Gorkha, Bandipur, Pokhara and Lumbini...

GORKHA

'It is Better to die than to be a coward’
- motto of the world famous Gurkha Soldiers



The word ‘Gurkha’ comes from Gorkha, a small town 90km north of the Kathmandu valley. Martin was really keen on making the trip to Gorkha because he thought there'd be a cool manly museum there all about the soldiers. In fact, we found no such museum but enjoyed the town very much anyway. When we arrived it was already quite late in the afternoon and I wasn't too excited about wandering around cheap hotel hunting. Luckily for us Chris has been learning some of the Nepali script and managed to find us a great "hotel and lodge" run by a lovely local family. It was great, we only paid Rs 150 (just over a pound!) for the room with 4 beds and even though the owner man kept apologising for not having a shower we told him it was fine, we're so used to not showering for days!! (sies). Each day we ate dinner at his restaurant downstairs, a crazy Rs 45 for all you can eat dhal bhat. Dhal bhat is a typical Nepali dish which foreigners soon get sick of because its the cheapest and most easily available dish all across the country! It usually consists of dhal (lentil soup), bhat (rice), tarkari (veg curry) ochar (pickle), saag (spinach) and sometimes curd (wierd home-made yoghurt that often tastes like vodka!) for pudding. I've been eating quite a bit recently as I'm trying to ease my tongue and tastebuds into the spice before I hit India! Eeeek.

While we were in Gorkha we spent one day visiting the Gorkha Durbar, which is a fort, palace and temple all rolled into one. It was built on top of the mountain with strategic intent by the kings and generals of the House of Gorkha for their planned expansion across the country and beyond. The walk up the mountainside took us about 2 hours in the hot midday sun, but when we arrived the views were magnificent! I didn't enjoy the actual palace very much, it was really small and looked just like many others I've seen before.

Gorkha Durbar


We spent the other days wandering around the town - it was lovely and untouristed, quite a change from Kathmandu. On the morning we left for Bandipur I thought I'd go crazy and pierce my nose... little did I know how very "local" Gorkha was. A friend we'd made a few days before offered to help direct me to a jewelers, where they could do the deed. But all I needed was 5 minutes in that tiny shop to realise I was definately crazy and changed my mind. The young teenager in the shop told us his older brother (who usually does this) was out, but he could "give it a try". He started sharpening the end of an earing (not needle!) and said he'd just use this quickly, then push a nose ring stud in. What??? He had filthy hands, and when I asked if he was going to clean his hands/the piercing tool/the nose ring, he said "oh.... ok" and fetched a dirty bowl of dirty water that looked like it came from the toilet (pre-flush!!!). Say no more... I was back down the other end of the street before he even turned around.

The streets of Gorkha are narrow and wind up and down the mountainside



BANDIPUR


After 3 days in Gorkha, we headed west to Bandipur, a supposedly untouched Newari village still with original buildings etc. What a mistake! It was nice but after being added to the most recent edition of Lonely Planet Nepal, it was catering for rich tourists beginning to end. Such a small village, and it had a huge hotel there quoting "only US$22 a night". Martin and I stayed in a lovely little lodge that mainly acted as a hostel for small boys. From what I gathered, these boys were all orphans, housed there so they could attend the local school. Sweet kids - but a pain in the ass to wait for the one and only toilet in the morning!

While we were there we visited Tundikhel: a sports field/garden/grassy area. From it you're supposed to be able to see from the Himalayan peaks all the way down to the valley 500m below you. Unfortunately it was really cloudy when we went, so all we could see was the fence through which we were looking! We stayed up there for a few hours chatting to a sweet girl from Pokhara. She was very excited to hear that we were going to Pokhara the next day, and kept telling us about cool things we could see/do there.

I'm glad we only stayed in Bandipur for one day, the local food was all overpriced, there wasn't that much to see and it was too cold and cloudy to see any of the 'great views'.




POKHARA


I loved Pokhara! Martin and I found a lovely hotel in Lakeside where we paid only Rs 125 (less than one pound!) for a double room with bathroom! Usually tourists stay in Pokhara before or after doing a major trek like the Annapurna circuit... this means that it has all the luxuries and treats foreigners could ask for. The best thing was that the views were gorgeous (lakes, mountains...), the food amazing, but compared to Thamel in Kathmandu, there's no crazy traffic or narrow streets. We stayed for just over a week, eating like kings (or pigs!) and enjoying being spoilt again. We did some shopping, hired a motorbike for the day and hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda (which was built by the Japanese on top of a mountain that looks towards Phewa lake and the Annapurna mountain range behind - beautiful).

Annapurna mountains with Phewa Tal (lake) in front



LUMBINI


From Pokhara, we (being Martin, me, Chris and Emiko) took a 10 hour bus journey down to Lumbini - a famous buddhist pilgrimage site as it's the birthplace of buddha. We stayed for a day only sleeping in the Nepali temple pilgrim accomodation for "donation only". Poor Martin had an awkward moment when he went to pay our donation, as the man quoted him a price double what we wanted to give! He had no right to state any amount really, so we left rather angry. Oh well, it their world "foreigner = money" so its hard.

We spent the whole day wandering around the newly-created 'gardens' which are about 5km long and 3km wide. First we saw the Mayadevi temple, which supposedly was built on the exact place where buddha was born.



Then we spent the rest of the day walking from one country's temple to another... we all thought the Thai temple was the most beautiful (mainly because it was one of the only ones that was finished and we could walk around inside etc).

Just as the day was coming to a close we reached the Peace Pagoda, also built by the Japanese (so it looks very similar in style to the one in Pokhara). We stayed there for a while, enjoying the sunset and watching a huge crowd of monks walk around it as part of their pilgrimage.