The trip from Bhaktapur to Nagarkot via muddy or half-broken roads again justifies our choice to take a cab instead of a scooter. After 1 hour drive, we arrive at the Mount Paradise hotel which bears its name well.

The air is pure and the view promising, even if the mountains including Everest are hidden by clouds. The boss of the hotel tells us that the view was very clear this morning for 30 minutes so we should not lose hope.
Sitting on the tree trunks sipping a good hot tea with honey and ginger is one of those unplanned joys that make the charm of the trip.

I take advantage of the very fast wifi of the hotel (whose password is “Ministry of Veg” lol) to write to an American couchsurfer. He plans to tour America in a van and has a free place for a goldsmith who likes to travel (he himself makes esoteric jewelry as a subcontractor). The project is too tempting, working with money in the middle of the mountains is an attractive vision, but having already a travel companion and being bad at goldsmithing, I write him just to propose him a meet up somewhere in South America.
Here is the message he left on the forum :

For those who don’t know me, I was introduced to goldsmithing. My level is still very amateur but this man’s project really makes me dream. Especially his “I make jewelry from anywhere. Anywhere”.
The boss of the hotel asks me if I am Nepalese which flatters me a lot. Finally someone who does not call me Chinese!
The bathroom is simple but a bit dangerous. Throne in the middle of the room a huge gas canister that you have to open to get hot water.
JB does not understand why he is bleeding heavily without pain. We will later discover a small leech that clung to his foot when he was working in the garden.

Day 2 :

We take a walk around the corner. The view is at times hidden by fog, we still do not see Everest and probably will not see it. We have already been advised against coming here in the middle of the monsoon but as we have all our time to lose, coming here to breathe fresh air is still very pleasant.
Narjakot is the highest place in the entire Kathmandu Valley and tourists come here to see Everest from afar, especially at sunrise. It is a small unpretentious village where all the restaurant signs are sponsored by a brand of beer.
Our hotel is located near a military zone. But a dog manages to get through the barriers to take advantage of the small forest that delimits this area.
We walk during 2 hours, the landscapes are magnificent. There are very few scooters/cars. Only the attitude blocks us a little bit the breathing.