The Sacred Sites Tour

Sacred Kathmandu

Posted at: March 27, 2007
Related Topic(s): Nepal

Although Kathmandu is very polluted and is a bit chaotic, it is very beautiful! There are temples that are a fusion of Buddhist and Hindu scattered all over the city, and great markets and shops.



Kathmandu's main Durbar Square was being renovated and full of political rallies at the time of our visit, so instead we went to the smaller Patan Durbar Square which was magnificent (photos shown). It is an old part of town with many temples and statues, and markets selling artifacts like Buddha statues and prayer wheels.

The giant Boudha temple just outside of town (photo at left) is amazing. It is a huge Buddhist stupa built on a white-washed platform and dome. The temple wall itself has hundreds of prayer wheels and each spin of the wheel is said to amplify the prayer for peace written on the wheel 11,000 times.

There are also giant prayer wheels the size of a room (photo at right) and each spin rings a bell sending the prayer out into the universe.

This place has to have the most peaceful energy of any place we have visited. It is full of monasteries and monks wandering around the town. There are prayer flags everywhere, and the huge Buddha eyes on 4 sides of the stupa are visible from everywhere.

We then spend one night in the village of Nagarkot which is supposed to have the best sunrise view of the whole Himalaya range.

It is quite hazy from all the Kathmandu pollution when we arrive in the afternoon, but after waking at 4:45 for the hour walk to the view tower, the view is magnificent and quite clear! There is some debate among the tourists and guides as to which peak is Everest but finally we agree it is this one (photo at left marked with an arrow.) It looks small but we are assured this is the one - it looks small because it is just further away...

We finish our day at Nagarkot with a masala chai with the Himalayas as a back drop, and make our way back to pollution and madness of Kathmandu.

Our 36 hour journey from Kathmandu to Perth begins on Thursday (via Delhi, Mumbai and Hong Kong) and we arrive on Saturday morning at about 7:30am.

Australia will be a bit of a shock to the system! It will be strange to walk down the street without being hassled, without cows, without being brushed by cars, bikes and rickshaws, without horns constantly beeping, not being on a rickety bus perched on the side of a mountain while the driver overtakes on a blind corner on a road wide enough for only one bus. And without decent Masala Chai! What will we do???

See you all soon...

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Elephants and Rhinos

Posted at: March 24, 2007
Related Topic(s): Nepal

Next we spend 3 relaxing days in Chitwan National Park - one of the best places to see rhinos (and maybe tigers!) in the wild. On the day of our arrival we do a bit of bird-watching and watch a beautiful sunset over the river.

Next morning we take a jungle walk with a guide and see many deer, birds, crocodiles and the extremely rare jungle chicken. We are then lucky enough to wash and play with the elephants we are soon to ride, which is an incredibly fun experience! They try to shake us off when we sit on them, they throw water at us with their trunks and we learn to climb up their trunks onto their backs while holding onto their ears.

Next we set off on a 2 hour elephant safari with the aim of seeing rhinos close up. Somehow 4 of us squeeze onto the elephants saddle and although it is a tight fit and rather uncomfortable, we see 5 rhinos so it is worth the bruises!

No tigers though! (Maybe that's a good thing?) Lots more deer, monkeys and birds and beautiful jungle sights.



We can't believe we have less than 2 weeks left of our sacred sites tour before returning to Australia. We will have about 10 days in Kathmandu for some last minute shopping, sight seeing and of course some views of Everest...

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Amazing Annapurna

Posted at: March 15, 2007
Related Topic(s): Nepal

It is wonderful to be in Nepal! The people are friendly, the towns clean, quiet and peaceful. A definite change from India! We spend a few days in Pokhara recovering from our epic border crossing and then decide to head off on a 4 day trek of the Annapurna National Park - part of the Himalayan range.

DAY 1

We take a bus to the entrance of park. We only have a short day trekking but neither of us are really trekking fit. Since the Inca trail we haven't done much at all, so the first day is all uphill and quite a struggle. There are 4000 stone steps to climb but the spectacular views keep us going.

We are relieved to find there are beautiful small lodges all along the trail with hot water, comfortable beds and good food. It is also low season so there are very few tourists on the trail. The first night we stay at a cute lodge in Ulleri with a view to die for from our window (photo at left). Not bad for $2 per night...

DAY 2

We wake up bright and early to a sunny day and start the short three hour walk to Ghorepani. We want to walk longer but we hear the sunrise view from nearby Poon Hill is amazing so we want to stay the night here. We arrive in town at 11:30, find another great lodge with another great view from our window (photo at right) and spend the day drinking chai and chatting with other trekkers. It doesn't seem like we've done much walking so far to be in the amazing location we are in...

DAY 3

We get up at 5am and start the dark 1 hour climb up Poon Hill to see the sunrise over 360o views of the whole Annapurna range. We can't tell if it's clear or not but as we approach the top we can see it is cloudy and the view is disappointing with the mountain caps covered in cloud. But still the view of the whole range is amazing.

After breakfast we start the next day's trek to Chandruk which should take around 5-6 hours. A few minutes into our walk, the weather turns and we find ourselves walking through quite heavily falling snow for the next 2 hours. It is wonderful, but slippery! We are mostly descending, and by lunch time the snow has turned to rain and we finish the walk cold and bedraggled. Luckily there is another great lodge with an open fire to dry our shoes by, some good food (and beer) and a warm bed.



It was a shame it was raining so much because we would have liked to better explore the village of Chandruk (photo at left). It is one of the few remaining authentic Himalayan villages where they have tried to retain their culture. It is also the place where the famous Ghurka military men came from - the soldiers who protected the British military.

DAY 4

The last day of our hike back to Pokhara is all down hill for about 5 hours. The day looks dubious and we have a few scattered showers, but the sun comes out every now and then to give us some superb views of the Pokhara valley and lake (photo at right).

It was a great 4 days and we would've liked to have walked for a few more days, but we were running out of time. We are flying out of Kathmandu on the 29 March and we still want to go to the jungle and explore Kathmandu itself.

So next we are off on a jungle safari in Chitwan National Park - for some (hopefully) rhino and tiger spotting and elephant riding.

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