Nepal Travelogue

The signature hikes of Nepal, the Everest Base Camp, the Annapurna Base Camp and the Manaslu Base Camp are so famous that they are readily recognisable by their abbreviations: EBC, ABC and MBC. If your age is riper than a mushy banana or your knees ricketier than an auto-rickshaw or your belly portlier than the Happy Buddha, then you are in the right place. This blog lays out in detail how we spent nine days in Nepal, all packed to the rafters, without going anywhere near a hiking trail. But first things first: don't forget the much needed rest on day zero to get over the jet-lag. Nepal is not on IST. It is a good 15 minutes ahead of it. You have to deal with the strange feeling of your body thinking it is only 4:30 while the clock says it is already 4:45. A good night's sleep helps overcome that.

On the first full day in Nepal, we got up bright and early at 5 am (IST, yeah, still jet-lagged) and headed to the most famous temple in the country: Pashupatinath. No one really knows how old the temple is, the earliest mention of it goes back to about 400 A.D. making it older than most temples in India. It is not a single temple, but a complex of religious structures half of which are stupas. Pashupatinath is the first of the many temples that we visited which is revered by both Hindus and the Buddhists. This syncretic nature of Hinduism and Buddhism is quite unique to Nepal. Walking around the atmospheric complex, witnessing the sun rise over these timeless edifices with the whole place reverberating with chanting was a wonderful way to kick start our trip to the country.

After a quick breakfast we headed to the Durbar Square. Before I run through the sites, let me give you a historical primer. One Malla dynasty ruled Nepal from 1201 to 1779. During their initial rule, in 1345 to be precise, the Bengal Sultan Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah paid a visit (well, "invaded") and destroyed everything in sight. So, we really don't have any idea what used to be there in these famous Durbar Squares before this invasion. Everything that you see today is built by the Mallas after the destruction. In 1482, after the death of the reigning king Yaksha Malla, the kingdom got divided into four and each of these sub-kingdoms (rather, city-states) built itself a Durbar Square, an ensemble of royal palaces and temples dedicated to their favourite gods. Kathmandu Durbar Square probably had its genesis in the 3rd century A.D., but most of what we see today dates from the 16th century Malla reconstruction. The square was reduced to a rubble by the 2015 quake and has now been rebuilt to its past glory. The sprawling Hanuman Dhoka (the main royal palace), the towering Taleju Temple (dedicated to Tulja Bhavani) and the intricate Kumari Bahal (where a girl child is worshipped as the living incarnation of Tulja Bhavani) awed us till noon. By the way, how Tujla Bhavani from Tuljapur became the patron goddess of Newari people is still a matter of historical debate.

Our next stop was Narayanhiti Palace, built in its present form in 1963 by king Mahendra. The opulence of the interior was as impressive as it was meant to be. We ended the day visiting the two famous stupas of the city: Boudhnath and Swayambhunath. The former, the largest stupa in Nepal, was built around 600 A.D. by the Licchavi king Sivadeva and the latter a couple of centuries earlier making it one of the oldest religious structures in Nepal. Swayambhunath is also considered sacred by the Hindus, the second of the syncretic sites we visited today.

The second day of the trip was spent visiting the historic sites around the capital city. The first stop of the day was at the temple that competes with Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath for the oldest place of worship title, the Changu Narayan Temple. This Vishnu temple houses the oldest inscription in all of Nepal: the 464 A.D. inscription of the Lichhavi king Manadeva. At the foot of the hill (on which Changu Narayan stands) is the historic Bhaktapur which houses the prettiest Durbar Square in all of Nepal. Most of the structures were built between the 14th and the 18th centuries by the Malla kings. The most eye-catching of these are the towering pagoda-style temples of Nritya Vatsala, Siddhi Lakshmi and Nyatapola temples. The statues that adorn the main stairways of the triad are breathtaking. Our third stop of the day was at the most famous of all Durbar Squares, the one at Patan, built around the same time as Bhaktapur by their cousins belonging to the same Malla dynasty. The royal palace in Patan is very well preserved and its courtyards explode with exquisite carvings. You can also climb to the top of the palace to enjoy the bird's eye view of rest of the Durbar Square and the views of the Krishna and Vishwanath temples are simply spell binding. Our last stop of the day was Kirtipur, another ancient city-state whose temples make up for the lack of a proper Durbar Square. First of these is the Bagh Bairab Temple which houses the very sword used by Prithvi Narayan Shah during his famous Unification of Nepal. The second is the pretty 1655 Uma Mahshwar Temple that sits at the highest point in the city.

There was one more Durbar Square to tick before we can take a break from the history. That one is Gorkha which conveniently comes at the midway point on the day long drive to Pokhara. Day three saw us undertaking this long drive and taking the said break at Gorkha. Gorkha is where Prithvi Narayan Shah was born and he conquered all the warring states and unified Nepal in 1768 finding the Kingdom of Nepal which lasted till 2008 when the country became the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal with the head of state being an elected President. The Gorkha Durbar pales in comparison to the grandeur of the previous day, but the history behind it made up for it.

The next couple of days were spent visiting the most famous Vishnu temple outside of India: Muktinath. There are 108 Divya Desam temples and these are the 108 mentioned in the Naalayira Divya Prabandham, a compilation of 4000 Tamil verses composed by the twelve Azhvars. Azhvars lived between the 5th and the 9th centuries and were the most renowned Tamil poet-saints belonging to the Vaishnava tradition. Among the 108 Divya Desams, two (Vaikuntam and Thiruparkadal) exit only in the heavens (if you are a believer) or imagination (if you are not). 105 temples are located in India and that leaves out one temple and that one is this Muktinath. During the Jurassic period, the Himalayas were shallow sea bed and home to a marine creature called the ammonite and their fossils look exactly like the Chakra of Vishnu. These fossils are worshipped as Shaligram by the Hindus and the best place to find them is along the Kali Gandaki river which originates from Muktinath. Hence, the site is believed to be the abode of Vishnu. For Buddhists, Muktinath is an abode of dakinis and is considered one of the twenty-four Tantric places. And as it happens everywhere else in Nepal, Buddhists and Hindus go about believing their own thing and worshipping in their own way without bothering about the other. Even if you are not a Hindu or a Buddhist, the visit to Muktinath is a must. It is the closest you can get to experience the Annapurna treks from the comfort (or rather discomfort) of a very bumpy car ride. The scenery is phenomenal. It changes from lush tropical forests to coniferous at higher altitude and finally, to the stark tundra once you cross to the leeward side. On the route, you also get to visit several traditional villages, the supremely photogenic Marpha being the pick of the lot.

The pilgrimage to Muktinath starts and ends in Pokhara and so does the treks into and around the Annapurna range. Hence, Pokhara is where you get the best views of the Annapurna peaks (outside of the treks). On the morning after the Muktinath trip, we headed to the local high point, Sarangkot. Thankfully, we had semi-clear skies after a week of dreariness. That was enough to give us a glimpse of Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and the picture perfect Matterhorn-esque Machapuchare. The second of Pokhara's natural attractions is its lake: Phewa. It is the second largest lake in the country (after Rara, in case you are wondering) and it houses an ancient Barahi Temple in its middle. Varahi is a form of Devi and also the female consort of the Varaha avatar of Vishnu. There aren't too many temples dedicated to her.

A 25 minute flight brought us to Bhairahawa, the International Airport that serves Lumbini. It was in Lumbini that one Queen Maya Devi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama (who later became the Buddha) in 623 BC. The site was lost to history till it was rediscovered in the 1890s. What was rediscovered was a pillar erected by Ashoka marking the birthstone of Buddha. Ashoka, by whatever means, had determined that it was here that the Buddha breathed his first and now a modern temple stands protecting the famed birthstone of Buddha. After paying our obligatory homage, we negotiated the biggest challenge on our trip: surviving the bumpiest road in the country to reach Chitwan by midnight.

Unfortunately, the ride to Chitwan wasn't the low point of the trip. That honour goes to the safari on the following morning. We were booked into a 10-seater camper van which picked us up at 8:45 am (NST and yes, we have finally overcome the jet-lag). It was late enough to spot nothing other than cattle, and the route barely ventured a couple of kilometers inside the park boundary. We spotted fewer birds than what we do on our evening walks on the ghat behind our house. And most of the mammals we spotted were the local villagers going about their tasks in the buffer zone. I would only blame my lack of research and trusting a series of sub-contractors for the safari bookings for the debacle. Apparently, there are better, private safaris that take you deeper into the jungle. I just did not know about them until it was too late. But, all dark clouds have a silver lining. In our case, it was the safari ending early enough that we could make it to our next destination by sunset. Better safaris would have dragged on till early afternoon forcing us into a back to back late night drives.

Janakpur was the next destination and it is believed to have been the birthplace of Sita, the heroine of one of the oldest epics on the planet, Ramayana. Archeologically, there is nothing that connects the present day city to the ancient Iron Age kingdom of Videha, the kingdom to which Sita belonged. But a devout Hindu is absolutely convinced the modern city was the capital of the erstwhile kingdom. The beating heart of the city is its astonishing Janaki Mandir. Built in 1910 by Queen Vrisha Bhanu of Orchha State, this gigantic 1500 sq metre temple looks more like a fort-palace than a traditional Hindu temple. It has its share of bling as well. At nights the temple shines under the bright multi-coloured lighting and we made it in time to witness it. So saat-khoon-maaf for missing out on the rhinos at Chitwan. The following morning we made a more peaceful visit to the temple, convinced the mithai-wala right across the street to open his rooftop for the famed bird's eye postcard view of the temple and caught the late morning flight back to Kathmandu.

Now that we were in Kathmandu, it was time to get back to our Durbar Square hopping. There was one more Durbar to hop to: Nuwakot. Prithvi Narayan Shah built most of it when he used it as its capital before his final assault on the Kathmandu Valley. Pictures of the Durbar Square seduced us to visit it. But what we didn't know was that these pictures pre-date 2015, i.e. before the quake. Currently, all the buildings in the Durbar square is either completely under scaffolding or a giant pile of rubble. Only one of its monuments, the Bhairabi Temple, was fully restored. Not nearly enough to make up for the time and effort to get here. On the way to Nuwakot, we stopped by the Budhanilkanta Temple which ended up as the highlight of the afternoon by default. This temple is another textbook example of religious harmony of Nepal. The first half of the name "Buddha" refers to the belief by the Buddhists that the main statue is a manifestation of Avalokiteswara. The second half of the name "Nilkanta" (or "blue-throated" in Sanskrit), is one of the titles of Shiva. One look at the statue is all you need to recognise it as Vishnu reposing on his Seshanag. Religious syncretism at its finest. None of the temples we visited in Nepal were crowded and we never had to wait anywhere for the darshan. Maybe all the Hindus were currently bathing in the Maha Khumb?

We are now down to our last day of our trip and we only had the forenoon as we were scheduled to fly out in the afternoon. There were a couple of lesser visited gems around Kathmandu that were left to cover. First was the town of Panauti. The name means unlucky in Hindi which I only came to know after Rahul Gandhi infamously used to describe the Indian Prime Minister. Made me feel sad that I knew less Hindi than RaGa. Anyway, I digress. We really don't know why the town is named that. All we know is that it is one of the oldest towns in Nepal having been founded by Ananta Malla in the 13th century. The prime attraction here is one of the tallest pagoda-style temples in Nepal: the Indreshwar Mahadev. Built in 1294, the temple was as impressive as its epithet suggested. Panauti is located at the confluence of two rivers: Rosi and Punyamati and the ghats at the sangam (Sanskrit for confluence) were truly sublime during the early morning hours.

The second of the lesser-visited gems was Namobuddha, a religious site located 9 km uphill from Panauti. The famous Jataka tales mostly recount the past incarnations of Buddha. In one such incarnation, Buddha was said to be a prince who had chanced upon a starving tigress and her emaciated cubs. Feeling sorry for the cats, he sacrificed himself to feed them. The stupa at Namobuddha is said to house his bones. It is one of the three important stupas of Kathmandu (other two being Boudhnath and Swayambhunath which we visited on the first day). Further uphill is a 1976 Tibetan monastery. Freshly painted, this gleaming red edifice and its calm environs was the perfect place to end the trip and record our final words of our trip-vlog.

That's, ladies and gentlemen, how we spent nine wonderful days in Nepal. There is one thing that I had left out of the travelogue and it happens to be the highlight! Hence, it is time that I mention it. It is the Thakali Thali, better known as the Dal Bhat. Thakali are one of the well to do castes of Nepal, originally belonging to the Mustang region (where Muktinath is located). They are known for their cuisine and their thali is ubiquitous all over Nepal and it is finger licking good. The thalis are prepared fresh with seasonal ingredients with very less oil and spices. They are delicious as heaven and you can eat them day in and day out without ever getting tired. The only downside is that we would never stop ourselves from ordering them for every meal and hence, never got to try much else. We did however try the famous Momos a couple of times and yes, they also lived up to our expectations.