Nagarkot

This weekend, Jean-Michel, Nabin, his wife Rita, and I went to Nagarkot for one night. Nagarkot is located approximately 28 km away from Kathmandu and its the Nepali weekend get away destination. There is not much there but people go for the scenery.

You can see the Himalayan mountain range up close (on a non cloudy day).

 

Getting to Nagarkot is a challenge. Nabin wanted to give us the authentic (and very inexpensive way) to get to Ngarakot by local bus so we were up for it. The local buses are known for their horrible driving and this weekend once again proved their inability to properly drive with minimal safety precautions. It took us 4 buses to get the Nagarkot but we were only part of one accident(fewf). I am actually surprised I have not seen more accidents in the one month that I have been here. Somehow, the people are able to get from point A to point B alive. I guess it is all relative to where you live because in Canada, we are very strict about road rules. If you were to follow any road rules here in Kathmandu you would probably be a big danger to other drivers because you would be the only following any type of rules.

We were going down the one highway in Kathmandu known as Ring road and our bus suddenly swerved into the oncoming traffic lane..I think he was attempting to pass a car that was in front of us by going into oncoming traffic. I guess a motorcycle was in the lane for the on coming traffic and we swerved so far to the right and into the other lane that the motorcycle actually got hit on the left side of the bus. We had completely gone across to the opposite side of the road.

We ran over the bike which made for a bumpy ride and we eventually stopped. The minute we stopped, people surrounded the bus. The driver got off the bus and a witness to the scene started attacking him!  I have never seen Nepali people get physical...they are very non confrontational to the point where they find it very difficult to say no to someone or state something that would develop into an argument. So I was very surprised to see people trying to attack the bus driver. Nabin went around the back of the bus to see the condition of the motorcyclist and he ran back to us and made us quickly follow him away from the scene...apparently it was pretty gruesome but the guy is expected to live because he was fortunate enough that he did not get "sucked under" the bus as Nabin explains is what usually happens when a bus hits a motorcycle. We saw a couple ambulances on the way though so I felt a bit better.

After the accident, we were once again on our way. The rest of the trip was very fun because we got to got seats on another bus and so many people were headed up to Nagarkot that people ended up riding on the roof of the bus (about 12 people were on the roof). The roof would not be my choice because the winding hill up to Nagarkot is very steep and is pretty much a single lane. It is very difficult to pass cars on this road and if a bus is to go off road, the bus ends up rolling down the side.

Nagarkots one main road

View from hotel on part of Nagarkot village

we arrived in Nagarkot around 3 and took a rest. We eventually went for a walk to see the sunset which was beautiful. It was a shame that it was a bit cloudy but I was still able to get a few good photos. We enjoyed dinner at our hotel afterwards and went to bed early so we could wake up to see the sunrise. 



The view from our hotel balcony. You are supposed to be able to see white capped mountains to the left but the clouds were covering it. We briefly saw them in the morning which was nice!



We woke up around 4:45 and the sun was slowly coming up behind clouds and made a brief appearance. By 6 am though the clouds had started climbing up the mountains and even surrounded our hotel completely. Our hotel was probably one of the best picked hotels in Nagarkot. The hotel was situated on the side of a steep hill and every room has a mountain view from the balcony. It is also in the middle of no where so there are no barking dogs, no honking horns, no funky smells from the piles of garbage and no roosters in the morning. In fact, where Nagrakot is situated, it reminded me a lot of Banff. The trees in Nagarkot and in that part of Nepal are pine trees . The air so fresh and it is really relaxing there because there are very few people there. And! Don't worry, they do sell goat heads in case you were wondering.



mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yummy!



On our way back to Nagarkot we hiked for about 2-3 hours to reach the oldest Hindu Temple in Nepal. it is known as Changu Narayan, and is the most ancient pilgrimage site of Kathmandu Valley. It is also a world Heritage site. The history of the site dates back to 3rd Century AD!!! It is a 2 storied temple made out of stone in what I consider the middle of no where. Where the temple is now, there is only a very small village with one street that stretches on for a few kilometres. But when the temple was first constructed, it was a village of 700 people.

Waiting for our bus :)

 The four entrances of the temple are guarded by life size pairs of animal like lions and elephants. The hike up to here was pretty fun because this area of Nepal does not get many foreigners so we got to see local people carrying on with their daily lives...there were a lot of Shepherd's with goats which were fun to watch and say hello to. Nepali people are extremely friendly so it is really enjoyable to talk with them. Check out how cute the babies are!