There were only two things that could kick us out of Bandipur. If it weren't for the flight home of our friend Max and Ambient Valley festival, we would still be sitting in our favourite cafe overlooking the green mountains around that piece of heaven. Honestly, we would have probably bought us a house there and never ever left the place. But goodbye kisses had to be given and we had to find out what the deal was with this festival. Because in Nepal, things never work out like you expect/ facebook says.
On Saturday morning we packed our bags full of camping and dancing gear and headed straight to Thamel to get our tickets for the festival. No one knew anything about a festival. Okay. This is all part of the Nepali way of organising. Three hours later we jumped in the back of a jeep and drove to the middle of Shiva Puri National Park. Oooh how good it feels to be in nature after spending a day in busy noisy Kathmandu! We pitched our tent under plum trees and started dancing in the rain. We were the only people on the dance floor but we didn't mind. After a while we realised we were pretty much the only people at the festival. A private party!
In the evening the rain decided it had created enough mud for the day and gave way to millions of stars. Shooting stars! And fire flies! At one point the orange moon disappeared and it felt like we were completely surrounded by stars. In the sky, but also around us (the fire flies) and below us (the lights of the mountain villages). Magical Nepal.
We woke up to sweet music, the singing of birds and the sunrise over the himalayas. At the breakfast buffet it became clear once again that this must be the smallest festival crowd we've ever seen. As soon as we packed up our tent in the afternoon, it started to rain again. I was joking that Nepal has adopted the Belgian weather when all of a sudden hail poured down the sky. Monsoon season made quite the entrance. For hours we were stuck in the dining room, hoping the land slides won't block the road back to Kathmandu. I wouldn't mind spending another night under the stars, I thought. I even brought my thermals for the occasion. Maybe this was the only opportunity I would ever get to dance on a festival in my thermal underwear! Do you even realise how comfortable thermals are? If you think I'm weird, wait until you hear this: Dean bought the same thermals! Yes! I love it when strange people find each other and a whole new level of weirdness comes to life.
Long live thermal underwear!