Nepal trip recap
I recently had the amazing opportunity of traveling to Nepal with my mom. Our trip lasted a little over two weeks, but it felt like we spent a lifetime there from all the things we saw, places we traveled to, and things we learned. In those two short weeks we visited ancient Hindu temples and Buddhist Monasteries, trekked for 7 days in the Upper Mustang region at altitudes reaching 14,500 feet and visited caves that were 5000 years old just to name a few things. I wanted to break down our trip into a day to day basis to share more in depth of all the amazing things we experienced in this truly magical and majestic country.
Day 1 - Arriving in Kathmandu
We landed in Kathmandu in the early morning of April 3rd, at 1:30. Traveling from the United States to Nepal is no easy feat, as both the distance and time difference is quite drastic. Our first flight was from Philadelphia to Doha, Qatar which took about 12 hours. After a short layover, we took a 4 hour flight from Doha to Kathmandu, where we picked up our 15 day tourist visas. Phuri Sherpa, the owner of the trekking company that we booked our trip with, was there to pick us up from the airport. We were greeted with smiles and open arms, and received shawl’s as a welcome gift.
The trekking company we used is called Himalayan Friends Trekking, and I can’t emphasize enough how grateful we were to have found such a wonderful business. I’ll delve into them more later on, but the helpfulness and friendliness of everyone there was unforgettable.
Our hotel was called ‘Hotel Tibet’ and was located in a quiet backstreet among a few other hotels. It was a great place to stay, and we could easily walk out to shops, restaurants, and markets within minutes.
Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, has a population of around 1.5 million people, but it felt much more than that at first glance. There seemed to be people everywhere, living very close to each other, and the streets were always busy and full of life. The feeling of being in Kathmandu was a stark contrast to any city I had visited before, both in the states and Europe. There was an endless amount of commotion, people moving about, traffic, construction, shops, and embracing the chaos and hectic feel of the city was awesome to experience.
Day 1 - Exploring Kathmandu