Day 71 - Day 1 Of Our Annapurna Trek

Day 1 of our trek.

We had 1 small backpack containing 5 days of necessities for 2 people that we prepared the previous night. Our alarm went off at 6am, we were showered, dressed & ready to go by 7am. Our tour guide Run, was waiting for us in the hotel lobby. The first part of our adventure started in a tiny taxi that drove us 2 hours outside of Pokhara to the town called Birethanti which was where we entered the Annapurna Conservation Area.

This was also the first check point for our permits & TIMS & where we lodged our trek plan  with officials. This was the first place we noticed a missing person's poster from earlier on this year. A 40 year old, British man had gone solo trekking in the Annapurna's and never came out. It filled me with a sense of foreboding & sadness for the man & his family. What loss, grief & the huge probability of never getting closure. Sadly it wasn't the only one we would see. Another reminder of how dangerous trekking in Nepal can be & why the permits & safety precautions are so important. These mountains are breathtakingly beautiful & extremely dangerous, their lure is blatantly obvious. I cringe when I think about how many lives they have claimed. 

After passing through the check points & town, initially accompanied by a lean tan dog, we head on to the trekking route by foot, heading uphill. It's ghastly hot & humid in the valley. Within minutes walking up hill following a dirt road wide enough for a bus, we are all drenched & dripping in sweat. The sun bores down on us and any breeze is fleeting. We continue like this for approximately 3 hours before stopping for lunch. Despite the heat, the nature is easy to appreciate everything is green & lush, trees, plants & grass compete for the most vibrant colour of green. Flowers from weeds & plants of every colour bloom & it's hard to avoid the butterflies that flit through the air. The dirt road follows a river that winds through the valley, giving us glimpses of rapids & waterfalls. The water is moving quickly & is a dirty brown colour. Below us we can already see terraced fields of corn & small groupings of domestic dwellings. People & buffalo plough the fields. At one look out point we stop to catch our breathe & watch 2 white horses fighting in the field below. 

For lunch we both embrace the Nepalese vegetarian dal bhat sets and a litre of water. Dal Bhat is cheap, satisfying, carb dense, delicious & varies from kitchen to kitchen. Most of the time its rice, lentil dal, 2 types of curried veg, pickled veg & a white flat papadum. The flavours are invigorating & complex! I have already saved quite a few recipes for Nepalese inspired curry dishes to try when we get home. Tom has assured me he will be a happy man eating dal bhat for work lunches. There's a saying our guide introduces to us; dal bhat power 24 hour. It's so true! 

After lunch we continue to climb up, following the dirt path. Our guide explained to us that the road for vehicles was only built 2 years ago & is only in this first section of our trek. The rest of the trek path will consist of crude stairs & thin dirt paths. Around 2pm we walk through a bigger village & encounter stairs made from slabs of shiny rock cut from the side of the cliffs. We have seen lots of quarries and sections of rock exposed in the cliff's. The rock's appear iridescent & shine in the sun. We then cross 2 small suspension bridges that carry us across a river. It's at this point our guide tells us the next section consists of 3200 steps and an allevation of 400 meters. We stop every few hundred steps to catch our breathe & stretch our legs. Finally just before 4pm we reach the village called Ulleri & our guest house! We collapse down on plastic chairs admiring the view & cooling down before having showers. The guest house has a black & tan dog who sits with us for the head rubs I happily give her. Our accommodation is very basic but we appreciate how extraordinary this is in itself, everything on the mountains had to be brought up by person, donkey or horse & was hand built at a primitive level. You don't need much to be comfortable ! A warm shower, a cold beer & a jumper was all we required as we sat on the balcony basking in our achievement & watching a thunder storm pass overhead & cool the air with sheets of rain. 

After dinner (more dal bhat) exhaustion was the next thing we experienced. Crawling into bed just after 8pm felt like the best thing in the world.

What a fantastic day!

- Alli

Day 70 - Rowing On Phewa Lake & Paragliding Over Pokhara

Rowing On Phewa Lake & Paragliding Over Pokhara,

With so little time & pokhara offering so much to do, we had an early alarm set & were out of our hotel ready to go just before 7am. First on the agenda was hiring one of the wooden painted boats for 2 hours & rowing on Pokhara's main lake called Phewa Lake. The sun was barely over the mountains, the purple flowers were still closed for the night & the air was fresh & cool. It was a beautiful start to the day & a great way to admire Pokhara. As we rowed further out into the lake, noises from the town became faint & eventually disappeared to be replaced with peaceful silence, an occasional bird & some ultra light planes soaring thousands of feet above us. 

The 2 hours went surprisingly slow. Initially cause we were so relaxed & because we easily rowed quite a distance out & the effort required to get back was a lot greater due to a head wind. 

Once we returned the boat it was time for breakfast. We found a lakeside cafe with a special's sign for a 'banatict breakfast' which we assumed was eggs benedict. Luckily we clarified with the waiter & ordered a standard breakfast. When we got back to the hotel our manager asked us if we wanted to go paragliding. It was something we had considered doing, especially after watching hundreds of parachutes flying through the sky the day before. 

He told us the price & it was too cheap to turn down! 30 minutes later we had our paperwork filled out & were loaded into a 4WD with a friendly couple from Denmark & a Chinese lady who didn't speak a word of English. 

The drive to the top of the cliff took about 30 minutes & gave us a scenic peak into the smaller suburbs of Pokhara & the way the people lived outside the city.
On arrival we all jumped out of the car & walked to an area of the cliff that had a horizontal grass section for take off.
Standing here, the wind comes over the hill & inflates the parachute cells while your feet are still on the ground. Once the parachute is full enough it will rise up above your head & lift you off the ground & carry you down from the cliff. 

We were paired off with the Nepali paraglider instructors & stood on the hill full of anticipation watching them lay out the parachutes & harnesses. Once the parachutes were laid out they were allowed to inflate once to check for line twists before being guided back down to ground. After the test inflation we were put in harnesses and attached to our tandem paraglider instructors. Tom was the first from our group to leave the cliff dangling under a green & yellow parachute with a successful first attempt take off. 

The couple from Denmark launched off shortly after this with no problems, as did the Chinese lady screaming the whole time & not following instructions which almost caused her parachute to crash.

Unfortunately after they left the wind died completely for a few minutes only to return with strong unpredictable gusts & a cross wind. In 20 minutes, we attempted unsuccessfully to launch my parachute twice before finally on the third attempt getting airborne.

The wait was well worth it. The view from the sky was amazing, watching life go on below while the shadow of our parachute passed by.

While in the air the wind continued to get stronger & it took a long time to bring the parachute down. Every time we would finish doing an S turn the wind would get under the parachute & lift us back up again. When we did land it was in a grassy field & not in the same place as Tom who was a 15 minute drive away. He had a totally different flight to me going a further distance, with a calmer wind allowing them to do more turns and see more of the lake & surrounding area.

After being reunited with Tom & the other people from our group we had a beer & watched some buffalo swimming in the lake before heading back to town. Once we arrived back at town we realised how hungry we were & made our way to a cafe for some more drinks & pizza. It worked out well being at this cafe, sitting on the balcony we got a fantastic view of a storm that came across the lake & unleashed it's watery fury on the streets of Pokhara.

Once the storm calmed down & the power outages had recovered we made our way back to the hotel to pack & get an early night.

-Alli

Day 69 - Booking Our Trek & Exploring Pokhara

Booking Our Trek & Exploring Pokhara,

We awake early today, we have some planning to do and a trek to book. We decided early on that we wanted to trek within the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepals largest protected area of National park in the Annapurna range of the Himalaya's. We received a few quotes while in Kathmandu, all of which required us to take a trip to Pokhara as day 1 of our trek. We already wanted to see Pokhara, it seemed silly to include it as a day of trekking when we could get there ourselves for cheaper. With this in mind we decided to get new quotes and book a trek while in Pokhara then make the 70km trip to the start of the conservation area as day 1 of a trek.

Our hotel manager is extremely helpful and is very keen to help us make bookings for anything we may need including a trek. He tells us he knows of a guide who has 10 years of experience and has done many treks.
We look up some other recommendations on trip advisor based on price, previous experience and environmentally friendly ratings. We spend the morning talking with these companies, asking for their opinions on treks, guides and pricing. With this information we decide what trek we want to do and then head back to our hotel to talk to the manager. He agrees with the trek we want to do and the duration, he is very competitive with prices and beats the other places offering us a cheaper price for a package that includes, permits, guide, transport, 3 meals and accommodation. We have to supply our own alcohol, water & insurance.
He sets up a meeting later that afternoon for us to meet our guide.

We walk around the lake admiring the brightly painted wooden boats, flowering trees,  restaurants, street dogs, cats & the cows that wander around freely through the town. Its another hot & humid day, I am envious of the local Nepali people who are swimming in the lake, unaffected by the bacteria in the water. We cool down with a beer as we wander around.

After lunch down by the lakeside (veggie burgers) we meet our guide who's name is Run, pronounced like Rom. He sets a large map down on the desk and we begin to plan our trek. Starting with how many days and nights we want to be away, what we want to see and how high we want to go. We decide on 5 days & 4 nights away & we want an easy - moderate trek. I have a previous knee injury that given the chance will play up & put us in difficulty. For this reason as well we decided on a fairly touristy trek route with phone signal and wifi signal if the need emerges. We want to be high enough to see the Annapurna ranges with their snow coverings and feel the thin, clean air, but neither of us have done any altitude training and are reluctant to be sick for another second while in Nepal.

Everything happens so easily and quickly! The trek is booked and paid for, we leave the day after next. Run gets 2 passport photos from us to organise our Permit into the Annapurna's and our TIMS (Trekkers Information System Management) which is a system to prevent illegal trekking operations and to help keep trekkers safe.

We celebrate that night with a fancy dinner out in a restaurant! Trekking in Nepal is a Bucket list item for most people, including us. It feels good to know we have it locked in!

Sleep that night was hard, despite the wine, I was so excited lying in bed imaging the mountains!

- Alli

Day 68 - Kathmandu - Pokhara

Finally we are leaving and heading to Pokhara, a city 210 km's west of Nepals capital, Kathmandu. Pokahara is a city, also known as the city of Paradise surrounded by Himalayas, gorges, waterfalls and with Phewa Lake at the city's centre.

We are checked out of our hotel by 6.15am and are leaving through the front door to head to the Kantipath Bus 'station' with is really just a street outside of Thamel near the Garden of dreams where the bus's line up. The previous nights research made us reluctant to purchase overpriced tickets online & instead we plan to get there early and negotiate a price with the bus drivers. We had a list of the most reliable & longest running bus companies  to approach. As we head out of our hotel and start walking we meet a young Nepali man dressed smartly, who enquires where we are going & if we have a ticket. It turns out he works at Kantipath and organises passengers & tickets for the bus's. We walk with him to the bus station and view the bus he proposes we take before agreeing on a price. The first price he offers is very reasonable and we happily accept a ticket. The price includes WIFI, a free bottle of water & the seats on the bus are comfortable, have seat belts and even air con!
By 7am the bus is nearly full and the driver closes the doors and departs the city of Kathmandu. The journey can take anything from 6 - 8 hours and depends on the conditions of the roads and traffic. At this time of year landslides can be a factor in delaying your arrival.

It's nice to leave the dusty, dirty city of Kathmandu and head out into the country. Most of Nepal is mountainous, making our journey a lot of up and downs. In the country the people seem to be farmers and the hills are terraced, supporting crops of corn, rice and water. We see lots of Buffalo and farmers, knee high in mud, ploughing the fields. Horses, goats and cows roaming free with bells on their necks and lots of chickens scratching around.
Nepal is very pretty. Its a shame we are sitting on the left side of the bus, the side without the view and we dont have many photo opportunities. The bus had surprisingly good suspension and before long we are both snoozing.
The journey goes for 7 hours with 3 food and toilet breaks included, minimal traffic and is very pleasant.
We arrive in Pokhara at the bus station which is a large square block of dirt and grass that the bus's pull into. The city centre and our accommodation are a 2km walk away from the bus station. We shoulder our packs and set off in the heat. Pokhara is a lot more humid than Kathmandu, the air is hot, wet and sticky. We instantly break out in sweat. The 2km walk felt more like 10km's!

We make it to our accommodation which is 1 street away from Pokhara's main lake and check in, very happy to learn that we have 1 nights free upgrade!

After a cold shower we set out to explore Pokhara & get some dinner. A lake side restaurant seems the perfect place to do this and we hungrily devour vegetarian Pizza and cold beers while watching the local Nepali kids play soccer in a field. Shortly after dinner, a thunder storm rolls in and saturates everything with rain and induces a few irritating black outs. An evening thunderstorm with heavy rain and black outs are a normal occurrence this time of year in Pokhara. It's nice to smell the fresh rain and air, appreciating the cooling affect it has on the air before we need to sleep.

- Alli

Day 67 - Our India Visa Is Approved !!

I woke up around 6am today.... unfortunately from more stomach cramps. Tom woke a little after 8am but we both lounged around till 10am, trying to decide if it was safe to leave our hotel.
After doing a thorough risk assessment we decided to search out a cafe that offered some very boring & safe breakfast options.

After breakfast we walked around Themal for a bit before going to the Embassy to find out if our Indian Visa had been approved. Thankfully it had!
The afternoon passed in a flurry of activity as we planned our next destination, booked accommodation, looked up the bus route and researched reliable bus companies.
We then packed our bags, organised our shopping to be posted back to Aus, withdrew money from an ATM we trusted and went out for one last dinner in Thamel, Kathmandu. We picked a beautiful Italian restaurant on the main street and we both ordered pasta. It was an excellent meal and we both returned to our hotel for our last nights sleep.

We definitely wont miss the sounds of the drunk tourists walking home, the dogs that start barking at 4am or the roller doors that open and close all night. even though we are 6 storeys up, all of this sounds like it is literally happening a metre away.

We feel excited to be leaving Kathmandu & exploring the rest of Nepal! We only regret the time we spent in bed being sick, instead of exploring more of the amazing things in Kathmandu Valley. It is definitely a place that we would both come back to, maybe one day we will cross all those other things off.

- Alli

Day 66 - A Day Of Sickness & Nothing Else

Today we woke feeling absolutely miserable.
It's not what you're suspecting, we wished it was a simple hangover from the cocktails.
Unfortunately it was another, more severe episode of Gatroenteritis, only this episode would go on to affect us for 72 hours . Tom seemed to cope a lot better than I did. I was forced to stay in bed with a fever, severe abdominal cramping, nausea with vomitting and worst of all uncontrollable diarrhoea!
The fever broke after about 12 hours, thankfully! I woke up covered in sweat, wrapped in 2 blankets (despite the 28 degrees C temperature)  and my abdomen cramps started to feel better the following day.

I dont know what it was that we ate, but it ruined us. I'm praying that we dont experience this again in Nepal.  From everything I've read, I fear it will be unavoidable in India.

                                                  A Photo from the day before, much happier times!

Day 65 - Swayambhunath Stupa (Monkey Temple), Kathmandu, Nepal

Our adventure to Swayambhunath Stupa (Monkey Temple),

Everyone who has researched Kathmandu has heard of Swayambhunath, the famous religious, ancient architecture that sits north west of Kathmandu valley. It's name  literally translates to the 'the self existent one' and it claims the title of biggest Stupa in Nepal and a sight of religious harmony between Buddhism and Hinduism.

On clear days, we can see the top of the Stupa from the roof top of our hotel, it sits proudly on a steep hill looking out on the valley & the  people of Nepal. We awoke to a relatively clear day, minimal cloud, the air pollution wasn't affecting visibility much & the sun was shining. We decided to head to Swayambhunath Stupa while the weather permitted us the views of the Kathmandu valley we had read so much about.  The sacred site was only a 3km walk from our hotel, a great distance to stretch our legs and walk through the streets outside of Thamel and gain a different perspective of Kathmandu.

The roads were occasionally sealed with rough bitumen or pavers, in places the this had been reduced to rubble, mostly it was compacted dirt and rocks. There was lots of rubbish in the streets and especially in the river, it look suspiciously like the garbage trucks were taking rubbish to be dumped in the river.  Outside of Thamel the streets become more residential, the people of Nepal live in a variety of dwellings. Some small, very simple, wooden shacks, others are tall brick and cement complex's that rise 20 storeys into the sky. Evidence of the earthquake is still obvious. You can see the damage that was done to the building's still standing and you can see where buildings have fallen down  leaving empty spaces behind. Sometimes in these spaces you can still see rubble and the integrity of the buildings left either side is very questionable, the Nepalese have a temporary solution to this by placing bamboo under tension in the space between the buildings that remain standing.
We pray they never have an earthquake this violent again, 3 years later and they are still recovering.

In comparison to other places, there seems to be a more even distribution of wealth throughout the citizens in Nepal, we saw only a couple of very rich people and only a couple of very poor people. Most people are friendly and it's not uncommon to receive a smile before you can give one or to hear 'namaste' as you walk past people. The women in particular dress very well, lots of them wearing the Sari dresses, with red lipstick and heavy eyeliner. I find the traditional Sari dress very bold, exotic and stylish. There are hundreds of colours, patterns and different drape styles reflecting geography and function. One thing that became immediately obvious was that in Thamel, the tourists are somewhat sheltered. In the streets of Kathmandu you see people out the front of their stores, sitting on the street working, wether that be sewing clothes, mechanical repairs, cleaning or butchering meat. We walked past many open front shops with giant pieces of meat, often whole carcass's lying on wooden benches, exposed to the elements. The animals in cages in front of these shops were kept in better conditions before slaughter,  in comparison to places like China.  You see people playing with children, street dogs running around getting into mischief, people bathing in buckets of water & making food.

We arrived at the base of the hill just after lunch, very sweaty ! This time of year, Nepal is hot! There are 365 stairs to the top of the hill, representing 365 days of the year.
At the top of the Hill you come face to face with the stupa, a huge collection of Tibetan prayer wheels as well as statues and shrines of Buddhist and Hindu deities. If you walk to the left of this there is a viewing platform to look back down into the Kathmandu Valley. Its hard to know where to look, the view of the valley is impressive, but so is the closer view of religious harmony around the stupa. We circumnavigate the stupa, awed at its size and turn a few prayer wheels, trying to soak up the moment listening to the prayers, bells ringing and prayer flags flapping in the wind. 

After this we walked around admiring all the smaller statues and shrines, a lot of the temples we weren't allowed into and of course some things we couldn't take photographs of. We then walked into an art studio and were given a brief education on the Thangka buddhist cloth painting, that originated from Tibet. They are very impressive, complex pieces of art designed to help with meditation and some take years to complete. There are different levels of competency that artists achieve, ranging from student to professor. The detail of the paintings done by a professor are absolutely staggering. 

We found one that we both liked and could visualise in a future house, it was done by a second level student and was around $40USD. Just like our art from China, it was done by a student and comes with its flaws, which makes it even more individual and it feels good to support someone on the start of their journey. Maybe one day we will by one done by a professor, these ones are expensive because of the quality of detail, the time it takes to create, but also because they have gold inlaid into the detailing. 

Once we had finished in the art gallery we walked down the back of the stupa and came to a pool designed for the resident monkeys. I've never seen Monkeys swim or bomb dive until today. They were having so much fun.  We watched them for a little while before starting to make our way back down the steps of the stupa and the walk back to Thamel.

Nothing eventful happened on the walk back to Thamel, when we arrived we went to The Electric Pagoda for happy hour cocktails, shisha, cat cuddles & jenga. 

- Alli 

Day 63 - Shopping in Thamel & A Much Needed Barber Appointment

Today started like most days in Thamel for us.

A sleep in and a morning walk to find a cafe that has wifi,  coffee and breakfast, this morning's cafe was called Bon Appetite. We normally spend a couple of hours at our morning cafe sharing the computer, trying to catch up on the mountainous volume of computer work.  After we left Bon Appetite, Tom was approached in the street by a barber who was gesturing at his head while stating "too long too long" haha. This was enough to get Tom's attention who was getting increasingly frustrated with his long hair and beard after 81 days of growth. I left him in the hands of the barber while I went back to the hotel room to read my book. 30 minutes later Tom appeared, looking well groomed and happier!

We then set off for a day of shopping. Thamel is filled with amazing stores. 3 storey book stores that I could spend at least a day in, bohemian/hippy jewellery and clothing stores, traditional Nepali & Indian clothing stores, Nepalese merchandise stores, trekking stores & of course the knife stores.
I brought some hand made shoes and a pair of pants for myself, as well as some gifts for some special people back at home.

The day was filled up with shopping & went by surprisingly quickly.

- Alli

Day 64 - The Garden of Dreams & Kaathe Swyambhu Shee: Gha: Chaitya Stupa

Day 64 - The Garden of Dreams, Kathmandu, Nepal,

The day started as most do for us in Thamel, a late wake up, cold shower's and breakfast at one of our favourite cafes called Bon Appetite. After this we returned to our rooftop balcony with the laptop and made some sight seeing plans for today. It is the first day we both feel well enough that walking a few kilometres to do some sight seeing, away from the security of hotel & cafe bathrooms should be safe.
We head out of Thamel and walk onto a busier street section of Kathmandu for a few kilometres. The weather is pleasantly sunny, not very hot  and there is a mild breeze that occasionally blows some dust onto us.
It doesn't feel like long before we arrive at the entrance to The Gardens. We pay 200NPR each for tickets & head in.
The garden of Dreams is a peaceful, well maintained, classical garden, encased behind a wall & hidden away from the noise, pollution and press of life, in busy Kathmandu.

Originally built in 1920, with heavy Edwardian Style Inspiration, it was one of the most sophisticated & private gardens at the time. It contains all the key elements of a classical garden. Cute animals, birds, ever green grass, blooming flowers, ponds, fountains, pagodas & statues. The garden was created & funded by Kaiser Sumsher Rana, unfortunately with his death in 1964, also came the death of the gardens funding & it lay neglected for decades. Renovations for the garden happened between 2000 & 2007 after receiving funding by the Austrian Development Aid, by that time however, pavilions and other structures were barely standing, most of the exotic flora had died and weeds had ravaged garden paths & pillars. Today only half of the original garden remains open to the public.
Though not very big, you easily could spend quite a few hours, just sitting, listening & watching.

After we had grown bored of peaceful reflection and admiring flowers, we headed towards the exit and back out onto the hustle and bustle of the busy roads & towards our hotel in a round about way. While exploring the previous day we walked down an alleyway & saw a stupa soaring high above the buildings. We weren't sure of its name & with the appearance of large rain drops falling on us, we left quickly. We returned today to photograph it and give it the appropriate time of admiration it deserves. It is called Kaathe Swyambhu Shee: Gha: Chaitya, a buddhist Stupa with temple attached.
Unfortunately, I can't find any reliable information on the internet to learn the history of this Stupa.

However, I now do know quite a bit about buddhist Stupa's and their meaning. Stupa, basically means  'heap' and it is a round, structure containing spiritual relics, sometimes the bones of monks, nuns or animals and offerings.  It is actually a pre buddhist practice, they were once known as tumuli, which was a mound of earth or stones surrounding a corpse that was buried sitting up. This was first recorded in India. Once the establishment of Buddhism included the use of stupas, the cremated remains of the Buddha who had reached Parinirvana were split into 8 and buried under a mound each, while another 2 mounds were given to the urn and the embers. Parinirvana  is a buddhist term meaning  nirvana-after-death, this occurs with the death of the body of someone who has attained the status of Nirvana during his or her life.
The presence of Buddhist stupas dates to the late 4th century BCE in India, with archaeological evidence backing up this claim. However, buddhist records claim that stupas were used a century before this, the evidence of these stupas being lost could be attributed to the fact they were made with organic material such as wood.

A stupa is a place for peaceful meditation & prayer, many will also be neighbours to temples, monasteries and prayer halls . In Buddhism, circumnavigation of the stupa is a very important ritual & a sign of devotion,  there will always be a path circling around the Stupa. In Mongolia where most of the Stupa's are made of rocks, bones & wood, it is also an important act to add to the stupa once you have made your way around the stupa and said a prayer. In Nepal, the Stupa's are a solid structure, constructed to last the test of time and hopefully the earthquakes that destroy the land on a semi regular basis. Here we see a big stupa, stories high in the air, painted elaborately, prayer flags attached to the highest points, surrounded by several other smaller  stupa's containing buddha statues.
I am assuming this stupa is from the Tibetan buddhism beliefs, representing the 5 purified elements.

The more I read and learn about buddhism, the more questions I have & the more I feel I don't know. The more I want to learn! It is one of the oldest, most complicated, many faceted & far reaching religions that we have encountered.  There are many countries who's population's of people uphold strong & large belief systems based in buddhism. It has adapted and changed throughout each origin, country & dynasty, to make it individual and yet its beliefs are unified. Its a very powerful religion, the faith the people display is tangible, palpable & memorable.

I'm sure that the more we travel, the more we will see & learn of buddhism & other religions that make up the vast diversity of belief and faith in this world. Exposure to these things is one of the reasons we travel!

- Alli

 चैत्य

Day 62 - Kathmandu, Nepal. Submitting Indian Visa Paperwork, Attempt No.2

Indian Visa Paperwork Application, Attempt No.2

With new paperwork containing less information and renewed determination we set off for the embassy again. We arrived half an hour later than we did the previous day, but we had our numbers called instantly so there was no wait. To our relief the paperwork today was accepted and we made payment for our Visa's. That is step 1 done, we were asked to leave contact details for our hotel and to not go too far from Kathmandu, incase the embassy needed to contact us for more information or to come in for our interview earlier. Our next appointment is in 6 days time.

After the embassy we arrived back in Thamel after lunch and decided to get a Kebab for lunch. I only mention this because it is the best Kebab both of us have ever eaten, ever!  A combination of Felafel, tahini, hummus, potato chips, marinated eggplant, chilli and fresh vegetables. I am determined to mimic this recipe when we get home. While staying in Thamel we eat kebabs from this place 5 times in 1 week. We make further arrangements with our hotel to stay longer, which involves asking for a better room where the Wifi signal reaches & hot water comes through the taps, we are moved to another, nicer room 2 storeys up with both of those things.

The afternoon is spent at a place called electric pagoda. They have a cocktail happy hour from 2 - 6pm, a beautiful garden with various seating options including floor cushions, psychedelic art, free board games, relaxing music and 4  cats that they look after.

- Alli

Day 61 - Kathmandu, Nepal. Submitting Indian Visa Paperwork.

Overnight a storm blew in, it felt & sounded like it was raging just outside our window, keeping us awake for most of the early hours. Once the storm exhausted itself & I feel asleep, Tom was abruptly awoken by his stomach which was violently angry & evacuating something he had consumed. Both of us have only been in Nepal a few days & have both suffered from individual gastro upsets, it was bound to happen at some stage! Lucky we have a large medicine bag, full to the brim of various medications to deal with these situations.

It's no surprise that when our alarm goes off at 7.30am & 8.30am, both are ignored. At 9.30am we eventually get out of bed & get ready for the day. Today we are going to submit our paperwork for our Indian Visa at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu. Its located only a couple of kilometres from our accommodation, a journey made slightly more hazardous by the deep puddles of water, mud & slippery surfaces, evidence of the severity of the storm last night.
We arrive & take a token number, Tom checks the notice board & we realise we forgot to photograph our Nepal visas ! Thankfully it's a job that takes only a few minutes as a print shop is handily located next to the Visa application centre.

We then take a seat & wait, listening to a nearby rooster crow & laughing at a golden labrador who must live in the house next door, but is walking along the top of a brick wall fence. When we arrived, ticket number 13 is being served, our tickets are 36 & 37 but it's a  quick wait & we had our turn at the counter after only 2 hours.  When its our turn at the counter our paperwork is examined and then rejected as its not filled out according to their specifications. Its a real shame, we spent a few hours the previous day researching & then filling the paperwork out online, before printing it at a print shop. The Indian Visa website has minimal information on their requirements for the forms, so we had to do our own research based on other peoples experiences. The forms are quite large with a lot of very specific questions. On our forms we had 1 spelling error, we gave too much detail on how we planned to cross the border between Nepal & India, we also listed our hotel's address as our current address & contact information as well as an address in Australia in answer to another question, which was all wrong.

Applying for Visa's is by far one of the most frustrating things we have to do while on holiday! We spend so much time preparing & reading, thinking we may finally have the process simplified, only to be wrong. Each visa has its own specific questions, require's its own specific answers, has its own back ground checks, they all have their own different application process' & they all seem to have a grumpy administrative authority that is too eager to find your mistakes, decline your application & make you start again. 

We each have a couple of friends who have travelled through India, it's difficult and tedious for everyone who we have spoken to, which makes us feel better. 

By the time we get back to Thamel, its early afternoon, we hunt down a cozy cafe with free wifi, order drinks, fire up the laptop & start again. The process takes up the rest of the afternoon, we battle the usual Nepalise black out's & fractious wifi signal. 

What a day! 

- Alli