2 weeks Nepal without trekking

Nepal wit­hout hiking? Yes, it is clear that one or the other asks hims­elf why one wants to visit the coun­try with the hig­hest moun­tain in the world wit­hout clim­bing it.

Even though it is temp­ting to hike seve­ral days through the Hima­la­yas and to feel like a gre­at clim­ber, I have to admit to mys­elf that I am not fit enough for such a tour. 10 years on a shaky office chair have taken their toll and let me beco­me a rus­ty, almost immo­bi­le sloth. At least when I think about what phy­si­cal exer­ti­on would cost me a seve­ral days‘ march through the high moun­ta­ins, despi­te car­ri­ers for my lug­ga­ge. To be honest, just the thought of it exhausts me so much that I have to take 8 days off to relax while wri­ting this paragraph.

But Nepal offers not only moun­ta­ins for pro­fes­sio­nal moun­tai­neers, but also deep green natio­nal parks, beau­tiful monas­te­ries, slee­py moun­tain vil­la­ges and the lively capi­tal Kath­man­du. And of cour­se the­re is also a day hike for an office chair-tor­men­ted office stal­li­on in it. Even though with a lot of breaks…

Sin­ce I per­so­nal­ly have rather litt­le con­fi­dence in Nepa­le­se air­lines and I don’t like fly­ing any­way, it had to be a rou­te wit­hout a dome­stic flight. Tho­se who like the thrill will find one of the most dan­ge­rous air­ports in the world in Nepal, name­ly Luk­la, who­se run­way is only 530 meters long and lies with 12 per­cent gra­di­ent direct­ly bet­ween a moun­tain mas­sif and deep abyss. You could­n’t get me on a pla­ne at this air­port with the nar­co­tic dose for eight hippos!

Our tour leads us first through the Kath­man­du val­ley and from the­re to a some­what remo­te monas­tery, whe­re we can chat with mon­ks and get lost while hiking in various Nepa­le­se front gar­dens and spend the night in the atta­ched guest­house of the monas­tery. We con­ti­nue to Ban­di­pur, a slee­py moun­tain vil­la­ge with very hos­pi­ta­ble inha­bi­tants, whe­re we make a time tra­vel 200 years into the past and visit the remo­te vil­la­ge Ram­kot which is at least acces­si­ble for the fit Euro­pean in about 2 hours hike. Admit­ted­ly, it took us more than 4 hours, but we arri­ved anyway.

Final­ly we con­ti­nue to Pokha­ra. A vil­la­ge that lies at a moun­tain lake and offers a lot of exci­ting expe­ri­en­ces. Here we tra­vel through time again, exact­ly 56.3 years into the future, to cele­bra­te New Year’s Eve 2075 tog­e­ther with the Nepa­li. Even for lazy tou­rists the­re is the pos­si­bi­li­ty to get a tas­te of the moun­tain air, becau­se tho­se who are unable to move but at the same time are wil­ling to pay can fly into the Ana­pur­na Base Camp in only 15 minu­tes. In a neigh­bor­ing vil­la­ge of Pokha­ra we visi­ted a Tibe­tan refu­gee sett­le­ment, lear­ned a lot of exci­ting things about Tibet and stay­ed with a host family.

At the end of our trip we con­ti­nue to Chit­wan Natio­nal Park to go on the hunt for rhi­nos and spend a who­le day with the Tha­ru. An incre­di­bly inten­se expe­ri­ence fol­lo­wed by an over­night stay in the Jungle Tower, which is won­derful­ly sui­ta­ble as a shoo­ting loca­ti­on for a hor­ror movie.

Here are the stages of our journey in detail:

Day 1: Arri­val via Düs­sel­dorf to Istan­bul and Kathmandu

Day 2–3: Kath­man­du with exten­si­ve sight­see­ing of the most important temp­les and sur­roun­ding dis­tricts Patan and Bhak­ta­pur. One of the most bizar­re and for a Euro­pean par­ti­cu­lar­ly dis­tur­bing expe­ri­en­ces is pro­ba­b­ly the visit of Pas­hu­pathi­nath, the public cre­ma­to­ri­um in Kathmandu.

Days 4–5: Over­night stay in the atta­ched guest­house of the Ney­do monas­tery and hike through the rice fields with various errands.

Day 5–7: In Ban­di­pur you can enjoy the first moun­tain pan­ora­ma of the Hima­la­yas if the wea­ther is good and take a hike to Ram­kott. A tiny moun­tain vil­la­ge with uni­que inhabitants

Days 7–11: Pokha­ra: New Year’s Eve fes­ti­val 2075 with fun­fair and music and heli­c­op­ter flight to Ana­pur­na Base Camp. We also spent one night with a Tibe­tan host fami­ly in a refu­gee sett­le­ment. A won­derful day on which I lear­ned more about Tibet than I pro­ba­b­ly would have ever lear­ned myself.

Days 11–14: Sear­ching for tigers and rhi­nos in Chitt­wan Natio­nal Park. Tho­se who dare can also walk through the jungle with a gui­de and hope not to be eaten by the tiger and then spend a day with the Tha­ru, get an insight into vil­la­ge life and cook tog­e­ther with the Tha­ru women.

Day 15: Return flight to Frank­furt with unplan­ned over­night stay in Istanbul.

Here is the exact route and our accommodation:

Hier gehts zum Rei­se­be­richt