We arrived in to Kathmandu after a very long flight from Rome. We were unsure of the weather to expect on arrival, but luckily it was a very pleasant 25degrees, with a nice breeze! (we had heard rumours it would be freezing!!) On our first evening we checked into our hostel - Alobar1000, and had an explore of the local Thamal area in Kathmandu where we were staying. Lots of stalls and restaurants packed on both sides of the streets, also particulary dusty! We found out that Kathmandu is the 2nd most polluted city in the world - BUT despite this it does have a lot to offer. We were pretty jetlagged so we had a quick supper of Tee Momo - a traditional Nepalese dish of filled dumpling.

The next day we went to properly explore Kathmandu, we headed for the Durbar Square, which was filled with a range of temples, all different in size and decoration. It was nice to get out of the very touristy Thamal area and discover the more local streets, we found lots of narrow alleyways with plenty of market stalls - our favourite thing! We also attempted to become accustomed to the roads, or more precisely accustomed to how to cross the road, which is generally a dive in and hope you get to the other side process.

That evening we went with a group of about 9 other travellers from our hostel to find an authentic naraw (one of the first settler groups in Kathmandu) restaurant, which our new friend Meetal Ghandi (the best name) had come accross in the day after bumping into the owner. When we arrived at the supposed place, there didnt seem to be any sign of a restaurant, just a long very very dark alleyway... we wondered down, stubbing our toes on drain covers and holes on the way. At the end was a small candleit room, with a few people sitting around on cushions - which we were all equally amazed and relieved by! The owners were very friendly and before long we were tucking into some tasty rice wine and mystery dishes which we had to taste before being told what they were. This resulted in us eating Buffalow intestine, stomach, bone marrow, brain and tongue... the bone marrow and tongue were favourite all round, whilst brain was , well just a bit too squishy! Certainly not what we had expected to be eating only on our 2nd night in Nepal!

The following day (Saturday) we went with a few other from the hostel to the huge buddist temple in Bauda, we stayed there for sunset which was pretty atmospheric, with lots of people praying and meditating. You can only walk round the temple in a cockwise direction, which had its pros and cons.. it was very hard to find each other if we seperated as we all kept literally walking round in circles.

We left Kathmandu on Sunday and took a 7 hour bus ride to Pokhara which is situated right along the huge phewa lake. It is nice to be out of the Kathmandu smog and we are enjoying the more relaxed atmosphere! Tomorrow we hope to do a five/six day trek from here into the Annapurna region, up into the hills!

Kat x