Nepal

1275

6. June 2020

Travel report Nepal

Nepal, honestly our imaginations for what to expect were a little bit different before reaching Nepal. Nepal is usually known for its trekking tours and most tourists head for Mount Everest from here. We are not the biggest trekking fans however, as visitors to Nepal we would be an absolute exception. We decided to go for a 10 day sightseeing tour through the country, as we are more interested in the culture and history of the country.

Kathmandu

The streets are really chaotic. Deep potholes and everybody is trying to find a way through the traffic. Of course there are no traffic lights. Everybody tries to hold their nose and is wearing a mask. The air is dusty and dirty in addition to that people were burning plastic in nearly every corner. Yes, that is Kathmandu!

Thamel belongs to the historical center of the city. The alleys are decorated with traditional colourful flags. A festival is coming up. The most holy celebration for all Hindus. Hooting Tuk-tuks and rickshaws were trying to wriggle through the crowd. A permanent smell of joss sticks and spice shops mixed with a hint of diesel lingered in the air.

Kathmandu City

In any case everything works quite well, or at least it seems like that. It is everyday life to the locals. In Nepal people have cattle and dogs as pets. The cattle are very important for the Hindus and they are indeed sacred to them.

To understand Hinduism better you should visit the Pashupatinath Temple

The Pashupatinath Temple is the most important temple in Nepal and the Mekka for all Hindus. Pilgrims from all over South-East Asia come to visit the temple. What we saw there was a little bit strange for us. We have to admit we were quite sceptical but on the other hand also quite curious to see the ritual. In this temple the Hindus were celebrating the burial of their family members in public like a little party with locals and tourists. Everybody noticed that very special person died. Hindus believe in life after death.

Just to give you guys a short explanation about the procedure of a Hindu funeral, here you can find a short overview.

The Ganges is the most holy river for Hindus and is flowing through Nepal and India
They are washing the dead body in the river
On the other side of the river the undertaker was sweeping the remaining ashes and bones of the dead bodies into the water
They place flowers over the dead body
After that they carried the corpse on a stretcher made of bamboo sticks to the pyre and the oldest son of the family lit the fire beneath his father
After the funeral the relatives and children took a bath in the river and went home

Omg, luckily we could say, that the wind was blowing from the right direction and we didn’t smell anything. However, we have to admit for Europeans it is nevertheless quite an unusual scene. Nonetheless that is the reason why we are travelling, so as to explore new cultures. For us it is quite interesting how people cope with death.

From here you can not only see the cremation but you can also admire a couple of very nice small temples. However most of the buildings were destroyed by an earthquake and were at the time of writing still under reconstruction. With a little bit of luck you can meet a painted man with a long beard and long matted hair mostly bound like a bun.

Swayambunath Tempel

Also called monkey temple. Of course you could hear all the noises from the monkeys walking on the roof nonstop. Sometimes it can happen that a group of monkeys jump directly in front of your feet.

The Swayambunath stupa is one of the oldest Buddhist stupas in the world and is located on a hill. The view of the city is just gorgeous!

Art #Starwars vs. #monk

The perfect view into the city

Swayambunath Temple in background

Prayer wheels

Hiking in Nargakot

We mentioned at the beginning of our report that we are not the biggest of hiking fans. Nevertheless our guide convinced us to at least go on a small hiking tour. Equipped with a small backpack we were hiking two and a half hours through the mountains. It took us as you would expect up and down through hills and hollows and we crossed a couple of small villages. We have to admit it was a good trip, we learned a little bit more about the local people and also how life is in the villages themselves. It was during the rice harvest and a lot of people were working in the fields there were others playing board games or distilling Rice Moonshine Vodka. Time was flying and there were so many things to explore. This small tour through the mountains was a lot of fun for us.

The nice view to the rice fields

: A lot of cutie puppies

: cuddle time

Pokhara

Until we reached Pokhara, it was a long and bumpy road. We needed around 7 hours from Kathmandu to Pokhara. It was a very bendy and curvy road with its many ups and downs. Buses and big trucks were overtaking us all the time even on the bends. For us it was quite scary and our hearts almost stopped when a bus overtook us. Notwithstanding that observation this type of driving seems to be normal in Nepal.

Pokhara is the second largest city in Nepal and is approximately 200 kilometre away from Kathmandu. A lot of people call Pokhara a hippie city.

The deep blue Phewa lake surrounded by the Himalayan peaks, temples and pagoda, this place just seems to be different . There are a couple of small bars that are perfect for a cocktail or local food. Especially at sunset you have a great view over the lake and can admire the shadow of the Himalayas, just awesome!!!.

By the way that city is in fact the starting point for a lot of trekking tours. The view from there has to be fantastic!

Chitiwan

Finally we found ourselves surrounded by greenery, no dust or annoying noises around us. The Chitiwan Nationalpark is famous if you want to see a tiger. Naturally of course it is quite hard to see a tiger in real life and you need good eyes combined with a lot of luck.

Indeed there are tigers in India to see, we wrote about the tigers in one of our other articles.

With a canoe in a small group we were heading down the river on the other side of the river. The timing of the jeep safari set us up for a fall, our safari started at 12.30 and we would have been quite spoiled to see a lot of animals, but at this time of the day it is usually, nearly impossible to see any animals for the most part. The best time to see animals is before sunrise or in the late afternoon, at this time animals are quite active.

Like the aforementioned point on the hottest part of the day we did not see so many animals on our safari. We were driving five hours through the national park and only saw a giant spider and a couple of different birds.

Photostory #nepal people <3

Conclusion

The culture of Nepal was very impressive for us. Especially the history and Buddhist culture, the life of the local people, the nature and the mountains. ..Unfortunately we also saw the aftermath of the huge earthquake in 2015. A lot of buildings in Kathmandu were destroyed and never rebuilt, unfortunately the environment is suffering a lot under the tons of plastic trash and most of the people are living in poverty.

Thanks Nepal for all the lovely impressions <3

Infobox

Hotels

Hotel Ambassador by ACE Hotels

The Fort Resort

Waterfront by KGH Group

Green Park Chitiwan

Visa

The Visa you can get directly at the airport for 35 US Dollar.

Don’t forget a passport photo.

Transport

For a sightseeing tour through it, it is the best to rent a car with a localwith local driver . We rented a local driver for our 10 days tour and all worked great

Currency

Nepalese Rupee NPR

Language

Nepali

Local time

You can read the local times here

High Season

The best time for Nepal here

Health

You should your vaccination certificate from a doctor before you start your journey maybe you have to refresh tetanus , yellow fever and hepatitis A, B and C.

Guide Information

Name

Sabin Dangol

Languages

Nepali

English

Contact

Instagram: @tourguidenepal
facebook: Sabin Dangol
youtube: SabinDangol

TripAdvisor rating

Sabin, a great guide! Motivated, disciplined and flexible!

We have to say thank you Sabin! He gave us a great trip through Nepal. We can really recommend Sabin to him as a local „trekking“ guide. In advance you can create the tour from home. Sabin enables a private tour by car and driver through the country, trekking tours or climbing the mountain. Everest. 😉

We love him and we wish him all the best for his future! He is a great guide!

Thank you so much Sabin! <3

Von meinem iPhone gesendet

Nepal

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