OUR SCENIC DRIVE TO NUWAKOT

WEATHER: Beautiful and 25C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Our amazing view from our accommodation at famous Farm

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing

WORD OF THE DAY:  Mahango-expensive

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 120km

We were leaving at 8am this morning and with breakfast not included, we were up, showered and on the square at 7am.  Satya said there should be some places open for breakfast at 7am, so with high hopes we set off in search of something to eat.  We went back to where we had dinner last night and the guy at the restaurant asked which group we were part of and after we told him Intrepid he told us 7.30am was when breakfast opened (obviously not an important client).  So we walked up to where we had eaten lunch the day before and we were told that they would open in 10 minutes, but the place looked all shut up and the kitchen was dark and no action happening in there.  So we decided to head back to the dinner place and when we got back there at 7.15am, Leena and Sam where there and had ordered!!!  From the same guy that told us 7.30am.  I HATE when that happens.  So we sat, ordered and were back to the hotel just before 8am.  Satya knew where we were so if we were a little late, at least he knew we had tried to do the right thing.  As it worked out, our van was caught in some traffic and we were given an extra 20 minutes, so Jess and I went for a walk in the square to have a look at some of the bric a brack that was just getting set up for the day.  I saw a beautiful vase made of turquoise and whatever that red stone is, and after we were taken to his store room that had magnificent pieces, I just wasn’t quite ready to part with 6,000rupees, which is like 72AUD for a vase.  I really like it, but unlike the Buddha head, it wasn’t a MUST have.  Well not yet anyway.  I think my final offer may have been 35AUD, but he would have none of it.  The good thing is at least I know how much they are now and gives me a ball park figure for the rest of the trip should I see them again, which I am sure I will.   

So our ‘micro’ van as they like to call them got here just after 8.20am and we were on the road as soon as the bags had been loaded on the roof.  The car that we had yesterday was a limo compared to what we had today.  As you know I love my window seats, so based on this the best seat for me was the back seat.  The backseat was probably also the worst seat to have, as the leg room was non-existent and we also had the wheel hub to contend with, but I had a window, so I was happy to suck up anything else to have the flexibility of the window.  The good thing was Jess and I were the only 2 on the back seat (I think she had less room that me) and we couldn’t have fit a third person in even if we tried.  In saying that, everyone else had just as squishy seat as us, except for Jessica who managed to get the front seat.  So we headed out of Bhaktapur and hit the bouncy windy roads that would take around 4 hours to travel today.  A lot of shops have small shrines out the front of them and I even saw a shop keeper blessing all his hardware goods with incense as he opened his doors for the day’s business.  I find that the Nepali people aren’t as wavy when we leave the city limits.  Maybe they are just so used to seeing tourists, with our white faces looking at them as we pass by, I’m not sure, but I will still throw a wave or two out there and may get one in four back.  I can only keep trying I guess.  The country is also so dusty, and you see lot of people wearing face masks.  I am not sure how effective they are, but it really is dusty in parts and I guess something is better than nothing.  You could even see that all the plants were covered in dust, they weren’t green anymore they were a light colored brown.  As the day progressed I could feel the fine dust on my face and when I wiped it with a tissue and it came back black, I could see why the masks were popular.  It reminded me of our 3 days we had in the Serengeti; our faces at the end of each day there were just coated in dust.  Ahhhhhhh Africa.  What a great trip that was……

We passed through Shivapuri National Park where we had a small checkpoint we had to register with and by this time we were driving on a dirt road.  I thought it was dusty before when we were on bitumen, pffffff, it only got dustier for the rest of the morning.  Once we left the National Park we popped out and climbed and descended through amazing agricultural terraces as fare as the eye could see.  You could have been a bird from where we were and the view we had.  Mostly rice terraces, it was time for harvesting and you could see groups of people working and what terrace they had done and which terrace they were up to.  The view was also colored with the yellow flower of the mustard flower; we could see millions of them as we traveled throughout the day.  Some of the road was not wide enough for cars to pass together comfortably, so on bends and sharp turns we would toot to let oncoming traffic know that we were coming.  The most we saw were busses full of locals and there would even be 5-10 people sitting on the roofs of them as they hurtled in the opposite direction.  We would pull over as far as we could when we had the mountain to our left and when the mountain was to our right, the other vehicle would move as far as it could.  There were no safety rails here and 90% of the time it was a clean drop if your car didn’t make a turn properly or for whatever reason, there would be a very small survival rate of an accident that I am sure of.  I did have one revelation today, and I decided that I was going to get another tattoo.  I am not sure where the urge came from, but I am pretty sure I know what I want and where I was going to get it.  I still think of my Sri Lanka trip fondly and of the stories that Indika shared with us.  There was one story that stuck with me and that was about his explanation of the Buddha’s Wheel of Life and the 3 words that stuck with me was that ‘Happiness follows Sadness’.  It always will.  Just like the wheel, like life follows death, for every meeting there is a separation…  all these still ring true to me and so with this in mind I have decided to get the Wheel of Life and the words of happiness follows sadness written in Nepalese.  It is quite fitting as the Wheel of Life will remind me of my trip to Sri Lanka and my introduction to Buddhism and the writing will remind me of Nepal, my breakup with Zeme, my last tour of my odyssey, my new start and depending on who you believe the country where Buddha was born.  I couldn’t think of a better tattoo for me and I am definitely going to get it done, hopefully in Pokhara, if not I can get it done back in Kathmandu.  But it is a done deal-I am going to get inked again!!!!!

We stopped a few times for photo opportunities of the terraces and then around 10.40am we got our first glimpse of Langtang Mountain range and also Ganesh Mountain range, and boy did they look spectacular.  There white snowy peaks striking a pose in the beautiful blue sky.  There really is something to be said about a landscape that has some of the highest mountains in the world, and to think that people, like Jess, climb these suckers is just inspiring to me.  Once we got our first glimpse, we generally had a view of them for the rest of the morning.  Passing through small villages, with waterfalls cascading down, the busy busses that passed us and the mountains as a back drop it really was a magic sight to behold.  We crossed a plateau or a tar as I learnt it was called, of Nuwacot, and then we started our last climb of the day to get us to our final destination.  We wound our way up a paved road for about 30 minutes, passing through a small local village and we finally arrived at our accommodation for the next 2 nights called Famous Farm.          

Famous Farm is located on a terraced hillside; just up from the small village that we passed through that also has an ancient fortress and citadel of terracotta tiled roofs.  Below is a fertile valley, a river meandering through it.  The scene is given vast scale by the surrounding great green hills – yet actually merely foothills – rising in the north to the snows of The Langtang Himal.  It was an amazing view and had a definite WOW factor when we arrived.  The accommodation itself was an imposing manor house and two charming cottages to form a courtyard.  The house is over 120 years old and has recently been restored and it was charming.  The Farm itself is a mix of quiet corners and verdant niches with terraces of abundant, colorful, organic crops.  It was going to be a restful 2 nights here that is for sure and I was relishing the idea.  Looking around the area, there were chairs with small tables, a swing chair suspended from a tree, some bamboo sun loungers on one of the lower levels and tables for lunch set up.  As it was a farm, there were also animals around.  There was a kid goat called Jackson, that was only 7 days old, chickens and chicks, ducks and ducklings, some ‘house’ dogs and further along there were 2 donkeys, some rabbits and turkeys.  Quite a menagerie.  Lunch was served and it was traditional Dahl Baht, which consists of a small serve of lentil soup, plain rice, potato curry, pickle, spinach and a poppadum.  It was so tasty and it is shocking for me to think that the whole meal was vegetarian and I still enjoyed immensely.  If all vegetarian food tasted like that, I could be more inclined to have a few more vegetarian meals that is for sure.  But then that is the reality isn’t it.  To cook it yourself, it just never tastes the same does it? 

We were shown to our rooms and Jess and my room was located over the kitchen.  It was a beautiful room with 2 single beds, high thatched ceilings, a small balcony overlooking the courtyard and we had a bathroom with a claw bath AND a flushing toilet.  There were candle at the ready with matches should we lose power and bamboo windows we could latch.  When I use the word rustic, it normally means a bit ordinary, but this time rustic is the word that comes to mind but with a small modern day flair.  There were windows in the bathroom that were lattice in style, small ones above head height, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the spiders we had seen driving and that it really was open to the bugs in that regard.  I just had to pray that we wouldn’t see any of our 8 legged friends.  We had a 2 hour rest, where we all had a Nana nap and then we were up and ready to go for a small walk at 4pm. 

The small village we had driven through at lunch time was only a 10 minute walk and only 20 or so meters past there we climbed some stairs to Taleju Temple that was built in 1491. The view from up here was even better than from the Famous Farm and whoever would have thought that possible.  From here we walked down the other side, through the lower part of town to Nuwakot Palace.  It has the looks of a palace and the function of a fort.  Nuwakot Palace stands seven stories tall with 5 feet thick wall protecting the interiors. The palace exhibits a great deal of wood usage with all its windows framed in these foresters. The verandah and corridors on each floor are so designed that one can walk around the whole of the palace watching every single side.  The palace complex houses multiple temples and shrines.  It is still an important piece of history, that even now a days it is guarded by full military standing gentry in the army posts with their sub machine guns resting on the railings.  Talk about protecting your heritage.  Nuwakot Palace had been closed to public for some time and has recently been opened up around April 2011.  It has been opened as a museum, and now has many additional artifacts related to the king Prithvi Narayan Shah, including a 240 year old statue.  Nuwakot bears a special importance in the history of Nepal as King Prithvi Narayan Shah planned and launched several unification campaigns from this historic town.

Once you passed through the Palace grounds and further along the village, passing homes and people going about their daily routine you get to the Bhairavi Temple.  The temple is the center piece of local religious practice there. It had a very Asian feel to it with 2 massive lions sitting outside the entrance and there were a lot of bells hanging from the eaves of the temple.  Who would have thought such a small village would have so much to see.  We started to make our way back as the sun began to set over the mountains and I don’t care how many sunsets you have seen in a lifetime you can never see too many of them and they never fail to impress.  This one was no different and as another day closed, we were in a small haven, far from the business of the city, the craziness of the roads and into what seemed like a small bubble of paradise.     

We had a few hours to kill before dinner and we used this time to shower while we had power, listen to some tunes and read our books till 7pm.  Our table had been set up in the courtyard for dinner, a different place from where we had eaten lunch and with candles on the tables and tea lights lit around the grounds it was a great atmosphere.  Dinner was served on the same plates as lunch with a fare of roast chicken and vegetables.  Basically the plates were aluminum and came with 6-7 different types of food in small amounts served, add some bread and we were also served some soup as well.  Then when you thought you had eaten all your dinner they bring around serving bowls of the food and you could then get seconds of anything that you wanted. 

Tonight was Halloween and with a full moon watching over us as we ate outdoors, with great food, great atmosphere and a great group what more could you ask for out of a tour?  I can’t think of a single thing and I am so grateful to find myself here.