Nepal I (July 4 - July 13)

On July 4th, just having spent 2 weeks in India, we crossed the Indian-Nepalese border in a small village called Sonauli. As usually, there was a bus strike, so we were not able to take a regular bus to Lumbini, birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, who later achieved enlightenment in Bodhgaya, India (a place we visited as well) and became Buddha. So we had to take a cycle-rickshaw and spent next 3 hours "traveling" around 30 km to Lumbini. We had a small diner at some local "restaurant" and went to bed, ready to explore the village and surrounding monasteries in the early morning and then take a bus to Pokhara in the afternoon. However, I did not feel too good the next morning, so we decided to spend whole day in Lumbini and continue the other day. We had some rest and spent the afternoon outside, enjoying the variety of wonderful monasteries and temples. In the evening Martin got sick, so we have decided to spend one more day in Lumbini - which was actually getting quite boring, but was necessary - we really did not have much rest in India, so I guess those problems were a result of our exhaustion.

Almost completely recovered, on July 6th, we left to nearby Bhairawa to catch our bus to Pokhara, the small town in Himalayas (Annapurna region) where our trekking adventure was supposed to begin. Our first plan was to trek from Jomsom to Pokhara (around 6 days trek), but since getting a flight to Jomsom seemed quite unsure and we did not want to waste much time in Pokhara, we have changed the plan and decided to trek the Nayapul-Ghorepani-Tatopani-Beni loop (4 days).

We hired a Sherpa and set off for the journey. It has been an amazing experience - seeing the green hills with small and large waterfalls, observing the 8.000 m high mountains from the Poon Hill (3.200 m) in the morning, walking over the hanging bridges, discovering local villages. We have experienced all kinds of weather and came back on July 12th in the evening after a suicidal bus ride from Beni to Pokhara (which was probably the most dangerous and annoying part of our trekking experience). Extremely tired, but very happy, we went to bed, with one day of relax in front of us and one more week in Nepal to be spent.

We are going rafting tomorrow (July 14th) and then moving to Kathmandu. Our ticket from Kathmandu to Bangkok is already booked. South-east Asia, here we come!

On behalf of the fatal crew :)
Zdenek

Mayadevi temple, Lumbini

Lake Phewa Tal, Pokhara

The Himalayas from the Poon Hill

Annapurna I (8.091 m) from the Poon Hill

Typical view on our trek