March 4, 2012 - Dhulikhel

After our amazing mountain flight, Mike and I hopped in a cab to get away from the city and out in to the countryside. Because I had already been to Nagarkot with my parents, we decided to head to Dhulikhel, which is about 10-15 kilometers south of Nagarkot. It is supposed to have the same amazing mountain views, but set in a different location.

We hadn't made any plans ahead of time, in case something went wrong with our mountain flight. Therefore, when our cab driver asked us where we should be dropped off, we had no idea what to tell him. I consulted with my trusty Lonely Planet and found a few "budget options" for guesthouses that sounded pretty nice. I was also looking for a reference point in Dhulikhel where our driver could drop us off and we could orient ourselves. I suggested the Shiva temple. He had no idea where that was. So I suggested the Ganesh temple. Still no luck, despite consulting with a few locals on the side of the road. He suggested the Kali temple, so we went with it. He ended up dropping us off at the bottom of an immense number of stairs and pointing upwards. Great. We thanked him for his service and started our adventure.

There was one guesthouse in particular, Panorama View Lodge, that Lonely Planet stated had great views for a bargain price.

We couldn't turn that down. Only caveat was that it was near the Kali temple, which is approximately a two kilometer hike up an ungodly number of stairs to get there. We decided it was worth it and set out to find our destination.

On the way up to the temple, we found this enormous Buddha statue known as Shanti Bam. We stopped to take a look, see the view of the city from above, and take a few pictures.

Then it was more stairs. And more stairs. When we finally reached the Kali Temple, we realized that we had gone too far.

I guess we were supposed to follow the road, not the stairs. But eventually we found our destination.

Dhulikhel didn't exactly turn out as expected. We had hoped for a quiet, peaceful day of relaxing and taking in the mountain views. Sadly, the mountains were almost entirely obscured by haze. And instead of peace and quiet, we were bombarded by Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Blackeyed Peas, and other loud, obnoxious songs all day. Apparently, every Saturday is a holiday in Dhulikhel, and this means DJs play as loudly as they can from both down in the city and up near the Kali Temple for all to enjoy. This continued until sunset. Not quite as relaxing as I had anticipated...

Nonetheless, Mike and I had a good time reading, playing cards, and exploring the small city (which meant going down, and coming back up, all of those stairs). The guesthouse was very nice, as were the couple other guests we met. And we got to enjoy an Everest beer after our Everest flight. Nice.