Weekend Adventures outside Kathmandu

 COUNTRY: Nepal
PROGRAM: UniBreak - Kathmandu
PROJECT: Health projects
WRITTEN BY: Sylvia Qiu

The first couple of days we stayed in Thamel, we arrived a few days earlier than the program so we had the chance to do some exploring for ourselves. The first place we visited was Durbar Square. It consisted of old temples and the old palace which has now been turned into a museum. The palace now showcased paintings and portraits of the royal family, table settings, clothing, armour, even some of the old pieces of architecture. It was interesting to see how creative people were before technology came in existence and the building is still as amazing as ever. We got a tour around Durbar Square where many of the temples were designed by people from all over the world.

We also learnt about the festivals that do happen within the year and we also got to see the Living Goddess. The Living Goddess is chosen at a young aged matching a set of charactertistics, she stays with a holy family up until puberty where a new Living Goddess is chosen. Another must visit place near Durbar Square would be Snowman Cafe with delicious cakes, don't be fooled by its outer appearance.
The next place we visited was Swayambhunath, also known as 'Monkey Temple'. We climbed 500 steps to get to the top and trust me it is worth it, plus you get to lose all that Dhal Bhat.

The view is amazing, we went even higher on one of the rooftop cafes and we did not want to leave at all. We loved the beauty there so much that within 3 weeks we visited the temple twice. We sat there to watch the sunset the second time and we also got to see the little monks come out and feed the monkeys. There are lots and lots of monkeys and super cute baby monkeys that are with the mothers.
On the third weekend we visited Chitwan National Park. Chitwan is the hottest place in Nepal, it really is. We had a 4-5 hour bus trip there and back with no air conditioner, it reached temperatures of up to 41 degrees celsius. The views we passed on the bus were breathtaking, probably one of the prettiest places I have seen. It was worth it, we got to bath with the elephants so we sat on their backs and got splashed by water from their trunks, we also did a jungle walk, and elephant safari. We also got lucky and saw buffalos and also rhinecorus.

Our last proper weekend we visited Pokhara! It was quite an experience where the airport was actually closed when we were supposed to fly out, luckily they opened and we caught a quick 20minute plane ride there. It was the most beautiful place! The air is a lot nicer and the lake is absolutely beautiful. There was so much to do, we crammed Pokhara in 3 days and 2 nights, the first day we went walking and saw the lake. The second day we visited the Mehendra caves, bat caves, Seti River Gorge and Devi Falls. The caves were a bit dangerous but it was so much fun climbing out of it from the small hole. Seti River Gorge, the water was really cold and Devi Falls was an amazing watertfall. Pokhara was definitely our favourite weekend destination, we really didn't want to go back to Kathmandu, if we had the chance we would have spent at least a week in Pokhara.

There are so many places to visit in Nepal. Really wish we had more time, there are a couple mroe temples to visit and Garden of Dreams has been quite a popular destintation for one of our friends and it is very close to Thamel. Make the most of the weekend, it has been wonderful but definitely need more time to see ALL of Nepal!. Thank you Nepal for being so beautiful and inviting us into your wonders.