Re: Diwali in Nepal

Travelogue Approved

Apologies for the delay in approval. Waiting for the rest of the log!

Re: Diwali in Nepal

Interesting, 'would definitely like to see how diwali looks in Nepal.
Keep posting mate.

Re: Diwali in Nepal


Might be interesting if you are not into firecrackers or if you are in agreement with environmentalists.
Firecrackers are banned due to wildlife, environment & pollution.

Re: Diwali in Nepal

Really liked the way you started your log with day 0.5! Bring on the rest.
P.S. There seems to be some issues with the font size. They appear differently in the beginning and the end of the post.

Re: Diwali in Nepal

DAY 2: Etawah to Ghorakpur & Sidharthnagar (Nepal)


We didn't want to stay long on UP roads and we thought there might be no good roads in UP, so we decided to skip breakfast with few dry fruits & nuts and started early. Stopped immediately to refuel in one of the bunks before getting onto the highway, the guy asked "for how much?". I said tank full, but he put petrol only for 100, I thought he wasn't alert when i said full tank. So I said fill the tank to him again, this time he started filling the tank starting from the 100 rs where he left. Then he said you need to give Rs.100+690, I was like whoa wait, I saw that you added that 100 already. He was in full argument mode, I got furious and disappointing. I didn't want my day starting like this, I just gave him the Rs.690 that he must get and left without any word. Its foolish to argue with these people. Then got on the highway and kept riding non-stop, needed to cover 600 kms and border crossing formalities. So we were stopping only after few hrs for food and water.

The roads were not bad as we thought, 6 lane highway with service roads. But it was fully laid with concrete, WHY ON THE EARTH???? concrete may be durable for them, but screws the tyres, heats up crazy in summer (although we were not riding in summer) and exhausting our eyes and the lines for grip on the road narrows the vision.

We were doing good speeds and covering the distance, but it looked like whole of the UP lives on the sides of the highway. Whenever there was a small crossing in the highway we needed to slow down too much, and it costed us great time as there are a THOUSAND crossings on the frickin! highway. We crossed Ayodhya by noon and closed Ghorakpur by evening, the road to Ghorakpur split from the highway and is some 15 kms to the city. The road was deprived of vehicles, just the trucks, there were potholes which were exposing layers of roads laid generations back or in cretaceous era. It took great deal to reach the city, and the road got even narrower, full of potholes and it became dark. We were pushing ourselves and doing 80-90 kmph on those roads, and we my friend's car's tyre lost pressure on hitting a stone (rim bent on tubeless tyre). To our luck there was a puncture shop few meters in front, he hammered the rim into shape and good to go. But the puncture shop fellow told us the border would be closed by 8: 00 pm. But we took a decision to take a look ourselves & if the border had been closed back to the shop and there was a hotel next to it.

We reached the border, the roads were queued with trucks and we cleared the Indian side by registering the vehicle number and name (Barely 2 minutes!). Then we were asked to park our vehicles in neutral zone, few forms were filled up and we had to attach License, Registration certificate and paid entry fee. My friend got his paperwork done, I had everything but I had forgotten to carry my original RC. DAMN.. They straight away refused me to take my bike in, and they said you can carry on by parking this vehicle in neutral zone and go ahead in your friend's car or GO BACK!

I came this long only to ride my bike in Nepal, so pleaded them to allow me using the photocopy. I had to wait for 2 hrs & still no response. Then contacted few fellows and they gave a solution that "get customs OUT seal on a RC photocopy from Indian side and customs IN seal here at Nepal check post. I got that done by the agent and paid the fee. Finally we got in, I was so relieved and hated myself for almost jeopardizing the trip by forgetting RC.

We exchanged some money, they accept only INR in Rs. 100 or the denominations below. so we had half converted into NR & half in INR. It was almost 11:00 pm, there were no proper roads on Nepal side of the border, just dozed and gravel. We were desperate to find a good hotel after such a tiresome day, luckily we found one nearby in Sidharth nagar. Ordered some biriyani, updated our parents of the status (Only few networks worked in Nepal) and ended the day.



Hotel that we got on good deal.

DAY 3: Sidharth Nager to Pokhara

All the night in sleep, I felt a bug or something was always getting on to me, when I woke up in the morning and opened the curtains of the window there was a swarm of locusts (Grasshopper look a like insect) on the balcony. Okaaaayy, that was the first time I saw such thing outside TV. We quickly got ready and were so curious to ride and look around, but 1st we had to pay the taxes in local RTO for the car. So we searched for it and paid the taxes and got receipt (no road tax for outside bikes though).

It was few kms to butwal from where the climb for Pokhara starts, the roads were good but no markings, trees planted alongside but at a distance of 40 feet away from road, houses were spaced good and vehicles they ride/drive. We started feeling the difference of being in foreign land immediately, I never thought just a border can change habits, food, language so abruptly. This induced a slight insecure feeling in me, I was cautious. We filled fuel for slightly higher price than India (Expected), and continued the road.



On route to Pokhara.



Beginning of the road to Pokhara.

We saw lot of bikers on route, most of them use off-roaders (dominated by Hartford and Honda) or scooters (monopoly by Honda).



Honda CRF 250R.



HARTFORD VR 150.

Seeing all these bikers I got excited and overcame the insecure feeling, we started climbing for Pokhara, the roads towards was initially bad & broken, but got better. So took it slow as it was just 180 kms.



Regular checks.

We then stopped for tea and snacks at a small town, the road was too steep that we parked our vehicles with great difficulty. Tried local specials like fried rice cake which looked like doughnut, but the samosa was better hands down. Started again and we closed Pokhara by late noon, we were averaging 40 kmph and it took 6 hrs including breaks to reach Pokhara.



Welcome the board said!

Entered the city, people were good, spacious parking spots before shops alongside the road. We were looking for a hotel and were inquiring about decent places to stay. A guy approached and offered a deal in his guesthouse, Rs. 500 for room (3 people sharing) and food will be home made costs extra. We decided to check the place out, this is what we found,



Guest house.

Decent and very close to the lake side, we closed the deal. He then said this was only possible as it was off season. We spent the evening roaming around the lake side road and getting ready for the Diwali next day.



Roaming around!



Evening Tea!

We chilled out that day!

Re: Diwali in Nepal

Going good!

Re: Diwali in Nepal

When did this ride happen ,last year ? as Diwali is in November this year

Re: Diwali in Nepal

DAY 4: Pokhara & Diwali





Birth of a new day..



Clouds hiding the valleys..




Majestic..

We spent some time afterwards having some tea, started back. We got to see the might & heavenly beauty of Mt. Annapurna, It cannot be explained by me nor the photography skills that we had. But to our best, down is the pic.



Mt. Annapurna in the shades of clouds!

We then reached the main city and the day there started with soft Nepali prayer songs, people opening up their shops. We got into a restaurant and had local breakfast, headed out for a walk afterwards. Every tourist place has few "places to visit list", so we planned a list and started visit from the International mountaineering museum.
It was deep within the colonies, not like we thought in a prime place. We had few great surprises inside the museum, read about few people whose efforts mapped the whole Nepal, sacrificing lives to the cause, their tools and suits were on display. Few mountaineers whose achievements like summiting highest peaks in all 7 continents and so on, just dwarfed various things that we thought were great.



Museum Entrance.

We spent half a day there and returned, it was almost noon by then. We then went to Vindhyavasini temple nearby, which was so different yet felt familiar.
The temple was located at an elevated place, was windy and calm.



Temple.

By evening we returned to the guest house and freshened up. We felt the day as if it was a normal day, no signs of diwali except people turning up to temples and morning pooja. No sound of a single firecracker. Amazed & then we came to know the firecrackers were banned to avoid damage to environment.

As it started getting dark there were lamps all around, we were walking along the roadside and noticed few gatherings. Curious Indians we are, poked in. There was a celebration, kids were dancing to the folk music in their traditional tribe wear. This was the scene every few hundred meters, different tribes dance along moving one spot to another entertaining and collecting some money. Each group was so diverse, there were even hip hop kids with digital players and speaker sets.



Kid lighting candles, usually they use lamps.



Folk dances & gatherings.



Play.

Spent the night outside till all the action is over and got back to the guest house. And home cooked dinner was ready for us - Dal Bhatti and rice.
The day started & ended with great feel, what else one can ask for in a trip.​

DAY 5: Pokhara & back to Butwal

There were few places to visit in the list which we kept for the first half of day 5, we started with Devi's falls. It was a usual waterfall except that it flows underground in some places. we liked it, but felt the place was over hyped.



Devi's Falls.

Then some shopkeeper said there is a cave in opposite side of the road and this falls is visible from that cave through the road.
We rushed into the cave and it was slippery and dark, we went down few steps and were able to see the falls all through the way from opposite side of the road.



Mahendar Cave.
----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

Yup.. Last year.. Got busy in lot of stuff the whole year, so writing now.

Re: Diwali in Nepal

Superb mate, detail writing and good pics. The ban on crackers should be done in india aswell that will be a big step towards swachh bharat campaign..

Re: Diwali in Nepal

DAY 5 Continues..

Hmmmmm.. What did we miss???? how can one forget visiting the famous Phewa Lake? So we went there even if there was little time, did boating and clicked few pics of the Dhaulagiri range. Anyone would like to see this lake in winter, but it wasn't bad in November either. Just missing the snow!



Phewa Lake.


Baraki Island Temple.

After completing the bucket list, we checked out from the guest house and started the return journey to Butwal. It was post noon that we started, I was confident about my speed in twisties after lot of touring in mountains. What averagely takes 5 and half hours to descend from Pokhara to Butwal even for locals, took just 3 and half hours for us, we were properly flowing in corners but safe too. Only thing that slowed us was, kids holding hands and blocking roads for post diwali celebration.

Reached Butwal by 7: 30 pm, but the roads were with almost zero vehicles, shops closed and people dancing and running around on roads. Only bars were open, we struggled to find a hotel to stay for the night and found one after roaming a lot. We couldn't get food though, had to survive on snacks that we already packed. Parked the bike into a shopping complex and slept with insecure feeling about the bike in such situation.



Parking in the shopping complex. (Pic was taken the next day)

DAY 6: Butwal to Lumbini & Kanpur

We were about to finish our trip, initial plan had kathmandu in the itinerary but lack of time made us return. Nonetheless we had one more destination -Lumbini (Birth place of Lord Buddha). It was 25 km ride to Lumbini, we parked our vehicles outside and went in by walk. It was completely isolated feel to what you get from the outside. Calm, peaceful, green and it spanned hundreds of acres. We saw the birth rock of lord Buddha, saw some awesome quotes out of which one I'd like to mention here

"Jesus was not Christian, Prophet Muhammed was not Islam & Buddha was not Buddhist. They were all teachers of Love"

Now that's what one should follow religiously!



Entrance to Lumbini.



Some Photography tried! Ahemm..



Monastery.





Inside Lumbini..



Prayer ceremony of monks.



Ashoka Pillar.

We left after half a day and rushed to the border, submitted the documents and got the vehicles checked on Indian side, must say its a mixed feel of feeling home but leaving another wonderful place. We started having a dynamic target, either lucknow or Kanpur whichever before 10: 30 pm. We tried not to stop and cover more distance while day light still shines. But on-route we got stuck in heavy traffic due to some buffalo fair, about 200 - 300 trucks carrying buffaloes clogged the road, and full of slippery dung!



Somehow out of the jam, we reached kanpur around 10: 45 pm and searched for stay. We got a place near railway station, the place was not good. Food was too unhygienic, I somehow managed to eat a little and slept.

DAY 6.75: Kanpur to Bhiwadi

Morning I woke up with fever and soreness, and I had 500 kms to travel. I took some tablets and kept riding behind my friend's car. I didn't remember much how this day went, all I remember was riding without stops and lying on the bed at home in evening.

The trip was a whole new level of experience and it created a mindset in me to explore different places and cultures.

Re: Diwali in Nepal

Good going there and glad you made the trip on your bike instead of the cager. This petrol incident of over charging using the modus operandi of first filling Rs.100/- and then the rest is becoming rampant especially at BPCL pumps here in Pune. The two BPCL pumps notorious for this are the ones located at beginning of North Main road and the one opposite the Pune RTO next to Sangam bridge.

Re: Diwali in Nepal


This is outrageous. But we should not yield to them thinking "leave it, I don't want to take risk". Then this will become a habit.

Re: Diwali in Nepal

Well writeups nice triplog but where are CBRRRRR pictures??

Re: Diwali in Nepal


There are 2 pics in the logue mate.. We didn't take much pics this time..