Trekking to Chisapani and Nagarkot

Even with our somewhat overwhelming introduction to Kathmandu (re-introduction for me), we were still excited to spend a couple of days doing some light trekking northeast of the Kathmandu Valley. We’d hired a guide and porter through Himalayan Holidays — the same company that Room to Read was working with for their anniversary trek — and they met us that Monday morning to start our trek. Laxman (our guide) and Jhalak (our porter) introduced themselves as cousin-brothers: their fathers are brothers (making them first cousins), their mothers are sisters (again, first cousins), and as it turns out, their wives are also sisters (making them brothers-in-law)! Pretty funny. They both spoke English well enough, and after a short drive out of the Kathmandu Valley, we started our trek up to Chisapani.

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K-K-K-K-K-K-Kathmandu

First, we want to apologize for the radio silence during our last two-plus weeks on the road. We’ve had some serious travel challenges to contend with — multiple illnesses, volcanic ash over Europe (yes, it impacted us even in Asia), developing world chaos, the near-complete shutdown of the entire country of Nepal, and now a serious lack of reliable internet in our hotel in Thailand — but we’re back in our (mostly) happy place and trying to catch up on catching you up on our travels.

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