JuJu Dau and NorthFace

Our time in Bhaktapur was great - the medieval architecture and beautiful handicrafts there are truly unique. We caught our ride to Kathmandu airport and waited there for our next flight to Pokhara. The Kathmandu airport is one of the smallest I've been in, especially for a capital city. Oddly enough, it has the fastest wifi we've come across, so we were able to get some things done while there instead of just sitting and finishing a movie. Our flight was 30 minutes, so we just had time to get up in the air before beginning our descent again, hah. Also: one of the scarier descents/landings I've experienced. And that's from someone who's travelled a fair amount into random places. Pokhara is located just 30 miles from 3 of the highest peaks in the world, so you can imagine that it's a bit hard to get into, since it's surrounded by mountains. It also borders a big lake, so there's that too. You descend in jerks, and then bank steeply to the right as you're about to land - scary. 

Once we got settled into our hotel, we walked down to the lake and rented a canoe for few hours to watch the sunset from the water. Out on the water was so peaceful - you can see the World Peace Pagoda on top of the hill, and watch locals canoeing across the lake to their homes. There are definitely more tourists in Pokhara than Nagarkot or Bhaktapur, so we saw those too. After the boat, we walked to a little Indian and Nepali restaurant we found, since I have been loving Nepali food and Nolan's been missing Indian food. Compromise at its finest! Food was delicious, as usual. 

A typical Nepali set is called Dal Bhat, and means "soup and rice". You get some Dal, which is lentil soup, and then you get a plate that has a little bit of rice on it, some kind of a curried vegetable, other vegetables, pickled sauce, and then a tiny bowl of curd, to help with digestion afterwards. The curd usually tastes like plain yogurt, except in Bhaktapur, where they make a special type of curd called King Curd or "JuJu Dau". It's a bit more solid and sweet, and actually really delicious. In the Newari areas of the country (one of the ethnic groups here), you can also get a Newari set, which is similar to the Dal Bhat, but has fried vegetables (and really interesting kinds I've never seen, too!), curried something or other, pickled sauce, and then the rice is a dry, pounded thin rice (looks like dry oats) sprinkled on the middle of the plate with dry beans and lentils in it. I think it's actually super delicious. 

Anyway, after dinner we walked around Pokhara some more, and bought a fair amount of NorthFace goodies - they sell them very cheap since many are manufactured in the area. We tried a local version of a "cheesecake" on our walk back….not great.

Next morning we woke up before dawn to drive up to Sarangkot to see the sunrise. It was crowded and a long drive, but absolutely worth it. The top of that hill affords not only a view of the Pokhara valley and lakes, but more importantly: a front-row seat to the Himalayas and some of the highest, deadliest, and most majestic mountains in the world. The Annapurna range was within what felt like throwing distance, and ABSOLUTELY breathtaking. It's one thing to see pictures of mountains like that, but it is simply incomparable in reality. We stayed up there for awhile, taking pictures and videos, sipping hot masala tea, and just admiring the incredible creation.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to eat a quick breakfast, and then put on our backpacks and headed up to the mountains for a day of trekking! We just did a 6-hour trek up to Australian camp, but it was challenging enough that we were exhausted afterwards. It was gorgeous up in those mountains, with an even closer view of the "scary mountains", as I call them. Air was fresh, we got to wander through isolated villages, and truly admire the beauty of the countryside. Since we were so tired, we walked back to the same spot for dinner as before, Nolan got a haircut (his first non-Anneliese haircut in many years1), and we walked the streets for awhile. It was nice to have a relaxing night, as I was recovering from 2 days of a really sore throat and congestion. I call this my Paris disease, as I get this same sickness every time I go to Paris or any other place where the pollution and air quality is bad enough to make me sick.

Next morning, we ate a light breakfast and hopped on a bus to Chitwan. Nice bus - for here, downright luxurious. It had wifi, air conditioning, power outlets, and they even handed out free water bottles. We spent 3-4 hours winding along roads to a lunch spot, then hopped back on for another 2 hours until arriving at Chitwan, where we made our way to our hotel. We took a walking tour through the local village, got to visit the elephant stables, then walked through the jungle for an hour or so to get back to our hotel for dinner and then a cultural dance show - not a typical thing we would do, but part of our hotel's offerings, so we thought we might as well take advantage of it. Afterwards we sat down for some hot chocolate pudding on the patio, and then headed off to bed.

The next morning we got up for breakfast, then walked down to the river for a canoe ride. We spent about an hour or more in that dumb boat - it would have been so peaceful except for the Chinese tourists in the boat next to ours, and sitting behind me. Seriously. The group was so loud and obnoxious even our guides were telling them to knock it off. Normally, flipping over in a canoe isn't too bad - especially in such a lovely river…but since this river has a remarkably high population of a "very aggressive" crocodile species in it…probably best to stay in the boat. Apparently 6-7 people are eaten by these crocs each year. 

Fortunately, we got to head off on our own after the canoe landed, and we spent almost 2 hours trekking through the jungles. It's amazing that our guide knew where he was, as we weren't on trails most of the time, and were just looking for animals and crunching through the underbrush. We saw a rhino from a distance, and several crocodiles…but nothing spectacular. Finally we got back to the jeeps and made it back to our hotel for lunch. By this time, Nolan's got some kind of sickness lingering - a fever and muscle aches with heavy cold symptoms. He keeps saying he has Dengue fever but who knows. He's been going back and forth between really cold and really hot, and we're hoping he's on the mend now after the Tylenol helped his fever break a little.

Anyway, after lunch we had about 2 hours to rest, which was great for Nolan to sleep and try to get better a bit. I was busy booking another hotel and checking email and such, and then decided to take myself out on a walk to battle some restlessness. I picked up some more waters, printed out our train tickets for India, and then got a couple little ice creams to perk us up before our Elephant Safari.

The Elephant Safari was fantastic. We rode on a sweet little elephant who carried us through the jungle for two hours. Since the animals can't tell the humans are on the elephants, they don't run off the same way they do when it's just people walking around. So we saw several rhinos, VERY close (10 meters or less!), lots of spotted deer, and of course loads of monkeys. At the end, we bought a bunch of bananas and gave them to our little elephant friend as a tip :) We headed back to our hotel, sat down for a nice relaxing dinner by the river, and spent our last evening in Chitwan peacing out before the next few days of travel.