22/11/2019 – VISA issues

I spent a day walking round Kathmandu and it is a great city. The ‘touristy’ area of Thamel has more shops than you could shake a stick at. Some of them have the most incredible paintings that have such minute detail on them with fantastic colours.

Lots of the city was still rebuilding after the 2015 earthquake namely the Taleju Temple. Thankfully it wasn’t damaged too badly and is still accessible with works crews working to fully repair the structural integrity of parts of it.

I also ventured up to Swayambhu Maha Chaitya which overlooks the city giving a fantastic view.

Kevin (the bearded Frenchman) was staying in Kathmandu longer than I was so it was now time to say goodbye.

Leaving Kathmandu in morning rush hour wasn’t ideal but it meant that I was able to spend the whole afternoon cycling with the Himalayas as a backdrop.

There was a fantastic descent leading down to some small towns and I found a field and set up my tent. The owners of the land later invited me in for dinner which was so nice of them.

A big climb was ahead of me the next morning which went well, the roads were clear, the scenery was stunning and I reached the hotel at a good time.

Sadly, however, things take a slight turn for the worse. For the first time this trip I get an ‘upset stomach’ and was confined to my hotel room for 36 hours without being able to take any food or water.

Once I was able to leave my room I ate breakfast and set off for the day. I wasn’t in a great mood as I was tired, dehydrated and very low on energy but I persevered and made it through the day.

To add insult to injury, I took a wrong turn and went 25km in the wrong direction so had to turn back on myself and found a hotel close to where I’d gone wrong.

The owners of this hotel clearly didn’t pick up that I wasn’t in a great mood and decided to pester me all evening, asking for selfies, ringing up their mates to come over and get photos with me but being British, I grinned and got through it.

I set off in the morning still in a bad mood but made good ground and found somewhere to camp just away from the road. I hadn’t fully recovered from the illness yet but felt like I’d be back myself in a day or two.

Life, however, decided to throw another spanner in the works. Long story short, I couldn’t get back into India. The E-VISA I’d planned to get was only valid if you flew into an airport to ‘activate it’ and wasn’t allowed at land borders. My previous visa had run out so essentially I had to fly out of Nepal which meant I had to get back to Kathmandu…

This almost tipped me over the edge and was considering flying back. It really had been a torrid few days but after a big lunch and working out what I was going to do, this feeling had subsided.

Sometimes when things aren’t going your way, take a step back, have a meal and have a little think. Life looks better on a full stomach.