greetings all!
finally i got the time to post our story of our Nepal visit. so here goes:
We took a train from sec'bad to gorakhpur, reached a little over 6 pm. decided to cross the border at night - this was a mistake of sorts (the border police are quite shameless to ask for money). but i took help of the cycle rickshaw man to talk to that guy & finally had to pay only Rs. 200. However i already started hating UP border police for corruption. i am sure there are many others who are not like this man but it takes only one corrupt guy to spoil the image of the entire organization.
Anyways, we crossed the border at sanauli & stoped at a lodge just 5 mins away from the border - food was bad but the bed & other facilities were OK. water looked & smelled kind of muddy.
Next morning, we took a bus to lumbini. at lumbini we hired a cycle rickshaw to tour the large area of temples. it was very very fascinating trip for us. we felt like we were in china sometimes. excellent place - must see in Nepal. also saw the birthplace of Buddha - so they say.
After lumbini, we took the bus to pokhara, my what a ride was it. i was given two options - a route along the river & another one high above in the mountains - i opted for the latter one since i was a bit adventurous. thanks to my decision, we enjoyed the trip very much. Never before in my life had i seen such huge mountains & deep deep valleys. Simply great natural beauty.
We reached pokhara at night & were surrounded by a huge group of lodge agents. we escaped all of them & started walking along the road trying a find a lodge besides the main road itself - but none were there. one man followed us & told us that he'll take us to a good lodge, we agreed. we followed him for what seemed like a long time. he guided us to a narrow, dimly lit section of road. we stopped there itself. we told him that we were not interested & went to another lodge that we had seen earlier which was just 10 meters from were we stood. the food & facilities here was quite good.
Next morning, we hired a city taxi to take us to all the prime sites in & around pokhara like the seti river gauge, devi fall, some caves, phewa lake, etc... in all we had a good time in pokhara. Dont eat any kind of road side snacks such as pani-puri, etc... they taste like hell - we didnt pay him either.
We left for Kathmandu & once again the scenery along the way was splendid. next morning, we hired a city taxi to take us around KTM. visited places like pashupatinath, bodhnath temples, sundarijal & also a temple that was high above a mountain - had to climb a lot of steps & had lots of monkeys - forgot the name though.
After KTM sightseeing, we visited bhaktapur & were greeted with great architecture. we liked it very much. from there we went to nagarkot. at nagarkot we tried to climb & reach the lighthouse but were soon tired so we had to wait at an intermediate location which was also a good point to view the himalayan panorama. after a great sunset, we crawled back to our lodge & slept like never before. i got up quite early to see the sunrise & than we left for KTM.
From KTM we visited patan darbar square which was quite similar to bhaktapur's architecture. later in the day, we decided to visit the botanical gardens & alors we had never before seen such flowers anywhere in india. though i must say that i haven't travelled much in india.
Having finished our 7 days tour of Nepal, we only missed one thing - the snow capped mountains!! it was July when we visited - monsoon time, but still worth every day.
Planning to go again, this time for trekking the great mountains of Nepal.
To see all the pictures of our nepal visit please see visit: my picasaweb gallery.
finally i got the time to post our story of our Nepal visit. so here goes:
We took a train from sec'bad to gorakhpur, reached a little over 6 pm. decided to cross the border at night - this was a mistake of sorts (the border police are quite shameless to ask for money). but i took help of the cycle rickshaw man to talk to that guy & finally had to pay only Rs. 200. However i already started hating UP border police for corruption. i am sure there are many others who are not like this man but it takes only one corrupt guy to spoil the image of the entire organization.
Anyways, we crossed the border at sanauli & stoped at a lodge just 5 mins away from the border - food was bad but the bed & other facilities were OK. water looked & smelled kind of muddy.
Next morning, we took a bus to lumbini. at lumbini we hired a cycle rickshaw to tour the large area of temples. it was very very fascinating trip for us. we felt like we were in china sometimes. excellent place - must see in Nepal. also saw the birthplace of Buddha - so they say.
After lumbini, we took the bus to pokhara, my what a ride was it. i was given two options - a route along the river & another one high above in the mountains - i opted for the latter one since i was a bit adventurous. thanks to my decision, we enjoyed the trip very much. Never before in my life had i seen such huge mountains & deep deep valleys. Simply great natural beauty.
We reached pokhara at night & were surrounded by a huge group of lodge agents. we escaped all of them & started walking along the road trying a find a lodge besides the main road itself - but none were there. one man followed us & told us that he'll take us to a good lodge, we agreed. we followed him for what seemed like a long time. he guided us to a narrow, dimly lit section of road. we stopped there itself. we told him that we were not interested & went to another lodge that we had seen earlier which was just 10 meters from were we stood. the food & facilities here was quite good.
Next morning, we hired a city taxi to take us to all the prime sites in & around pokhara like the seti river gauge, devi fall, some caves, phewa lake, etc... in all we had a good time in pokhara. Dont eat any kind of road side snacks such as pani-puri, etc... they taste like hell - we didnt pay him either.
We left for Kathmandu & once again the scenery along the way was splendid. next morning, we hired a city taxi to take us around KTM. visited places like pashupatinath, bodhnath temples, sundarijal & also a temple that was high above a mountain - had to climb a lot of steps & had lots of monkeys - forgot the name though.
After KTM sightseeing, we visited bhaktapur & were greeted with great architecture. we liked it very much. from there we went to nagarkot. at nagarkot we tried to climb & reach the lighthouse but were soon tired so we had to wait at an intermediate location which was also a good point to view the himalayan panorama. after a great sunset, we crawled back to our lodge & slept like never before. i got up quite early to see the sunrise & than we left for KTM.
From KTM we visited patan darbar square which was quite similar to bhaktapur's architecture. later in the day, we decided to visit the botanical gardens & alors we had never before seen such flowers anywhere in india. though i must say that i haven't travelled much in india.
Having finished our 7 days tour of Nepal, we only missed one thing - the snow capped mountains!! it was July when we visited - monsoon time, but still worth every day.
Planning to go again, this time for trekking the great mountains of Nepal.
To see all the pictures of our nepal visit please see visit: my picasaweb gallery.
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