Bandipur

After our arrival back from the mountains to Pokhara we decided to chill out a bit and acquire new skills. We were contemplating long whether one of us should acquire them and teach the other or both of us should go for the training. In the end we both went to the school for intensive one day training. It was a great experience and a great school run by a British Dutch couple who set their own business in Nepal after quitting their successful corporate careers.

They have given us courage to build on our new knowledge. We rented two motorbikes a day later not without hesitation and drove around Pokhara. The following day we embarked on an 80km ride passing several levels of induction to riding a motorbike. First we went to the post office in the center getting acquainted with the hectic Nepalese traffic (a' la Indian big cities), then moved on to the highway in the mountains. We practiced our skills by trying to avoid the cows, buffaloes, dogs, goats and chicken beside watching out for the usual participants of the traffic (starting with horse carriages ending with lorries). At the end of the highway we encountered a 10km serpentine ascending to Bandipur which lies 1000m above the seal level. All in all we made it and we were rewarded by a very nice evening in a very romantic town that seems to have been left undisturbed by last couple of centuries.

Bandipur is a living museum of Newari culture. It was a former stop-over for the traders between Tibet and India. Nowadays it lost its significance due to new routes. The town is car free and no new buildings are being constructed except for renovation of old ones. The rain has not stopped us from exploring the little paths in the town and admiring breathtaking views of the lowlands surrounding Bandipur. In the late evening we had a very nice traditional Nepalese candle light dinner - dal bhat - matching the medieval atmosphere there was not a single power generator in town. The silence was making us deaf, the darkness uneasy. Since all the guesthouses and hotels were booked out we ended up staying the night at a traditional house which was not designed for people over 150cm tall. I guess our ancestors a couple of hundreds years ago were a bit shorter than today. Besides the candles, our room was decorated with Nepalese royal family photos.

Next morning following a bunch of nicely dressed girls in uniforms we discovered the local Notre Dam School set up by Japanese nuns. It turned out to be the best kept building in town with over 630 students from the age of 5 up to 18 with an outstanding international teacher collective.

Our next destination is a 3 hour ride to Royal Chitwan National Park.