Tips for Nepal, Our Favorites & Hiking to Kopan Monastery

Cities Visited: Kathmandu, Patan, Pokhara, Bhaktapur, Nagarkot.

Average Cost per day including accommodation and food: $52/day for two people.

Splurges: Buddha Air flights to/from Pokhara ($90 per person per direction)...read the reason why we splurged here...hint: carbomb scare! This cost was not included in the average cost per day calculation.

Favorite Nepali dishes: steamed chicken momos (mmm!) and chicken chilly.

Favorite Places: Pokhara and Bhaktapur...and ofcourse we giggled a lot when we repeated "We're in Kathmandu"...ok we = I.

Favorite Restaurants: Madhushala in Pokhara for happy hour, dinner and a lakeside view (*ahem* we came to Madhushala about 5-6 times..maybe even 7 times), 

Mike's Restaurant in Pokhara for a delicious lakeside breakfast and OR2K falafel stand in Kathmandu.

Favorite Experiences: chilling out in Pokhara, mountain biking through Old Pokhara to a Tibetan settlement, doing yoga twice at Himalayan Yogini in Pokhara (I was so relaxed, I didn't care that a bug crawled on me during part of the session...it may or may not have been larger than just a bug...but I was cool with it), painting an elephant tote bag for Women's Empowerment (and I have a cute souvenir), exploring Bohdnath Supta and hiking to Kopan Monastery (pics below!), arriving in Bhaktapur at night during a power outage and seeing the temple outside our guesthouse surrounded by candles and Nepali men chanting.

Funny Experiences: random run-ins with monkeys around Kathmandu and seeing them run around in front of the domestic airport. Landing in Kathmandu a few days before a national election and having our taxi driver tell us not to take the bus to Pokhara because the army was escorting tourist buses because gas bombs were being thrown at roads (....excuse me what?)

Things we loved about Nepal: the friendliness of the people, cheap happy hour and chilled out private gardens decorated with prayer flags, candlelight, incense with just an all-around relaxing vibe! Oh and did I mention how friendly the Nepalis are? ;)

Things we weren't so crazy about: Beers at Rumdoodle Bar were WAY overpriced (Rumdoodle Bar is a place where Everest summitters eat for free...forever!), the noise in Kathmandu (eternally grateful for the earplugs Christian's brother and his wife gave us...I'm sure a 14-hour time difference jetlag made us ultra sensitive, too), our Nagarkot guesthouse was eh so-so (...but the views were outstanding!), guides in Bhaktapur asking why we didn't want a guide (it gets old when they ask it 5-6 times over and over).

Favorite Guesthouses: Peacock Guesthouse in Bhaktapur was a very cool cultural experience.

Least Favorite Guesthouse: Peaceful Cottage, Nagarkot. It has tons of great reviews. We'd give the view 5 stars too but the place itself...it was alright :-/.

Cheapest Guesthouse: Nepali Cottage Guesthouse in Pokhara was $6/night! And we really liked the owner Hemon (Disclaimer: super cheap means you get what you pay for...and we wanted to save some cash).

Regrets: Not trekking! But we knew early on that we wouldn't have the gear or time to do a 1-2 week hike in -5 C! But after talking to fellow travelers, we would definitely want to do an Everest Base Camp trek. Next trip! Hopefully with our travel buddies Denis & Emma.

Would we return to Nepal? Yes!! We loved Nepal and the people were so nice and friendly. We never felt scammed. When shopkeepers or taxi drivers offered their services, we politely declined and they would never push it beyond that (besides the guides in Bhaktapur).

Accommodation we would recommend:

Pokhara: Nepali Cottage Guesthouse. At $3 per person per night in a private room, this place was a steal! Very centrally located, free wifi, hot showers and cool owner Hemon. Granted this place was very very basic and the beds were hard but this is Nepal, right?! 

Bhaktapur: Peacock Guesthouse. This was about $30 per night, including a big breakfast and was centrally located on one of the main squares. The guesthouse is in an old building/wood factory so the rooms were really cool and we had a small balcony where they served us breakfast.

And our last pics from Nepal...when we hiked from the beautiful Bohdnath Supta through a tunnel of spiders (might be exaggerating a bit...but there were spiders and they were big) to Kopan Monastery. Unfortunately Kopan was closed due to a private retreat! But it was still a cool hike and we quite liked the monastery next to Kopan...and several Buddhist temples we saw on the way.

Namaste, Nepal!

{Enjoying beers and Everest history at Rumdoodle}

{And a delicious dinner at OR2K falafel stand in Kathmandu for only $1.50)

Bhaktapur, Nepal & Overnight in Nagarkot

We arrived in Bhaktapur in the dark...I mean really in the dark: there was a power outage.

Christian and I were used to these little power outages which occur up to 8 hours a day in Nepal...even in Kathmandu! Usually the power is out in the morning for a few hours then in the evening.

Walking through the streets means motorbike lights are the best light you can get. The houses and street stalls are illuminated with one candle in the middle of the room or one lightbulb hanging from the wall running on a backup generator. It's actually pretty neat to witness.

We had an extra treat upon arrival in Bhaktapur, too. Once we found our way to Dattatreya Square, to find our guesthouse, the main temple in the middle of the square (Dattatreya Temple), and right at our guesthouse' doorstep, had a ceremony going on. The entire perimeter of the shrine was illuminated with candles and a group of Nepalese men sat on its' covered stoop beating drums and humming along. We dropped our bags pretty quickly and went right back outside to enjoy the spectacle.

Then we witnessed a Nepali wedding...just like that! A bride and groom being led by dancing and singing men holding swinging lanterns and incense...also in the dark of night.

We kind of got lost in Bhaktapur...after 2 weeks of traveling in this magical country, we felt like we really got to know the culture and soaked it up. And, we were itching for a bit of relaxing on the beach as we were just days away from leaving Nepal for Indonesia.

We escaped for a quick overnight to the hilltop town of Nagarkot and had a panoramic view of the sunset that night. 

Once back in Bhaktapur, we had yet another treat of meeting a fellow American/photographer/SE backpacker named Eric. We joined him for some beers at one of Bhaktapur's only rooftop bars...really one of their only bars in the entire town! Nepalis are not known to be drinkers...atleast not at bars. And with the entire village of Bhaktapur being a Unesco World Heritage Site, you can imagine that there probably wasn't too much room to add drinking establishments in a beautiful, rustic place like this :).

What a great night though...sipping on our last Nepalese beer, getting some tips from a fellow Californian on his last stop on a 5-month backpacking trip (and our first stop! Go figure...) and seeing the dark outline of the temples of Bhaktapur just right in front of us...yet again, during a power outage ;)...

WHERE TO STAY IN BHAKTAPUR

*For a little splurge (and some delicious Oreo muffins) and a cool stay in an old wooden Nepali house, book a room at the Peacock Guesthouse...we spent about $30 a night but we had our own room and a big breakfast (including that delicious Oreo muffin as a breakfast-dessert) served to us right on our own balcony.

*For a cheaper option, try the Nayatapola Guesthouse. Located right around the corner from Pottery Square, $15 per room, HOT (shared) shower, a sneaky teeny tiny balcony which overlooks the street below and the best wifi we had in Nepal ;).

{Warning: Peacock Guesthouse has low ceilings...may not be ideal for extremely tall folk and Dutch people ;)...but Christian liked it...and adjusted as you can see}

{Coolest guesthouse we stayed at in Nepal: Peacock Guesthouse}

{Quick overnight trip in Nagarkot}

{Back to Bhaktapur and now staying by Pottery Square!}

Changing Pace in Pokhara

For the rest of our lives I think Christian and I will always randomly say to each other: "Hey! Remember that one time the Nepali taxi driver said there might be gas bombs thrown at cars? YAY ADVENTURE!" Let me start from the beginning...

Once we arrived in Kathmandu, we were ecstatic--yay we're in NEPAL!

We spot our taxi driver and pile in his tiny car.

Small-talk ensued and he asks what we will do during our 16 days in Nepal...

"We will be here for a few days then will head to Pokhara by bus sometime next week...then who knows where...is Pokhara nice?"

He says: "Oh yes very nice! But maybe you not take bus"

Us: "Oh is it a long ride?"

Taxi driver: "No, no...but there is election. Election is crazy. Sometimes gasbombs...throw at cars...very very easy to make!"

Us: ".................um what?" 

Taxi driver: "You know...car bombs, they throw at street. Army will protect bus...but fly is better."

*I'm thinking--wow this trip sure started off on an adventurous note, didn't it?*

Us: "Oh...ok....um...maybe we won't take the bus??!!"

Taxi driver: "Plane. Plane safer."

Fast forward to after check-in, in our room...

"CAR BOMBS?!"

Over the next few days we contemplated how realistic this threat of gasbombs where in and around Kathmandu. What were the odds? I'm suuuure the bus will be fine! We tune in to BBC/NBC/Fox News/each of our Embassy websites, ask our hostel, ask tour directors, ask a random hotel. All of the people we asked said take the plane ("Roads very dangerous! Even Nepalis fly!"). And news sites were definitely mentioning 'car bomb explores in North Kathmandu' or 'Election violence increases as Nepali election nears' and similar. 

Were we in fear of our lives? No. Nepalis showed ZERO hostility towards us...even the extremist group behind the gasbombs said they would not target tourists. Did we think we might get caught up in political rally accidentally? Mmmm maybe. Afterall, we were taking a taxi around the Kathmandu valley every once in a while. 

Eventually we wandered into another tourist office, asked yet another source for advice and 10 minutes later we walked out with 2 tickets on Buddha Air bound for Pokhara. 

As my friend Rich said "any money spent on a precaution is money well spent" and with that we felt we made the right decision. We even got out of Kathmandu a day early just to escape the craziness of the elections (Kathmandu is pretty crazy...but we heard from a fellow traveler who was on his sixth(!) trip to Nepal and said it was crazier than normal). 

So...we were off on a quick and easy 25 minute flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara.

Pros: Himalayan views! And bragging rights to say we flew on Buddha Air hehehe 

Cons: We paid a hefty $90 per ticket...WAY beyond our $70 per day budget!

And then once we reached Pokhara...paradise :).

Pokhara is a beautiful little hippie town nestled at the foot of the Himalayas. Boats teeter in the lake, the main street is riddled with yoga studios and bars with super long happy hours and the absence of the beeps and noise in Kathmandu was an (unexpected) nice relief.

While we initially had plans to possibly do day treks into the mountains...maybe some overnights...we got lost in the peacefulness of Pokhara. Not only did we arrive a day early but we extended our stay by FOUR MORE NIGHTS...making it a full 8 nights spent in this small oasis.

Those hikes we planned to do? Didn't do them. We were almost TOO chilled out. We mountain biked to a Tibetan village in the hills, went to $5 yoga classes at Himalayan Yogini, enjoyed $1 plates of Nepalese momos (like curry dumplings!), enjoyed fresh banana chocolate cakes and coffee each morning, sipped on tea at Jiva Cafe & Spa, floated around on the lake, slept in each morning at our $6/night guesthouse, walked around the lake and ate the most delicious butter chicken, garlic naan and Everest beer each night. A couple days we literally didn't do anything except relax in a cafe by the lake. 

At first we thought: shouldn't we be...doing...something or...something? Then this is where we decided that changing pace (albeit slowing waaaay down to how we were used to traveling) might do us a little good...and then we ordered another beer...and maybe another plate of momos :).

We love you, Pokhara!