Nagarkot, A Little Dust, and Some Hiking

So last week Helen and Marc invited us to go up to Nagarkot for the weekend with them, which is something that we had been wanting to do since we got here. For those not familiar with the Kathmandu area, Nagarkot is a resort area that sits about 35 KM (roughly 20 miles) from the center of Kathmandu, at the top of the valley rim. It has become a popular destination because it has sweeping views of the Himalaya and is the closest place to Kathmandu where you can see mountains as far away in the west as the Ganesh Himal and in the east as far as the famous Mt. Everest. Normally you get great views between September and March I had read, but we were not that lucky. With only having two rain showers that I can recall in the last month, it is quite dry here at the moment, and it being the end of the dry season kind of compounds this issue. As a result there is a ton of fine dust in the air, and almost like a fog it reduces visibility all over the country.

Above is a picture showing the kind of limit we had due to the haze of dust. Despite the dust we made the best of it and had a good time. Our taxi had no idea where Nagarkot actually was and dropped us about a kilometer past the town proper, which is just a simple road junction with a few restaurants and shops. So our first goal was to find the hotel Marc & Helen had booked called Peaceful Cottage. We made our way back to the village and then half a mile down a road that followed a ridge to the hotel. The Peaceful Cottage had an interesting octagonal tower from which I'm sure you could normally get some great views. The food was typical of uninspired Nepali imitations of what they think foreign food (or Nepali food for that matter) is, and was fairly over priced. The rooms were also nothing to get excited about and where somewhat dank. That all said it did have a great location, the staff, if a a bit pushy at times, was nice enough, and the potted plants and eclectic setting where really nice. We also got some drinks and apple fritters at a restaurant in Nagarkot proper that weren't bad at all and the prices there were much more reasonable. We also walked by some very nice hotels up in the area, though I'm sure the rooms were attached to package tourist style price tags. The freash air outside of Kathmandu, watching the Eagles drift about on thermal winds and just hanging out with friends made for a good time.

On the following day we decided we would trek down to the valley floor and take a bus or taxi back to Kathmandu from there. Above is a picture of Helen, Kim and Marc as we got near the top of the ridge before heading down to the valley. We ended up being a little confused after this as we ended up being pointed down a road that went to where we were going, but not the way that we expected, and thus we were constantly looking for turns and such that just did not exist. The good news is that when ever we asked someone the direction to where we were going they pointed us down the road that we were on.

Above is a picture of Kim with some local school children, her camera as popular as ever. These kids were not quite as sweet as they looked and prior tourists had allowed for a bad habits. They blocked the road asking (demanding?) chocolate, pens or rupees. We got out of it with some photos, but not before a girl tried to grab stuff out of my pocket and they generally acted like brats. Oh well. You can also see somewhat in this picture the very fine almost silt like dust that covers the trail. This stuff has a consistency almost like water it is so light, and with every step you send a plume of it into the air, while sinking up to about an inch or two into it. Still the terraced countryside and the small villages you hike through are really attractive, and I love walking through the Nepal countryside, dust or no dust.
This picture was taken as we came into the village we thought we might end the day at. It was still decidedly rural and there were no signs of taxis and the buses we did see leaving town were so full that we would have had to ride on the roof, something none of us were to keen on doing. So we walked on to the much larger city of Banepa, just to the west of Bhaktapur.
As this photo shows the main road in Banepa was much more urban and there were several buses heading into Kathmandu here via Bhaktapur, there were however fairly few taxis. The problem with the buses again seemed to be that they were packed and the only available seats were on the roof, which we still were not that interested in. As we were all a bit tired from walking in the sun all day, and weren't having any luck finding transportation we went ahead and got some drinks and I got a snack at a local diner like establishment. Feeling a bit more refreshed we set out again looking for transport. A guy in a van offered us a ride back to Kathmandu and we got him down to 1,500 NRS for the four of us. The poor guys vehicle must have stalled half a dozen times and he clearly was uncomfortable driving in the thick Kathmandu traffic. To compound matters he had no clue where Lazimpat was, but once I knew where we were I was able to direct him and we got home safe and sound.

Big thanks to Helen and Marc for a fun weekend!

Lost in Translation- Part 3

Just got back from a great weekend in Nagarkot, despite not having any Himalayan views due to the dust in the air. I'll go ahead and do a post on that when I have a bit more energy. I did however upload pictures from that hike and my other pictures from this month to the "Nepal Pics- March" on the left side of the page. For now I thought I'd put up my latest collection of signs in Nepal that didn't quite get the English phrases right.

The sub tagline "We need trade not aid" is an apt one and is a good sentiment. Declaring yourself "a total handicrafts" however is somewhat humorous.
I have no idea what "visit yourself" is supposed to refer to when dealing with pizza, or anything else for that matter.

Feel the new taste is definitely an interesting tag line to choose.

Nepali's seem to have a little trouble with the word "the" they add it where it doesn't go or, as here, it is omitted from where it should be. There were a couple of these rocks painted up by the army training grounds outside Nagarkot, the others can be viewed in the March Photos on the left hand side of the page.
There's actually nothing wrong with this one really, and yet it's quite funny. Abercrombie and Fitch watch out.

Wunjala Moskva

So the other night we met up with Akshay at Wunjala Moskva for a taste of some good Newari food and to discuss a possible business venture. It was night time so my pictures don't begin to do the place justice. Positioned just across from the police headquarters in Naxal, the restaurant has a great location set back from the main street with a very large open garden area. At the center is a raised stage where during our visit Newari musicians and dancers periodically performed. The open dining with the well maintained garden and the architecture, at least made to look like classical Newari, gave the place heaps of atmosphere and is a nice place to relax as we move into the warmer months.

Now I got so caught up in conversation that I completely forgot to take any pictures of the food, so I had to steal the above picture from their website. Since the picture was divided into four JPG files I also got to practice my photo editing skills to piece it together, mission accomplished. I got the non-vegetarian set course dinner and this is essentially what the main part of the meal looked like. It also came with a few starter dishes as well as soup.

Nepal seems the odd man out in Asia when it comes to food for the most part. Most local Nepali food lacks the rich sauces of India, the sheer variety of tastes of a place like Thailand or the vastness of Chinese food. Newari food is some of the only food I've had in Nepal that could really be described as cuisine. It has it's own unique flavors and some of the dishes use some surprising ingredients to really good effect. There is a use of organ meats, along with a larger array of spices and varied preparation styles of food that add a really nice variety to the meal.

As we got to the restaurant a little early we started with a couple of drinks and and were served a snack that was soy beans cooked with ginger, garlic and spices. Really tasty stuff. Kim just got a pumpkin curry and some rice, while my meal seemed to come in about six or seven courses. I got a few grilled meats (really good) some lentil pancakes, momos (steamed dumplings), apparently I ate tongue at some point, pan fried stuffed lung, some fairly tasty vegetable and lentil based soup and then the main course. Rice, pumpkin curry, vegetables cooked with cumin seed, chicken in a spicy curry, duck with ginger, takari (curried veggies), some fried fish and maybe some other things that I'm leaving out. For desert we were brought a yogurt that had honey and fruit in it, which was quite good. Everything was well prepared, and I enjoyed all of it.

These terrible dark pictures really don't do the place justice. From our table you can see that it is a wide open very attractive garden that is illuminated with well placed lighting to give great atmosphere. This picture shows some of the musicians and dancers heading over to the central stage area.
This even worse picture, shows some musicians on the central stage area. You can see the other dining areas, almost bungalow like structures, that surround the garden. Akshay, who's family is involved in the restaurant's ownership, is building a lounge to the rear of the restaurant. Set behind the garden area by a pond, they are going for a very modern Miami style theme, and even bringing in sand for a beach like feel. The location looks great and with the water and all the plants, an open lounge would be a great place to hang out in the summer months. They are moving toward a Mayish opening date for the lounge.

Anyway an over all fun experience and I'm sure Kim and I will stop back from time to time. For those of you getting tired of the stint of food posts I promise to have some other stuff on here soon. Kim and I are planning to go to Nagrakot for the weekend, it's kind of a resort style area on the top of the eastern ridge of the Kathmandu valley, and is one of the closest places where on a clear day you can see Everest and the other large Himalayan peaks in its company. So we will be heading there with Marc and Helen, and hopefully do some light hiking. Hopefully we can get some nice photos.