Almost Bears with Sore Heads!

While watching the dancing animals and listening to the Nepali music was fun, the real reason we were there was to enjoy some authentic food and drink.

Please believe us when we say we didn't plan it this way, but we seem to have no pictures of the food but lots of the drink. Now what will that say about us to our readers? We hope you won't get the wrong impression, as we really do like our food. We'll just have to describe it to you while showing you pictures of our drinks. Perhaps it all has to do with wanting to keep our fur clean as food can be a bit messy and food on camera lenses is definitely not good.


Anyway here we are about to try to local hooch. We think it was rakshi. Whatever it was it was powerful stuff ... just look at the effect it had on us ...


We thought this potent brew should have a health warning attached. Our small sip was more than enough, but we didn't want to be rude and leave it all, so, as you can see, we discreetly spilt a quantity on the tablecloth, making it look like an accident!

We then decided that drinking on an empty stomach was not a good idea, so we turned our attention to the food and tucked into some delicious dishes. It was one of those meals where you get given a spoonful of a huge number of dishes so you can experience the breadth of the cuisine. The bits of the menu we remember (and it's a bit like the Generation Game here) included pop corn, bean soup, black lentils, chicken, wild boar, spinach, rice, dumplings and a yoghurty pudding.

To wash it down we stuck to a firm favourite, a bottle of beer.


We opted for another macho sounding beer, Everest beer (apologies to all female sumiteers!) as we were due to fly out to the Everest region the next day. It certainly made us feel really excited about the next stage of our trip.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Anyone Seen a Yeti?

During our tour round Kathmandu we had a scary animal encounter, when we came across some decapitated animal heads on a open air butcher's stall. We do have a picture, but we'll not share it with you, in case any of our readers are of sensitive disposition.

That evening though, we had some much more fun animal encounters at a traditional night of Nepalese food and music, albeit, as invariably happens, organised for the tourists.


Our first animal encounter was with this Yak. We were a bit confused, as we knew that Yak's are high altitude animals and the altitude of Kathmandu would be too low for them to survive. The mystery was solved though when we heard human voices coming from, what turned out to be, a Yak costume.


Hot on the heels of the yak came a marauding peacock. The peacock had quite a vicious beak and was trying to extract money from the guests, so we gave it a wide birth.

Not so the Yeti though, as he was our favourite.


Here he is showing how well camouflaged he is against the snow (a bit out of place in sunny Kathmandu).

You've got to admit it, our blog does give you the opportunity to see sights that you'll almost certainly never see yourselves. How often do you get to see a real live Yeti!

We were thrilled, hope you are too!

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

A Beautiful Goddess & A Scary God

As you can see the superb carvings just kept getting better and better. We were also rather taken by the figures at the top window: either these were also carved or they'd been there a bit too long.

From this fine building we moved on to view some even more intricate carvings at the Kumari House, the home of the Living goddess, the Kumari. Yes, it's true, Nepal does have its very own living goddess who is worshipped as a source of supreme power as part of both Hindu and Buddhist traditions.


Normally, the Kumari will appear for tourists at the top window shown in our picture, but the current Kumari is a new one, having been selected less than 2 weeks before our visit (a girl can only be Kumari until she menstruates for the first time, at which point she becomes mortal again and returns to her family). The new Kumari is only 3 years old and wasn't yet making appearances, so we had to use our imaginations. One of our minders had seen the the last but one Kumari, on a previous visit in 1987, so was able to tell us all about it.

Our next interesting sight was a much more scary one.


Disputing individuals come before this god image to settle their differences. It is essential to tell the truth otherwise the god will visit dire consequences on the lying individual. This god was so scary that we would certainly have been scared into telling the truth - not that Yorkie and I ever have arguments.

Back soon!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Walking Tour Highlights

The reason we wanted to be fresh the next day was because we were going on a walking tour of Kathmandu with a local guide.

The first thing we need to say was that Kathmandu was very busy. As a result it was necessary for small bears to stay with minders and peer out of pockets and bags, otherwise we might have been trampled or swept away by the crowds. You'll have to forgive us therefore if we don't make an appearance in all of our photographs. Hopefully though, they will give you a good flavour of what we were seeing.


One of the things we found quite fascinating was how everything is jumbled up together. In a few square metres you'd find very old carved wooden buildings, motorcycles,temples and market stalls, concrete buildings and power lines.

We were also fascinated by the offerings made at the temples. This was one of our favourites ....


This deity had had a big piece of, what looked like banana, plastered over it's mouth. Normally we have thought someone had been quite disrespectful, but here we soon realised that it was a valuable offering.

It was also very clear that religion is very much a part of every day life in Nepal. There were shrines and temples everywhere and they were receiving a lot of attention from the people who passed by. We're rather used to visits to religious buildings on Sundays only. In Nepal every day is a religious day with much time given to the making of offerings and devotions.

The ancient wood carvings are also something to behold. Take a look at the carvings at this temple ...


Isn't it all simply wonderful?

Although we're only sharing some of the highlights with you, there are far too many for a single post, so we're saving some more until next time.

See you soon.

Love George & Yorkie xxx

A Real Man's Beer

It wasn't long before we felt hungry, and ready for the interesting task of selecting a local restaurant in which to dine.

We peered in a few doorways and examined a few picture menus before making our decision. We were to discover that to walk a long way from the entrance to the dining area, along narrow and gloomy passageways, frequently with lots of steps, is quite normal for Kathmandu, but we didn't know this at the time of our first meal.

As I was muttering to Yorkie that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find the way out again, we arrived at the dining area which was rather special and well worth the walk.

We sat on floor cushions to dine at some very low tables. It was a good job we had brought a few of our new friends from our tour group with us, as we were the only diners in the restaurant.


We started our order with beers as we thought getting acquainted over a beer is a truly fine way to get to know new friends. The beers we were drinking were authentic Nepalese Gorkha beers, honouring those real men, the Gurkhas. The beer was as fine as those soldiers are, and it went down a treat.

The food was very good too and a real bargain. Four of us ate and drank for the equivalent of about £4 a head.


As you can see, the restaurant also laid on some after dinner relaxation. Trying out this hubble bubble water pipe was fun, although we didn't try anything too strong as we wanted to be fresh and raring to go in the morning.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

First Impressions

What we could see (but you can't as my head's in the way!) as we looked out the plane window, as we approached our holiday destination, was the beautiful sight of the snow capped Himalayas.


For those who hadn't worked it out, our flag is the national flag of Nepal and this is where we went for our latest adventure.

Our prime reason for travelling there was to write the Everest region trekking chapter for the Friendly Planet Guide - of course we planned to enjoy the trekking as well - it wasn't all going to be work.

However, like all good trips to Nepal, before we went trekking, we spent a fascinating couple of days in the capital city, Kathmandu.

From the airport we were transported to a rather nice hotel - the Hotel Mountain - within walking distance of the city centre. Starting off in a quality hotel was great as it helped us acclimatise to such a different culture to our own, and all the noise, bustle and fumes.


Just exploring the hotel's reception area was an adventure in itself. There were all sorts of amazing wooden carvings of Hindu deities. We wondered if we could get garlands of flowers, like they were wearing, and tikka marks on our foreheads, as they might help us blend in and look a little less like tourists.

We had a couple of hours to explore before dinner, so made our first foray out of the hotel on paw. Only a few doors down was the American Embassy, bristling with armed guards so we felt quite safe, assuming there were no terrorists around. We obviously did look very much like tourists though, as lots of shopkeepers wanted to talk to us, and to sell us their goods.

We felt very glad to have arrived safely in such a fascinating place.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Whose Flag?

Well, we think Gilbert deserves a pat on the back for entertaining us all with some excellent stories and pictures from our adventures in France. Well done Gilbert we've all enjoyed a great read!

Having come to an end of his pictures and prose, Gilbert has now handed the Blogger reigns back to Yorkie and myself as he knows how eager we are to start telling you all about our latest adventure.

Last month's adventure took us further afield than we've been for a long time, so it was especially exciting. We had to go on three planes to get to our final destination! This was one of the reasons that we had a reduced travelling squad of Yorkie and myself only - sadly, there was room for small bears only.


We wonder how many of our readers will recognise the flag of the country we travelled to, which we're exhibiting in our (at home) photo. We're very proud of our flag, not only because it is interestingly different to most countries' usual rectangles, but because we got it for free! Yes, we were doing some Christmas shopping in the capital of the country we visited, and, as it is the custom to barter (yes we were outside Europe), we asked for this flag in lieu of a discount, and got it.

We know a lot of our readers know where we went but, for those who don't, keep guessing, and we'll be back with the answer and some travellers' tales very soon.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx