Seoul (part 2) with a guest appearance

After our fun afternoon in Hongdae (and a short rest) we met my friends Adrienne & Abel who had flown over from Singapore to combine a weekend with us, seeing other friends and some business. Our first stop was dinner and we were keen to try another traditional Korean dish - bibimbap, a combination of rice, a selection of vegetables, some chili pastie and a raw egg which you mix together quickly to combine all the flavours and served with side dishes similar to those served at the BBQ. We headed to a local restaurant that was known for this dish and it was delicious (unfortunately we were talking too much and forgot to take a photo). We then moved on to one of the many nearby teahouses for a round of tea. I had an apricot tea which seemed to be made from two apricot stones and had a surprisingly strong apricot taste.

Apricot tea

The next morning we all headed to Changdeokgung Palace, another of the city's royal palaces. However, this palace had an enormous secret garden (not so secret now) which covered an enormous area behind the palace. I'd read that you have to book a tour of the gardens. Having navigated the online booking system to discover that the advanced tickets had all gone we made sure we arrived at the palace in good time to get "on the day tickets" for an English speaking tour. Once we arrived at the start of the tour we found out that for one month it was possible to do self-guided tours without booking! We decided to remain with the large group and tour guide and started to explore the gardens hearing about how the gardens were developed and the symbolism within each small garden. One garden included two rows of stones placed at an angle to each other which we were told Korean men from the elite class used to practice a certain style of walking in their wide trousers to prevent the material from moving too much. I could easily imagine how members of the royal family would have enjoyed the peace and tranquility of walking through these gardens.

The secret garden

Whilst much of the blossom had arrived early this year there were still bursts of colour throughout the gardens from blossoms, petals and coloured leaves. 

Colourful blossoms and leaves

After spending the morning in the palace and the gardens we headed to the nearby Bukchon Hanok village, with a quick stop at a restaurant that specialised in chicken (in various forms) along the way. The village consists of many beautiful old houses that date back to the Joseon dynasty and are built from concrete, wood and bricks around internal courtyards with intricate roofs and chimneys. Whilst the houses look simple they also look quite stylish by modern standards. Some of the houses have been turned into galleries and cafes, but many continue to be lived in as ordinary houses whose streets are filled with gawping tourists on a daily basis. There were a number of signs up and people walked round carrying signs asking visitors to be silent.  It was also another popular place for people to rent and wear the traditional Hanbok outfits.

Traditional houses 

Costumes for hire

After a brief pause at the hotel we were back on our feet and out for the evening. After the success of our food tour in Cape Town we had booked to attend a night time food walking tour. We joined four other tourists and our guide and headed to our first stop which turned out to be the BBQ restaurant we had been to on our first night! Fortunately we were very happy to return and it was just as tasty the second time round. We had an interesting addition of a local drink involving a large glass with a shot glass of coke inside, with a shot of soju (rice wine) sitting on top and the glass was topped off with beer. It had to be drunk quickly in one go to get all the flavours to mix. One was enough!

After a short walk we were at our next eating establishment for topokki which is a broth that is heated on the gas ring in the middle of the table and had many floating bits! We had a spicy version with seafood, scallops, rice dumplings and noodles and a non spicy version with beef, rice dumplings, vegetables, stuffed dumplings and noodles - delicious, although tricky to eat without making a mess!

Our next stop was for chicken (one super garlicky and the other sweet and sour) and beer. Whilst this seemed to be a popular restaurant this was not our favourite dish, possibly because we are lazy and like eating white meat without picking around the bones.

Our final stop was at a teahouse just around the corner from our hotel for another Korean favourite - bingsu which is shaved ice (ours was black tea flavoured) with condensed milk, nuts and red beans. It was quite a tasty and refreshing end after all the other food we had eaten! The teahouse was in the style of a traditional Korean house (like we had seen in the village earlier that day) and we decided we would return the next day to sample the extensive tea list.  

A night full of food

After all the eating it was time for an activity - norebang (karaoke)! Our guide found us a local singing house and negotiated a room for an hour. We had two difficulties: 1) working out how to use the complicated machine to choose songs and 2) finding songs that were known by everyone (a Brit, an America, two Colombians, an Aussie and a Russian). To make it worse the system rated our attempts - we scored 0 more than once! The biggest success was Gagnam Style - although we had to call in a member of staff to help us find it in the Korean section of the list of songs.

Karaoke fun!

Eh sexy lady...!

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to explore more of the city. We started walking down the river which was lower than street level with stepping stones and large fish. It was a popular place to be on a sunny Sunday.

River views and a heron action shot

Our next stop was Kwonjang market where there were many foodstalls serving ingredients, ready to eat food and busy restaurant stalls. One stall sold only kimchi which is made from salted and fermented vegetables, traditionally made from cabbage and radishes this stall had many varieties. We then followed our noses walked a few streets over and found a flower market. Walking further still we came across a section of the city wall that was still in existence and then a covered market that sold nothing but shoes, there must have been at least 50 stalls selling every type of shoe you could think of.

Colourful food market

Colourful flower market

Then it was time for lunch! We had a picnic by the river purchased from a selection of different market stalls including a sausage and fries on a stick, breadcrumbed fried dough stuffed with sweet or savoury fillings (some with interesting spellings such as cleanly tasted potatoes), rolled seaweed stuffed with lettuce and various forms of protein (we are still not sure what was inside the one described as "boiled at altitude") and doughnuts. On the way back I also found a stall selling the small pieces of sweet bread with a small fried egg on top - it was delicious!

Sausage and fries on a stick - a convenient meal

Our final stop was back at the teahouse bu the hotel for tea (the table came with its own kettle for top ups). the teas we tried included the pine needle tea and the colourful blossom tea.

Drinking tea with Abel & Adrienne

Lots of tea!

Feeling a little exhausted we found our bus stop and headed back to the airport after a fun few days in Seoul. It is a city of contrasts and it would be interesting to go back and see more of the city and the rest of the country. 

- Jess

Seoul's got Soul! (part 1)

After five weeks in Nepal, the thought of a large, modern city was quite a change in pace. Seoul was a free stopover in our itinerary as we flew Korean Air from Kathmandu and to Hawaii. While only a short five hour flight, it was certainly entertaining. The flight had a large traveling group of Nepalis, all wearing red hats. For most of them, it must have been there first time flying and the flight attendant call button was going off at a comical rate and at least half a dozen flyers couldn't figure out the lavatory door!!

We arrived shortly before 6am and as usual, there was not much sleep on the plane. After taking the limousine bus (just a normal coach) into the city and a short walk to our hotel, we were ready for a nap. However our room was not ready yet so we had to kill a couple hours. There was a McDonald's next door. After four and a half months of staying strong against McDonald's, the temptation was too much and the sausage egg McMuffin was just so good. With McDonald's fueling our exploration, we set off on a brief walk around our neighborhood to get familiar and kill a few hours. 

Seoul is an interesting mix of traditional and modern. They had the ability to modernize after the Korean war and took full advantage of it. The major streets were wide and could handle the traffic generated by a city of eleven million. The skyscrapers were also set back to create wide sidewalks to give a very open feel to the city. Nature was integrated very well with large trees providing shade as well as quite a few parks where the old men of Seoul like to hang out. After a couple hours we were able to sneak in a quick nap before our walking tour of the neighborhood. 

Various shots from wandering around the Insadong neighborhood

 The city of Seoul offers quite a few free walking tours of various areas so we signed up for one in the Insadong area. We met our guide, Mr. Park, and found out no one else signed up so we ended up with a free private tour! He was very helpful in explaining the history of Korea, which neither of us really knew much of. Most of the tour covered the area we had walked in the morning but came with much more context. We traveled Insadong road, which is a lively shopping area (a theme of Seoul), but was much quieter when we had walked it in the morning. We stopped in some shops that had been around for 100 years and ended our tour at a local Buddhist temple that was being decorated for the Buddha's birthday. The grounds were adorned with all sorts of colored lanterns arranged in special patterns that were individually sponsored with a note attached to each lantern. 

Colorful lanterns prepare for Buddha's birthday

Afterwards, we walked down to see city hall and the south gate. City hall is a large, modern building constructed next to the old city hall which is now a library. The new building has a large glass exterior with a living wall inside. Ivy covers the indoor structure and rises a few stories high and is still growing. The south gate is a restoration of one of the actual old city gates. In it's day, I'm sure it was quite intimidating to visitors but now it's dwarfed by the surrounding office buildings. It's just another mix of the old and new that makes Seoul such an interesting city.

Old Seoul city hall with the new, modern one behind it

Living wall inside Seoul city hall

The imposing south gate to the old city dwarfed by modern buildings

After a short break, we headed out to dinner. Our search for Korean BBQ led us down a side alley, covered with signs we couldn't read. We only found the place after seeing a picture of the door on the trip advisor page. Once inside we knew we were in the right spot as we were the only tourists inside. The meat was delicious, the sides were great and they had many varieties of lettuce for wrapping. The rice was also cooked inside bamboo. It was a delicious meal to serve as Jess' introduction to Korean BBQ. We left stuffed and stopped back at the temple to see the lanterns at night before calling it an evening.

Our first Korean BBQ. It was delicious!

Buddha's birthday lanterns lit up at night

Day two was a bit of a later start compared to the previous day. After a pastry breakfast, we set off to explore Geongbokgung palace. This is one of five palaces in the city that served the Jeosong dynasty. The grounds were very beautiful and offers an escape from the modern city. We were able to see what a traditional village would look like as well as a glimpse of ancient life at the folk museum. We also stopped to watch a rehearsal of a group playing traditional Korean instruments which was entering, especially when they started playing "Fly me to the Moon". The best part of the visit was watching all the young people running around in hanbok. Hanbok is traditional Korean dress. There were stores all throughout the Insadong neighborhood where anyone could rent the outfits. As we found out later, admission to the palace was free if you were dressed in hanbok. 

Even the coffee cups have character

Geongbokgung palace and folk museum

Hanbok was everywhere. The guards had glued on facial hair!

After a morning of history, it was time for an afternoon of shopping. We had our first metro experience as we traveled to Myeongdong. The highlight was the announcement of arriving trains. A trumpeting sound, similar to a royal entrance from a medieval themed movie, was played to let you know the train was pulling into the station. Myeongdong is a huge shopping neighborhood with tons of shops in a pedestrian area with restaurants on the upper floors. On the main street, food vendors would set up their carts for the evening crowd. Our lunch was a BBQ chicken and cheese toppoki. BBQ chicken was tossed with noodles, cheese and other veg and cooked in a broth at our table. As well as all the shops, we also checked out a department store. Lotte department store was enormous with an amazing food court that was packed. They had half a floor dedicated just to golf apparel. After walking around all the shopping and not buying anything, we needed some ice cream! Jess opted for the vanilla ice cream in the carp shaped cube topped with honeycomb while I opted for a strawberry and mango soft served 32cm high! After our ice cream we started the walk back to the hotel. There was a small bar district south of our place so we stopped in for a drink at a bar overlooking the busy street below. It was another busy, enjoyable day.

An exciting afternoon in Myeongdong

Day three brought more entertainment. After a breakfast at Tom 'n Tom's coffee, we set out to walk down to Namdaemun market. On the way, we happened to catch the changing of the guard at Deoksugung palace. It was quite an affair with brightly colored traditional dress and a large drum that was right by us. After they had finished their performance, the public was allowed to get pictures with the guards and performers. 

Changing of the guard ceremony

Beating the drum. It was quite loud to stand next to

Post drum banging photo op!

Namdaemun market is a bustling market that ended up being right by the south gate from our day one exploration. This was a bit more traditional market with small stalls and stores lining the street. They sold a bit of everything and had streets whole streets for watches and jewelry, stationary and children's just to name a few. There was also a fish street and food street with a few restaurants populated with all walks of life.
  

Sights, sounds, and smells of Namdaemun market

After exploring the market, we took the metro over to the Hongdae area. This is the area surrounding Hongik University, so it's very popular with students. Just getting up to the street level, you could feel the youthful energy of the area. We had lunch at BHC, which was a chicken and beer place. Both were good and the beer was easy as instead of ordering with the bar or server, you helped yourself and put the empties in a basket which you paid for at the end. After walking around for a bit through even more shops and markets, we stumbled across an arcade. I couldn't ignore this so we stepped inside. While the first floor contained only the claw machines containing stuffed animals, the upper levels provided much more entertainment. The second floor contained the usual entertainments like air hockey and basketball. Our competitive spirit took over though I managed to prevail in both air hockey and basketball (a one point victory). I celebrated my victory by watching people play dance dance revolution. As expected, it was a sight to behold. All three machines were in use and feet were flying everywhere! One guy even brought his own towel to wipe away his sweat in between songs! Neither of us had the courage to give it a go, but I did attempt a drum game, much to Jess's amusement (there were many blurry action shots!) I also gave a fishing game a good effort but couldn't land the big one. We finished off with a game of darts before heading back. On our way to the station, we popped into a cafe with a large bookshelf that claimed to hold over 5000 books, but its popularity meant no tables were available. From there we went back to our hotel to rest up to meet our guests!

A fun afternoon in Hongdae!

To be continued...

You can do it when you Kathman-du it!

Before and after both our treks we spent a few days in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Kathmandu is a sprawling, busy city which is still recovering from the 2015 earthquake. People, cows, cars, motorbikes, rickshaws, buses and micro buses fill the roads and fly by with lots of horns honking. STOP PRESS!!! Since writing this line we have discovered that a new law came in at the start of the Nepali new year and it is now illegal to honk horns unless it is "necessary" and not as a general form of communication and unnecessary honking now leads to a fine of 500 Rupees. It seems to be working as the roads are much quieter, but they also seem to have lost some of their character. When it comes to crossing the road you either have to look for a big gap or wait until the traffic comes to a standstill. There are lots of traffic police at all the major junctions desperately trying to keep the traffic flowing. 

A quiet traffic day

For each of our stays we were in Thamel, the uber touristy area, but in small hotels in the backstreets which provided some peace and quiet from the hustle and bustle. There are many tourists in this area and they generally here for hiking, yoga or the relaxed basic lifestyle (or a combination of all of these).

Our hotel was a former temple house

Our first day in Kathmandu was spent trying to decide whether we needed any extra equipment for our Everest Trek. Thamel is full of outdoor shops but the challenge is deciding whether the shops are legitimate branded stores (generally fixed price) or just cheap replicas which could be bargained for. Some items were easy to spot, others were not so easy. We purchased a couple of items and we are still not certain whether they were legitimate! Since then we have given the shops a wide berth. 

Shopping in Kathmandu - most prices are negotiable!

Other days were spent catching up on the blog, having a massage, doing some yoga lessons, tea tasting, a free walking tour and enjoying the tranquility of the Garden of Dreams.

Kathmandu temples and sights

the Garden of Dreams - a good spot for Nepalis to take a date

At weekends people queue down the street to get into this peaceful oasis.

The free walking tour took us through the windy, chaotic roads of the main shopping area, past a number of temples and stupas, across Durbar Square which is in front of the old Royal Palace and surrounded by temples, through a residential area and up to the Monkey Temple with views over Kathmandu (when it isn't cloudy). All the time we were dodging people, traffic and animals.

Monkey temple

Stupa at the bottom of monkey temple

A hazy view of Kathmandu

I was keen to do some yoga between our two treks to stretch out our aching muscles. There are lots of yoga studios in Kathmandu, but I thought it would be helpful for Nick, who was new to yoga, to have a private lesson or two to get him started. We arranged lessons with Lisa at Pranamaya in their Thamel and Patan studios. Heading out to Patan encouraged us to explore a different part of the city. It was an area popular with ex pats and filled with cafes. We found a German bakery that had delicious cinnamon swirls. Lisa was a great teacher and had planned our lessons to deal with typical hiker tight muscles. Nick was impressed by how deep the poses make you stretch and how much you can sweat! After the noise and chaos of the city the yoga studio provided a welcome quiet and cool retreat. 

If you are travelling  to Kathmandu, I recommend  this yoga studio

The Patan Studio in a peaceful courtyard with other interesting business

The massage was at "Seeing Hands" where masseuses are all blind. My masseuse was quite petite and had super strong thumbs which found knots in my back that I didn't know I had! 

In between all of this we sampled several restaurants including Frens Kitchen, Momo Hut for steamed dumplings (my favourites were the spinach and paneer followed by the chocolate ones) and the Kathmandu Steak House for some Australian steak. One of our favourite restaurants was Western Tandoori & Naan for Dal Bhat which came with free refills and delicious fresh naan cooked to order in a tandoor oven at the entrance to the tiny restaurant (it had space for just 20 people) - all of this for two cost about $5. A post hike treat was a delicious pizza and beer at Fire and Ice, but we could have been in Europe or the US with the number of post hike tourists in there. 

Just round the corner from our hotel was a tea shop that sold loose Nepali grown tea and offered tea tastings to encourage you to buy more! We made a couple of visits and particularly enjoyed the Nepali Oolong and the Golden Tips tea which had quite a different taste.

Momos, local beer, dal bhat and tea tasting

On our last night in Kathmandu, we were treated to a cultural evening by Rup at Bhojan Griha, a former royal residence which now has a number of rooms where tourists (and locals, including dignitaries, we were assured) attend on a nightly basis to sit on the floor at Nepali tables and eat traditional food whilst watching traditional dancing from different parts of Nepal. Some of you might roll your eyes at this type of evening but we concluded it was a great way to end our time in Nepal and the food (popcorn, curried potatoes, chicken momos, dahl bat with chicken curried and fried fish - a real highlight, yogurt and fruit with sweet milk tea) was delicious and gave us a final taste of our favourite Nepali flavours. 

Our final evening

Kathmandu is a great place to use as a base for any trip to Nepal. Even though it is a hectic city it is always possible to find a quite space to relax and escape from the chaos. In many ways Kathmandu reminds me of Indian cities, but is friendlier and easier to navigate. After three different visits over the course of a month I felt sad to leave behind Kathmandu and its friendly inhabitants.

- Jess

Now we know our ABC?

After some rest and relaxation in Kathmandu (a post about our different to Kathmandu will follow!), we were back on the hiking trail. This time we were off to the Annapurna region to hike to Annapurna base camp. We took a short flight to Pokhara (involving a larger plane than our last flight and no challenging runway).

Pokhara airport

The Annapurna region has many different trails, the highlight of which is Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). At the lower elevations, there are many different villages and trails to create multiples paths towards ABC. Once at Chhomrong, the trails converge and there is only one way up!

Hiking trails are marked in yellow

To get to Chhomrong, we took the typical approach of people that have some time! We drove out of Pokhara and after about 90 minutes, we reached our trailhead. Our first major destination was Ghorepani and Poon Hill. It is one of the taller regions in the area so it afforded great views of the multiple Annapurna peaks (there are 5, I, II, III, IV, and south) as well as Machhupuchre (also known as fishtail) and Dhaulagiri.
This stretch of trail was one constant incline, accomplished mainly by steps. Our visit to Poon Hill was an early morning visit to watch the sun rise over Annapurna. the weather cooperated and we had some amazing mountain views! 

Lush green views from the start of the trail

Early morning views from the top of Poon Hill

As you can see we were not the only ones who got up early

After Ghorepani, we made our way to Chhomrong, via Gandruk. It was an up and down affair with many steps. On the trail outside of Ghorepani, we were once again treated to great views of the Annapurna range. Once in Gandruk, we were able to visit the Annapurna region museum as well as the Gurung culture museum. The Gurung people are the natives of the region and produced the famous fighting regiments known as the Gurkhas. 

View of Fishtail through the bamboo

Unexpected sunrise view of Fishtail on an early morning bathroom visit

Looking down over Old Gandruk

Once we reached Chhomrong, we hit a snag that would change our trek. Like EBC, our accommodations are typically booked a day or so in advance as there is enough for everyone. However our timing with ABC was not to be. It was holiday time for Nepal as well as most European school systems. the trail was essentially overused. When we reached Bamboo (the first stop after Chhomrong headed towards ABC), we supposedly had a room but the innkeeper said otherwise. Because there were less accommodations the higher you went and we didn't want to run into that issue again, we called an audible with our guide and just decided to keep hiking around the region and not worry about base camp.

Rup did a great job of adapting. Once hikers had come down from ABC back to Chhomrong, they typically take 2 days to get to a place where they can transit back to Pokhara. We extended that to four days and ended up walking right into Pokhara.  Our first stop on our new way down was Jindha. This village is home to some hot springs that sit right along the river. We spent the afternoon at the springs treating our legs that had become sore from all the steps! Our timing couldn't have been better as we had about 15 minutes to ourselves before the crowd started showing up. When we left, both pools were full and we passed a large group on their way down! From there we headed off to Landruk for an evening before blazing our new trail. 

The view behind us as we walked out of the valley

The sign writer had a good sense of humour!

Our new trail took us over another ridge and down to the village known as the Australian camp, even though no Aussies lived there anymore. From there it was down into the outskirts of Pokhara. Our trail became less woods and more urban. We started walking through more villages and dealing with roads and cars. Our final stop was Sarangkop, which sat on a hill overlooking Pokhara. It is a popular destination for Nepalis to vacation as well as for paragliding. It is currently undergoing a building boom with new guesthouses going up as well as a large hotel that has been under construction for five years! Our final morning we awoke and wound our way down the path that dumped us out right on the lake in Pokhara. We caught a small cab for four people and 5 bags and somehow all fit to make it to our destination. All in all, we arrived in Pokhara one day earlier than our initial itinerary. 

Sarangkop - where we celebrated our last night of hiking under an orange moon

Hiking down into Pokhara

How many people and bags did we fit into this taxis?

Overall, this was a completely different hike than EBC though I definitely found myself too often comparing it to EBC, which was just an epic trek and tough to live up to. 

We certainly encountered the same cast of characters. We shared the trail with cows and mule trains as well as porters, though the loads were much more manageable and appropriately sized than with EBC. Our porter was Dipen. He was a family friend of Rup. He was training with Rup to work on getting his guide license so we saw him much more than our EBC porter. He was also good at cards so it was tough for either of us to pull out a victory in crazy eights! this region also saw quite a bit more of both female guides and porters. This is much more common among the Gurung people. 

Some of the nature encountered along the way

One of the more interesting loads we encountered being carried up the mountain

Accommodations were similar. It was a bit easier to find a hot shower and western toilet much to our benefit. The food was tasty as well, though here it was a bit easier to eat meat. We tried the local favorite of roast chicken in a cast iron skillet doused with alcohol and set ablaze. Once you got past the taste of alcohol, the chicken was quite good! We also frequently found ourselves eating more and more dal bhat. It was once again the staple of our hiking diet.

Some of our accommodations

House specialty was flambeed chicken

One of our favourite plates of  dal bhat

The scenery and weather were also something completely different. The nice part for us is that with the lower elevation for where we hiked, it was sunny most every day, allowing us to hike in shorts most of the time (only up at ABC was there good snow). Then late in the afternoon, clouds would roll in. The first for days, it hailed every day in the late afternoon/early evening time frame. We even had a time where there was a double rainbow and hail at the same time!

Sun, rain, hail and a rainbow

Dramatic rain  and hail clouds parting to reveal a view of the mountains

This landscape was also very lush and green. All the valleys we walked through have rivers fed by the snow melt from the mountains meaning plenty of waterfalls to see. This also made farming a huge part of the local economy and way of life. However with the steepness of the terrain, all of the farms were very heavily terraced to maximize farm land.

Lush green trails

One of many waterfalls

terraced fields

Annapurna South dominated the landscape. Even walking out of the valley, you always knew where it was at just by turning around. Even walking towards Sarangkop, you could catch glimpses of the mountain through the smog. At some points, Annapurna South looked like it was a cloud itself.

Nighttime view from our room looking up he valley

One big thing missing from this hike that really made the EBC hike stand out was the spirituality of that trek. That was really missing on this hike. The only real bit of it we saw was a small part by one of the streams where a bunch of prayer flags and cairns were set up. 

Annapurna was a nice region to trek and was completely different from EBC. If anyone has altitude concerns, it's a great region to go hiking in because of how much flexibility it has in its route planning. My only warning is that I hope you like steps, because there are a lot. It's a constant up and down as you cross between valleys and hills. I didn't find the quality of hiking that great because of all the steps. the scenery was beautiful enough that switchbacks wouldn't feel bad but all the steps really took away from enjoying your surroundings. If sore knees and legs are OK, then there is a great place to rest them when you are finished in Pokhara!

Just a few of the many steps we climbed

We used our time in Pokhara for some more rest and relaxation. This r&r time also called for another massage from the folks at Seeing Hands (see our Kathmandu post for our first visit). We arrived into the city the day before Nepali New Year's Eve. As a result all of the hotels were very busy and we spent our extra night in a "simple hotel". All was fine until everyone in the hotel decided to get up at 5am and congregate outside our room!

Pokhara is a tourist destination for Nepali and foreigners alike. The town is situated on a lake and, when there is no haze, has beautiful views of the Annapurna mountain range. It also has many hotels, shops and restaurants to meet the tourist demands. Several of the restaurants we had seen in Kathmandu had second restaurants in Pokhara. We sampled a number of the restaurants, using Tripadvisor to highlight the favourites of previous tourists. We really enjoyed Rosemary's Kitchen, which had delicious food in a very nice outdoor setting. We also spent a relaxing late afternoon and early evening in OR2K sitting on cushions at a low table, eating a selection of middle eastern dips and bread and playing scrabble as we watched a storm rolled in over the lake.

The sun setting on 2073

A highlight of our time was the trip to the Movie Garden. Built into the side of the hill with a variety of seating options, it offered amazing views of the lake and sunset before the movie even started. It had a full bar, free popcorn if you checked in on Facebook and you could order pizza from one of the popular pizza restaurants in town to eat by candlelight. It was a great way to kick off our new year's eve as we watched Seven Years in Tibet (although Brad Pitt's Austrian accent was terrible).

Movie garden

Our seat for the movie among the rockery

While this was a popular tourist destination, you never forgot you were in Nepal. Traffic would still grind to a halt as a cow would just sit down on the middle of the road. They also enjoyed grazing by the lake and especially enjoyed sneaking up on people's picnics on new years eve!

The new year's celebration brought a very lively atmosphere to Pokhara. There was a large fair set up in the park across the street from our hotel, where we could hear the screams of people as the were enjoying riding the rides. It also meant constant music throughout the day. After the movie, we stopped by one of the many lakeside cafes for a drink and to take in the celebration. There were at least three different stages within earshot playing all kinds of different music, from traditional to western. As we walked back to our hotel, the streets were packed full of scooters and motorbikes as people were filling up all of the bars and dance clubs. Midnight was marked by a few large fireworks but nothing like you'd get in the UK or US. Amusingly enough, within three songs from midnight, the fair had shut down and all was quiet.

- Jess & Nick