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Travelogue

JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF HIMALAYAS

By Samsul Arefin Khan

The day I arrived at Kathmandu was a Saturday and like most other days it was a regular busy day in the capital city of Nepal. It took me around one and a half hour from Dhaka to reach Tribhuvan International Airport and as I was traveling in a Bangladesh Biman flight, I landed before the clock hit the noon.
It was a shiny, hot day at Kathmandu and despite knowing the fact that it was monsoon time, I was a bit confused to confront the weather. After finishing all the formalities at the Airport, I along with my friend who also joined me in the four-day short trip to Nepal hired a car from outside the airport parking place for our hotel in Thamel.

Before going to Nepal, we had already booked our hotels both in Thamel and Pokhara, our only two destinations for the trip through booking.com. It took us about 40 minutes to reach our hotel but by this time we already realized that Kathmandu is no less than a familiar city for us as the city is full of dusts which forced many of the people to wear masks in the rainy season also. Like in Dhaka, the city also has traffic worries but we were lucky on the day we made landfall, we didn’t have to wait much on the roads.

We reached our hotel and freshened up within a shortest possible time, as both of us were very hungry. We had lunch in a nearby restaurant and we realized we already made a mistake. Both of us ordered Nepali traditional thalis and the foods were not as delicious as we thought. So on halfway through, I gave up eating over there and had some casual snacks and left out for city sightseeing.


The clock has already hit four and we had very little time for roaming around the city in daylight. So we decided to go to Kathmandu Darbar Square also known as Basantapur Durbar Square which was 20-minute away from Paknajol Marg where we stayed. We suddenly saw some rickshaws, a rare sight in Nepal and hired one to quicken our journey.


Basantapur is one of three Darbar squares situated in the capital city. Patan and Bakhtapur are the two others places where other Darbar squares are located. There are many uniquely designed temples around the Darbar square and each of the temples has a different names.
Durbar square was surrounded with spectacular architecture vividly demonstrating the skills of the Newar artists and their artisanship over several centuries. Some people come to worship their gods whereas others visit to appreciate the magnificent architectures and sculptures. Several buildings in the square collapsed due to a major earthquake on April 2015 and there were still some renovation work going on. Out of the blue, it started to sprinkle to remind us that its monsoon and we had to skip our next destination Swayambhunath Stupa or the Monkey Temple for the day.


Early next morning, we embarked on a journey to Pokhara, one of biggest tourist places in Nepal. The buses to Pokhara start at the same time and it usually takes eight to nine hours to reach Pokhara. But, again we faced huge traffic and this time it even beat the travail we regularly face on Dhaka roads.
However, the journey from Thamel to Pokhara was a scintillating one as the views on both sides of the road were one of the best during our tour. The gigantic hills lining the horizon, the riverbank and the eternal beauty of the roadside forests would make any person to feel one with nature. Just before the sunset, we arrived in Pokhara bus stand after an 11-hour journey. We planned to go Sarankot to watch sunrise next morning and hired a car for that after having dinner.


It was 4:30am when we began for Sarankot which was 10-11 kilometers away from our lakeside hotel. The trails of Annapurna range can be seen from Sarankot sunrise point. Hundreds of travelers from around the world were there to see the sunrise against the Himalayan panorama. The scene of the sunrays over ice-capped mountains is an experience of a lifetime. After spending few more moments, we went to the Bindabasini temple, which was close to Sarankot sunrise point.


The next stoppage was Fewa Lake, which was a stone throw from our hotel. There were people boating in the stunning lake but we gave it a miss since we had other plans for the day and had very little time. After the breakfast, we went to Sarankot again to perform paragliding.
Nepal is country of different adventurous sports and it was quite a life-enhancing experience for me as I just felt myself to be a bird while my pilot and I were in the sky. I saw many praragliders flying in the sky looking like colorful butterflies. After paragliding, we finally went to the hotel to take some rest. In the evening, we visited World Peace Stupa, aka World Peace Pagoda, which also provides a panoramic view of the Annapurna range of the Himalaya, Pokhara city and Fewa Lake. Finally we went to Devi’s fall and Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave or Bat Cave in layman parlance to end our trip in Pokhara.


After reaching Thamel the following day, we were left with a sliver of time and we decided to go out on shopping since had plan to leave Nepal the following morning.
In a very short time, Nepal gave us some moments to treasure for life. Frankly speaking, the cordiality of the people in Nepal will never make you feel you are in a different country. Nepal is best for adventurous sports like bungee jumping, jungle safari, sky diving, rock climbing, river rafting and paragliding of course.


Every year millions of people visit Nepal as tourists and trekking is one of the few things people don’t want to miss out on. We were on a short trip, so trekking had to be given a miss. I hope someday I will take another trip to compensate for the missed opportunity. It was worthy to pay a visit to the country that sits at the foot of the Mount Everest. Nepal is surely a must-visit place. With Eid holidays looming on the horizon it will be a good place to visit where nature reveals itself in its sublime beauty.

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