Katmandu Visit dec 2009

The pleasant surprise of holidays to celebrate UAE national days was also a challenge to spend the time usefully away from the hustle and bustle of Dubai. In view of short time to arrange visa for elsewhere, Nepal became our obvious choice and we booked our tickets through Airarabia.

Day 1-2nd Dec

Despite protest, vatchmate Salim got up early morning took us to Sharjah airport. It was him who enlightened us about the indifferent Sharjah not celebrating "UAE" national day for several years. Contrasting to the festive scenes in Dubai, Sharjah roads gave a deserted look with no national colours or flags.......................

It was a perfect touch down on Nepali land with no bumps and right on time.Our hotel representative Dhruba was at the airport. How aptly he is called Dhruba meaning direction I didn't ask him whether he changed his name to suit his profession ! He had hired a dumb Nepali boy who was holding a placard with our name printed which to our joy popped up suddenly among scores of signboard by other travel agents. The 7 KM ride in the battered Toyota Corolla through the winding, dusty roads of the capital city gave us the first impression of Katmandu. The place appeared extremely crowded and wore the look of a pale and weak orphan on the street. The buildings, mostly incomplete and unplastered finish, stuck out like thorny cacti in the desert.

The unusually long queues of motorcycles and cars at petrol stations looked like twisted snakes. Petrol is very expensive and there is huge shortage of same in Nepal.

We reached Hotel Thamel quickly and completed the check in formalities.Dhruba then offered us a tailor made tour package which was agreed upon with minor changes. For $ 840, two days of sightseeing in Katmandu and one each night at the wildlife sanctuary Chitwan and mountain city Pokhara was a good deal. When he added river rafting, elephant ride and mountain flight to the basics, it became an instant sale to me.

We set out for city tour and first saw Buddha park where three huge statues of Khara cheri, Amitava Buddha and Padama Sambhava plated with gold stood majestically on its top.

The interior had a hall with hundreds of lamps burning wick and ghee, a ritual of the devotees.We also saw the huge rotating copper drum with inscriptions of the famous mantra " Ohm Maane Padme Ho" which would later be seen in all temples and stupas we visited in Nepal. The atmosphere was filled with the reverberations of this mantra.Listen to the mantra by clicking the link below this post.Here is the interpretation of mantra by Dalailama :

"It is very good to recite the mantra Om mani padme hum, but while you are doing it, you should be thinking on its meaning, for the meaning of the six syllables is great and vast... The first, Om  symbolizes the practitioner's impure body, speech, and mind; it also symbolizes the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha"

"The path is indicated by the next four syllables. Mani, meaning jewel, symbolizes the factors of method: (the) altruistic intention to become enlightened, compassion, and love."

"The two syllables, padme, meaning lotus, symbolize wisdom"

"Purity must be achieved by an indivisible unity of method and wisdom, symbolized by the final syllable hum, which indicates indivisibility"

"Thus the six syllables, om mani padme hum, mean that in dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure exalted body, speech, and mind of a Buddha"

The next stop was at Swayambunath temple located on a hill top.The temple is colloquially known as the 'monkey temple' because of the large tribe of roving monkeys who guard the temple.

According to legend, the entire Kathmandu valley was once filled with an enormous lake, out of which grew a mystical Lotus. The valley came to be known as Swayambhu, meaning 'Self-Created' or 'Self-Existent'. The Bodhistava Manjushri had a vision of the lotus at Swayambhu and travelled there to worship it. In order to make the site more accessible to human pilgrims, Manjushri cut a gorge through the mountains surrounding the valley. The water drained out of the lake, leaving the valley in which Kathmandu now lies. The lotus was transformed into a hill and the flower become the Swayambhunath stupa.

The numerous shops selling handicraft were irrestible.I ended up buying 8 pictures of various views of Himalayas captured on canvas by the artist who ran the shop as well. Had to start the bargaining from half the initial price offered most of the time !

Our driver Suresh was a good guide too and showed around  the Durbar Sqaure.

 

Got back to hotel and had a quiet dinner at the local McDonalds.

Our sleep was disrupted till midnight by the disturbing music from nearby dance bar. What an irony the bar was inaptly named Buddha Bar ! Buddha who was born in Nepal must be turning in his grave !!

 

Day 2-3rd Dec

We checked out and started early to be picked up by Dhruba's chauffer Vinod for a rafting expedition at Thrishuli river. The rafting spot is on the way to Chitwan which is 156kms from Katmamndu. The drive took 2-3 hours . We wore the saftey gear and carried the paddle and positioned ourself in the raft as instructed by "Captain" Mohan who sat at the tail end.The rafting took 3 long hours and ended with a hearty lunch brought on the raft in packets.The food packets and valuables were kept in a plastic drum secured in plastic bags. I was amazed by the enthusiasm of my wife Suma as she managed to row despite both hands crippled by perennial muscle pain aka tennis elbow. Sandeep sat in the middle and offered a hand once in a while.

At times, the river behaved rude and we rode on rough waves almost hitting our chest ! It was a challenge to maintain balance and keep rowing following captain's commands. The views of the valley and river were stunning..... we were served tasty and balanced lunch on the sand...it was a great experience to share few friendly moments with strangers. We returned in our car and reached the wildlife area Chitwan after 2 hrs drive. There was a lady from Cumbria UK who rowed with us and we gave her a free ride up to Chitwan.

It was an amazing story of the trained caretaker of mentally challenged children trekking on remote mountain slopes alone and eating the local food and using "Indian toilets".. She had trekked for 2 weeks and was planning to hit Everest base camp next year and Sagar matha itself next year !  It is hard to believe how the mountain attracts people of all walks of life to make hige sacrifices and achieves milestones here.

Chitwan turned out to be a perfect place to unwind and the hotel wildlife camp was quite convenient and clean. We very much enjoyed the place and the food served there. We met Henry the Singaporean with his two daughters at dinner. They had trekked up to base camp and introduced their sherpa Dorjee who had climbed Everest in 1986. The dad and kids were with us on the raft earlier.We had dinner with them and then walked to the nearby theatre to watch  a cultural program organised by the local tribe "Tharu".

Men danced to the beats of drums and folk songs and some dances had stick dance.It was a fantastic performance of physical endurance and artistic talent, pleasing to the eyes and ears ! The peacok dance was superb !

Day 3-4th Dec

We started our elephant ride around 8.30AM and it lasted about 1 hour.We saw Samba deer, spotted deer, peacocks, rhinos and crocodiles in the river we crossed while on the elephant. After returning to the camp, we were taken for a trip to National Museum and near by tribal house. Started off to Pokhara in car. The drive took around 4 hrs to cover 146kms.

Panorama hotel was again a good place to stay.We had dinner at a Punjabi restaurant and enjoyed the walk back to the hotel. Pokhara is full of trekkers who climb the Annapurna range of mountains. We could find every kind of hotel, bar and restaurant to different nationalities, exchange houses, shops selling souvenirs and trekking equipments. It was potpourri of culture from across the world.

Day 4-5th Dec

We got up early morning and went to Sarangkot by car to see the sunrise.The sunrise at this mountain top is included in every tour package as a must-see item. In good weather conditions, one could see the Annapurna range including famous peaks like Machhapuchare ( in English it is Fish Tail), Daulagiri AP1,2,3 etc. glittering in the background of golden sun. How ever, we were disppointed to see only a reddish bit of lazy sun reluctantly emerging out of stubborn clouds.

We had a city sight seeing tour in the same car and saw few temples and Gupteswor Mahadev Cave. The "Devi's fall" and  "Seti river Gorge"  were nothing but day light robbery of the tourists to make money out of a slender water stream calling it fancy names.We took the flight from Pokhara to Katmandu at 12.30 PM and arrived at the capital city within an hour.

We checked in at Hotel Thamel again but made sure we got a room not facing the bar !

The city tour in the afternoon included Pasupathinath temple and  Buddha Stupa. We could see the Pasupathinath aka Shiva's temple before they closed it by 3.30PM. It was quite a sight to see the grand Buddha temple with the famous Buddha eyes on the tower. Extremely committed devotees were falling repeatedly on specially made wooden planks by sliding the whole body on to it using some protective gloves for hands.

The numeours water cups with flowers was a treat for the eyes ! The whole place was filled with chanting of mantras and devotees praying in some form or other. There were huge prayer wheels/drums that devotees turned while chanting mantras. Sandeep was fascinated by the revolving drums. We bought one of those small wheels for $ 5.  Since it was a Saturday, the museums are closed and we could not see few ones in the city.

Dhruba met us in the hotel and discussed about the strategy for doing the mountain flight next day morning 6:30 AM. Since the Maoists had declared "bundh" or strike, alll shops would be closed and transport will be off the road. The former ruler Prachanta who had overthrown the King is now in opposition and three men of his party were killed in a clash with police whcih prompted the strike. Dhruba suggested leaving early morning and  going straight to airport by some means and catch our flight back home after the mountain flight.

Had dinner at Mandap, a nice western restaurant few minutes walk from our hotel. Once again Dhruba's recommendation was good.

Day 5-6th Dec

We checked out and got our break fast packed and ready for the adventure. Dhruba arrived and loaded the luggage in the richshaw he came in and we all walked to the nearest junction in search of a taxi. To much of our relief, we found just one and Dhruba paid some good amount to take us to the airport. He also paid us the amount for taxi fare from the domestic to international airport - a truly professional service indeed !

At the airport, we had to wait until 9:30 for the dense fog to clear and Guna, the mountain flight to take off.

It was quite an experience to witness the sight of the entire range and peaks of Himalaya unfolding in front of us ! Wow..we could fly close to the everest and take picture through the cockpit windscreen. It was a great opportunity to see the top most point of the world at such close proximity.

The view of  "death zone " and Hillary Step sent chills through my spine as I recalled  "Into thin air", true story of Jon Krakauer who climbed everest in 1996 and narrated the disaster that struck his team and claimed 5 lives during a deadly storm while descending the summit. I saw CD of the movie by same name in almost all book shops in Nepal and bought a copy for myself.

We were given a picture of all these peaks so we could compare the shapes and identify which one we saw while crossing them.

The flight returned at a convenient time for us to take a leisurely paced walk to the international terminal and we took the flight back at 1:30PM.

Back in Sharjah, ever reliable Salim was waiting for us and we had the honour of sharing our travel details over a nice cup of chai made by Saji.

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Some useful contacts /rates for those who would like to visit KTM
Cost of the package $750 for two adults and kid 9 yrs.See below for indvdl costs.
Chitwan tour INR 2500X3=$165 incld elephant ride, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Rafting $30X3=$90
Car with driver KTM -rafting-Chitwan-Pokhara=$140
Pokhara-KTM flight Guna airlines $38X3=$114
Mountain flight Guna airlines $91X2=$182
KTM city tour $33
Pokhara hotel inl BB&taxes $25
Pokhara tour $32
Rec tour operator : Dhruba Lamsal 97714422504 at Hotel Thamel http://www.marveltreks.com/
They are good for trekking tours http://www.marveltreks.com/trekking.php
Suggested hotel in Pokhara : Panorama or Barahi ( http://www.barahi.com/)