Himalayan Heights - Devi's fall

We were told that we were lucky to be there during end of December and being able to view the sun rise and the sun set clearly on the annapoorna range. End of October is supposedly the best period to view the range and starting from December the visibility starts to drop.

Devi's fall

We made the decent and returned to Pokhara. Had a dhal baath and then packed again to visit the Devi's fall. We walked all the way to Devi's falls. Apparently it's named as Devi's fall in memory of a tourist who tried to look at the falls and ended up falling in to it.

First we went to the upper end of the falls. It was not too impressive, specially for us who came from a place where we have the beautiful water falls, this was below par. The exciting part was to cross over to the other side of the road and go to the underground cave. Entry ticket was relatively bit expensive, so we were wondering whether if its worth to go in, anyway opted to go and see. Walking through a underground passage and watching the water fall through the rocks was an exciting experience.

by the way Nepal is the only country which respects the SAARC, for all tourist locations they have a special rate, I have never seen this in any of the saarch countries i have been to including, India, Maldives, Bangaladesh and Sri Lanka. We made sure we got all the discounts quoting this :D. They even provided waiver for the on arrival visa entry fee for SAARC nationals.

Then the next day we spent the day at the street festival, unfortunately I was feeling sick so opted to take rest, but I was told that it was more like the carnivals that are in Sri Lanka. After a memorable stay in Pokhara we returned to Katmandu and bid adieu to our excellent guide Krishna (anyone who wants to take a trip there get him to be your guide). Next day we set off to the air port and departed to new Delhi.

In the next Episode it will be Incredible India?!

Himalayan Heights – Kathmandu in search of Art!

The two who flew in from the island,lets call them H and S, arrived there in the afternoon and went to the hotel. KJ who flew in from the city country was already checked in, but was missing from the hotel room, (to date no one know where he really went to during those hours).He returned a few hours later and the three thought they were damn smart, they opted wear casual attire, the kind of stuff you would expect people to wear in the streets of sl or Singa and decided to take a stroll around the area.

The area is called as Thamel, an absolute tourist spot, which has become a transit heaven for the tourists. In there you would find all types of people, the show offs who try to dress up and pretend as if they are a few yards away from nirvana, the absolute gypsy like travelers, the backpackers, the Tibetan monks  and then the con men too. Its a place with boutique style shops all around, a good place to do some souvenir shopping.Not forgetting to mention that its supposedly a place with vibrant night life with bars and restaurants . After a few minutes of walking S started to feel as if the fingers were getting numb and the entire body was freezing. It just clicked on them how "prepared" they were for the climate, immediate task was to hunt for a pair of gloves, cap which can cover the ear and a Jacket. But then would you believe that they get back to the hotel room from the freezer and H suggesting that we need to switch on the fan!

Next on the advice of the nice people at Annapoorna hotel they went to himalyan trek, a tour organizing company. They were presented several options, mainly it was a choice between the mountains and wild life, they opted for the mountains.  Then it was bargaining time for the package, it included a day trip around Katmandu, then travel to Pokhara for 4 days accompanied by a guide. Best part of the bargain was introducing themselves as university students. I never expected that this is a dummy that you could sell, considering the real ages (specially the two eldest ones ;)  lol ), but they did and everyone believed it for the next 8 days!

Durbar Square

So these supposedly "university students" woke up in the morning next day expecting to start the katmandu day trip, to be told that there is a banth (strike) and we will have to start the trip at 12 noon, but I it cleared by about 11 and they set off on a journey to the historical sites of Katmandu.

Katmandu valley as seen from Suyambunath temple

Then again the ardent reader of the lot picked up something else, where its said there are temples with art which can be given a few more ratings than the murals of Sigiriya. Now this made the even the atheists to turn into enthusiastic "pilgrims".


They started the day by going to Durbar square, Suyambunath (the monkey temple), the two Stupa's swayambu and boudhanath. Then came the most memorable part, They walked into Pasupathinath temple. It was almost dusks, the sunset was picturesque, they walk in to see a row of continuous camp fire like structures on the banks of Bagmati river. The smoke coming from the fire was very much evident from a distance itself. When they were about to enter the ardent reader announces that this is a temple where you could find that kind of "art". Then while they walk near to the site, the reality starts to dawn on them, it was not actually camp fires that they saw, its the sight of cremation. You see continuous flow of fallen beings carried in and being cremated at this holy site. While taking a walk around they did find the erotic carvings, if it was seen out of that context it could have been definitely called as pornographic, but within the context where you see the carvings and then from the same place when you turn your head by 10 degrees you see a corpse being cremated and next to the fire you see a little boy who set the fire seated there starring at the horizon without any emotion while his hair was being shaved off, man it gives you a totally different feeling. It reminded the cycle of life, birth, passion, death and the process of continuation. These lyrics were playing into the mind "பொருளுக்கு அலைந்திடும் பொருளற்ற வாழ்கையும் துரத்துதே"

Pasupathinath Temple vicinity and the Bagmati River

Let me make a confession, all this time i was referring the travelers as them, one of the 3 is yours truly, who is usually called as heartless,left the site with watery eyes.

The ardent reader picked another gem from the book, he said that taking pictures of this site is considered a shameful act. Yes very correctly I did realize that just because I had a camera I should not be taking pictures everywhere. I made sure that I deleted all the pictures I took from a distance, specially associated with cremation and learnt the lesson for life.


In the next Chapter of Himalayan Heights it will be about hSenid Certified Trackers!

Himalayan Heights – The Ariel View

Once upon a time three people decided to take a trip to Nepal. The planning was so "good" that they didn’t have tickets for the travel even two days before the travel date, didn’t have a clue on the trip route, only things in hand were the lonely planet travel book and a booking into a the cheapest lonely planet author reviewed hotel in Katmandu.  At the last moment managed to get the bookings done, plan was to fly to Nepal via Delhi and then on the way back to take the same route, but with an extended transit in Delhi.

The day before departure one of the guys managed to skim through the book and found a gem of an advice, that is to get a window seat on the right hand side of the plane to catch a glimpse of the Himalayas.  So they remembered this and double checked at the check-in counter and got a window seat.

The take off was usual, they were flying for about two hours and then all of a sudden, they could see some very uncharacteristic thick white clouds. One guy was just staring at it without realizing what it was. It looked as if it was a cloud at the altitude just below the plane. Suddenly the other exclaimed “Those are snow caps right?”  Few minutes later the magic started to unfold, minutes of breath taking views, felt like getting closer and closer to the mountain range, it was absolutely amazing, within those few minutes itself they had this feeling of having reaped the value for money of the trip. Let me leave you today with the pictures they  captured. Believe me these pictures doesn’t do any justice to the scenic beauty of the Himalayas.

In the next edition of Himalayan Heights – It will be Katmandu and the story of the temples