12 months, 11 countries, 0 flights 🌏

Start point: Pokhara, 822m

End point: Machakhola, 860m 

Elevation gain: 42m

Distance travelled: 160km 

Time in a bus: 14 hours 

The 6 AM alarm was a little bit of a shock to the system, but something we’ll quickly get used to I’m sure. It really felt like the morning of catching a flight or a big work event, and we were both a mix of excitement and nervous. Our guest house had kindly offered to hold the remainder of our gear so we could have smaller packs, but they still felt pretty heavy when we picked them up for the first time… bet they will feel even heavier at altitude! We met up with Mayla at the office and after a stop for a final Pokhara cappacino we headed to the bus stand. A lot of trekkers opt for the private jeep option to get to the start of the trail, but we went for the local bus. Cost difference was $300 USD for the jeep, and $20 NZD (total for three of us) on the local bus. We had been warned about goats, chickens and babies, but honestly it was very chill. The roads are a bit bumpy and slow here, but much better than I what I expected after hearing some horror stories. They are doing a lot of infrastructure development, and a large number of roads were single lane with the other lane still being smoothed out and tarsealed. Our first stop was Gorkha, about 108km from Pokhara. This took us about 4 hours including a couple of stops, one which included delicious chai, curry and samosa for breakfast. The views at the start of the drive were incredible, it was the clearest morning so far and we had panoramic views of the Annapurna ranges. Having Mayla with us was such a joy, he knows so much about all the peaks and is very open to sharing his knowledge with us. 

From Gorkha, things took a turn in the “eventful travel day” direction! It started with boarding a bus that in any other country would be considered full, but it’s amazing how many people, boxes, bags and kids they can fit into a bus here. We had been driving for about 10 minutes out of town when all of a sudden we joined a line of  stopped traffic. Josh and Mayla went out for a look and discovered that the road was completely blocked by a big truck that was stuck in some soft dirt where they had been doing landslides repairs. We must have been in the first five to ten vehicles on the site, and lots of people were helping to try and dig out the truck and get it moving. When it looked like it was going to take a decent chunk of time, we sat down and had a chai to wait. From here things only escalated, there was a broken digger in the way so they set to work repairing that, and used that to help try and push the truck, it was all pretty crazy. The police were there too and at any one time there were at least 50 people around the truck. Sadly, each of their valliant efforts only seemed to get the truck more stuck, and eventually they went for a technique of using the bucket of the digger to push the truck out of the way further so at least small cars could get past. But alas, our bus was too big, so we were informed we would be turning around and going a different way! This was about three and a half half hours after we first arrived, so we did wonder a bit why they didn’t choose this option earlier. We were all excited to be on the way again. 

It shortly became apparent why the driver waited so long to commit to this route, as we were going down a track I would be hesitant to drive at home in a Ute, let alone a bus!! Thankfully our driver was an absolute legend and got us back to the main road in one piece, but there were a few hairy moments for sure. From here we slowly travelled up the valley with the scenery getting more and more beautiful, and the road more and more shit. By the end it did feel like we were driving on a walking track, not a road!! It was so nice to be getting further afield, it definitely gives you a huge appreciation for the work that goes in to getting anything done up here, whether it be building, education, healthcare or food supplies. The last 25km took us a good couple of hours, with each kilometer more precarious than the last. It was only a small group of us on the bus by this point, and there was a strong sense of camaraderie with every crazy corner and big drop. It was the scariest road either of us can ever remember driving, especially given the fact we were in a bus! We all very happy to arrive in the small town of Machakhola, 14 hours after we left Pokhara, and only 160km away!!! 

Something I found super interesting was the way the roads develop here, especially up in these remote valleys. They often start as walking tracks, and then gradually more and more bikes ride them, and they turn into small dirt tracks. Then, eventually they get wide enough for the jeeps and then because of the jeeps, they’re wide enough for the buses and the trucks! Eventually you have a bit of a piecemeal constantly under construction situation! Add in the destructive landslides during Monsoon and it’s especially impressive that these roads and still functional. Existence up here is hard, that much is clear after only one day. 

We found a very basic but perfectly adequate guest house, and we enjoyed our first of many delicious Dahl Baht for dinner before bed. There’s so much more I could say, we’re noticing so many interesting differences from India and there are already things that have surprised us and also delighted us. But for now we’re exhausted and are getting up in just over eight hours for our first day of walking, so I’ll say goodnight. Even after a hectic travel day we are soooo excited to be here and can’t wait to start walking tomorrow! 

We were so happy to have a reasonably affordable ride from the border that we weren't fazed by the nausea-inducing acceleration or slightly terrifying cornering of our young driver, we were just happy to be on our way to Pokhara. And, thanks to his rally driver tendencies, it ended up being quite a quick trip too. We arrived in Pokhara before dark and checked into our accommodation. It was a simple room, two single beds with mattresses where you can truly touch the bed frame underneath, but the most gorgeous family. We have immediately noticed the nature of the Nepali people we have encountered so far. So caring, funny, helpful and open. They just give you a good vibe. For dinner we found some overpriced and underwhelming Mexican (I know, what were we thinking) which was a good reminder we are in a major tourist town. We spent the evening wandering the main street, stumbling on lots of things to purchase and the most amazing bakery. After eating our weight in cinnamon buns, mango cheesecake and hot chocolate we rolled home to bed very happy to be here!

We spent two days in Pokhara, which were mostly filled with admin. We wrote a few blog posts (which hopefully you all enjoyed!), read about treks in the area and researched and booked our mandatory guided tour from Nepal to China via Tibet. Then we chose a a trekking company and booked and paid for our upcoming trek around the Manaslu circuit, which meant we needed to do laundry, fully repack our bags and purchase missing items for the trek! We also spoke to family and friends on the phone, finalized our course at Kopan, and did a big money and budget sort out. I’m tired just writing about all of that! I wanted to share that list just to give you an idea of what our reality is like. Usually we blog about all our amazing experiences, but there is a lot of mundane planning and organization that goes into it all as well. Some things, like trekking and Tibet, require a lot of planning to make sure you have a really special experience. Ticking all those things off the list was an amazing feeling, and it’s really nice to know that we are basically all planned now up to about July 20th, bar two spare weeks we have in the Kathmandu area to fill with activities (if anyone has good recommendations please drop them in the comments). 

In general Pokhara is a really nice place to kill some time, and lots of people use it as a rest spot after they finish their trekking. There is great coffee, some nice sights and lots of adventure activities like paragliding, rafting, bungee jumping and ultralight flying. We stayed within about a 1km radius of our accommodation, but still loved the views of the mountains from our rooftop, and revisited a couple of cafes that I remembered from my trip here in 2017. 

In terms of trekking, we had really been going back and forth on what to do. It’s the start of monsoon in mid to late June, so it’s not the best time of year for trekking in a lot of places. However, there are some spots that are tucked in behind the rain shadow. Often people will book full guided packages which would be way out of our budget, but we had met some people in India who had managed to do some really cool treks on a budget. 

We were tossing up the Annapurna Circuit, Nar Phu Valley, Manaslu Circuit, Tsung Valley or some combination of the above. We met with a couple companies, and were really impressed by some and totally underwhelmed by others. Eventually we just walked in from the street to a place called ‘Ethical Trekking Nepal’, and met the most amazing guide, Mayla. He successfully talked us out of going to Annapurna and into Manaslu (much more remote and more of the adventure feel we love), and within 24 hours we were locked in. It was so nice to meet a guide and a company we clicked with, and this only continued when we met the manager Krishna. He had just been at the 75th Diamond Jubilee celebration for the first ascent of Annapurna I (the first 8000m+ peak climbed at the time), by Maurice Herzog. There is an excellent dramatised historical novel about this incredible feat of mountaineering called ‘Annapurna’ if you’re interested to learn more about the history of Himalayan mountaineering. 

After we confirmed the trek and ticked off some other big pieces of admin, we spent the evening packing and enjoying a Nepalese meal of BBQ buffalo. Josh even had a beer! Tomorrow morning we’ll meet Mayla at 6:30 AM and catch a local bus to Gorkha, and then a local jeep (hopefully) to Soti Khola. The next day we will walk to Jagat, and we’ll be properly underway from June 8th.

During our trek we’re going to try and write a short daily post, but we’re not sure how much reception and WiFi will be available. We’ll keep you updated as much as we can, and we expect to be back to civilization properly by June 21th. Wish us (and especially my knees) luck!

At long last we had made it to the mountains and by this point we were more than ready for some respite from the relentless heat of Indian summer. Going from daily temperatures of 40°C to 20°C was the biggest relief, and being in snowy mountains for the first time this trip was so refreshing. We were so excited to be in the mountains that we had booked six nights in Manali, which was the longest time we had stayed in one place since we started our trip three months prior.

Manali is a mountain resort town very reminiscent of Queenstown, and it felt like I was back home when we arrived. It is known as the adventure capital of India and has everything from ski fields, zip lines, trekking, rafting, bungee jumps and basically anything else you can think of that gives an adrenaline rush. Unfortunately it also suffers from some of the same problems as Queenstown such as bad traffic, strains on infrastructure, and overcrowding. Fortunately, we mostly avoided the chaos as we were staying at a lovely place in Old Manali up on the hillside looking out over Manali. 

We stayed at a gorgeous log cabin style hostel called Timberwolves and our room had panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and waterfalls. The staff here were so friendly and looked after our every need. Praveen, who was the in-house chef, cooked the most delicious and homely food. It was so good we barely ate dinner anywhere else and got into a wonderful nightly routine. We would eat a delicious meal Praveen had lovingly cooked for us while tucked up on the couches watching an IPL match with the friendly staff. After dinner we would relax and enjoy an amazing hot choccy perfectly made by the always smiling Rahul who even started preparing our spots on the couch each night, bringing cushions over for us.

There are some incredible multi-day treks to do around Manali, however we had arrived too early in the year and the higher altitude treks were closed due to snow. This really wasn’t a problem though, as there are countless day walks to do. A highlight was visiting the amazing Jogini waterfall which we could see across the valley from our room. It was only a short walk to the upper waterfall which was a very popular spot for domestic tourists. We met lots of friendly Indians joining us in an extensive photoshoot here as a beautiful rainbow appeared beneath the waterfall. We did a number of other short walks, sometimes into the meadows and rivers behind the town, sometimes through the conifer forest into Manali (very reminiscent of Hanmer Springs) and sometimes through the orchards just up from our accommodation. There was no shortage of tracks to explore. We were always accompanied by the most gorgeous trail dogs, who seemed to know exactly where you were going, even when you didn’t. It was nice to just have the freedom to walk and see what we would find along the way, without always having a specific plan or destination in mind.  

Manali is tucked into a valley surrounded by mountains. You can see some of the smaller peaks but to see the higher 6000m+ peaks you have to climb up the valley. I was super excited to see some of these beautiful mountains such as Indrasan (6,221 m) and Deo Tibba (6001m), especially as they would be the highest mountains I’ve seen. 

So we decided to tackle the daunting Lama Dugh trek. We really escaped the crowds up here and it felt like we were in the wild foothills of the Himalayas for the first time with meadows of flowers and picturesque views of the mountains. I got my wish with amazing views of the mountains towering above Manali. The perspective changed with every 100m elevation gained, and more mountains became visible as we climbed. The Himalayas are just on a different scale to anything in New Zealand, you can climb for thousands of meters and there are still thousands more meters of climbing above you. We spotted a ridgeline above the Lama Dugh summit which looked like it might offer an amazing panoramic view, however we had reached the snowline and were starting to feel the onset of altitude sickness. We descended down a ridgeline that basically dropped all the way back to Manali which was not so nice on our knees, and Alice even had a little tumble (she was okay but had bruised knees). It was a long day with 1400m elevation gained and then descended, 17km walked and a high point of around 3500m. I was stoked to see some big mountains for the first time and get a little taste of what the Himalayas have to offer.

Spending an entire week in one place was such a treat, especially when it’s a beautiful mountain town with perfect weather and amazing accommodation. It was a good reminder that we don’t always need to rush from one destination to the next, trying to fit everything in. Maybe we’d been moving too fast to notice the irony, but one of our mantras for this trip is “Slowly slowly, no hurry.” One of the gifts of long-term travel is the flexibility to move quickly for a while and see a lot, then slow down and really soak it all in. Striking a balance between the two is key, and our experience in Manali made me realize we've been spending too much time in the fast lane. 

Travel days/nights aren’t always fun or exciting, but they do always seem to memorable or unexpected in one way or another. The journey from Agra to Manali was long, and involved quite a few different legs:

This trip had a few interesting moments, the first being in the middle of Agra buying some skincare and realizing we were running far shorter on time than we thought. With a bribe to the driver, he sped us across town to pick up our luggage, and then to the train station. We did our all too regular sprint across the platform and jumped on right before the train pulled away. Now to park up for a good few hours of sleep before the bus… right? Weirdly, the confirmation text only had one seat number alongside both our names, which I thought must have been a typo or admin era. Oh how wrong I was… turns out when the trains are overbooked they do something called ‘RAC’ which stands for ‘Reservation Against Cancellation’. This means you have been allocated a spot on the train but not a berth, and you have to share with another passenger until another passenger cancels their confirmed ticket. So when the conductor came along we were politely informed that we had to share a berth for this overnight journey, and we would be informed if something else became available. Spoiler alert, it didn’t! You also get the pleasure of still paying for two full tickets, even though you have to share one bed between two… don’t ask me how the maths of that works. In the end it was a very memorable experience, and I think the whole carriage got a good laugh out of our surprise when we realized. We had a picnic dinner, tucked up top and tailed, and managed to get some sleep (maybe me more than Josh), and now we always have a laugh thinking back on it. 

I also received a call in the middle of the night about the bus pick up in Chandigarh changing location, but between my sleepy stupor, bad reception and patchy English I didn’t have a clue where we were supposed to go. Once we got to the station in Chandigarh we found an Autorickshaw driver who seemed friendly enough, passed him our phone with the driver on the other end and got him to organize where we needed to go. Don’t forget it’s 3:30 AM in the morning at this point. We had specifically chosen a bus close to the railway station, so to then be told we had to run to the auto and speed across town for thirty minutes was hilarious. Somehow we chose an auto driver who was parked on the other side of the train station as well. A good reminder - you plan, India laughs! We have felt very trusting of most people here, but I did have a moment when I was heading through town in an auto at 4:00 AM in the morning and had no idea where I was going where I wondered about the safety of it all. But, we arrived at the bus stop right on time, and before long we were tucked up into our semi sleeper seats (one each this time) and on the way to Manali.

I was too excited to get much sleep, but thankfully Josh got a few more hours. Before too long we were on the windy roads of the Himalayan foothills, and our first chai stop with crisp, fresh air was such a treat. We were so excited to be in the mountains, and seeing the first snow capped peaks was met with squeals of delight! From here the journey was easy and scenic, and upon arrival in Manali we got a taxi up to our accommodation in Old Manali. The road was very steep and small so we walked the final ten minutes looking at the mountains and forest around us. The heat and dust of  Agra felt much longer than 16 hours ago. 

Journeys like this always teach you something, and looking back now it was such a memorable night! We have recounted the journey many times with laughter and great memories. We’ve really learnt to release control and take it as it comes, you can do all the planning in the world, but at the end of the day you just have to go with India’s flow. I think we’ve got more resilient with this kind of thing over the last few months, taking these kinds of experiences in our stride. Slowly but surely, we’re learning to absolutely love it.

Once we realized the heat was just too much for us, we planned a bee line route to the mountains from Udaipur. But, no trip to India would be complete without a visit to the Taj Mahal, so we braved 43 degrees for one more day to see this wonder of the world. 

We arrived off the train and were immediately pretty overwhelmed by the heat (expected), but also the overall vibe (unexpected). We were now in Uttar Pradesh, which is unfortunately known as one of the more unsafe states in India, it's also the most populated state in India, making up 16.5% of the country's population, or 3% of the total world population!!! There was definitely more hassle and staring, and although I wouldn’t describe it as feeling unsafe, I also didn’t feel as comfortable as I have in other places. We walked down to the Taj Mahal for sunset, and were met with a number of relentless street sellers and auto drivers, and lots of kids begging us to buy a fridge magnet, which always breaks my heart especially when it's the afternoon on a school day.

Once we got our tickets and were in the complex, we were totally in awe and any misgivings we had previously totally melted away. It’s hard to describe the beauty of this building, it feels more like poetry, a love story or a piece of art. It was busy of course, but you can absolutely see why. Coming at sunset was really special, as we got to see the marble change as the sun set; from a bright white, to a rich gold and then a more muted grey as it got darker. They say in the morning it looks pink with the sunrise light which we didn’t see, but I can only imagine. We got the obligatory photos, and enjoyed walking around and exploring the different angles, colours and views. The sheer manpower that must have gone into building the Taj is impossible to comprehend, as is the design work to create such a perfectly symmetrical building. The marble itself is surprisingly cool to the touch, and has a luster that reminds me of pearls. Pair this with the precious stone details embedded into the walls, the intricate carvings and the immense scale and it's easy to understand why it's considered the most beautiful building in the world. 

We also met a group of girls that were travelling on a group trip, and got chatting to a couple of New Zealanders who were our age and knew Josh! A homely reminder of the size of our lovely country, and so nice to hear a familiar accent. We traded Instagrams, travel stories and future plans and have stayed in touch since. For our one evening in Agra we found a super fun restaurant called Mama Franky House that served famous Franky Rolls, chicken and momos. We hadn’t eaten a lot of northern Indian food yet, so we loved these deliciously smoky wraps and chicken drumsticks, slathered in thick sauces with chutney on the side. We were exhausted from the heat but very pleased we made the trip out for dinner! 

Another key site in Agra is the Agra Fort, which we did a guided tour of the next morning. This amazing, sprawling complex is actually used by the army today, but you can still visit the historic parts. Our tour guide gave us great context on the family dynamics of the ruling Mughal Dynasty who built the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and other tombs, palaces and forts. I won’t go into the details as I am desperately trying to keep this brief but let me tell you - more dramatic than any episode of the Kardashians!!!! There was more incredible marble work, intricate gardens, whole wings of offices where society was run from, two moats (one that used to have crocodiles and one that had tigers - no joke), and amazing brick work too. The architecture from this era is mind blowing. It’s hard to imagine the power and wealth of the Mughal Empire, at this point in history they controlled an area of 4 million square kilometers, including areas of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. 

By mid morning we were on the hunt for AC, and I had found a cafe that was run by survivors of acid attacks, called Sheroes’ Hangout. Unfortunately acid attacks are still all too common in parts of India, often for things that seem so trivial such as a family rivalry or marriage dispute. It then impacts these women’s lives forever, with medical expenses, societal shame and often total estrangement from their families. Most of the time, the perpetrator is someone in the victim's own immediate family, or their partner. It was a real privilege to support this cafe and hear stories, not only of pain but also of hope. I got some amazing henna which I had wanted to do the whole time we were in India, and this felt like the perfect place to do it. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon hunting for a movie with English subtitles (no luck), and buying a few bits and pieces before we left the city for the mountains. Our toxic trait somehow seems to be always sprinting to catch our train, but once again by some miracle we made it. The journey from Agra to Manali was long and full of surprises… which I will detail in a separate post!