All I want for Christmas is nothing more than...

A Rolls Royce with a banana engine, a trip to Iceland (or a farm on mars), 10 chocolate fondant cakes and a night in a museum.

Though all of the above are true, something tells me they'll have to wait, which is more than fine cause I got the best (self-given haha) present I could image: a view of the Himalayas.

On Thursday this week, I was writing with Cathy about weekend plans. We had talked about a place called Nagarkot and decided that even though "We have time", we would go now because December is famous for a clear view and who knows what the next year brings.

Nagarkot is one of four hills surrounding Kathmandu Valley, ever since there are backpackers here, there's an excitement about seeing the renowned sunrise from this hilltop.

Cathy and I have proven ourselves to be much less than good in terms of orientation in Nepal, so we asked a friend who's a guide to join us. This was a very good idea, cause he knew the history of the villages and temples we passed, and needless to say, I asked about 100 questions:

What does this symbol mean?

Why has this god three hands and feet that everyone is so excited about?

How does everyone get water and electricity here?

Does Ganja come from Nepal? Shanker (the guide) was very clear on this one, Nepal is the only true home to Mother jane.

We started at 10 am in foggy Kathmandu, almost hopelessly optimistic that maybe it was going to clear up. We used allllll our Nepali in order to get the taxi at the same price as locals, we failed miserably (4 more months to practice!).

We got of 4 hills and 4H far from Nagarkot, and so we hiked. Parts of the nature looked like Luxembourg, others like the South of France, most of it was like a mixture of Switzerland and Portugal.

Then again, Nepalis built ways up to Tempels where the entire European road construction agencies would have a collective heart attack. Most of the roads are getting improved, others are just like "as long as it works".

What was clearly unlike I had ever seen before was the view, soon Kathmandu Valley was covered in fog, it disappeared completely and almost seemed like a river. The temples rise up on the top of the hills as if built by the gods. In the Gods of creation and destruction watch over the valley. Hinduism is a million stories, and to me, it's a bunch of names I can't remember. And it's fascinating, their greatest god is Shiva, destructor, and recreator, sometimes kind, sometimes angry. I've never given faith and religion much thought, obviously, this changed.

Religious values, who are as closely held as they are by Nepalese village people, impress and fascinate whether you are a believer or not.

The last hour we went a little faster in order to make it for the sunset, over asphalted roads and almost empty hotels (we saw like 30 tourists in 2 Days), the sky was very slowly clearing up, and when we the road took a right, we could see the whole range appearing. 2 tops of the 3 Annapurna peaks, 3 mountains of Ganesh, Langtang and many more.

We arrived in Nagarkot before 5, passed a dodgy looking BnB which looked kinda nice though. The rooms looked like straight out of a Canadian motel, except for the pictures of Buddha.

We climbed the stairs to the roof just in time to see the golden light which turned to orange and purple. We saw the sun disappear in 30 seconds, but Langtang mountain was still golden.

I'm not going to go all poetic about how beautiful it was to see this, how crazy it seems to be in Asia right now, and how the Himalayas have this way of putting you back into place, they're huge and show you most ardently, how small you really are.

After 134 pictures of the sunset (I don't really know how my camera works haha), we went down to warm up close to the fire. The reason why Nagarkot is almost deserted is because of the cold, we were all used to it, and had thermoshirts and skisocks with us.

I almost fell asleep at the bonfire, after a reallyyyyy nice Daal Bath (N1 love of Nepalis), and a bottle of Nepal Ice beer. I told a friend at Uni that I felt the alcohol immediately after not having had any for almost two months, they told me the drank more than enough for the two of us. I told him this joke: "I'm giving up drinking for a month. Oh sorry, bad punctuation. I'm giving up. Drinking for a month."

Sitting around the fire in the evening is very common, and when you're tired from a hike, it's bomb.com

I slept like a baby, Cathy didn't cause I accidentally set my watch alarm to ring every hour (I slept through all of them haha), and I talked in my sleep oops. Before 6, we woke up and walked to one of the fancy hotels, Shanker's clients often stay there so he knew some of the people, good for us because we could go on top of the viewing platform with a 360 view of mountains. The sunrise was ... unbelievable. In 30 min, the light completely changed, the wind blew clouds from the mountains, the whole valley looked almost like a sea from which the mountains rise like the loch ness monster.

Guess what, I'm getting poetic nonetheless. There's of Einstein in his last years, walking in his garden, saying:

"Sometimes a person just looks around and wonders: With what have I deserved so much beauty?"

That's it, how high mountains actually get you back down to earth.

Back on the roof of our BnB we had breakfast and then started to make our way down, passin hotels with the most beautiful views, alongside a brand new asphalted road built by the swiss development fund.

We arrived in Sankhu, an ancient town which before the earthquake, was a shining example of traditional life in Newari culture.A lot of the old houses were or are still in ruins, the government focuses on building roads, which is good, but as an effect, the budget for the care of community temples shrank, and the people are worried about culture and tradition getting lost.

The most important sites are close to a holy river, for one whole month every year. Thousands of people come a day to fast, pray and bath to celebrate one of the most famous Hindu goddess.

From Sankhu we took a bus back to Kathmandu, ours was the first stop, lucky us, meaning we had a seat for the 2H journey back. Right next to the stereo, who treated us from one banging tune to another, we spent the whole time laughing while Loco Contigo, Despacito and Baby were playing. Public Bus is never boring, the highlight this time was this dud who transformed a power tiller into a tractor and transported a 5m long pipe and loads of rice.

Arriving in Kathmandu, we thanked Shanker without who we would've been lost after 1H, and Cathy and I went to check out Kathmandu Mall which h. ad the most hilarious Replica I have ever seen. after saying one last time: "Isn't it crazy that we are in Nepal?". I made my way to Ratna Park, an area the size of glacis full of buses, I found my way, and happy and tired made my way home to Pharping.

You have to go over a hill to reach my valley, as it was the shortest day of the year, it was dark quickly, and while driving in the hills, you can see all the lights of Kathmandu, this I thought was worth considering as a Christmas present too.

Now we are the 24th, I wish you all a good time with your family. And I miss mine a little extra today. I'm going with Nisha to Kathmandu after work and we meet her friends, Cathy, Cathy's Vietnamese friend who's finishing her master’s thesis, and whose friend from the Netherland is visiting, but broke his ankle. Then there's the Vietnamese friend roommate from Finnland. Maybe we'll also meet a french girl from Paris, and my friend Rajani too.

Guess you never know what or who life will bring you.

Sending a huge packet of love to everyone at home for Christmas and New Years.

In Friendship,

Teddy Smile