The best way to experience the Kathmandu Valley scenery is to go on a motorbike as you will pass by a breathtakingly beautiful landscape! What a refreshingly cold ride it was! Hehehe my ears have frozen over, I think.
At around 2pm, we left Bhaktapur and headed off towards Nagarkot, this time Sam (a friend of Alex) came with us. They are childhood buddies and they both went together in KTM for their university studies.
Being a LP junkie that I am, I went looking for the highly-recommended “Hotel at the End of the Universe”. Tongue-in-cheek humor eh? Lol
The hotel restaurant's decor is so cozy and reminds me of my time in Baguio.
The town of Nagarkot has a 2175m elevation and aside from the landscape, there is not much cultural or historical that might entice one to stay longer. We went over to the lookout tower which offers the perfect viewing point to see the Himalayas but the clouds partially covered the mountains so you can only see the tips of the snow-capped Langtang Himalayan range.
When I came back to the hotel, the sun was starting to set in (sunset was exactly 4:45-5pm) and it was nice sitting out in the garden, having a pot of jasmine tea and chatting to my roommate, Marianne, swapping stories about Vietnam --- it was a nightmarish trip for her, if what happened to her had ever happened to me I’d be totally freaked out and might not travel ever again! It’s that crazy!
When dusk had set in, and so did the biting-cold temperature. Its soooo cold……I felt as if I’m going to have frostbites in my fingers and toes! I had to stay inside the comfort of the restaurant coz the cold is really unbelievable! Good thing I did not go for the trek anywhere or else I’d be the first casualty of frostbite in a very mild trek of 2-3 days!
Unless our room has a heater inside which I have not seen yet, I don’t know how I’m going to sleep comfortably tonight!
Life stops early here in the Valley. I am already thinking of sleeping at barely 8pm! Oh well, this is a holiday for me anyways! Hahahaha
Watching the Sunrise over the Himalayas
I’ve never been this excited to wake up and wait for morning to come…… After going to the freezing cottage at 8pm, and putting on nth number of layers of clothing --- no more teeth brushing, face wash --- basta gusto ko lang na magtago na sa loob ng duvets! I did not sleep for the first 2 hours, and I think nakatulog lang ako coz of the lack of movement, I was going numb from coldness.
We had to wake up for a sunrise trip to the lookout tower and meeting time is at 6am! As in, pag toothbrush ko I felt as if all my teeth will fall out of my mouth coz it just went numb….promise, it’s really worse than the iced water that have at home from the fridge! There was another father-daughter duo with us for this trip, just to split up the cost of 1200NPR for the entire trip.
The Langtang Himalayan range was shrouded so we waited up for sunrise while shivering in my trench coat!
I saw some soldiers practicing some firing in the nearby area and I was so tempted to go over and have my photo taken with them! I want to be up close and personal with the Gurkhas!!!…..hahay buhay to be so close to a live and practicing Gurkha is a dream come true although how they can still function in this cold is beyond me!
The colors of the Himalayan sunrise more than made up for the lack of view (I wanted to have a glimpse of Mt. Everest even if it’s merely a dot in the distance!).
Anyways, the snow frost all over the place has really wrecked havoc to my mental state……as in mas lalo akong nilamig when I saw it! After almost an hour of waiting up, we gave up. No point in staying there being cold when a pot of Jasmine tea is waiting for me at the hotel café, steaming hot!
Need to pack up for our hike to Changu Narayan.....
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