Map of trek to Annapurna Base Camp or ABC.
Map of trek to Annapurna Circuit trek.
Both in Annapurna Conservation Sanctuary, Himalayas, Nepal.
Day 2: Kathmandu
Having had a bit of a heavy night crawling the bars in Thamel during my last night, I was forced to take a late start on Saturday, my second full day in Nepal.
Last Night
Having been in Durbar square during the day. I had some food at the Electric Pagoda, which had a live band playing and was full of tourist types, but seemed like a laid back kind of place.
After that, I went to somewhere called the Tom and Jerry pub. It’s like a pub, got some pool tables and loud music. Locals where friendly enough and there were some Canadian yoga teachers, which seems to be a common theme here in Nepal.
After much drinking, I descended to the ‘Red Lion’ pub which was directly below. Less of a pub and more of a dance-floor.
There were many different nationalities here also, all enjoying the different types of music. Stayed for a little while, then took a walk back to the hotel. During which, I think I got some food, but don’t remember.
Rather than going to bed, I thought I might visit the nightclub whose bass I can hear through my bedroom in the early hours. Continue reading “Day 2: Kathmandu”
1st Day: Kathmandu
Just arrived last night.
The airport is old. Seems like one of the oldest ones I’ve been in for a while. Taking the bus down from the concourse, they drop you off in the arrivals lounge, where you have to go through the processes of making a VISA application.
VISA Machines
To make this slightly quicker and easier, they have some fairly modern VISA machines. After entering some fairly simple details, arrival and departure, where you’re staying and for how long. Usual stuff. The machine issues you with a receipt, which you take over to the counter.
At the counter you can pay cash or credit card. I chose card, as I only had £10 in cash and the VISA for 90 days is $110.
Getting the VISA takes about 25 mins, queuing up, paying. end to end.
SIM card
Three wants to charge me £6 per MB here in Nepal.
This is going to cost you a serious amount of money if you’re not careful, because my phone is set up to do all things over Data-network, (because I live on a boat), not wifi, it’s going to just carry on doing the things it always does which could work out kind of expensive.
On the exit from the airport, there are two SIM card retailers. One is NCELL, which is supposed to have good coverage across the whole of Nepal, the other is NEPAL, which is supposed to have less good cover, but works OK in the cities.
It cost £3.50 for 7 days, at the end of which, when I’ve done some more research, I may switch to another network.
I’ve already used it many times to look at maps and also book some bus tickets to my next stop.
Hotel
I’m currently staying at a hotel close to the ‘Garden of Dreams’.
Last night, the bass from the club over the road kept me awake some of the time, but eventually I got some sleep.
Apart from that, it’s very quite.
Durbar Square
Today I took a trek down to the main centre area which was pretty well destroyed in the 2015 earthquake.
They call it Durbar Square.
Here’s some pictures from the walk down there.
As you can see. People pretty poor here.
Here’s some more pictures. Continue reading “1st Day: Kathmandu”
Tiffield Pocket Park
Seeing as the weather was so unseasonably warm, I decided to spend a little of my time investigating this local feature.
Tiffield Pocket Park
Was set up by a local philanthropist who wanted to provide a space for nature, etc.
John Mawby bought the land from the railroad when in became derelict in the 1960’s for the purpose of providing a place for nature to flourish etc etc.
Here’s a picture of the sign for the park where I joined the trail.
As you can see, it illustrates the flora and fauna, birds and animals to titillate the whims of potential visitors.
Unfortunately, I can’t attest to seeing any of these, especially not on the stretch toward Banbury and Tiffield.
All I saw was a badger set and a couple of jays, which I didn’t even see I heard.
Venturing in the northerly direction, I can attest there was a lot more nature, whether that was because the weather was better on the day that I visited I can’t say.
But heading North, there were pigeons, squirrels, blackbirds, and some more rare variety of bird I wasn’t familiar with, as well as the usual tree creepers, wrens, some horses in the fields.
Toward the canal, there is undoubtedly more.
Initially, I took the path toward Northampton in the north. Down toward the canal. The railway runs in a NW direction from Banbury in the South. Continue reading “Tiffield Pocket Park”
Gayton Junction -> Gayton in the Fields
Due to some nefarious action on my database, I seem to have lost one of my posts.
Not to worry, it’s out there somewhere, and no doubt if I get bored enough, it will return!
Trip to Nepal
I’ve been trying to prepare the blog for my forthcoming trip abroad by putting some sort of header to make it easier to navigate as my trip progresses.
For the database, this created some problems in parsing any kind of requests, and when I went to make some alterations to the appearance of the site, all my requests timed-out.
I tried disabling plug-ins and running wordpress Vanilla, as it were, which had a slight effect, but still with severely limited functionality. Re-installed. Etc.
I contacted my hosts, Kualo, (you can find them here https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.kualo.com, ), to ask whether they could offer any guidance. Continue reading “Gayton Junction -> Gayton in the Fields”