Nepal: The land of Mountains

Our visit to Nepal happened sometime in last week of December 2022. We were 4 of us in total, travelling all the way from Karnataka, a southern Indian state to Nepal, an all together different country. Though it doesn’t require visa/passports to travel to Nepal, just having them handy in case of emergency would help.

So our trip began from Bangalore on a Christmas day. When people were busy celebrating Christmas, the 4 of us were in airport waiting to board our flights. Though there were direct flights landing inside Nepal from India, we preferred to drive to Nepal for a better experience. We had the flights booked from Bangalore to Patna. And from there had a self drive car arranged.

Nepal has many borders shared with India. And one can enter through any of the borders. The borders are located in multiple points along UP, Bihar, Sikkim. We decided to enter thru the Sanauli border (in Uttar Pradesh) and exit through the Raxaul Border ( Bihar). That way it would make a round trip for us.

Day 1: The travel day

After landing Patna, we straight away headed to collect our car. If ones planning for self drive to Nepal in car, I’d recommend to choose SUV’s and preferably with 4WD  as some points the road are pretty bad. Luckily for us we had got Tata Nexon, which did serve the purpose decently. From Patna we drove all the way to Gorakhpur. We managed to reach Gorakhpur only by evening, around 7-8pm. And proceeding further dint make any sense as the Nepal gates would be closed by around 8pm. Hence we halted at Gorakhpur.

Gorakhpur is quite a big city in itself. People planning for Nepal can also plan to fly in directly here as an alternative. Gorakhpur is famous for its temples, Shri Gorakhnath Mandir. One can even plan to visit them.

Day 2: Crossing the Nepal Border & the Bansal!

So the next day we started off early morning, and headed to the border. Sanauli border is the main entry point to Nepal when visiting from Gorakhpur side. Also there’s one more check post called Kakhrawa which directly connects to Lumbini in Nepal. But we dint want to take risk and hence headed to Sanauli border. This border is like the major entry point between the two countries. One could find loads of truck lined up for entry/permit. Upon reaching at the border, if ones travelling by walk, he/she is free to walk into Nepal. No questions asked. However, for vehicles one has to get permit (called Bansal) before entering. For getting the Bansal one needs his/her Driving license, RC registration(original). Additionally, there is fixed charge per day which has to be paid depending on the type of vehicle. Getting Bansal does take some time and we spent around 3-4 hours here waiting for it.

The India-Nepal Border checkpost at Sanauli, UP

It was around afternoon when we finally got Bansal. We were now finally inside Nepal legally. From here we directly headed to Lumbini. Lumbini is very significant for Buddhist as it is known to be the birth place of Gautam Buddha. Its believed that Gautam Buddha was born to Mayadevi here.

Lumbini has many tourist attractions to be covered. We first visited the World peace pagoda, from there headed to Japanese temple. Right next to this is a huge park which consists of a series of buddhist monasteries and temples built by various countries of the world. 

World Peace Pagoda, Lumbini

Great Drigung Kagyud Lotus Stupa

One can find monasteries from Thai, Singapore, Korea, Australia, Nepal, Cambodia, etc. Also the famous Mayadevi temple lies inside this park. Theres a nominal entry ticket to be paid. Its however advisable to take a local auto at the parking as they would be knowing the location of all the famous monasteries/temples. It would take at least half a day to cover all of them in brief. People planning for a detailed walk around might spend more than a day here.

Ruins at Mayadevi Temple

By the end of the day, we were done with Lumbini. As our next destination was Pokhara, we headed further along the route to Pokhara and halted in Butwal. Butwal is a comparatively bigger city. One can find good accommodation, food here.

Day 3: Butwal to Pokhara

Butwal to Pokhara is around 6 hours drive. We started off from Butwal by around  7 in the morning. On the way the journey to Pokhara was quite scenic. With deep valley’s around, river stream, waterfalls and what not. We also managed to visit couple of water falls near Butwal, Ramapithecus Park, a dam over the hanging bridge, Bhoot Khola (waterfall) before proceeding further. Also we did try to visit one more falls called Rani Jhara, but the road turned to be very bad post mid way, and we had to return back without visiting the falls.

An unnamed falls near Butwal

Ramapithecus Park Dam

From there we further headed to Rani Mahal, a white palace built on the banks of Gandaki river. It is also known as Nepal’s Taj Mahal. This was built by Gen Samsher Rana, in memory of his late wife. Though we missed the actual road to Rani Mahal and did too much of off-roading, there’s good road coming directly from Tansen city, and is hardly 20-30 mins from the main city. One can even plan for a overnight stay here in river side tents in Rani mahal. Also there is one more Museum , Palpa Darbar Museum located in Tansen, which one can plan for.

Bhoot Khola Falls, Butwal

Rani Mahal Tansen

By the time we finished visiting the Rani Mahal it was already sunset. We had wasted couple of hours today offroading. But it was a good experience though. From Tansen we further proceeded towards Pokhara, which was around 4-5 hours from here. After driving for another 3 hours we stopped for dinner at place called Helu Village. Since it was getting cold, we decided to stay nearby and resume the remaining journey the next day.

Day 4: Finally entering Pokhara

We started off from Helu village around 7. On the way we managed to witness scenic spots all along. There were plenty of hills providing amazing views. Also enroute there was a place called Bhalu Pahad, made entirely of black rocks. One can even walk to the hill via hanging bridge and find a peaceful Balu(bear) sitting there and enjoying the mountain views! As this stretch is completely mountain region, the road is quite dangerous at some points.

Entrance to Bhalu Pahad

The Bhalu of Bhalu Pahad

Just before entering Pokhara town, we took a small deviation and visited World Peace Pagoda, built on top of hill. This time from the top of Pagoda we could see the Pokhara lake, the Himalayas, the Annapurna mountain ranges. From here proceeding further one could also visit Pumdikot Shiv temple, which too is on top of a hill.

World Peace Pagoda, Pokhara

Annapurna ranges as seen from the Peace Pagoda

Though we had planned to reach Pokhara previous evening, we were delayed by a day. We somehow managed to reach around 12 today. Pokhara is a huge town, may be next to Kathmandu in Nepal. But Pokhara is a very beautiful town. Its more relaxed here and people usually recommend staying in Pokhara than Kathmandu’s Pokhara has lot of tourist attractions/activities to be done around.

Our first stop inside Pokhara was Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave, a cave dedicated to Lord Shiva. Inside the cave was a small tunnel leading to Devi falls, named after a foreigner who went missing here in the waterfalls few years back. 

Gupteshwar Mahadev Cave Entrance

Devi Falls near the cave

From here we visited the Chamere Gufa, aka the bat cave. There were thousands of bats hanging to the ceiling of the cave. We were provided with torch lamps for us to explore the cave. From here we next headed to Mahendra Gufa, which too is close by. This cave is famous for the limestones formed in it.

Bats at Chamere Gufa

Mahendra Gufa

After the caves we then headed towards the Seti River Gorge, which is a beautiful creation. Basically a bridge for the water to flow, over another river, Seti River. 

Seti River Gorge

From here we next headed to Bindyabashini Temple, located almost on top of a small hill.

Bindyabasini Temple, Pokhara

It was already evening by now. Hence, we decided to stay near Sarangkot, roughly 10kms from Pokhara city, a hill station famous for the early morning sunrise view. We drove to Sarangkot and found a good place to stay at the top and called off for the day.

Day 5: Sarangkot Sunrise and Pokhara Lake

Since it was winter, sunrise was at around 6:50am. We all woke up much before that to witness the sunrise from Sarangkot. But to our dismay it was cloudy today. From Sarangkot one can see the sunrise hitting the beautiful Annapurna Mountain ranges.  Sarangkot also has a viewpoint at top of the hill, a temple being renovated currently, and cable car connecting Sarangkot to the Pokhara lake, providing a view of entire Pokhara city. Since we were already at the top, we dint plan for the cable car ride.

Sarangkot Watch tower, under renovation

Scantily visible sunrise at Sarangkot

The mountain ranges visible from Sarangkot

After spending some time at the top, we decided to head back to Pokhara. We visited the famous International Mountain Museum in Pokhara. This museum was very informative about the mountain ranges around, the climbs and history behind each of them. One should definitely visit this museum for a better insight on the mountain ranges.

International Mountaineering Museum

From here we headed to the Pokhara Lake. Since it was the time of new year, there were few activities going on around the lake. The Pokhara lake is a very huge relaxed lake. In the middle of the lake lies a temple called Tal Barahi Temple, which can be visited by taking a boat from the lake side. All along the lake there are plenty of shacks and restaurants providing good food and views.

Pokhara Lake

Boating in Pokhara Lake

It was already evening by now and we planned to stay put near the lake. We found a good accommodation nearby and checked in. Post check-in we went out towards the lake for dinner and later called off for the day.


Day 6: Pokhara to Manokhamna temple

It was 30^th Dec today. Though many people suggested us to spend new year in Pokhara, we were short of time as we still had to cover Katmandu. After visiting Katmandu I strongly agree with their suggestions though.

The original plan for today was to drive from Pokhara to Kathmandu, visiting Rupa lake, Manokamna temple, and a couple of falls on the way. We started off from Pokhara early morning and our first stop was Rupa lake. Rupa lake though was big lake, it was still in process of improvement. Instead of Rupa, it’d be better to visit Regina lake.

Rupa Lake

From there we headed towards Manokhamna. Enroute we stopped for Siddha gufa. Siddha gufa is a cave located on top of hill range near Bimalnagar. To reach the gufa one must trek uphill for around 30mins. Since we were short of time we planned to skip this. Instead we visited the Aina waterfalls. This fall dint have much of water in it though.

From here we headed to the Manokamna temple, a very powerful temple, believed to fulfil wishes of its devotees. To reach the temple, there was a cab car station. But upon reaching the cable car station at the base, we found that the cable car was closed for 2 weeks sighting maintenance. Hence we were left with no other way other than driving to top of the hill. We had to head back towards Pokhara for around 15-20kms and then take a deviation to reach temple. From here the drive top the hill was an offroad drive with stretches of steeps and downs. It was around 9-11kms but it took us more than a hour to drive. We finally reached the top of hill and surprisingly the top is a small town in itself. There were plenty of hotels, eateries etc located on top. We stayed at one of the hotels and called off for the day.

Manokhamna Temple

Day 7: Manokamna temple and Kathmandu

We woke up early as we presumed a big queue at temple. We reached at the temple by 5:30 but by then there was already a long queue of people waiting for the darshana. We somehow managed to have darshana of the Devi Bhagavati and Lord Shiva. Also from the Manokamna hill one can have a sunrise with view of Annapurna , Manaslu mountain ranges.

Entry to Manokhamna Temple

Post that we started the descend to the Pokhara-Kathmandu main road. Once we crossed Mugling, we took a small deviation to visit Lumre falls. Lumre falls is another beautiful fall. But we were told that the road to Lumre was having some construction and would be closed from 11am-3pm. We had a small window, 10-15mins to visit the falls and return to our road.

Lumre falls from view point

Beautiful Lumre falls

From there we then headed to Kathmandu, which was another 4 hours from here. We finally managed to reach Katmandu by evening. Kathmandu is a huge town, but we had planned our stay  in Thamel region. A region famous for the shopping and temples.

Evening post checking in to the hotel, we took a walk near the Kathmandu durbar square. There also a museum and temple, both of which were closed by the time we reached.

Kathmandu Durbar Square

Day 8: Kathmandu Local Sightseeing

We hardly had 2 more days left in Kathmandu. Today we had planned majorly for the sightseeing around Kathmandu. We started off by visiting Swayambhu Buddha Park, a huge park comprising of buddhist temples. 

Swayambhu Buddha Park

From here we then headed to Pashupatinath Temple. The temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is located next to Bagamati river and is a Mukhalinga, having faces on the Linga. 

Entrance to Pashupathinat Temple

Probably since it was 1^st Jan today, the temple was very very crowded. We somehow did manage to visit the temple. From here we headed to Budhanilkantha Temple, sleeping Vishnu over water.

Budhanilkanta Temple

Then we headed to the Kathmandu airport to enquire about the Everest Sightseeing flight. If ones planning for the same , its required to pre-book tickets at least a day prior. We got our flight tickets booked for the next day.

Later we headed to Bhaktapur, which hosts of 4-5 Durbar squares, temples, pottery, etc. Bhaktapur is a huge city and one can even plan to stay inside this. But since we had flights booked for tomorrow we headed back and stayed near Kathmandu Airport.

Temple in Bhaktapur Durbar square

Temple in Bhaktapur Durbar square

Temples in Bhaktapur Durbar square

Temples in Bhaktapur Durbar square

Temple in Bhaktapur Durbar square

Temple in Bhaktapur Durbar square

Day 9: The Sagarmatha(Mount Everest) View and Adieu Nepal

The flights usually start from the airport by around 6:30 in the morning. We reached well in advance. But due to bad weather the flight got delayed and finally took off by 8am. The flight is hardly 50mins in duration and is a small 40 seater plane which goes from Kathmandu airport, covering the mountain ranges of Himalaya starting from Langtang till Sagarmatha and then comes back the same way. In this flight we could spot many famous mountain peaks including Sagarmatha(mount Everest), GauriShankara, ChuOyu, Makalu. The flight though seems to be a bit expensive at first, is worth when one sees Sagarmatha so close.

Spectacular Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) view from the flight

Post the flight we headed back to our room and checked out from the hotel. Today was our last day in Kathmandu and we still had one more place to visit, Chandragiri Hill. Chandragiri is about an hour from Kathmandu. To reach the top we took the cable car from the base station. At top there are plenty of activity area, including view points, temple, café, zip lining, swing etc. From Chandragiri too, one can spot the Annapurna and Sagaramata ranges if the weather is clear.

Chandragiri Cable car

Temple on top of Chandragiri Hills

View from Chandragiri Peak

Chandragiri hill marked the end of our trip in Kathmandu. We were now to head back to Patna from here. We had one more day tomorrow in Patna before flying back to Bangalore. Though there are multiple roads leading to Raxaul border from Chandragiri, from our previous experiences, we now preferred the NH going via Naubise, Thaha. This road was too lengthy but atleast the road was asphalted. Also there were lot of view points along the way which one can plan to visit too.

We crossed the Indian border at Raxaul by 9:30, just 30 mins before the border closes for the day. Post this we were now back in India, and we drove till Motihari before calling off for the day.

Day 10: Few hours in Patna before flying back Home

Today was the last day of our trip. Patna was still around 3 hours from place we stayed last night. But since we had nothing much to do for the day, we were quiet relaxed. We reached Patna, and had still few time left before boarding the flght. Hence we visited the Patna Biological Zoo, quite close to airport before handing back the car and flying back home

 

Patna Zoo

Overall it was a amazing 10 day trip to Nepal. In such short span we did manage to cover the main attractions and also experience the Nepaleese culture. Nepal would be highly recommended to anyone who looks forward to witness the beautiful nature with mesmerizing view and mountains.