Our good luck on the road ran out just when we reached Kathmandu, the car began to jerk. We had carried some tools, always good in case of an emergency, the most important of them – the WD40 – which Clyde brought to clean the electric connections of the throttle positioning sensor and the engine. But that din’t work.

The next option was to find a mechanic, which was difficult, however, we managed to find one in a corner of the main road. He had no idea of the problem, so Clyde asked him to clean few parts like the air filter, the IAC valve, etc., then he started the car, it was still jerking.

It was getting dark and we had to reach Thamel, since few of our friends were going to be there. We started to move with the hope the car doesn’t jerk, and then Clyde realised another problem and tried cleaning the point powering the engine cables again, he found a lot of dust and oil around it and voila no more jerking, extremely happy we asked for directions to Thamel.

Thamel is a popular tourist destination with numerous guest houses. The hunt for a room wasn’t long, we found a nice hotel – Mustang Inn – in the heart of Thamel, clean double bed room for Rs 1000 and the best part about the place is that its a wifi zone so free Internet. But the drive from Chitwan turned out to be quite long, and we were completely famished and needed some rest.

The next day we planned to go for an Organic festival with Shamans/healers in a village on the outskirts of Kathmandu. It turned out to be an interesting outing, surrounded by majestic snow-capped peaks, staying in the shade of a fruit tree, and music to elevate your senses, it was a perfect rendezvous with nature. Here the Nepali shamans are chanting their mythical songs and going in a trance. It was a short performance but it took me on a different level for a moment.

There are always colorful visitors out in the open, like this one.

In two days we were back on our way to Kathmandu when Clyde spotted a fresh mushroom farm, that got us excited. An old Nepalese man was growing different types of mushrooms and selling at an extremely low rate, I purchased 200 gms for 20 Nepali.Fortunately, we used the portable gas stove, which we carried to prepare Kayde’s meals, to make mushroom rice and we thoroughly enjoyed the delectable taste of mushrooms.Back at the same hotel in Thamel, we bargained and this time we got our friends to stay there as well, so the manager gave the room for Rs 900, worth it for a room like that.

To give you a brief about Thamel, it’s a great destination for budget travelers, at least as far as the guest houses are concerned, shopping and restaurants might be little on the expensive side. But there are a few choices when it comes to places to eat like Himalayan Thakali Banchha ghar that serves an authentic Nepalese food for low cost, it includes an entire meal (chapatis, rice, dal, pickle, vegetable or non-veg, sweet curd) more like a thali for 120 Nepali and you can eat to your heart’s content since its unlimited and very tasty as well! The local restaurants have a floor seating arrangement and a wooden table to keep the food.

Nepalese cuisine is a welcome change to regular food, especially the cauliflower and green peas veggie and the unusual tomato pickle.

The Revered Pashupatinath Temple

In the evening we visited the sacred Pashupatinath Temple or Lord Shiva temple built in 400 AD. Located in an open courtyard, its a two-tiered pagoda style temple with silver plated doors and gold embellishments on the roofs. Between the two roofs of the main temple are wood carvings of Parvati, Hanuman, Sita, Ram, Ganesh and several other Hindu gods. Pashupati literally means Lord of animals, you will find lots of monkeys, bulls, cows in the temple complex.

Photography is not allowed inside, so we could manage very few pics of the place. The evening ritual was on as the sound of the bells and drums echoed in the complex, creating a rhythmic tune. We offered our prayers in the main temple that has a high linga with four faces, representing Pashupati, and moved towards Bagmati river flowing next to the temple.

The several ghats on the banks which are used for bathing and cremation purpose, reminded me of the Varanasi Ghats, but on a smaller scale.

There are several small temples around, and outside one of them I had a weird moment; a sadhu sitting at the entrance gave me a very hypnotic look when I saw him in the eye, its clearly etched in my mind because it gave me a chill, and it completely freaked me out. I moved away from there, rung the huge giant size bell at the entrance and left the complex.

Due to time constraints we had to leave for Pokhara the following morning, we only had 10 days in Nepal and had to make the most of it.

The road to Pokhara

We settled the hotel bills, withdrew money, bid goodbye to our friends who were staying back to see more of Kathmandu, while we were on our way to Pokhara – 210 km – not too much but in Nepal it can take up to six hours to cover that distance. On our way in Kathmandu close to Swayambhunath stupa, we came across Amideva Buddha Park that has three massive statues of Buddha and the Boddhisattvas – (from left to right) Chenrezig (Avalokiteśvara), Sakyamuni (Buddha), and Guru Rinpoche(Padmasambhava). It is a lovely park flanked by locals offering their prayers or sitting under the shade of a tree.

A prominent structure at Buddhist places – chorten or stupa and prayer wheel.

A prominent structure at Buddhist places – chorten or stupa and prayer wheel.

After a brief stop at the park, we were back on the windy roads of Nepal, the road condition is fairly good, apart from the twists and turns, there are no sudden surprises. Driving in Nepal is fun and challenging, the landscape is beautiful, rolling hills, stepped fields, banana plantations and the river gushing its way between the mountains. It was lunch time and luckily we found a nice restaurant on the highway – Spice Kitchen – a clean joint serving local and Indian food. Clyde choose to have mince chicken and rice and myself settled for Thakali, this one was even tastier than Thamel and more variety in terms of vegetables. It was almost at the same cost.

Pokhara was still 4-5 hours away, informed the restaurant manager, so we were back on the road soon enough to make it by late evening to Pokhara. Now please read carefully, as soon as we entered Pokhara, few guys on their bikes asked us if we were looking for a hotel, we refused because we wanted to find one on our own, in a normal scenario the person would go away, but one fellow just didn’t budge.

He followed us wherever we went, the hotels are plenty in Pokhara, so we checked at few places recommended by tripadvisor, they were booked, this fellow came to us and pleaded to check his hotel, we refused blatantly, still he went on, until Clyde told him for the final time and he left.

It was some relief, Pokhara is filled with restaurants, guest houses, hotels, shops, general stores, ATM machines, so you are rest assured to find what you need here. We got a room at Hotel ABC, nice place with clean bathroom and balcony facing the Annapurna range and a lot of hotels in between. The hotel is run by a bunch of pleasant people, but who weren’t willing to bargain, the only issue there was electricity fluctuating.

For dinner we just to walk across the road to a pizza place, a much-needed change after eating rice, dal and veggie quite often on the trip. La Pizzaria has a nice sit out and a relaxed ambient. The next day we venture out to explore the serene side of Pokhara – Begnas tal and Rupa tal, more about it in the next post…

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Tags: Kathmandu, Nepal by Road, Pokhara, Thamel