Sunrise Hotel Nagarkot

... by ourselves this time- no porter or guide, just us, our bags, boots and a map. ... I know- very unlike Jo and I, exercise out of our own free will and I hold my hands up to not having the best navigational skills in the world, goodness knows how we thought we'd do it but optimism prevailed and we went off on our merry little way.<br><br>Until... the bus journey- how we actually thought we'd survive is upto the gods, we prayed like we've never prayed before ...

... br>towering peaks while horses frolicked on the far bank, watched glaciers<br>sparkle an electric blue when they finally caught the sun on a cloudy<br>day, and sat beneath towering waterfalls that fell down plush green<br>valley walls. Considering that before reading the term in the guide<br>book I had know idea what "eroded scree" was let alone looked like, I<br>had no idea how I was going to describe it.<br><br><br> <br><br><br>Our trek took us ...

... expected to find myself saying that!<br>I should have realised this trek was not to be plain sailing when we stood for an hour in the heat of Kathmandu waiting for the bus. Apparently it had a puncture! Local buses are always interesting and this one was no exception. We stopped in Trusili for lunch and as we went to get back on the bus I could see there was no way I was going to be able to fight through the crowds, with my rucksack, to return to my seat ...

... Went for a hike before supper to get pictures of the sunset only to have the clouds move in just as we were getting there. Oh well wake up at 5am to get the sunrise pictures. On the way back from the hike I see a barber shop and ask if he gives shaves? Come in come in he says in broken english. I sit in the chair and I get the hot towel soak aah... he then massages a balm on aah.. I then get the lather apllied with the old ...

... and spinning in the end the rope for some time until they lowered the rope and released me on the bank of the river from where I hiked back up.<br><br>Did I like it then and would I recommend it? Yes. It is after all quite a special feeling and after facing your fears and doing it, you&#8217;ll feel certain mental pleasure. And I bet it&#8217;s cooler to do in this kind of a place than in a music festival when you&#8217;re completely drunk anyway.

... outages the city faces, but nonetheless getting my boarding pass for my flight to Hong Kong as well as Dubai (which I had originally planned on spending three days, but due to the delay coming back from Pokhara and the fact the flight to Hong Kong departed only every third day, where I would spend less than 12 hours)<br><br>Nepal had clearly met my expectations, offering a glimpse of a country completely new to me as well as ...

... As such, they even order one person (I guess like the office assistant) to dial someone one the phone for them! As you can imagine, this makes it quite difficult to work, as there's all these fiefdoms and people grabbing for power even though there is supposedly a set hierarchy in the organization. No one shares info. They all want to cling to power. What else... Anne mentioned, and she admitted that its not something she's seen firsthand but something ...

... the wooden walls creaking, and the rain lashing at the windows, it did exactly what it said on the tin! Nagarkot is about 2000m above sea level, so the air was cool, clear and fresh. We took a cosy little cabin room and settled in for the evening in their floor-cushion restaurant, crossing our fingers for fine views the following morning. The whole finger-crossing thing didn't work. Even though the hotel manager was also crossing his fingers, we woke up to ...

... arriving at about 10.30am and leaving at 4pm for the return trip. That is why the market (which is a local one not a tourist one) must only be able to operate from dawn until 10am when it disappears for the day and then appears again at 4.30pmish until dark. So after two nights in this wonderful city but with only about 6 hours sleep for the 2 days we checked out and head for the local bus stop for our return to Kathmandu for our final 2 days in Nepal.

... 2 new friends climbed on the roof with 10 others, while i hung on for dear life to the iron ladder on the tail gate all the 5 kms to this most ancient temple in an ancient land, Changu Narayan. NOON. Blistering sun. Beautiful Kathmandu Valley below and REAL Nepal. It was a pleasant stroll through pine woods and light hike across the ridge to the humble abode of Babaji KaliBaba. He was a shinning eyed, dark Bengali, Shiva Sadhu. Peace just wafted through the air like free smoke ...