A tour around Pokhara, Tansen, Lumbini and Chitwan
15 Aug 2019 Himalaya Trip
22nd July: Day 01: Drive from Kathmandu to Pokhara 200 km
On this day, I get up early in the morning. Our bus leaves from new road gate. So, I walked to Shorkhutte to catch a public bus to New Road gate. I reached new road gate around 6:45am. I joint with other friends there. When the time is 7:00am, we all get together and start our journey to Pokhara by tourist coach. The breakfast serves on the bus. We took breakfast on the bus. After 3 and half hours drive, we stop for lunch at Malekhu. I felt very hungry. So, I enjoyed the Nepali Thali there. After lunch, we continue drive to Pokhara. I think, we reach Pokhara around 3pm. We straight go to Sightseeing place. The tourist coach drop up at Kalimati or bottom of the World Peace Stupa. We walk up to World Peace Stupa. It is so humid day. I think, it takes us around 1 hour to reach World Peace Pagoda. Our guide gives us some briefing about the World Peace Stupa. We look around the Stupa and took some photos. We walk different trail back Chhore Patan. At first, we explore Tibetan Refugee camp after that we go to Gupteswor Cave. We worshiped the temple inside the cave than back. It is first Monday of Shrawan month (Nepali Month). It was free of cost to go to Cave. The people get together to celebrate the first Monday of Shrawan month. They were singing and dancing there. After that, we visit to David’s Fall or Patale Chhanga. We saw beautiful water fall there. It was the last site of the tour. We went to Hotel and check in. We have our dinner around 8:30pm. We straight go to bed.
- World Peace Stupa
- Tibetan Refugee Camp
- Gupteswor Cave
- David’s Fall
23rd July: Day 02: Sightseeing in Pokhara
This morning, we have breakfast around 6:30am. We start our tour around 7:30am. At first, we went to Bindabasini Temple. This is one of the oldest temples in Pokhara. We look around the temple and take some photos and worshiped then went to Mahendra Cave. It is nice Cave. There is priest inside the temple. He put on tika and blesses us. We exist from different way. Our guide told us, if we take different way, we will go to heaven after we died. After that, we went to butter fly museum or it is also called Annapurna museum. It was a nice museum for animal and butterfly. At last, we went to International mountain museum. We watch document around 8 minutes. After that we mountain people culture, mountain people and Himalayan gallery. We have short brief about Pokhara handicraft then went to hotel for lunch. After lunch, we had a free time. I took a scooter drive around lake side with a friend. We have dinner around 8.00pm. We had a cultural dance at the Hotel. We enjoy dancing with the cultural group. We really enjoyed it. After that, we went to bed.
- Bindabasini Temple
- Mahendra Cave
- Butter Fly Museum
- International Mountain museum
24th July: Day 03: Drive to Tansen 125km
After the breakfast, we started our next journey to Tansen. The day was cloudy and road was narrow. We continued slowly. We have first stopped at Balu Danda or Bear Hill. It is nice spot. We took some photos. After that we continue drive to Ramdi Pul. We stopped here to take some photos. This is very popular brigde. There is many songs about Ramdi pul. We continue drive to Tansen. The Tansen is district head quarter of Palpa district.
The bus dropped off at the bus station. We had to walk around 10 minutes to the Hotel. We checked in at the Hotel and get ready for Lunch. Our guide gave us short brief about the Tansen. We visited Tudikhel, Ammar Narayan Temple, Palpa Durbar Palace and Palpa’s Popular Karuwa and Dhaka factories. We could not manage time to go Shreenagar Hill. After this short tour, some of the team members decided to go to Rani Mahal. It is about 13km away from Tansen. The Rani Mahal is closed to Kaligandaki River. Rani Mahal was built by Khadga Shamser Rana (1952-56 A.D.). This is the only place where the river went from south to north side here. It was nice Hahal. After that, we came back to Tansen. We were busy to buy gift to our family like Dhaka Topi, Pachheura, Purse, one Dhaka’s full set for my son etc. We also tried Hasko Chhoila at Doko Restaurant. I heard, it is very popular in Tansen. I enjoyed with Hasko Chhoila. At last, we had dinner and went to bed.
- Durbar square 2006 Maoist attack and destroyed the palace.
- Mulgate ( Tallest gate in Nepal)
- Sital Parti
- Bhagawat Temple
- Taksar
- Tundikhel
- Karuwa Factories
- Dhaka Factories
- Rani Mahal
- Shreenagar Hill
25th July: Day 04: Tansen to Bhairahawa 63km and Bhairahawa to Lumbini 25km
After the breakfast, we walk back to bus stop. We drive to Bhairahawa. On the way, we stop at Siddha Baba Temple. We have a short break here. We then continue drive to Bhairahawa. We check in at the Hotel and took rest before Lunch. After lunch, we drive to Lumbini. We drop off at the bus stop. At first, we visited Peace Stupa build by Japan. Our Lumbini assistance guide meets us there. After that, our tour continues with him. We visited Singapore, Germany, Nepal and China monastery at first. This is all about Mahayana Monastery. After that, we went to Theravada or Hinayana Monasteries like Thai, Combodia and Myanmar etc. After all, we enter Buddha’s Birth place. Our main guide came here. He gave us brief information about Buddha’s and monument of Lumbini. After that, we drive back to Hotel in Bhairahawa, had dinner and went to bed.
- The Maya Devi Temple
- The Asoka Pillar
- The Nativity Sculpture
- The Marker Stone
- The Sacred Pond
- The Stupas
- The Monasteries
26th July: Day 05: Drive to Chitwan via Ramgram 135km
After the breakfast, our journey starts at 7:30am. First, we drive to Ramgram. Ramgram Stupa had one relic of Lord Buddha between 8 relics. It is very special place for Buddhist pilgrims. We look around, took some photos then back to bus. After that, we have another break at CG temple. It is newly build temple with so many information Buddhist and Hindu religion places. We continue drive to Sauraha in Chitwan. We have short briefing about the activities by guide from the Hotel. We check in at the Hotel, got refresh and had our lunch. We had everyday Nepali thali two times from starting to Bhairahawa. I feel more comfortable to have different food for lunch in Chitwan. We have some leisure time after the lunch. Some friends enjoy with swimming. Around 4:30pm, you all meet for nature walk. When we walk closed to River River, we saw a one horn Rhino on the river. We feel so pleased to see it. Then, we went to Rapti river side for Sunset. It was nice sunset place, back to Hotel. We had nice dinner, went to bed.
- Nature walk
- Sunset at Rapti River
27th July: Day 06: Full day activities in Chitwan
We had morning wakeup call from the Reception. We have breakfast at the Hotel. At first, we went to canoeing. We saw Garial crocodile, Maghar Crocodile from the boat, many birds like Kingfisher, I do not remember the other birds name. After that, we went to jungle walk. It is so quite. But we did not see wild animals. Then back to Elephant breathing center for a while. We studied little bit about elephant life. We then went to Tharu village, interesting to see their life style. We then came to elephant bathing center. It was very interesting. I like to see it but I never ride on the elephant back. After all, we back to Hotel. The lunch was ready. We had another nice lunch. I enjoy eating fresh Mango after the main course. We had free time after that. Our group divided for Elephant ride and Jeep safari. I choose Jeep safari. We saw many Sambar deer, spotted deer, Pea cock etc. We did not see one horn Rhino today. We are not lucky to see one horn Rhino. The other team who took elephant safari, they saw many one horn rhinos. After Jeep safari, we got back to Hotel. We had a dinner then went to see Tharu cultural dance. It was very nice dance. We enjoyed one hour there. After that, back to Hotel and sleep.
- Canoeing
- Jungle Walk
- Elephant Breathing
- Tharu Village walk
- Elephant bathing
- Jeep Safari/ Elephant ride
- Tharu Culture dance
28th July: Day 07: Drive back to Kathmandu 153km
It is last day of the tour. We had breakfast at 7:00am in the morning. We started our journey around 8:00am. We stop for the lunch at the same restaurant in Malekhu after the 3 hours drive. On the bus, we enjoy dancing and singing. After that, drive back to Kathmandu. Tourist coach dropped off at the new road gate. Everybody went their own home.
In overall, we had very good time on this 7 days Pokhara Tansen Lumbini Chitwan tour. Everybody looks happy with this tour. I am personally very happy.