Amaury Dreher

NEPAL TRip REPORT

Population : 30 millions

Capital : Kathmandu

Main languages : Nepali, Maithili

Visa : Easy

My favorite places : Pokhara & Lumbini

Nepal was a very trendy destination in the 70s associated with the Hippie movement but not only. Nowadays most of tourists are attracted by the breathtaking nature and notably the Himalaya range. Thus the country is a trekker paradise and needless to remind that Nepal is hosting Mount Everest which is the highest mountain in the world. Besides, many people chose to visit Nepal due its buddhist culture and to take part to some Vipassana meditation programs.

I travelled in Nepal in 2016 in the following of the earthquakes disaster. I was on a mission on behalf of a humanitarian organisation in order to bring some medicines from France bound for a foundation consisting of a buddhist monastery and a school. By the time I was 21 years old and it was my first solo travel outside of Europe so I was both nervous and excited.

To this date, this trip was probably the most intense I have ever had. I remember getting on a plane to a destination I knew nothing about. I spent the next few days living with the monks and children which turned out to be an unbelievable experience. In spite with my initial preconceptions it turned out that the Monks were not at all disconnected from the world. The older ones had smartphones with Internet access while the small ones were joyfully watching the football Euro 2016. Life in the monastery was simple but not so harsh. You get used to cold showers very quickly!

I spent two weeks exploring the country only with my small high-school backpack and headed through jungle, temples & astonishing cities. From the very first day to the last one, the change of scenery was absolutely stunning. Still nowadays I consider Nepal as one of my favorite travels ever (competing with Sudan, Iran and The Faroe Islands).

When planning your itinerary keep in mind that you will spend many hours in buses rides along beautiful and dangerous sceneries. I notably recall a crazy 19 hours journey between Pokhara and the Bardia Natural Park. Being monsoon season the rain was really strong and our vehicle was not waterproof (meaning the rain was falling across the interior and flooding everything). Needless to say that the bus was overcrowd. I was sitting along with two children and the three of us had only two sits space for the entire journey. We had to pause the ride a few times due to the heavy rain and landslides risks. At some point the driver even considered that we would stop in the middle of nowhere and spend the night in the bus waiting for the weather to get better. Fortunately we did not and were able to resume our journeys. The ride took us along very dangerous cliffs and we did cross scenic bridges. I finally arrived in Bardia completely exhausted and just one day to rest before starting a jungle trek.

Among Nepal’s wonders, I particularly recommend to visit Lumbini. This site is truly unique. It consists in a vast areas full of huge and diverse temples. They are not landmarks designed for tourists but authentic spiritual centers and monasteries where you can encounter monks practicing their faith. The various places are also opened to visitors who would like to get an initiation to Vipassana meditation. It is also possible to get hosted by the monks often for a small fee or just a donation. (Sometimes even for free)

While roaming around I felt particularly grateful that such place are still existing nowadays. There were no fast-food, no crowd, no tour groups, etc… but a vast area filled with (unmanaged) nature and temples. During my time there I was able to attend a meditation session with a buddhist monk and to chat with many of them. Be careful of the snakes though and try to remain on the walkable path !

A solo trip in Nepal is a wonderful adventure that I recommend to everyone. I hope in the future to come back to do drone photography and to attempt some beautiful hikes in the Himalaya mountains.

Unfortunately, by the time, I had no proper camera and therefore I had to shoot all my pictures with my old smartphone (so please excuse the low-resolution). Moreover, I lost the memory card associated with this phone and had a really hard time retrieving some of them from the Internet limbo. Nonetheless, I managed to recover few pictures of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lumbini & Pokhara.

Nepal is featured in my last novel : The Delicacy of Dreams.