Siem Reap trip: Day 3 (14 Nov)

Sah Yon was our amazing guide from today; he really made Siem Reap come alive for us.

Hey everyone, I know that day 2 of my Siem Reap trip was not as great as I had hoped, but as you can already guess from the introductory photo, day 3 was a huge improvement which really made me incredibly happy to have elected to spend two days doing temple visits at the Angkor Wat temple complex. Since I really appreciated the extra details he shared, a lot of you may find today’s entry overly educational, but it was just perfect for me.

After another peaceful night of rest in my AirBnB apartment — Thank you again Chhay! — I woke up at 8:30 AM, fully resolved to be a bit better prepared than yesterday. Despite yesterday’s very early departure, the heat was very tiring yesterday, so today I decided to take along my $25 USD neck fan (JisuLife Bladeless Neck Cooler). This neck fan which I bought two years ago has been a life saver in other overly warm situations, so hopefully today it won’t disappoint.

I walked out of the apartment at 9:11 AM, and by 9:18 AM had already arrived at a restaurant which was just down the place from where I was staying. I forget the exact name of the soup I ordered, but it was some sort of delicious beef broth with three different types of beef in it and some filling noodles. Remember how tired I had been at the end of the day, I also opted for an iced coffee americano.

The total cost was 18000 KHR (Cambodian Riel) or $4.38 USD. Incidentally, I noticed that while the savings were not huge, it was consistently a bit more cost effective to pay for things with local currency, even though pristine US dollars were also accepted pretty much everywhere.

At 9:58 AM I walked over to the same nearby petrol station as yesterday, arriving at 10:01 AM and found a spot in the shade where I waited until 10:13 PM where I was picked up by a guy on a motorcycle who said he would take me to meet the rest of the group. This might seem weird, but he knew my name, so I was not at all concerned. He even had a helmet for me, which is not as common as you might expect. Regardless, he was a careful driver, and by 10:17 AM I was waiting in the lobby of a hotel for the arrival of the rest of the group. I was offered cool bottled water here, and the waiting space was comfortable.

At 10:34 AM all six of us had arrived, and we headed out in a minivan with our guide Sah Yon. Right away, it was clear that today was going to be a different type of experience. Sah Yon explained to us that we would be visiting six temples today, and he gave us each a simple paper map of the route we would be taking and also sent us each an electronic copy. At 10:45 AM we once again had to make a stop to get an Angkor pass for one of the members of our group, but he was able to quickly purchase his pass, and we were once again off at 10:52 AM.

Some people might not like this, but I appreciated that while en route, Sah Yon asked us each to introduce ourselves, including where we lived, where we came from, and why we had decided to come to Angkor Wat. He also gave us important safety instructions: don’t touch the monkeys, no climbing on broken stones, and don’t touch any snakes.

At 11:21 AM we arrived at Ta Som temple. There are some conflicting opinions about whether this Buddhist temple was primarily dedicated to King Jayavarman VII’s father or if it was dedicated to his teacher. There used to be five towers, each representing a different Buddha, but one fell down. It was built in the late 12th century. It may not be obvious in the pictures, but the temple is not as high as the Hindu temples from the same period, since Hindu temples were meant to represent Mehru mountain; whereas, the Buddhist temples do not. Note, the same as yesterday, at every temple, there were guards who required that we show our Angkor Passes.

Four faces of Buddha
Holes like this were placed on the short pedestals in order to give more stability to the statues.
Notice my trusty neck cooler.

The stone used to construct the temple came from Kulen mountain. While not obvious in the pictures, Lava rock was used for the base of most of the temples because it was strong, but the external rock is almost always sandstone, because it was easier to carve. Many of the carvings in Angkor Wat were intentionally damaged during the religious wars between Hindus and Buddhists in the 12th and 13th century. Later on, heads of many statues were taken by looters, with even more removed by the Khmer Rouge as a means to discourage worship at many of the temples. We explored this area until 2:18 PM, and then got in the van to head to the next site, where we arrived at 12:25 PM.

East Mebon temple, which was originally known as the Shiva Loka (world of the god) was originally created as a Hindu temple, but later on was repurposed as a Buddhist place of worship. Given its origins, like other Hindu temples in the area, there are three different levels to the temple, with certain levels being restricted to different types of people. Interestingly, this temple has only been open to the general public since 1992. Here you will notice many holes in the walls; according to our guide, those originally had precious gemstones, but like so much from ancient sites, that has been looted over the years.

Note all the holes which previously would have been filled with precious gems.

The smaller towers were built to honor ancestors of the king; whereas the five large towers were for the five main Hindu gods which were generally honored in Cambodian Hinduism. Here, it was easy to see how bricks were used for construction. While I am not sure how that worked so well, according to our guide, the mortar used to join the bricks was a mixture of tree sap and sand. In contrast, stones were joined using a mixture of honey and palm sugar. No doubt a bit of research would reveal more of the particular details of the formula which they used.

At 1:09 PM we departed for the next temple, Pre Rup, where we arrived at 1:15 PM. Similar to the previous temple, this was originally a Hindu temple, but this one was quite a bit larger. The guide did not give us as much instruction here, since he indicated that most of what he had said earlier also applied here. Here the main draw seemed to be to climb up to the extremely high towers.

Yes, it really was as steep as it seems . . .
If you use your imagination and look for the black shirt, that’s me with our tour group and guide.

We left Pre Rup at 1:50 PM and at 1:55 pm had arrived at the same restaurant as yesterday. Upon the recommendation of the server, I ordered the Khmer Kor Kou with chicken and pork, for a cost of $6 USD.

It wasn’t very pretty, but it tasted great.

At 2:55 PM we were back in the vehicle headed to Neak Poan temple, which means entwined snakes temple. We arrived at the footbridge across the water at 3:15 PM. This Buddhist temple was specifically created to be a medical healing center, and it was created on an island found within a beautiful man made lake.

I found this to be particularly fascinating, because I had always been taught that the entwined snakes symbol for medicine was from Ancient Greece, but I have not been able to find a year reference. As this temple was made in the 12th century, that begs the question of how did this symbol make it to Cambodia or did it actually originate somewhere other than in Greece?

Although this is no longer a functioning Buddhist temple, and technically speaking no religious functions/ceremonies are allowed here, many Buddhists still leave offerings at one of the shrines. I assumed that maybe once a week a monk would come to collect them, but our guard said that the offerings are actually taken by the park rangers who are in charge of this particular area.

While I am not Buddhist, I feel that this was wrong; as a minimum, there should have been a sign clearly indicating that any offerings at the shrines would not be taken by a monks, but instead by park staff. Again though, as I am not Buddhist, maybe I am misreading the situation.

The pictures don’t do it justice, but this was an incredibly beautiful site. Unfortunately it was hard to see much of it well due to barriers which had been put up to protect the structures from further casual damage by visitors.

If you look closely you will see the horse facing the snakes; evidently the horse symbolized the king.
There are four pools around the central temple. These represent the four elements.

By 3:50 PM we were already back in the car heading on our way to Preah Khan temple, which we arrived to at 3:55 PM. This temple was unique in that it was specifically built to have three separate purposes. It was built to honor the king’s father, to pay homage to Buddhism, and to pay homage to Hinduism. Also built near the end of the 12th century, the king intentionally had elements of Buddhism and Hinduism mixed as a means to try to reduce religious conflict.

This was one of the best Garuda at any of the temples.
The doors intentionally get progressively smaller, forcing people to bow down as they go further into the temple.

At 4:51 we were once again back in the car headed to our final destination, Phnom Bakheng. We arrived at the entrance at 5:05 and then began a frenetic speed walk up the very steep hill, more or less ignoring everything we passed, since evidently the only reason people come to this site is to see the sunset. I mean we almost RAN up the hill, and it was NOT easy.

I irrationally feel sorry for temple. It was very beautiful in its own right and there was clearly much to see and explore, but people only flock to this place for the sunset. It is not as absurdly crowded as the principal Angkor Wat temple where people go to see the sunrise, but it is the same idea. Yes, the sunset views were beautiful, but I felt that we had been missing something by only rushing here for this sole purpose.

The four of us were together for both days of the Anglory Wat tour. Katarina and Maria from Germany, Mario from the USA and I were kindred spirits. It was only two days together, but I miss them.

5:37 PM was official sundown time and the light started to fade quickly. Our guide asked us to stay in the middle of the rather wide path on the way down, since he said that many snakes would come out near the edges of the path at this time of twilight.

At 6:05 we were back in the vehicle headed back to Siem Reap city. I have already mentioned four of my tour mates for the day, but I wanted to mention that Kevin and Chris, who completed our small group today were also wonderful companions. I had originally planned on heading straight back to the apartment, but the three Germans (Katarina, Maria and Kevin) asked if I would like to get dinner with them, and I was very happy to accept their invitation. We arrived at the Pub street area at 6:30 PM and said our goodbyes to the rest of the group, including our excellent guide, Sah Yon.

We shared five different dishes, and we each also had the equivalent of two bottles of beer, with a total cost of $6 USD per person. At 8:13 PM, having shared delicious food and great conversation, we parted ways and I had a leisurely walk back to the apartment, arriving at 8:40 PM.

Wow, today was everything I had imagined that my trip would be! No doubt many of you are thinking, how will he top that for day 4? I am not sure that I would say that either day 3 or day 4 was better, since they had entirely different types of itineraries. However, maybe you will think differently.

In order to find out, you will just have to keep reading! As always, thank you for your continued interest and your kind words of encouragement. If you have any questions, just leave a note in the comments section, and I will get back to you right away. Until next time, whether it be a simple walk around the neighborhood or a year long voyage around the globe, I hope all your travels are just as enjoyable as mine.

Siem Reap trip: Day 2 (13 Nov)

Hello again friends. As promised, today will be much more in line with what you were expecting from a trip to Siem Reap. The day began with me awakening to my alarm at 3:00 AM and getting ready for the day before heading out to the nearby pickup point at 3:50 AM.

I was quite excited because I could actually see stars! It has been so long since I was in a place where I could easily see multiple stars in the sky.

The street which I had to cross was unsurprisingly completely deserted at this time of the morning.

As soon as I arrived at the gas station at 3:55 PM which was roughly 350 meters from my lodging, there was already someone waiting with a tuk-tuk to take me to meet the others. I had earlier booked this two-day Angor Wat tour for a cost of only $23.85 on GetYourGuide, not including the cost of food and the entrance fee to the Angor Wat protected area. For entry to the Angkor Wat protected area, which is quite vast, you have three options: $37 USD for one day, $62 for three days, and $72 for seven days. There are other admissions policies for Cambodians and long-term (minimum two years) foreign residents of Cambodia. For most people, I think the three-day pass is the best option, as one day is definitely not enough time, and seven days of temples would probably be mind-numbing for the average tourist.

By 4:10 AM I had been deposited in the minivan with our driver Nick, and then we started heading around to pick up the rest of our group. By 4:38 PM we had a total of 12 tourists in our group, a guide, and our driver. Since a couple of the participants had not bought Angkor passes ahead of time, we had to go by the visitor center to get their tickets before entering the protected area.

The big draw for Day 1 seems to be the sunrise pictures, and there were A LOT of people waiting for this even at 5:30 AM. Evidently pre-pandemic there would be like 3000 people here for this, but today there were “only” approximately 700.

Personally, I didn’t really care that much about getting sunset pictures, but since everyone else was clearly into it, I started feeling that I was missing something, so I also took several pictures from different angles.

Don’t get me wrong, YES, it is pretty, but the whole sunset thing seems a bit overrated. Nevertheless, if you are here, it is sort of an obligatory experience. I am certainly not upset that I was there for it, but I didn’t share the fervor which seems to be the standard expectation.

If you are hoping for an unobstructed picture of yourself with Angor Wat in the background, especially at sunrise, that isn’t going to happen. However, as you will see later on, a bit of Google Pixel magic eraser was able to get rid of the most annoying inclusions in the background. No doubt those proficient with Photoshop could make the picture even nicer.

Honestly, I don’t have much to say about the temples themselves today, since the guide for day 1 wasn’t very good. To be fair, it was a very cheap two-day tour, so what was to be expected? However, the day 1 guide was much more of a chaperone than a “guide”. Still, as I knew nothing about the temple complex beforehand, I did learn a bit. For instance, the main Angor Wat temple is actually originally a Hindu temple which was built around 900 years ago during a 28-year period. When Cambodia later became Buddhist, many Buddhist elements were incorporated into various of the structures. I also learned that most of the female figures found all around the structures are called Apsara; these are supernatural “celestial beings” but not deities. I think the guide also said that there were 37 steps many places, and that this has some meaning. Anyways, here are some more pictures.

A great hornbill
Notice the Apsara
If you read carefully, you will get a laugh at the last rule. . . .I mean did that really need to be written?
Ta Prohm temple
Ta Prohm temple
Ta Prohm temple
Ta Prohm temple
Ta Prohm temple

The Ta Prohm temple, which is shown here in several pictures, is what brought the Angor Wat temple complex to most westerners, since there was a tomb raider film short here. Evidently there is a lot of conflict associated with the trees; many argue that they enhance the beauty of the temples, but over time they also destroy them. We were at Ta Prohm from 7:24 to 7:56 AM and then headed out to get breakfast, arriving at 8:08 AM.

My Khmer sour soup with beef and rice had a cost of $6 USD. This is a bit expensive by Siem Reap standards, but you are paying for the air conditioning and the proximity to the Angor Wat temples.

At 9:02 AM we were back in the bus headed towards Takeo temple. We arrived at 9:10 AM. Evidently the construction of this temple was never actually finished. It was nice enough looking, but after a bit, but we were not given any additional information. Still, once again, plenty of nice pictures.

Throughout the temples, it was relatively common to find these helpful inscriptions which have been extremely important to understand the original purpose etc . . . of each building.
The main draw here seemed to be to climb to the top of these very steep stairs.
Sometimes wooden stairs with handrails have been installed on top of the stone ones, presumably with the dual purpose of protecting the monuments and also protecting the tourists. However, it seems a bit haphazard.

At 9:50 AM we were back in the bus headed to the next spot. Honestly, I couldn’t understand the name. The closest I could get was Prparilay temple. I know that there were many trees there and that is also where you can see the king and queen swimming pool. I also know that the temple’s construction was never actually finished. We arrived here at 9:56 AM and left at 10:40 AM.

We continued walking from there and at 10:41 AM we arrived at the Elephant Terrace.

As far as I can tell, the Elephant terrace is just this one wall. From there were continued walking to Bayon Temple, where we arrived at 10:49 AM. This was actually a rather impressive looking site, and I would really have appreciated some actual guiding, but “the guide” just told us to wander around on our own until 11:40 AM, and he went to wait at the bus.

At 11:40 we were back in the bus, with a quick picture stop at the Buddha bridge at 11:43 PM.

By 11:50 AM we were back in the bus, with me being dropped off near my apartment at 12:21 PM. When I was dropped off, the guide told me to meet at the same place tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM. As I was quite tired and very hot, I headed directly to my lodging, arriving about 7 minutes later.

It had originally been my intent to go to a gym this afternoon, but sometime around 2:00 PM I fell asleep and did not wake up until 5:30 PM. Then after an hour of procrastination, I went out at 6:30 PM since I wanted to pay the remaining dollar of last night’s dinner and also to see a bit of the city at night.

Having wandered around a bit, including walking near the famous Pub street, at 9:04 PM I finally decided to get some food at some random restaurant near my apartment for a cost of $8 USD.

At 9:42 PM I walked back towards the apartment, arriving at 9:55 AM. I quickly showered and get into bed.

So, while day 1 of Angkor Wat was nice, I think it didn’t fully live up to my expectations, whatever those were. To be fair, much of that was because today’s guide was not especially impressive, but I was hoping that tomorrow would be better. Anyways, I guess we will soon see.

Again, for all of those who have been loyally following along, thank you for your continued interest. As always, should you have any questions or comments, just leave a note in the space provided below, and I will make sure to respond as soon as possible.

Some judicious use of the Pixel magic eraser made this photo look far better than the original, but I don’t feel too guilty, since all I did was remove some annoying background elements. Regardless, I at least now have my obligatory Angkor Wat sunrise photo!

Siem Reap trip: Day 1 (11-12 Nov)

Spoiler alert . . . yes, I finally made it to Cambodia!

Hey there friends, family and loyal readers! No, it is not that I haven’t traveled at all since March, but I did not feel that those were really “tourist trips”. This last one however was an unabashed tourist extravaganza.

As is normal in Bengaluru, the trip started at night, in this case the evening of Nov 11, 2023. Having seen them as an option while making a quick work-related trip to Bangkok in September, I decided to try a new all-electric car service call BluSmart in order to get to and from the airport. I had booked ahead with a special introductory offer, so my 25 km trip only costed 454 INR ($5.45 USD). The care arrived ahead of when it had been scheduled, and I entered at 6:51 PM.

The view of my housing complex as I was getting into the car.

My first impression was that it was a very comfortable car with an extremely professional driver who even tried to open the door for me. Upon sitting down in the back, I noticed right off that there were SOS buttons strategically placed throughout the car, not only for the passengers, but also for the driver. Happily, the ride itself was also smooth, which was good since traffic was horrendous and it took us 61 minutes to arrive.

My AirAsia flight was scheduled to depart from terminal 2 which only just recently started to be the main airport for international flights out of Bengaluru. However, there are also, quite a few domestic flights, so to save yourself time, remember that international departures need to enter from the right.

Non-Indian flyers might think these are Christmas decorations, but this is just the way it always looks at terminal 2.

As my AirAsia app said that I could head straight to security, that was what I did at 8:00 PM, but was promptly turned away, being told that I needed to have a physical boarding pass. I really shouldn’t have been surprised, as that is quite common in India. The line for AirAsia was long, but as I had arrived with plenty of advance time, I was not concerned.

I had read ahead of time that they were VERY strict with the 7 kg luggage allowance and while waiting I noticed that several people ended up having to check their carry-on bags and also pay a hefty fee for the privilege. While I had weighed my bag several times ahead of time, I started to get worried, so I stuck my heavy-duty umbrella in my pocket (covered by my shirt) and my power bank in another pocket. Oddly enough, when my turn at the check-in counter came at 8:31 PM, my bag didn’t even get weighed, so all my subterfuge was for nothing, but I resolved to do the same on the return flight just in case.

Having read that U.S. dollars were almost a default currency in Cambodia, I tried to buy some using my Indian bank card before heading through security, but I was told that this facility was only available for Indian citizens. However, I could have changed Indian Rupees in cash, but I had few of those on hand so didn’t bother. By 8:44 PM I was through immigration and by 9:02 PM was also through security. As is the norm, my bag was selected for an additional check, but things went quickly so I didn’t really care.

I think these fancy ceiling lightings in the hallway after security are new.

As mentioned earlier, I had been through this same airport on an international flight in September and had already ascertained that there were very few food options, and those that are available tend to be on the expensive side from the Indian viewpoint. I did check just in case to see if I could get into the lounge, but none of my cards were accepted, and I definitely wasn’t interested in separately paying for access. Thus, just like last time I was here, I ended up at the La Madeline restaurant.

The food is not especially inexpensive, but the decor is pleasant.

I ordered the chicken Madeline with an add-on Caesar salad for a cost of 943 INR ($11.32 USD). While the food was nicely presented, the chicken was a bit dry but the broccoli was pleasantly crunchy. I took my time here and did not leave the restaurant until 10:23 PM.

At 10:37 I was boarding the plane. There were no entertainment screens, and the seats also lacked the adjustable headrests which I had become accustomed to which make sleeping much easier on the flight. Furthermore, it might have been my imagination, but the seat space itself seemed a bit more cramped than the norm. Thankfully though there was an adjustable air vent, since it was a bit too warm for my taste. My goal had been to attempt to sleep the whole four-hour flight to Bangkok, but as I realized at 11:30 PM, it was just too uncomfortable. I did still try to rest as much as possible; however, I was very thankful when we touched down in Bangkok at 4:00 AM Bangkok time on November 12th.

By 4:38 AM I was already through security in Bangkok and out in the terminal area. It was pleasant enough here with ample food options, but there was little else to do.

Nothing else particularly got my attention, so I went ahead and used my Priority Pass at 5:00 AM to enter the Miracle lounge. This lounge is not especially nice, but since I already had the benefit as part of my credit card package, I figured I might as well go ahead and eat and hang out in this space. Note that Priority Pass members can only use the lounge for a maximum of two hours.

I stayed till the absolute last minute, exiting the lounge at 7:00 AM and going to wait near the gate with a projected departure time of 9:55 AM. At 8:00 AM they announced that the flight departure had been rescheduled to 10:32 AM. While I was tired, sleeping was not really an option, so I used my waiting time to watch series which I had downloaded to my phone before departure. Finally, at 10:30 AM we started the boarding process.

In contrast to the first flight, this one was too chilly, but shutting off the air vent helped. Furthermore, as this only a 60-minute flight, I figured it would be bearable. Once on the plane, I had to fill out both an immigration and a customs form, in addition to the $36 USD e-visa which I had processed ahead of time rather than waiting to do visa on arrival upon touching down in Siem Reap. The flight touched down at 11:43 AM, and my Airalo e-sim which I had bought and installed ahead of time for $13.50 USD (30 day validity with 5 gb of data), connected right away. By 11:54 AM I was already off the gangway and into the recently opened new Siem Reap airport.

It was a quick walk to immigration, and at 11:58 AM I was in line with only 5 people in front of me. I noticed that they had 24 counters, but only 5 were open. In a different area there was a long line of people waiting to process their visas on arrival. Once I was finally up to the counter, the whole process took only three minutes; note, they required me to show BOTH of my boarding passes, so I was glad that I had not thrown away the first one. It then only took me two more minutes to get out of the airport and be in line at 2:14 PM for the bus which goes into Siem Reap city at 12:30 PM.

When it was my turn to board, the driver told me that I needed to go get a ticket, but the ticket counter was nearby; so, it was not a problem. Finally, at 12:35 PM I was in the bus and on my way to Siem Reap City!

At 1:25 PM we arrived at the CDF market. Supposedly there are three separate stops in Siem Reap city, but it looks like there is actually only one. My AirBnB host suggested that I take a Rickshaw for a cost of $1 USD to the apartment, but I figured I would be happier walking and seeing a bit of the city.

I arrived at the Airbnb apartment, near Kesararam school, for which I had paid $116 USD for six nights at 2:04 PM. The check-in process was fairly simple, and I am happy to report that the apartment was just amazing, exactly as it had been reported in the listing. The location was also great, reasonable walking distance to restaurants and places of interest within the city itself. Should I return to Siem Reap, I will definitely book here again.

Before arriving, I had the idea that I would visit a museum my first actual day in Siem Reap, but I was just too tired, so I turned on the blessedly quiet air conditioner and slept until 5:00 PM. At 5:00 PM I headed out walking towards the Made in Cambia market, where I found a random eatery where I ordered food by pointing at what was in different pots. The total for my food was $3 USD, but I only had two USD in good condition, so surprisingly the older woman who ran the place told me to just come back another day with the other dollar!

I won’t say that this was “the best” food I had in Siem Reap, but certainly nothing else was better!
I highly recommend this spot with the green awning. It is right around the corner from the Made in Cambodia market.

After eating, I went ahead and checked out the Made in Cambodia market which was just around the corner. It was rather small, and also pleasant. However, it was also a bit expensive. Still, if I had been in the mood to buy anything, I probably would have bought here, since most of the stalls were intentionally run by people with some sort of a special need. Another nice thing about the market was that nobody hassled me constantly to buy; browsers were welcome. Still, by 6:30 PM I was heading back to the apartment, because the next day I would have to be up by 3:00 AM.

I took a rather leisurely stroll back, and by 7:16 PM was back in the apartment, and by 8:00 PM was in bed. I had my doubts about going to such a hyped-up tourist destination as Angor Wat, but I was hoping that the two-day tour I had booked to start the next day would be worth it.

For those of you who have followed along before with my travels, I apologize for this rather boring entry, but getting there is also half the battle whenever you take a trip, so it’s important to not leave out that part. Regardless, I promise that days 2-3 will be much more in line with what you were expecting from this trip. As always, thank you for reading along and feel free to leave any questions or comments below. See you next day at 3:00 AM!

Here’s a sneak peek from day 2 to keep you interested . . .

Nepal trip: Days 7-8 (24-25 Mar)

Hey there readers. I’m sorry I left you hanging there for a few days. Once I got back to India, I had very little time before heading back to work, and then predictably, I was too busy to finish up the posts on the Nepal trip. Since I’m writing this a few weeks later, the details are no longer as fresh in my mind, so this will probably be a bit shorter than usual and also a bit less exact with some of the information. So anyways, let’s go ahead and finish up this Nepal trip!

On day 7 we got up a bit later and headed out towards a nearby breakfast place that Dorothée had found online. The seating was quite limited, but the server asked a couple of solo travels if they would mind moving so that the three of us could sit together.

The food was quite good and the ambience was pleasant. As we weren’t in a hurry today, we hung out here until 10:31 AM.

Maria was all about finding the UNESCO World Heritage sites, and while we were eating, she had found the last one which was nearby, that we had not yet visited. By our estimation, it was about 13 km away by car. As we had nothing else planned, we decided to talk to random taxi drivers to see how much it would cost to take us there, wait an hour, and then come back. At first he said, 4500 NPR but then agreed to 3000 NPR ($23 USD). With our cultural fix for the day all planned out, at 10:40 AM we were on our way to Changu Narayan  Temple. The ride was fine, and at 11:36 AM we had arrived to the area.

Several different artisans were working on their crafts within their small shops.
Maria and Dorothée were in shopping mode, but like all good shoppers, they looked around and compared before making any commitments.

Entry to the temple area was 350 NPR ($2.67 USD) , but it seemed that maybe 250 NPR could be paid by SAARC members. It was all rather informal and a bit confusing. Nevertheless, there weren’t any problems getting access to the area. It is however worth noting, that like most of these sites, it definitely wasn’t wheelchair accessible. Although at this particular place there wasn’t a ton of walking to be done, throughout the trip I had frequently thought it might be good to have sedan chairs available for those with impaired mobility; this would allow more people to visit and also protect the traditional architecture while additionally giving more job opportunities. Perhaps during high season they already do this? If not, I feel like it’s a missed opportunity for everyone.

I was happy to see that a local school group was visiting.
There was a lot of restoration work going on.

While it was comparatively small, I really enjoyed this visit. It wasn’t at all crowded and at least to my untrained eyes seemed very “authentic”. The temple area itself only took about 20 minutes to see, but the attached village makes this easily an hour visit or more, especially if one is interested in doing shopping. If considering purchasing something, I suggest checking out the shops on the way up the small hill to the temple and then making purchases on the way back down. That is what Dorothée and Maria did, and both seemed very happy with the arrangement.

I was really impressed with the loads these women were carrying up to the temple. Who still dares to say that women are weak?

After quite a bit of friendly bargaining, Maria and Dorothée had their purchases.

At 12:45 PM we were once again in the car headed back to Kathmandu.

UDue to increased traffic, this time it took a bit longer, so we didn’t arrive back to our lodging until 2:23 PM. Given the added trouble, while there was no pressure to do so, we gave the driver a couple hundred extra NPR as a tip.

Dorothée spent a bit of time talking to the guide near our lodging who had arranged our transport on day 6. She’s thinking she may go to Everest base camp soon!

After putting things away in our rooms, at 2:58 PM we headed out walking to find a place to have lunch. I had found a place called Hotel Nepalaya Rooftop which looked promising. After a leisurely stroll, we arrived at 3:21 PM.

We were all three quite pleased, and the total bill for everyone was 2470 NPR ($18.86 USD). We stayed there until 4:40 and then headed back towards the cafe where we had eaten breakfast in the morning, arriving at 5:10 PM.

We had a nice chat, shared a couple of delicious desserts, and Maria and Dorothée both bought some fresh ground coffee beans to take home.

At 6:46 PM we had our last evening walk in Kathmandu as we headed back to the homestay, arriving at 7:07 PM.

We couldn’t figure out initially what these people were looking at.
The photo really doesn’t do it justice, but this sparkling planet just under the crescent moon was just breathtaking. It was a completely unexpected but much appreciated end to our last evening in Nepal.

Once we arrived, we cancelled our bill, since we would be leaving rather early. As I had a single room, it was $15 USD a night; whereas, Dorothée and Maria paid $20 USD a night for their double room. Shortly thereafter, we all went up to our rooms to quickly pack and go to sleep, since we would have an early departure the next day.

Upon departing from the homestay at 7:30 AM on day 8, our hosts put these satin scarves on us. I remember something similar happened when I was leaving a homestay in Sikkim last year.

The trip to the airport was only 17 minutes, but like many airport taxis was comparatively expensive given the short distance. There was no traffic, and we paid 900 NPR ($6.87 USD).

Once inside at 7:50 AM we had to scan all of our bags, including my passport pouch which was hanging around my neck. The Indigo line was very short, but it still took 20 minutes to get to the counter. By 8:20 AM we were in the immigration queue. There were more people but things seemed to move quickly with little fuss.

At 8:50 AM we had cleared both immigration and security. The waiting area only had one shop, but the seating was fine near our gate since it wasn’t overcrowded. I took advantage of the little shop to buy some dried yak cheese as gifts and a very unremarkable chicken club sandwich. Despite the slim pickings, the shop did not gouge people with the prices.

At 9:52 AM we were boarding the plane. While boarding was very fast, there was an additional fake security check in which they didn’t actually seem to be doing anything meaningful. Then at 10:05 AM I was on the plane in 13D. For the return flights I had opted for the more expensive exit row seats. While these spots were not particularly luxurious, the added legroom was much appreciated, especially since I had been so cramped earlier on. I hoped they weren’t saying anything important during the departure speech, because the volume was so low it was impossible to hear anything.

The flight to Delhi was uneventful and it was only 15 minutes to clear immigration. In a show of welcome efficiency, our bags were already waiting near immigration at 12:36 PM. It was at that point that all pretensions of efficiency ended; although, we maintained a positive attitude throughout.

There is no point in attempting to explain the process of transferring from one terminal to another in Delhi. You just have to keep asking people along the way and hope for the best. The bus is rickety, and it actually goes on the main highway. The driver, at least in our case was careless, and a couple of people including myself nearly fell over as he took curves rather abruptly. Men must have “a ticket” to use the transfer bus, but for some reason women do not. The ticket is free, and no, it’s not obvious where to get it. Again, you just keep asking. The entire process took 45 minutes; this is one of those situations where you just have to keep calm and maintain a good attitude.

Once in the new terminal, we had to recheck our bags and go through security again as if we had bought separate tickets. However, we got through it just fine between the three of us encouraging each other and all three asking people as we went along the circuitous route.

Finally we were through to the next gate waiting area where we had a mini meal and a coffee.

At 3:13 PM we were getting on the plane to Bengaluru; although, we did not actually take off until 3:44 PM. Again, the seat with more legroom was much appreciated, since this flight was very crowded. During the flight I did my daily Hindi ANKI review and then listened to an episode of American Hysteria. At this point things were going very smoothly, and the plane touched down at 6:15 PM; at 6:46 PM we already had our bags.

Taking a tip from Dorothée, I decided to just grab an airport taxi which is right at the exit. It’s a bit more expensive than getting an Ola or Uber, but the added cost is generally justified by the convenience.

At 6:51 PM we were all in our taxis and the Nepal trip was over.

This trip to Nepal was not one which I had initially planned to do right now, and many things did not go exactly as planned. However, it was definitely a great excursion. Of course, having excellent travel companions was an important plus that helped smooth over any inconveniences. Unlike Dorothée, I don’t think I’m keen to head to Everest base camp anytime soon, but I could definitely see myself making another visit to Nepal in the near to mid future.

And on that note, the trip notes for Nepal finally come to an end. Once again, for those who have followed along the entire time, thank you for your patience; I know the last entry was very late. And for those who have just joined for days 7 and 8, feel free to go back to earlier entries and see what happened beforehand. You might even be interested in previous trips? Do leave any questions or observations in the comments section, and until next time, I hope all of your travels are as enjoyable as mine, whether they be trips around the world or even just an afternoon spent exploring a long overlooked neighborhood park.

Nepal trip: Day 6 (23 Mar 2023)

Hey everyone, if you have kept reading since day 1, then I’m very impressed. The good news for those who have had the stamina to keep going is that today was a very classic tourist day, so there’s lots of stuff which would probably be of interest to the average traveller.

At 8:06 AM we departed in a Suzuki Liana which we had contracted for the day. The total cost for the same, including the driver, was $90 USD plus any tip we would decide on for our driver Sunil. Yes, this was only a standard mid size sedan, but it was quite comfortable and more than adequate for our needs when heading to locations within a few hours of Kathmandu.

By 9:22 AM we were driving through Panauti. We didn’t stop to explore here, but I can say that despite looking a bit run down, it looked like it would probably be an okay place to live, or even just a quirky place to hang out as a tourist for a couple of days.

So many adorable ducks!

At 10:06 AM we had arrived to the Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Temple area. It may be that memory is failing me, and I’m also certainly not the world’s most noted temple expert, but this seemed to be the most modern Buddhist site I’ve ever visited. Everything was very clean, in good repair, and easy to navigate. The only obvious downside for such a modern temple complex is that they didn’t appear to have made any provisions for people with obviously impaired mobility. It’s important to note that there was also no admission fee nor anyone attempting to pressure visitors into making donations.

No, photos were “not permitted” inside the actual shrine areas, but they seemed to be far more concerned about people filming Instagram Reels or Tiktok videos than with people discreetly snapping photos when no religious ceremony was actually taking place.
Dorothée made a special effort to always do the requisite seven clockwise turns around all of the smaller stupas.
At the very top there were a couple of small shops selling reasonably priced souvenirs.

This tiny spot right at the top was supposedly where the Buddha prince willingly sacrificed himself to feed a hungry tiger and her cubs.

We had a simple drink at one of the very basic cafes near the entrance of the complex and then took the car down to the actual village of Simalchaur Syampati which was less than a kilometer away. I think some visitors would actually find this village to be more interesting than the temple complex itself; since although it was far less exquisite than the temple, it had a lot more “character.” There were also several complete, but still very reasonably priced restaurants where one could eat a proper meal here.

At 12:37 PM we were once more in the car and headed towards a waterfall which Dorothée had read about.

The nature site was about fifteen minutes away from Changunarayan by car. While we had a very athletic and certainly memorable visit here, including a rather tense 20 minute period in which Maria and I were in the process of convincing ourselves that Dorothée had fallen off the side of the mountain, we never actually found the intended waterfall. Yes, there were several more or less obvious trails through the forest, but there were neither signs nor clear indications of how to get anywhere. With that in mind, I would not suggest this area for solo visitors, but small groups should get along just fine.

Here Maria and I had been discussing how much longer to wait before contacting emergency services about our missing friend Dorothée, but then decided maybe we would just take another smiling picture instead. Fortunately we made the right decision, as about ten minutes later Dorothée appeared.

At 3:20 PM we were once again in the car en route to the Peace Garden Restaurant and Cafe. Along the way we stopped at an interesting statue and army installation where one of the guards kindly told us a bit about the significance of the statue etc. . .

Finally at 4:12 PM we arrived at the peace garden where we had a very nice meal along with a couple of drinks, costing us just 2110 NPR ($15.98 USD) for the three of us. It really was a beautiful late afternoon, and the workers at the restaurant were extremely pleasant hosts.

As is obvious from the pictures, in the 30 minutes it took us to get there, the sky suddenly became rather cloudy. So there were no Everest sightings for us today, but we still enjoyed the area.

At 6:28 PM it was already dark, so we took the car back to Kathmandu, arriving at our lodging at 7:55 PM. After a bit of quick discussion, we agreed to give Sunil a 3000 NPR ($22.72 USD) tip for the day. He was an excellent driver and it had been a very long day of work for him.

We ourselves were also very tired, so rather than go out again, we all decided to retire to our rooms for the evening. All in all, it really was a perfectly delightful day. I wonder what will happen tomorrow? In order to find out, you’ll have to be on the lookout for Day 7.

Once more, thank you for sharing in my adventures and don’t hesitate to ask for any additional information in the comments below.

Nepal trip: Day 5 (22 Mar 2023)

Hey there once again. So if you read day 4 you already know that the whole village trip thing did not go as planned, and I am now back in Kathmandu. This is not a setback, but rather a simple change of plans. Let’s see how things went.

We met up in the garden downstairs at 9:40 AM and then headed out to a breakfast place near our lodging called Rosemary Kitchen and Coffee Shop.

School girls walking to class in the morning

We sat in the pleasant garden for breakfast, with the total cost for the three of us coming to 2007 NPR ($15.20 USD). The food was very nice, as was the ambiance.

While eating, Dorothee suggested that I check to see if I could find a “free walking” tour; I found one which was starting at 2 PM on Guru Walk.

This “free” model honestly makes a bit more sense in the European context, since the webpage makes it clear that there is a general expectation that each participant will “tip” at least 10 Euros, with a maximum group size of 5. Obviously, one can pay more. Putting things in perspective, a highly skilled trekking guide who in essence is responsible for your life, is generally only paid about $30 USD a day. In our particular group, there were four people and certainly each of us paid at least $10 USD, and I assume the fourth participant paid similarly. So, for a four hour walking tour, this “walking guide” earned more than double that which was paid for a full day to a trekking guide. I am in no way suggesting that the payment is “unjust” but seeing things from the Nepalese viewpoint, it doesn’t make as much sense as it does in Europe or other cities which are far more expensive. However, the walking tour did not start until 2 PM, so we still had some exploring to do on our own.

Dorothee was quite keen on visiting the Garden of Dreams, so at 11:15 AM we departed from the cafe and headed over in that direction. Along the way at 11:46 AM we briefly stopped in to visit the Tridevi temple.

Our time at the temple was very short, and by 11:55 AM we were entering the garden. The entry fee was 400 NPR ($3.03 USD) per person. While this is certainly not “expensive,” it is clear that this is meant to be more of a resting place for residents of the city than a must see site for tourists. So, if you are short on time, even though there are many great photo opportunities, international visitors can definitely skip the garden.

Certainly we could have spent more time there reading a book or something along those lines, but by 12:35 PM we were ready to go back to our lodging which was only a ten minute walk away. There we rested a bit and left once more on foot at 1:35 PM, arriving to the meeting point at Chaya Center Thames at 1:50 PM. Our guide Santhosh Pandey was reasonably punctual, meeting us at 2:09 PM. There we were joined by another pleasant woman from the United Kingdom, but I am afraid that I did not think to ask her name.

By 2:53 PM we had reached Hanuman-Dhoka Durbar Square. There are several different World Heritage Sites here. The entry fee for non SAARC visitors is 1000 NPR ($7.57 USD) and 150 NPR ($1.14 USD) for SAARC visitors. While this is a minor point, this is potentially important for “Anglo-Indians” visiting, because if you do not “look South Indian” you will be required to show either your voter identification card or your passport; AADHAR and PAN cards are not acceptable. Similarly, if you “look South Asian” just say that you are (The British woman in our group did this.), then they will charge you 150. Still, this is probably the “most important” heritage site in Kathmandu, so it’s definitely worth the entry fee regardless of the amount. There were many interesting things to see, but it is worth noting that some of the buildings and historical artifacts were obviously maintained much better than others; in particular, I noticed that the palace which had been used from the 13th to 18th century seemed rather shabby. We stayed in this general area until 4:22 PM.

Here were were waiting to see the royal Kumari. She appeared at one of the windows for 3 seconds at 4:13 PM.

Yes, a particularly adventurous traveler with plenty of time on one’s hands could walk to the Swayambhu Mahachaitya Buddhist temple complex from the site where we were located, but for the sake of expediency we took a taxi ride for 13 minutes, also asking the driver to wait for us so that we would have transport back to our homestay afterwards. According to our guide, it is MUCH better to make an arrangement like this, because it can otherwise be hard to get transport from the site. We paid a total of 1000 NPR ($7.57 USD) for this service; given that we did not get back to our rooms until 6:04 PM this seemed reasonable, but I suspect we could have bargained for significantly less had we really been in the mood to do the same.

A large amount of our time at this site was spent at the Buddha Thanka Treasure painting showroom. Given that they allowed us up on their rooftop to take pictures; this seemed fair. I should begin with saying that I am definitely impressed with the art created by those whose work was on display, but I was somewhat skeptical about some of the details given to us by the people working there. According to the sales people, every roughly A4 size painting they have there takes between 10 days and 3 months of work for an artist to complete. They furthermore stated that 40% of the artwork created by their 650 artists is shredded, because it does not meet their quality control standards. Finally, they indicated that all of the artists were on salary: 258 full-time artists and 392 part time (3 hours a day for five days a week). These paintings on canvas could be purchased for anything from about $50 USD to $500 USD. Certainly the artwork was impressive and I in no way dispute its value, but the total numbers did not seem to add up given the standard Nepalese minimum wage (one hopes that many of the artists also make more than minimum) and the information we were being given. Again though, I believe that my traveling companions would color me as being overly cynical on this particular point. Regardless, the artwork is beautiful and at least on the surface it seems that this organization is working to provide gainful, practical employment to many aspiring young artists while also preserving a valuable and beautiful art form. I have provided their website above should you wish to buy from them directly.

This was a clandestine picture taken within the art showroom, but given that I’m publicizing their work, I feel okay about the same.
This site (like many others) is also called “The monkey temple” so unsurprisingly there were several monkeys. However, there really weren’t that many, and they were in no way annoying, so it’s safe to visit here if you are afraid of monkeys; just don’t have any food available and they will leave you alone.
Our guide Santosh, Dorothée, Maria and I when we were saying our goodbyes.

As we had been quite satisfied with our breakfast and it was nearby, we decided to meet for dinner at Rosemary Kitchen and Coffee Shop at 6:30 PM. It took about 30 minutes for our food to be served, and I was reasonably pleased with my Beef Choela; Maria and Dorothee seemed similarly satisfied with their main course choices. I opted to skip dessert, but Maria had the truffle cake which she stated was “nice” and Dorothee had the yoghurt cheesecake which she pronounced to be “very good;” however, she was not at all impressed with the strawberry syrup that had been served on the side. The total for the three of us was 4792 NPR ($36.30 USD).

My pretentiously artistic photo at the end of our dinner . . .

By 8:25 PM I was safely back in my room resting and getting caught up on correspondence. Tomorrow we have no guide, but have booked a driver for the full day who will take us to a couple of recommended locations which are between 1 and three hours from the city. Given our success today, it would appear that we are fully back on track to have a successful and very enjoyable experience here in Nepal. Of course, there is still much to come, and the only way to find out will be to keep reading.

As always, should you have questions about anything I have mentioned so far, just let me know in the comments below and I will try to help as much as possible. Wherever you are, I hope your day was also as great as mine. See you soon . . .

Nepal Trip: Day 4 (21 Mar 2023)

Welcome back my frozen friends! Oh wait, that’s just me who is still frozen, not you. Ah well, certainly still a very interesting cultural experience.

Using night sight, view from the window in my room at 5 AM.

Not that I needed a number for confirmation, but at 5:10 AM it was between 1 and 2 degrees Celsius (34 degrees F) both inside and out. I can still hear raindrops on the roof, but they might be dripping from a tree rather than still actively falling. Getting up to go down to the bathroom, with every step, the wooden floor, stairs and then door creaked in such a way that I am almost certain that the entire house hears me. One thing is for sure, when all those kids I met yesterday hit adolescence, there will definitely not be any “sneaking out” at night; the whole house serves as an alarm system.

By 6 AM, based on my own imagination, I was cautiously optimistic that the rain would have stopped by 8 AM, giving us at least 2-3 hours to walk around a bit before it would start again. Checking the weather report on internet seemed to reaffirm my guess.

At 7:15 AM it was still very foggy, but not raining. I put on three shirts, plus my fleece jacket as I was getting ready to go down for breakfast. I topped off the ensemble with my ear warmer band from Ladakh, and yes, I was still cold. However, I tend to handle the cold fairly well, so no major complaints. Nevertheless, upon meeting up with Dorothee and Maria at 7:30 AM, the consensus was that we would head back to Kathmandu today.

This might simply be a case of “be careful what you ask for,” because you might just get it. We had said that we wanted to get to know about authentic village life, and it looks like that this might be it. Our hosts seemed no less cold than we were, and no less enthusiastic about wandering around aimlessly outside, especially in the rain. The difference of course is that most of them don’t have the choice of escaping back to the comforts of the city when things don’t go as expected. Even in the possible freezing rain, the kids would still be walking to school, and there would still be chores which had to be done outside, as well as all of the day to day tasks of cooking and cleaning inside. This is life.

Fortunately though, the driver would not be able to arrive until about 10 AM, and it looked like it wouldn’t be raining until at least 10:30 AM, so if we were to eat quickly and get out into the street, at least we would be able to see a bit of what could be seen in the immediate vicinity before once again embarking on a ten hour journey.

While there is electricity and even wired internet service in the village, firewood is the main source of both heating and cooking fuel.
I am not sure what this is, but I saw two different women soaking it in water and then leaving it to dry as was shown here.

We even had some time to be silly. We got some odd glances from a few of the villagers, but everyone seemed to chalk it up to “crazy foreigners” and simply left us to our own devices. I was sad that we did not get the chance to actually know any of them beyond the immediate family where we had been staying, but there was nothing to be done. Incidentally, Hit told us that this village was MUCH more developed than the other village which we had originally planned on visiting on Day 5 after a 3-5 hour trek on back trails.

Botka arrived with the transport at 9:41 AM. After having a quick tea, we were all set to embark on the ten hour trip back to Kathmandu. After some experimentation, we finally decided on the least uncomfortable (equal levels of possible discomfort) for everyone. Maria would sit in front, I would sit behind Maria, and Dorothee behind the driver. It still wasn’t super, but definitely better for my knees than yesterday’s trip.

The same as yesterday, approximately every 30 minutes we had to register our distance and time.
I know you are thinking. . .. Hey, this doesn’t look rainy, and you are right. As is often common in the mountains, there are many “micro climates” here, especially with changes in altitude and even relatively small distances of 25 or so.

At 12:19 PM we were having lunch at the same place as yesterday, this time costing 1350 NPR ($10.22 USD) for the five of us. We dawdled quite a bit and did not depart until 1:15 PM. Going both ways, we had seen several hanging pedestrian bridges which crossed over the river, so we asked Botka if it would be safe to stop for a couple of minutes for us to try one out, and at 2:20 PM he finally spotted one which seemed to make sense. Dorothee, Maria and I were all extremely impressed by how well they were made. They did not shake at all, evidently also being made strong enough to bear motorcycles. For many isolated hamlets, aside from taking a boat across the river, this is their only connection to the main road. Of course, we took advantage to snap some photographs, some less silly than others.

More idyllic scenes abounded as our journey continued until we once more stopped at 3:40 PM to get a drink at Jhangajholi, Ratma Sunshine Food Cafe to let the driver rest a bit while we had coffee.

Maria had this amazing “paper soap” which she had brought from Turkey. I’m definitely going to see if I can buy this back in India.

When we were departing at 4:20 PM, I decided to try to catch up with my ANKI flashcards in Hindi which I had neglected for three days. I worried it might not work well as the road was frequently bumpy, but the Android app on my phone worked great, and 48 minutes later I was all caught up and ready to appreciate the remaining views as we neared the city.

Finally at 7:25 PM we were back to Sunrise Cottage in Kathmandu. We said our goodbyes to Hit and Botka, deciding to pay Hit for the originally intended six days of guide services (around $30 USD a day) and once again paying Botka the same 19000 NPR ($144 USD) as yesterday for his incredibly safe driving services. After taking a couple of minutes to freshen up, I proposed to go to dinner at nearby Hangkook Sarang Korean restaurant.

This was a bit of a splurge, but I really need some feel good food, and I had read that the Korean food here was great. Maria wanted to take a break from dinner itself, but was happy to tag along for the company. The total bill for Dorothée and I was 4650 NPR ($35 USD). We decided to not make any set plans for the next day and by 9 PM I was tucked away in bed.

So no, things definitely did not go as originally planned for the villages trip, and we’ve decided to stick close to Kathmandu for the remaining days. Was it a bit disappointing? Yes, but sometimes that’s life. You can’t control the weather, and sometimes it’s better to make a change of plans rather than stubbornly pushing forward in the face of adversity. Perhaps we would have had an even more amazing cultural experience had we been willing to trudge 4 hours through freezing rain to the next village, constantly being extremely cold for four days but also constantly enlightened by these life experiences, but that’s not what we decided to do.

Do I feel bad about coming back to the Kathmandu area? Not at all. It’s an amazing place with plenty to offer, and I look forward to seeing much more of it tomorrow. Feel free to let me know what you think of our decisions, or even just leave a word of encouragement in the comments section. As always, thanks for following along; I’m sure there are more great things to come.

Nepal Trip: Day 3 (20 Mar 2023)

No there isn’t a problem with your screen, my hand was just unsteady at 5:25 AM when I took this photo while we were waiting for Hit to arrive with our transport for the day.

Welcome back readers. If all goes well, this will be our first day on the track to find out the little things that actually make up Nepali village life real, or at any rate, as much as can be see in four nights of travel.

It was definitely the right call to reserve an entire transport for ourselves. A ten hour trip with ten people would have perhaps been educational, but that is one lesson I am willing to forego as long as I have a choice.

By 5:33 AM our driver Botha was pulling out of the drive. As one might expect, the scenery along the way was pretty, and the road was constantly twisting and turning up and down the side of the mountain. For the most part the road was reasonably “good” but yes, there were patches where it was just dirt or where we had to drive though very small bodies of water. However, I certainly never felt unsafe.

I had originally thought that I would probably end up sleeping most of the way despite the beautiful scenery, but as a result of the still rather cramped conditions for my 1.82 metres and 90 kg frame, plus the often rather bumpy and swerving road conditions, that was clearly not likely to happen for much of the ride. By

Sitting behind the driver was a better option due to the softer back of the seat. The front seat had initially looked better, but my knees jammed into hard plastic unless the seat was put back so far as to make the back seat unusable for my traveling companions. While not “comfortable” conditions for me, it was fine. I think Maria and Dorothée, who are both a bit smaller, were actually reasonably comfortable the whole way

At 8:45 AM we stopped for breakfast near Khurkot. I forgot to ask the name, so I’m not actually sure exactly where we were.

The food was more than adequate and some would no doubt even say delicious. Certainly the server was gracious. The cost was 350 NPR ($2.66 USD) for each of the three of us. I assume we were also paying the cost of Hit and Botka in that as well. By 9:30 AM we were back on the road again.

Removing a bit of my feelings of road safety was this memorial marked by mirrors. Evidently a bus had gone off the road here killing 45 people. Still, the fact that there weren’t mirrors everywhere along the way seemed to indicate this was not a common occurrence.

As we were going along, Botka regularly stopped the vehicle to speak to someone near the side of the road. At first I thought maybe he was asking about road conditions ahead or perhaps even directions; although, in retrospect, as there was only one obvious “road” that was a foolish initial assumption. Hit then clarified that Botka was evidently registering time etc . . . with the official. This is a way that they use to keep people from going to fast along the twisting and many times rather narrow roads. At 12:05 PM we stopped for lunch in the town of Ghurmi.

The initial portion placed on ones plate is not very large, but then these people go around giving more if you want. This seems like a good way to ensure nobody leaves hungry without encouraging food wastage.
The tasty momos we ordered was separate from the standard lunch.
While obviously seen as more of a decoration than an actual food item, the spinach was delicious.

The cost for all five of us including the momos and two beers (no, neither was for the driver) was 1950 NPR ($14.76 USD). And by 1 PM we were once more in motion.

The road started to climb upwards again and we arrived by 3:37 PM we had arrived to our first village destination, Siddhicharan. It was raining, and rather cold, but our hosts were kind.

Dinner was around 7 PM and then we played cards with the kids. Again, our hosts are very pleasant, but it was also 5 degrees Celsius and rainy with a not very encouraging forecast for the next few days.

Before going up to bed, we chatted and decided that the best course of action would be to see how the weather actually looked tomorrow morning, but probably we will try to head back towards Kathmandu on Wednesday rather than walking for four hours to an even more isolated village. It’s just too chilly and rainy and we don’t have adequate clothes. Hopefully, we will be able to get out a bit in the morning to see something of the area around the local village. The forecast seems to indicate that would be reasonable for a few hours, but we will have to see. As I got in bed at 9:30 PM, the rain was still coming down and it was 2 degrees Celsius both inside and out. . ..

What will tomorrow bring?

Nepal trip: Day 2 (19 Mar 2023)

Hey there again. Day two had a lot more to see, and fortunately for you my intrepid readers, a lot less to read.

I was up at 7 AM to finish my blog post for Day 1, and then at 8:40 had tea with Dorothee, Maria and our guide, who is called Hit.

I had hoped to have a bit more clarity about the rest of the trip after speaking with him, but that was not the case. This was making me still feel very uncomfortable with heading off to a village in the middle of nowhere tomorrow, but then I realized that I needed to reframe the situation.

I had been viewing Hit as a travel agent or trip planner who was also doubling as a guide/translator. However, that is not his role; rather he is a travel facilitator when we attempt to do tourism in a couple of villages which are not actually setup to handle tourists. He can give us a general idea of what it will cost to negotiate being paying guests in the homes of local villagers for four days as well as the cost and methods of travel to them. In this way, one could see him as the “old school version” of a guide. Yes, this requires a great deal of trust, but if we want to have this experience, then it is what we have to do. The only point I actually did continue to feel a bit odd about what his insistence that he not have a daily set payment, but rather at the end, we would pay him whatever we thought made the most sense.

This is of course silly because he DOES work as a professionally contracted modern guide, so there is clearly a set minimum amount he is expecting. As is the habit with guides all over the world, if you want to give a tip, then you do it, but there is still the general expectation of an absolute minimum percentage for the tip when one has an individual or small group guide. So, after a bit of debate amongst ourselves and some online investigation, Dorothee and I found out what is actually generally the standard daily rate for a highly qualified guide in Nepal, and we simply decide to go with that amount once we had confirmed the plan with Maria.

We did have one tough decision to make though. Would we travel as “standard travelers” in the vehicles which they call jeeps, but I assume are more like land rovers (will see tomorrow), each paying 2200 NRP for the ten hour trip tomorrow, or do we buy out all ten seats in one of the jeeps, and travel just on our own? Given that two of us are rather large; I am 1.82 meters tall, we decided to bite the bullet and pay around NPR 7300 each for the one way trip. This would also give us more flexibility for stopping to take pictures etc . . . Along the way without inconveniencing other travelers. So that will be roughly $56 USD per person for transport to the first village rather than $17 USD. Based on how things go heading towards the first village, we will decide what to do when we come back to Kathmandu from the final village.

A bit after this we decided to head out to find breakfast and then continue on with the two temple visits we had decided that we wanted to do today.

I have no idea what these tiny little duffel bags are used for, but we’ve seen them all around the “foreign tourist” section of the city.

After wandering around for about 20 minutes trying to find an “amazing breakfast place” which we had read about online, going to the place where we told it had been moved, and then giving up when it was not there either, we decided to just go into the very next place we saw, which turned out to be a very fancy place called Kathmandu Guest House. The breakfast buffet was decent if perhaps a bit overpriced at NPR 1500 ($11.50 USD) per person, but the gardens were beautiful and the ambience is of course what we were really buying, not the food. I of course obstinately insisted on going overboard with the food amount in order to get my money’s worth. Regardless, if you want a pretty place to have breakfast, I would recommend them.

At 10:38 AM we started off walking towards Pashupatinath temple complex, which Hit had told us was about an hour walk away. While this was accurate information, Maria and I at least had imagined a far more leisurely walk than Hit had in mind, but we certainly did see a lot of interesting things along the way. Separately, we made a mental note as to what Hit thinks of as “standard walking speed” so that we can refer to the same in the future when he tells us how far we have to go until reaching any additional destinations.

I had thought there were lots of motorcycles on the roads in India, but Kathmandu at least seems to have the average Indian city beat on that score.
For some reason I can’t quite pin down, I keep having concerns about the electrical installations in Kathmandu.

By 11:30 AM we had arrived to the Temple complex, which had a cost of 1000 NPR ($7.68 USD) to enter. I really had no idea what to expect, since I was just going to where Dorothee had suggested. Still, I am happy to report that it was money well spent. We were there for almost 90 minutes and easily could have stayed much longer without being bored.

This is a family preparing for the cremation of an older relative. We saw much of the process including the beginning of the open air cremation. Contrary to what you might believe, it was not really particularly shocking to see; although, having such a private moment out for random tourists to see seemed a bit odd.
There seemed to be some sort of a wildlife preserve for a few grazing animals on the site. This fellow had been far away, but evidently he understands Spanish, because I was able to talk him over to stand right next to the fence so we could all get pictures. One little local boy was particularly pleased with my deer whisperer skills.
Whether or not it’s true, a local man explained to me in a mix of broken English and broken Hindi that on a yearly basis, family members return to pray for their loved ones who were cremated here.

In case it was not obvious, this first temple complex that we visited was a Hindu site. Again, we easily could have stayed there for several hours, especially if we had been traveling with a specialized cultural guide, but at 12:45 PM we decided it was time to walk over to the next site. As none of us had had the foresight to take a proper sun hat or even sunblock today, I found myself resorting to comical attempts to stay in the shade and/or cover my head and neck with my fleece jacket. Note to self, always take the sun hat, even if the the day is supposed to be very overcast.

Arriving at roughly 1:15 PM to Shree Boudhanath Area, it immediately struck me that this temple area seemed more like a bustling town square with an impressive religious symbol in the middle, rather than an area normally visited for actual religious purposes. Cost for entry, which I assume was not charged to locals, was 500 NPR ($3.84 USD) but only 100 NPR ($0.77 USD) for SAARC citizens. I had my Indian Aadhaar card with me, so I greeted the ticket seller in Hindi, showed my card, and only paid 100.

Of course pictures were strictly forbidden in the Buddhist shrine area, but you know me . . . A “no photos” sign is always a challenge to be undertaken.
While photos were prohibited, apparently sleeping is just fine.

Having first assured ourselves that there were sun awnings, at 1:45 PM we went to the rooftop area of Hello Cafe to rest for a bit while having a drink and chatting. We paid 970 NPR ($7.45 USD) for three glasses of local Gorkha beer and a lassi drink. This local beer was actually quite decent, so if you are open to trying local beers while traveling, go ahead and give it a try; there’s a good chance you may like it.

From 2:45 to 3:15 pm we were in a cramped taxi headed back to the homestay, paying 500 NPR ($3.84 USD) for the privilege of being smashed together in order to NOT spend more than an hour once again walking while enduring the unrelenting sun for which we had not properly prepared. All in all, we definitely agreed it was a bargain.

Maria was quite pleased at how slim she looked due to the smashing process. I’m not sure how it would work, but there’s a definite business opportunity here for some enterprising young entrepreneur in the beauty industry.

From 3:15 PM to 5:45 PM, I rested a bit and then packed for tomorrow’s trip. When Maria came back from her short shopping trip outing at 5:50 PM we went to a nearby restaurant for a quick dinner before heading out to get water purification tablets and cash for our village adventure which would begin at 5:30 AM the next morning.

Yes momos are a stereotypical Nepali food, but they really are a tasty addition to almost any meal.
Evidently we will be drinking river water in one of the villages, so it’s best to take reasonable precautions.

So that’s where things pretty much ended for the day. I’m cautiously optimistic about tomorrow’s ten hour road trip to the first village. I’m not adventurous enough to try such a thing on my own, but with two great travel companions and our local guide/facilitator/negotiator/translater Hit along, I’m sure it will be a great time.

If you want to find out what happened with village life, you’ll have to wait until day three’s post. As always, thanks for following along, and don’t hesitate to ask additional questions in the comments section.

Nepal trip: Day 1 (18 Mar 2023)

Hey everyone, I know it has been some time since you last heard from me, but I am once again on the move and eager to share what is happening with my latest adventure.

Those of you who have been following along since the beginning will remember Dorothee, with whom I visited Ladakh last year. This year when I was telling her about how my trip to Cambodia was looking like it was going to fall apart, she was quick to mention that she had separately been planning a trip to Nepal and wondered if I would be interested in tagging along. Long story short, as you can tell from the title of this entry, I ended up saying yes. For those of you who are not keen to know all the details about my actual travel to Nepal from Bengaluru, India; feel free to skip ahead, but there is some really good info about what happened once we arrived to the airport.

So once again, I ended up on a crazy early morning flight. I had booked a round trip ticket on IndiGo to Kathmandu from Bengaluru, with a cost of 20,000 INR ($240 USD).  With a departure at 5:30 AM, that meant I would have to leave from my place in New Yelahanka (about 22 km away) at 2:45 AM. While recently it has become more difficult to get easily get cars from my area, using Ola (similar to Uber) I was able to be in a car by 2:50 AM with plenty of time to spare.  Incidentally for those who may be coming to India to travel, despite the fact that both Uber and Ola supposedly accept all types of electronic payment, at least with my experience in Bengaluru, in the last couple of years, most of the drivers only want to take you if you can pay cash; this takes away part of the convenience of cash free travel, but at least it is still “reasonably easy” to get a car . . . Certainly it is easier than trying to flag down a cab or even a rickshaw.

While there was much more traffic on the road at that hour than I would have expected (at any time there were at least 20 other vehicles easily visible) travel was smooth and I had arrived to terminal 1 of the airport by 3:18 AM.

Also, unlike my other recent flying experiences in out of Bengaluru in the last year, there were comparatively few fliers, and by 3:22 AM I was already inside the airport trying to get the IndiGo automated check-in machine to work. Regular flyers with this airline will not be surprised to learn that the machines were not working, but again, amazingly the check-in line went amazingly fast, and by 3:38 AM I was already headed up to security.

While no disrespect is intended, going through security in an Indian airport is frequently a bit of a comedy. While I have no doubt that officials are honestly trying their best to keep us safe, the process often appears to be arbitrary and at times even nonsensical. Nevertheless, things again seemed to be going amazingly fast, with me walking through the metal detector at 3:46 AM. Of course the detector beeped (I have never had it NOT beep in india) and they proceeded to move the detector wand all over me. Interestingly, it seemed to be that almost all of my body was registering metal except for my chest where I have surgery staples. Fortunately the official chose to believe his hands from the pat down rather than the wand, and I was completely finished with the process by 3:48 AM.

Yes, this is a common site.

Shortly thereafter, Maria and Dorothee who had arrived separately, also got through security.

By 4:10 AM we were at Jones the Grocer having a fascinating conversation about religion and its relationship to the workplace. Perhaps not everyone wants chats like this while on holiday, but I was extremely happy for the high quality “non-work” intellectual engagement. I think that we will be a very good travel trio.

My croissant, which was reasonably good, and large cappuccino was 512 INR ($6.20 USD). Dorothee and Maria also seemed satisfied with their selections.

Right before 5 we headed over to our Gate, and at 5:06 AM we were on the bus to the airplane. Readers from the many parts of the world, in particular the USA, will find it odd that we took a plane to the airplane, but in many countries this sort of boarding arrangement is the norm rather than going down a jetway. Again, so far everything was going great. So what about seating?

Many of us over the age of 35 remember a time when those who travelled together were almost always automatically seated together, and while a preference could be expressed for window or aisle, it was just sort of luck how things would actually turn out. However, this was the norm, and you certainly did not expect to have to pay an additional fee. In fact, this was one of the “rewards” both of arriving early to the airport and then later on for doing online check-in ahead of time. As a “budget airline” this is certainly not the case for IndiGo.

To be fair, their seats are not especially uncomfortable, but if you are allergic to the middle seat like I am, and furthermore have a special preference for either aisle or window, you pay ahead for your seat selection. In my case I chose the second cheapest option (middle is of course the cheapest) and did standard aisle seating for a cost of 400 INR ($4.85 USD) per flight. Interestingly enough, on IndiGo, the most expensive option is not the most comfortable if you are a taller person — I am 1.82 meters. Rather the second most expensive option (exit row) is where you get the most leg room; although, you sacrifice being able to recline. That having been said, with so little space, what sort of animal reclines their seat anyways if there is a standard sized human seated behind oneself? Pro tip: the absolute BEST IndiGo seat, if you can get it, is the exit row seat that has no seat immediately in front of it.

Anyways, by 5:38 AM the plane was in the air and I was doing my “daily” ANKI flashcards for Hindi. I have for the most part kept up with these perfectly since completing the three-week Hindi course I did in Dehradun in December and January. However, as I had skipped the previous day, I had 298 cards to do, which took me 47 minutes. Yes, I was tired, but I wanted to take advantage of this alone time to study, since later on I knew I would either be exploring with Maria and Dorothee or trying to churn out this daily entry to my travel blog.  By 6:35 AM I was ready to turn on sleep sounds and try to get a bit of rest for the remainder of the flight; the sleeping didn’t work out so well but we arrived safely and on time to Delhi by 8:15 AM.

If you have been skimming through until now, this is where you need to start actually paying attention, especially if there is any possibility you might have to do a transfer to an international flight departing from Delhi at some point in the future. Dorothee has an almost visceral dislike of the Delhi airport, but I tend to be more ambivalent. That having been said, her dislike is not without reason. I know it’s amazing how many people this airport handles on a daily basis, but they frequently do not make it easy nor intuitive to navigate.

While it’s not always the most easy place to navigate, the Delhi airport has some very beautiful elements of design.

Shortly after entering the terminal, we saw a very large area labeled “International Transfers” which amazingly, while properly staffed, seemed to be almost empty. It looked like once again we were going to get a quick and easy transition to the next part of the trip . . . If you have spent much time in Delhi airport, you know that is not what happened.

For some unknown reason, this relatively abandoned transfer area is only for Air India customers. There is no sign to indicate this, but rather someone in their infinite wisdom has decided it makes more sense to hire a full time person to individually tell the thousands of daily non Air India flyers making international transfers that they have to go somewhere else which makes no sense whatsoever. While you will not remember it, and the process will likely have changed anyways by the next time you do it, this is what you have to do.

First you have to exit the secure area as if you were departing the airport, doing so near baggage belt 4. From there you turn left and go to the end of the hallway (it is easily manageable for a normally healthy person, but it is still a bit of a walk) then up the escalators which you will see, into the main check-in area of the terminal. IF you have boarding passes for the next flight, you can then head directly to immigration, which is to the left. If for some reason you do not have the boarding pass, you will have to get in line as if you were checking in from scratch; most of the time this is not the case, but it does frequently happen, so do not freak out if before transferring through Delhi you are told you will have to get your next boarding pass at the terminal in Delhi.  If this all seems like a way too confusing process, just do what we did . . . Walk one minute, find someone to ask what to do next . . .walk another minute . . . Ask again until you get to immigration.

Despite all of this, amazingly things were still going much faster than most of my air travel experiences through major airports in India. So while it may seem odd, at least today, I couldn’t really complain that much, because the system seemed to be “working”.

By 8:27 AM we were in line for immigration, which yet once again, amazingly had relatively few people and a line which was moving along at a rather brisk pace. Do note that many of the lines do not have larger trays to put your electronics etc . . . So you may have to hunt around like I did to take larger trays from another line. Also, if you are new to traveling in this part of the world, note that there are lines for men and separate lines for women. It is easy to see, because the women’s lines have these curtained off areas for the security pat down; no, I don’t know why. Unlike in Bengaluru, for this security check you were required to keep your boarding pass in hand, and it seemed to be an issue for many people since there was no signage to indicate the same. Again though, the system still seemed to work quite well today, and by 8:45 AM we were through and looking for a place to eat something a bit more substantial.

This was not where I would usually have chosen, Dorothee suggested the Irish House. The server was very friendly as she kindly told us that more than half of the items we requested from the menu were not actually available, and I ended up with a fairly decent chicken Cesar salad for 609 INR ($7.38). By 9:40 AM we headed towards the gate, where I was happy to learn that Maria is a dog person. So we had some pleasant chat and shared pictures of our fur friends.

Let’s hope the pics continue to look this happy as the trip progresses.

By 10:52 AM we were on the plane and then we were taking off at 11:15 AM. As I had already established that sleep was not going to work on these planes, I decided to listen to my audiobook Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin This was a short flight, with us touching down in Kathmandu but at 12:51 PM.

Those of you who follow along with me on a regular basis know that I am a big fan of e-sims, generally recommending Airalo, but this time around that did not seem to be the best fit, with international roaming on my Airtel connection actually being a better fit for my needs, costing me about $36 USD for 10 days of service, including 5 GB of 4G data and 100 minutes a day of outgoing standard local and/or calls to India. Furthermore, all incoming calls are included. Getting a local SIM in Nepal I think would have been a bit cheaper, but form what I had read, it would have been more of a hassle with all the paperwork. Whether it is cheaper or not, this time around I am actually happy with my international roaming option, so keep it in mind that it may be worth comparing before selecting options when traveling.

There was one unpleasant surprise when we got off the plane and started heading to get our luggage. There was a line where they were demanding that we show either a negative COVID-19 PCR test or a vaccine record. According to the online information we had found beforehand, this was no longer being requested. Yes, I had thought it might still be good to have, but I could not find my previously downloaded electronic copy, and the Indian Cowin site seemed to not be working the previous two days, so I didn’t have it. Keen-eyed Dorothee however noticed that they did not actually seem to be looking at the papers, so she just palmed me her certificate after she had it “reviewed” and I used her certificate as well to get through the line.  Yes, it is just as comical as it sounds . . .but hey, it worked, so no complaints from me.

Yeah, they accept Visa . . . But what about MasterCard?

Next we were on to immigration. As we were all three doing visa on arrival, we had printouts of sheets to present along with our passports so that we could pay our fees. It seems that it would have made more sense to pay online when applying, but the system is that you have to pay in cash. Furthermore, you evidently have to pay in foreign currency, but not all currencies are accepted. It all seemed rather random: Dorothee was told to pay in Euros, Maria in British Pounds, and me in US Dollars. No, we could not use a card and we could not use Nepali Rupees. Having been warned ahead of time of this oddity, I had US dollars with me to pay my $30 USD. However, Dorothee did not. Dorothee being Dorothee, somehow convinced them to take Indian Rupees for her payment even though it was not one of the listed “accepted currencies”. Anyways, I was glad we were able to get it done.

We then tried to get Nepali rupees out of the cash machine in that area, but it appears to only work with international Visa cards, not Mastercard. Incidentally, I have noticed that most of the ATM machines here only take international Visa cards, but there I did notice a couple today that had the Mastercard symbol, but I did not have a card along to try. This DID seem to be a problem for many other travelers who only had a MasterCard card with them, so keep that in mind if you plan on using at ATM here with an international card. I am not saying MasterCard is impossible, but Visa is definitely more accepted.

By 1:42 PM we were through immigration and straight on to get our bags at 1:44 PM which were already waiting. Again, all oddities still existing, so far most things were going very quickly today. I hope it continues like that. We then made our way over to the prepaid taxi counter, which was closed, but then when we asked at a separate booth next door, they told us to just go downstairs. Upon arriving there, again, this one appeared to have nobody working, but once again upon asking, someone came to help us, so we paid just 900 NPR ($6.91 USD) for our 5 KM ride to Sunrise Cottage Guest House.

Dorothée was very excited about this temple!

Despite having an extremely aggressive driver and very little traffic, it took us 32 minutes to get to our lodging, since the driver had a hard time figuring out the directions, even when speaking by phone with the front desk at the cottage.

Still, we finally arrived at 2:27 PM and were greeted with cups of tea by Rishi. After getting settled in and looking around a bit, we decided to head out walking at 3:35 PM.

As luck would have it, it seemed that it was going to rain, so despite already having bought a Poncho in Ladakh which I never used, I ended up buying another one here for 1500 NPR ($11.50 USD). Last time I went with a serious dark blue, but this time we all agreed that something brighter was more in order. If nothing else, it would keep Dorothee and Maria from losing me in a crowd.  Furthermore, as long as I was wearing it, it seemed to have the magical ability to stop the rain from actually coming down. One way or another, it seems to be serving its purpose.

At 4:30 PM we decided to check for some local restaurant recommendations online, and we decided upon Legendary Food Kitchen, which we all three agreed was nothing fancy, but certainly reasonably priced and completely satisfying food. One important point in its favor was it was clear that everything was actually made fresh once it was ordered.

So, if you are looking for wholesome local nourishment at a fair price, this is definitely worth checking out. We then continued on walking.

By 6:20 we were ready for a dessert, but most of the recommended places seemed to be closing at 6:30 PM, so we went ahead and just walked into The baking factory. To be honest, the drinks and pastries were mostly unremarkable, but I thought my “brownie” (actually a chocolate cake) was acceptable, and Maria actually quite enjoyed her chocolate danish.

Finally, by 8 PM we were back to the guest house to take some rest before day two.  Looking back, I see that this entry was perhaps too wordy, but as few people read all the way through anyways, I decided to err on the side of including all the information which might be useful. If nothing else, maybe you liked the pictures. If you were one of the intrepid readers who made it all the way through, the wow!

As always, thanks for following along, and I look forward to sharing my further adventures in the coming days. If you have any questions or comments, just stick them there below. For now, it is already 11:30 PM and I need to get to bed, so see you tomorrow!