• 35 – Days we spent in India
• 29 – Days we spent in Nepal
• 47 – Hours spent traveling by train
• 72 – Hours spent traveling by bus
• 0 – Hours spent traveling by plane
• 18 – Hours spent on our longest single commute in India (Jodhpur – Amritsar)
• 31 – Number of beds we slept in
• 1112 – Photos taken (and kept) in India
• 1621 – Photos taken (and kept) in Nepal (the most of any single country)
• 7 – Average number of times we had to say “no” before Indian people got the hint
• 2 – Elephants we encountered in the streets of India’s cities
• 3 – Yoga classes taken in Rishikesh, Ted’s first ever
• 11 – Days we spent hiking the Annapurna Circuit
• 90 – Miles we hiked on the Annapurna Circuit
• 14,337 – Vertical feet climbed on the Annapurna Circuit
• 15,912 – elevation of Thorong High View Camp, the highest we’ve ever slept
• 17,769 – elevation of Thorong La Pass, our highest hike in Asia
• $59.18 – average price per day in India (for both of us)
• $71.55 – average price per day in Nepal (for both of us)
• 100+ – Number of cups of delicious Chai tea

Be sure to check out our Best of India, Best of Nepal, and Annapurna Highlights albums to see some of our favorite moments of this chaotic land.

10 Favorites

1. 

   Wicked peaks from Tatopani

   Fun People – We spent nearly our whole month in Nepal hanging out with people we love. Cheers to Charles and Kate for making the journey from the US, and to Dave and Jesse for being such hilarious partners-in-crime.

2. Shiba – Our guide on the Annapurna trek was a superstar. Best guide ever. We loved this guy.
3. Our porters – We couldn’t have done the trek without them. Well, perhaps we could have but we’re glad we didn’t have to.
4. Wicked peaks – Every day wicked peaks. In every direction.
5. Weather on the circuit – I’m gonna go out on a limb and call it perfect. Sure it was a bit cold in the evenings, but during the day you couldn’t ask for better walking temps, our outrageous visibility, and no rain!
6. Thorung La Pass – 17,769 feet. Bagged it.
7. Tatopani Hot Springs – Healing, natural hot springs after 10+ days of walking? I think yes.
8. Dinner with Shiba – Dinner with our favorite guide in his home and with his lovely family was a treat.
9. Sunsets in Bandipur at the Old Inn – A beautiful view, at a lovely old property and cold beer. Perfect.
10. Bodhnath Stupa on Buddha’s Big Day – It was quite by accident that we got to hang out with Buddhists on the celebration of Buddha’s birth, death and day of enlightenment.

5 Not-So-Greats

1. 

   Bodhnath Stupa

   Road transportation – Terrible, terrible roads. No bus ride or Jeep ride was an exception. It takes hours to go a few miles.

2. Bathroom experience along the Annapurna Circuit – No need for detail here, but there were squat toilets all the way, and when you’re legs are tired from walking anyway, this was sad news.
3. Power rationing – Kathmandu was without power 8-12 hours a day on a regular basis. Our hotel posted the hours that power would be available in the city each day. A capital city with systematic power outrages is quite unfortunate.
4. Strikes – Who knows who was striking about what, but when it was a strike day all transportation would come to a halt. No buses, no taxis and most shops don’t even open. Lucky our travel schedule was so flexible – it could be quite an issue if you were trying to get somewhere on a certain day at a certain time.
5. Freezing cold nights – on the Annapurna circuit, we had a couple high-altitude evenings with not quite enough covers. We’re stretching here with things to complain about…

Top 5 Eats

1. 

   Dal bhat - Nepali lunch and dinner.... for life

   Hot tea on Annapurna – We’re not big tea drinkers but we were on the trek. The hot liquid both kept us warm and kept us hydrated. We drank gallons of the stuff.

2. Dal Bhat – The Nepali national dish. We learned to like it.
3. Momo Fest 2011/Momos in general – Momo Fest deserves its own post: Check out what our travel buddies had to say about our momo night on the town.
4. Pokhara Pizza – Best pizza we had encountered out of the US and it was cheap ($2/pie)! Woohoo!
5. Manang’s bakery items – Manang was a little village in the middle of our Annapurna trek. After days and days of the same boring food, we were thrilled and surprised to have the options of fresh croissants, apple danishes and chocolate cakes. A little slice of heaven in the middle of a pretty heavenly place to begin with.

Check out our Best of Nepal and Annapurna Highlights albums for some pics of quite possibly the most spectacular mountain landscapes on the planet (and other Nepali highlights)

Our first stop was the city of Bhaktapur, which along with Kathmandu and Patan, was one of the three medieval kingdoms that once competed for power in governing the area. Eventually, Kathmandu won that battle. The Newari architecture is particularly impressive.

Bhaktapur entrance

Soneil, our guide, teaches us the history of Bhaktapur

Newari architecture

Bhaktapur

While in the neighborhood, we headed to Changu Narayan Temple. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the oldest temple in the Kathmandu Valley has carvings dating back from the 4^th-9^th centuries.

Changu Narayan Temple

This piece dates back to the 4th century!

After a quick lunch, we visited one of Nepal’s largest and most impressive stupas – Bodhnath Stupa. Stupas are sites of religious significance to Buddhists. The day we were there just happened to corresponded with Buddha’s birthday so we got to see quite the celebration. There were thousands of people, hundreds of prayer flags and lots of excitement. It was a pretty wonderful experience.

Bodhnath Stupa - once the biggest stupa in the world

Special celebrations for the holiday

A Tibetan Monestary near Bodhnath

Bodhnath

The day ended back in Kathmandu proper at the famous Durbar Square. Though hard to describe, the Lonely Planet calls it “the traditional heart of the old town and Kathmandu’s most spectacular legacy of traditional architecture.” Definitely a must see for any visitor.

Durbar Square

Guard, Durbar Square

Durbar Square

Taxi stand, Durbar Square

We were very grateful to our excellent guide and driver, and Ted’s friend Pawan, who arranged the action-packed day for us. We loved our day in the Kathmandu Valley, and appreciated the opportunity to get out of the middle of the tourist ghetto and learn a little about Nepal’s history.

Tourist ghetto - Thamel

Bombardment by sign!

A little shopping

Most people arrive into Nepal through Kathmandu however, we were doing just the opposite. It is an excellent spot to arrange trekking, stock up on fake North Face gear and get ready to head into the wilderness, but we had already done that.

So for us, Kathmandu was a place to do laundry, catch up on email and eat yummy food. We overlapped with Dave and Jesse again for a few days, visiting the famous Monkey Temple which is an impressive stupa overlooking the whole city, and splurging on gigantic servings of dal bhat (typical Nepali food), for their last meal in the country. We also had a great meal with Ted’s friend and former boss John Watson from Colorado, who happened to be passing through at the same time (we actually planned to overlap for a night in Bandipur, but those damn strikes got in the way!). All and all, a nice and easy way to spend our last few days in Nepal.

The very long staircase to the Monkey Temple

Jesse low-fives a buddha

The only friggin monkey we saw at the "Monkey Temple"!

Swayambhunath - aka the Monkey Temple

The Kathmandu Valley, from Swayambhunath

Favorite picture from Swayambhunath

Bodhnath Stupa, Kathmandu Valley

An unparalleled setting, atop a mountain ridge

Downtown Bandipur

View from the Old Inn, our afternoon drink spot

This cute, but very tiny town, is set high on a bluff which, on a clear day, provides jaw-dropping views of several Himalayan mountain ranges. Unfortunately, we were not visiting in the season to appreciate the distant mountain views we heard oh-so-much about! But it was still a gorgeous setting nonetheless.

However, there is more to the town than the views. Though the community was once struggling to get by, it has done an excellent job of investing in itself to attract tourism. The town is full of traditional Newari architecture and with the help of a local tourism operator and some foreign aid, the town has renovated and maintained it’s beautiful buildings, which are both peoples’ homes as well as newly established restaurants and guest houses.

Newari Architecture

Gotta love the English translations of their new signage

Foreign aid manifesting in funny educational signs...

Tourism is so new to this community that the townspeople are genuinely curious about their visitors and are wonderfully helpful and kind. The kids want to play all day long, there were no pushy salespeople to be found (a rarity in this part of the world), and we only saw one “souvenir” shop and one “tour operator” in town. The idea of tourism is so new and so wholesome that we found it such a treat after the week we spent in Western-infused Pokhara.

The kids were the real treat of Bandipur

Games in the street

Though we only had one day in town, we took full advantage of the gorgeous area by doing a day hike to the neighboring village. We saw just one other group of hikers on our walk but dozens of locals from nearby villages and their animals!

Hike to neighboring village - Ramkot

Moving bushes? Or locals harvesting foliage?

Ramkot - the destination of our day hike

Bandipur is perfect just how it is right now. However, the community has gotten a taste of tourism dollars and has big plans for growth. We saw several hotels in the works while we were there. It’s only a matter of time until attitudes and tourist offerings change, but for now, it is an undiscovered jewel of a place that we wish we could freeze in time.

View from our hotel window

Bandipur Vistas

Gurkha tryouts

We didn’t encounter any Gurkhas in person, but did see some recruitment signs for schools that prepare young Nepalis for the application process.

Gurkha training academy

Growing trekking beards is a must when you’re on the trail, but when you get back to town, there are many barber shops ready to help you clean up. Dave and I couldn’t pass up the $2 shave (including post-shave massage!).

Pre-shave

Mid-shave

Post-shave face massage

Across the lake and up the hill from Pokhara’s Lakeside neighborhood (where we stayed), lies the Peace Pagoda.  We spent one hot morning hiking up and enjoying the views.

Phewa Tal Lake

Ride across Phewa Tal

World Peace Pagoda

World Peace Pagoda

It was a very hot day...

Gorgeous views

Some nice locals we met on the way back

While we had phenomenal weather on the trek, apparently it rained every afternoon in Pokhara. Upon returning, we witnessed the torrential downpour that fell at about 3:30 every afternoon. No big deal for us – we were busy eating and drinking our way through town. Hard rains just meant more beers!

pre-monsoon rains

Caught in the rain

We got caught too, here at a waterfall on the far side of town

We intended to leave Pokhara 2 days earlier than we did. But, somebody (well, probably a lot of somebodies) in Nepal was angry, and strikes were organized. Nepali strikes focus on freezing transportation, road blocks are put up, and cars that drive on strike days are likely to get stoned. Being stuck in Pokhara for a couple extra days ain’t all that bad though! We took the opportunity to rent some bikes, ride around the lake, and explore some of the neighboring communities.

Cruising the shores of Phewa Tal

We picked up a couple hitchhikers along the way

Bike riding on strike day

Potentially the best thing about Pokhara’s overly-developed tourism ghetto is the extensive options of delicious food. The best and cheapest pizza on the trip – Pokhara Pizza: $2. Our favorite local food (well, kinda local, the recipes were brought over by the exiled Tibetans) was undoubtedly momos – steamed or fried dumplings stuffed with veggies, potatoes, or meat. We ate lots of momos on the trek, but we really embraced these dumplings during MoMo Fest 2011, a tour of all the local momo shops in Pokhara. Read Jesse and Dave’s hilarious account of our momo progressive party here.

Pokhara pizza - best $2 we spent on the trip!

MoMo Fest 2011 begins!!

MoMo Fest 2011 continues!

Needless to say, Pokhara was good to us, and I’m certain that we’ll be back someday.

Buddhist prayer wheels

Very large prayer wheels

Prayer rocks

Prayer flags

Monestaries

A very new thing for both of us, we looked forward to learning meditation techniques as well as exploring more about Buddhism – from a monk. Would you believe, our monk was not the Tibetan Buddhist we were imaging but a rather sarcastic American monk from Pennsylvania with quite a domineering personality. Oh, the irony. To his credit, he had been a monk and teacher for over 30 years so he definitely knew his stuff. And as he explained, as a Westerner he was able to convey difficult concepts to us by using examples that we could understand and relate to.

Yeshi, our American monk and teacher

Lessons in Buddhism

Of course another side benefit was that his English was excellent. As we touched on complex topics, we were very thankful to have his full vocabulary and our full understanding in hopes of wrapping our heads around these deep ideas and concepts. Questions like, “What is happiness?” and “Who are you?” seem simple enough on the surface, but when they get subjugated to the monk’s Socratic Method of questioning, we were thankful that we shared his language when we needed to understand his reasoning and defend our thoughts.

Between our classes with the monk, we had guided meditation and yoga classes, both in the morning and in the evening. Meals consisted of vegetarian goodness and we slept on site at the retreat in simple but comfortable rooms.

A peaceful environment

Gathering at the prayer wheel

All in all, the retreat was a unique experience that I’m very happy we did. Of course, it is impossible to do anything but scratch the surface of Buddhism in a three day retreat, but it was still eye-opening and rewarding nonetheless. One of the most appealing parts of Buddhism is the idea that you can incorporate parts of the Buddha’s teachings into your own life without sacrificing your own religious beliefs and philosophical views. They are not mutually exclusive. And though I do like and respect many Buddhist beliefs (karma, for example) I’m not completely sold on others (i.e. reincarnation). Whether sold on the concepts or not, it was a treat to learn about Buddhism in heart of a Buddhist community in one of the most beautiful settings we’ve seen to date!

Our class