Nepal Trekking (Bhaktipur, Changhu Narayan, Nagarkot & Sankhu)

I have had many lovely experiences in Nepal…

On my last 2 days in Kathmandu, I decided to do a trekking tour with Wayfarers, a  reputable budget travel agency recommended by my Lonely Planet guidebook. With an office in Thamel, they are staffed by a handful of trustworthy young gents in a fashion similar to STA Travel. Nepal is known for its intensive 2-3 week treks to Mount Everest, Pokhara and the Annapurna regions. I was short on time, so I opted for a $60- 2 day/1 night trek through 4 villages (Bhaktapur, Changhu Narayan, Nagarkot and Sankhu) with a view of the Himalayan Mountains . If you ever wondered why they call it “trekking” and not “hiking”, I couldn’t tell you. Trekking is like a really intense hike and half the time, if there’s nothing to see but woods, worn path and rock, you spend your time looking down at your feet wondering why they’re not taking you  further or faster than you hope to get. But the view when there was one, was exquisite (I have never taken so many landscape photos in my life!); and the villagers and farming community along the way both, intrigued and inspired me with the bare simplicity of a persevering lifestyle. Man, woman and child work tirelessly to push the land, its crops & soil…

Terraced rice paddy fields.

Nepalese women carrying sticks on their backs.

Ganesh statue (Hindu) is placed at farms to symbolize prosperity and good farming.

Here in the mountain villages, life doesn’t seem any easier when you’re a kid…

Children work early in the morning carrying things from the farm in bags strapped to their heads.

My guide, Bacchu (meaning: “small” in Nepalese- which I guess he was-  within the simple fact that as an 5’8″ standing Asian female, I stood like a giantess beside him!) was a sweet guy whom I liked and I felt comfortable and safe with. He was considerate, strong for his size and attentive. His English was enough to manage simple conversations about Nepali lifestyle, his own life and family, and the estimated fact- unknowingly to him and I’m just guessing- that my tip may just cover his rent and utilities for the month!

An interesting food fact I learned from Bacchu-   the Nepalese diet consists of a breakfast of daal baat (a lentil curry poured over rice), a lunch of light bisquits and daal baat again for dinner. But mostly, the meals are all daal baat! How Nepali people can eat daal baat 24/7 is beyond my comprehension,  even if my own diet doesn’t break for much exploration either!

Bacchu and I take a local bus out of the city of Thamel to Bhaktapur (an ancient rice village) and from there we wait for the bus to Changhu Narayan, where we we will start our trek. While we wait for our bus, Bacchu goes to a local fruit stand to get some bananas, water and apples for our activity.

mountain village boys playing kites as part of the celebration

Bacchu points at our destination …the top of the opposite mountain!

Due to the fact I had booked a late start on my trek, we only had a few of hours of trekking in Changhu Narayan before having to cut the trek short so that we could make it up to the Nagarkot summit (the highest peak of the tour) before nightfall. Bummed about my loss of exercise time my silent sorrow immediately changed moods, when an over-stuffed bus arrived and I realized I might get to ride on the roof of (as I like to call it due to the garishly ornate decor and blaring Bollywood music  inside) a “Nepalese Singing Bus”!  Unfortunately, riding on the rooftop, I didn’t actually get to hear the bus jingle and strut to Bollywood tunes; but I was packed in tight with a group of young Israelis who provided song on their own…

The crowded bus

Seeing the majestic mountains and valleys from the vantage point atop of a moving bus…

There are no words or pictures to explain the feeling! I felt the urge to belt out The Sound of Music movie theme OR to explode arms open wide into lip-sync’d song, like Shah Rukh Khan in DDLJ or Veer-Zaara!

.

Sitting on the crowded rooftop of our bus

.

A note about the Nepalese Singing Bus: The  fare collector collects money from passengers AFTER (and not always immediately) they have boarded the bus! The collector goes to each passenger, even if he must slice through the packed crowd to get the people wedged in the back. The passengers riding on the rooftop of the bus are no less exempt from his duty tasks either. He merely launches up to the roof while the bus is motion- climbing over and squeezing through people-  to continue his collection of fares!

.

.

We stayed the night at the Viewpoint Hotel in Nagarkot. The Viewpoint Hotel is a favorite of the trekking tours (I know- I went through a handful of different tour agency quotes and itineraries). Nice, well-budgeted, spacious and clean – it’s definitely a good stay! In the winter when it snows, it  probably feels reminiscent of a ski lodge resort. But it occurs to me, no matter how nice or clean these hotels are, my personal and inescapable YUCK are these asian- styled bathrooms, which do not separate spaces between shower, toilet or sink. It’s not that these bathrooms are  unsanitary per se- just reminiscent of my experience of  Western communal showers where there’s only one central drain in the middle of the bathroom! This kind of system takes some getting used to as while you’re bathing, you’re splashing water all over the room. But I imagine in the long-run this also makes cleaning the bathroom simpler and more efficient. You can just hose everything down.

Blackout period occurs daily in Nepal and so when it does, we go to eat dinner where we are serving by candlelight and backup power generators. Next morn, Bacchu wakes me up at 5 am to suggest watching the morning sunrise. Even though I am not the “Oh, I want to see the sunrise” type of person, I must admit- it IS gorgeous and DEFINITELY worth getting up for. We eat some breakfast at the hotel restaurant (inclusive in the tour) and then we’re off!

Trekking in the morning has a beautifully tranquil feeling to it.

The view is shrouded in mist and fog to make its mountain valley presence even more-so mystical. Animals are awake as farming life begins to stir and nature begins to chirp. By around 7am, farming activity is visible- people carrying baskets and tending to their lovely patterned fields of rice and grain. Life can be hard for the farming community out here but their labors must be softened by the beauty of their own lush surroundings. I have never seen anything like it! I was raised in Hawaii, which tends to spoil the paradisical nature of most places for me the moment you utter words like  “tropical” “beachy” or “lush”. However, this tour is one of the most… “breath-taking” by far and it deserves that well-earned cliche!

Nepalese People: The faces here receive influences from neighboring countries of China and India. Beautifully exotic, facial features here appear either an “Asian soft-and-round” due to a strain of Mongolian or exacting due to the Indian population. Overall however, the Nepalese consider themselves neither/nor. They consider themselves “Nepali”.

The major religions and the celebration of religious festivals are a cross-pollination as well, between Buddhist and Hindu (ie. Dusain Festival in Nepal is Dussehra in India and both honor Durga Puja). When passing through villages, you see doorways decorated and marked to announce what kind of house it is. Hindu houses sometimes have a spattered tikka above their doorway with a picture of a Hindu god; meanwhile, Buddhists tend to have ornate markings of bodhisattva eyes or buddhas. While there are slight distinctions as such to let you know what religion a family may belong to, the inter-marriage between the two religions knows no segregation. A Buddhist may marry a Hindu and religious affiliation is less a concern than caste. If you ask a Nepalese person if they are buddhist or hindu, a common response is “Yes”.

.

buddhist house markingshindu house markings

Brotherhood Chai

Along the way, we come across some locals traveling upon the road. The local (stranger) and Bacchu will strike up a long and passionate conversation in Nepalese, walking together as if they have known each other for ages (which is good as it allows me to stop every once a while to take pictures and then run to catch up with them and act as if I never left). Later I ask Bacchu, “Friend?” He answers that he did not know that person- they just met. I guess that is Nepali friendliness!

.

Bacchu makes conversation with strangers along the way.

Women wash clothes in a public basin.

Back on the bus.

Finally, we reach Sankhu Village and I’ve reached the end of my trek. Time for Bacchu and I to catch the bus back to Thamel.

Trekking tours are definitely one of the best ways to explore the countryside and farmlands and for all of $60, I’m extremely pleased with all that I’ve seen in beautifully-patterned rice fields, streams, sunrises, early morning mystic mountains and a farming community their a friendly but relentless worker spirit. The next time I’m here, I would love to take a longer trek to explore more of these mountain village/farming regions. It’s been an exhilarating, eye-opening and heart-warming experience for me.  This is a memory I will keep with me for times to come!

To contact my awesome guide, Bacchu, directly for a personal or group trek,  his contact information is below or you can find him on Facebook:

Bacchuram Tamang ( bacchu)
email: bacchuramtamang@yahoo.com
cell # +977 9803 327937
Kathmandu,  Nepal