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Read about our Trek in the Himalayas and our run in with Rhinos.

Nepal

Si_lad
2004-03-26 21:39:24

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Kathmandu

The flight to Kathmandu was on time and took about one hour. We sat on the left side of the plane (I’d read in a book that this would offer us the best views) and the mountains looked spectacular - we even got our first glimpse of Everest. At first I’d thought that buying a flight to Kathmandu was a bit extravagant for our budget, but after talking to other travellers who spent a day or more on buses crossing the border by land, I was glad to have done it, and it only cost about £25 each.

We took a cab to the Thamel area and after refusing the many offers of accommodation from the taxi driver and his friend, we had a walk around. Kathmandu seemed pretty pleasant and the Thamel district is a real traveller’s hangout. Nepal felt much cleaner and organised than India – well Thamel did anyway.

We decided to stay at the "Ghurka Soldiers Guest House" which was cheap and clean, and then we went exploring. I bought a huge woollen coat for 600 Rps (about £7.50) as I had no warm gear and it was really cold at night. We later had a huge splash out meal at the Everest Steak House, consisting of massive Buffalo steaks with pepper sauce and chips, all washed down with some very palatable San Miguel beer. Gianni – the Italian we had met in Rajasthan – had recommended we ate here and it was really good.

During the night it got very cold and I woke up feeling ill. My stomach was rumbling and before long I was dashing out to the toilets to throw up. I guess my guts weren’t used to all the meat after being almost vegetarian in India. Dibs was also ill and the pair of us puked up and suffered from the shits all night. A nasty start to Nepal!

Kathmandu’s main square – Durbar square – is a great place to hang out with lots of temples and interesting sculptures, not to mention the different people. The streets around the centre are a mix of ancient narrow alleys, full of ...