Namaste! Like Japan and China, Nepal was also not on our initial wishlist, but the fact that the visa procedure for India (our original plan) was too complicated and time- consuming, made us decide to go to Nepal, hoping to find our 'touch of India' there...

With Air China we flew from Tokyo to Beijing, then from Beijing to New Delhi (India). Arriving in New Delhi at 1.40 a.m. we had to wait for our so-called 'connecting' flight to Kathmandu (Nepal) 10 hours later. The waiting in New Delhi in a kind of neutral zone (we did not have an Indian transit visa...), in a refugee camp setting was a bit frustrating... especially when you know that Kathmandu is just 1 hour away

... Being a little shocked at first sight by the huge amounts of tourists boarding the various flights to Nepal, we could not suppress some feelings of disappointment (was this the right choice?), but we decided to make the best out of it anyway. Being stubborn travellers we know how and where to beat the crowds and create our own unique adventure ...

Arriving at sleepy Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu was a pretty straightforward and easygoing affair: fill in the necessary paperwork, add a photo, pay 40 US Dollar each and get a 30- day Visa-on-arrival (including issuing service with a smile). Easy. But then... the contrast with Japan could not have been bigger... If Japan was sterile and plastic then Nepal is contaminated and driftwood. Man, we thought that Myanmar was poor, but Nepal seems to be the 'king of poverty' ... But despite this Kathmandu is a mindblowing city with a unique colourpalet made up from the local women's brightcoloured saris contrasting with the warm brown/ terracotta- coloured bricks of the traditional Newari- style buildings on Durbar Square and a persistent surreal pink haze giving the city an almost softtone velvet appearance. Our days in Kathmandu existed pretty much of just strolling around Durbar Square and hanging on top of the plenty of 'watch-the-world-go-by'- temples like the famous Maju Deval- temple, being amazed by the hardcore porn wood carvings on some of the Hindu temples, eating delicious curries and drinking ice-cold Everest beers on the roof terrace of our guesthouse in downtown Kathmandu, deliberately losing our way in the labyrinth of narrow streets of the Bishal Bazaar, around Asan Tole and Indra Chowk, running away from Kathmandu's tourist district Thamel evoking bad memories of Bangkok's Khao San Road, trying to get some daytime sleep as the haunting sounds of nightly gangs of stray dogs running through the streets kept us systematically awake at night, trying not to be overrun by the buzzing traffic consisting of millions of omnipresent motorbikes, masses of people and the occasional holy cow, watching the monkey 'show' at the Swayambunath Temple, and most of all: just watching the fascinating mix of people, including the local women walking through the streets with plates filled with goodies for their early morning 'puja' ritual (offering to the gods), the tradespeople trying to sell their pashmina shawls and saris at Indra Chowk, the colourful marketpeople in Lagan Square selling 'fresh' fruits and vegetables, the 'man with the sewing machine' on every streetcorner giving clothes a twentysecond, -third or -fourth life, the old women at Pottery Square collecting hay to fuel the open-air stove for baking handmade ceramics (with the men as spectators) and not to forget the Western weirdos in Freak Street who smoked too much or had too many magic mushrooms (just guess how Freak Street got its name

).... All are the inhabitants of this vibrant, colourful and exhausting but impressive city. After having soaked in the Nepali urban atmosphere, we moved just a few kilometers further into the Kathmandu Valley, to Bodhnath.

Hidden behind a busy thoroughfare there is the Bodhnath stupa. A big surprise. This huge white stupa with its golden spire and lively Buddha's eyes following the crowds of worshippers mostly consisting of Tibetan refugees, Buddhist monks and foreign dharma students (Western wannabee buddhists) on their 'parikrama' (ceremonial circuit) circumambulating the stupa in a clockwise direction. Not once, not twice. Endlessly. Beggars (ab)using the spiritual environment complete the scene. No Hindus here. And the worshippers are dedicated; old women prostrating themselves full- length on the ground, prayer wheels are being spinned, mantras being chanted, butter lamps being lighted... Everyone is doing his or her thing just for one purpose: to escape from the cycle of life, death and rebirth and achieve final 'moksha' (release) from this cycle. Impressive to witness this dedication to the divine, however for us it makes clear that any form of religious extremism even in its so-called innocent forms is kind of intimidating ... Although Bodhnath was very close to Kathmandu, and we could have day-tripped from there, is was worth spending a couple of nights here as it gave us the chance to experience the place before and after the tourist groups had come or left. And it was worth the experience. In the evening Bodhnath comes even more to life. Thousands of worshippers gather in the large round square with the stupa in the centre of it all, walking their afternoon ritual walk around the stupa. And then silence. Nepal is definitely an early-to-bed- country, meaning that 9 p.m. is a normal bedtime, probably not in the last place because of the national electricity shortages (and the rather unlogical loading schedules) with lots of electricty in the daytime and almost none after dark. The power generators trying to fill the gaps unfortunately fail most of the time in their mission as Nepal is confronted with serious shortages of petrol and kerosene to keep them working

. The endless queus at the very few petrol stations around the country illustrate the fuel shortage problems more than obvious...

One day we hiked from Bodhnath through the countryside to the Pashupatinath Temple, one of the holiest Hindu temples in Nepal, located on the Bagmati River. The Pashupatinath temple is an extremely confusing place for non-Hindus like us with thousands of things going on simultaneously

. To make at least an attempt to get to grips with this highly complicated religion with its hardly understandable vast complex of gods or representations of Shiva, Vishnu and Krishna combined with ancient rituals and customs, and moreover to feel a little more comfortable in this pretty hostile environment, we hired a local guide who showed us around the complex. After having finished the private guided 'tour', it was our time to repeat the visit by ourselves and absorb it all in a lower gear. On the cremation ghats (stairs) on the banks of the holy Bagmati River human corpses are burnt in a very business- like way: dead bodies are wrapped in brightcoloured orange shrouds and laid out on the ghats until the feet of the corpse touch the holy water, then the body is carried to the cremation platform and finally cremated on a wooden pyre. After having burnt for about 3 hours all that remains are ashes. The ashes are thrown in the heavily polluted Bagmati River flowing through the complex. In the same river young kids are searching for money scanning every inch of it with their bare hands. On the other side of the cremation ghats local women are 'washing' clothes in the same polluted river. And a little further downstream that same river is used as a public toilet/ garbage dump. And that is just around the Bagmati riverbanks... In and around the temple buildings locals are hanging around watching the goings-on, the milk offerings to Shiva as it is his favourite drink ('Yoghi Yoghi' drink?) seem to continu non-stop, the sadhus (Holy Men or Baba), many of whom are in fact 'Money Baba', are just sitting there being weird trying to make some money with their weirdness (photo? 1 dollar!) and the monkeys putting on their own show trying to attract the attention of spectators being obsessed with the cremation rituals (look at me, man! I can walk on 2 feet! I'm much more fun than dead people! ). Our visit to the fascinating Pashupatinath Temple was an unforgettable one. Especially the cremation ceremony made a deep impact. Death on public display is on the one hand a beautiful thing, but still it is an uncomfortable experience to be part of (whether you want it or not) a cremation in the open air with daily life around it going on like nothing happened. The proverb of 'one man's meat is another man's poison' was never more applicable than at Pashupatinath Temple.

From Bodhnath we moved deeper into the Kathmandu Valley to the town of Bhaktapur ('City of Devotees'), one of the three medieval city-states in the Kathmandu Valley. The rural character of Bhaktapur and its traffic- free streets were a relief after the extremely hectic urban chaos of Greater Kathmandu. The 3 main squares of Durbar Square, Taumadhi Tole and Tachupal Tole interconnected by narrow streets are epic, with daily life going on like centuries ago, with locals washing clothes (and themselves) outside their homes, socialising and collecting water from the many ancient watertanks and bassins scattered around town, sometimes with a mobile phone in the one hand and a bucket of water in the other hand (21st centrury meets 19th century at its best!), the colourful markets in the backstreets where no tourists dare to come, where people are getting more friendly the further you get off the beaten track, the many temples in the streets including the small 'erotic elephant temple' showing the animal version of the Kama Sutra (we can only dream about being as athletic as these big boys and girls...)... These ingredients made Bhaktapur a kind of hot Nepali curry: fired up, colourful and a sensation for the senses. Like enjoying a good curry Bhaktapur had not to be rushed but taken in on a leisurely speed just by sitting on the many temples watching daily life pass by...

And then, again, whoohoo, New Year.! This time: Nepali New Year... The Bisket Jatra festival in Bhaktapur marks the beginning of the New Year's celebrations on the 10th of April, the day before entering the year 2067. In the evening a huge chariot with Betal, Bhairab's sidekick (Bhairab is the fearsome incarnation of Shiva) being attached on the chariot like a ship's figurehead, is pushed around the enormous crowds of people around Taumadhi Tole and Khalna Tole. At first sight a rather useless ritual, but this is local tradition ... Sending fireworks into the big void is at least equally useless. So who are we to say something... Watching the crowds going mad, we were warned that things could get seriously out of hand after the pulling. Why? Because it has been violent every year. No further questions asked...

First day of the year 2067. I got sick. Really sick. A rebellious bacteria ruined the fun we had so far. Fortunately Lina ate something different the day before, so she was ok. After 2 days laying on bed, spending hours on the toilet, throwing up, sleeping, we managed to move from our 6 m2 room in Bhaktapur to Patan (a suburb of Kathmandu) to a luxury hotel with bathtub and tv, just to make it easier to kill time, focus on recovery and cancel the enemy. After another 2 days continuing without improvements the antibiotics had to do their thing ... Being tired from hanging in Patan, we (again) managed to move and survive a 7 hour minibus-ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara, hoping that it would be a better place to recover fully as it is more geared up for tourists ... And after a small week strenghts and structure slowly returned. Not having had a decent meal for about a week, and the physical condition dropped below zero, we initially did not feel strong enough to go for an overnight trekking through the Himalayan mountain range very close to Pokhara. But things changed rapidly. Being up to strength sufficiently (a half day hike to the World Peace Pagoda above Phewa Tal made that clear) and having consulted a number of trekking agencies, we decided to give it a shot and go for a 5- day overnight tea-house trekking. Something we didn't even dare to think about a few days ago. And off we went... The route in the Annapurna Conservation Area, with the Himalayan mountain range as its decor, taking us through fairytale pathways with a landscape alternating between bright coloured pink, red and purple rhododendron forests, magical green fluorescent moss- covered ancient trees, ending on the grass- covered mountaintop at the Mardi Himal High Camp (3500m), was breathtaking. En route staying in local mountain villages (max. 3 houses), with local families providing a shelter for the night (nothing more or less), eating our daily trekkers' meal consisting of homemade 'dal bhaat' (lentils with rice and curried vegetables) and lots of milktea, experiencing real village-life in action as things heat up because of booze and marihuana and being in the warm company of half a zoo's population, made this trek unforgettable. But the real highlight was still to come... After spending an evening with thunder and lighting complemented with the sound of avalanches higher up in the mountains and having survived a freezing night at the High Camp, the bad weather cleared up... The next morning sunrise at 5.00 a.m. was one of the most magical moments ever: a blue sky with the sun first highlighting the top of the Annapurna South (7200m), and with the sun rising every minute and the light constantly changing, the sacred Machhapuchhare (a.k.a. the Fishtail; 7000m) and Mardi Himal (5600m) also arose from the darkness ... literally the undoubted highlight of our trek! After one and a half day hiking downwards and a bumpy jeepride through a rough mountainous landscape, crossing rivers, we arrived back in Pokhara. A good pizza and a few bottles of beer were our well- deserved rewards ... Our last day in Pokhara we spent floating on Phewa Tal in a rowing boat taking in another magnificent sunset (and some more beers...) from the sparkling waters of the lake. Not a bad way to chill out after a challenging trekking...

On our way back to Kathmandu, we stopped in the village of Bandipur, roughly halfway Pokhara and Kathmandu. From Dumre a jeep packed with about 15 people (even when you think there is no space left, there is still space to pack some more people, be it on the roof or just hanging outside the car...) took us all the way up. This lovely little village, draped like a scarf around the mountains, was the perfect place to chill out reading a book on Gurungche Hill, looking back on what we saw and experienced up to now, imagining what there is still to come and ... finding ways to deal with the reality shock which is slowly kicking in as the end of our trip is now approaching rapidly ...

Time to continue our way back to the Kathmandu Valley. After a busride from hell (it doesn't matter that the breaks don't work as long as the horn is ok...) on the Prithvy 'Highway', we arrived in Kathmandu from where a short taxiride brought us to Patan. As we were here before, but saw nothing more than our hotelroom, this meant a second chance for Patan. The fact that Patan has an upbeat feel and is by far the most cosmopolitan part of Greater Kathmandu, does not mean that it is exempted from the frequent Maoist- stikes and protests (the communist Maoists are the biggest political party in Nepal) that completely paralyse all of Nepal. It seems to be a part of daily life in contemporary Nepal that schools are being spontaneously closed, that roads are being blocked, that shops and offices are ordered to close, etc. Although the more or less fancy shopping streets, 'trendy' expat bars and its more 'high caste' looking population, were a relief after the poverty we saw around Nepal, Patan's real draw is Durbar Square which is said to be Nepal's best preserved square with Newari- style architecture. And beautiful as it is, we enjoyed just hanging around on the many temples, sometimes used as a reallife cinema and sometimes as a shelter for some serious 'cats-and-dogs' rainshowers. And the guidebooks said it should not be raining until May. That means 2 days too early

... With ending our Nepal adventure in Patan another 28 days passed by in a wink...

Nepal, our touch of India, but probably even better... A unique combination of colours that go beyond the world of Photoshop hard to be processed by our eyes, smells that sometimes tease and often torture your nose, landscapes that literally take your breath away and extremely high temperatures and humidity making your body work in overdrive. No other conclusion justified about Nepal: for your senses only.