Nepal.
Nepal is now my second favourite country after Scotland. It is simply beautiful and most people say that it is 'best part of India' They say this as it is like India in a lot of ways but I much preferred it to India.
After we crossed the border on foot (see photos again) I was now in my 17th country (in total not on this trip and I CAN count the UK as 3 separate countries ok!)
We got on the bus to Pokhara and asked when it would leave - the man said 15 mins. We asked him about 3 times before he said 'ok relax you are not in India now, the bus will leave in 15 minutes' - we laughed and sure enough it did leave in 15 minutes. This incident pretty much set the tone for the rest of Nepal.
The bus ride to Pokhara took around 6 hours and some of the steep sided cliffs we raced around on the wrong side of the road really tested Jeans bladder to the full i think - she looked a little worried anyway!
On the bus ride to Pokhara 3 things became apparent straight away, firstly Nepalese men don't stare at you or ask you the same same same questions you get in India. After being stared at non-stop for a month this was a very welcome relief and warmed me to them immensely. Secondly they are a far more beautiful people than Indians, have a look at the pictures! Nepalese are rounded cheeked and round faced and beautiful skinned and they also smile a lot more than Indians seemed to.
The third thing that became apparent was the Jean is a great person to have around when you need food and she and Ronan had discovered the Indian equivalent of Rich Tea. She also brought banana muffins on the first day of the trek thereby scoring all the brownie points for that day!
Arrived in Pokhara and checked into our hotel. Things that became apparent immediately were the cleanliness of the place, the obviousness of a sewage system and the sweet sweet smell of the air as a result of the sewage system!!
We spent 2 days in Pokhara eating meat for the first time in a month and preparing for the trek! We decided to trek for 23 days approximately and to start with the Annapurna Base Camp Trek and then to cross to the Jomson Trek as I had heard that the high pass Throng-La on the Annapurna Circuit was still closed.
We set off early in the morning and had started to climb from Phedi by the time the sun was rising. Point of note to those thinking of doing the same sort of thing. If you want to do this trek start where we did and DO NOT start at the other end of the Annapurna Circuit Trek (forget the name of the town) as it is not nice and the way we went you start much higher and before long we were walking through rice fields and reaching small villages. After a steep climb aided with a banana muffin we reached the top of the hill and were rewarded with STUNNING views of the fishtail and start of the Annapurna range beside it.
Over the next 18 days we trekked - mainly in good humour and in bright sunshine. We tended to start at 7am and trekked till 9-9.30am where we would stop at a village and have breakfast and gallons of Nepalese tea - similar to chai but didn't seem as sweet. We would then trek till around 12-1 and stop for lunch - then trek again till 3-4pm and stop. Each part of the trek was different and the scenery changed all the time. The trek was good as we didn't often walk up one valley or hill for long, we often crossed more than 2 valleys in one day or circuited round and through high, steep sided valleys made up of terraced fields as far as the eye could see.

The walking was mainly 'Nepalese flat - a little bit up, a little bit down', when in actual fact it was a lot of up and down every day. The Annapurna Base Camp trek we did for the first 5 days. As we trekked early in the morning we were always rewarded with stunning views of the Annapurna's until around 11am when it started to cloud in.
On the 3rd day we discovered that as we were trekking early in the season there was no places open between Doban and the base camp of the fishtail. Also we were told that the Annapurna base camp as closed due to fresh falls of snow in the past week or so. We kept hearing different information, some people said open some said closed. One thing we knew for sure was that it would be a full days march without being able to stop for food to get to the base camp and gaining an altitude of over 1000m. As we were already at a high altitude and as we were not experienced at altitude we decided not to go. On day 4 and day 5 we headed up as far as we could on the trek and spent one easy day getting to Doban from Bamboo. We hit the snowline on these days which was good as well. The only thing of note is that i fell off a bridge....!! Mind you it did get me the last chocolate eclair (again Jeans great food!)
Day 6 was a rest day in Chhomrong and I spent the entire day eating and asleep. The food in the mountains is much better than the book would have you believe and it was the one time that Lonely Planet was absolute rubbish due to it being SO out of date. It mentions that the author for the area 'enjoys eating steaks in Pokhara' - I think that's all he did to be honest! I sent a snotty email to lonely planet on my return…..have still not had a response apart from ‘your email has been forwarded to the appropriate section ie the dustbin’
The food was varied and fine - especially as everything had to be brought up for days on porters or mules - apart from the addition of ginger and cabbage to EVERYTHING!Day 7 we crossed from the Base Camp Trek to the Jomson trek and we had to climb a fairly large hill but were rewarded at the end with a nice place to stay and a fire under our table.

I must mention the fire thing here as its such a great idea. Attached to the top of the tables are blankets that reach the ground. In some places there is then a hole in the floor about ½ metre deep where they put a burning gas fire or there is no hole dug out and they have metal buckets where they put the red coals from the fire in the kitchen. You simply sit at the table and put the blanket up around your knees and hey presto you are as warm as toast ! See the pictures online for a better idea of what I mean.

Day 8, had breakfast in the place where I took a great picture of Annapurna 3 and saw a massive bird fly past, we were to see these more often, mainly at Poon Hill. We think they were eagles.We arrived in Poon Hill that evening. This is the place where a lot of people go to as it is a 2 day trek from the start of the Jomson trek and there is a hill you can go to to watch the sunrise over the entire range – which is exactly what we did. That day was day 8 and turned out to be a really long day as after poon hill we trekked to Tatopani and stayed in a hotel with the best chicken sizzler I have ever eaten ! Or maybe it was just 7 days of potato roasty and veg fried rice that made it taste good !

Day 9-12 we headed up the Jomson trek. At this point the weather turned bad and we had a discussion about what to do as Jean said’ I didn't come all this way to see Jack Shit’ and I completely agreed with her. When you have your eyes down at the path, with the rain beating down you don't see anything and you could be anywhere. We agreed to stop in Ghasa and have another rest day. It turned out to be beautiful weather when we arrived in Ghasa. That day we saw a sheep being slaughtered in preparation for Holi and I was amazed at the cleanliness of the operation and the fact that not one bit of the animal was wasted. I took loads of pictures as I had never seen it before and was fascinated !
There was also a small boy in the place we stayed and he had fun helping me do my washing ! All the places you stay in when you trek are also family homes and it is important to remember this as you cant have a shower if the fire has not been lit etc !
From Ghasa we decided to head back down the Jomson trek all the way. We decided not to go any further up even though the weather had cleared up as firstly we were running out of time and secondly we met a few people who were trekking down from Jomson who told us that it had been snowing a lot and they couldnt see anything as they were walking.

One thing I want to mention is the porters. Most people who trek in Nepal have a guide and a porter - usually more than one porter if it is a big party of people trekking. The porters carried immense loads (see pics) and they would start after us in the morning and pass us during the day. When we arrived at our destination for that day, we would usually sit down exhausted while the porters would play jumping tiger or another board game i forget the name of that was a huge board and was played with round flat counters and chalk to make the counters slide as you flicked them. We decided not to have a guide or porter and we realised that it was not necessary as there was a path the whole way and if we went wrong people would correct us (while laughing!) and then ask 'No guide, no porter?' We also decided that we could do without our sling backs and hair straighteners and just carried what we needed ourselves.
There was also a lot of mules on the Jomson trek carrying supplies to the guest houses and villages and the novelty of stopping to let them past soon wore off!

Days 13-18 were spent trekking back to Pokhara (well to the end of the trek and then a taxi to Pokhara). The scenery was beautiful and the walking was not difficult apart from one days full slog uphill. By day 14 I was actually having dreams about internet cafes and telephones. 18 days without communication was a very weird thing especially as you come to rely on it so much when you travel.
Books I read on the trek included Bill Brysons ‘a walk in the woods’ and ‘7 Years in Tibet’. I have also realised how fit I have become and although I wont be able to maintain this level of fitness when I am travelling it is good to know that I can get that fit and to know that I can walk for 18 days with a rucksack filled with everything I need except food.
On the last night of the trek one of us suddenly spotted a car as we were close to a track that you can get a taxi to. I was immediately reaching for my camera to take a picture !! Having not seen a car for 18 days we actually stared at it for ages and commented on it ! We must have seemed daft to those who had just started trekking !
The last day we got to the road and got a taxi back to Pokhara – of this journey I remember 2 things, firstly my body did not like going at speeds of over 15 miles an hour having not had it for 18 days and myself and Jean began to feel car sick ! The second thing was that the driver was a lunatic and was overtaking when there was no need. Jean said she was itching to slap him around the head and remind him that in Nepal you drive on the left !
On return to Pokhara I went straight to the internet cafe and then spent the rest of the day eating. We also went to the busy bee cafe (best pub in town) and had one too many sherbets !
The next day I could not sit still as I woke up at 6am ready to trek and instead had breakfast and did emails and got my washing back. I sat and smelled the clean washing for ages. After 18 days of hand washing, the smell of those clothes, freshly folded and ironed is something that will stay with me for a long time !
The rest of the time in Pokara was spent doing not a lot, eating and visiting the Mountain Museum – an EXCELLENT museum and well worth visiting.

We then caught the bus to Kathmandu where we did a little sightseeing, got photos developed, caught up on emails and I also took a flight over Everest which was one of the highlights of my whole trip ! See the photos online. I was grinning like an idiot for the rest of the day. It didn't last though as I sauntered up to the travel agents to get a bus ticket to the eastern border of Nepal to head for Darjeeling, the travel agent told me that there were going to be strikes in Kathmandu and the roads were blocked. If I wanted to get out of Nepal the only way was to take a flight from Kathmandu to the border. So more expense ? Not really, ok so the plane was 5X as much as the bus ticket but the plane was only 40 quid ! The border between India and Nepal at the eastern side is not worthy of comment except that if crossing here and you need to spend the night stay on the Nepalese side as it is far nicer and quite ok for a border town. The women in the tourist office are lovely also and I spent an afternoon with them chatting and drinking chai.

The next morning I was thrown back into India with a force that I really didn't like. I walked across the border with everyone staring at me on the bridge across and the rickshaw drivers slowing down so their passengers could stare even more…. !Once across and through the border – where they write your name in a huge ledger that they probably started using when they were told to by the British – the office was STUFFED full of these books. In my details they copied the passport number wrong and stated my country as being the EU and that my name was Josephine Robson……Um. I will continue my return to India in a separate blog