Nepal

When most people think of Nepal they immediately think of mountains and it is undoubtedly one of the best places in the world to see mountains. The Himalayas contain some of the worlds highest mountains including Everest and the Annapurnas. The view from Pokhara is dramatic (photo 1) with the Annapurna range visible from almost every point. I trekked up to the Annapurna base camp (photo 3), also known as the sanctuary as once there it appears you are surrounded with massive mountains all around, including Annapurna 1 (photo 2) at over eight thousand metres. One of the more distinctive mountains though is Machupuchare (Fish Tail Mountain) with its distinctive vertical face at the top (photo 4).

Nepal is also a good place to watch wildlife, it is home to Tigers, One horned Rhino (photo 1) and numerous interesting insects (photo 3) in the Chitwan National Park, where one can also observe lovely sunsets across the river that runs through the park.

There is a mix of religious things to see in Nepal, in Kathmandu in particular. There is large Tibetan Buddhist community which is why Boudhinnath stupa, the worlds largest stupa was built. The Hindu temples around Durbar square (photo 2) are interesting with intricate carvings. Alas, this is also where many charlatan Saddhus (ascetics) hang around scrounging money from tourists (photo 3). When I was there it was Daisin the biggest Hindu festival of the year, when walking the streets became dangerous, not for fear of mugging or anything like that, but because of the amount of snake charmers around, with their lethal baskets of cobras (photo 4).