4-Day Kathmandu & Nagarkhot Trip
Was put in touch with this company through a friend who had been trekking in Pokhara, Nepal. I only had 3 nights maximum in Nepal so getting an internal flight to somewhere else like Pokhara wasn’t really an option, flights are weather dependent and often cancelled. Couldn’t have been happier with my trip. My guide Badri was fantastic. Very genuine, very accommodating, very knowledgeable, very nice man. Nothing was too much trouble for him and at all times he was very flexible in trying to meet whatever requests I may have had. Very happy with the hotels I stayed in (Mums Home in Kathmandu and Country Villa Hotel in Nagarkhot). The hotel in Nagarkhot in particular is wonderful, views of the valley from balcony in my room where not what I had expected when booking my trip. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t clear and I couldn’t see the Himalayas but the view was still beautiful.
Did the Mountain flight to see Everest and the Himalayas, really recommend it. I was fortunate in that the day I did it the weather was clear and the views and photos I got were fantastic, the flight had actually been cancelled the day before and after so I was very lucky with my timing. After that I visited Monkey Temple (Badri was pretty sure I would forget the real name of the temple, and he was right!), Patan Durbar, Boduddha Stupa and probably the highlight for me, the visit to the crematorium on the banks of the Bagmati river and the observance of an authentic Hindu funeral ceremony. It is a very moving experience. Fitting all 5 of those things in one day is possibly a bit much but I was happier to have done it this way and it meant I had more time for the trek the following day. We visited Bakhtapur Durbar Square the following day, one of the oldest towns in Kathmandu Valley. I probably had a little bit of sightseeing fatigue at this stage and it was only towards the end of this visit I kind of warmed up to the place but it is a pretty impressive place in its own right and had I seen it earlier the previous day I think I would have really enjoyed it. From there we drove to another village where we began our trek to Nagarkhot. The trek took about 4 hours. It is not the most spectacular trek I have ever done but it was a nice change from the city and it was a very enjoyable few hours spent in the Nepalese countryside. Very happy with the hotel I stayed in, there were no doubt cheaper options but I was very happy to be staying in the Country Villa hotel.
Final day I went back to Kathmandu, visited the Garden of Dreams and spent some free time shopping for gifts, etc. in Thamel (where my hotel had also been). Overall, a fantastic trip, got as much out of my short visit as I could possibly have hoped for. My guide Badri had been very proactive and good at keeping in touch with me prior to my trip and ensured the trip went as well as it possibly could for me. He was very knowledgeable and informative but at the same time acknowledged if he did not know something and also that what he was telling me was of course his interpretation of things or his point of view, this honesty I appreciated. Only slight negative for me was entrance fees for almost every monument, not sure if anywhere we visited was free. A lot of them were 3-4 US dollars but one or two were $10 or even $15, and for some of those you weren’t actually allowed into the temple unless you were Hindu anyway so it did on occasion feel like you were being exploited a little bit as a tourist. Still though, the country is very cheap in general, the people are extremely friendly and the city of Kathmandu itself is very safe and tourist friendly. If you’ve only a short stay in Nepal/Kathmandu and wish to get the most out of your visit I’d recommend an itinerary like the one described above and I’d highly recommend Badri as a guide/point of contact.
Eamonn
Ireland
June 2019