say thanks for the fantastic job that they did tuning and cleaning my bike.

We put my bike on the roof rack of a taxi and headed across town to check in at the Dwarikas. This place is fantastic and was an amazing place to stay. It was really lovely of Johnnie to put me up in a great hotel and an utter luxury. It is an oasis in the middle of the busy Kathmandu. All of the architecture is Nepalese and was created from one man's (Dwarika Das Shrestha) dream to restore works of Nepalese art. He had collected thousands of pieces of art work over the years to stop them being thrown away and used for firewood. He decided to construct a building in the old Newari style of Kathmandu using the carved doors and windows he had rescued. The edifice which was built to give the ancient works of art a new life is now one among several buildings of Dwarika's Village Hotel. These buildings contain some of the best wood-works of olden times restored to life and made to function for a modern age within the traditional architectural setting.


Here is what the blurb says about it:

Dwarika's Hotel is a unique place in South Asia. It is a living example that tourism need not destroy heritage and the environment. On the contrary, it has demonstrated that a proper blending of cultural restoration and tourism leads to the preservation of historical artifacts and contributes to the growth of skills and culture that would otherwise have eroded from the crass commercialism of today. It has shown that heritage can be preserved and be used for further preservation works. In fact, it could be the model to demonstrate what must be done to preserve the look of Kathmandu Valley - a stepping stone towards the larger and more gigantic task of rehabilitating the uniqueness and beauty of Kathmandu currently experiencing severe environmental stress of uncontrolled modernization.




We spent a relaxed afternoon wandering round the grounds and a looking at the restaurants as well has having cheese cake and coffee :-)




There was a fantastic thunderstorm just as we were going to go down for dinner. As the BBQ is outside by the pool and to get there guests have to walk across the court yard we decided to wait a while but gave up waiting and just got soaked.

There was a blues band playing in the bar and the food was good but not amazing. A lovely way to spend a last night in Kathmandu.

5th May - Explore Kathmandu by Bike

I needed to get out of Thamel today before my head exploded. I have been on the go for the last few months all the time - seeing loads of new things and everything changing all the time. It has been lovely to relax for a while and reduce the pace but I am bored in the same place now. Thamel is crowded and dark because the streets are really narrow and the buildings tall. We have been staying in the same square mile for days now (well ish) and I needed to explore the rest of the city and the major sites. No one else wanted to come with me and so I went on my own. I also needed to test out my bike after it has been tuned.

I spent the morning trying to update my blog and then by the time I had picked up my bike and faffed it was 2 before I left.

Boudnath:

It took me much longer than it should have done to get through navigate and the traffic and cross the city to the Boudnath. I stopped off at a little Stupas on the way and took photos of my lovely clean bike. It is working better than ever before. They have done the best job ever of tuning it. I am really happy.

I was not sure what a Stupa actually was and so I looked it up. Wikipedia says:

The stupa is the latest Buddhist religious monument and was originally only a simple mound of mud or clay to cover supposed relics of the Buddha (cetiya). After the parinirvana of the Buddha, his remains were cremated and the ashes divided and buried under eight stupas with two further stupas encasing the urn and the embers. Little is known about these early stupas, particularly since it has not been possible to identify the original ten monuments. However, some later stupas, such as at Sarnath and Sanchi, seem to be embellishments of earlier mounds.

In the third century BC, after his conversion to Buddhism, the emperor Asoka had the original stupas opened and the remains distributed among the several thousand stupas he had built. Nevertheless, the stupas at the eight places associated with the life of the Buddha continued to be of particular importance. Accordingly, the importance of a stupa changed from being a funerary monument to being an object of veneration. As a consequence their appearance changed also.

It was lovely and sunny on the way there. I had to find somewhere to leave my bike safely while I popped to see the Boudnath and so I had a snack in a local restaurant. During the 15mins that I was there the weather turned and thunderclouds moved in. I really should have sent off much earlier but I have not got used to the strange weather yet. It meant that the atmosphere was really cool when I arrived at the Boudnath. Half the sky was bright blue and the other half black.
The Boudnath was really huge. I was surprised by the size of the site. Again, other people are better at describing the history and importance of these sorts of sites so I will not try. This is what Wikipedia has to say (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudhanath):

Boudhanath is one of the holiest Buddhist sites in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is known as Khāsti by Newars as Bauddha or Bodh-nāth by modern speakers of Nepali. Located about 11 km (7 miles) from the center and northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu, the stupa's massive mandala makes it one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal.

The Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath dominates the skyline. The ancient Stupa is one of the largest in the world. The influx of large populations of Tibetan refugees from China has seen the construction of over 50 Tibetan Gompas (Monasteries) around Boudhanath. As of 1979, Boudhanath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along with Swayambhunath, it is one of the most popular tourist sites in the Kathmandu area.

I was halfway round when the storm arrived. It really does rain hard when it rains here. Everyone knows that it will pass in 30mins and so most people just shelter inside until it passes. I waited in a shop with a couple of buddist monks and some locals. It was great to watch the storm. Very atmospheric. The Stupa almost looked angry about the storm. The eyes are really haunting.







I love this sign outside of the temple. It suggests: "Do not Enter Animals"! Good advice everyone :-)




Patan Dunbar Square:

I gave up waiting after a while and just decided to get wet and head to the next place, hoping that the rains would stop by the time I got there. Unfortunately, I was right. The Bauddha is on the Western side of Kathmandu and I then head to the Southern side to Patan Dunbar Square. This is where Johnnie and I should have met Liam, Ang and Emma a couple of days ago. We had gone to Kathmandu Dunbar Square instead, which is only just a couple of kms South of Thamel.
The Dunbar Squares are actually very similar with Chinese influenced architecture. There were less tourists (and therefore less touts) in Patan however. I love these Nepalese hats that many of the locals wear. It was lovely watch this group of 40 or so men just sitting, laughing and chatting at the square.




Swayambhunath:

From Patan, I then headed to the East of Kathmandu to the Swayambhunath (otherwise known as the Monkey Temple to tourists). This is a stupa on the top of a hill over looking Kathmandu. It took a while to get there through all the crowds. The views on the way were quite good over Kathmandu Valley. I decided not to pay the 250RS to get in as I thought that Johnnie might like to go tomorrow morning and see it with me and I did not want to pay twice. I headed back to Thamel then having had a good explore of the city. I felt much happier to have got a feel for the place and learn my way around. I don't like not having a feel for my surroundings and just being in the middle of a city. I can handle cities for a few days but after than I need to get out!





The bike route:

There are loads of women and men carrying loads like this everywhere. I am sure the wheel was invented several years ago.....




It took me a while to get back to Thamel as I was trying to cycle through little back lanes that were very busy. I took this photo to show what it is like.... Like trying to walk through Oxford, UK the Saturday before Christmas.




The pollution in Kathmandu is really bad. This is the rubbish in the river. The water is definitely not drinkable. Even all of the locals drink filtered water (unlike India). However, the streets are much cleaner and there is not the stench of sewage so often walking round the city as there is in India. I really regretting not getting a face mask as many of the locals do. The pollution is really not helping my sore throat and cold.




Back to Thamel:

As it would be my last night in Thamel (and because I was bored of eating at the same place all the time) we went out to a different restaurant for dinner: Funky Buddha. We had a really lovely meal. I had Thai Beef Salad and some chocolate cookies for pud. Lovely meal.