Travel Diary – 4 gems from our Nepal trip (2015)

My husband and I had one of the luckiest trips (lucky in terms of witnessing the beauty that Nepal is) in 2015, when we visited Nepal just weeks before the 2015 Nepal Earthquake, that brought it’s iconic sites down to a rubble. The earthquake came as a bitter shock to us and we couldn’t comprehend that we had witnessed it all just a few days ago. 2 years later, I felt like revisiting the beauty that Nepal is. So here are the 4 most beautiful gems of Nepal from our trip.

1) Swayambhunath, Kathmandu

A Buddhist Stupa atop a hill, we reached this marvel climbing 365 steps to suddenly reach the feet of this HUGE skirt and Buddha’s eyes staring at us. “Om mani paddle hum” playing in the background, it converted every traveller into a pilgrim.

These prayer wheels have paper rolls of prayer inside them. Turning them is equivalent to chanting those thousand prayers.

This cute grandma asked us to look at her and learn how to pray at the Stupa 🙂

2) Durbar square, Kathmandu

A whole area surrounding the Royal Palace, filled with temples and the Kumari Chowk – House of the Living Goddess. We did visit her (Indians are allowed to. Not tourists from other countries) but weren’t allowed to click photos.

Nepalese women wear this on traditional occasions

3) Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu

This is the largest Stupa in Nepal.

In Kathmandu we stayed at Asmita Bed & Breakfast.

4) Bhaktapur

Around 13 kms from Kathmandu, this ancient Kingdom took my breath away. I could still feel the old world charm.

Goofing around

Pottery Square

Jhu Jhu Curd – The creamiest, purest custard like yoghurt

We went looking around for how it is made

Oh the beautiful doors, windows and frames!

In Bhaktapur we stayed at Pagoda Guest House which was right in the middle of the kingdom. Everything is reachable by foot.

We had also visited Nagarkot in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Mount Everest, but the weather was so bad that we couldn’t even catch a glimpse of any of the other giant peaks leave alone Everest. We stayed at Hotel at the End of the Universe. Pokhara would have been a better option! Next time 🙂