Nepal: 2024

Nepal- the land of majestic mountains, rich culture and very good people. My recent trip to Nepal was really overwhelming. The only thing i couldn’t understand is why the tourism to Nepal from India isn't higher?

It is actually very convenient to go there- you do no need any visa and the flights operated by our very own air-auto service: Indigo. We actually had started the trip discussions with Jim Corbett but post collecting feedback from a lot of folks we changed the destination to just a little more north- Nepal.

One of the best things that I think about Nepal is its people. They are so humble, helping and sweet. A welcoming change.

Overall the infrastructure and development of Nepal felt exactly something like how India was 2 decades ago. I have no 1st hand idea of how india looked back then but that’s the insight I got from my parents.

Nepal is in serious need to overhaul its infrastructure and development, the sad part however is that no one seems so bothered about doing it. It is also going through a serious migration problem wherein most good children are sent outside to Australia, Europe, Canada etc as parents want their children to lead a better life. This however is just going to worsen the country's immediate economic problems.

I also found the people of Nepal to be far more religious as well as superstitious than Indians. Something i never thought can happen.

But as i said they are atleast 2 decades behind us and this is how exactly even we acted.

Let’s dive deep into the itinerary!!

Itinerary for trip to Nepal from India

Day-1:

We landed in Kathmandu relatively late afternoon and took a cab to our hotel. The plan for today was plain and focused: visiting the Pashupatinath temple. Many consider Pashupatinath and Kedarnath as 0.5 jyotirling each. Legend has it after the Mahabharat war when Pandavs were doing Shiv Tapasya as प्रायश्चित Shiv appeared in the form of bull. Bhim tried to catch him but the bill quickly put itself inside soil resulting in the face coming up at Pashupatinath and the hind retained at Kedarnath.

There are many versions to the story that led to the importance of the temple. The temple is one of most beautiful structures I have ever seen. The aura, beauty, and vibrancy is unmatched. It opens with a big Nandi in gold. The differentiation of the temple is that unlike normal one door entrance garbh grihas this temples inner sanctum has 4 doors allowing devotees to see the four faces carved out on the shiv ling.

Just before visiting this temple we had stopped at Boudhyanaath stupa, a construction in the heart of Kathmandu. There’s not much to do there but the vibe of this area is pretty hip.

Day-2:

We had a flight to Bharatpur at 930am and naturally we left for the airport at around 745am. The domestic airport is quite small and on reaching the ticket counter we received a very strange offer- do you want to prepone your flight by one hour?

Apparently the frequency of flights for these two connections is quite high and since we reached the airport early we got this offer of flying early instead of waiting at the gate.

This felt like the government state run buses who run every hour between any two state cities and you can catch the upcoming bus by just being present there. Well we gladly took their offer and immediately headed to board the flight.

Imagine the turn of events, we left the hotel at 7:45 am and we were in the flight at 8:30!

So if you are boarding domestic flights in Nepal be super relaxed. They are not at all strict with timings.

The purpose of visit to Bharatpur was Chitwan National Park, one of the few untouched jungles in Nepal.

The flight took a mere 20 min air time. Post landing I was further shocked at how things are handled here. There was no arrivals gate/ area rather there was this open shed like construction where everyone who arrives is waited and then bags are manually dragged on a cart and handed off manually. It was quite funny yet efficient actually:

We took a cab from airport to a government booth which controlled the rides of the jungle. We took on the full package include:

• Jeep safari

• Elephant back safari

• Canoe ride

• Visit to Elephant breeding centre

It cost us a total 13k INR per person.

Soon we started with the jeep safari which was more or less the same and not so exciting because lets be honest who spots animals whilst riding on that big noisy machine. We had a good ride of the jungle though, riding through narrow paths, sitting on water streams and visiting the local jungle temple.

After this we had lunch and quickly went upto the point where our elephant safari was to start. I thought its going to a childish thing of 10-15 mins but upon reaching there we realised that it was a 2.5 hour ride on the elephant deep into the jungle. Well, shit just got real. 1 elephant carries 4 people on its back.

We hopped on its back and navigated the dense jungle through streams, open land and what not. This was an experience like never before with us spotting so many animals and that too so close. The elephant doesn’t scare away these animals and they are doing what they are naturally doing and in many ways this is the best was to spot animals. We spotted:

• Rhinoceros

• Crocodiles

• Birds

• Deers

Each one very up close. You can check out this reel on my Instagram page- https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5p81Anszxp/?igsh=NG02cWd1bzd0eXR5

After the mesmerising jungle experience we started with our canoe ride through the river. It was a very peaceful ride with us spotting many more crocodiles on the way.

Day-3:

Today we had a flight from Chitwan to Pokhra. Consider Pokhra to be the Mumbai of Nepal. Well we reached the airport 1 hour before hoping to score an early flight once again, instead we were in for a huge shock we got news that the airport airspace at Pokhra was temporarily shut due to bird activity. I am still not sure if that reason was bullshit or not but it made us stay at the airport waiting for the flight to take off for around 3-4 hours. We only had a day at Pokhra so this was particularly sad for us. Anyway when we finally got to start the boarding process- the checkin was happening manually, with physical baggage tags been used (not the printed ones). We landed in Pokhra at lunch hour and the airport is so much better than even Kathmandu airport. Maybe thats because Pokhra apart from being the most happening city of Nepal is also the starting point of many treks.

We already had an itinerary ready or Pokhra and now was the time to fast-track it.. We hired a taxi right from the airport, dropped our luggage at the hotel (it was a waterfront resort, overlooking the main lake of Pokhra).

Our first stop was Devis waterfall, little underwhelming but with a sad back story. From there we went to visit the Gupteshwar Mahadev temple. This was a very unique experience because the temple was in the basement and from there a journey through caves led us to the back of the Devis waterfall. Getting to the point from where you could see the waterfall was a way completely led through caves.

From here we headed to visit the Japanese Stupa located at a height. The slopes in Nepali roads are insane. I cannot imagine any of us driving safely on these roads. To our nightmare while ascending the road we were hit by rain, 1st one of the season. We were in no mood to cancel the sightseeing and we continued moving ahead. On reaching the base of Stupa, we were required to walk up for about 15-20 mins to reach the spot. I don’t know why but we didn’t buy an umbrella on the way, we were just enjoying being drenched in rain (after so long). The stupa was beatiful, we clicked a few pictures and climbed back. From here we were to visit the newly constructed Mahadev statue atop a hill. Maybe this was part of the petty rivalry among 2 groups, well who knows. Even though the statue was beautiful and with rain pouring down it looked even more wonderful.

We ended the night at our hotel devouring the traditional Nepali thali called "thakali" its basically a rice thali. I didn't expect to like it so much, but it was delicious - definitely a must have.

Next day we were again to take a flight from Pokhra to Kathmandu.

Day-4:

On this day we were going to visit the Chandagiri hills. You get there through a cable car and the views are stunning. On top of the hill there is a Shiv temple, a good restaurant and a lot of activities for families to do.

We enjoyed the view atop, had some delicious momos roamed there for a bit and took the ride down. Next stop was the Monkey temple. It was a little outside the city. Nothing so great about it but more of a temple and Stupa placed together. There is also this ritual to roll these wheels outside the Stupa. I am still to find the significance of this, but definitely was a fun thing to do.

Our last stop for the trip was at Buddha Neelkantha. Its a unique temple with Vishnu lying down in the water and it is beautiful! It was very peaceful.

From this power packed day we went straight back to the hotel and prepared to leave for India the next morning. Lets cover some facts about Nepal that might be helpful if you’re planning a trip there:

• You obviously do not need a visa. An Indian passport is sufficient.

• You will not get any currency exchange in India or even the Nepal airport. But don’t worry there are plenty of local shops in the city which will offer you a good deal.

• However if you own USD or euros you can exchange the currency at Kathmandu airport too.

• At decent places, they will accept INR also at the same rate for which you will get the currencies exchanged.

• The people are very sweet and polite.

• Inter-city travel through flights is cheaper than you think and actually very convenient.

Well thats all for Nepal, onto the next trip and the next adventure!!