The Quiet Side of Nepal

During my trip in Nepal, I was lucky enough to see countryside Nepal. I visited three country towns, but unfortunately, I cannot remember the 2nd place I visited!! It was some secluded place, off to the side of the main highway, on the bank of the Seti River (we moved on to the Trishuli River). So it was Bandipur, somewhere off the Seti River and Dhulikhel (we visited Pokhara in between these places, but that’s another post for later).

Anyway.

The hotel that we stayed in Bandipur was just beautiful. The owner had built it with his own hands, it was amazing (Hotel Depche for those who were wondering). Such a simple house, a traditional Newari house (forgive my spelling if this is incorrect). The food was amazing as well, they cooked a traditional dinner for us: dal bhat – absolutely delicious. I had a walk around the village, small, cosy and GREEN. The air was fresh and was a nice change from busy Kathmandu.

View of the hotel I stayed at, from the other side of Bandipur

Sunset in Bandipur

After Bandipur, we went on a rafting tour on the Seti river! Woo!! It was so much fun, I had never tried rafting! (One thing to tick off the list). The river doesn’t have any crazy rapids (I define crazy as ‘uncontrollable rapids that are capable of throwing everyone overboard’), so it was perfect for beginners. It did have some exciting rapids, with some rocks in the way, but we managed :P. We camped at this small ‘resort’, which was also run by locals and organized by the tour group. All meals are home cooked too. The place is on the bank of the Seti as I mentioned, so unfortunately this attracted a few insects, but it didn’t matter. I laid down on the hammock and read and relaxed after a day of rafting, and just drank some tea. The night that I spent here was so HOT, I couldn’t sleep with the tent closed, so I think I bathed myself in insect repellent and took a chance with the tent flap open. Lucky I didn’t catch anything (maybe just one mosquito bite 😉 ). The rafting tour finished at another village, but this time on the Trishuli river as mentioned above. From here, we drove to Bhaktipur.

Our raft…

Rafting…tough work

The dining room at the resort

The last quiet stop we made was in Dhulikhel – alright, I lie, it’s not that quiet. Dhulikhel is just outside of Bhaktipur, which is approximately 1hr from Kathmandu. The beautiful thing about Dhulikhel is that when the sky is clear, you can actually see the Himalayas. We were not as lucky, our day and morning there were cloudy :(, but it was still beautiful scenery (you can see the valley below) and walk around the village area. On the way out of Dhulikhel (or in, depending what direction you are coming from), there is a massive statue of Shiva on one of the adjacent hills/mountains. I think massive may be an understatement actually. The community built the statue in honour of Shiva to overlook and protect the valley and its people.

Lord Shiva

The valley on a very cloudy day…

 

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed these…more to come!