Day 01 – Today we say goodbye to our Nepali family and go to the mountains.
On our way to the bus stop, we stop at a rice paper post cards shop to buy beautiful postcards (we had promised the shop keeper we’d come back). We still haven’t posted the one from Dubaï but we will post them (eventually) before we get back to France… Côme rings a few more bells along the way and we reach the bus stop. We hop on the bus and then the bus ride is an adventure on its own. The bus is fully decorated, the driver has no shoes, techno music is blasting, there are people everywhere and whenever you think the bus is full, it stops on the way to pick up even more passengers. In the bus, a nice girl gives Côme hard candies so Côme gives her a banana. Côme is the only one to eat the candy on the bus and tells Julia: “Mom! It’s really disgusting…”. “Just keep it a while longer” she urges him to. After a short while, he spits it out discreetly. Julia and Doo will try these candies later on and honestly, they don’t know how Côme could keep it in his mouth that long. The candies are spicey and indeed disgusting. They’ve kept it not even a full second in their mouth…
When we reach Nagarkot, the climate has changed. It’s more humid and colder. We put our stuff in our new home and we decide to go hiking in the mountains. We want to have a good look at the Himalayas and Mount Everest. We find a nice trail in the forest, discover new species of grasshoppers, spiders, mushrooms and other bugs we can’t name and… leeches… This time around Doo is spared but Julia and Côme have at least 10 leeches on each feet. They actually resemble tiny worms… Doo tries to make jokes about them but Julia and Côme are not comfortable with the tiny parasites. So we try to avoid stepping in the mud (which is quite impossible in this forest). And then, our next encounter is the scariest one yet… mosquitoes… They don’t mind us when we walk, but as soon as we stop to get rid of the leeches, they swarm to bite us… So, we’re left with a choice: leeches or mosquitoes…
When we finally exit the forest, we’re back on the road, atop a mountain. We are surprised to find a snack bar there. We’re in the middle of nowhere. There are no habitations for at least a couple of miles. So we decide to take a break. The two leeched ones take a coke to get some well deserved comfort and we continue our hike on the road. “No more forest” says Côme “leeches are the worst worms I’ve ever seen.” And then, all of the sudden, it starts to pour. We are drenched in 1 minute! Today we won’t see Mount Everest nor anything for that matter. There are only grey clouds around us. We just go home, try to dry up (it will take days for our clothes). Tonight, we stay home with a few leeches that came with us. Doo will just go to a nice restaurant to get us food.
Day 02 – Today, we’re going on another hike. But this time around, we stay on the road and dirt paths. It’s much better, we manage to avoid leeches and mosquitoes. And we are much luckier with the weather. We can finally have a nice view of the surroundings. Still no mountains though, but it’s beautiful nonetheless. On our way, we see gigantic ferns, beautiful butterflies, strange looking swiming bugs, walking trees (there are actually women carrying enormous stacks of grass)… Côme even tells us “look! we’re so high we can touch electric wires!” In the evening, we reach a magnificent viewpoint where we can finally see the snowy mountains. We are not able to see Mount Everest, but we have a good look at Mount Ganesh, Shiva’s son. We are really happy to see the Himalayas!
These couple of days, Côme:
Did not understand: why leeches were living in muddy waters.
Learnt: that leeches were small and thin but created big wounds.
Laughed: when mom yelled because of a leech on her shoe.
Julia:
Did not understand: why leeches existed.
Learnt: what was mountain sickness (she had a very painful headache on the first night).
Liked: to see snowy mountains and the atmosphere of the restaurant on our last night.
Doo:
Did not understand: how could there be a snack bar in the middle of nowhere.
Learnt: that Nepali cicadas made a horrible noise.
Liked: walking in the forest and discovering new species.