Nepal, August 2013

NEPAL

Never Ending Peace And Love

I was in Nepal in august 2013 just for 5 days, between Kathmandu (capital) and Pokhara. It was that short of a stay because we've spend the last month in northern India, and why not? We really wanted to get to Nepal once we were there.

Nepal amazed me and I was so sad it was such a short stay, I had to enjoy every second of it.

The little I got to see between the capital and Pokhara, Nepal has beautiful landscapes, people were so nice and grateful, it really just sucked me in. Even though the strongest religion in the country is Hinduism, you can breathe around the Buddhism feeling and environment.

After such a crazy and long trip around northern India, we wanted a bit of a relax stay in beautiful and natural Nepal. Its nature is crazy beautiful, I couldn't even stop taking pictures at every little detail.

We took a flight from Varanasi (India) to Kathmandu (Nepal). Just as we arrived to Kathmandu's airport, we found an Italian and a Spanigh guy, that little we know, they were going to be our great friends during our full stay in Nepal.

The six of us went straight to Thamel area of Kathmandu, one of the most centric and backpacker area in the city. We went from hostel to hostel, until we found one that had the rooms we liked and was good priced.

During the first day, we just walked around the area and visited near by temples I had written down on my journal to visit.
Also, we visited Swayambhunath, one of the oldest religious sites in Nepal, and a beautiful mystic and personal experience for me :)

That first night we decided to check bars in the area to have some beers, to find there were many with live music! Ah! I loved them! 

That night we met some guys that played in a band called Astral (check them out!), playing classic rock covers, basically we went out with them every night we were in Kathmandu :) And even helped us around the city to check out more temples and nice places. 

Pretty amazing people <3 Kizzu & Dipak!

Next day we headed to Pokhara in bus. Pokhara is only 200 km west of Kathmandu (but around 5h in bus…) and between the city there are 3 of the highest mountains in the world; Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I and Manaslu.

The road to Pokhara was pretty scary, basically seeing buses totally broken and fell down the road to the river wasn't very nice to see. Also, we had to stop so many times because 2 cars could not fit on the same road, imagine many trucks , buses and cars both way on the skinny road.

It was still such a great experience!!!!

In Pokhara we stayed 2 days, were we hiked like I never hiked in my live, for hours in mountains (Sarangkot to Pokhara "The mystic and magical view of the age old Himalayas can be best viewed from Sarangkot. Located at an altitude of 1592 meters above sea level."), walking from village to village, meeting little kids, eating in people's houses and taking A LOT of photos.

Also, I had an allergic reaction to an insect bite and was for days with medicine that left me solo sleepy, I still hiked for hours because I couldn't stop that from seeing beautiful Nepal!

One of the most amazing things I've done in my life, was during those 2 days in Pokara. We hiked up to see the World Peace Pagoda, which is supposed to be 45min (not true) definitely more than 1h! Still it was such a beautiful and personal experience.

 

 

I hope you all enjoyed, I know I didn't write much and still it was a long post… but I prefer to show photos, as it's how I express myself better.

Nepal is a must to go, for everyone; to hike, to seek inner growth, to just enjoy beautiful nature… I have to go back and enjoy at least for 1 month in this gorgeous country!

Peace,

Iris

PS: All photos are taken by me, except the ones that I'm in them :)