February 2025. A trip to Nepal and Bhutan.
I booked this trip with Tripadeal.com so do not really know what to expect. Bhutan is one of those countries I have always wanted to see, and of course who doesn’t want to go to Nepal and (maybe) see Mt Everest, so hoping for clear skies.
The itinerary looks awesome. They call it a 14 day trip. But 2 of those days include being in Australis. So a 12 day tour plus travel.
I elected to fly in a day earlier to Kathmandu, Nepal, and to fly with Singapore Airlines – and due to flight times I got in two nights and two full days before the others, That should increase my chances of seeing Everest. As well as explore Kathmandu and relax.
So my day 1 and day 2 will be in Kathmandu. The rest of the tour (well I hope there are others. Tripadeal doesn’t set up groups beforehand) so my day 4 will be tour day 2.
Day 1 is the travel day and go to their hotel to meet up. But I will be here already. Relaxed and having does some exploring
Day 2 – Kathmandu Valley Sightseeing.
Day 3 – Journey to Pokara – a city of Lakes and caves. This is 200ks. About 8 hours – plus the road works that are happen atm. The optional flight down there looks like a good option.
Day 4 – Up at really stupid o’clock to watch the sunrise over the Annapurna and Fishtail mountains, before returning to the hotel for breakfast. The temples and cave tours.
Day 5 – Down to Chitwan National Park for a few days. Hopefully to see Rhinos (Greater One Horned Rhino) and who knows what else.
Sarah saw a Tiger when she was here!
Day 6 – Chitwan National Park – safari. Yay!!!!!
Day 7 – A morning birding safari then back up to Kathmandu. Optional flight back!
Day 8 – Flight to Thimphu, Bhutan. City tour.
Day 9 – Drive down to Punakha. Visit a 1637 Forestry Monastery, rivers and temples.
Day 10 – Up to Paro. A visit to Hontsho Village, with many Tibetan refugees.
Day 11 – Tiger’s Nest and Paro sightseeing
Day 12 – Fly back to Kathmandu,
Day 13 – Fly home.
Fun times.
THE TRIP
Wednesday 5th Feb. One of my least favorite parts of travel is staying at airport hotels. Time and cost – and this trip I get to do it twice! So a flight up to Sydney on a tiny putt putt plane for a morning flight tomorrow.
Thursday 6th February. I hate even more when I pay for a hotel and have to get up at stupid o’clock, but oh well! I’m going on a trip.
But had two good flights with Singapore Airlines. Sydney to Singapore in a lovely big plane.It was the bumpiest flight I’ve had for a long time. Lovely. Singapore harbour as usual was busy and the airport was stunning.
Then onto the small plane for the four hour flight to Kathmandu. We got there after dark so I didn’t get to see any mountains yet – but their fancy “Book the Cook” lobster meal was very nice.
Arrived in Kathmandu at 9.30 and tucked to my hotel 21 hours after leaving the Sydney hotel. Now for a good sleep. Although this hotel is very noisy!
Friday 7th Feb – free day in Kathmandu.
I went for a walk around the streets. Haven’t seen a mountain yet as the buildings are all 5 or 6 stories high on narrow roads. So you cannot see anything. Scooters are the main form or transport and they zip, wobble, push and honk their way through everything. There is no verge to the roads so you walk along and they dodge the people.
It was sad to see so many collapsed buildings from the 2015 earthquake. Some stood, others collapsed.
I then met up for my tour – Kathmandu Secret Food Crawl & Local Market Tour.
I was the only one on the tour so spent 2 hours walking around the local markets, eating as we went.
Markets as always are amazing. Spice, meat sitting on open shelves, fruit, pots, clothing, and all. The rice was very interesting. As well as raw rice they sell ‘flat rice’ – boiled then crushed into flakes, and popped rice – like rice bubbles. And hundreds of temples. With thousands of gods, there are temples everywhere. Ranging from huge to about a metre square.
Dogs are everywhere as the people look after them. Rather than owning a dog – it belongs to this building or that. The line up outside the butcher shop was sweet.
We tried many foods.
Lassi is a yogurt and spices with raisins. Sounded delicious until I realised it was a drink. Tasty, but the consistency…….
Samosa – they blew the top off my head.
Jeri – a fried pastry soaked in sugar syrup. Amazing.
Laphing – is a noodle pancake spread with sweet and sour and rolled. Looked amazing but the consistency. I didn’t realise it was a cold jelly like thing. Tasted good though.
Bara was the star. A savoury lentil pancake like Roti. Delicious.
Pani – are the hollow pastries (like egg shells) that are filled with delicious stuff. We had Panipuri – Pineapple and Dahipuri – a yogurt filled one. They both filled with the sweet and sour sauce. Don’t inhale as you eat or you have a massive coughing fit.
Yomari – a giant rice flour dumpling there the shell about a centimetre thick.
In the afternoon I went for a massage. A scrub in a Himalayan salt mix, then a 4 handed massage – brutal but amazing!
Saturday 8th Feb
Up at really stupid o’clock 5 am for my pickup for my flight over Sagarmatha AKA Everest. (I don’t mind early for something amazing though).
The joy flight industry here is so big that rather than going to their (the flight company) own shed, you go through the domestic terminal. Every second flight on the board was to “mountain”.
Sagarmatha is the original Nepalese name and means “goddess of the sky”.
It is an important spiritual place to the Nepalese. Of course the Brit’s changed the name to honour a surveyor who surveyed mountains in India – not even in Nepal! 8849 metres above sea level.
Our plane was a ATR-72-500. Big for a joy flight but lovely. 60 seats but they only sell the window seat. And the wings are above so no bad seats. We took off and flew north along north west along a number of mountain ranges. Then the Himalayas. Some stunning peaks.
and then there was Sagarmatha/Everest. Tallest peak on the planet. But not by much. It isn’t this glorious peak towering over everything around. Its neighbor Lhotse is 8,516 meters tall. A mere 333 meters short. Sagarmatha/Everest is a triangular peak. Barren and stark. This side gets the western sun so the snow melts. The other side is where they summit through the snow.
Then we turned around and came back.
Wow. I have seen the highest point on the earth!
Kathmandu is a bowl surrounded by many mountain ranges. 850,000 people live here and is growing at 4% a year. It’s one of the oldest continually inhabited place.
Being in a bowl the air doesn’t clear so air quality is always “unhealthy”. Today’s it’s at 157. (0-50 is good). It’s doesn’t seem nasty to breathe. And doesn’t sting the eyes although my sinus tell me there is something. But I guess it would after a time.
Saturday 8th Feb. Afternoon activity was a cooking class.
“Nepali cooking class and Momo making”. And what a fantastic time it was. Started with a cup of chai, then we picked the meals we wanted to cook. We then spent the next four hours shopping, chopping cooking and eating.
We went to tiny stalls and bought fresh produce. Milk came in 500ml plastic bags. The shops used brass scales.
I elected to cook –
Chatamari – a Rice pancake with a meat topping. Made of rice flour, water and egg white. To separate the egg they open the top and pour the white out. Amazing.
We then mixed minced chicken, shallots, a paste we made of ginger and garlic and all the classic spices.
We fried up the pancake then squashed the meat mix on top and cooked that. When it was nearly done the yolk was added. And it was amazing! So much flavour and the pancake was crisp as!
Main course we all chose to make Momo, Nepalise dumpling. We used a similar meat mix and made the wrappers from scratch. The folding was fairly successful.
Desert was a rice pudding that we started first. It was like a normal rice pudding but with all the cardamon type spices.
Four hours of entertainment, and a three course meal for $33AU.
Saturday 8th Feb. Walking around.
I walked too and from the venue through the non tourist areas. It was great. Although I do have a certain knack of turning a “14min walk” into a one hour unguided tour of all of Nepal. But I did see a lot.
I shall now sleep well.
Sunday 9th Feb – Kathmandu Valley. Nepal.
This morning was the beginning of the tour. We met for a meeting, chatted and got ready to go. There are four of us in our group. Four solo ladies.
Then off we headed for our day trip of the Kathmandu Valley.
Today is a Sunday which is the first day of the working week. Saturday is the only day off here.
First stop was Swayambhunath Temple. And ancient complex of Buddhist temples high up on a hill. Stunning views over the city. Well, there would have been if the air quality not 210! It’s a very important pilgrimage site.
We did not do the 400 steps up. We came up in our van and only had 100ish.
One of the important things about this complex is that it has three different styles of temple. A Stupa being the most important – a large dome that contains relics. They do not go inside but walk around in a clockwise direction spinning the pray wheels. Also a Pagoda and a um….TBA.
We watched them ‘painting’ the lotus image onto the high dome of the stupa. This is done with buckets of saffron water.
Also saw a group of Monks doing a ritual cleansing of some material. The chanting was great. Funny to see one monk reading the chant from his phone.
The complex was inhabited by monkeys – Rhesus Macaques, old world monkeys. Hundreds of them. They are holy monkeys. Apparently…. A monk let his hair grown long. He got lice. When he cut his hair off the lice turned into the monkeys.
Our second stop was Kathmandu Durbar Square. A ‘Durbar Square’ is the plazas and area around the royal palaces. This square began in the 3rd century and has been added to since.
Many of the building date back to 16th Century. Many others were damaged or destroyed in the 2015 earthquake.
TImber is heavily used inthe temples and the detail is insane. The carving is so intricate. Smaller than 1 cm for much of it. Walls and walls on intricate carving. Much of the wood is Sal wood – one of the hardest timbers.
The Kasthamandap Temple, which is huge, is said to be made from one tree.
We went to see the Karami. She is a prepubescent girl from the Shakya clan of the Newari Buddhist community. The chosen one, who live in this temple until she reaches puberty. Apparently she has 32 qualities of perfection, similar to the ‘Golden Child’ movie. She doesn’t ever touch the ground and never leaves the temple apart from certain ceremonies where she is carried out in a palanquin for the crowds to look at her. She looses her divine status when she reaches publicly and goes back home.
We went into the beautiful courtyard of the temple. This poor little girl, heavily made up, in an elaborate costume with a massive head piece, comes to a top window and scowls down at the crowd. No photos allowed and guards walked around checking. Yet there is a giant poster of her in the square.
I will admit to feeling slightly sick at this…. thing, this religious thing. No friends, no play, educated by a tutor.
Of course it is a ‘great honour’ for the family. So no one refuses. Pity about this girl loosing 8-10 years of her life.
We went through so many temples and building and saw so much. There are over 3 million Hindi gods so lots of temples. Saw a number of the old well pits. The paving stones here are clever. Instead of being smooth they have groves in them for some grip. Lovely.
The third stop was out of town towards the mountains to Boudhanath Stupa. A Buddhist temple and UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s one of the world’s largest stupas, and was pretty stunning.
This one is the main place of worship for the mountain people. While we were there a group came down for prayer. It is quite lovely seeing them all walk around in a clockwise direction spinning the wheels. Most of these people were in traditional dress that is common out of the city.
We had lunch at a roof top restaurant. Only 90 steps up… I counted. I had the Nanis Khana Set which was like a sample plate. I didnt choose the Lamb Chop (singular). It was Australian lamb….and the price converted to $87.63. Haha. Should have brought a few chops with me.
I spun the giant prayer wheel.
We also visited a fantastic shop that made and sold Singing Bowls and Healing Bowls. The brass bowls that are used for so many purposes. As well as selling ‘tourist bowls’ that are machine made, this place sold the artisan one that are hand beaten with a blend of seven metals. The really good ones are called Full Moon Singing Bowls and are worked on on the night of a full moon. Weather they fixed your charkas or not, they were works of art.
Eight hours after leaving we got back to the hotel. Great day!
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