Trekking: Day 1

We began our journey to the mountains by car at 9am. It was about a 1-2 hour drive from Kathmandu to our first destinationin Changunarayon. We stopped at a temple but didn't stay there long. At that point I had seen so many temples, I was just ready to start trekking. Not far from there, maybe a 15-20 minute drive, we began our first hike through the mountains. Luckily we were able to leave our backpacks in the car. Our driver met up with us later and took us to our hotel we were staying at for the night. 

Everything was georgeous!! It was a bit foggy from the clouds, but expected as monsoon season begins. Luckily the sun was shining and we still had a great view. We didnt hike very long but I loved it so much! At the very beginning of the hike, we walked through what felt like a small city before going through the forest. Our tour guide called the forested area, the jungle and showed us where he had seen a tiger before, kinda funny.  It was so beautiful! Between the view of the mountain villages & their farms, climbing up and down rugged, beaten trails and walking through lush green forests, I was in complete bliss. 

By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was time for lunch. It's been so great, Ida and I always order together and share our meals. That way we get to try more without having way too much.

We had about 2 hours after lunch to shower, relax and settle into our hotel room before we walked around again. We had an adorable little room and a small balcony with a great view. Don't get me wrong staying in hostels is great. It's cheap, easy way to get good travel advice, and there are always new people to meet and talk to but staying at hostels we give up sleeping comfortably, most beds we've slept on so far are rather hard. So we were very happy to have paid a little extra and have comfy, cozy mattresses to sleep on for this excursion in the mountains.

On our walk, we saw school children heading home from school. We were walking behind them. Narij, our tour guide told us it takes about a half hour for the children to get home walking down the mountain and up to an hour to get to school walking up the mountain. I was impressed. There are also school buses but I don't know if that's for certain schools or children who live farther away, we never asked. We actually stopped where these children rested before they continued home. We sat and enjoyed the view. We probably could have hiked around more but we content, the view was just so beautiful and we could hear birds chirping in the background as well as roosters crowing. We were at total peace. Funny enough, we were there the rest of the evening. In that time we made a couple local friends, asked Narij a ton of questions about Nepal, and learned some Nepali phrases. 

Soon after the sun went down and it was getting dark, we began to make our way back. We stopped at the local bar, not exactly the typical bar you think of. This was a small shack attached to the owner's home. There were a couple lawn tables and chairs to sit at. Here we got to taste the locally made wIne. There were two different kinds, one made from rice and the other made from millet. We had a great time but it was an experience to say the least. The wine was stored in water bottles and so to let us taste each wine, instead of a glass, the bartender poured a little bit into the cap of the water bottle. Then once we had chosen which one we liked, we were given glasses to drink from. Ida and I preferred the rice wine. The bartender also made a noodle salad dish to have with our wine. It was so good! The dish was made with dried fried noodles, tomatos, red onion, cilantro, and spices as far as I can remember. I'm sure there were more ingredients. While Narij and the bartender made conversation, Ida and I enjoyed our wine and the noodle dish.

The millet wine is the clear one and the rice wine is the yellower one.

We returned to the hotel when we finished. In Nepal all the dogs here sleep during the day and are awake at night so it was funny, at one point we had 6 dogs following us back to the hotel.