Nepal

Sleeping in for the first time in a while, we didn’t get up until 9am! We wanted to go to Lumbini tomorrow, but we soon found out that there were actually no tourist buses (Note: In Nepal, there are different ‘types’ of buses, and tourist buses are the most comfortable and reliable. Local buses are more frequent, but are jammed pack with people in the aisles and the seats are very worn, and the windows rattle themselves open after a few bumps on the road) heading to Lumbini. So, we changed our plans and decided to pack up and go to Lumbini today.

Lumbini: This city is generally accepted as the birth place of Sautama Buddha, and hence a religiously significant location for Buddhists. It’s an interesting centre for tourists and a good cultural site to visit.

At the bus station, we got a hand-written ticket at the booth for a bus to Lumbini. The land transport system in Nepal is strange and chaotic, as across the street tucked behind a row of shops, another bus station exists!! Our friend, wanting to go halfway to Lumbini to the town of Tancen, went to the other bus station and took another bus which was headed to Bhairawa, a transfer city for buses to Lumbini. We asked several times to confirm that, their bus goes to Bhairawa and not Lumbini. A bit confused at the whole bus situation, we went back to our bus station attendant to triple confirm that our bus was, indeed going to Lumbini and not Bhairawa…… he lied. Continue reading →

Going back to the same awesome breakfast place, somehow the food changed drastically and even the coffee tastes horribly different. Guess they had a rookie chef in the kitchen, but we ate plenty to prep us up for a half day of whitewater rafting!

Being reluctant at first about white water rafting in Nepal, especially when they keep rating their rapids level 4 or level 5! Turns out their rating system is a bit different, but whatever, we still signed up for a half day of fun in the upper section of the Seti river! Continue reading →

Like one of Newton’s laws, we have lost all inertia and very copacetic just lazing around Pokhara. Compared to Kathmandu, this place just seems to ‘fit’ better with us.

Grabbing a seat at a popular local coffee joint, we ordered a banana chocolate-chip cake, an americano and a cappucino, but was quickly told that was not available as there was no power (so they can’t steam/grind/magic)! Haha, sort of funny how you have all the “western” amenities in Nepal, but lack the most basic infrastructure. While we were ordering though, the power just juiced up and we were back in business with the americano and WiFi!

One of the more ‘interesting’ and definitely most popular activities out in Pokhara is paragliding. Even on the streets, you can watch paragliders constantly jumping out of Sarangkot which oversees the city. We booked ourselves in for tomorrow morning…yaaaa!

For dinner, we headed to the #1 rated restaurant on TripAdvisor called Pokhara Beach Club. Despite being severely out of the way, this place has rave reviews and we wanted to find out why! Walking about 30mins through dirt roads lit only by oncoming traffic, we felt like headed to a different town, and finally arrived. With some old music and funky disco-lights shining around, we were a little weirded out. We found a lounge sofa overlooking the lake and made ourselves comfy. The menu was overly simple, and our Chinese companions were definitely unimpressed with it, but we were alright as their special that day was a wild boar burger! The food was good, but the vibe was probably why people loved it so much? The owners were probably the only people working that day, but they made you feel very cozy.

Walking back, we were all going to bed early to prep ourselves for the big paragliding day tomorrow morning!

Today was a rest day, and it was awweeeessome.

Breakfast at a place with cappuccinos, and real cheese (not yak cheese which tastes funky), Italian salami and actual fruit jam. Lunch was Sichuan-style hotpot. Afternoon was tea and banana walnut muffin. Dinner was a delicious pasta and wild boar spit-roasted right outside the store followed up with lemon meringue pie! Pokhara is a haven for food and rest after 17 days of the same menu and lots of hiking. We actually made an attempt to over-eat hehehe, and it ended in spectacular success!

The tourist area was quite charming, and we can actually see the famous Fewa Lake, a rather unimpressive lake in terms of scenery but we’ve been spoiled by amazing landscapes too much in the Himalayan mountains. There are quite a bit of outdoor-sy activities around Pokhara, but we’ll save that for another day!!