Interesting that this weekend (24 Feb 07) the Maoist rebels in Nepal started to hand over the weapons as part of their move into government rather than fighting it. It could be a coincidence, or maybe they were reading our blog, and agreed that Nepal could really be a paradise for tourists if the violence would finally end. Scaling the world's highest peaks, bringing peace to wartorn lands, all in a day's work for Brian and Somchai, also known as Rainbowman (sorry for the poor grammar, but the plural just doesn't work as well). Seriously, we went to Bhutan this year ('07, this blog timetraveling is getting confusing) and it was such a fantastic experience. And I think the remote regions of Nepal would be equally fascinating and a really unique experience. They even have a ready made Bhutan within Nepal, called Mustang. It's an extremely remote ancient Buddhist kingdom that still has a king but confusingly is nominally part of Nepal. It's almost completely inaccessible but I've seen photos of the place and it's top of my list of places I'd like to go if I could figure out a way to get there.

After about a five hour walk, we finally reached Namobuddha, a fairly pokey Buddhist temple sitting isolated atop a hill. The temple marks the spot where the Buddha was wandering about Nepal and came across a tiger about to eat a child, and the Buddha offered up his own flesh if the tiger spared the child (to end the suspense, the tiger spares both). It's quite a beauty spot, and the day we came there was some community festival, and we had a bit to eat and drink with the celebrants. All in all, a great day out, but one last word of warning before you set out. The word Circuit in Namobuddha Circuit is misleading, since once you get to your destination, your only choice is to retrace your steps all the way back to Dhulikhel.

Some more scenery along the trail to Namobuddha. While you're walking, remember to enjoy the scenery and the village life, because a) it's beautiful, and b) the temple that is the trail's final destination really isn't up to much.

Just some of the local people we passed along the way to Namobuddha. I'm always amazed when I'm walking in what I think of the middle of nowhere, and nobody bats an eye at what must look like a pretty strange sight. Certainly if the folks carting those big baskets were walking down the main street of Monroe there'd be plenty of gawkers. But equally strange was my experience in Manila, where I lived for three months in college. The point of this story is not to highlight the fact that my parents let me go live in Manila during the tail end of the Marcos regime, with martial law, a communist insurgency surrounding the city and daily riots and violent clashes with the army. All that, and the lack of electricity and the fact they had no way of contacting me and that I didn't have a way to get home because flights kept getting canceled, is completely irrelevant to the story. My point is that the Philippines had a long history as a US colony and later as a base for the US military so there was a huge American influence there, but wherever I walked in the city I'd immediately attract a crowd of kids calling me Joe, as in GI Joe. I couldn't figure out how the kids could maintain their enthusiasm for this when they saw foreigners constantly, in complete contrast to the Nepalese reaction. That's my point.

I know, mountains, mountains yadda yadda yadda...But the Namobuddha Circuit, in addition to having great mountain views, is also a great walk because it passes through several villages and farms along the way. It takes all day, and is pretty dusty at times, but it's well worth the walk. Besides, these mountains are different from the ones I showed you near Pokhara, and somewhere in this range is Mt. Everest, with Tibet on the other side of the snowcapped peaks. Naturally when we saw Everest we dashed over there and scaled it as well, but I don't want to distract from our discussion of the Namobuddha Circuit, so I won't show the photos of our planting a Thaimerican flag at the top.

In the afternoon we walked around the fairly sizeable town of Dhulikhel. It's been around for centuries, but was never a power center and too remote to be caught up in all the constant battling. The result is a city with no real archtectural wonders, but also very well preserved. It's a fun place to explore and watch daily life away from the tourist circuit. I wouldn't make a special trip just to see it, and definitely not for the Sunrise Walk, but Dhulikhel is also the starting point for a great mountain walk to Namobuddha, which is our next activity for our final day in Nepal.

In the afternoon, the hotel provided us with a 4 year old guide to hike up the mountain to a Hindu shrine to Kali, (which is also very easy to find on your own without the child labour). The shrine was closed but it's a great place to chill and soak in the mountain views. The next morning we did what Dhulikhel is famous for, the Sunrise walk. Our hotel is located quite close to the viewpoint that is the Sunrise walk's destination, which is a good thing, because I'd be really pissed if I traveled far for this. Strike 1: We have to get up at 4 am and trundle up the hill in arctic conditions in absolute darkness. Strike 2: When we get there, there are a few fellow travelers and hordes of locals selling the usual tourist garbage or begging. They're relentless and you're outnumbered ten to one. Strike 3: It's just a sunrise, and I really couldn't see how it differed from other sunrises around the world. The view over the mountains is nice, but it's exactly the same view we would have had at our hotel over breakfast, without the touts and the biting cold. Not a big fan...

43. Dhulikhel

In Dhulikhel we stayed at the very friendly, and very basic, Himalaya Shangrila Lodge. The lodge is perched on the mountainside, with a fairly grand hall used for meals and drinks. Breakfast and drinking take place outside on a wraparound balcony with stunning views, while meals are inside in a pretty basic dining room. The rooms are located in fairly flimsy buildings spread along the mountain, which do a pretty poor job of keeping the frigid Himalayan blasts from freezing you in your sleep. They do provide you with a hot water bottle just before bedtime to try to warm the bed up a bit, but nighttimes were pretty brutal. And remember, this was April, so I can't imagine what the winter is like. Himalaya ShangriLa (3) Room-2, Facilities-2, Service-6, Wow-0 (unless you count the much appreciated hot water bottle)

After our three weeks of mountain climbing, we headed for Mike's, a really good breakfast spot on the shores of Phewa Lake. Pokhara has sprung up around the shores of the lake and consists largely of restaurants and backpacker hotels. Mike's has a great location, and good pancakes too. We then walked around town for a bit, which could use a bit of sprucing up. We then headed back to Kathmandu Airport the following day, then drove a few hours east over incredibly poor roads to our final destination, Dhulikhel.

Pokhara is the jumping off point for trekking in the Annapurna range, Nepal's most popular trekking destination. The full trekking circuit for this range takes three weeks, so that's what we did. Unfortunately, we left the camera at the Fulbari so we don't have any photos to show us scaling the mountains. I guess you'll just have to take our word for it.

This is the Seti Gorge, something like the Grand Canyon of Pokhara. The hotel is built at the edge of the gorge, which probably means it will end up in the gorge sometime in the near future. But while the hotel is still in its original position, the gorge makes a very dramatic backdrop. Our side of the gorge was pretty much a cliff, so there wasn't much exploring to be done, but we could watch the goings on at the village across the gorge. The other side was less steep, and you can see a temple built into the side of the gorge with paths leading to it. We could watch the villagers make their way slowly down the path past the temple, usually leading their livestock to the river below for a drink. The whole process took about three hours, after which I assume the animals were thirsty again so they'd have to return.

42. Pokhara

We stayed at by far the most luxurious hotel in Pokhara, the Fulbari Lodge, which was a really odd place. Pokhara is Nepal's second tourist city, a short flight west of Nepal. Since the country is in the Himalayas, most of it is not connected to anywhere by road, and most of the part that is is controlled by the rebels. Pokhara has morphed into a tourist center by virtue of it being connected by Nepal's only main road to Kathmandu, and remaining an island of government control. But the overwhelming reason people come here is to begin treks of the Annapurna range. So before or after treks, people are stocking up on provisions or relaxing after a tough slog, and the town is basically a mountain version of Kathmandu's packpacker haven of Thamel. Since we had no intention of climbing mountains, we figured we'd hang at a nice hotel. And it is admittedly a nice hotel, superficially resembling any number of mid-range resort hotels. It had a pool, great mountain views, a dozen restaurants, huge marble lobbies and even a little golf course. What is lacked, most, however, was guests, as we were the only ones for the couple of days we stayed there. But every day all the restaurants would fire up and a full contingent of waiters would staff each one, hoping that maybe this would be the day they'd finally have a customer. The extensive marbling helped to echo our loneliness everytime we walked down around the white elephant. I'm glad we stayed there since everywhere else was a backpacker hotel and I couldn't really handle that, but the hotel's target niche of luxury seeking travelers in Pokhara is extremely narrow. Fulbari Lodge (5): Room-5, Facilities-5, Service-6, Wow-3 (great views and location next to a scenic gorge)

Most people come to Nepal for the trekking in the Himalayas, and we pretend to do a bit of that over the next few days. But since that's quite a different trip, I'll just sum up the Kathmandu Valley experience here before we jet off. Actually, I just wanted to use this photo of the smoking lion, but while I'm at it, I'd also like to say that this area is a must visit for any traveler. It's a mindblowing collection of incredible architecture, grinding poverty, devout spirituality and unbridled commercialism. It looks like it's getting safe to explore further afield, and I'd love to return, since there are dozens of smaller, lost in time cities and ancient temples to visit. But we must move on, so the next day we boarded our Buddha Air flight (seriously, and their rival is called Cosmic Air!) to Pokhara.

The main road continues cutting through the old town, past a smaller square called Potters Square, which isn't worth the detour so I'll spare you the photos, and ends at Tachapol Tol. This lively center contains the oldest temples in the city, as well as many well-preserved residential buildings. One such building supposedly has the best carved wooden window in Nepal, but you'd have to be a pretty dedicated tourist after a week of templeviewing to pick it out.

The first square from Durbar Square is Taumadhi Tol, which houses two very different pagodas, the squat Bhairabnath Mandir and the slender Nyatapola, the tallest pagoda in Nepal. Nyatapola was built in 1702 to worship the very minor Hindu goddess. Unfortunately she was so important that she no longer has any worshippers, so it's no longer visited by anyone. The huge stone sculptures guarding the shrine's entrance are as much an attraction as the pagoda itself. The short temple houses a tiny image of another god, Bhairab. Each new year, the two halves of the city engage in a huge tug of war in which the idol is placed on an enormous chariot (you can see some of the wheels in the picture below Sunny Restaurant). They then spend three days trying to tug the chariot into their part of town. In an odd twist, Bhairab is said to have visited the festival once, traveling in disguise. The priests detected his holy aura and decided they wanted to keep him as a source of good luck. He tried to run away but the priests pinned him down and chopped off his head, so at least the head stayed in the city. Not sure how to turn priests chopping a god's head off into an instructive religious moral...

The main reason for Durbar Square's underperformance is that, unlike other cities, it doesn't put all its eggs in one basket. It's got three main squares to explore, connected by a main thoroughfare that serves as the main market as well. The medieval alleys and streets of the city all feed into this main street, and make a great place for wandering, particularly since there are no cars.

Bhaktapur's Durbar Square isn't really up to much. It's of course host to the royal palace, that wall of buildings in the photo, which is now the National Art Gallery. The Golden Gate, pictured but ignored in the previous post, is part of the palace compound, and one of Nepal's most famous artworks. The rest of the square contains the usual assortment of shrines and temples, but overall it lacks the architechtural fireworks of its competitors. It also isn't much used by locals, as it sits at one end of the city rather than the traditional center.

41. Bhaktapur

Our last stop in Kathmandu Valley was the slightly more remote Bhaktapur. Because it's away from the Kathmandu-Tibet trade routes, Bhaktapur remained more purely Hindu, and also more conservative, than its two rivals. It's also the best preserved, with a relatively organized local government banning cars for most of the day, and enforcing strict preservation codes, so it's a more attractive city to explore. Although it shares my loser city title with Patan, in fact in the convoluted history of this little valley, it was usually the winner. It was Bakhtapur's Malla dynasty that united the valley the first time in 1200, then ruled it for three centuries until a softhearted king divided the place up again among his three sons. This set up the following three centuries of warfare among the related and neighboring kingdoms, until finally, in the 1700's, Bakhtapur called for help from some allies in the mountains, who came and conquered Patan and Kathmandu. Unfortunately for Bakhtapur, they didn't stop there, and kept on conquering until they swallowed up Bakhtapur as well, then chose Kathmandu as their new capital. I think I've told a variation of this story each time I've introduced one of the cities, but in a different way, so it's probably completely confused at this stage. But take comfort in the fact that the details of Kathmandu Valley's history will probably not have a huge impact on most of you.

As I'm sure we're all ready to move on to another city, I'll combine the last two temples on our Patan visit. The honeycombed shape one is Mahabuddha, a 17th century temple built entirely of terrracotta tiles, each with a Buddha image. The temple was destroyed by an earthquake in 1934, but then put together like a giant jigsaw puzzle from the ruins. It didn't exactly match up, so they built a smaller version of the temple nearby with the leftover pieces. The other two photos are of the Machendranath Mandir, an elaborate wooden temple that houses a statue that is worshipped by just about every religious group in Nepal, although none of them agree as to which god they're actually worshipping.

We also visited this completely neglected temple, Jagat Narayan, on the outskirts of town. It's a riot of sculptures of various Hindu gods, usually in animal form, surrounded by long forsaken brick buildings. I shouldn't say totally forsaken, since it appears that some families are living there. When we arrived, the temple grounds seemed to have been divided into cooking, washing and sleeping spaces, but there was a mad dash to grab all the belongings and run into a neighboring building, where they watched us from windows until we were gone. Not sure what that was all about, but being spied on added to the general creepiness of the abandoned temple.

Adjacent to the temple was an ancient public bath, similar to that in Durbar Square and those found in every town in Nepal.