Doodling Along to Rum Doodles

It seems only right to end our tales of our Nepal adventures in the way that all good trips to Nepal end, and that is with a visit to the famous Rum Doodles' restaurant in Kathmandu.

Rum Doodles is quite an institution in Nepal and anyone who's anyone, has been there. This includes virtually all Everest summiteers who finish their expedition with a trip to Rum Doodles, sign the special wooden Everest summiteers board, and get free food at the restaurant for life.

And the food is good, hearty food, fit for mountaineers. Just look at the size of our veggie burger! And the chips were good too.


The other unique thing about Rum Doodles is all the footprint cutouts which hang from the ceilings, walls and just about every available space. They tell the story of lots of previous groups' trip of a lifetime and have been collected over 20 years.

Naturally our trekking group wanted to complete one and, as we were present in Rum Doodles on Halloween night, it seemed only appropriate that ours should have a Halloween theme. We can't claim credit for the idea to turn a Himalayan peak into a witch's hat, but we do think it was inspired. Here is the finished result which we helped to draw. Hope you like it.


We also hope that any of our readers who visit Kathamndu and Rum Doodles in the months and years to come, will keep a look out for our footprint and let us know if they see it.

And so our wonderful trip to Nepal draws to a close. We hope you've enjoyed reading as much as we've enjoyed the writing.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Peacock Spotting

As we continued our stroll round Bhaktapur, our guide took us to see a very famous window, mentioned in all the guide books as something worth seeing. This was the Peacock Window, which is also sometimes called the 'Mona Lisa of Nepal' (perhaps like us, when you see our picture, you'll wonder why - we failed to spot the resemblance).

Perhaps the name simply refers to the fact that it is an artistic treasure, being a rare masterpiece in wood. Just look at the intricate carving of the peacock, it's wonderful.


And to think that it was carved back in the 15th century and has been looking over the streets of Bhaktapur for all those years. Given how exquisite it is, it is surprising that it is found on, quite a hard to find, back street.

As we looked at the carving we had a strange sense of deja vu, although we couldn't quite place it. That was, until we returned to our hotel and headed up the stairs to our room. It was then that we saw it; a fine, highly polished copy of the peacock window.


This was great as we could get up close and get a really good look, and no-one was going to tell us off for touching. We were surprised that we had walked past it so many times on our holiday and not really noticed it before.

lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Temple Touring

Our time in Kathmandu was rapidly drawing to an end but there was still time for a couple more fascinating visits.

The first was to one of Hinduism's most holy sites, the Pashputinath Temple. It's very old and it attracts thousands of pilgrims each year. The temple is located on the Holy Bagmati River and devout Hindus will want to cremate their deceased loved ones on the cremation ghats beside the river.

Being non Hindus, we were only allowed on the non-temple side of the river, but we were able to see cremation ceremonies taking place. It seemed to be a very dignified end to life and we watched discretely, with an interest that was curious rather than ghoulish (we hope!).

We didn't think this blog is the place to share photos of the temple which include the cremation ghats, but we will show you a picture we took of some of the many temple monkeys.


We're not in the picture, as monkeys can move surprisingly fast and we would have been whisked off to a monkey's den, had we paused within grabbing range.

From Pashpatinath, it was off to the ancient city of Bhaktapur. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its rich and abundant culture, with vast numbers of historic temples and artworks.

It is a lovely, quiet and unspoilt place. You can take time to admire the treasures without the risk of being mown down by traffic or pushed out the way by hurrying people.


It was very hot in the main (durbar) square so it was lovely to find a shady spot for lunch, from which, we could look out over the square and watch comings and goings.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

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