Back in Kathmandu

Finally we were back in Kathmandu and decided to stay in the Thamel area and enjoy walking and discovering this area. 

We were lucky enough to be able to do a Cooking Like the Locals with Social Tours and learnt how to make momo's.  We made enough to feed the entire team at Social Tours. 

We took a taxi to Boudnath - the largest stupa in the world - where we sat and watched the people walking around this while touching the many prayer wheels.  it was fascinating to see the different people walking around many times.

 This man is selling sugar cane.  you pay for a length and he cuts it off for you.

 The stupa has the bhudda eyes watching everything.

 Many candles are available for taking into the temples for prayer.

 I was fascinated by the different types of chilli that was available - not that I could eat any of them.

 A visit to the Monkey Temple where the monkeys were well behaved.  We had to climb many steps to get there and then found that 10 steps from the top we had to buy a ticket...clever marketing!

 Again many prayer wheels being used by many different people.

 Monkeys were everywhere, they were fed and didn't fight over the food.

 Grooming was a favourite past time.

The next morning we walked down to the palace to see the museum only to find that it was closed so we went back a block to the Garden of Dreams.  This place was so lovely inside with wonderful places where you could sit and think.

 After a restful time here we walked around the local streets absorbing the atmosphere.

 Wayne is standing outside a shop that sells many different types of instant noodles.  Most doorways here were of this height.

 Yak blankets - I was so tempted to buy one but thought I would never use one in Malaysia.

 They find any surface to place their wares for sale.

 Popcorn was widely sold on the streets in these little carts.  There were many different flavours.

The morning we were due to fly home and we just had to go back and have a good coffee.  

 The view out our window of the plane of the hills

 and mountains.

 We packed so much into our 16 days but still feel the pull to go back and see more.  We are already searching for the next instalment to Nepal.

Manakamana and Gorka

Kumar, our guide for the next few days was waiting for us after we had breakfast and we were off onto the next part of our adventure.  We were heading to Manakamana. Here we had to take a cable car up to visit the temple which sits 1302 metres above see level.  Thankfully we did take the cable car as the walk up hill was going to take at least 3 hours!  The cable car ride covers 2.8 kilometres in just over 10 minutes.  There is a cargo car for taking the animals up to be sacrifice.  This is called Manakamana Darshan.  We visited during the quiet season and the queue was said to be relatively short.  They waited for over 2 hours to get into the temple.  During the busy time they can wait for up to 10 hours.  While we were visiting there we were the object of curiosity and many people were taking our photos with and without permission.  They also wanted us to be in their photos too.

 The temple itself has been here since the 17th century.  Even during this quiet day the temble and area was very busy.

 A number of these guys sit outside the temple and offer the quick alternative to going into the temple.

 This shows just how many white people there were there.

 We went for a short walk along the track past a local school and I was fascinated by the lady putting her hens under the basket.

Fromhere Kumar sowed us where we should have been trekking to get to Gorka.  Up the middle of the photo to the hilltop!

 We had lunch on top of a restaurant which gave us great views.

While waiting for our car to take us to Gorkha I was able to snap this view of the cable car.

We stayed here - Crown Resort - it was a bit like a Fawlty Towers type hotel,  The rooms were clean, and the food was yummy.  We ate most of our meals here and were treated to a glass of raksi each night from the manager.  He was very helpful and couldn't do enough to ensure that we were well looked after.  We ate our meals up on the closed in restaurant where not all windows had glass.  

Chitwan

We were absolutely tired and enjoyed a lazy afternoon at Hotel Parkside.  Meals were good and included as part of our deal.  We ate a lovely lunch and then went and had a shower and freshen up before we walked down to the river to hopefully watch the sunset but there was too much cloud. It was great to have this relaxing time and company.

10th Dec
Breakfast with Bipin and he was surprised that for once I ate more than half of my meal.  No chilli!this is where Bipin left us and we went on an elephant trek, hoping to see a one horse rhino.  Sadly we didn't but we did find a footprint.  It was misty and mysterious and we seemed like we were the only ones in this jungle area.  Chitwan borders on India and there were army posts set up in strategic places.  There is often prising, or poaching happening which has depleted the native animals in this area.  We were on the back of the elephant for about 2 hours and saw many different birds, samba and spotted deer along with mongoose.

The elusive rhino foot print.

After our trek we went back to the hotel for Wayne to get changed into some clothes for washing the elephants.  I decided, wisely, not to do this and was deemed the official photographer.  It was fun to watch and Wayne seemed to enjoy the interaction.  We were amazed at how gentle the elephants were.  He sat on top of the elephant until the elephant was instructed to roll over and he became dunked in the water.  We then went back to the hotel for a delightful non-spicy lunch.

 I think the elephant is giving Wayne a bath!

Cuttng these toenails would be a mammoth task,

It was time for us to be driven down the road to have a ride on the river in a dugout canoe.  They had already decided which canoe to use but changed their mind when they saw us.  Too big for the small dugout the chose.  It was lovely and calm being taken down the river watching the birds and the people working on the banks.  We rounded a corner only to almost come face to face with a crocodile sunning on the bank.  The paddler quickly moved us away but slowed to a stop so that we could take photos.  Along this trip we also saw and heard a barking dear.  Finally we had a short walk across to the hotel when our guide stopped and sniffed.  There was a faint smell of a freshly dead animal.  After looking around we found footprint of a tiger on the ground.

 Our canoe is the biggest and fattes one.  And we were the only passengers!

 A family working along the riverbank.

 The big crocodile sunbathing.

Fishing for the little fish for her dinner.

 One of the many beautiful kingfishers we saw.

We were led to believe this was a tigers footprint.

11th Dec
Lazy start to this day - breakfast at 7, then a drive through the morning mist to the Elephant Breeding Centre.  They have a number or elephants here and a lot of information about them.  Fascinating.  Some baby elephants as well as a pair of twins, which they tell us is very rare.

 Wayne walking across the wooden bridge to the Elephant Breeding Centre.

 The view from our hotel window.

 Hotel Parkside entrance.

 The rare twins.

On our way back I waylaid and found a spider web with dew on it.

This afternoon we were doing a jeep safari at 20000 Lake.  Again we saw many varieties of kingfishers and other birds.We also saw a number of crocodiles.  The reflections in the lake were magnificent.

That evening we were taken to a Cultural show.  It was fascinating watching and listening to them dance, sing and perform.

A fire stick display.