This blog is about my recent trip to Nepal/Muktinath. It’s been pending for the last few weeks due to my sheer laziness to write. The recent incident of the missing flight in Nepal brought me back into this space. And, here it goes….
Ok, let me ask you a question first. What do you do when your mother expresses a wish to go on a pilgrimage trip, and wants you to accompany her? You would of course say yes, thinking that you are doing a great deed, right?
Well, that’s exactly what happened when Nepal beckoned me through my mother. Apart from the temples that we wanted to visit, I was quite excited about the country itself, as it is the nation of the towering Mount Everest, and beautiful landscapes. I did some research online and was chatting with some travel agencies in Nepal about booking a package through them. But, somehow, I didn’t know if they could be trusted. So, we did the tour booking through a known tour operator in Delhi.
Our planning was too good. My parents were to come from Chennai and my husband was to come from Bangalore. Their connecting flight was from Delhi. As I was already in Delhi for my office project, I was to take the same connecting flight to Kathmandu from there. We all met at the airport, and I got some samosas packed for parents from Bikanerwala, as they wanted to eat something from Delhi 😊
We happily landed in Tribhuvan International airport, Kathmandu in the evening (their time is 15 minutes ahead of us). After clearing the immigration, and collecting baggage, we checked into the hotel. It was bang opposite to the airport. We immediately set out for a walk. Though there was nothing much to see on that road, we got a feel of the place, and got the currency exchanged. It was so nice to get more value for the Indian currency. 😊
The next day morning was our flight to Pokhra, (a 25-minute flight from Kathmandu). The place is known for its natural beauty and adventure sports. Rain welcomed us when we landed, but we still managed to visit the Pokhra lake in the evening, which is beautiful, and quite similar to the Naini lake in Nainital.
The following day was our flight to Jomsom (only a 15-minute flight on a really small plane that could seat only 20 people). Got the feeling as if we were traveling by a cramped bus, and the flight actually went over various hills before touching down at Jomsom. (This was the same flight of Tara Airways that crashed recently). The flight journey was no less than an adventure.
We were to have our breakfast in Jomsom and head towards Muktinath by a bus. It was an hour’s journey from Jomsom, and the bus went via roads, and snow-capped mountains, which reminded me of my trip to Ladakh last year. From the bus stand at Muktinath, it was another hour’s trek to the main temple, with about 500 plus steps. My main challenge was to hold my Amma’s hand and make her climb all those steps. She completely refused the horse ride, and the steps were exhausting for her. But, as the saying goes, the tiredness evaporates when you see the deity. While we rested there, after the darshan, it was interesting to see people taking bath, and being filmed by their family members. Well, we kept our opinions to ourselves and started our trek back. 😀
Our return trek back was smoother in comparison. We stayed overnight in Jomsom, which was quite cold, had really small rooms, with no hot water, and we all had to share a room. But, we were quite happy that we had a good darshan for which we had come all the way. Never thought that God was busy making HIS own plans for our return.
We were a group of 65 people from our tour package, and we were all supposed to travel by 4 or 5 different flights back to Pokhra. And, as luck would have it, the weather the next day was so windy that the morning flights could not make it at all from Pokhra. We were told that we might have to travel by bus at around 10am. We got ready to do that too, as we really wanted to escape the cold and almost deserted Jomsom. Our bus was just about to leave when we saw a flight landing in the airport. The air became jubilant (I mean in the bus) and everyone wanted to get down from the bus and get onto the flight if they could.
The scene at the airport was like the Titanic ship. The airport was filled and overflowing. You could see people shouting and scrambling for boarding passes and seats in that small flight. Unfortunately, there were only 2 flights operating that day, and they were going back and forth from Pokhra to Jomsom. Somehow, we managed to get a boarding pass for my mother on a flight, and were told that we could board the next flight after it returned back from Pokhra, after leaving my mom and other passengers.
Guess what, the flight that my mom was to board, had issues and an engineer had to come all the way from Pokhra by the other flight to take a look at it. My mother was stuck outside in the tarmac for 2 hours. They were neither able to come inside the airport nor were they allowed to board the flight. The security people in the airport were so good that I was able to send across a packet of biscuits to her. The engineer finally flagged that the flight could depart, and we were happy to see my mom board the flight. Unfortunately, as soon as the flight left, we were told that it would be the last flight for the day, and all the remaining stranded passengers would have to make the bus journey from Jomsom to Pokhra. The time was already 2pm by then. On top of that, we were also worried for my mom’s safe journey back. Considering what happened to that same flight 2 weeks back, we were really lucky that she reached Pokhra safely.
Our bus journey from Jomsom started at 3:30pm. Though the Google maps showed only 150 kms and a 5.5 hours’ drive, the bus driver told us that it would take 8 hours. I was thinking that he was just making it up and wanted to probably scare us. But, when the bus started to move, we were in for a shock at the condition of the roads, or rather the lack of it. It made my trip to Ladakh and Pangong feel so much smoother. The bus went over River Gandaki (Yes, it actually did, over the stones that are considered to be saligramams and water, with no bridges). There were places where only 1 vehicle could pass and there were trucks coming from the opposite direction. There was a lot of maneuvering to be done. We just avoided seeing outside the window, as we could see the deep ravine and the river flowing and it gave us the shivers. As if that was not enough, the bus stopped in between, and the driver started to do some repair to the engine. Imagine our fear, with the thought that we would be out in some jungle/deserted roads, with no shelter and no vehicles for rescue. Somehow, the driver did some mechanical work on his own and was able to move the bus after 45 minutes. So, with the added tension of the treacherous route, we also had to worry about the condition of the bus, and the darkness outside, with no lights on the road. (The driver told us later that he never looked to his left or right as he gets the chills himself). I thought that I would actually attain Mukti that day. While people in the bus started to flare up at all and sundry, and mostly on the tour organizer, who did not even travel with us, we were just trying to count the hours that were left for our journey. There was also a forest fire blazing above us on the mountains, and we didn’t know where else to look.
We managed to reach Pokhra by midnight and were so exhausted that didn’t want to travel anywhere else. Unfortunately, we had to again take an early morning flight from Pokhra to Kathmandu the next day.
The trip back to Kathmandu was uneventful, and we managed to visit the world famous Pashupathinath temple in the evening. All our tiredness and most of our anger dissipated with the fantastic darshan at the temple.
We had to return back from Kathmandu the next day. Though we covered the 2 main temples there, somehow, the trip was more about visiting airports and catching flights than anything else. We took about 8 flights in 5 days, and that was quite exhausting.
I wish I am able to travel again to Nepal, but more leisurely and without any package deals. Also, to be able to enjoy the place at my own pace.
Feel really bad about the people who died during the plane crash from Pokhra to Jomsom recently. May their souls rest in peace. My prayers to their families.
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