Places to Visit – Nepal

This is in continuation to my previous post and talks about my visit to Nepal.

Discretion: These posts are not from a traveler’s perspective and only cover the places I personally visited..

Here are the links to all the posts:

• Travelling to Nepal – A Quick Info around Basics
• Eating in Kathmandu
• Places to Visit – Nepal
• Nightlife, People and Music – Nepal

People visit this country from across the globe for a reason. Thanks to the exchange rate; travel, stay and food is not so expensive in Nepal. Add some scenic landscape to my last statement and you have got a winner!!

Here are some of the places I visited myself.

Parks and Recreation

If you are into recreation and games you can visit the following places.

Bowling Alley at Civil Mall

Civil Mall has a really good gaming arena with Bowling, Pool, Air Hockey and lot more games that are suitable for people from all ages

Astrek, Thamel

This place is kind of a sports hub. You have specific space allocated for wall climbing, then you also have escape room games and even good restro-bars to try out.

Tennis, Tukkucha Marg

There is a tennis academy available for tennis enthusiasts available at Tukkucha Marg

Now About the Good Places to Visit

Garden of Dreams

Now this is again near Thamel and is a place where you can go to spend your evening. Its basically part of the Kaiser Mahal, however there is a separate entry to it, where you can enter only for the sake of relishing the Garden of Dreams only.

It has got amphitheater, there are usually some handmade jewelery stalls and mask shops too and some joints to eat (specifically Kaiser Cafe which is attached to it is pretty good).

Swayambhunath – the monkey temple

Over 1500 years old, this Buddhist hill-top temple is characterized by the Stupa present at the top. Also the eyes at the base of the temple(base signifies the Earth realm as far as I remember), represent Lord Buddha’s eyes. I remember someone mention that it was recently renovated with real gold.

It took around a 25 minute ride from Thamel(worth 400 NPR one side). Place is good with many instagram sites for you instalovers!!

Its a bit crowded, but then hey! Its Asia… We are crowded everywhere.. Aren’t we?.

There is this 4 storey rooftop restaurant just near the Stupa where you can easily be lost for around 4 hours or so without realising it..

Do remember to carry some snacks and fruits for the monkeys there… You can feed them right out of your very own hands and still feel safe. Its magical!!

Chandragiri Hills

So you thought you saw a view of the complete city when you were at Swayambhunath?

Bhaleshwar Mahadev temple is at top of the Chandragiri Hills is 2500 meters above sea level.

The major highlights are:

• Chandragiri Cable Car System, which is more than 2km long.
• Amazing hilltop restaurant just opposite to the temple, from where you can see both the Annapurna and Himalayan range

• The View Tower (higher than the temple), from where you can actually see Mt Everest too.

Pashupatinath Temple

This is more of a spiritual place, and a place where you cannot enter if you are not a Hindu. My mother asked me to not leave Nepal without visiting this one.

It is located on the banks of Bagmati River. Infact, inside the temple, you can actually see people doing the last rites to their loved ones on one side and the mundans of the newborns on the other side of the river.. A complete circle of life as they say!

It is however not just for one god(of course Lord Shiva(Pashupatinath) is the highlight), but there are over 500 temples in the complete area itself. A place you can actually lose yourself to the spiritualism and faith…

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This was all about the scenic places now lets look into what we can shop..

What to shop and Where to Shop?

We all want to have souvenirs from places we visited and the complete city is filled with shops offering the same.

The items mostly bought around are:

1. Singing Bowls
2. Travel Guides
3. Mt Everest Momentos
4. Masks(which I felt were bit Goth, but they actually depict ancient Gods)
5. Clothes and bags from Yak wool and leather

All these items are sold at all the places I listed above too. You can find the same at Thamel Markets too.

However, if you plan on to buy general items like clothes and stores than there are a lot of shopping complexes built around the city. Famous ones are:

• City Center – There was an amazing Nepali movie(Kabaddi Kabaddi Kabaddi) being shown there when I visited, And yeah it is one of the very few places in Nepal where you can get a Bubble Tea.
• Bhat Bhateni Stores
• Civil Mall – there is mini so too inside the mall
• Oh and for all the Indian ethnic wear fans, there is a Manyavar and Mohey store at Durbar Marg near Hattisar

Places I missed but should be visited in Nepal at least once:

• Mustang
• Bhaktapur
• Pokhara
• Nagarkot
• Annapurna Conservation Area
• Mt Everest Basecamp
• Bhairahawa
• Butwal

Hope this post was helpful to you. In my next post I will talk about Life, People and Nightlife in Kathmandu. Oh yeah I also plan to include a Nepalese song in my voice just to add some torture! 😀