After a quick hour and a half flight, the 5 of us arrived in Kathmandu. Our Customs experience at the airport is worth a mention. The Visa on arrival in Nepal requires a "crisp" $20 (US Dollar) bill to enter the country. As we were filling out the forms with our money on the counter a custom agent walked over and started to lead Hana away. We immediately began to freak out; there is nothing more disconcerting than someone leading your child away in an airport. Furthermore, the man did not speak English. We quickly figured out he only was taking her 10 feet away to the next line because she was young enough to not be required to pay the 20 bucks.
After clearing customs we walked the short distance to the domestic terminal, which looked like it was right out of an Indiana Jones movie. We then boarded a rather small plane to
Pokhara, a 20 minute flight, that flew parallel to the majestic Annapurna Range of the Himalayas.
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| Yeti Airlines. Fitting that they served Mountain Dew with peanuts on this 20 minute flight |
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Kathmandu from the sky
This was our view on that 20 minute flight. If you ever find yourself doing the same thing, make sure to sit on the right side of the plane
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We stayed at the
Trekkers Inn a block from the lake and walkable to pretty much everywhere in town. We had the top floor, which was also the roof, to ourselves. It was a great place to hangout and have breakfast/tea. There was no elevator and the rooms were on the 7th floor, which probably didn't impress Gramps too much (until he saw the view). The clouds burned off enough in the morning that we could see the Annapurna Range.
Here are some random picks from around Pokhara.
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| Eight Stories up. No safety anything, |
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| Liv hates cockroaches. This sucker was big |
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| She loves to barter |
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| Walmart, Nepal style |
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| Everywhere we go, these kids find ice cream |
One of our days consisted of hiring a boat to take us across Phewa Lake so we could hike up the hill to the World Peace Pagoda
(Shanti Stupa). Gramps dug down deep and made the hike up and down. The funny part was we missed a turn coming down and ended up pretty far away from the hotel. We had to walk at least an extra mile before we found someone who spoke enough English to help us find a cab.
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| This was our boat |
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| Starting the hike |
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| The kids love these jump pictures |
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| I think this may have been the girls favorite part of the trip. Tattoo the puppy.half way up the mountain at a tea stand |
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| Shanti Stupa |
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| Just starting down the mountain |
The next day we visited the Tashi Lang Tibetan refugee village outside of Pokhara. We met some wonderful people and were able to see (and purchase) some of their handmade rugs. We also were fortunate enough to be able to see the rugs being made.
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| Weeeeeeeeeeeee |
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| Gramps and this guy hit it off |
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| Road leading into the village |
One of the reasons we were sad that Spring Break fell on the week it did was because it was the same week as
Holi, the hindu festival of colors. Fortunately, Pokhara has a large Hindu population and Holi was in full swing. These pictures don't do it justice as Drew was rather timid to take his new camera out of the bag with all the colored dust and colored water flying around.
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| Our first glimpse of Holi from the roof. |
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| These kids were "playing" Holi with all the tourists. |
Hana and I went for a morning walk and thought, 'this aint so bad." Little did we know that Holi picks up steam as the day goes on.
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Holi Dog
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| Impromptu Holi Parade |
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| Lots of tourists on this block. Not sure what was going on. |
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| This is what Hana looked like by the time we got back to the hotel |
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| Gramps relaxing after a long day playing Holi. Last night in Pokhara |
The next day we headed back to Kathmandu via a Yeti Airlines flight to check out the city for a few days. Stay tuned for Part 3 of Gramps invades India/Nepal.
