Kathmandu

Okay havent blogged in a while... so thinking back to Kathmandu.. Another beastly bus journey there to finally arrive in Paraknajol (North Thamel, Kathmandu). Thamel was actually really cool, had a massive array of shops selling all sorts of stuff, most of which we had already seen in Pokhara (and bought!). Tim did get a ridiculously cool fruit bowl (!?) that has a sort of spiralling cut in the flat part, meaning it falls out slightly at the bottom creating a bowl instead of a plate! A couple more pure pashmina and cashmere scarves were bought too.. What did we do in Kathandu... not a huge amount really as we only had 2 days there. We met up with the Danish guys again for a Kareoke night which was hilarious, and painful as all the girs were into old crappy Britney Spears songs. Which James loved. The next night we once again hit the clubs of Kathmandu which was a bit of a fail really, seeing as the Nepalese have a curfew at 11pm and after this the police come round all the pubs and bars to kick everyone home. We sought refuge in this quiet back-alley pub until 2am – we werent actually allowed out for a while because the police were outside as they knew the pub owners had customers upstairs! Finally the next day we flew to Thailand!!! EXCITEMENT!

Chitwan National Park

After pre-booking a package tour (turns out much cheaper in low season) we headed to Chitwan via another dreaded bus journey. It only took 5 hours or so and was cnosiderably easier on the bum than the previous Sinauli – Pokhara bus. We're staying at the Gorkha Hamlet Resort in Sauraha right on the edge of the National Park. On the evening of the first day here, we went out for a jungle walk and, as luck would have it, saw our first One Horned Rhino which is extremely rare to see as they are so few. It was a great experience because there was the suspense the whole time due to the fact that there could e any number of dangerous creatures and animals around, hidden in the bushes and grassland. The next day we got up super early at 05:30 to be out for a jeep safari at 6. This started off badly as our jeep ran out of fuel halfway to the park, great! However it wasnt long before we were off again towards the jungle. We went along at a laisurely pace, giving us time to try and spot any wildlife that was lurking in the bushes/trees. First spotted were some Monkays, leaping around in the tree canopy above us. Then there was a few Eagles, which close up are absolutely massive, having a wingspan of around 2m. Deer were a common sight, spotted and brown, however the most interesting time was when we thought we saw a leopard stalking a group of deer, but after watching for a few minutes we realised the “leopard” would have attacked by then, so we moved on. Our guide stopped the jeep deep in the jungle for us to get out and go for a short walk across the river to the marshlands to see some Marsh Mugger Crocodiles, the most viscious crocs found in Nepal. We have to say, we were glad they were at least 50m away. Apart from these animals there were a range of birds from cuckatoo's to kingfishers, and a Wild Boar. We came back to the room, had a quick breakfast and headed out to the activity that both of us have most enjoyed (apart from Paragliding) so far. Elephant Bathing! Being able to sit bareback ontop of an elephant while it uses its trunk to spray you with water, and lies down sideways throwing you off its back so it can wallow underwater, was pretty special. Later on that afternoon we once again met with the eleahnts for an elephant safari, to roam through the jungle ontop of another elephant, trying to spot some more wildlife with our guide Jumangi, who pointed out the animals to us the most interesting being the feared and famous Jungle Chicken. The highlight of this ride came about an hour into the trip as we spotted two One Horned Rhinos, Mother and Baby, in the clearing ahead of us, Due to the fact that we were ontop of elephants, the Rhino's were not bothered by us and thus we could get really close, probably about 3m away at the closest point – Tim has video evidence. We then moved on through the forest to the end of the trip. That evening we went to see the Tharu tribe who live in the village nearby and performed a series of traditional stick-dances, including fire whirling, ladyboys, and stickfighting. This was pretty cool in itself but what made the night for us was the fact that they invited the audience to partake in the stckdance, and thus being us, we did! After a large cheer from the audience for volunteering we danced with the tribe, flapping our arms and legs looking like idiots, but who cares, you only live once. We also met a group of very friendly Danish people who are around our age and can speak English! The rest of the evening was spent getting to know them and their Danish ways of life.
Today we got up early again, and went off with the Danes for a canoe ride down the river to try and spot some crocs. We did, but it was a baby marsh mugger, however we knew its mother was around somewhere so it kept the suspence high! Although we didnt see any major wildlife we werent disheartened as we had seen most of it the day before and we were in good company. Due to the fact there are only two of us, our itinerary got swapped around a bit and we had nothing to do until 3, so we went and joined the Danes with the elephant bathing again, it was even more fun the second time around as we knew the elephants behaved and knew when we were going to be thrown in the water!!

Paragliding the Himalayas+last of Pokhara

We woke relatively early. We had to be at the centre by 11 so this was early for us. A good breakfast of honey porridge, a bottle of water and we went on our way. As soon as we reached the centre we waited 15 minutes before being thrown in a jeep to be taken to Sarangkot, the take-off zone. The journey took half an hour, half an hour too long if you ask us, we were so excited! Driving up to the take-off spot made us appreciate how perfect the conditins were, almost clear skies, enaling us to see the snow-capped mountains of the Annapurna Massif (Himalayas). Upon arrival our parachutes were laid out, we were fitted into our harnesses and before we knew it the kite was up, we were running and the ground was no longer beneath our feet. This was an experience that just cannot be described unless you have done it before. After flying around in thermals to gain a decent height (1900m) we headed across the ridge gazing at the views (will be uploaded) and following the birds of prey to get the best thermals. To cut an hours flight short, we did this for 50 mins or so before heading back down over the Phewa Tal to the landing spot. Now, we had set each other the challenge of who could get the guide to do the best stunt. Typically they did the same one. Once over the water each of our guides made sharp turns until we were spiralling, at what seemed out of control, towards the ground raising the G-force to ridiculous levels. Landing was simple and straightforward, and also came wth a slight relief that we were back on terra firma.
That evening we went to an amazing restaurant called Once Upon A Time. It was really chilled, they gave us free popcorn, and they had a massive tele which we were able to watch the England-India cricket match, cracking stuff!
Th last night we intended to be a nice, friendly evenng with the guys at Peace Eye Guesthouse, however this was somehow quashed by the fact that our hotel had told us we could pay by card for the room and upon trying to pay with non-embossed STA travel cards, they pulled out an old-school card imprinter, instead of the chip and pin machine we were expecting. So after telling them that we couldnt pay because we had no other cards or money (we did but they were being arsey so we decided to be difficult too) they started to get a bit aggressive which naturally we were having non of, and put them in their place by telling them how the customer is always right, and how their incompetance and obnoxious service would not get them anywhere in the future. Also being a new establishment directly opposite the LPs top rated hotel, they didnt stand a chance of gaining any customers in the future. After that was sorted (Tim paid by a magically appearing spare debit card) we resumed our evening back at Peace Eye Guesthouse where Chiran (the manager and chef) served us up some of his freshly made vegetable and tofu soup, followed by the best hot chocolate Nepalise can make, all on the house. Lad.

Pokhara

Finally, thank goodness we arrived! No more banging bus. All there was left was a short taxi ride to our hotel, which unforutnatey our hotel forgot to send for us. So we got a local taxi and made the hotel pay. It's great being in Nepal in the low season, we're pretty sure we've been the only people staying in this rather large hotel, so we managed to barter down the room price from 700 to 500 rupees a night. So, a double room, with ensuite, tv, balcony, and views of the himalayas, we're paying about two pounds twenty five each a night. Cracking.

We woke up the next morning with a hot shower and breakfast in the hotel before setting out to explore. Within 5 minutes of venturing out, we were both in heaven. The large main street in lakeside (part of Pokhara) is full of bustling shops selling the most wonderful array of clothing, traditional buddhist items such as singing bowls and prayer wheels, book shops, music shops, as well as the huge variety of restaurants. The most incredible part of Pokhara is the laid back and relaxed atmosphere, no touts, no horns, no tuktuks nothing but tranquility and the occasional sound of the Chillies coming from a nearby restaurant. We spent the day shopping, buying jumpers made from 100% yaks wool and traditional nepali hats, which felt like we were breaking the bank but I guess for a jumper and 3 hats for 1800 rupee isnt too bad, seeing as that comes to around 16 quid! In the evening we ventured out to find some food, by venturing out i mean going next door from our hotel to the better one which has a very chilled restaurant with guitars and drums you can play freely and great food. We did feel slightly cheeky walking outside and literally across the road but whatever, we now do it every single breakfast and as I write this we are relaxing across the road too. The hotel is called Peace Eye, which is recommended by the LP as the best budget hotel in town.
The following day we spent finding out what to do in Pokhara and a bit more window shopping. We then took out a boat on the Phewa Tal lake for 3 hours, soaking up the rays and reading up on the famous Ghurka soldiers. That evening we went to the LemonTree restaurant and had our first carnivorous meal in over 2 weeks, relief! James had a locally caught fish from the Phewa Tal lake, whereas Tim had the Chicken sizzler, which literally sizzled as it was brought to the table.
The next few days should be good fun doing some hill treks to specific points around Pokhara, bit more shopping - Tim's going buy a few Khukuri knives - also going on an hours paragliding flight over the Himalayas!!!

Crash... Bang... Wallop!!

The following morning was another early wakeup, having to be out by 5.30 to catch a 3 hour bus to the border at Sunauli. Finding the bus was relatively straight forward, getting on at around 6 to the welcome of an appalling bollywood film that was being played at full volume through the tiny television at the front of the bus. Sooo the time passed by as we drifted off to sleep again, up until a mile away from reaching the border, where things took an exciting turn for the worse. Pcture the scene... a lorry in the lane to the left, an oil tanker in the lane to the right. Now our evidentally inept bus driver decided to cruise down the road at a solid 50mph, however the also retarded oil tanker who hadnt quite worked out how to use his mirrors decided to pull out just at the wrong moment, cutting into our lane just as we reached him. Our bus driver admittedly did a good job at avoiding a head on collision swerving left to try and squeeze inbetween the lorry and the oil tanker; due to the speed he was going and the poor braking distances the bus could manage, we ploud straight into the sides of the two other vehicles, wedging us between the lorry and oil tanker. We'd crashed! Luckily for all of us, everyone walked out without a scratch, say walk out, I mean clambering out of the drivers window... Looking back on it now, we were extremely lucky! After retrieving our bags from the back of the bus we headed to the front to assess the damage, at which point, we suddenly heard shouting from behind us, looking round finding all three drivers in a punch up walloping each other in sheer anger and to be honest each completely oblivious whose fault it actually was. We realised that getting back in the bus and driving the last part of the journey probably wasnt going to happen, so we walked the last mile to the border. Our trekking had started a ittle while before we had anticipated.
Upon arrival at the border we got stamped out of India and walked right through into “no-mans-land” where neither country own the small strip between border posts. We then had to go to the Nepalise border police to be stamped into Nepal, a process we thought would take ages, but we were through in about 10 minutes! We then visited a tourist information office to find the bus to Pokhara, and to change our money. Immediately we were struck by the friendliness of the Nepailse people who showed us to the tourist info/bus stop etc with no air of wanting a tip or a fee. So after buying bus tickets from the tourist info guy we hopped onto a jeep to be driven to the bus stop. Now this jeep was made for about 6 people max. We had about 15. 10 inside and 5 clinging to the back. Thankfully it was a short journey and we got off to be shown to our next bus, the bus to Pokhara which would take 8 hours. It looked okay at first, relatively comfy seats and a quick bus driver. However as the hours passed, and as we drove over some pretty awful potholes, we took a fair beating. Sleeping was out of the question - try sleeping in what felt like an eathquake at point 6 on the richter scale – so we instead tried to appreciate the scenery around us, which again was a bit of a mission seeing as the bus was hurtling around tight mountain bends with huge drops to one side scaring the bejesus out of us.

Agra to Gorakhpur

Sooo, the next few days were pretty knackering! In order to get up to Nepal, we had to spend a few days travelling. We woke up at 5 in Agra to catch a 6 hour train up to Lucknow. We hadn't travelled Second Seater class up until this moment. Hmmm to describe SS... think of British trains, diminish their standards by about 50x and you are still nowhere near. It is the pits, but yno, for around 2 quid what can you expect. After sleeping the majority of the way, we arrived in Lucknow, at around 12 and with 3 hours to kill before out next train we decided to walk about, find some food and catch up on some reading. Upon looking at the selection of food at one of the train stalls, we were approached by two 7 year old beggars, who instead of asking for few coppers demanded that we bought them a pepsi. Obviously after being pestered for the previous 2 weeks by beggars, we knew how to deal with them, giving them a firm 'no' and ignoring them. These girls were persistent little buggers however, pestering us for about 5 minutes. After a few minutes a tourist police officer walked over to ask if we needed any help or information and upon seeing the two street kids irritating us, took more severe actions than just a firm 'NO'.. Instead this policeman decided to wallop the older girl around the face! That got them running and although it did seem somewhat excessive to us both, we did find it also mildly amusing, to be honest after being annoyed on numerous occasions by beggars, some form of extreme action was a little relieving!

After grabbing some food and reading for a few hours we finally hopped on the train, in luxurious 3AC! By luxurious we mean that they had glass windows, comfier beds, curtains, air con, and most of all peace and quiet! A drammatic contrast to sleeper class! The train journey seemed to rush by, reaching Gorakhpur at around 9pm. Gorakhpur is nothing more than a small town that many people use as a night stop on their journey up to Sunauli. We found our hotel, grabbed some room service and collapsed, worn out from an entire day on trains.

Agra!

After saying farewell to all the staff in the hotel who had treated us like family during our stay the following morning, we jumped in a taxi which took us to Ajmer station around 11, to catch a train to Agra!! Trains in India are somewhat an experience to say the least, especially when you are slumming it like us and taking sleeper class everywhere you go. Never again will we complain about National Rail trains back at home! The beds are no better than an elaborate bench, where we had 4 people squished on each row... After 7 hours we reached Agra, getting a lift with the hotel pickup service with another backpacker. Our driver stopped at the side of the road about 10 minutes into the journey, got out and ran over to a wall next to where we parked up.. we naturally followed, to find our first sitings of the Taj! Despite being dark, just seeing the outline immediately clarified how sensational it is. What makes the Taj Mahal even more breathtaking is that Agra itself is a massive dive; to find this beautiful masterpiece plonked right inbetween slums, shanty's and delapodated housing truly emphasised its beauty. After arriving at the hotel, we caught a quick bite to eat at the rooftop restaurant, which had some of the best views of the Taj in Agra, which we definitely agreed with. Tucking into a cheese and mushroom omelette with those views was surreal.

The following morning we wanted to wake early to catch the sun rise over the Taj while also attempting to avoid the flocking numbers of tourists the it brought in. By 5.45 we were queueing outside, with luckily only around 20-30 people in front of us. We were told by our hotel that we could get in at 6 however upon arriving at the ticket booths, that turned out to actually be 6.30 and so, after 45 minutes of waiting, the queue rose from numbers of 30-40's to several hundreds! Due to the Taj being a World Heritage Site and arguably one of the most beautiful sites in the world, security was tight, taking us about 5-10 minutes to get through the metal detectors, body searches and bag search... The guards initiating the laborious process were suprisingly friendly, however the bag search turned out to be somewhat ridiculous. Obviously waking at 5 to get there, we had a few snacks in our bag to keep us going before we had breakfast, but understandably wanting to keep the site clean from litter no food could be eaten in the grounds. The guards spent time lecturing us about how we shouldnt eat inside resulting in them wanting a 'promise' from us that we would not have a munch walking around... Despite that really being the only notice about forbdden items, what happened next was hilarious, in fact so ridiculous that we thought the two guards were taking the piss and leading us on. They found... our playing cards! So we opened the box to show them that they were simply cards; after examining them for several minutes (we both thought they were going to start a game of whist) they instructed us to either put them in a locker or a bin outside, both of which would mean having to join the massive queue of people once again. Both shocked at the absolute absurdity of the rules and restrictions, Tim had to venture outside once again and bin them... WE WERE DEVASTATED.


Luckily having a laugh with the guards meant that Tim was let straight back in, bypassing the line that by now had grown to what seemed like a kilometre in length! Walking through the south gate alone was stunning, surrounding us with red stone walls with impressive detailing, reaching the main gate and firstt seeing the views of the main attraction was out of this world. Many people say that seeing a photo of a panoramic mountain view or a historic, famous site like the Taj is enough, we both entirely agree. It's one thing seeing a photo, and its something completely different in the flesh.
It was built by Moghul Emporor, Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, standing now as a symbol of eternal love, not a bad memorial if you ask me! The solid marble structure is the finest example of Mughal architecture, combining elements of Persian, Islamic and Indian styles, it truly is the most beautiful building either of us have ever seen. We walked down towards it, passing the fountains and taking snaps as we went. Walking on the marble plinth that it sits on was incredible and we took full advantage perching on the wall and just staring for at least an hour! The image inside of the two tombs, King and Queen together centralised was incredibly powerful. Taking a moment to appreciate the incredible opportunity that we had been lucky enough to experience, we walked back slowly, peering over our shoulders every 30 seconds in sheer astonishment of the view before leaving the site to head back for breakfast!

That afternoon we booked our train tickets up to Sunauli, stoppig off in Lucknow, managing to get a second seat train to Lucknow and have the luxury of 3AC from Lucknow to Sunauli!!