Nepal

We caught the 11.15 train from Varanasi except that as usual for India, it was late. At about 12.45 it left the station. We had first class tickets, which would think means you get first class seats. In India, this simple assumption leads you astray. First class seats are in fact rather on the dreary side with wet dirty floors and some of the most impressive squat toilets you ever did see. They even have a sign in the toilet telling people not to soil the seats.

After a whole lot of travel including buses and India we made it to the border, got a visa stamp or two and changed some cash. The border crossing is rather amusing with lots of armed guards leaning on their guns smoking and stuff. It seemed like not a whole lot was going on and we could have very easily crossed the border without getting a visa. In fact, it has been three days and we still haven't had anyone check our visa's.

Anyway, we got on another bus and went to some lame transit town where we got ripped off a little and struggled to find an ATM. Nepalese are much worse at understanding spoken English which makes everything so painful to deal with. I tried to ask a bus driver if he was going to Butwal and he totally refused to understand what I thought was very clear, "Butwal?". I said it about five times as clearly as I could before he said, "Butwal!" in recognition. That's what I just said dummy. And it keeps happening.

"An ATM please"
"What?"
"A T M"
"Huh?"
"ATM"
"ohhhhhh, an ATM"
"For the love of god....Yes please, an ATM"

Infuriating.

Now we are in Pokhara, which is the second largest city in Nepal and very much the go for trekking, which is good because that's what we want to do. Everything seems to be exorbitantly expensive and we are really struggling to keep under budget. Even the staple meal, Dal Baat is about double what I would like to pay. Its really hard to understand the price when you get the meal to your table; Dal Baat comprises of rice, watery lentil soup, some potato curry and pickle. It's an all you can eat meal, which is good because it has absolutely nothing nutritious in it. The locals eat about five cups of cooked rice each sitting. I can't believe it when I see them wolf it all down. Where does it go? At the time I concluded that they were using hAx sKillZ, however after eating one such meal myself I discovered that I soon got hungry afterwards. Apparently you really do have to eat a lot of rice to get by.

Money aside, Pokhara is a beautiful city. The suburb we are staying in borders a river with mountains covered in forest on the other side. The river is miraculously still clean and the forest on the mountains is uncovered. To the back of the city is the Annapurna mountain range with snow topped peaks and all.

Tomorrow we set off trekking. We found a cheap guide ($14/day)), organised permits ($40 each, ough) and equipment from the many trekking shops bordering the river. We are pretty much set to go. We are going through Bamboo jungles and gorges and mountains and there's even going to be snow at the end. It takes eight days all up which will be great for experiencing the Nepalese trekking scene however it chews a rather huge hole in our 15 day visa. Oh well, we get to see snow.

Well we wont be talking any time soon. Farewell all and have a nice Christmas. We most likely will. We could even have snow if we're lucky enough. The Christmas lunch will be pretty tragic though. A whole lot of Dal and rice I imagine. We'll miss you all.

Much love, Nicholas&Kate