Muktinath Trip, Nepal

Well, it has been few years since we(me and amma) have been planning for a trip to
Muktinath in Nepal. When we had planned, just before we booking tickets to Nepal, King Birendra & his family were assassinated in Nepal. We dropped the travel plans since Nepal was in uncertain state. Again few years later, when we had reworked our plans, Nepal plunged into deep political crisis and we had to drop the plan again.
And after that, though I wanted to take Amma to Muktinath trip, due to various
circumstances trip was never materialized.

Finally, the time arrived when Juniper decided to have a mandatory shutdown for a week in mid-May 2009 to tackle recession.

I quickly booked tickets to me and Amma, my mamas decided to join us too. Rekha got lucky again, to get leave from her company too! So in total we were six people - me, amma, Rekha, Ramachar mama, Vijji Mama and Satya(Vijji mama's friend).
Rohini, my sister & her family could not make it to the trip. :(

Earlier, we had canceled our trip few times, this time again, just two weeks ahead of our trip, Nepal plunged into political uncertainty due to exit of Prachanda, Prime Minister of Nepal. Many relatives and friends advised us not to go to Nepal and cancel the trip. But we received positive feedback from our travel agents and we were told that Nepal is peaceful for travel.
All of us were all set to go to Nepal on 16th May 2009.

You might be interested in knowing this:
To visit Nepal, Indian doesn't need Visa. Indian Voter ID card or Indian Passport is enough to enter Nepal without much fuss. In fact, Nepal government allows any state or central government identification card to enter Nepal. Cool! isn't it?

16th May 2009

Since we had booked tickets in Jet-Lite, (low cost flight), we knew we were not going to be served for free in flight. Mamas who were accompanying us does not prefer onion, garlic in the food and we knew they prefer to have home-made food. Aware of this, Amma prepared Chapati, Akki-Rotti and Puliyogare to the trip previous day.

Finally the D-Day arrived! We got up early and 5 of us went in Omni reached airport at around 5.20AM. Satya joined us directly in Airport. We boarded Jet-lite flight to Delhi, which was scheduled at 7 AM.
Our itinerary was via Delhi to Kathmandu.
We planned to have the packed food at Delhi Airport since we had almost two hours fifteen minute gap between flights.
Amma had brought Chatni pudi for Chapatis, but chatni pudi was not allowed in carry bags. Hence we checked in our baggage only till Delhi instead of through check-in to
Kathmandu. Flight took off on time and Amma was sitting in flight for the first time.
I was watching her expression as flight took off...but she was cool n calm as if flight journey was every day affair for her. Actually, I was more excited to take amma in flight than Amma! :P
Many things flashed in my mind - it was many firsts for Amma...
First time Amma was traveling in Flight, First time she was traveling out of India and this was first visit to Muktinath, for which she has been yearning for years.
I was very happy and excited that, I was going to fulfill her dreams in coming days...

I expected that arrival at Delhi will be bit delayed due to Air-traffic.
But our flight delay was well beyond my expectation and reached almost 1 hour 10 minutes later than scheduled time. Hence we lost quite a lot of time.
Since we did not do through check-in, we had to collect our baggage again and run to
international terminal. We had no time to have food in airport.
Another thing came as surprise was the distance between domestic and international
terminals in Delhi. We had to catch international-transfers bus to reach international terminal. I think the distance between these two appears to be more than 7-8 km and we had to travel 20 minutes. By the time we reached the counters to check-in our baggages, it was almost flight time, 12 PM! We filled the embarkation cards in hurry and ran to catch the flight.
During whole process, I was little jittery since Amma's name was little different in ticket and Voter-ID card. Luckily, it did not pose any problem, and when we sat in Kathmandu flight it was a big relief for me! :)
Flight left at around 12.15PM and journey was short and sweet!
We had Akki rottis in plane, since everyone were hungry big time, Akki rottis were more yummy...Having home food in flight was similar to the train-journeys, which we had to Rajasthan when we were kids :)
From the flight we could see Kosi River, prior to landing in Kathmandu.
Finally we reached Kathmandu by 1.30PM.

While we collected our baggage, we realized two bags had not arrived :(
We were little tensed since Satya had kept considerable amount of cash in check-in bag! Also we realized, Delhi Jetlite staff did not provide the baggage tag in Delhi while we checked in the baggages again and we had forgotten about this as we were hurried for embarkation process. I was little tensed. I felt to myself that, I should have paid little more notice to it earlier in Delhi since I was the most experienced flier amongst us.
When we inquired with Nepal Airport staff, they asked us to wait till next flight from Jet Airways which was scheduled to arrive at 2.30, and gave a hope to us that, baggage might arrive then.
All of us waited anxiously.
Meanwhile, I met our travel agent Mr.Biswa from Satyam Tours & Travels who had arranged package in Nepal for us. I informed him about the baggage problem.
Jet airways flight arrived on time and we were thrilled to receive our baggage! Big sigh of relief for everyone!
Phew! so much trouble from 'chatni pudi!':)

Little bit on Kathmandu Airport...
Kathmandu aiport is also known as Tribhuvan Airport, named after King Tribhuvan. Airport is quite small and looks like a small resort. It does not have many modern facilities and keeps the whole flight management simple :)

Since Kathmandu had rains previous day, weather was pleasant at 26 degrees.
Mr. Biswa our travel agent along with driver Mahindra took us in MUV to Hotel Manang.
Enroute we passed by Pashupatinath Temple on the banks of Bagmati River and King's new palace.
Bagmati river appears to be similar to River Vrushabhavathi of Bangalore and it is more of
drain than a river.

As soon as we entered MUV provided to us - KIA Pregio, Biswa handed over me a Nepali SIM to communicate with us easily.
Kathmandu town appeared to be in deep sleep in the after-noon and most shops were
shutdown. We exclaimed and questioned why most shops were shut at 3 PM to Mr.Biswa.
Biswa told us that, Saturday is holiday in Nepal, similar to Sunday in India & other
countries.
Nepal being neighbour country, I was expecting Kathmandu to be filled with cars
manufactured in India, but Toyota, Nissan, KIA rules the road. We could see many many new cars & MUVs, which we had never seen earlier.

All of us were impressed with KIA Pregio. It was spacious and had many options to convert seats in multiple ways.
After we checked in our Hotel, we realized that, Nepal suffers from huge Power Crisis and has 12 hour power-cut every day!
After reaching Manang Hotel, we freshened up a bit and headed to explore Kathmandu...

First we visited Swayambhunath Stupa, which is Buddhist Stupa on a hillock.
Next to Stupa, there is a small temple for Buddha's mother and a monestary for Buddha.
We chanted 'Om Mani Padminiye Namaha' rotated chanting cylinders, engraved with "Om Mani padme hum" and did pradakshina of huge stupa.
This Stupa is supposed to be South Asia's largest stupa for Buddha.
On this Stupa, eyes of Buddha are painted on all four directions These eyes represent - Mysterious, Indifferent, compassionate and knowing.
From this place, one can see Kathmandu city. Initially I was thinking Kathmandu is small city, but this appeared to be quite big and much bigger than Mysore.

After Swayambhunath Stupa, we visited Pagoda Palace, which is Nepal King's old palace. We were informed that, entry into the old palace is only during major festivals and one can see the Palace only from outside.
We saw the palace from outside and got a peep into Darbari hall.
After this, we saw dais in front of palace, where king used to address public.
Next to this place, there is a small temple like structure on which one can see, idols of Lord Shiva and Parvathi which is looking from a window.
Belief is that, King's rule is observed by Lord Shiva and Parvathi.
Shedding its old glory, currently Pagoda Palace looks like lovers paradise.
We could see many young couples sitting next to each other holding hand in hand.

Next to this palace, there is temple "Kashta Mandap", built of wood from single tree.
And can you imagine, entire temple is built of wood! People say that, city name "Kathmandu" name comes from this temple. In this temple, we were surprised to see massive pillars made of tree.
There is another theory behind "Kathmandu" name. Few say that, Kathopanishad + Mundakopanishad results in "KathMandu".

Since it was already 7 PM, we decided to head back to our hotel.
Surprise was waiting from our travel agent...
Earlier, Bangalore travel agents(Neptune Travels) had informed us that we were going to reach Muktinath using Helicopter. But here we were handed over Flight tickets from Pokhara to Jomsom and arrangement at Jomsom stay was made much to our surprise.
We were little upset over this as we had planned spacing the time in each place in Nepal according to Helicopter trip. Satyam Travel agent tried to convince us that, they had tried their best to get us into Helicopter in avail.
But we were not convinced and felt we were tricked by travel agents.

Since we did not have much choice, we had food and slept peacefully.
This was the end of exciting first day in Nepal and we were set for 5 more rocking days!

17th May 2009


Plan for the day was simple to reach Pokhara by evening en route visiting Manokamana
Temple. We were informed that, it takes 6 hours to reach Pokhara.
While we were heading out of Kathmandu towards Pokhara in the midst of heavy traffic, we saw something unthinkable!
One guy was riding a bicycle, and a baby of 2 years was clinging onto his back.
Baby was all alone and had all the responsibility to ensure his own safety while his dad rode bicycle! Phew! Amazing stuff...how much care do we take to ensure our kids safety...

As we were heading out of Kathmandu we saw many buses and trucks filled with people coming into Kathmandu. We were told that, there will be massive rally by Maoists.
Though there were plenty of vehicles plying in opposite direction, it was quite peaceful. It did affect on the travel time taken to reach Manokamana temple.
We reached the base station at around 11.45.
Manokamana Temple is almost midway between Kathmandu and Pokhara.

Manokamana Temple is over mountain and we have to reach the temple using rope-way.
We were lucky to enter the queue just in time since lunch break is between 12PM to 1.30PM during which rope-way (Cable car/Gandola ride) is not operated.
Rope way is almost 3.1 km and covers an altitude of almost 1000 meters in just 15 minutes!
Probably this is the longest rope-way ever taken by me. There are around 30 baskets capable of carrying 6 people in each. Every one of us thoroughly enjoyed this journey in rope-way!

Due to steep elevation my ears popped too, just like flight!
After reaching the top station, one needs to walk almost a kilometer to reach Manokamana temple.
Many were carrying pigeons to the temple. People here have a belief that, if ones wish is fulfilled, they bring pigeons are release them here.
This Manokamana Temple appeared similar to our Maramma Temple found in Karnataka.
It is a devi temple, though main idol was not clearly visible.
Many sacrifice goats, chicken etc. Hence I did not like the atmosphere much.

One thing I observed in Nepal is that, each temple is surrounded by bells.
Two small pillars are erected and a beam is placed over it and bell is installed in the center.
Since I could see many small bells were tied next to original huge bell placed in center, I assume that these were tied by various devotees, before or after wish was fulfilled ('harake').

Near Manokamana temple, we could see many shops of wooden handicraft. Here, we found that, materials made of wood are very cheap.
After some amount of shopping, we took the cable-car back to base station.
We stopped for a cup of tea just before reaching Pokhara in small town.
I spotted a peculiar duck in this small town.
About 30 km before pokhara, we got first glimpse of snow-capped mountains.
As we were closing near to Pokhara, We were welcomed with majestic snow-capped Himalayan range in Pokhara. We could see Annapurna Range of Himalaya in Pokhara.
A beautiful peak named Machchapuchare, stood tall among many white peaks.
Macchapuchare is of 6997 meters. Though it is no where close to its neighbor Annapurna, this peak appears taller as it is closer to Pokhara town.
Macchapuchare means Fish-Tail. Since Nepali is very close to Sanskrit+Hindi, I tried to decipher this name a bit. Maccha, probably in Nepali means Machali/Machchi (Fish) and puchare sounds very close to Poonch (Tail).

Pokhara is beautiful town at an altitude of 827 meters surrounded by hills and mountians. Our "New Hotel Crystal" was just opposite to Airport.
After a nice stroll in the evening, we called end for the day, dreaming about Muktinath, which was our destination.