My Nepal experience

Here it goes with my first international Trip to Nepal (well it is international in spite of my Passport not being stamped) courtesy Indo – Nepal friendly relationship.

Nepal is a 3 hours flight journey from Mumbai, India. It is located to the North West of India.

We went there on an 8 day trip with 3 of my friends – Pareesh Phulkar, Sandeesh Phulkar and Sagar Dhemre. It’s a beautiful place, good scenic place, rich in their culture (especially Hinduism) and rich in natural beauty. It cost me 28,000 to and fro with stay, food and shopping and lots of adventure. It was very easy to get a Nepali visa on arrival.

Leaving Mumbai

Let me start back from Mumbai where we had a tough time getting Boarding Pass for my friend Pareesh. He didn’t bring his Passport, which is one of the documents required for an Indian to travel to Nepal out of a list of three (Any 1 of the document works) and Pareesh had his Voters Card. However the ground staff refused to give him boarding pass till Kathmandu and said he cannot travel without a Passport. We confronted for more than 45 minutes. We even showed him Jet Airways and Ministry of Immigration websites to confirm that an Indian doesn’t require a Passport to travel to Nepal. We asked him to give his boarding pass till New Delhi and informed him that we will take care of this stuff at Delhi immigration as we had a connecting flight from Delhi to Kathmandu. Pareesh got his Boarding Pass within a minute after he displayed his Voters Card. We have officially raised a complaint against the employee and hope to get a feedback from Jet Airways as early as possible. At Mumbai airport we were fortunate (well whatever) to see Bhumika Chawla and guess which celebrity was on board with us to Delhi? Parineeti Chopra, because of her our flight was delayed for 35 minutes as she was late.

Arrived Nepal

So we arrive in Nepal at 7 in the evening and it is already dark and we wanted to get a SIM Card and get our Indian currency exchanged. It was hardly a matter of 30 minutes to get a Nepali SIM card and we paid him INR 100 at the Airport. The weather was quite pleasant and we didn’t feel as if we are out of India (Irony).

First Night in Nepal

We reached our Hotel and decided not make this trip as hectic as our previous one to Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi in India, so we decided to sleep, but after we were done drinking the stuff that we bought from Delhi Airport (Jägermeister and glenmorangie).

The next morning

We woke up early next morning to begin our expedition. We wanted to take shower and therefore went down to the reception and met this guy called Dinesh who came across as one of the nicest Nepalese with whom we met in Nepal. So we ask him “Bhaiyya garam paani chahiye nahaane ke liye” (We need hot water for shower) and he says “Aade ghante me Prokash aayega tab bataata hu” (Prakash (Name) will come in 30 minutes and then I’ll let you know). So we waited at the reception anxiously for this guy called Prakash and asked him again after 30 minutes and he says popping his head out of the door and looking up “main kya karoo, prakash aaya nahi ab tak” (What can I do, prakash hasn’t come yet). So we scratched our head for a moment and thought, is Dinesh referring to the Sun because in Hindi “Prakash” means “Sun Light” and to our amusement, Dinesh was referring to “Sunlight” as they have Solar Powered heaters. You can’t imagine how much we laughed at that poor guy and even he later realised why we were laughing our ass off.

Met our travel agent cum friend cum helper cum Google for Nepal

After we took our shower we met this guy at the reception who was supposed to just plan our Bungee Jump trip at a lower cost compared to the cost on the website. You’ll be amazed to know that this guy comes up to us and says I will plan your entire 8 days in Nepal in 30 minutes. He comes within 30 minutes with a piece of paper and a pen and gave us the entire itinerary with travel, food, stay and adventure sports. Below is the image of that paper. It cost us around just INR 11,000 for the entire thing for 8 days – isn’t that amazing?

We called this guy at least 100 times – whenever we had any problem we dialled him. He was the most courteous and helpful guy in Nepal.

The Bungee Jump

So we reach “The Last Resort” on the river “Bhote Kosi” which is 12 Km’s away from Tibet. It was a 4 hours journey and apparently there was a landslide 2 months back, so the roads weren’t commutable, therefore, we had to walk for 30 minutes to reach a point from where we could board our next Bus. We walked the Suspension Bridge (on which we were supposed to Bungee jump) to reach the other side of the valley and were briefed for 20 minutes for our Jump. This jump is the best thing that I’ve done in my life. It was an experience of a lifetime and I will never forget that moment when it felt as if life has left my body for 2 secs. Check out the Videos of our jump.

Bungee Declaration: 

My YouTube Channel

1.     Lokesh Jump - www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQNjjbcb95A / www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UmGZOmIuPE

2.     Pareesh Jump - www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ1l-bIraDw

3.     Sandeesh Jump - https://t.co/7bsflAZq7N

River Rafting and caught in RIOTS

The next day we were ready to travel to “Fishling River” for our “River Rafting” adventure and boarded our bus. We travelled for 30 minutes and reached a road block which was 20 km’s long as per the locals. So we walked for 5 km’s and reached the point from where the vehicles weren’t allowed to go from either side. Apparently a car hit 3 people on the road and one of them was an 8 months baby. The baby survived but one of the elder died on the spot. This created a rage among the villagers and they stopped all the vehicles and burned tyres to stop them from going ahead. The moment we reached there we saw 50 odd policemen with their shields and sticks moving ahead to stop the villagers. We ran from that scene, with luggage in our hand and were given shelter in house which belonged to the River rafting people. These scenes were dangerous, we saw villagers looting policemen off their shields, tear gas and sticks and chased them away, which created ruckus and the vehicles were stuck for 9 long hours. Check out the video we took from the terrace – it shows how policemen and the Anti-Riots team were approaching the village. We were even dodging and saving ourselves from the stones that were thrown on the trucks and public buses.

All said and done we somehow managed to do our River Rafting which was helpful as we reached further till where traffic wasn’t still. We even decided to cancel our journey to “Manokamana Mandir” and headed straight to Pokhra and ended our 2 night Kathmandu stay. We regret missing the cable car journey to Manokamana Mandir.

Pokhra, Chitwan and Lumbini

Pokhra came across as the most beautiful city especially the city lights in the night makes it beautiful Goa. The main market was full of Cashmere and Pashmina shops and beautiful restaurants and bars. We stayed in Pokhra for two nights and went to Buddha World Peace Heritage too. We reached there by a boat which takes 20 – 25 minutes and then it’s a 1 hour uphill walk. I was stung by a honeybee on my elbow while going up and my elbow was swollen for 3 days and it itched for 10 days. I still have that mark on my hand.

We then went to Lumbini the 3rd next morning and visited Buddha’s birth place. I somehow managed to take a picture in spite of photography not being allowed inside the main birth "place". Picture below:

Boating to Buddha Temple 

Honey Sting

Budha BirthPlace

Back to India via Road:

We left the next morning for Indo Nepal border from where we were supposed to hire a car to reach Gorakhpur Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh. We were asked to open our bags by the Indian Army at the border for security and it went smooth until we meet these two cops from Customs Office ahead who looked like those corrupt officers from Indian Movies like Gangajal and Apaharan. One of them gave us an offer straight away stating that he won’t check our bags if we bribe him Rs. 100 each, to which I objected and made him, check my bags. He found 10 miniature bottles of Jager, that we had bought from Delhi Airport and started his bullshit of custom laws and regulations. We eventually ended up bribing him Rs. 350 and had to shell 2 miniature bottles of Jager after a small verbal fight.

Nepal Experience

Overall, Nepal is an awesome place to visit. They have beautiful temples, they have the Himalayas, they have good food (Chicken Momos) and they are the nicest people when it comes to Hospitality. I took blessings from Pashupatinath and that was another reason for us to go to Nepal.

Chicken Momos