Pizza in Kathmandu

So we were on the mountain, at 17,000 feet and we were eating rice and vegetables every day. Don’t get me wrong, I like rice and vegetables, but there is just something about the times when you don’t have a choice that you REALLY want something else. So, we were craving pizza. A good one with a thin crust and just enough cheese but not so much that the pizza is greasy. As we were sitting around reminiscing about the “perfect” pizza and complaining because probably the next time we would have one was when we were back to the States, a friend interrupted us and told us that there were a few good pizza places in Kathmandu. We were intrigued.

Once we got back to Kathmandu, we decided to try all the suggestions and more. What we found is that there is not only good pizza in Kathmandu but there is also good Italian, Thai, French, Chinese, Nepali, Indian, Steak, and even a not too bad place to get Nachos. So what have we been doing for the past few days? You guessed it, Eating,

We eat out a lot. In Nepal, it is actually cheaper to eat out than to try to make your own food. Besides, none of the hotels have kitchens. You can get a good meal for anywhere from two to five dollars. Of course, if you want to splurge, you can spend ten dollars or more.

Here are our top three favorite pizza places.

1. Roadhouse Café
2. Fire and Ice
3. La Dolce Vita

For breakfast we found a “German” bakery, which makes cinnamon rolls and even croissants, which are not as flakey as a real French one, but are a darn good substitute, since we are not in France. They even have filter coffee. We even found a place that has free refills (this is very hard to come by!) We are in heaven. I mean, in Italy, you buy a cappuccino and it is 3 euros and it is the size of a thimble. I could drink about 10 of them.

So, although I would not have guessed it, in Nepal you can get pretty good food, and darn good pizza!

10 Reasons Why Nepal is Better Than India

 A guest blog by Mr. Lovely.

I know that millions of people a year visit India and have an incredible time. I have read and heard about many great travels thru the sub-continent that describe the wonder of this exotic locale. India is a place of incredible culture and history and quite unique in the world. However, after suffering through more than the standard amount of travel woes in India I began to question if the sites are worth the hassle. These hassles were further illustrated once we entered Nepal. A place with similar culture, history, landscape and people, only fewer hassles. Of course, I am well aware that India does have more to offer than Nepal (seaside beaches for one), but there are a few reasons why I think Nepal is a better choice for your travel:

1.  No cows in the street.
 At first these traffic clogging bovines do have some charm. You don’t get to see cows roaming freely as you walk around New York City, and it makes for a good photo op. But after a few days of dodging cows (some which attack you), being stuck in cow traffic jams and stepping around piles of cow @&#!, cow free Nepal is a joy.

2. Working sewerage systems
There are of course many infrastructure issues in developing countries. After visiting poor countries in South America, Africa and Asia I find the sanitation in India to be the worst. Open sewers and raw sewerage running down the street is sub-standard for virtually any country, for a place like India with such a fast growing economy and no shortage of labor force, this is inexcusable. Nepal, India’s poorer little brother to the east is not perfect, but it is obvious that the people expect better.

3. Smells
As you can imagine, open sewers and people who performing all manners of bodily functions on street corners in the open gives India a certain essence which is inescapable.  Literally from the time you get off the plane until the time you leave, thru out the wide swath of India we visited, coastal, desert, urban and rural. The stench was there.

4. No Pushy Touts
In India everyone seems like they are only after your money. In Nepal they are as well but you don’t feel like you are being cheated.

5. Food Quality
In India many places are dirty, empty and you fear food poisoning. In Nepal, you can get pizzas, Chinese, Mexican or whatever you want, and the restaurants are clean. You can even eat salad (which is called “hygienic salad”).

6. Cost
You can get cheap food in India, but you may get diarrhea. For good food, or a semi nice room, Nepal is just cheaper.

7. Hotel Quality
As stated above, you can get a nice room in Nepal for a pretty good price. In India, you can get a pretty good price, but you may also compete with rats, roaches, mold, dysfunctional toilets and dirt.

8. Beggars
In India you get harassed at every corner. The beggars are plentiful and persistent. In Nepal, there are a few people asking for money,  but it is not half as bad.

9. Toilets
In Nepal the toilets are cleaner, they flush most of the time and they don’t smell like boiled diarrhea. And they are mostly western style, which is a lot easier when you need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night.

10. Friendly Natives
The Nepalese are laid back. The shop owners are not pushy. You get the feeling people are willing to help you because they like people, not only because they are expecting something in return.

Trekking The Himalays: The Day We Walked Along a Valley to the Day We Recovered

Day 5: The Day We Walked Along a Valley. (Phortse Thanga to Luza) Today we woke up early, had our breakfast of tea and eggs and set off. The weird thing about this place is that everything that is up in any of these tea houses has to be taken up by someone. Porters are everywhere; they carry hiker’s bags, eggs, soda and any other supplies that may be needed. They must carry almost a hundred pounds sometimes. It makes me feel like I have no right to complain; I only have about 30 lbs on my back.  We arrive at our destination after not too steep of a hill, but I am definitely out of breath a lot. We walk along a really cool valley with huge mountains on both sides and a really white mountain way in the distance.

Prayer Flags at Luza

Day 6: The Day it Snowed. (Luza to Gokyo) Today we woke up and there was snow on the ground. It wasn’t a lot of snow, just a light dusting, but it made the mountains around us look like a kind of fairy land. The nice lady at our tea house took pity on us; we all have colds. She gave us each a nice cup of lemon tea, which did make me feel better. We started walking and it was like perfect timing - we got to the top of a little ridge and the sun came out! The valley was sunny and the white mountain in the distance looked like a cloud, it was so white. I am really feeling the altitude today. Most of our hike is a gradual uphill, which ends at about 15,800 feet. The air is very thin. We are VERY glad to get to the tea house.

View of the Gokyo Valley

Day 7: The Day We Saw Mt Everest. (Gokyo to Lake Five) When you are at altitude, it is suggested that if you are having any issues, you should “hike high and sleep low”. So we decided to take a little day hike (and it is SO NICE without carrying the big pack!) up to 17,000 feet and then hike back down to our tea house and sleep there again. It was even harder than yesterday. After every step you have to stop and take a breath. So it is pretty slow going - hike, stop, breath, hike, stop, breath. We made it to the “top” though and from there, you can see Mt Everest! It is not a spectacular looking mountain, but just knowing it is the highest in the world is a pretty big rush!

Mt Everest is the middle one - the first non pointy one from left

Day 8: The Day We Recovered. (Gokyo) We were still feeling a little bit of altitude sickness, so day 8 was spent playing rummy, relaxing and eating. An unfortunate girl had altitude sickness really bad, so had to get a helicopter evacuation, as it’s the only way to get off the mountain. We watched it and took pictures and thought, “well that is a quick way to get back to Kathmandu.”

This is one "hot" shower I did not take

More soon!

Hiking the Himalayas: The Very Easy Day to The First Very Painful Day

Our plan in the beginning was to do a 14 to 21 day trek in the Himalayas. The highest point would be about 18000 feet. We did not last as many days at we planned. This though, is another story. Today I will tell you what we DID do.

Day 1: The Very Easy Day. We flew from Kathmandu to a small town called Lukla. Lukla is a town about 8000 feet above sea level. There are no roads to Lukla. To get there, you must fly or walk. We flew and arrived there around noon. From Lukla, we walked for about 3 hours to get to our first destination. Let me explain the trekking in this area. It is called “tea house trekking”, which means you don’t have to camp or carry your own food. Yes, I know this is like luxury hiking. I have never had it so good. Normally we have to carry our own food and a camp stove and a tent. For this trek, there are lodges (tea houses) every couple of hours (most of the time). We got to the first tea house in a couple of hours and settled into our (cold) room. It was rainy and cool but not too bad.

A porter, taking a much needed break

Day 2: The Uphill All the Way Day. We started off early and hiked along the river for a couple of hours. The river was beautiful, very grey blue and frothy. We walked along the valley alongside the river. The weather was great and we had our first glimpse of a pointy snow covered peak. Then it got difficult. The trail went uphill for about three hours and the elevation increased by about 3000 feet to 11,000 feet. And it was straight uphill. If you have never hiked at elevation, which is anything above about 10,000 feet, you should know that it is very difficult. The oxygen levels decrease, which make you fatigue very easily, get out of breath very easily and sometimes even worse -- headaches, dizziness and nausea. I was definitely fatigued.

Prayer flags on the moutain

Day 3: The Rest Day. We spent the day today resting (this is necessary so you don’t get altitude sickness) and hanging out at the Bazaar at a particularly big town. They have a Saturday market where they sell pots and pans, spices, flour and a lot of trash cans of all different colors. We went to the pharmacy and got some aspirin just in case we experienced headaches (you can get pretty much any drug over the counter in Nepal). We drank a lot of tea. We bought snacks. It was a good day.

Namche Bazaar - Saturday Market

Day 4: The First Very Painful Day. Today it was pretty much straight up the ENTIRE way. The hills were tough, and the altitude was starting to get to me. I huffed and puffed my way up the hill. A couple of highlights of the day: (1) We ate the best fried noodles we had eaten so far. Basically these are chow mein, but they are a definite staple while trekking. Those and “dal bhat”, which is lentils, rice and potatoes. This is the main meal of the sherpas. (2) Our first really good view of the mountains. It is so weird; there is fog all around you and you are hiking and all of a sudden the fog clears and the snow covered mountains have you surrounded! It is crazy. You never even realized they were there. And they are HUGE and white and pointy! It’s great. The place we stayed the night had no blankets. Luckily we have sleeping bags, but it is starting to get pretty chilly (there is no indoor heating either). Also, they had no electricity. Needless to say we went to bed around 8 o’clock. This was the first day my head really started to hurt (from altitude). We slept at about 13,000 feet.

Mr Lovely + Prayer Flags + Mount Kongde

So that's the first four days. More to come soon!

Belly: The Update

Well, in two days, we should be out of India and....NO DELHI BELLY!!! Yay! I am probably jinxing myself.

I actually wrote the above three days ago. Right after I wrote this, we went to lunch. About 6 hours later, I was having a very close relationship with the toilet.

I miss my mom. When I used to get sick as a child, she would settle me on the couch with an orange juice, a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a blanket, a cold washcloth and the Star Wars trilogy. Three days ago I got sick around 7 o'clock and had to catch a train at 9 o'clock. It was hot and dusty and we had to take a rickshaw to the train station. I had to carry my 40 lb backpack and I was sweating and hoping I would not be sick, but at the same time, I was glad the rickshaw did not have any doors, just in case.

We had a 16 hour train ride, a 2 hour layover, another 6 hour train ride, 5 hours of sleep and then 13 more hours on a bus. I think that whole time I ate 12 crackers, 5 cookies and half a sprite. We finally arrived in Kathmandu yesterday and this morning I had my FIRST REAL MEAL. It was delicious. I even had coffee. Its the little things you really appreciate.

However, now, as I type this, Mr. Lovely is in bed with the same thing. Luckily he is in a place where he can stay in bed and not have to go ANYWHERE. We are planning on going trekking, but it can be pushed back a couple or a few days. I went today to get all the permits and pay the park fees, do laundry and get any last minute items we may need for our trek. Kathmandu is much cleaner than any of the India cities. I am glad. Very glad. I only hope the food is cleaner too.