With a Friend for whom Diwali is not just a festival of Light but an opportunity to take a break from the usual & travel!!!
His thought and my love to sit on the aircraft and travel got us landed in Kathmandu.
Weather was just as beautiful as I expected it to be, with the cold breeze touching my cheeks and giving me a sweet welcome to the land I was happy to breath in,the land of Mountains, Temples, Adventure & what not.
Airport was busy with people from all over the globe coming in with their bag packs to experience one of the most adventurous mountains hikes, forests, Temples.
My trip started with a hiccup as I lost my pair of shoes in transit & I didn’t knew whom to blame, the airline or the airport authorities & I choose to blame myself for not packing it properly but above all I was there and happy so I let the thought go.
I took a taxi from airport, a private taxi service as advised by the bloggers and went to Patan’s Hotel Taaja Pha Heritage Home and reached there within 15 min.
It was getting colder with sun going down and it was already 7.00PM, to my surprise I was told MakeMyTrip has not intimidated the Hotel about my booking. Moreover they are not partnering with MMT as service providers they accept Booking only via Booking.com or Agoda.
I lost my head becz I had no other place to go, my money was already debited for this booking and I was standing there helpless. All this conversation happened in less than 5 min and all I wanted was for my taxi driver to wait for few more minutes and that was after his own confirmation. But just after 5 min a big quarrel happened because he wanted me to pay waiting charges which was 1000 Indian RS and threatened me that if I don’t he will not let me stay in Nepal and he is a big gangster there and everyone works on his actions.
Nevertheless I was irritated with series of event happening and I challenge him to do whatever he can.
The complete opposite sort of human was the Hotel owner, he understood the concerns, took us in, tried calling every helpline of MMT since our SIM cards were not working, offered us coffee, helped us in finding new accommodation and arranged our conveyance.
My words cannot express my gratitude towards him and his place is highly recommended if someone is looking for a home stay away from city centre at a peaceful place, though I was not that fortunate.
We ended up checking in some average hotel in Kathmandu city centre, by the time we reached the room it was 11.00 PM, and went straight out to the street full of cafe’s and restaurants...had a chilled beer(Gorkha) there, local one but amazingly good and we tried forgetting about whatever happened.
Day 2 we wanted to travel to Chitwan, know for the dense forest, rhinos, tigers and all sort of wild life. We were asked to take one of the tourist buses which leave early around 7-8 am but with the exertion of day one and in a holiday mood, we choose to take a local bus late in the noon after a good days sleep and lavish breakfast....Sometimes it’s good to at least listen to the reception staff, but because they force u to purchase tickets from them and show scarcity of bus availability etc etc u end up doubting their intentions.
Anyways we made a bad choice and after searching extensively at bus stand we found a State transport bus which took almost 8-9hours to reach, plus they are not comfortable at all but we survived and reached our resort .Beautifully made, comfortable, cozy and relaxing.
Resort people had arranged for the Jungle Safari, Forest walk, canopy ride at the jungle river, everything was combined as a package...next day we went for all the above mentioned activities , though we could not see rhino and tigers because of the tall forest grasses .I manage to see a bear and birds, and the entire feel of forest was amazing. It was a beautiful view to see sun setting in forest and those jungle voices all around.
The night ended with chilled beer,one more delicacy of Nepal “Everest beer”,and happy high we thought of buying soda from a local store, sale price of a single soda bottle was 5 times more than the price printed on the bottle, on enquiring about the same we were told either to buy at the quoted price or to get the hell out of there.
With rage we strolled out,moreover it was not about the money but the behaviour of the shop vendor, also while moving out he said “bloody Indians” , “gareeb fuckers” came and spoiled my day.
This left a bad taste of such a scenic beautiful place. We could have fought with him in middle of the night but we choose not to.
Logically it’s Day 4, Our hotel made the arrangements for our travel to Pokhara with a early morning bus and this time we did leave on time, journey was comfortable,way better than the one to reach chitwan and we reached our destination within 4 hours time.
Our accommodation was booked in Hotel Dahlia, one where u will get the actual sense of hospitality....Warm smiles on faces and the humbleness will actually make u feel at home. They greeted us ,explained the dos and don’t of the place, they even arranged a bike for our conveyance in the city at a much cheaper rate and helped us with everything in a best possible way.
Highly recommended place!!!
Next four days went well, we did almost everything that every blogger had recommended to do in Pokhara
1.Phewa Lake(relax in one of the cafe’s facing the lake, boating can be tried with kids)
2.Davis Fall & Gupteshwar Mahadev Cave
3.Begnas Lake & Rupa Lake
4.Mehandra Caves (largest limestone cave)
5.SETI River
6.World Peace Pagoda
7.Sarangkot (Sunrise & Sunset point, amazing mountain view)
8.Matepani Gumba
9.Bat Caves
10. Paragliding ** must do adventure
I had my best time in Pokhara....every evening used to end with a couple of local beers Nd a tub of popcorn followed by some nice food, occasionally I indulged in local cuisine (Thakali cuisine) too, it’s home made dal and bhat with vegetables ,which was soothing at times.
Pokhara made me forget the bitterness of locals around.
Day 7. It was the time to move back to Kathmandu And we happily boarded the traveller bus ,for which u must do a pre booking because during Diwali season in Nepal very few transport providers work on these routes.
Reached Kathmandu in approximately 7-8 hours since the early morning bus was taken so we managed to reach by noon.
Entire Kathmandu was filled with children and adults dancing on the road on local songs, they do know how to celebrate their festival well.
After spending a relaxed evening we planned to spend the next day by seeing places
1. Pashupatinath (Must Watch)
2. Swayambhunath
A day’s trip to Bhaktapur will take you to
1 Bhaktapur Durbar Square
2. Nyatapola
3. 55 window palace
4. Vatsala Devi Temple
5. Taumadhi Square
6. Changu Narayan
7. Pottery Square (try your hand on pottery or buy small pieces for home)
8. Nagarkot (32 km from Kathmandu, roads are not that great so keep ample time in hand to see the sun setting on the Himalayas, and every bit of it is worth it)
Everything went well until we stopped to enquire with one of the adventure booking store about the Helicopter Ride to Everest Base Camp, it’s cost was around 2.5 lakh per person. If I’m shelling off that much amount obviously I would like to ask some detailed questions,
In response the guy (whose only job on earth was to help people and gain profits out of it) got agitated and said “ur Indian, u can’t afford all this. I can read this on ur faces” and trust me we actually wanted to do that, and did the entire budgeting on the trip only for this activity.
After hearing this forget about booking it, I actually wanted to kill that person and shout India slogans everywhere, this was humiliating specially coming from someone living in an economy where anything and everything is exported from India, this made me realise how thankful world can be.
Anyways this one thing took away my soul from me ,and I wanted to go right back home on that very day, i did not want to give even a single pennies business to the people of that country.
Afternoon was spoiled and we headed back to the hotel,being on the calmer side my friend chose to not say anything to the shop guy, which freaked me more and we ended up in a huge argument.
Later in the night we went to the casino called Ballys, much needed change of mood becz it was our holiday and that mattered more than that the local people around. Winning in the Casino boosted my spirit and I was happy and greatful again towards life.
Things we missed out on the trip:-
1. Helicopter Ride to Everest
2. Small treks becz either u can have relaxed sightseeing holiday or one of the trek.
3. Everest Base Camp trek becz the trek duration was of 14 days, seeing Nepal and trekking base camp cannot be done simultaneously.
In all it was a wonderful experience, avoid any interactions with the Locals, buy small things from Thamel Market and let the spirit of Himalaya touch ur soul, it’s a beautiful place. Foreigners with strong currency are welcomed with open arms becz the economy runs with them, if only the locals did not have bee and nectar relationship with white skin & green dollars,and if only they would consider treating every tourist the same, it’s actually a place in the foot of heaven where nature hugs u and mountains fill the soul with joy.
