Travelogues

Moutain Flight: A Unqiue Experience

Lovely Moutains!

Lovely Moutains! Mount Everest at the middle.

That’s beautiful, isn’t it? The photo was taken from a Buddha Air airplane during a 45-minute mountain flight on February 13, Friday [scary date to go on mountain flight!]

Two times before the date, I had returned from airport without flying because of the weather. But this time, despite being on the date that many consider unlucky – one of the earliest computer virus was called Jerusalem infected computer only on Friday the 13th, I was lucky enough to get the flight.

And, I found out how lucky I was and what I missed after a few minutes [a bit quicker than half of the crew who were seated on the other side]. Beautiful mountains as if I was seeing them from my rooftop – so near and so majestic.

Lovely Moutains!

Lovely Moutains! Mount Everest at the middle.

I was not carrying a camera because I could not charge the batteries because of load-shedding but I took a few shots from the camera that my friend was carrying with him. When the beautiful lady [the air hostess] asked me if I wanted to go to cockpit to take photos from pilot’s window [yes! they let you do so], I said no and she glanced at me for a second surprised.

I thought, who wants to see such beautiful mountains through lens. It was truly an amazing experience [not as good as trekking to Everest base camp though, but I you have no time to got the EBC, the mountain flight is something not to miss in Kathmandu].

However, you can not take picture of you and mountain together with an amateur camera

However, you can not take picture of you and mountain together!

Here are three tips for you if you want to go for Mountain flights in Nepal:

  • Go to Buddha Air [disclosure: I was on the non-paid ticket that the airlines provides to my association as sponsorship]
  • Get into plane as early as possible [I was the last and I got a seat on wings, so some obstructive views]
  • Sit on the left side row. [so you are first half to see the mountains plus while returning, you can either sleep or talk]

Thanks to S. for these photos.

February 24, 2009 by Leisurely Activities Travelogues

Roadlog: A Day in Kathmandu

Day: Jan 31, Thursday

My wife has bought a scooter and I am the one who has benefited. I have been driving it around the city and witnessing the traffic fiasco everyday. Now, after almost riding 1000km on the scooter, I feel that: to understand Kathmandu, it’s essential to understand the roads of Kathmandu.

Here is my roadlog of a day. Continue reading…

February 2, 2008 by Travelogues

The Whirlwind Tour

I completed a weeklong tour to Eastern Nepal, Darjeeling and Sikkim on three days ago – and wanted to write a few things about it – but the tour was so tiring that I failed to gather enough courage to do so. As a few of us in our 25-member touring party rightly put – the tour was a Touch Tour that we touched every places and never really had enough time to explore them. Our six-night seven-day tour consisted of 78 hours of bus riding – well that makes half the tour time and we of course did sleep at nights!


The tour party at Chowrasta, Darjeeling.

We spent nights at Itahari, Kalimpong, Gangtok, Darjeeing, Biratnagar and Itahari. Overall, it was an worth-experiencing tour that kept a lot of us wondering why did we visited the Indian hills leaving behind better/more beautiful hills in our own country.

For us, the ride to Dhankuta from Dharan was more enthralling than the ride from Gangtok to Darjeeing and the sunrise view from Sarangkot, Pokhara was prettier than that of famous Tiger Hill of Darjeeling. It was kind of self-awakening tour for us where we, after visiting the * (that could be 5, 7 or 9) -points destinations in Gangtok and Darjeeling woke up to know that the * could mean a 100 in many places in Nepal.

The most bothering aspect of the tour was that we went on our own bus and there were no place to park it in Darjeeling and Gangtok (well, jeeps or cars could have been easier) and our driver was always waking up early in the morning to go around on the bus looking of places to park. The roads there were narrow and only jeeps/cars were permitted! (I wonder why there is no tourist bus park or something like that).

One thing that we can learn from them is the tourism promotion. At Gangtok, we went to 7-point tourist spots (something that their guidebook says should not be missed). But after visiting a monastery, the flower complex, ridge garden, ropeway, Tashi view point, Ganesh tok and a handicraft display, I said: “If these are tourist attractions, I believe if such spots are included, the guidebook of the Kathmandu Valley will be as large as five dictionaries!”

At Darjeeling, if you ask anybody about a place not to miss, everybody will say Tiger Hill – which is 15-16 KM from town and if need to hire a jeep to go there. In Kathmandu, no one bothers about Nagarkot!

For us, the monasteries, mountains, hills and scenic bird-eye view of city meant nothing (we are used to it). Though we thoroughly enjoyed visiting Delo, a hilltop in Kalimpong with a nice garden and hilly views and loved dressing as natives at Batasia, Darjeeling and the World Heritage Train (sadly we didn’t have enough time to ride it as we were suggested to move out by locals to avoid troubles as the people demanding Gorkhaland – a separate Indian state were gathering at famous Chowrasta).
At Darjeeling, what amazed us (and it will to you if you visit the city), is the number of agents who try to stop you here and there on your arrival asking for hotels and all. Of course, we managed to wipe off a few before finally deciding maybe it’s better and easier with them and without them. That was annoying!

All these cities close at 8 PM – and that didn’t matched my time because I wanted a spent at least an hour on cyber cafes looking at mails and all. But could not – that too irritated me (but was probably better for my tiring body).

The best part of the tour was that I never felt that I was abroad – since Nepali was the language used most in all these areas. I could easily talk in Nepali at hotels, cyber and melas.

November 10, 2007 by Travelogues Uzz Update

On Trip to Darjeeing, Sikkim & Eastern Nepal

I am begining a weeklong tour to Darjeeing, Sikkim and Eastern Nepal on Wednesday. It will be a kind of a honeymoon trip for me as my beloved is joining me along with 18 others – all relatives. We are taking our own vehicle and since we all are relatives, I hope a joyous tour.

Actually, we had a similar trip last year to Pokhara, Baglung and Chitwan which was so exciting that everybody of us ended saying that we had never been on such a wonderful tour. Accompanied by singing, dancing and joking, it was an unforgettable experience.

No two trips are similar still we all are hoping that this will be more exciting as the venues are interesting, and most of us had never visited Darjeeling or Sikkim.

In preparation of that trip, I got too busy on Tuesday. Had to go to Embassy of India twice for the permit to our bus and in between, I joined the rally held by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists to protest the abduction of Birendra Shah, a journalist in Bara district. He was abducted a month ago and rumors are that he has already been murdered.

Then, we had invited a few relatives to the dinner and my wife was too busy. I could only get around one hour to spend with them and that was a pity as it would have been much fun have I stayed longer.

Anyway, I am now dreaming about the days to come when I will be experiencing new things, places and enjoying the freedom from work!

October 30, 2007 by Travelogues Uzz Update

Sarangkot: A Jewel of Pokhara

sarangkot1-4762688

The greed of seeing the sun rising as a golden ball is always an elusive offer and when there are mountains tops that are glorified by the early morning rays, it’s surely a life-time experience. And, that dreams became a reality when I had a chance to travel up to Sarangkot, a must-not-forget destination in the scenic city of Pokhara in Western Nepal.

Leaving the warmth of bed early morning, traveling the dwindling uphill road for more than half-an-hour and then walking for another half-an-hour for the agonizing wait for the sunrise in the cool breeze were all but forgotten when the outlines of the Annapurna Range with the famous Machhapurchhre Peak becomes visible on the north.

From Sarangkot, the Pokhara city looks like a sky with twinkling stars before the dawn and then when the visibility increases the mountains looks standing smiling – so near that I felt like I could touch with an extended hand.

The mountains were white and then glow in red as if there was a fire. And there were lots of clicks from the foreigners and Nepalis standing for long for the view. No body was speaking as everyone looked so engrossed in the view. “Will it turn golden now,” someone asked me. “It should.”

sarangkot2-9934538

And I then realized I was so much looking at the mountains that I have forgotten to look east. There was half of the sun – as if floating – something that reminded me seeing the sunrise on the sea. The flickering sun rose slowly in the misty view and then the mountains began growing yellowish – and golden in color.

“That’s it,” someone shouted in ecstasy. And, it was probably the most beautiful scene visible from Pokhara – the Annapurna I peak at 8,091m and Machhapuchhre at 7,993m glowing in golden color.

From Nagarkot in Bhaktapur, I had seen a similar scene but the mountain tops looks so distant there when compared with Sarangkot and here the virgin peak shaped as a fish tail looked a beautiful girl modeling for gold jewelries.

[Originally written on Jan 18, 2007. I just forgot to post it then.]

May 31, 2007 by Travelogues

Amazing Experience of Paragliding

Friday, May 11, 2007 at 10:30 AM: I jumped off a slope at Sarangkot, Pokhara to glide freely on air. As I jumped off the slope, I was on air, flying freely. After a few minutes, as I looked down, I could see the whole city of Pokhara and famous Fewa Lake under my feet.

I looked up, afraid that I may fall down the long way and my stomach twitched. ‘Are you alright?’ my pilot Damodar Parajuli asked me. ‘Ya’. Why should I tell him that I was little afraid and my stomach was kind of twisting.

‘No twitch on stomach?’ Either this man is a devil or knows all about paragliding. ‘Little bit,’ I answered as he swirled around the Sarangkot hill making cold air pass through my body. It was really an experience worth life-long cherish because although I was in a tandem flight with pilot controlling the flight and everything else and I was just hanging to him looking around for hills and city.

‘Are you enjoying?’ What an absurd question? ‘Surely, it’s a big fun and I have never imagined that paragliding was such an amazing experience.’ He chuckled for he has been flying like this for five years – first two years solo and then piloting enthusiatics like me through air. As one of the few Nepali pilots working for Blue Sky Paragliding of Pokhara, Damodar had heard such answers for many times.

‘Mostly foreigners, Nepalis are increasing,’ he said adding that more females are interested in paragliding than males. [I thought maybe that’s true or maybe he is using his position in his office to allocate females to his flights]. The half-an-hour flight costs Rs 4500 for Nepali and US$ 75 for others.

I wasn’t flying in the season and my off-season flight costed me the view of the beautiful Ananpurna range. ‘You should have come during September-October,’ he said and I consoled myself thinking that I wanted the experience of paragliding, not seeing moutains from paraglide.

After a pleasant 20 minutes flight around the hill [of course letting photojournalist Chandra Shekhar Karki click a few photographs on flight], we were ready to decend. On the smooth decending flight, Damodar showed me the his village, his house and other things of Pokhara.

Once we were above the Phewa Lake and just about a few minutes away from landing, he asked me ‘if you are not afraid, I can show you some tricks.’ Why would I be afraid. He somehow manageed to slant the paraglide and then swished giving me the feeling of freefall of bungee jumping.

He did it twice and I was enjoying. On the third try, my stomach twitched and I told him so. He just instructed me to vomit on my left if I feel like and on the fourth swing, I vomited a little.

Then he instructed me how to land and I did that well, ran to the lake water, washed my face and sat on the ground thinking how pleasant the flight was.

May 15, 2007 by Leisurely Activities Travelogues

Junket to Rasuwa Part II

The World Cup turned out to be an one-sided affair. A few of our trip friends joined us for a round of drinks and World Cup. The game was decided in the first 20 overs and I continued watching until 2:00 AM in the morning in a desperate hope of magic – that didn’t come.

In between, we had laughter particularly because one of our friends was too drunk and had to be carried to the room. We later found that he was sleeping in a odd way covering two beds and it was fun laughing at mid-night.

Soon, I found we, Bikash being the other, were left without a room. We couldn’t enter the room that the drunk friend was covering for it was too smelly. I almost decided to sleep on chair but Bikash managed somehow to get a floor in the room for me and put two beds together for three people to sleep (two were already there!)

Next morning was the race – the event that I was there to cover. I barely slept for two hours and had to wake up.

After seeing off the 21 cyclists from the starting point, I decided to hike up the hill. It looked easy as the locals were saying it would take around one hour for us. Krishna Thapa, the Kantipur reporter there, Annapurna Post’s Rajendra Shrestha, Prateekshya and Trishna – the two female journalists, joined me.

After half-an-hour uphill, Rajendra and Trishna decided to stop and rode on the bus. We continued, as a few points thinking we too should have stopped. It was steep uphill for almost two and half hours before we reached the Bhanjyang. From there, 20 minutes uphill to the View Point which we didn’t missed though Krishna decided to stop.

Then a downhill walk for 20 minutes to Goljung village. The village was nice and people smiling all over. The children were somewhat dirty but were shying smiling.

The race had been already decided. After a round to talk with the winner, it was time to the prize distribution and that was to be held at tha school premises 10 minutes away.

Walking again! Oh My God!

The program was as usual. Speeches. And, there was a welcome song-dance. It wasn’t a professional performances and girls singing and dancing were doing it like they were playing with each other. I really liked their rawness – something only visible in remote areas (I think)!

During the program, the guests were served with Makai Bhatmas (surely, a delight).

After the program was the lunch. We were given a coupon, asked to form a group of 10 and go to a house for the homestay lunch. The lunch was good, the hosts were nice and as went to the rooms designated for the tourists and I found it better than the Shree Ganesh Hotel.

But we had to return as there wasn’t internet or fax to send back the news. Though I had confirmed with the organizer that they would be able to provide me the vehicle for returning to Syaphru, I could not get that service as they took all the vehicles for the village trip to VIP guests.

I wasn’t happy. I had to send the news and were left with almost no other option than walking the whole distance again. Luckily one of the organizing officials found us – four journalists – seats in a vehicle of Chilime Hydro Power Project. The vehicle meant for eight passengers were cramped with 14 passengers and it was not easy sitting on it.

Riding on the vehicle proved good for us as we befriended officials from Chilime and they let us use the excellent speed internet at their office. After two hours, we all along with those three guys from Chilime would walk down to Syaphru for a splendid round for drinks.

The evening spent nicely. Despite not finding rooms in three hotels we managed two in the low cost one and sat for rounds of drinks joking with each other and talking about of course media and hydroelectricity.

We would only sleep at 11:00 PM, happily!

May 3, 2007 by Travelogues

Junket to Rasuwa Part I

A thing good about junket trip for journalist is you don’t have to worry about the expenditure. A thing bad about it is you sometime have to work hard for sending news.

When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) invited me to be a part of the trip to Rasuwa for a cycling event to promote the Tamang Heritage Trail as the newest trekking route, I did everything possible to avoid it. Hadn’t I received repeated phone calls (or had I got anyone else for the trip) I would have avoided it for I was fearing that I may not get a chance to watch the Cricket World Cup final.

I had to go! The bus trip was smooth till we reached Trishuli and had a nice lunch. Thenafter, it was the daring travel – winding gravelled roads with curves and corners every now and then.

At Dhunche, the headquarters of Rasuwa, it looked nicer as there were people welcoming us. I trekked for about an hour from there until our bus picked up on the way. The daring road became even more dangerous with slopes extending maybe kilometers in height.

My first reaction to a big slope and the U-turn of the gravel road was to look at the driver. “Is he experienced enough to take us safely?” I asked myself. He was smiling amusingly thus I concluded unless the man is eccentric, he would take us safely. His one mistake was enough for our deaths deep down the slope where I could see the lining of the river.

At evening, we were at Syaphrubenshi (or Syaphru or Syafru or Syabru). It was the gateway for the trekkers treking to Langtang region. After receiving the traditional welcome from the Tamang girls (they give you a palmful of drink – mostly alcohol but here it was Coca Cola, and put a shawl around your neck), I went to the guys who were busy telling us the hotels.

“I need one with TV and cable,” I demanded. He said, “Shree Ganesh.” Other journalists went to other hotel designated for media while I started looking for mine. “Shree Ganesh?” A guy asked. “Yes.” He called me in and it turned out the hotel was without signboard and not very good.

“TV?”
“Yes. 21-inch color at the eating place.”
“Foreign channels?”
“Yes.”

Aha! That was a relief and through I felt like the passage of the hotel a little narrow, rooms smaller and the eating place with 21-inch color TV smelling alcohol, I was happy.

The hotel owner, Dawa, turned out to be the owner of the Langtang Cable TV and he proudly showed us the control room on the ground floor. And, I wouldn’t sleep much that night, because Sri Lanka was playing Australia in the final of the World Cup cricket. (To be continued)

May 3, 2007 by Travelogues

Enjoying Malaysia!


Behind me is Malaysia’s famous twin towers.

Malaysia is amazing! Its clean and well-developed. I am enjoying my stay in Kuala Lumpur because of its beauty and ACC Trophy 2006 being hosted here.

August 15, 2006 by Travelogues

Going to Malaysia

As the second tour this year, I am going to Malaysia (yea, once again the South East Asia country) for two weeks. I will be covering ACC Trophy 2006, the biggest international event Nepal plays, and hoping that Nepal will win the trophy for the first time. I will be updating scores and news at NepalCricket.com and also writing for The Kathmandu Post (off course!). I will be at Kuala Lumpur. I am flying Nepal Airlines at 11:15 PM today and coming back on August 27.

August 12, 2006 by Travelogues

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