As we left Pokhara the cloud lifted a little, it must be amazing when the complete Annapurna range is visible.
We headed for Bandipur which sits at around 1300m is known as an interesting village with good mountain views. It was a pretty and quiet ride there from Pokhara and only took about 4 hours, we find ourselves liking this type of day more and more and our trip goes on!
The Hotel Dunche, cheap, great food and lovely garden and views.
We wandered around the village and hiked in the hills for a couple of days, very chilled.As we weren't too far from the Chitwan National Park we thought we'd give the rhino spotting one last go. So glad we did!
The best views we had of the rhinos were from the opposite side of the river to where they graze in the afternoons. One morning we did an elephant safari, we'd ridden on an elephant years ago in Thailand but had forgotten just how bumpy a ride it can be! We were still being reminded of this several days later by our bruises (some in very odd places), it is however a lovely way to travel through the forest.
Later that day we heard of a guide who had taken 4 tourists out on a walking safari that morning and had disturbed a mum and baby rhino, the mum had charged at him resulting in a few wounds to his arms and body. It could have been much worse if his assistant guide had not hit the rhino with his bamboo stick. The poor guide was taken 25km to the nearest hospital stitched up and kept in overnight. We had been planning another elephant safari but decided we'd rather give the money to the injured guide, he probably wouldn't be able to work for a while and no work means no pay in their job.
I was so disappointed when we hadn't seen any rhino on our walking safari at Bardia National Park but on reflection perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing. I am sure John would have been Ok but I think I would have struggled to keep calm if we had encountered an angry and protective rhino!
We were now only a few hours ride from Kathmandu but we still had enough time left on our visas to spend a few days in some quiet places before hitting the city.Daman is 2500m above sea level and a lovely quiet place, we stayed in a guesthouse run by a Sherpa family. The lady below was in charge, a true matriach who kept everyone on their toes! The dress she is wearing is a traditional northern Nepal/Thibetan style with a big square pocket sewn inside the front. This is often stuffed full and makes even the slimmest ladies look rather buxom, it's where they keep their money, valuables, food and and one time I was talking to a street vendor and a very cute puppy popped it's head out of her dress.
Our next stop was Kakani another quiet village in beautiful countryside, our plan was just to stay one night then head a bit further north to Dhunche which is the entrance to the Langtang National Park. However, not long after arriving in Kakani we decided we wanted to stay there a few days. It wasn't that there was much to do but the hotel, staff and views were so nice it just felt right.
This is Mausam a member of staff at the Kakani Mountan View Hotel where we stayed, he loved the Tenere!
In 1992 a Thai Airlines plane crashed in the valley below the village, this is a memorial garden for the 113 that died.
The Langtang Himal mountain range.
We took a day trip up towards Langtang it was a lovely route, so glad we did it this way and left the luggage at the hotel. It was pretty steep and the road surface was pretty patchy, in the not too distant future it should be a great road but at the moment there's still a fair bit of gravel and pot holes in between the nice sections of tarmac.
On hot days the wet t-shirt technique makes travelling a lot more comfortable.
Whoops, bus travel is not for the fainthearted here.
Mausam gave the Tenere it's first clean for a long time.
On our last night we had dinner with the owners and staff, a fantastic meal that was by far the best food we'd had in Nepal. We really enjoyed our time with Ranjan, Sushila, Sarita and Mausam.
Next stop Kathmandu!
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