Friday, 16th December 2005. Gorakphur to Bhairawa

The drive out of Gorakphur was good, partly because we were driving away from a fairly grotty place and partly because the road up to Sonauli was so good. Sonauli itself isn't much to speak of, but the Indian border is a very relaxed affair - Immigration consists of 4 jolly chaps sitting behind a desk in front of a shop, and customs is just over the road wedged in a row of shops. It took about 5 minutes to clear immigration, and 15 minutes to go through customs where they only looked in the back of Hector to see where we slept, and not even the chassis number was checked. We drove through the border gateway, parked up in front of the Nepali customs house and walked over the road to the pink Nepali Immigration building where a very nice Nepali lady handed us the Visa forms. 15 minutes and $60 later we had our Nepal Visas, valid for 60 days. Easy. Then it was back over the road to the Customs house where we handed the Carnet over and sat watching the cricket for 20 minutes, when the fully signed-up carnet was returned to us - no one even looked at Hector!! In total it took us about 1 hour to get through both borders - the easiest border crossing so far. 

I once read that leaving India and entering Nepal is "...like being sucked out of a vortex" and it's true - everything immediately feels calmer and more relaxed, there are less people about and the view over the Terai to the snow capped mountains in the background soothes nerves which have been somewhat frazzled over the last couple of days. After changing up our Indian rupees we drove the 4km from the border to the town of Bhairawa where we pulled into the nice looking hotel Lecoul (set back from the main road, with parking), checked in and celebrated our arrival with a couple of beers. We'd made it to Nepal.

Saturday, 17th December 2005. Bhairawa

It was really quiet when we woke up this morning - the first time we've been able to hear the birds in the morning for ages...if we'd have thought about it, we should have been suspicious at it being so quiet on the main road to the border...I (mark) had gone outside to clean some of the mud and dust of the windscreen in preparation for our drive to Chitwan National Park today, when the receptionist came out and asked if we planned to check out today. When I replied yes, he looked very embarrassed and explained that there was a problem. Apparently yesterday there had been a protest in Kathmandu and the police had shot dead a number of protesters. To try and keep a lid on things they had declared a 24 hour Bandh, which means that everything shuts and no motorised traffic is allowed on the roads, only bicycles, which explains why it was so lovely and quiet this morning...This news rather buggered up our plans, as we had booked ourselves into a lodge in Chitwan to arrive today. The receptionist very kindly called our place in Chitwan and explained what was going on and that we'd be arriving tomorrow instead. We then took advantage of the peace and quiet and had a leisurely stroll into the peaceful town.

Sunday, 18th December 2005. Bhairawa to Sauraha, in Royal Chitwan National Park.

I (Amy) drove today and was surprised at how good the roads were, lovely long surfaced highways.  We made it to Royal Chitwan National Park, and eventually (after giving a lift to a man who wanted to go somewhere near to where our hotel was), we arrived at the Chitwan Tiger Camp, which sits right on the banks of the Rapti River, facing the jungle of the National Park on the other.  The afternoon was spent lounging around on deck chairs in the warm sun soaking up the fantastic scenery of Chitwan, and celebrating our arrival with a few San Miguels!

Monday, 19th December 2005. Sauraha. 

For today we'd booked a short canoe ride, a trip to the elephant breeding centre and a jeep safari.  After a very relaxing breakfast on the 'beach' overlooking the Rapti river we were off in our dug out canoe.  Whilst we were drifting down stream we saw a Mugger Crocodile and lots of lovely birds.  We arrived at our stop, which happened to be a steep river bank.  We followed our guide through the jungle and came to the Elephant Breeding centre.  Whilst our guide was buying our tickets and our elephant biscuits we watched some of the elephants.  It was amazing, and with our Elephant Milk biscuits in hand all of the babies came running over to get some food.  I fed them first followed by Mark.  The baby Elephants come over and put out their trunks, and you hold out the biscuit for them to take.  They were surprisingly gentle, and somewhat greedy, as when another elephant approached, the one that was being fed head butted them out of the way...We ended up with a really cute Baby of 15 months old, who we gave the rest of the biscuits to.  He was lovely but we did get covered in elephant snot!  Mark took over the feeding and before long we were following the mothers and their babies down to the river where it was bath time.  Such a wonderful morning relaxing with these amazing animals, we didn't want it to end.  After lunch it was time for our jeep safari, we had high hopes after the jeep ride in Ranthambhore, but were greatly disappointed.  To start with I (Amy) was left hanging on the back of the jeep with Mark clinging on to me as there was a Nepali couple on their honeymoon completely oblivious to everybody else on the jeep and took up all the room, to the extent that Mark ended up standing on the bull bar at the back of the jeep with the guide.  Nevertheless we saw a monkey and went to a Crocodile breeding centre where we saw loads of crocs, also there were two Rhinos who had apparently been rescued and a Bengali Tiger who had gotten the taste for humans and had to be caged up... very sad, but necessary I think. After a not so great afternoon we had a beer and watched the sun go down over the jungle.

Us with the baby Elephant          How cute is he...?                      bath time

Tuesday, 20th December 2005. Sauraha.

 The morning was spent pottering around the small town of Sauraha, where we bought a lovely canvas bag with a hand painted Elephant on, some coasters with again hand painted pictures of animals and a Christmas present each.  We gave Hector a thorough clean ready for the Yak and Yeti and also repacked the back to remove a ton of red dust.  This afternoon at 3pm was our much awaited Elephant ride.  Our Elephant arrived at our lunch table and reversed in so that we could climb into the basket using her tail.  It took a little while to get used to the animals movement, it was a back and forth rocking motion but you soon forgot about it and started to really enjoy the ride.  We were joined by two Nepalese to fill up the basket and then we were on our way to the jungle.  We were joined by 10 other Elephants each with 4 people to a basket.  The Elephants are such strong animals, when they walk up or down a steep slope you have to cling on in fear of falling out but the Elephant just powers along without hesitation or faltering.  As the elephants are so quiet we were able to see a Rhino after just 5 minutes, the Rhino looked very mechanical, as if they had been put together from spare parts.  We powered through the jungle with ease towards a river were the Elephants were able to have a drink and a splash.  We moved through the river and as soon as we hit land again we bumped into 4 Rhinos eating together.  What a spectacular sight, the Rhinos weren't even bothered it was as if we were not there. At another river the elephants all seemed as if they were really enjoying themselves, they were trumpeting and 'talking' to each other, it was just amazing to hear them and to see so many at one time, an experience of a lifetime, something which everybody should do.  After the safari the elephant walked us all the way back to our hotel where we took some great photo's.

The evening was spent at the Tharu Culture programme hall.  This is where the Tharu's (a tribe of Nepali's) put on a display of how they hunt and celebrate.  They did about 5 different programmes, 3 different stick dances showing how they hunt, 1 female dance, and 1 animal dance.  The animal dance was great fun, a chap came on stage wearing a fantastic Peacock costume and moving to the music, the finale was a dance without sticks where they invited the audience to join them on stage to dance, Mark went up whilst I watched with the video camera poised, ready to record him making a fool of himself for posterity.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

Our elephants sister        Two 1 horned Nepalese Rhino        This elephant had an itch.

Us at the end of the day             Amy and our elephant        Stick dancing.

Wednesday, 21st December 2005. Sauraha.

Today is a relaxing day writing up our logs, and watching the birds on the river.

Thursday, 22nd December 2005. Sauraha to Daman.

We left Sauraha reasonably early and drove East through the plains of the Terai until we reached a Town called Hetauda, where we took the Tribhuvan Highway North. On our way we again noticed lots and lots of soldiers on the streets, and the obligatory checkpoints at every town - which we sail through with no problem. The Tribhuvan Highway isn't a highway like you are probably imagining - it's a very narrow, windy road barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other, and which in places had been torn away from the mountainside by landslides - much like parts of the Karakorum HIghway in fact. It also gains altitude quite quickly - one minute you are at 100 metres, then 40 km and hundreds of hairpins later you are at 2,500 metres, looking down huge, jungle covered slopes. We had decided to stop for a couple of days in a place called Daman, which we read has "arguably the best views of the Himalayas"...We're sure that it would do, too, if it wasn't so cloudy. Daman is a bit of a one horse town, especially at this time of year, and it gets very cold at night - the chap on reception reckons that the snows will be coming in 10 days time. The cook at the place we're staying at had gone home, so we went to one of the local tea-houses for our supper: a very nice Dal Baht (rice, lentils, cauliflower, cabbage etc).

Prayer flags over the road to Daman

Friday, 23rd December 2005. Daman

Spent the day pootling around Daman - basically killing time until we can head off to Kathmandu tomorrow.

It gets cold in Daman...

Saturday, 24th December 2005. Daman to Kathmandu

Typically it was a fairly clear day this morning, so we finally got to see the fantastic views of the Himalayas - including Mount Everest, as we drove though the terraced hills towards the Kathmandu Valley. Once again we were struck by two things - the first is that people here seem genuinely happy to see us - kids running after Hector waving and shouting "hello bye bye!" and the occasional old boy by the side of the road giving a slightly bemused "Namaste" as we trundle past. The second is the huge number of troops on the roads - at time's it's like driving through a war-zone with troop carriers, gun emplacements, and massive road-blocks where all the Nepalis have to get out of their vehicles whilst both are searched very thoroughly. Luckily no-one seems to bother about us so we drive up to the front of the queues and wait to be waved through. Eventually we got on the ring road around Kathmandu and before long Amy was driving past the Royal Palace and we were pulling into the Yak and Yeti...where things started to go wrong. We tried to check in, but they asked us to take a seat whilst the Manager was sent for. He explained that the hotel was going to have some sort of strike over Christmas and that they couldn't put us up, but that they had booked us into another hotel. We also picked up the mail that people had very kindly sent us - thanks so much! So off we drove, back out of the centre of town with the Yak and Yeti's receptionist acting as navigator until we pulled into the modern Hyatt Regency - about 4km from the centre of town, but a nice place. We've also both got stinking colds at the moment, so after a much anticipated Gin and Tonic to celebrate the achievement of the "Uk to Kathmandu" leg of our trip we went to bed.

Sunday, 25th December 2005. Kathmandu.

Merry Christmas everybody! Had great fun opening our cards and presents this morning before having Christmas lunch and a stroll round Kathmandu in the afternoon and a few glasses of wine in the evening.

Monday, 26th December 2005. Kathmandu.

Today we visited Durbar Square, Mark found it fascinating as he was here 9 1/2 years ago but I didn't really enjoy it due to my cold.  We still saw all of the sights and visited a Thanka Gallery on the way back to the hotel, where we bought a gorgeous Mandala.

A Temple Gateway             Temple                                 Buddha

Tuesday, 27th December 2005. Kathmandu.

Today we checked over Hector, as when we left Daman a few days ago he didn't start first time, unfortunately this time Hector didn't start at all.  So we checked the battery connections and that the immobiliser was working properly, they were, so it was out with the Haynes manual, we narrowed the possibilities down to a poor earth connection, a faulty starter motor or a fault in the ignition/solenoid/motor circuit, we thought it was best to start with the easiest, the poor earth connection.  Mark got his overalls on and with a very interested Nepali watching he slid underneath Hector, unbolted the earth strap, cleaned it up and bolted it back on. When he shouted to try starting Hector, I almost jumped out of the car with joy when he started, Mark had successfully fixed the problem.  The afternoon was spent at Boudanath Stupa.  This was great fun, a really relaxing atmosphere, we had a laugh walking around the stupa in a mandatory clockwise direction, chatting to the nine year old monks and spinning the prayer wheels before walking up to the top and looking at the sights, all very cool.

The Boudanath Stupa

Wednesday, 28th December 2005. Kathmandu to Pokhara.

Mark drove today, everything was going great until we actually arrived in Pokhara when we found the right road, but were stopped by a police barrier just 500m from the Campsite. Mark went to investigate and discovered that the entire road was closed for 5 days due to the 7th Pokhara Street Festival and that the campsite was now a fairground.  Luckily we had stopped right next to a hotel, so we parked and checked into the not so great but OK 'Hotel Peace Nepal'.  We spent the afternoon exploring the town, watching the parades, having lunch and checking out the hundreds of shops. Some of the parades were fascinating - especially the Tibetan monks wearing their ceremonial hats, blowing on their huge trumpets as they paraded their icons around the town.

Pokhara street festival

Thursaday, 29th December 2005. Pokhara.

We were up fairly early today and when we went to put our laundry in discovered that the roads were opened during the morning, so we checked out of the hotel and drove round to the Hotel Glacier.  Mark had stayed here last time he was here, so he thought it would be nice to stay here again, and it is very nice, a lovely room, hot showers and really friendly staff.  We spent the afternoon relaxing in the gorgeous sunshine, updating our logs and soaking up the scenery and the lovely laid-back atmosphere here.

Friday, 30th December 2005. Pokhara.

Pokhara is famous in Nepal for Fewa Lake, so today we hired a boat and went messing about on the water for 4 hours, taking it in turns to do the paddling and managing to get pretty much to the top of the lake and back. From the far side of the lake you can, when the air is clear, see the mountains of the Annapurna Range covered in snow and rising above the terraced greenery of the foothills which roll down to the lake. Unfortunately it was a little hazy today, but being on the water was still great fun.

Amy and Mark messing about on the water

Saturday, 31st December 2005. Pokhara

The weather this morning was lovely and clear, so after breakfast we were back out onto the lake and making the most of the stunning views:

The Annapurnas, the foothills and Fewa Lake.

We also spent quite a while looking for large spiders (which came as something of a surprise to me, as Amy is not the greatest fan of spiders in the world...) after we had seen a huge one hanging off a tree by the footpath as we were walking about after breakfast. (We were also approached by some chap with a Cobra in a bag who wanted to know if we were interested in seeing it....no chance....). So we paddled over to the jungly slopes, tied the boat up and went for a walk into the jungle. We spent ages just watching a troop of Rhesus Macaques as they first tried to scare us off by flinging themselves across the top of the tree canopy and making lots of noise, then got used to us and started messing about and playing, which was wonderful to watch. We didn't find any of the huge spiders, but we did get to see a fairly vicious looking one which was the size of a clothes peg:

After making it back to the boat (which thankfully hadn't drifted off), we spent the rest of the day paddling close to the banks of the lake, stopping every now and then for a quick walk into the undergrowth or just drifting along in the warm afternoon sunshine, watching the Kingfishers as they flashed across the water and the Fish Eagles circling over our heads. In the evening we had a fantastic meal at "Bistro Caroline", followed by some complementary whiskies and some Baileys to see in the New Year

Sunday, 1st January 2006. Pokhara

Happy New Year! Having woken up with slightly thick heads this morning we took it easy today and planned our route from here to Mumbai, which involves some fairly long driving days which neither of us are particularly looking forwards to. 

Monday, 2nd January 2006. Pokhara

It was a Hector day today, to make sure that everything was OK for the long drive South. We enlisted the help of a Nepali and headed off to the Auto area of town where we bought some Castrol Oil (15W40) and eventually managed to find an oil filter which would fit (it's fairly tricky to find Land Rover parts in Nepal, but if you have a Toyota or a Nissan you're laughing). We then drove to a petrol station/garage/bodyshop/auto-electricians/mechanics where we were able to change to the oil. We were also able to use their high-pressure hose and managed to finally get some of the cement-like mud off the underside. After finishing the washing, the ramp was lowered and we went to drive off...oh dear...the problem which we thought that we had fixed in Kathmandu was back and the starter motor wouldn't spin when the ignition was turned on. We tried taking off the earth strap again, but this time it still didn't work and the guys at the garage started talking about the solenoid and the starter motor...they seemed to know what they were doing, so we agreed that they could take the starter motor off, dismantle it and the solenoid, recondition any dubious looking parts, re-build it and re-install it...piece of cake with no proper tools and a mechanic who at best was 16 years old....We were astonished by the efficiency with which the procedure was carried out, and were most relieved when the starter motor spun like a new one when connected directly to a battery. We watched as everything was stripped down, cleaned and put back together...and were amazed when part of the starter motor which had broken off was expertly welded back together and then machined on an old lathe so that it was as good as new. After 5 hours labour the re-built starter motor and solenoid were bolted back onto Hector and when the moment of truth came he roared into life like a good-un...to our great relief! It was fascinating to watch the guys at work with the barest minimum of tools, and we think that we were very lucky to have our breakdown whilst we were at the garage and not when we were in the middle of the desert or up the karakorum highway! The final shock came when we were presented with the bill - 620 Nepalese Rupees which is just over £5...

Re-building the starter motor and the solenoid.                               Machining the welded part on the lathe.

Hector back in working order we headed back to the hotel where we made arrangements to check out tomorrow morning. When the guys at the reception realised that we were leaving, one of them said that they wanted to give us a present and took us into the picture gallery where they invited us to chose a picture as a souvenir. Once we had chosen our picture they all signed the back of it and wrote a lovely message wishing us a safe journey and a happy new year - a really nice gesture from some genuinely friendly and hospitable people.

Tuesday 3rd January 2006. Pokhara to Bhairawa (Border)

The drive back to the border town was stunning, through the back window you could clearly see the Annapurna mountain range which dominates the sky line over Pokhara.  The road ran through and along the mountains and as we were so high there was a lot of mist and fog.  This was quite scary as you couldn't see either side of the car but you knew that there was a sheer drop of a few thousand feet.  We arrived back at the Hotel Lacoul, where we changed all of our Nepali money into Indian rupees before an early dinner. We were both sorry that we spent so little time in Nepal and wish that we could have spent longer and gone to more places, but time is pushing on and we want to see the West and South of India before shipping out of Chennai before the temperatures get really hot. We will however come back to Nepal in the future as it is such a fantastic place.

The Annapurna mountain range    The Nepalese landscape.