Nepal Memoir

God could not have been everywhere, so he made parents. And God could not have heaven on earth so he made heaven like paradise places on the earth.  And so being one of the most fortunate one, I was able to experience both God and Godliness and heaven-ness in this year’s wonderful trip to Nepal with extended family. Family Album link

Mom-Dad, Chacha- Chachi, Dadi and Bhua with all the younger ones Appu, Banshi, Manu and Soumya, we were total of 11 people from age group of 12(Sowmya-Bhua’s daughter) to Dadi (82+). Habitual of reaching airport just an hour early for domestic travel, I assumed that reaching 2:5 hours in advance of departure, we were well ahead of time. And so all of us were almost in a holiday relaxing mode already taking pictures and having snacks at the airport. While we reached the Indigo counter at around 10:00 AM for the flight of 11:45 AM, it was a long line already and little did I realize that not everybody had a passport so checking documents with children’s school mark sheets will take a little bit longer than usual. Followed by a long distance to the Immigration counter and huge line there. While the Indigo staff was kind enough to arrange for a wheelchair for Dadi, all of us were literally running to the immigration counter. But bang on…..the long queue at the Immigration, we would have missed our flight had not the officer we approached to arrange our checking from the diplomatic counter acceded to our request. We were the last one to reach the packed flight with all the passengers already on boarded.

Finally Boarded on Indigo flight no 6E031 from T3 Delhi to Tribhuvan International airport Kathmandu. Special thanks to out travel agency Sankrit tour zone, who’s wonderfully designed 5 nights 6 days trip was a lifelong memorable one. Driver Prakash with a sweet wide smile was ready to receive us the Kathmandu airport and we reached our hotel Mahadev in around 30 min to spend the rest of the day in leisure in the hotel. Since we left Delhi home at around 9:00 in the morning and reached Kathmandu hotel at around 5:00 PM, all of us were literally starving. Mahadev hotel is one of the famous, only vegetarian hotel in Kathmandu with just 2 kms from the palace of Pashupati. We had our lunch cum dinner at the hotel and all of us had good evening’s rest.

Next day morning on 20^th May, after feeding ourselves at the hotel’s breakfast buffet, driver Prakash was ready with the vehicle to pick us up. All of us relishing the wonderful morning, boarded vehicle to receive blessings of Baba Pashupati. Temple is a little far from the parking place, around 700-800 mts. This did not bother us much except for Dadi who is nearing 82 now and is not able to walk that much. Neither there was any wheelchair available from the parking place. But Dadi made it to the temple area, slowly and steadily. Not to mention, the sun was right above our head and it was hot even at 9:00 am in the morning. Huge crowd of devotees chanting har har mahadev; the local police and administration busy in managing the crowd, flocks of pigeons in the adjacent feeding ground and a couple of bearded cocks were all the temple area. There was a long queue and it took us around 30-40 min to view the deity inside the temple area

Saturday is a public holiday in Nepal and hence it was normal than usual crowd. Red is something auspicious for Nepalese so women in red suits/ sarees with red chains on neck and deep red sindurs and bindi appeared to be very appealing and revering. Due to long queues, one could hardly see the sight of baba for more than 30 seconds and then one can offer all the pooja, aarti, abhishek in the nearby area within temple’s premise. There is also a crematory at the bottom of the temple area on the banks of river Trishul. I am sure that none could be a better place to bid goodbye to the material world than this would.

Having received the blessings of Mahadev at the temple, we returned back to our vehicle and then started for Boudhanath Stupa. It was sufficiently hot and humid both. Boudhnath stupa is an old monastery spread over an area of around 11 kms . The entry fees is 250 Nepalese and the central area of the monastery is a huge rectangular altar. Eyes of Baudhnath stupa typical of Nepal Buddhist structure is carved on top of it. The entire raised platform about 10 feet in height,  is surrounded by typical Buddhist bells. One is supposed to take the parikrama of the area and keep circulating these bells. There is a pavement leading you to go upstairs and have a panorama view standing at the top of altar. The area’s caretaker Buddhist monks were so cheerful and happy amidst the scorching heat and we felt really blissful at the place. The view at the top was amazing with the entire area looking like a huge decorated market place at bottom and Baudha stupa overlooking at everything as if blessing the entire area. The whole rectangular area is surrounded by different shops from things typical of Nepal like scents, Buddhist artefacts, symbols, mats, clothes, nepali caps, dresses, different herbs and medicines and off course with snacks & coffee shops. Having done some good shopping, photographing and seeking blessings of Buddha Stupa, we came back to the vehicle, immediately asked Prakash to get the AC on and moved to our next destination of the day, Swambhunath.

Swayambhonath is a Buddhist temple situated at a height of 370 steps which take you to the temple at the top. There is a wish pond at the entrance where you put coins and wish for something. The stairs leading to the top are laid out in a zig zag manner with people selling water, cucumbers, icecreams, certain juicy Nepali fruits etc on the way. It was hot but the wind had started blowing, so was fun climbing stairs. Though I know, all the parents were really tired. Once reaching the top, all the tiredness was relaxed in moment seeing the scenic beauty. There were large no of small temples in the whole area and the deity’s temple was a big one in the midst of all these surrounding small ones. You could see entire Kathmandu from top with all the buildings clustered together. Cool breeze was blowing. At the outer side of the deity’s temple, there was a Nepali monk performing ceremony of warding off some evil ghosts. Tantrik like pooja with the lady sitting moving her head with open hairs and wide eyes appeared fearful. The lady inside the temple was receiving offerings from devotees who addressed her as Guruma. We offered prayers, offerings and came outside to enjoy the souvenir shops and scenic photography. Way to bottom was faster and easier than the climb. Having reached downstairs we fed ourselves with some Pua and rice dish, typical of Nepal and were on the way next to Budha-Nilkanth.

Budha-Nilkanth is at a height of few 20-30 stairs and has a huge statue of lord Vishnu lying in a pond. It was hot and so walking without footwear to view lord’s sanctorum between the pond was tough. Dadi and papa/chahca did not go downstairs to the pond and viewed from outside only. There was temple around too, with a nearby temple of goddess Lakshmi. We offered our prayers and relaxed there for sometime watching the cool breeze coming from the all-around and the huge statue of the lord relaxing. After spending some time around the deity, we on-boarded our vehicle for our next destination

Durbar hall was nothing more than an abandoned park and so we decided not to go inside, rather took our vehicle to the Kathmandu museum on the backside of durbar hall. Museum was undergoing renovation and we took a local guide who charged us 500 INR for 30 minutes. He took us to the central hall of the palace and explained that, it was courtyard of the king. During days of king’s rein, animal sacrifice of 108 buffaloes was done during Navratris. He said that even now, some 10-11 buffaloes are sacrificed during pious occasions. He explained that 98% of Nepalese are buffalo eaters and beef of buffalo is their main course of lunch/dinner.

We then moved to the nearby palace of king and then went upstairs of the two storey museum having all the objects/ artifacts. From objects related to kings throne, their ornaments, utensils, different statues in different mudras of Buddha, Shankar, Ganesha, Vishnu, Narad,  goddess Nature, explanation around various tantric cults, science behind Kamasutra and some related stuff .. the museum was a huge knowledge base. Trying to wrap up everything in around two hours, we tried to absorb and appreciate as much as could be possible. Wrapping up then, we were now on our way back to hotel and directly reached the hotel restaurant at around 5:30 PM in the evening.  We ordered lunch thalis for all of us and fed ourselves with lunch cum dinner and had a good night’s rest

Next day morning on 21st May, again with the wonderful breakfast and aarti of Goddess Durga in Mahadev hotel, all of us boarded our vehicle with the wonder driver to start for a wonderful ride to Pokhra from Kahthmandu. The journey is around 300 kms and the plan was to visit Mankarna devi temple on the way. We started around 9:00 AM in the morning and not to forget mentioning that the road is not good. I will recommend taking a flight from Kathmandu to Pokhra as far as possible for people who intend to travel between the two cities. For us, it was a tough journey, all the more because my Bhua is not comfortable with road travel and she had nausea and vomiting all along the way. It was difficult for Dadi too since the heat of typical summer Sunday was at its high peak. Still the family get together on the road trip, sort of commentaries from Banshi, Manu and Sowmya and the wonderful sightseeing helped us sail the way much easily. We reached Mankarna temple’s area at around 4:00 PM after having lunch at a restaurant on the way at around 1:00 PM. The Mankarna complex is a beautiful area, lush green and at such a height. Along with the sight of the mountain opposite to us and the constant ropeway vehicles added to a beautiful sight. We relaxed and had some cold drinks and then bought the tickets to the roundtrip ropeway to the temple. Ticket cost was 500 INR per person.

After waiting for some 30 min in the queue, it was our turn on the ropeway. We took two bogies as the max capacity in one was 6 passengers. The scenes from the bogy was breadth taking. Lush greenery at the bottom, scaling height of the mountain, well carved out small cottages at distant heights, zig zag curvatures of the mountain and the gorgeous valley bottom was all a heavenly view. This 20-25 min ride in the ropeway was worth the entire road trip. We reached the other end of the valley and after submitting our footwear’s in the boot house, joined the queue to the temple of Goddess Mankarna. The queue was not long. Locals there also told that the original temple was dislocated due to earthquake two years back and the current temple was a makeshift one. We offered our prayers to the goddess and after taking Mandir prakrama started walking down. Had some local shopping done and some snacks on the on the way to the ropeway station.

Finally again yearning for the ropeway sight, boarded the bogies back and again were privileged to enjoy the same scenic view of the valley on the way back. Reached back to the Mankamna complex area. Dadi and Bhua were waiting there as they did not accompany us to the temple due to height phobia. We had some chilled cold drinks, relaxed for few min and boarded back our vehicle at about 6:00 PM. Not to re-iterate it was really really hot on the typical May Day. We rode back on our way to Pokhra and reached Pokhra at 8:00 PM. We then reached Hotel Queens Park and after having some light dinner, relaxed in the hotel rooms

Pokhra is situated on the shores of Fewa lake and appears to be a typical European town. With the temperature of around 24-26 degree Celsius and the cool breeze all around the city along shore line of lake Fewz, it’s like a paradise on earth. On the 22nd May, after having an awesome breakfast at Hotel Queens, we started on our days outing with Vindhyavasini temple as our first destination of the day. The temple is within the city and one has to climb around 10-20 stairs to reach the area. There was a line of around 50 people before us. While other family members joined the queue, I took Dadi with me and we requested the guard to allow us Darshan since its difficult for Dadi to stand that long. The Guards and the priest were kind enough and we offered our prayers to Ma Vindyavasini. The temple was on a hilly area with an awesome breeze all around. The temple area also had other deities of lord Ram, Vishnu and Krishna and a separate temple of Lord Shiva in the area. There was a Nepalese wedding going on in the adjacent Shiva temple. The bride in red and the groom wearing a Nepalese cap, it was a beautiful experience to observe the wedding. Nepalese women with their round features and love for red, appear to fascinate everyone with their lovely smiles and make ups. We stayed in temple area for some time, took few of our photographs and then moved to the Seti river gorge.

River Seti is a mountainous river with its milky gorge formation. There is an entry ticket of 25 INR to visit it from inside where they have made a bridge like formation to observe the gorge. The soft sweet sound of the river water and the breadth taking depth of the area, is enticing. Spending some time there we went to the Devi’s falls. This again is a waterfall and one need to descend down to a trekking style pathway to observe the fall. Dadi didn’t descend down but all the others did and we enjoyed some of our snaps in this area. We then proceeded towards the Gupteshwar and Mahendra cave which is not far from Devi’s fall area. There is an entry ticket for 150 Nepalese in this area and one is required to take this difficult descend. Except Dadi & Chachaji all the others started descending. One if first required to descend around 70-80 stairs and then comes the Gupteshewar cave. There is big Pipal tree and around it is temple of Lord shiva. One can take the parikrama and offer prayers to the Lord.

We then further descended the narrow 2*5 feet cave for walking past for 500 meters, we reached the bottom most part of the Mahendra cave. The view of the waterfalls from this bottom most point and stalagmites and stalactites formation, t’s a view worth the strenuous descend. It was difficult descend for Mom and Dad and I could see Mom all sweated and exhausted. She also commented that not again in future she would dare to descend such a path. Though it was cool inside but the sweating and humid weather had exhausted us all. After relaxing for few minutes we started ascending and reached upstairs in next 30-40 min.

We then had our lunch in the nearby restaurant run by a Marwadi Nepali family. The thali of 150/- INR per head according to us was the cheapest and the most fulfilling meal we had in Nepal. Rice, dal, chappatis and mix veg, achar, papad and salad, it was an awesome meal. We also had Paan post our lunch and then went to visit the Rock museum in Pokhra. The ticket was of 200/- INR per head for the museum. 

Rock museum, spread over an area of around 5kms, and three storeyed museum captures beautifully the expedition for mountain lovers. It talks about different tribes (their costumes, utensils, lifestyle, festivals) of mountainous areas, depicts various rocks of different mountain ranges, Buddhist traditions observed by people of these hilly areas, animals of these areas (like wild bear, Yeti etc),  depicts stories of expeditions of various people to Sagarmatha ranges and the like. There is a theatre where every alternate hour, they show documentaries of mountains people & festivals. It was a great experience watching the entire stuff.

We then came back to the hotel at around 4:00 PM. All of us took a good afternoon’s lap in the hotel and then in the evening, all of us except Papa and Dadi came for an evening walk along Lake Fewa. Ah my… the beautiful lake, fresh breeze, evening clouds, lush greenery all around…the walk was a real paradise one. We were taking a walk around and it started raining in some time. All of us got inside a small hut nearby and enjoyed the tea/pakoras from the nearby hotel. At around 7:30 PM, we started back from lake area and did some shopping on the way back. The whole street was lighted and the view looked like a typical European town. Pokhra is famous for liquor and night life also. On the way back, we had dinner at one of the roadside restaurant and reached hotel back.

On the beautiful 23rd May morning, all of us got together for a morning walk, to lake Fewa. We enjoyed our 2-3 kms of long walk, took some beautiful snaps and on the way back, enjoyed tea on the way back. We came back to hotel, filled ourselves with hotel’s complimentary breakfast and then got ready to check out from the hotel. We boarded our vehicle and started for Kathmandu. The return was a little easier because we started on time and the day was little less hot than the onward journey day. We stopped on our way back in the same restaurant for lunch and reached Kathmandu at about 4:00 PM in the evening. We stayed back in same Mahadev hotel. Had our evening spent by walking around the Kathmandu area, area nearby the pashupati temple and bought some local fruits/snacks in the Kathmandu area. The next day morning all of us went back to Pashupati to bid good bye to the greatest power and offered Abhishek at the temple area. We also visited Yoni devi temple on the banks of river Trishul. Morning walk all along the Trishul River from temple Yoni to pashupati temple was very pleasurable one. Finally came back to the hotel, packed our stuff and Prakash bid our goodbye after dropping us at the airport.

Few points of remembrance for people planning their trip to Nepal:

• ·         Local fruits, snacks everything is slightly on a upper hand rate in Nepal. Everything is imported in Nepal and hence do not expect anything to be cheap
• ·         It's equally hot in Kathmandu as in Delhi in summers. The sun being just directly above you, the heat is really scorching
• ·         Nepal's international Tribhuwan airport is a small and congested one so not to expect anything luxurious there
• ·         Advisable to take a flight from Kathmandu to Pokhra road travel is tough and longer one
• ·         Nepalese people are very calm and quiet. They are always smiling and welcoming and during my stay of 5 days, I never heard any person shouting/bickering there
• ·         98% of Nepalese are beef eaters and its difficult to get pure veg restaurants in Nepal

All in all, it was a lifelong experience to this place. I have hence written this detailed narrative so as to revive the memories in one go if required. 

All of us should definitely plan a trip to Nepal sometimes in our lifetime