Begnas Lake and the Royal Trek

Pokhara is the Nepal town that everyone raves about. Both Luhan and I have always felt that if everyone is talking about something it probably isn't really that good, so we opted to stay a little outside the city and away from the thousands of people trying to end up there. We eventually planned to get into Pokhara, but got stranded in Jomsom for two days...more on that later.

So, we ended up at the lake Begnas Resort for two days. To get into this place someone comes to pick you up in a canoe and you travel for about a half hour to the other side of the lake where they've carved out a nice spot with cottages, gardens, and an all natural swimming pool. Again, a very relaxing place indeed. It's a bit hot during the day, but in the morning and evening it's quite pleasant. They also serve deboned fish from the lake.

My favorite hike came from this part of the trip. From Lake Begnas we climbed up to get on a trail called the Royal Trek after Prince Charles hiked it in 1993. It was about 2 hours before we reached the highest point of the mountain. You can see a video here. As was still pretty early we caught the tail end of the sun rise and were able to look out into the highest mountains in the world. I wish we were smarter because if we had had sleeping bags we could have camped up there.

Nargarkot to Bhaktapur

With every intention of escaping Kathmandu ASAP we decided to head up to Nargarkot, a mountain about a two hour drive outside the city with supposed views of distant snow capped mountains. A woman I worked with at the British Council suggested a place to stay called the Fort Resort and it really was a superb stay. Both Luhan and I are incredibly picky about our hotel choices as those that have traveled with us before probably know. Both of us have had our days of roughin' it, but it's comfort we seek now. The Fort has a one main building and stone cottages spread out over the mountain side. Anyway, the Fort turned out to be the best place we stayed during the whole trip. Set up about 7,000 ft both the sunrise and sunset are something to be seen as you actually look down on the clouds and mountains. We stayed there for two days and basically just read books and relaxed in the sun.

Heading out of Nargarkot we wanted to check out the ancient city of Bhaktapur. I thought it was within striking distance by foot, after a grueling 6 hour hot, sun baked walk we gave up and hitched a ride. The people of Bhaktapur still lead an almost pure indigenous lifestyle, in this city built in the 15th century. It really is a pleasant place, but the motorcycles just kill it. Back to Kathmandu, then off to Pokhara.

Back in the dust covered, glue sniffing Kathmandu

Quick, how many things are wrong with this picture to the right? I saw this beauty on the wall of a restaurant.

My friend J sent me an email a few days ago with a link about the glue sniffing gangs in Kathmandu. Now, I've seen this in person on my way to pick up Luhan at the airport, but the kids were like 8 - 10 years old, max. From the window of my taxi I saw a few young kids fighting over what I thought was candy. Then I saw one of them huffing a brown paper bag in and out. Another kid quickly grabbed it and frantically tried to inhale some more fun and the cab driver pointed and said they were bad boys. The most disturbing part about it was how many people were around not giving a flying fart. I guess these kids grow up to become the ones in the article and the ones that design the above wall hanging.

So, in the past few weeks we've been spoiled like the rich, shit on like the poor and at one point stranded for two days. The temperature has been so hot and cold so quickly it's hard to figure out what to wear. I must say that the world that exists within the Himalayan mountains should be seen before you die. I'm going to make three more short posts just to break it up a little, that way it won't be so boring and there will be more pictures, because after all everyone just looks at the pictures anyway.