In our case, “other stuff” essentially means Kathmandu, to prepare for our Gokyo Lakes trek and again afterward to soak up the heat and food binge, and Bhaktapur, to unwind for a day or two before our flight out of the country. This has been our pattern since the beginning and we’ve seen little cause to deviate. Kathmandu First off, even though Kathmandu is very famous and sounds really exotic and everything, make no mistake, it’s a pretty rough place. The air pollution is horrendous, and it gets worse every time we return. Traffic is absurd to the point that the 15 km journey out to Bhaktapur – basically a suburb – takes around an hour. Everything in Kathmandu feels chaotic, dirty and loud. There is also a ton of history, vivid crowds and fascinating street life. And way, way too many smells. However, what Kathmandu does really well, and…

Tibetan Layover Marred By Girl’s Inconvenient Collapse A couple travelling from Chengdu, China to Kathmandu, Nepal were surprised to learn they would actually be exiting the plane in Lhasa, Tibet (China), giving them a brief opportunity to set foot on Tibetan soil, or at least some Tibetan all-purpose tile and a few Tibetan decorative carpets. Their overall enjoyment of this unexpected treat was soon derailed, however, when they encountered a Chinese girl standing in the passageway just outside the door of the plane. According to the husband, Dean Johnston, he first noticed her because she was leaning her head against the window, looking “kind of weird”, and he found himself very curious to know what it was she was looking at so intently. As he moved toward her, however, suddenly her suitcase toppled over, surprising him, then immediately she began to collapse toward the floor. Instinctively he caught her and…

Knowing we would be pretty low in the energy department following our big mountain hike we had made little to no plans for our last week in Nepal aside from maybe visiting a couple lakes (Rupa Tal and Begnas Tal) and, of course, eating copious amounts of home-type foods (lasagna, steak, pizza, ice cream) and sitting around as motionless as possible commenting every now and then how nice it is to be warm, and burping. Pokhara, I’ll have you know, is quite an excellent place to accomplish both of these goals. It also just so happened that we made our grand return to civilization on Nepali New Year’s Eve – leaving us with really no choice but to drink a few too many beers with the British guys we met on the trek, not that we made it to midnight or anything, although that actually made it feel even a…