Exploring and Rambling in Nepal

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Wandering around a local Tharu village... and then a show in the evening with traditional dance.

 

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The whole world is taking plastic more seriously now.


Sunset in the evening over the Rapti river.


Our guest staying with us in the bedroom.


Canoe ride down the Rapti river.



An interesting tree on our walk which we started when we got to the canoe end point, we saw a lot of deer too but they were far too quick to capture on camera!


At the end point of the walk, we ended up at the elephant breeding & training centre. The adults were chained up, so it left people in our group feeling very angry and they weren't going to keep quiet about it... some of them got a bit aggressive!

 

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After the early start and the morning's activities of the canoe river, bush walk and visit to the elephant centre we nipped back to our accommodation and had lunch there and even had time for a quick swim. We were then ready to head off on our jeep safari in search of the elusive Bengal Tiger and Rhinoceros. No luck on the tiger, but we did manage to see a few rhinos (although our best shot was right at the end literally 3 minutes or so before we finished, very lucky!) and many other animals.






We stopped in at another animal conservation centre and enjoyed another great sunset at the end of the day. There's something about those hazy Asian sunsets that you just have to love.

 

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The next morning it was back on the bus for the drive to Pokhara, fortunately neither of these were our bus.......


Fortunately we didn't have to stop here..........


The ride was easy enough and before we knew it we were in Pokhara, we spent the afternoon exploring the small town and getting our bearings. We stayed at New Pokhara Lodge which for a princely sum of $18 a night did the job! Basic, but comfortable which is all we needed given the little time we'd spend in the room.






Not sure how good the quality is going to be here...... even they don't think that highly of themselves FYI most (all) of the hiking gear sold in Nepal here is counterfeit. The genuine shops, you pay just as much as you would anywhere else.


More momos!

 

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We spent the next few days relaxing and exploring the local area including a boat ride on Phewa Lake, a hike up to the World Peace Pagoda, a visit to the International Mountain Museum and Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave. The weather wasn't the best while we were in Pokhara and we only got a short glimpse of the Himalayas from our hotel roof, but it was magical when we could see it.

It was quite a bit of effort hiking up from the lake to the World Peace Pagoda, but it was worth it for the exercise and the views!

 

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We decided to walk from the Peace Pagoda down to Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave, was a decent walk but pretty much all downhill and was nice to get away from the standard tourist trail. Most people seemed to drive to/from the pagoda, it's always good to get off the beaten track a bit. We even had a free guide (dog) show us all the way down..... was interesting to see the houses on the way down too as well as get some decent views out over the town.

 

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By the time we arrived at Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave it has just started bucketing down with rain and continued for a while. We managed to dodge most of the rain and stayed relatively dry! It was very popular but at least flowed along the trail relatively well. It was surrounded by markets too where you could a spot of shopping or have a bite to eat.





The entrance into the cave was pretty cool, a winding spiral staircase.



Lots of artwork sculptures along the way, quite impressive.



The cave itself was fairly plain and small in comparison to others we've been to, but for only 100 Rs one cannot complain!


Classic Nepalese taxi waiting outside.

 

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The next day was another very early start to get to Sarangkot in time for the sunrise, we were picked up around 4.30am if my memory serves me right....... unfortunately the bad weather continued and it was raining, so we didn't really get to see it in the end. Not to worry, the gods were looking after us and we would get a most impressive view when it really mattered. We then started on our hike up to the Australia Camp which was due to take 5-6 hours.



We passed the spot where a lot of the paragliders take off from.



And passed by the new chairlift route which is still being built, although I'm told that's been going on for a few years........


Some more interesting houses along the way.


Great views back out to Lake Phewa.


Finally arriving at Noudanda, where our guide decided a local bus up the next part of the road was better.



Until we got to this bit....... by which time walking really felt like the better option!

 

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A spot of breakfast with a home made fly trap.... and then we continued on our journey.



Next stop Australia Camp!




Enjoying the view.



We arrived at the camp not long after, feeling like we had achieved something..... but feeling a little underwhelmed, the hike hadn't been as difficult or long as we expected, the weather still wasn't great(!), but all part of the experience as they say. We had the rest of the day to relax and chill out so not all bad given we'd been pretty much go go go all trip.

 

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Having plenty of energy left after lunch, we decided to go for a late afternoon walk past the Australia Base Camp and ventured into the ACA (Annapurna Conversation Area) where hikers will continue on the 5 day trek to the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC), but our guide knew the guy on the checkpoint really well and we were let past for an hour or two to explore further.




We even managed our first real glimpse of the Himalayas and Fish Tail Mountain.



The trails along the way were pretty well made, so while it could be a bit slippy there was always a pretty well defined path, at least on this portion of the trail anyway.



More views as the clouds started to clear, although it was getting dark so we decided it was wise to head back.

 

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We were only due to spend 1 night there, so we were hopeful things would improve. The morning came..... I even woke up just before my alarm. I peaked my head outside and was as excited as a little boy on Christmas morning! The skies had opened up, the clouds were gone and the amazing view of the Himalayas was on offer for all to see! Just stunning. What a fantastic sunrise to watch.








For all the weather we'd had the few previous days that wasn't great, we really lucked out having the one night/morning we were there open up and be completely clear. Our moods suddenly changed for the better!

 

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After a good hour or so of enjoying the view, our rumbling tums reminded us it was breakfast time so what better thing to do then sit there with some unhealthy but very tasty Tibetan bread continuing to enjoy the view.

Other hikers staying at the lodge were packing up and getting ready to hike on further.

But for us it was a hike downhill to Phedi via Dhampus Village. The views made it a most enjoyable walk and it was very low complexity. Next time we would push the boat out a bit more and go for something more challenging, more than likely a multi day trek.


Enjoying the view.....

Being followed again.....

A house with a view?

We felt bad carrying only our small backpacks!

This is when you know you're back in town.... these guys are about as relaxed as it gets!

 

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Our final day in Pokhara was spent at the International Mountain Museum, it was about a 30 minute walk from where we were staying but was worth doing as you were able to get up close and personal with the airport.




Climbing walls to use out front, in case you hadn't had enough of climbing the mountains......





The museum itself was very interesting and I'd definitely recommend spending some time there if you have a few hours free. It was especially interesting reading about how much people leave up on Mt Everest and the many years they've spent trying to clean it. I still can't fathom how people can take up oxygen bottles with them, but then when they're empty and obviously much lighter they just leave them laying around instead of taking them back down with them....... I'll never understand the human race when it comes to rubbish! It's the same as I'll see people standing next to a bin and still drop their rubbish on the ground. I don't think I'll ever understand

 

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Even though our accommodation was quite expensive ( ) at $18/night it also included transfers to/from the airport and/or bus station. So on our final morning after checking out, it was off to the airport to fly back to Kathmandu. I was tossing up as to whether it made sense to get their as soon as check-in opens so we could snag one of the few seats that are available on the left hand side of the aircraft (as it is first come first served, no pre-allocation allowed, I did check!) but in the end we decided it wasn't worth it and we were right, the view was easily seen from the right hand side and as we were put in a holding pattern we looped back around and got a great view from our side too. There were 2 flights leaving on Yeti Air within 5 minutes of each other, the first was on an ATR-72 (70 seat capacity) so given the price was the same we opted for the smaller Jetstream-41 (30 seat capacity).

More information on the fleet available here: Yeti Airlines Pvt. Ltd

Everything about the small aircraft is...... hand written. Handwritten check-in signs, handwritten boarding passes, etc.



I'm not sure they do actually offer any services with lay flat beds?


Boarding gate security is high tech......

Plenty of thrilling material available for reading on-board....

A walk out to the aircraft, self boarding stairs and friendly service once on-board.



30 minutes flying time, $120 USD... bargain!

 

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The views while up above the clouds were stunning, as you'd expect....... even if there was the odd obstruction of those annoying people over on the left Fortunately I didn't get any shots obstructed by fingers in noses as the guy with the hat on felt he had to keep doing all flight. Gross! As you can see once it banked around though we received just as good a view too.





High tech baggage unloading systems!

To match the high tech terminal

 

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It was at this point the trip took a bit of a turn for the worse....... I started to feel not so good just before we landed and that continued when we arrived at the hotel. Not long after I ended up in the hospital as having had a similar feeling once in Peru and wasting 3 days in bed, to only be loaded up with drugs and an IV drip I figured I'd tackle it head on this time, after all that's what travel insurance is for!

My accommodation here was great, I saw a nurse in less than 30 seconds after arriving and filling in my paperwork and then a doctor less than a minute after I'd seen the nurse. This was at 3am, too. I'd give this accommodation a full 10/10 rating and 5*! I even had a guard tower stationed outside my room, because I'm that important and need protecting!

It's pretty much across the road from the British Embassy so the security makes sense. The hospital has a helipad on top and is often used when rescuing people from the mountains and bringing them back to Kathmandu for medical care. If you ever do hike here, make sure your travel insurance covers helicopter evacuation!



I spent one night there and then at 4am the next day, Mrs Flashback decided to follow suit. Oops. I was mildly better by then (but by no means 100%!) so at least as I went back and forth from the hospital I was able to survey the surrounding area.

 

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With Mrs Flashback in hospital, it allowed me a little more freedom to finish off our tourist shopping. She's not bit on haggling and gets very stressed out, so while the cat is away..... we knew what we wanted and I knew how much we wanted to paid, so I haggled hard, trying about 20 different vendors before I found what I wanted (at the right price).

It's a great little area to wander around and is full of life, you don't get too hassled which is good so can go at your own pace.

One of the shop owners showing off her key rings and jewelry to me.

A number of masks on display....

More Tibetan key rings.


It's a shame we lost our last few days in Kathmandu as we had planned on visiting Bhaktapur and doing a day long hike which started with seeing the sunrise at Nagarkot and then hiking through some villages to Changunarayan Template, but unfortunately that wasn't to be. The tour company were really good about it, first we pushed it back a day when I fell ill and just Mrs Flashback was going to do, then on the rescheduled day the tour guide arrived at 4am to pickup Mrs Flashback and that's the point she decided she needed to visit the hospital too....... I figured hey ho, it happens and given the cost of any insurance claim excess would cost about the same as the tour for each of us I didn't both doing anything. You can see how surprised I would have been then, when I found that the tour company had refunded all money back to us! Bravo, what great customer service and completely unprompted too.

We were quite happy to settle back into our seat at KTM once we boarded, bound for KUL with a 2 night stopover and then onwards (through HKG, LHR and AMS) on our way to....... LHR, of course! Why fly direct when you can connect?!


We were both feeling quite under the weather still so we spent most of our time on the numerous flights en-route home as well as in the hotel in KUL resting up, a shame to finish the trip like that but at least at happened at the end and not the beginning, so all was not lost

I hope you enjoyed reading and I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any about Nepal, hiking in Nepal or anything in general.

 

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And to finish it off... I knew I had a better shot of the rhino, that Chitwan National Park is so well known for, so here you go!

 

[craven morehead]

Very interesting TR many thanks where to next?

 

[VPS]

Well done for finishing your TR - amazing scenery with lots of wonderful photos so thanks. We had those fly catchers on the farm at home.

A good day to be an Aussie in England