Cruising through Nepal with our (little) local guide

While visiting Nepal Lindsay and I only had a few days to experience amazing Kathmandu and the surrounding valley. We could have easily spent weeks there but unfortunately our time was short. Because of this we decided to have a local give us a tour of the surrounding valley. Normally we take great pride in being “independent travelers” but the owner of our guesthouse recommended this person so we figured it was a safe bet. Our guide showed up early in the morning in his little early 90s sedan and was ready to show us around. He was a very small man but was extremely nice. He spoke fairly good English and we learned that he had a little family and was doing his best to make a living (like most Nepalese). We hoped in his car and the first thing we did was head out of the city of Kathmandu into the surrounding valley. Although it was early summer it must have been the first “harvest” because all the local people were out in the fields cutting and harvesting grain. Once they would harvest the grain the women would beat it again stone slabs to separate the grain from the stock. In almost every village we passed we saw people doing this and it was fun to watch. As the morning grew on we continued to wind our way through the valley and foothills of Kathmandu. Eventually we came to a little village atop a hill. This was our first stop and we got out and followed our tour guide up the narrow alleyways of the village before finally coming to a beautiful temple. It was a small but fascinating compound with numerous small shrines surrounding one large pagoda temple. The outside of the central temple was decorated in the distinctly Nepalese style with numerous wood carvings of Karma Sutra (very common on ancient Nepalese temples). As we were wandering around and enjoying the temple the locals were starting a worship service which involved lighting small fires that surrounded the temple. It was very cool to be a bystander just watching the locals in their daily worship. After this neat village we hoped back into the car and made our way to the spectacular ancient city of Bhaktapur (which I have already written about). We then made our way back towards Kathmandu to visit a few other sights. As we made our way into the city our tour guide stopped at one particular place in the road and told us to look out the window. When we did we were blown away to see an incredible view of Kathmandu. You could see all the colorful and dense buildings of the city surrounding a huge white/gold dome temple that stood out amongst all the other buildings. You could also just barely see the green foothills surrounding the city through the summer haze that always settles over the city. It was such a unique and cool viewpoint of Kathmandu. We then went on to explore that white/gold temple which I will write about in a different post. After that we continued winding through the roads around Kathmandu and at one point our driver even hit some poor women with his rearview mirror. The lady was okay, but very shocked, and Lindsay and I couldn’t help but laugh because our driver was so put-out about the whole thing. Our last stop on the tour was a fascinating temple complex in Kathmandu called Pashupatinath. This area is like a mini version of Varanasi, India where faithful Hindus come to cremate their dead along the banks of the river. This was our first experience with this (we had not yet been to Varanasi) and both of us were in awe seeing all of the dead bodies being cremated. The surrounding complex was fascinating with numerous temples and lots of “holy men” walking about. Nepalese and Indian holy men are quite a sight as they usually have long hair/beards, colorful clothing, painted faces, etc. In fact, most people would probably say that they are terrifying to look at. :) After exploring the temple we made our way back to central Kathmandu for the evening. It was an amazing day and we were able to cram a lot of fascinating sights into one quick tour around the valley. Kathmandu and the surrounding valley is absolutely spectacular and seeing it with a local guide is an experience we will never forget.