Naturally Nepal – The Way Back

This is the culmination of a 6 day expedition to explore and experience he rich cultures and scenic beauty of Nepal. Today we bid farewell to this amazing and beautiful country. This is the story of our return journey from Pokhara to Kanpur and it was one hell of a ride.

26th October

It was 5.30 am and the  morning was pleasant and cool. Having gulped in our German Bakery muffins and bread rolls, we set out to the Pokhara bus station. We had reserved a NR 500 bus ticket to take us to Sonauli through the picturesque Nepal countryside and  to tell the truth, we were expecting a relaxed and calm 6.5 hour journey.  Little did we know, that we were gonna have a crazy ride. We waited for our bus and watched aghast when it entered the bus station. It was a 20 seater local bus with about 40 passengers!! And we were supposed to travel in that bus. So much for our relaxed and quite journey. The seats were small and cramped and very uncomfortable. To make matters worse, one of us did not get his reserved seat as a lady with an infant refused to move. Our lack of proficiency in Nepal came as a curse as we could not argue with the local people; not that it would’ve made a difference. So 2 of us got a seat over the front wheel (Zero leg room) and the other found himself on top of the engine. After a brief struggle I pushed my legs into the gap between the 2 seats and placed my heavy bag on my laps. I could hardly move an inch and I have to stay in that seat, in the very same posture for just 6.5 hours. And the bus started its trip, and stopped once in every 10 minutes to take in more passengers.

I tried to get some sleep, but the chatter of passengers and the rumbling of the old engine kept me awake. The only consolation was the beauty of the landscape. Since it was early morning, the fog reduced the visibility to a few meters. With a gushing river gorge to our right, the speed of the bus was reduced significantly. After nearly 2 hours of travelling, my friend got promoted to a seat from the engine top. The deep gorges, the terraced farms, golden valleys made our day. After nearly 3.5 hour journey, the bus stopped in a small village for refreshments. It took me close to 3 minutes to wriggle out of my seats and I could hardly feel my legs. It felt really great to finally stretch my legs. 30 minutes later, we were back on the road and I was back in my awkward seat.

It is during times like this that Relativity comes to plays. Minutes flew like hours and hours like days. The best feeling in the world was when the bus finally arrived in Bhairawa. We hopped of the bus and it was like being released from a concentration camp. The air felt so great, though it was scorching hot. After taking a savari to the border, it was time to bid adios to Nepal. But we had some unfinished business left. After keeping a few Nepali Rupees as souvenirs, we converted the rest back to Indian currency, and guess what, there is commission for this transaction (Not for IC to NR) . We also went to the tourist information center and thanked the guy for providing the maps and the brochures. If it weren’t for those, we’d have ended up in more trouble. Now its time to cross the border and the board “Welcome to India” was really pulling me into my motherland.

We’re back in India. But not yet in Kanpur. We got into an UP Government bus to Gorakhpur. The journey took close to 3.5 hours and we fell asleep as we were really tired. Once in Gorakhpur, we found ourselves in the “not-so-bad” railway waiting room, after dinner. After waiting for a couple of hours, we boarded our train to Kanpur. I slipped into a deep sleep almost immediately. Early morning we arrived at Kanpur Central Railway station and hired an auto to take us back to IIT. Room sweet room! I was back in my room even before the sun reported for duty.This was the end of a week-long adventure with Ashwin and Vijin.

Now, for some statistics. We traveled through 3rd AC, Sleeper and General Class in trains and when it came to buses, we used a Volvo, a Tourist bus, Govt buses, local buses. We also experienced the Tempos, Minis, Micros and Rickshaws in this journey. Our cuisines varied from Indian, Chinese, Tibetan, German and Nepali and was vegetarian. Now for the expenditure part, excluding shopping, the grand total expense per head was just Rs.5800 (US $110).

This winds up my Nepal Travelogue. And I really wanna visit this place again, this time for adventure sports. Every journey gives us a number of memories to cherish for a life time. And this trip is not an exception. I’d like to thank Ashwin and Vijin for coming with me and I express my sincere gratitude to everyone who helped me through this journey.

This is Jibu Tom Jose, signing off.

PS : End of Nepal Series

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Pokhara – The Adventure Paradise

Pokhara is known for adventure tourism. Paragliding, zip line, white water rafting, Himalayan treks are few recipes in the adventure tourists menu. Sarangkot is the place were you take off to the skies on para-gliders. But due to lack of time, we were merely tourists. After an inspiring and bewitching sunrise, we set out to explore the other tourists spots in Pokhara.

The first destination was Bindhyabhasini Temple. One of the most popular temples in Nepal, Bindhyabhasini Temple offers ravishing view of the Annapurna mountain ranges and the city of Pokhara.

The next stop is gonna be of interest to you, if you are a Batman fan. Yes, it is the Bat cave. As the name suggested,we found zillions of bats hanging on the cave roofs. Unfortunately we didn’t find the Wayne Manor nearby. Not bad, if you wanna be the next Batman, but the tourists are not gonna be very happy. It was a good thing that we hired a flash light. Without it, we’d have been wandering in the pitch black darkness of the cave. We did not try the alternate exit, through which one has to crawl his way out, as we didn’t wanna get our clothes dirty. Well, we didn’t find that exit though we searched for it. Should’ve hired the guide as well. Since taking a photograph with the flash can agitate the bats, so avoided it to be on the safer side.

After exploring the bat cave, we headed off to the next cave –  Mahendra Cave. This is cave 2 out of 3 in Pokhara. Unlike Bat cave, this cave is pretty long and is illuminated  At the end of it, we found a small temple. This cave too has an alternate exit and we did crawl out through it. Not as tough as the bat cave exit though.

The next place in the itinerary was the Gurkha Museum. The exhibits narrated the great stories of the Gurkhas. The bravery of the Gurkha enthralled and inspired us. Since photography was allowed, we made it a point to capture all the glorious exhibits and descriptions. Just opposite to the museum is the Seti River Gorge, which would’ve made a good view had the Nepal tourism board maintained it. It looked to me like the waste dump of Pokhara. The gorge is pretty deep but don’t even think about comparing it to the Grand Canyon.

Now, all the above places took hardly 2 hours of our time. So we decided to take a stroll along the Phewa lakeside. The first thing we did was to take a boat savari  to Barahi Temple which is located at the middle of the lake Phewa. It offers an alluring view of the beauty of Pokhara. Now, we had a little trouble with getting back to shore as, we found no boat offering a savari, since most people hired the boat as a whole.

After lunch we decided to try a little adventure. We hired 3 “so-called” mountain bikes and set out to the Shanti Stupa. The cycles were kinda junk and did give us a lotta trouble with the chains and the gears. We cycled for about 5 km and reached near the road to the Stupa. But since we were amateurs  we decided not to try our luck with the 1 km vertical climb to reach the Stupa.  So instead we turned back and then headed to the Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave, the 3rd cave in Pokhara. The notable feature of this cave is that it runs under the highway and offers an underground view of the Davis Fall. This is one cave where the phrase, “Mind your head” is very relevant. And there’s water trickling down from all directions. The cave is named so because of the temple that’s present in the beginning of the cave.

And now to our last destination, the Davis Fall. It is a really good waterfall, but the Nepal Tourism Board has “Censored” half of it. The overgrown vegetation surrounding the falls really mar the beauty of the waterfall.  After the waterfall, we cycled around the lake.  We skipped one important tourist attraction in Pokhara, the Mountaineering Museum, since we lost nearly an hour trying to get our cycles fixed. During our return journey, the stand of one of the cycle came off. We tied it up and continued our cycling expedition. We were slightly worried when we returned the cycles and we did tell the owner about the stand problem. Her chuckle conveyed the question, “That’s all that came off?”

That winds up my Pokhara Diary. But I really wanna come back to this place again. All the adventure sports are pulling me back to this place, and so is the natural beauty of the place. One fact about Pokhara is that, there is no other place where you can see some of the highest peaks so close to you. Even during my Kashmir journey, I never so a peak so close.

Tomorrow, we bid farewell to Nepal. And trust me, the return journey was one hell of a ride.

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Pokhara – The Jewel of the Mid-West

After spending 2 days in the imperial city of Kathmandu, this is our journey to imbibe the natural beauty of Nepal. To Pokhara, the paradise of Adventure Lovers.

25th October

The journey commenced at 6.30 am on a pretty good bus, filled with tourists. I found myself sitting with Anna from Tasmania who was on a solo expedition around Nepal. The 7 hour journey was comfortable, except for the flat tire, some 1 hour into the journey. The natural landscape of Nepal countryside was indeed gorgeous. We arrived at Pokhara by around 1.30 pm and  was surrounded by hotel and taxi brokers like bees around a beehive. After some negotiation, we got into a vintage – looking taxi, which I’d bet a 1000 bucks that its older than me, to the lakeside. The whole lakeside road was frolicking with tourists and every alternate shop that one sees is an adventure sports stall.

The 1st challenge was to find a place to crash at night. From Kathmandu, we had obtained the address of a hotel in Pokhara; Hotel Lake Diamond, supposedly offering an awesome view of the lake. It’s nearly 600m from the lake and trust me, you won’t be able to see the lake even if you stand on top of the water tank!! After a brief bargain, we settled for NR 600 for a cozy little 2 bed room with an extra bed. Every street near the lake is filled with Hotels which claim amazing views of the Phewa Lake. But I can assure you that 90% of them won’t even give you a look at the street, let alone the lake that lies beyond it.

The first thing that we did after getting ourselves a room was to find a map of Pokhara. We also had our lunch and headed out to the lake. As luck would have it, it rained in Pokhara. Stuck in a leaky stall on the banks of the lake with no umbrella, all we could do was hope that the rain would stop soon. And to make matters worse, the cool breeze made me shiver as I left my jacket in the hotel room. All we could see was the beautifully misty Phewa lake and tourists trying to outrun the rain. The local people told us that rainy season ended a few weeks back and that it wasn’t supposed to rain that day. And they assured us that the weather would be clear tomorrow.

By the time the rain settled, it was almost sunset. So all we could do was walk around the dark unlit pathway around the lake. And then we strolled down the streets bustling with business. One observation about Pokhara is that, you can get booze even in a stationery shop. It’s not a big deal for people coming from the west, but its a very rare sight for Indians. This place kinda reminded me of Goa.

After an up and down walk, we decided to try the local cuisine for dinner. The Thakali meals. Even though, I settled for Tibetan meals, my friends tried the Thakali thali. And it sure tasted different, but you can be the judge of that.

So, after a washed out day, we had a chat with the hotel caretaker about plans for tomorrow. The sunrise at Sarangkot was the prime attraction. We also struck a deal for a trip around some of the important tourist sites in Pokhara. Since we were to have an early day tomorrow, we slept as soon as we got back in our room.

Most of the hotels in Pokhara have wi-fi’s and I found it really useful. I hate to criticize people, but the attitude of the hotel owner was very rude. He reminded us of a “mafia don”. Even though we are students and we have zero knowledge about the place (well, except some internet and travel guide info), this is certainly not how one would expect to be treated in a hotel. He kept reshuffling our plans as per his convenience and when we suggested changes in the itineraries, he kept “threatening” that he would not help us. So, if you ask my opinion, I will not recommend this hotel.

Since this has been a short post, I’ll include the sunrise point at Sarangkot as well.

26th October

We set out to Sarangkot view-point at 4.30 am in the morning. It was about 12 km or so from our hotel and as we climbed the hill, we could see numerous tourist vehicles, all eager to watch the acclaimed sunrise over Pokhara. We reached the middle viewpoint (Based on height where they are located) and the view was splendid. The sky had a bright reddish-orange hue and we could make out the outlines of the Annapurna Range to our left and the Phewa lake to our right. And it was very cold as well. One of us climbed all the way to the top most view-point, which was pretty steep climb. Me and my friend decided to stay in our place.

We were informed that the sunrise would be at 5.45 am. But due to some unknown technical problems, the sunrise occurred only at 6.30 am. But what we saw next, was indeed worth the wait. The golden shades on the Himalayan mountains and the beautiful bright orangish sun over the hills was a view that any tourist will cherish for a lifetime; Breathtakingly beautiful. Once the sun attained sufficient altitude, the Annapurna Range and the Phewa Tal was a sight to behold. Our cameras had no rest, as we tried to capture every ounce of that beauty into a silicon chips.

Refreshed and inspired, we set out to explore the rest of Pokhara. And I did a little shawl shopping at Sarangkot as well.

Our next destination is Bindhyabhasini Temple.

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