Nagarkot

After we returned to the hotel, we had enough time to pack and have breakfast before we were met by Ram and our guide for the next two days, Chhatra Karki. He had an intreguing Scottish acecnt at times, and I found out he has worked with many Scottish groups in the past. Anyway, his English was excellent and with a ready smile he guided us through parts of the city I have not seen before to a bus stop. As I had allowed my blessing to wash off earlier, a local Sadu (holy man) kindly boarded the bus and re-blessed us (for a tip!). The bus to Sankhu lasted about an hour, and as well as being considerably cheaper than a taxi, I feel the experience was worthwhile too. Buses are normally old single-deck vehicles, and the conductor hangs out of the side door and shouts in rapid-fire Nepali at passers by. Should one wish to board (as there are no bus stops), he bangs the side of the bus and the driver pulls over, frequently cutting up whatever is behind to a volley of horns!

Once we had departed, we began the approximately 4 hour walk to Nagarkot. The weather changed over this time, but after about 20 mins I had to stop to unzip my trousers (to make them shorts). The humidity was constant and altough Chhatra was not bothered by this, I was sweating quite a lot. It started raining about half an hour before we stopped for lunch, and became sunny again later. Lunch consisted of 'daal bat', the traditional Nepali dish of rice, spicey lentils sauce, vegetable (mostly spinage) and some sort of relish. I thought of how much Sophie would have relished such a meal! This was served in a 'restaurant' which was the lower floor of someones house. One quickly notices how long everything takes to arrive in Nepal (even drinks), but when it eventually arrived an hour later I was quite hungry! Being foreign, we were given a concession of a fork rather than using our right hand as locals do (never the left - that is 'dirty' as it is used for washing yourself after visiting the toilet).

Restaurant for lunch

A hour of so later, we arrived in Nagarkot (Hotel View Point), which although not the nicest hotel in Nagarkot, does have the best views of the Himalaya. It was a little too cloudy to see most of the mountains (including Everest), but the views were still amazing (both from our balcony and the observation tower on the roof of the hotel). After a dinner of 'mixed grill' and my first hot shower since arriving in Nepal, I slept well!

 with Chhatra at the top of our hotel