There and back again in Nepal

To just describe Nepal as a slightly different Switzerland might be - at the first glance - be adequate (and people from Switzerland traveling here as searching for home away from home - *how boooring* - as well). But after more than a month here in this country, Franziska and me found that there's more to the picture than meets the eye...fantastically friendly people, strong culture & religion and at the same time very open for other influences, greeeat mountain scenery combined with rice fields, exotic markets and traditions, ... amazing!

After a couple of days in Kathmandu and the successful fight against our food poisoning, the marketing manager from our Hotel invited us for the Dashain-Festival to his family in a remote area in the east of Nepal (a village called Dolakha, about 6h per car away from Kathmandu). We took this great opportunity and - while living at his parent's and relative's houses - learned to know a great deal about this (partially rather strange) festival, the family-life and how it is to live there. The food was kind of similar the whole time: we had Dhal Bat as breakfast, lunch and dinner for a couple of days (with some rare really welcomed exceptions - here a recipe in German)... we afterwards decided to head back to Kathmandu and further on to Pokhara, a really relaxing (but also very touristy) place. After several small trips around, we decided to make one a little longer trip for 4 days on the Annapurna Royal Trek around the Begnas-Lake. A great experience!

After enjoying the second festival Tihar (these Nepalese people seem to have one after another...) with some seemingly self-made fireworks here in Kathmandu, Franziska sadly already had to go back to Switzerland.
I'm currently strolling around here in Kathmandu thinking about my options for the next month...I may start on a longer trek on the Annapurna Circuit for 16+ days starting Tuesday or Wednesday, but nothing's decided yet...