Kathmandu

The plan for this, my second visit to Kathmandu was to explore the town a bit more than I did 10 years ago (last time we didn't have a Nepal guidebook, just one focused on trekking).

I also really liked the idea of cycling to Daman, which is supposed to have one of the very best viewpoints in all of Nepal. But it's also supposed to be one of the toughest, most gruelling bike rides in the country, and obviously being Nepal, that's saying something. I really fancied the challenge, although of course Sarah was nervous about it. I thought we could just give it a go, and if it turned out to be too much we could just turn back or stay in the nearest guesthouse. I really thought Sarah'd be able for it, as she's been really strong on the hikes, and we've cycled some tough roads on this trip already (riding up mountains is far more mental than physical anyway - it's really all about finding a steady rhythm, and simple self-belief of course).

Anyway, I finally decided against it, as Sarah was too worried and it would have been pretty hard on an unfamiliar bike. Still, if she had done it she would have been really impressed by what she's capable of, but it'll just have to wait until next time (I reckon when I come here again I'll hire a decent bike for a week, get used to it by riding around the Kathmandu valley first, and then tackle Daman once I've 'broken-in' the bike).

So instead we walked the 3 walking tours in our guidebook, which was a lovely way to spend the day. We also popped into the Snowman Cafe, a place famous for it's cakes. I went here 10 years ago too, but don't remember being overly impressed with it. It's just a simply little cafe, but I thought I'd give it another go. This time I was completely blown away by their chocolate cake - definitely the best cake since Brazil, and we went back there 3 more times for more of the same.

We only hired a bike for 1 day to ride to Patan, which is just a few kilometres from Thamel, where we were staying. It was a great day, and having the bikes gave us the freedom to check out buses to our next destination, and head back to a cheap internet place we'd found a couple of days before. Patan was very impressive I must say, and the museum there was interesting (although I certainly wouldn't class it as one of the best on the entire sub-continent like the Lonely Planet claims).

Another place I really wanted to go back to was a fantastic Indian restaurant attached to one of Kathmandu's fancy hotels - Ghar-e-kabab (which sounds like a really bad name for a Bollywood actor), which is in the L'Annapurna Hotel. I'd gone here loads of times with Hanno and Ray last time, and was keen to try it again. When I checked it out, it turned out the whole hotel has been remodelled, and the restaurant has moved buildings. But it was a really fantastic meal, one of the highlights of the trip, even better than I remember from years ago. I think we were lucky to have a good number of other people in the restaurant, which gave the place a nice ambiance, and they had really great unintrusive live music from a 4-piece traditional Indian band.

After such a great meal at Ghar-e-kabab, I decided to really treat ourselves with dinner at Nepal's best restaurant, the Chimney in the famous Yak and Yeti Hotel. The menu here was continental, with lobster and Chateaubriand steak being the obvious choices for me. This time however, it turned out to be probably the biggest disappointment of the whole trip. The restaurant was almost completely empty, and the food was terribly bland - the lobster was tough, and the steak quite tasteless (we ordered a bottle of French Merlot though, and that was the best part of the whole meal). It all cost literally 3 times what the fabulous Ghar-e-kabab cost (6000 rupee as opposed to 2000), but what made the whole thing really disappointing was that I woke up at 3am that morning feeling decidedly ill. 10 minutes later I was throwing the whole lot up into the toilet. Incredible to think that the only 2 times on this trip that I've had any kind of illness at all have both been caused by fancy-dancy restaurants.

Anyway, again I was really lucky, as after throwing up I felt much better, and the next day I felt OK, but just a little 'stomachey'. We decided to stay an extra day in Kathmandu so I could rest and recover (we had booked a bus to Janakpur for 6pm that evening), and by the next morning I was feeling 100% again.

So with another full day in Kathmandu, we got up early, strolled down to Durbar Square (and the Snowman again for one last chocolate cake), used the internet and then just strolled around the lovely old town.

It's been nice to re-visit Kathmandu again. It actually seems less polluted than last time, and the traffic seems less chaotic (although maybe I'm just more de-sensitised to crazy traffic these days). The shop sellers also seems less 'hassley' than I remember, something I noticed in Pokara too. And thankfully the Ghar-e-kabab restaurant is still a knock-out.

So now we head back towards India, breaking up the journey by stopping off in the pilgrimage town of Janakpur, an 11-hour overnight bus journey.