The snow covered mountains, valleys and especially the Mount Everest were always in my dreams. This was coming true when we had planned for a family trip to Nepal on the Winter Holidays. I and my brother was so enthusiastic and we started the preparations with packing mainly with cold protection cloths as we will be visiting ‘the roof of the world in this winter time.
We boarded the flight to Kathmandu on Christmas eve. The exciting thing on the flight journey was we could see the India – Pak border in the night. The border fencing was lighted and it was clearly viewed from the sky as a zig-zag yellow line. It was almost 10 pm when we landed at Tribhuvan International Airport and then headed towards our hotel. The temperature was close to 3 degrees and it was cool enough to make me shiver.
On Christmas day, I began to enjoy one of the most beautiful holidays. I visited three marvelous places – Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan. And from here begins the journey :
Kathmandu
Bhaktapur City Sightseeing
The Bhaktapur City is one of the oldest cities in Kathmandu. It is renowned for its elegant art, fabulous culture and colourful festivals all of the Newari Culture.This city is known by various names such as City of Culture, Living Heritage, Nepal’s Cultural Gem, The Open Museum and the City of Devotees. This city has many small temples, ponds for the royal family. This city was founded by the twelfth king, King Anand Dev Malla. Bhaktapur is the 3rd largest city in the Kathmandu Valley and was once the capital of Nepal during the Malla Period. Besides all its history, Bhaktapur never fails to captivate tourists. Some important landmarks of Bhaktapur are:
The Lion Gate
This magnificient and beautiful masterpiece was made by skilled artisans during the reign of King Bhadgoun. It was made before 1696 AD. This gate has two huge statues of lions. This masterpiece piece is considered to be the last art of the Bhaktapur City.
The Golden Gate
It is the main entrance to the palace. This gate has statues of Goddess Kali and Garuda with two heavenly nymphs. This gate is the main attraction of the visitors. It has a great number of sculptures which are marvelous indeed.
Palace of 55 windows
It is built in the 15th century. It is a beautiful balcony of 55 windows. This balcony is situated in a building. Tourists visit Bhaktapur mainly because of this palace. There is a great rush of photographers before this palace.
Pashupatinath Temple
Pashupatinath Temple is the most significant Shiva Temple, which is a very sacred place for Hindu devotees. It is on the banks of river Bagmati. It is believed that plunging or bathing into the holy river releases from the cycle of rebirth. It was a great blessing for us getting a chance to visit the temple. Besides the temple there are many shops selling ‘Rudrakha’ with single face to multi faces.
Mountain Flight
Next day early morning, we went to Tribhuvan Airport, did the usual checking and boarded Buddha Air. It was a mini flight with passengers only on window side seats to enable them to watch the mountains. The airhostesses were explaining the mountain names to each passenger. Later on each person was called to the cockpit to see the mountains from the cockpit. This journey lasted only for 45 minutes, but still my mind is flying around there.
Buddha Air later on gave us a certificate for this journey. It says ‘ I didn’t climbed Mount Everest, but I touched my heart’. Yes it is true..
Pokhara
Pokhara was our next destination. We were told that it would be approximate 6 hours drive. So we started early, soon after the breakfast. Traveling towards Pokhara was like climbing up and down through the hills on rough roads, for couple of hours , till we meet Trishuli river. It was very refreshing to continue journey, watching the beauty of Trishuli. Trishuli river is a famous place for River Rafting.
Cable car & Manakamana Temple
On the way to Pokhara, Raj Uncle (our guide cum driver) told that there was a cable car ride crossing Trishuli river. I was very excited. My father agreed. I bought a packet of my favorite chips and headed towards the ride. After taking the tickets, we had to wait in a long queue. After some time, we were the first four persons in the line and there came our cable car! I jumped inside it and the ride had already started. It went in a normal speed. When I looked down I saw the wide Trishuli River. When it went ahead, we saw many coniferous forests. Terrace farming was well practiced there. We also saw many orange trees covered with oranges. Apple trees were also there, but it was on the other side of the hill. After about 15 minutes, the ride was about to stop . I was so surprised because, even at a height of 1300 meters, there was a bustling township.
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Direction towards Manakamana Temple was mentioned at the cable car station. The mountains, Manaslu- Himachal and the Annapurna ranges can be see towards the north of the temple. Goddess Bhagvati is shrined here. The temple was so crowded with devotees. After that, we walked around through the Gorkha city. Local farmer women were selling oranges on the road side. It was a very beautiful scene, and believe me, fresh oranges costs only NRS 25, and those were so sweet too. There were also many Indian Restaurants, and we decided to have lunch there, as we all were hungry after the 4-5 hours travel from Kathmandu.
After having a hot tasty lunch, we walked towards the cable for our return trip across, enjoying our last ride in one of Asia’s largest cable car connection. It would have been a great loss if we missed this trip. We all thanked Raj uncle for his suggestion to visit Manakamana Temple.
We reached around 3pm at Pokhara, and relaxed till evening and watched the cultural program organized by the hotel at night. Next day is planned for Sarangkot to start at 5 am.
Sunrise at Sarangkot
Sarangkot is the famous sunrise watching point. This was almost took a half an hour journey from our hotel. Upon reaching there, we were guided to a terrace of a building to watch the glimpses of sun falling over Mt. Annapurna, Dhaulagiri & Fishtail mountains. Those were very beautiful moments viewing the mountains changing colours from orange to golden when the sun showed up slowly.
Seti River
The Seti River is a tributary of river Ganga in Nepal. Seti River means white river, as the water is white and pure. It flows from a narrow natural canal at a high speed to a wider canal. People even threw coins into the river as it is considered to be very sacred.
Davi’s falls
The Seti River flows down in a natural waterfall and the river goes deep down in the ground. A part of this waterfall is also seen in the Gupteshwar Mahadev Cave. The flow is very fast. This river flow underground.
Gupteshwar Mahadev Cave
This is a must to see place in Pokhara. This is an underground cave. It is a bit dangerous but all the same, enjoyable too. It has a naturally formed Shiva lingam. As I wrote before, the water flowing through underground at Devis falls, appear here. The statues carved here