Nepal is one complacent nation landlocked by Tibet, India and Bhutan around it. The rich element of percussion instruments in its folk-music and the presence of some badass mountain ranges makes it a popular tourist destination for trekkers and other nature lovers.
Plains form a morsel part of nepal, rest is all mountains. And even so among the mountains - since they are everywhere, only the exceptionally high one's deem the interest and admiration of the tourists.
Trains don't appear in Nepal's setting. There are only buses or air travel. Domestic air travel is comparatively cheaper in Nepal. The best way to enter Nepal from India would be the Gorakhpur border. Road journey to Kathmandu is long with perpetual hilly winding routes which make the journey both tiring and irksome.
The grime would best be minimized by taking a flight to Kathmandu once inside Nepal. The other tourist destination "Pokhra" is a six hour bus journey from Kathmandu. With nice connectivity and continuous encounters of "Seti" river alongside the highway, this road journey is a pretty pleasant one.
Here is a view from my hotel at Pokhra, make sure you choose one close to the lake.
September and October are the best months to travel. The skies are clear at around this time and you can see the Annapurna Ranges if the weather is good. There are many places where you could get currency exchange at a nominal price. Indian currency is legally permitted there, save the 500 and 1000 rupee notes - but that's rarely observed in practice.
Here is the list of places to see in Kathmandu
- Pashupath Nath Temple
- Buddha Neelkanth
- Nagarkot
- Darbar Square
- Paltan
The list of places to see in Pokhra are
- Sarangkot (sunrise)
- Lakeside (Choose a hotel aft to the lake)
- Swayambhu Temple
- Devi's Falls
- Paragliding
- Boating
It's a beautiful place and if you go just in the right season you will get the best returns on your investment. You can get other beautiful pictures I clicked from my instagram page.
The currency of Nepal is slightly weaker than India. 100INR = 160NR. As a maxim when you ask for the rate of anything ; never ask whether it's in NC or INC, always assume that it's NC. While paying you can do the Math and pay in INC. It was a fun journey to Nepal and we returned after a week's stay but I know that my appetence for those skyscraping himalayan peaks will draw me again there, sometime soon. Those are like an army of colossal demons standing upright with all their might defying all notions of humans about height.
Simply awe-inspiring !!!
