A novice's trip to Nepal!

We were a group of 10-12 people. We went to Nepal in March last week and came back in April first week- supposedly the best time to visit the country, where we stayed in two cities- Kathmandu and Pokhara.

This blog is to share the experience of the trip and also to answer a lot of small but basic questions, which a traveller might have while visiting Nepal for the first time.

The Plan

We planned to visit Kathmandu first, and then move on to Pokhara where we also did a short trek to Dhampus and Australian Camp.

The Route

You may reach Nepal through air, as well as through land.

If you plan to tarevl through air, you may take a flight to Kathmandu from any international airport in India. However, you shall need either a passport or voter ID card if you plan to travel through air.

If you travel by road, any ID proof works. I travelled through road and covered the entire trip only using aadhar card and did not face any problem anywhere.

We took a train till Gorakhpur. We booked a cab from Gorakhpur which brought us to Sanauli border.

Here's a picture of the gate showing the Indo Nepal border:

At Sanauli Border:

We exchanged currency. INR to NPR. The exchange rate is fixed at 1.6 NPR for 1 INR.

We also took a local Nepal sim. Here again, the aadhar card worked. The sim cost us around INR 200. Ncell is the most prevalent network in Nepal and you can get it recharged almost anywhere.

Travel from Sanauli Border to Kathmandu

From Sanauli border, you can travel to Kathmandu by road. But the roads in Nepal aren't great and it would take you 10 to 12 hours to reach Kathmandu. Hence, we decided to take a flight and I recommend you do the same.

Now here's the catch- if you take an international flight, you need passport or voter ID card. But if you take flight within Nepal from one city to another, any ID card works. As I mentioned, they happily accepted Aadhar card for me.

Where to take the flight from?

There's an airport called Bhairwaha airport, it's mere 12 kms from the Sanauli border. The cab which had brought us from Gorakhpur till Sanauli border took us further into Nepal till Bhairwaha Airport. We then took a flight till Kathmandu. It was a short flight and within 30 minutes, we had landed at Kathmandu Airport.

The flights in Nepal are not very costly. It was a Buddha Air flight and cost only around INR 2k. You can easily book these flights online if you have international transactions enabled on your credit or debit card.

Stay at and things to do in Kathmandu

We booked a hotel in Thamel region of Kathmandu. It's where the toursists usually stay. This area has a lot of hotels, cafes, restaurants and pubs and you can experience the best night life here. There are also a few markets in the walking distance from here such as the new road, darbar square, king's lane etc. I recommend you stay at a hotel in Thamel region.

Things to do in Kathmandu

1. Shopping- There are a lot of markets (new road, asan market, darbar square to name a few) where you can buy clothes, footwear, woolens etc at good price. Although you will need to show your best bargaining skills while shopping in these markets. There's also a chain of stores called Bhat-Bhateni which is similar to Big Bazaar in India.

2. Night Life- Lord of Drinks or LOD is one of the most lit places in Thamel. Apart from LOD, there are a lot of other pubs and cafes where you can find good food and live music. You can also try your luck at a Casino.

3. Places to visit- Pashupatinath Temple (if you're interested in temples and have religious beliefs), Boudhnath Stupa and Swayambhunath temple to experience Buddhist culture. Chandragiri hills is a good place to visit- you can enjoy beautiful views while traveling in a cable car and on a clear sky day, you can also see Mount Everest . We went on a foggy day so we couldn't see any Himalayan range. But here's a pic clicked from Chandragiri Hills:

We stayed in Kathmandu for 4 days. So we had more than enough time to visit all these places. However, you can cover major tourist attractions and shopping within 2 days as well.

For travelling locally within Kathmandu, you can download local taxi apps like taximandu. These apps are similar to Uber and charge a reasonable amount for travel.

Pro Tip: Most of the shops, cafes and restaurants in Kathmandu accept Indian currency. So you do not need to carry a lot of Nepalese currency everywhere.

On to Pokhara

We were supposed to take a flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara. However, at the very last moment, the flight got cancelled because of the bad weather and we had to then take a traveller (Toyota Haice) to reach Pokhara. The journey took us around 8 hours. I rcommend you take flight as the flights are not very costly and they are a lot more convenient.

Stay at Pokhara

Pokhara for tourists is mainly adventure sports, trekking and chilling by the Phewa lake.

We stayed at Zostel for the first 2 nights. It's a beautiful place, quite peaceful and lovely. The only downside was that it was a bit far from the lakeside.

The lakeside at Phewa lake is a beautiful lane having innumerous cafes. You get all types of dishes with all types of ambience. It's a place for someone who likes to party, as well as for someone who just likes to sit by lakeside for hours and admire the natural beauty of the lake.

So we decided to move to another hotel which was right across the Phewa Lake. If you are not running on tight budget, I would suggest you to book a hotel close to the lake so you don't have to worry about traveling back to wherever you are staying as it is difficult to get taxi at late hours in the night.

Things to do in Pokhara

1. Adventure Sports- Pokhara is known for its adventure sports- Paragliding, Bungee jumping, river rafting, ziplining. If you're there, you should definitely try one or more of these sports.

2. Chilling by the lakeside- If you are on a chill trip, you may choose to spend your time in beautiful cafes along the Phewa lake. You may also choose to do cafe hopping.

3. Places to visit- there are a few beautiful places in Pokhara. We took a two wheeler scooty on rent and visited these places like Peace Stupa, Shiva temple on the hilltop. These are beautiful places and the scooty or bike ride in itself would be an amazing experience. Ps: If you are hiring a two wheeler, ensure the petrol pumps are operational on that day. Fuel stations do not operate 24/7 in nepal and it might be a hassle to get petrol.

4. Trekking- Pokhara is the gateway to a lot of treks such as Poonhill, Annapurna Base camp, Dhampus etc. We did a short two day trek to Dhampus. It is a very beautiful place and does not require any significant level of fitness. I will write a separate blog describing my experience of the trek.

Returning to India

We took a flight from Pokhara to Bhairwaha airport, again a short flight. from airport, we took a cab till Sanauli Border. You will get a lot of cabs right outside the airport. You can bargain and choose one of the cabs to drop you till Sanauli border. You can cross the border on foot and take a bus to Gorakhpur. The bus stop is just 100 metres away from the border. You will also get a lot of cab options- sharing/full cab near the border. You can choose any of those. So you need not worry about how to come back to gorakhpur.

Pro Tips from personal experience-

1. You can get wifi at almost every cafe in Kathmandu as well as Pokhara. So you need not worry about internet access. You can buy a sim with 1 or 2 gb data to help you in case you're at a place with no wifi.

2. Indian currency is accepted almost everywhere. So you can maintain a mix of Nepalese and India currency. You can make all major payments in INR so you don't have to worry about leftover Nepalese currency.

3. You can look for hotels online and then book them by calling these hotels. This way you can get some good deals on hotels.

That's all folks!! You can mention in comments in case you need any other info!