Kathmandu
Nagarkot, near Kathmandu
After Nagarkot, we booked ourselves a couple of days at the Last Resort – a remote resort with tented accommodation near the Tibet border located over a huge gorge with the Bhote Kosi river running below. Steve did a bungee jump and a canyon swing (the world’s highest apparently) and then we both did some canyoning the following day.
Leaving Kathmandu for the last time, we broke up the long sweaty bus journey down to Chitwan with some river rafting on the Trisuli River. This grade 3 river was a mixture of crazy rapids that had us hanging on for our lives and smooth wide stretches where we could cool off and take a dip. After this we hitched a lift with a local Nepal Oil truck travelling past Chitwan for the remaining part of the journey.
We arrived at Chitwan in the evening staying at the Tiger Camp hotel on the river front and got up early the next day to cram in some of the activities on offer... a dug-out canoe ride down the crocodile-occupied river running into the jungle, followed by a jungle walk back to the hotel where we saw a rhino, monitor lizards, several types of monkey, birds and deer. As we were crossing the river back to the hotel, we were greeted by a huge elephant which we rode to a calm area of the river for an ‘elephant bath’.
Pokhara
Pokhara is the second largest city in Nepal and promised a lot with views over to the nearby Annapurna mountain ranges across a large lake on which the city in located next to. Unfortunately the area was draped in cloud for most of the time we were there so we didn’t see any of these amazing views but we did see some crazy heavy rain!
After
getting back from Lukla (eventually) we came back to Kathmandu where we’d left
most of our stuff we didn’t want to trek with. We both got a bit ill here and
stayed put for a few days while we recovered and made plans for our remaining
time in Nepal.
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| Crazy cabling in Kathmandu! |
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| Durbar Square temples |
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| Rickshaws in Kathmandu |
While in Kathmandu we visited Durbar Square where there are a number of old traditional temples and then the Monkey Temple - an ancient religious complex on a hill full of holy monkeys!
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| Monkey Temple |
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| View over Kathmandu from Monkey Temple |
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| Meditation at the Monkey Temple |
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| Monkeys at the Monkey Temple |
Nagarkot, near Kathmandu
We took a two day trip out to Nagarkot where there are supposed to be good views out over the mountain ranges of Everest, Langtang and Annapurna. This couple of days consisted of some hiking in the intense heat, and travel by taxi, local bus and school bus. The guide we had hired paid a school bus driver to get us a lift on the school bus full of local kids, this kind of thing would probably be frowned upon back home in the UK! Nagarkot was cloudy though so unfortunately we didn’t get the amazing mountain views it promised but it was a very interesting couple of days exploring the surrounding areas of Kathmandu and getting an insight with our local guide.
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| Local tractor! |
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| Sunset at Nagarkot |
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| Panoramic view near Nagarkot |
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| Another temple! |
Last Resort, Tibet border
After Nagarkot, we booked ourselves a couple of days at the Last Resort – a remote resort with tented accommodation near the Tibet border located over a huge gorge with the Bhote Kosi river running below. Steve did a bungee jump and a canyon swing (the world’s highest apparently) and then we both did some canyoning the following day.
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| Bungee & canyon swing bridge |
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| Shiiiiiiit! (Bungee jump) |
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| Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! (Canyon swing) |
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| Canyoning |
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| Canyoning ( we didn't get to choose the outfits) |
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| Canyoning |
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| Accommodation at Last Resort |
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| Chilling in the paddy fields |
River rafting and Chitwan National Park
Leaving Kathmandu for the last time, we broke up the long sweaty bus journey down to Chitwan with some river rafting on the Trisuli River. This grade 3 river was a mixture of crazy rapids that had us hanging on for our lives and smooth wide stretches where we could cool off and take a dip. After this we hitched a lift with a local Nepal Oil truck travelling past Chitwan for the remaining part of the journey.
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| Our lift to Chitwan National Park |
We arrived at Chitwan in the evening staying at the Tiger Camp hotel on the river front and got up early the next day to cram in some of the activities on offer... a dug-out canoe ride down the crocodile-occupied river running into the jungle, followed by a jungle walk back to the hotel where we saw a rhino, monitor lizards, several types of monkey, birds and deer. As we were crossing the river back to the hotel, we were greeted by a huge elephant which we rode to a calm area of the river for an ‘elephant bath’.
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| Canoe ride down crocodile-occupied river |
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| Croc!!! |
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| Jungle walk |
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| Deer |
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| Monkey |
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| Deer |
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| Monitor lizard |
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| Elephant bath! |
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| Feeding bananas |
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| Bath time! |
In the afternoon we were treated to an elephant-back safari in the jungle – this is meant to be a safer way to get up close to the animals. A large organised tour with four people on the back of each elephant lasted a couple of hours and we saw another rhino up close and lots more deer and monkeys ... and trees as the elephant didn’t care too much about squashing our heads into the lower hanging branches!
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| Elephant safari |
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| Close encounters! |
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| Thanks for the ride! |
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| Sunset view from Tiger Camp |
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| Elephant breeding centre |
That evening we went to watch some traditional village dancing and music, then the next morning we went to an elephant breeding centre before heading onwards to Pokhara.
Pokhara
Pokhara is the second largest city in Nepal and promised a lot with views over to the nearby Annapurna mountain ranges across a large lake on which the city in located next to. Unfortunately the area was draped in cloud for most of the time we were there so we didn’t see any of these amazing views but we did see some crazy heavy rain!
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| What we should have been able to see from here! |
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| Bat cave |
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| The stunning lake overlooked by Pokhara |
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| Hair cut sir?....shave sir?....face massage with pink cream sir?..... yes please! full body massage sir?.... No that's enough thanks, get off now. |
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| Downpour |
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| Row row row the boat |
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| Gently down the ...lake! |
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| Chez moi! |
