Stuff only: Nepal

We went to Nepal for a short holiday.

At was nice to be out of the busy city for a while.

The plane landed later than forecasted, we probably circled for an hour.
The stewardess told us the local time, but after more than a day we noticed it was wrong; she calculated the 15 minutes time difference the wrong way. This resulted in a double severe jetleg of half an hour! Hard times.

Nepal has some wonderful nature and although they drive like nutters, traffic is reasonable compared to Dhaka.
The smaller mountains/hills made us think of Rwanda although not many are used for agriculture or terassed. We are not into hiking to much, in our view mountains are to look at, not to climb.
Luckily Nepal has some place where you can stare at the magnificent nature, in particular the Himalayas.

One thing that needs attention is the waste, the economic growth means people buy more wrapped candies and single packed items. I imagine that where things were packed in leaves or newspaper, now they are packed in plastic. The plastic thrown on the ground doesn't dissolve naturally like the paper would.

Hereby a photo impression.

The first night we stayed in Patan, effectively a neighbourhood of Kathmandu.

The square is a hangout for all ages

Patan Durbar square

The huge dots on the forehead are not normal, this is because the Dasain festival just ended.

We still don't know what he is carrying, I guess a music instrument

A 360 degree view of Durbar square Patan

View from a roof terrace

Pigeons are fed, I guess some sort of good luck.

As the country is devided by some rivers a few of these bridges are build. Basically steel cables. Hazel doesn't like them, I think they are cool

A lot is carried this way. We saw many people carrying cattle food like this.

Many swings all over the country, build with bamboo specially for the festival. The idea is that you 'leave the earth'

A couple of nights in Pokhora. This turns out to be a hub for hiking and all sorts of other (extreme) activities.
Lakeside has a stretch of Tourist shops alternated with restaurants and hiking gear shops and of course some tour organisers.

Hanggliding, for some a must in Pokhora

Double rainbow!

We stumbled upon this fair.

Where there is a fairground there is a candy stand

Fishtail mountain, until now still unclimbed. Visible from Pokhora to remind people that nature still wins.

Great reflection in the lake

We wanted to see the elephant breeding centre. We were so naive as to think they did something good for the animals. In fact it is just a commercial enterprise. Get an elephant, get her pregnant, sell the elephant. The elephants are in a row on a chain that is it.

I must admit it is nice to see the world from the back of an elephant, but it feels a bit wrong that the animals are used in this way.