In Summary - Nepal

Here's an overview of our time in Nepal

Length of stay - 15th to 23rd March (9 days)

Places stayed - Kathmandu, Pokhara, Ulleri, Ghorepani, Ghandruk, Pothana

Currency - Nepali Rupee, at time of writing £1 equals roughly 150 Rupees

Plug type - odd round three pin 16 amp socket, but many places had adapters

Driving side - left

A few Nepali words

Our guide Ram was good enough to teach us some Nepali on our trek. The main words we used from the long list below were:

Namaste - hello

Dhaneybat - thank you

Suwagatam - you’re welcome

Jam jam - go go

Suvha bihani (or “super bee honey” as James liked to say) - good morning

Sunder - beautiful

Kripaya paani - please can I have some water?

Three good

1. Scenery - amazing mountains, woods, flowers, lake, just stunning views everywhere we went
2. Activities - hiking, white water rafting, paragliding - Pokhara is an outdoor adventure type’s paradise
3. No mosquitos - although unfortunately this wasn’t quite true as we had one in our room on the last night! Still it was nice not to have to deet up everyday like we had to in SE Asia

Three bad

1. Road quality - some roads were tarmac but a lot were dust tracks or full of potholes, or just a river bed! We were told this is because there is a lot of corruption, and money made available for better materials gets pocketed and less money is spent on cheaper materials
2. Driving - I thought we’d seen dreadful driving in SE Asia, but then we arrived in Nepal! If they’re not swerving to avoid each other, they’re swerving to avoid cows (see “Three odd” below)
3. Air quality - the air quality in Kathmandu was pretty bad, but luckily we were only there for one night. It may have been like Mandalay and cleared up, but we weren’t there long enough to find out!

Three odd

1. Cows in the road - as a sacred animal in the Hindu religion, cows are allowed to roam freely in Nepal. This is partly due to the fact that, as the country develops, there is less need for animals to undertake manual labour so male cows get let go by their families and left to wander the streets. It’s still odd to see one coming towards you though!
2. Daal bhat refills - so much food! Particularly as our guide kept topping us up even when we were full. You wouldn’t get unlimited dinner back home! But it’s really good for trekking - as the saying goes “daal bhat power, 24 hour!”
3. Pokhara airport - I felt like I was in a model village. It’s so small! You walk from the plane, following your luggage as it’s pushed along by three guys to a room where they just plonk it on a ledge. Really bizarre! Also, because of the position of the mountains, you start banking immediately after take off, or as you come into land, you feel like the wing could touch the floor! It’s quite unnerving!