On the 27th we drove to thamel in the morning while the kids went to school. As always we stayed in the Himalayan java cafe, had some breakfast and enjoyed the good working Wi-Fi.
When we came back, Sagar was waiting for us to talk about our trekking tour which started the next day.
Until 6 o clock we tried to pack everything. We had to pack a sleeping bag, rain jacket, normal jacket, water bottle, emergency stuff, 2 trousers, 5 shirts, all the bathing stuff, camera, charger, some food, etc.etc. sooo much, even if it was only for 7 days haha.. but my backpack was actually more than full in the end, I could hardly close it and had to leave my towel at home... so yeah I will need to figure out an other way to get dry after showering 😅😂.
In the evening (6o`clock) we were invited to have dinner at Janardan`s house. The food his wife had cooked was very tasty and we even asked for the recipe so we can cook it at home, back in Germany. We stayed there for about 2hours and had some nice conversations, then we went back home because we really needed to clean our room and finish packing before leaving in the next morning.
After cleaning and packing I spent the rest of the evening with the kids and when we went to bed all of them reacted so cute <3. They hugged and kissed us on the cheek to say goodbye and they really didn`t want us to go.. It felt as if they thought we would leave them for forever.
Very cute...
But we actually felt quite excited and happy about being away for one week. For us it was basically like going on holidays... no children, no noise, no stress and less people. Just hiking, different places, and a lot of nature. We couldn`t wait for it!!!!
As we had to get up at 5.45 we tried to go to bed early and get some sleep. But obviously we were so excited that we just didn`t manage to sleep. I think both of us slept an hour in total. When the alarm finally rang I really didn`t want to get up!! I think I`ve never felt so tired before here in Nepal. It was literally a huge overcoming that I finally got up and got ready to leave the house. Sagar picked us up at 6.20 and we took a taxi to a bus station a short distance behind Thamel. There we got on one of the thousands of tourist-busses which drove to Pokhara. A 7h drive was waiting for us...
At the beginning I looked out of the window. I wanted to follow our surrounding and watched all the people and the traffic of Kathmandu. But I realized quite fast that I was just too tired and that the only thing I wanted to do was sleeping.... I even brought a pillow with me... and I really really tried to sleep.. but I couldn`t! The road conditions were too bad.. The whole drive was quite bumpy.. And it was impossible to fall asleep.
So I kept going with watching all the things which were already going on in the city at 7 o clock in the morning.
At first we drove through Kathmandu and left it after a while. We followed a road which lead through little villages and slowly began to change into a lot of curves and at the same time uphill. After leaving Kathmandu the landscape quickly changed. We drove along the river Trishuli and had wonderful views of hills, plants and the rural lifestyle of Nepal. I was so fascinated of it, it was just so beautiful and interesting to watch, even if I was so tired... I saw people taking "shower" just with some water out of canisters next to the road, others were washing their cloths and bathing in the river, some did traditional field working , cutting grain and grass or planting new things and kids were playing next to the street. It`s just so amazing how people live there without running water, washing machines, tractors or any technical devices... I couldn`t imagine this way of living and again it makes one realize how privileged we live in Germany. We followed the road next to the river for the next 5h. And actually I was quite happy that we drove at the left side which was the side next to the hills. The other side of the road was next to a precipice which lead almost 100-200 metres quite steep down to the river. And as the road was quite small and there were no such things like crash barriers or anything to make it safe I would have been quite scared that the bus would fall down into the river... Well actually we passed a place were this kind of accident had happened just some minutes before we reached it. It was so scary.. Lots of people were standing there and some were searching in the river for I actually don`t know what.. And seeing this drama, again I felt relieved to drive on the other side.. Until the point when I realized that we would drive on the scary and dangerous side back to Kathmandu in 7 days... The thought already scared me sososooososooooo much !!! I mean normally I wouldn`t be so afraid but the driving style of the bus drivers have a big impact on my fear. They always try to overtake every car or bus or transporter even in the middle of curves or when you can`t see anything.. and this is just quite frightening and crazy... I think one can not really explain how it feels but I think I`ve never had as many adrenaline shocks within a 7h drive.
We stopped 3times to have breakfast and lunch. The food was typically Nepali and Nirwana food and tasted quite good. We also used the stops as toilet breaks.. Well and all the toilets were so disgusting and it stank like hell!! AND there were no western toilets anymore but just these holes in the ground.. And of course no toilet paper (luckily we brought our own!) I really hate these toilets but it was obvious that we would have to get used to it for the next few days...
After 8hours we finally reached Pokhara. Pokhara is just another city which is located directly in the middle of Nepal (I actually learnt this while questioning the kids for their social exam). It is one of the largest cities and about 200km away from Kathmandu. From Pokhara one has a nice view (of course only if the weather allows it) of the Annapurna Range with three of the ten highest mountains in the world. Moreover it is basically the most touristic place and also known as the tourism capital of Nepal.
First we checked in into our hotel (it`s name was Penisula) and it was actually quite nice. The bathroom and the shower were lovely !!! And both of us had a single bed haha. It`s amazing how happy one can be about little things like this. So we stayed in our room for one hour and changed cloths and relaxed a little bit. Then we met Sagar and we walked around Pokhara. It`s a nice and beautiful city and somehow it reminded me a little bit of Thamel. It was just a really big Thamel haha. But here were also lots of restaurants and souvenir shops and bars and cafes and people who sold necklaces, bracelets, sculptures, cloths etc. etc. And everywhere one could find all the little shops. Sooo nice!!
Our aim for today was walking to the Phewa lake which Pokhara is famous for. It is just awesome! I`ve never seen such a beautiful lake. It is quite big and there are lots of little boats on it. It is surrounded by hills and one can see the mountains in the background. When we arrived there it was a little bit foggy so one couldnt see the end of the lake which made it look quite mystery. I literally fell in love with this place. We spend some time there with taking pictures and walking until we decided to have dinner. So we went back to the main street and went into a restaurant called "double side view restaurant" .. Well, I think there would have been nicer ones but anyways we were quite hungry so we didn`t care. Inspired by the lake I chose to have some local fish served with vegetables and French fries. The fish was actually soo tasty but the rest of my food was cold which was quite annoying.
After eating we directly went back to the hotel, showered and went to bed at 8 o`clock. We were actually so tired that we fell asleep immediately
In the next morning (Sunday, 29th of October) we got up at 6.30 am and got ready for breakfast. The breakfast was actually quite good. I had oats with fruits and yogurt, pancakes and three eggs.
At 8o`clock we took a taxi to drive to the place where our trekking tour was going to start. It took us about 2hours. First we left Pokhara. The first 45min we were driving directly towards the mountains and it was so stunning. Of course we have the Alps in Germany and it is not that I`ve never seen mountains in my life before but here the mountains are so impressive and the Alps are nothing in comparison to it. One of the mountains is called fishtale due to its shape and it is almost 7000 metres high and just imposing. First the street went uphill for almost 45min (awesome view!!!) and then we drove down into a valley. Again we were so excited and felt so happy that we had decided to go on this trip!!!
So we arrived at 10o´clock at our starting point and started walking along a gravel road. After 15min we reached a little village where we had to show our trekking permits at a checkpoint and which was the actual start of our tour. The village name was Birethanti (1025m). Our destination of today was a village called Ulleri (almost 2000m high). We went over a bridge and along a path which changed between going up and down. It was quite warm so it was a little bit exhausting but this wasn`t only due to the weather conditions but also because we were so motivated that we walked quite fast. And we already realized that we might be a little bit faster and physically fitter than Sagar haha. Actually it was quite easy to walk which was perfect so we were able to enjoy the fantastic landscape around us. We had a nice view into the valley, everything was green and in front of us lots of hills were waiting for us. On our way were lots of little teahouses and restaurants. But it`s not as if they would be a distraction of the landscape. The houses are always quite small and cute and all of them are blue (I don`t know why every house there was blue, I think they just like the colour haha) and they perfectly fit into the surrounding. So after 1.5 hours we stopped at one of the teahouses (Greenland restaurant) and had some Lemon tea which tasted so good. And even if it was quite warm the hot tea felt amazing.
After the little break we followed the path again which mainly went uphill now. It was actually quite busy. Lots of people were also hiking there (often bigger groups) and there were still cars driving. An hour later we stopped again to have some lunch. The restaurant was quite tiny but the food was really good. I had an omelette, Paula nothing and Sagar typically Nepali food (Dhal and Bhat). Lunchbreak was actually unnecessary because we (Paula and me) weren`t that hungry already and actually not tired but still it was a nice break and after it we were even more motivated. Again the path was going uphill again and we reached two hanging bridges. When we had passed the second bridge there was a sign that we had to go up 3500 steps until we reach Ulleri so we took a little break and while Sagar was sitting down me and Paula went down to the river and took some nice pictures.
Then we started going up. In total it took us about 2hours. In the beginning it was totally fine but after a while it became very exhausting our legs were paining soo much and we actually
couldn`t wait to finally reach Ulleri. The good thing was that Sagar took a way longer than we so we always had long nice breaks while waiting for him. We also got to know lots of people from
England and Belgium and Germany which was quite nice as well. While going up all the steps we had a fantastic view into the valley we had came from. The weather was perfectly and even if it was
exhausting as hell we were quite blessed to be here.
After 2h we reached a sign which said that we only had to walk for 5more minutes and we actually couldn`t believe this even if we really hoped for the best… because all the other signs had always
been wrong.. But luckily the sign was right and out of nowhere there was suddenly Ulleri. Well one should not expect a huge village or something like this.. There are only some houses which
are basically all lodges.. that’s it. When we reached the village there were hens running around everywhere and one of the locals told us that these were the local Nepali hens and apparently they
are quite expensive… One costs 3000 NR which are 30 euros. The village was quite cute and I loved the colours of the Lodges, they were so nice!! Me and Paula shared a room which was quite
basic. There were just two beds and one little table. Unluckily they didn`t even had plugs in the room, one had to charge everything downstairs in the restaurant. At 5 o clock we ordered our
dinner which should have been served at 6. In the mean-time we actually wanted to shower. Well, Paula did, but I couldn`t convince myself to do so. The water was fucking cold. It was not the
normal “it´s cold but I can deal with it” cold but the “if I`m going to shower I will turn into an ice statue” cold. I have no idea how Paula was able to stay in the shower for so long (5
minutes) haha.
While the sun was going down it started to got quite cold and I was happy that I brought my thick jacket, gloves and something to protect my head. So we played cards until 6o clock… then actually
our dinner should have been served… But somehow it didn`t appear. We were quite angry because we literally felt like starving to death. And we even had to wait for one more hour until our food
was finally ready… (Sagar just went into the kitchen and helped them cooking haha). The food was actually quite good but this didn`t even matter to us anymore.. I think we would have eaten
everything..
After dinner we finished our card game and then Sagar mixed his so called “goodnight tea” which consisted out of some rum and hot water. I thought it tasted awful and I actually wasn`t quite sure
if I would actually gonna sleep better because of it …
So we went to bed quite early.. I think we went to the room at 8. We got dressed (yes we actually got dressed, and wore 4 layers of cloths because it was sooo cold) We slept in our sleeping bag
plus we had extra blankets but I still couldn`t sleep because I was freezing so much.. So summed up, my night was horrible and our “goodnight tea” didn`t help at all.
In the next morning we had breakfast at 7.30am. When the sun was rising our view was just awesome!!! But unluckily it was still quite cold. The breakfast was quite good as well. I had some porridge and eggs plus tea which I really enjoyed. In Nepal I really turned into a tea and black coffee drinker. At 8.30 we started walking again. Today our destination was Ghoripani. Therefore we had to get up about 1000 metres. First the steps kept going and there were a lots of people and groups which was quite annoying. And actually I was exhausted again and as I didn`t sleep a lot my motivation wasn`t really on its highest level.. But the weather was absolutely perfect. The sky was blue and completely clear and we had a nice view of the Fish tale.
After a while the path lead into a rhododendron forest. I`ve never seen as big rhododendron trees. They were just so stunning!! Unluckily they start blooming in March so there weren`t any
flowers… I think otherwise it would have looked just so beautiful.. Now the way wasn`t that steep anymore and it was easy to walk. It also wasn`t that exhausting anymore because the big
trees hid the sun and we were only walking in shadow anymore. Actually it was even a little bit cold now. We also realized that if we kept a certain speed and didn`t stop all the time it wouldn`t
be so exhausting. The only problem was , that we always had to wait for Sagar haha…By the way my mood turned back into happy and motivated again…
Again we took a lot of pictures.. there were just so many nice spots with all the nature.. we actually made sooo many photobreaks haha. The only problem with taking pictures was, that we always
look quite sweaty and wear all the hiking stuff… so it always makes us look horrible…
The only problem of today was, that I had an infection on my leg which really hurt.. And which was quite annoying and I really hoped that it will get better.
Today was the first time we tried our water cleaning pills. Buying drinking water is quite expensive so we took these pills with us. You need one per litre and then you can also drink the water
out of the tab for example. I`m always not that sure if it really works but well, I just trusted it this time. And even it tasted a little bit of chlorid, I didn`t get any deceases so it was
fine.
At 1pm we had a little teabreak and drunk lemontea. I`m quite a fan of it now.. it tastes soo yummy!! Then we kept on walking. By the way we always walk along the river and there are lots of
little waterfalls and pools which is so beautiful !! At 2pm we stopped again to have some lunch. I had some vegetarian fried noodles which tasted very good until I found bones in it…. We took a
break for half an hour and wanted to start walking again, only 1,5h left to Ghoripani, when it suddenly started raining. It was the first time that the weather wasn´t that perfect. So we waited
some more minutes and actually the sky cleared up quite fast again.
So we walked the the next 1.5h which passed quite fast. Ghoripani was a really nice village. And actually it was quite big. Again all the houses were blue which looked so nice. We had to walk
15minutes more until we reached our lodge. From there we had an awesome view of the mountains!!! It was so stunning! But it was quite cold now and we were freezing. Our room was very clean (The
day before there were hairs everywhere in my bed…) and the lodge had a shower with warm water !! I actually felt like being in heaven! We spent the rest of the day downstairs. There was a big
oven with comfortable seats and sofas and the heat was just perfect!
In the late afternoon we went out for a little walk trough the village and had some coffee and apple pie (Sooo yummy!). I was quite happy that I had brought gloves with me, it was sosososososo
cold!!!
When we came back to the lodge we played cards and had dinner. Then we just chilled for a while, read and listened to music. Unluckily my stomach started to pain…. This was absolutely the las
thing I needed now!! And I really hoped that it would be fine the next day. By the way… when I took a shower I used my T-shirt as a towel as I couldn`t bring one due to not enough space in my
backpack.. But this was actually no problem.
We went to bed at 9 o`clock and I really hoped to sleep well as we had to get up at 4.20 am in the next morning…
But of course I couldn`t really sleep.. It was just too cold . The next day we got ready (4.20 am) and packed our cameras and water bottles. Today we wanted to climb poon hill to watch the
sunrise. Dressed with gloves, 1000 layers of cloths and hat we started to walk at 4.55 am. It was still completely dark but the sky was very clear and we saw lots of stars. It was actually the
first time in my life that I found some star constellations on my own. Actually I had a flashlight with me but the batteries were empty… So first I thought I wouldn`t be able to watch my
step but there were literally 100ds of people who walked on the same path in one big line so there was no problem with not seeing anything. The path consisted out of steps. We had to walk about
1.5h until we reached the top. When we arrived there it was so cold! Of course this was also due to the fact that we were sweaty and I realized that I had forgotten to bring something for
changing…. But well, at least one could buy some tea which was quite helpful in this case…
In comparison to the clear sky before it was very foggy and cloudy now and we already feared that we won`t see the sunrise and the mountains. This would have been so sad and annoying because
today was actually the highlight of our trekkingtour.
When the sun started rising we couldn`t see anything.. and we were soooo disappointed!!! But then suddenly it cleared step by step and one could see the big mountains which were up to 8000 metres
high. I was literally speechless.. I felt so little in comparison to them and they looked so beautiful. It`s actually so sad that one can`t describe it or capture it in pictures because no
picture could depict the atmosphere, the colours and how it looked like that well. But of course we tried to take good pictures and therefore we even took off our jackets. I actually had the
feeling to turn into an ice statue. But it was worth it! I just really hoped that I won`t become sick…
After 2hours we went back to our hotel. The way down felt like ages… And my knees also started hurting because we had to walk down all the steps…
When we reached the lodge we had breakfast and packed our stuff. Then we started walking again. Our destination for today was a village called Tadapani. At first we had to walk uphill for about
2hours. It was a little bit exhausting and I felt my legs which were a little bit tired after our morning walk. In front of us were some Chinese people who made me feel quite aggressive… They
were listening to Chinese music quite loudly and to be honest while hiking and being exhausted I really can`t listen to calm, Chinese, horrible music!! I was so happy when we passed them and
didn`t have to listen to it anymore.. We walked through a little forest and reached the top of the pass. There it was so foggy that we couldn`t see anything of our surrounding.. One thing which I
thought was quite cute were the praying flags which even hung up there.
Then we walked through an other forest. Now the path changed all the time between going up and down. Due to the fog the whole forest seemed quite mystery and scary but just beautiful and so
calm. After a while we reached an area with two teahouses and we took a break. We had some tea and played cards. Paula realized that she needed hiking sticks as well and there was a nice man who
quickly made some for her. After drinking tea I realized that my stomach had some problems again… One can`t imagine how annoyed I was.. I mean we were in the middle of the mountains with
holes as toilettes and my stomach started to make problems… I was so pissed off!! SO I took some painkillers and hoped it will go away soon. When I felt better we started walking again. Unluckily
I didn’t feel well for a long time. I think after 10min my stomach really hurt again so we had to make an other break. I drunk some hot water and took another painkiller and after half an
hour we started walking again.
Now we walked down for the next 2hours. It was quite nice. We walked along a river with lots of little waterfalls and it was beautiful green and like a fairy forest. Unluckily I couldn`t really
enjoy my surrounding or take pictures of it because I really needed a toilet.. So I was quite busy to walk as fast as possible and at the same time to try not to fall down all the steps or fell
over all the stones…
I was quite happy when we finally reached the next restaurant and it even had a western toilet, AMAZING!! Funny how happy I`m already about certain toilettes haha.
We also had lunch there. When I took off my shoes I realized that I had a big blister on my foot which was already bleeding… great! Even if it was actually hurting a lot I hadn`t noticed it while
I was walking… maybe I was just too busy to find a toilet..
The owner of the restaurant suddenly came and brought a little baby goat with him which he had found in the forest being on its own. It was so so so cute and we pet it and fed it with the bottle.
Paula fell in love with it (actually she does so with every animal) and wanted to take it with her … but of course this wasn`t an option and we kept walking without the little baby.
The path was still going down and down and down, I think for the next 2h ca. Then we had to walk up again. It was quite steep now and very exhausting. We had two hours left until Tadapani. When
we started walking up Sagar wanted to borrow one stick of Paula… (of course she gave one to him..) But when we waited for him and he reached us, he had thrown the stick away because he thought it
was too heavy.., Paula was quite annoyed about this haha…
Tadapani was a cute village and our lodge was quite nice. We spent the whole evening with relaxing and reading. The wifi didn`t work at all which was a little bit annoying.. but at the same time
actually not that bad haha.
Tonight I actually slept quite good. Paula didn`t because our room neighbours were having some fun quite loudly and this for several times haha but I didn`t hear anything of it.
In the next morning we had breakfast (I`m always eating Tibetian bread, it`s so tasty!) and left the lodge at 9. Sagar told us that we had to walk for about 3.5 hours to our next destination (
village called ghandruck) but in the end we just needed 2hours. The way lead through the rhododendron forest again and was going down or straight so it was quite easy to walk and we walked very
fast. Ghandruck was very nice an we arrived there at 11.30 am. So we had some tea and enjoyed the nice view. Now, the weather was also warmer and the wifi was working better so everyone spent
some time on their phones haha. After having lunch we walked through the village and discovered a German bakery where we had some apple pie and cinnamon rolls.
The shower in the lodge was actually warm, the only problem was that we couldn`t open our normal shower because the wheel was missing… So we were only able to use the foot shower thing.. I really
didn`t like the idea of showering while having to sit on the cold floor so I cancled the shower for today..
We spent the rest off the day with just relaxing and reading. In the evening we played cards with two men from the Netherlands and from Switzerland then we went to bed.
I slept quite well and started our last day with a great mood. After breakfast we only had to walk for about 1.5 hours until we reached a little village (I forgot the name). There we took the bus
back to Pokhara. The bus drive was an adventure!! It was sooo scary! We had to drive down the mountain and the road was quite narrow. At the side of the road it was going down quite steep and
again there were no such things like barriers or something like this. Everytime we drove around corners it seemed as if we would drive to far and fall down…It felt the same as “die wilde Maus “
at the Oktoberfest. Horrible!! I always thought what if the breaks won`t work anymore, what if we drive too fast, what if an other big bus is coming from the other direction…. I think I shouldn`t
think about so many “What if..” things probably… Well, the whole drive I was just tensed as hell and I was so happy when we finally reached Pokhara.
The first thing we did when we arrived in our hotel was having a shower which was actually the best thing ever!! After this we slept for an hour and then we got ready for having lunch. We just
walked down the street for some minute and chose a restaurant. I ordered a fish with lemon souse and we had to wait ages for our food.. When we finally got it we were so hungry ready and I
immediately started eating … After 2minutes I realized that I couldn`t breathe that well anymore… Well, my lovely fish was full with a mushroom sauce… And I´m allergic to mushrooms so yeah this
was a little problem.. I was really annoyed because actually I had ordered the fish with the lemon and not with the mushroom sauce and now I couldn`t eat my food… I ordered a new one and again I
had to wait ages..
After lunch we went to massage. Paula and me chose one which was called “trekker`s massage”. Basically it was a massage over the whole body and it felt just amazing!! After it we actually planned
to walk to the lake and get on a boat…. But we felt so sleepy that we decided to go back to the hotel and get some sleep.
In the evening we went out for dinner and had some Pizza and pasta. After this Paula actually wanted to buy some souvenirs but somehow she wasn`t really in the mood for it anymore and she went
back to the hotel. Sagar and me decided to go into a bar with livemusic. It was so funny. I had some cocktails and Sagar beer and we talked a lot and enjoyed the music. Sagar ordered food again
and I literally felt like exploding!! The pizza had really filled me up and I really wasn`t hungry at all but on the other hand I didn`t want to be rude so I ate some chips and momos until I felt
like throwing up haha. In the end we also danced a little and of course the Nepali people were so fascinated of me… It is so funny .. I only need to stay on the dance floor for about 2seconds and
a moment later I have new friends haha. And this time I didn`t even looked good or anything .. I mean I wore leggings, an oversized t-shirt, a too big jacket which I bought from H and M in the
boys` area and hiking boots!! My makeup wasn`t perfectly done and my hair was a complete mess stuck together to a bun … Yeah so it was so funny how “beautiful” I still was in their eyes.
I came back at 12 and called Josh. Therefore I locked myself into the bathroom because I really tried not to wake up Paula… Suddenly I heard a sound which sounded like a door and I actually
thought Paula would have woken up or the neighbours had made it… Still, I looked out of the bathroom and realized that our room door was completely open. I woke up Paula but she hadn`t realized
anything as well.. But this was so scary and we immediately locked the door…
After this I couldn`t really sleep anymore and when we had to get up in the next morning (6.30am) I felt the same as on day one of our trekking tour… But today was our last day and unluckily we
had to drive back to Kathmandu… The week went by sooo fast!!! So we had breakfast and took a taxi to the bus stops. There we hopped onto one of the busses and began our drive back to the
orphanage… Again I spent the whole drive in tension and couldn`t sleep or relax due to the drivingstyle and our experience when we first drove to Pokhara. In addition to this we had a huge
traffic jam when we reached Kathmandu… And our 7-8h drive turned into a 13-14h drive..
I think one can imagine how happy and tired we were when we finally arrived in the orphanage. And we straight went into bed.
Soo for me it was important to finish at least the trekking capture of Nepal in my blog… And I`m actually a little bit annoyed about myself that I only managed to finish it while already sitting at the airport of Mexico.. waiting for my next flight to Puerto Escondido.. So I`ll just sum up the last days of Nepal after trekking very very short and quickly so that I can start with my new journey… MEXICOOO!!!!
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