Entry · DAC → KTM
Nepal
Prayer flags at altitude
12 Oct — 26 Oct 202515 days5 places
Stupas in the Kathmandu valley, a lake mirror in Pokhara and sunrise over the Annapurna range from Poon Hill. Two weeks after the monsoon, when the air finally clears. Temples and dust in Kathmandu, then west to Pokhara and up into the foothills.
5 places across Kathmandu, Pokhara, Annapurna
Boudhanath Stupa
Walked the kora clockwise with everyone else at dusk. Butter lamps, pigeons, chanting.
Swayambhunath
365 steps, many monkeys, the best view of the valley's smog-gold sunset.
Phewa Lake
Rented a painted wooden boat. Machapuchare appeared upside down in the water at 7am.
Sarangkot
Paragliders launching below us while the whole Annapurna wall turned pink.
Poon Hill
Headtorches at 4:30am, frozen fingers, then Dhaulagiri catching the first light.
Clockwise at dusk
At Boudhanath you simply join the current: grandmothers with prayer wheels, monks on phones, a dog that seems to have done the kora every evening for years.
The mountain upside down
Phewa at 7am is glass. Machapuchare hangs in the water, and the boatman stops rowing without being asked.
The boatman stops rowing without being asked.
4:30am, Poon Hill
A line of headtorches up the hill, breath clouds, someone selling ginger tea from a thermos. Then the light hits Dhaulagiri and every conversation stops.