I dropped my passport off at the Indian consulate with the lads. We had to collect the following evening. Back at the van me and dad had a go at adjusting the handbrake. It turned out one of the cables had unhooked from its carrier, probably on the craps roads we had been on. I hooked it back on and adjusted the cable. This wad probably what caused the problem in the first place. Again it drew a lot of attention to the van and us. People appearing to see what we were up to.
The following day we drove the van to Patan Dur Bar square. We found a place to park and walked to the square, avoiding the dead rats along the road. The square was nice, lots of old Nepalese temples and pagodas. We visited the golden temple and palace museum. Was a nice place to have a mooch about. We walked past a row of butchers, some pretty interesting sights! We fought our way through the traffic back to Kathmandu for me to collect my visa. We collected them fine. We had applied for a 6 month multiple entry which are easily obtainable from the UK but they issued us with a 3 month single entry! Changes our plans slightly but not too bad. That evening me, mum and dad had a drink with Stew and Dunny to say our farewells. I would see them next in India and my parents in England.
The following morning we said our farewells to the Panda hotel staff. We had stayed there on and off for over a month. They had let us park Big Sal in their car park and treated us really well. We had a good relationship with the staff and will definitely return again one day. We got in a taxi and headed to Nagarkot.
Nagarkot is a small town up in the hills on the edge of the Kathmandu valley. It is famous for its views of the Himalayan Lang Tan range and the sunrise and sunset. From our hotel we saw a building site. They were building a new hotel, currently 8 floors tall. It was the highest point in Nagarkot town. What an awesome place it would be to watch the sunset we thought. We walked down an alley, climbed over a wall and asked the foreman 'any chance we can go to the top' he said 'no problem' and waved us up. We climbed up through the unfinished carcass of the building, no hand rails, 8 floor sheer drop and not a health and safety aid in sight. There were a team of guys working at the top. We asked how many more floors, they replied with 3 whilst hanging off the side with no harness, no hard hats and wearing flip flops. We watched the sunset which was nice then carefully walked back down.
The following day we walked to a view tower, stopping for hot drinks on the way up. We did a little walk through the jungle then back to the hotel. That evening mum complained of feeling ill then got sick. Shortly after dad got sick then me. We spent the whole night taking it in turns to make a mess of the toilet. Every 20 mins or so we had uncontrollable sickness and diarrhea. It lasted all through the night and into the next morning. We were seriously ill, probably the most ill we have ever been. It was worse than a bit of gone off food, we think it was either dodgy water in our drinks on the way up to the view tower or salmonella in our eggs we had for breakfast. Whatever it was it seriously poisoned us. Although it was pretty horrendous we joke about it now. We lost count the amount of times 'oooh I nearly just shat myself' was said!
The morning after we made the 1 hour bus journey to Bhaktaphur. We spent the rest of the day and night in bed recovering. It was a shame because the town looked like an interesting place. Hopefully we would feel well enough to have a look around in the morning.
Woke up and dragged ourselves out of bed and it was well worth it. It was like stepping back into medieval times. Goats and chickens running free, people still using the wells for their water, loads of trades in the streets, pottery makers, kilns and market stalls everywhere. We went to the pottery square where it was still all made by traditional methods. Tables spun by hand then hardened in the straw fueled open kilns. There was four squares in total with cobbled back alleys joining them together. The town is a world heritage site with lots of renovation and preservation funded by the tourist entry tickets.
We made our way to Kathmandu airport for our flights to Delhi. We had a brilliant time in Nepal and would Iove to come back. The people were friendly, the countryside is unbelievable and towns full of history. But we were starting the next leg of the trip in India and were looking forward to it. India here we come!
Rob
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