Exploring and Rambling in Nepal

[Flashback]

Might be a day or two or three before I next update, WiFi is terrrrrribly slow out in the jungle and we have a jam packed schedule.

Stay tuned!

 

[Blinky]

5 minutes in the country and experienced our first power outage.. at the airport!

Bag arrived, off to the hotel now.

Power outages are a staple in Nepal. In some parts of the country they have scheduled outages. My pocket recharger came in very handy, and if you don’t already have one, it might be a good idea to invest in one.

One night on the Annapurna Sanctuary trek, the power went out in our guest house. I was woken by a mouse eating my Snickers Bar. I shone the torch in its eyes, but it kept on eating.

These memories, seriously, are part of the Nepal experience.

 

[Flashback]

Might be a day or two or three before I next update, WiFi is terrrrrribly slow out in the jungle and we have a jam packed schedule.

Stay tuned!

Going to be a few days more, spent today walking a lot of km around Pokhara and we are up at the crack of a sparrows fart in the morning to get up to Sarangkot to start our trek.

I promise it'll be worth the wait, though

 

[Flashback]

The best laid plans and all that

Back in Pokhara now at the accommodation we stayed at prior to the overnight hike, which had nice quick WiFi.... I'm thinking someone is hammering it downloading something as it's near useless during the daytime. I had a quick test at 3am and it worked like normal, so confirms my suspicions!

In the meantime, here's something to tide you over - I'd like to think my promise was kept when I say this was worth the wait. Look at the views!

 

[Blinky]

The best laid plans and all that

Back in Pokhara now at the accommodation we stayed at prior to the overnight hike, which had nice quick WiFi.... I'm thinking someone is hammering it downloading something as it's near useless during the daytime. I had a quick test at 3am and it worked like normal, so confirms my suspicions!

In the meantime, here's something to tide you over - I'd like to think my promise was kept when I say this was worth the wait. Look at the views!
View attachment 159742

Oh yes, I remember this well. Machapuchare to the right and Annapurna 2 I think to the left. Machapuchare has reportedly never been summitted out of respect for the Hindu god Shiva who resides there. Not breathtakingly high by Himalayan standards, but breathtakingly beautiful.

 

[Blinky]

Great photo by the way.

 

[Flashback]

Oh yes, I remember this well. Machapuchare to the right and Annapurna 2 I think to the left. Machapuchare has reportedly never been summitted out of respect for the Hindu god Shiva who resides there. Not breathtakingly high by Himalayan standards, but breathtakingly beautiful.

Correct on all accounts

I believe someone tried to summit it and died and it's believed they now lay with the gods.

 

[Flashback]

Well things didn't quite goto plan - for more details see General Medical issues thread

We're leaving the hospital shortly to get our KTM-KUL flight, so over the course of the next week or so hopefully I'll be able to get back up to speed and fill in all the activities from arrival in KTM to depature from KTM

I must admit I've felt more wiped out than I thought I would, I thought with the downtime I'd be able to get some posts up but alas the body said otherwise!

Thankfully KTM-KUL has been upgraded from a 737 to an A330 so that means lay flat beds. We'll definitely be needing them to catch up on a few zZzZz!

 

[amaroo]

Best wishes @Flashback

 

[Flashback]

After making extensive use of the sick bag on the flight to KUL, we're now settled at our hotel and looking forward to a bit of catch up relaxation. Time to get this TR back on track....... but first, need to catch up on the Chinese F1 GP qualifying

MH were as "wonderful" as ever with their baggage handling..... not many people got off at KL, but all 5 of us that did and flew J had no bags after all bags had been delivered. They had to go search for them and eventually found them...... 1 hour or so after last bags landed. When I see last bags landed, only 6 or so bags came out anyway.

 

[love_the_life]

I

Well things didn't quite goto plan - for more details see General Medical issues thread

We're leaving the hospital shortly to get our KTM-KUL flight, so over the course of the next week or so hopefully I'll be able to get back up to speed and fill in all the activities from arrival in KTM to depature from KTM

I must admit I've felt more wiped out than I thought I would, I thought with the downtime I'd be able to get some posts up but alas the body said otherwise!

Thankfully KTM-KUL has been upgraded from a 737 to an A330 so that means lay flat beds. We'll definitely be needing them to catch up on a few zZzZz!

I miss the hugs button. Hopefully a few days more will help you both feel better.

 

[Flashback]

5 minutes in the country and experienced our first power outage.. at the airport!

Bag arrived, off to the hotel now.

Having ended up being taken ill and in hospital in our last few days in Kathmandu, being not quite right still after we got home (and spending the Easter long weekend doing the NC500 route in Scotland) and with work being absolutely crazy since I've gotten home, this has fallen by the wayside. More updates coming this weekend as we have the early May bank holiday.

 

[VPS]

and more photos and places you visited in Scotland please

 

[Flashback]

and more photos and places you visited in Scotland please

Does that mean I need to do a TR for our NC500 trip then?

 

[VPS]

Does that mean I need to do a TR for our NC500 trip then?

Is that a rhetorical question? But of course. I've a friend on FB who is travelling around at the moment and been to some of the places I've been and I really really need a holiday but the next best thing is reminiscing and planning

 

[Flashback]

Is that a rhetorical question? But of course. I've a friend on FB who is travelling around at the moment and been to some of the places I've been and I really really need a holiday but the next best thing is reminiscing and planning

OK, I've done as I'm told.

Scotland North Coast 500 (NC500) adventure

 

[Flashback]

Hello again, it's me ... Flashback.

So, picking up where we left off ....... we arrived into Kathmandu and it was off the plane and into a bus for business class passengers only and a short ride to the terminal.



A shot from coming in to land at Kathmandu, a sprawling ... metropolis?


Knowing that Kathmandu has VOA for both Australian and Irish passport holders, that was an option, however I've never had any quick experiences with VOA and knowing we'd be arriving late in the evening we decided it was just as easy to get our visa sorted in London. I had gone out to the embassy and 15 minutes after walking in the door and £20 each later (only about 50p more than VOA, but VOA would have meant having to hold onto 2x $25 USD each in cash) we had our visa. Efficient, nice. I like it! Anyway, what that meant was on arrival we could just head to the counter.

It was a bit hectic, there were people everywhere and it wasn't really entirely clear just where to go. We thought the line we needed was really long, but it turns out the Indian passengers (who have their own lines) were actually blocking ours. So we went over to the VOA desks, thinking maybe we just validate our visa there and go through. Nope, we were sent across... but he did point us to the desk next to the Indian lines and as soon as the guy at the desk saw us coming he started yelling at them telling them to get out of the way! Hilarious. Western white privilege at its finest. We were through quick smart in no time and it was off to get our bags. First though, we had to clear security. That only took a few minutes and then we were deposited into the baggage collection area.



I had heard that Kathmandu was quite well known for power outages however I wasn't sure just how true that was in reality. Well, nothing like getting a taste as soon as you arrive, as we stood there waiting for our baggage all of a sudden boom! The whole room went dark and the only light was emitting from the display showing the baggage belt information. I tried to whip out my phone and snap a shot of the darkness that surrounded us, but by then the genset (I assume) had kicked in and lights were back on. We were up and running and good to go!

Our bags arrived pretty quickly all things considered and we geared up and headed out the door. We didn't have any money on us as Nepalese Rupee (NPR) are hard to get (impossible?) outside of Nepal. Knowing that a fixed price taxi was going to cost 700 NPR we changed £10 at the airport (for which we received 1400 NPR) and having looked at the exchange rates in town, the airport rates were actually not that bad. Note that aircon is 25% extra if you want it, but the windows are free ........ also if between the 30 seconds you book the taxi and walking out the door you decide you don't want to take the ride, there's a 25% cancellation charge there too! Crazy.



Within no time we were outside and greeted with the usual group of hecklers over the road fighting for business I've come accustomed to in this part of Asia (India).


Into the taxi for the short 7km ride to our hotel, we were quite looking forward to a shower and some rest. Note, it was not a Ford. Regardless of what the sticker says! Ha!

 

[Flashback]

By the time we arrived at the hotel it was about 8pm, so we decided to go for a quick walk to get our bearings set and get a feel for the area. We were staying in Thamel which is known as the backpacker (but most lively) part of town and actually you have a fairly good range of accommodation to suit all tastes. We also wanted to get some cash and I was armed with my list of banks/ATMs that shouldn't charge any withdrawal fees. One trick I had read about was that if you were being charged for MC or the ATM didn't accept MC, use Visa so I had ForEx free versions in both MC and Visa format. I tried every. single. ATM. All of them charged. Most are 500 NPR, some are 400 NPR (~£2.70-3.40). Maximum withdrawal amounts vary and the ATM we used allowed us to take out 25000 NPR (which set us back around £178 including the ATM fee) and there's 1 or 2 banks that will allow up to 35k in a single transaction. The 25k ended up lasting us most of the 2 weeks. Meals are pretty darn cheap. That even included us buying souvenirs and paying for entrance to some attractions etc.

For our 2 nights in Kathmandu we settled on Hotel Encounter Nepal which came in around £35/night and did the job OK. Breakfast was included and there was a menu you could order off each morning, although service was a bit slow.......

Having a wander around the streets of Thamel, we got a bit of a feel for the place. Busy, hectic, but pretty stress free. The streets have a lot of sand on them and with the high volume of cars running through (outside of Thamel, which is largely pedestrians only... there are cars, but it's so tight as they squeeze through they largely try to avoid it) a lot of dust/sand is thrown up into the air and I can understand why people feel like Kathmandu is dirty. As a result the air quality is not great.... but you kind of get used to it.



Prayer flags adorn the streets overhead and are commonly seen all over Nepal, especially when you get up into the mountains to do some hiking.

We stumbled across our first Stupa.


Is it any wonder there's electricity problems? The wiring looks complicated at best!


We stumbled across this cool sign on top of a shop, you're definitely in the right country if trekking is your thing. It's everywhere you look! Thamel is littered with stores selling hiking gear, however it's all fake/counterfeit. Most of it North Face but I liked to call it North Fake. We didn't need anything as we had the gear we needed, but I was always interested just how good quality it actually would be......... I'll continue to wonder!


After having wandered around for an hour or so we stumbled across a small, local looking place (Western Tandoori & Naan House - sounded pretty non-local, but I can assure you it was definitely nothing like the places we were that were typical tourist traps!). The food was dirt cheap. We decided to go for the traditional Nepalese dish Dal Bhat. Total cost for the meal for 2 was about £2 I think. I liked that they had their guy standing out front making naan, roti, chappati, etc. It was really busy in there (always a good sign) so we ended up sharing a table. Good fun and a nice way to end our first evening in town.

 

[VPS]

OK, I've done as I'm told.

Scotland North Coast 500 (NC500) adventure

first time for everything

 

[Flashback]

first time for everything

No comments from the peanut gallery thanks!