While on the flight back from Nepal, my mind began to wander. Traveling coach for an above average sized guy is uncomfortable, especially when one of the legs of the trip is 14 1/2 hours long. But yet, traveling over 10,000 miles in under 2 days, is nothing short of amazing. But why Nepal? If we were climbers/trekkers the answer would be obvious. But we are not.
My daughter works for a NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) and is currently stationed in Nepal. Nepal was not at the top of our bucket list, but since our daughter and her husband were there, we decided that we could not pass up this opportunity to visit.
Nepal – a short description
Mount Everest in the Himalayan mountain range, is by far, that for which Nepal is best known. Nepal is a small country of around 56,000 square miles, with a population under 30 million, and is located on the northeast corner of India and south of Tibet. The proximity to these countries is pertinent as the population is 81% Hindu and 9% Buddhist. Historically, Nepal was a kingdom and only recently (2007) became a democracy.
Nepal – planning
As with all our trips, once we have an inkling that we might take a trip, we begin the planning phase. One of our first blogs talked about planning. Click here to read our planning tips. Scheduling the time to go was our first step and it was dependent upon several factors: availability of our trip mates (another couple who are friends), availability of my daughter and husband (who we were visiting), and being able to get a dog sitter. The last part of March and first part of April looked the best and now we were able to zero in on the specific dates. We are retired, but Terry, one of our travel mates, is still employed, so we needed to work around his schedule. We all had valid passports and so this was not an issue.
Nepal – where and what
Now that we were committed to go, what do we do next? Booking the flights was determined to be the most important step. We needed to make sure that we could get flights during our scheduled time and for a reasonable price. We decided upon Qatar Airways. My daughter had recommended them and they met the criteria. In order to make sure that we were all on the same flight, we had one person book and pay for all the flights. We would fly out of St. Louis to Chicago, from Chicago to Doha, Qatar, and from Doha to Kathmandu, Nepal with long layovers at each stop.
We now needed a place to stay. After a lot of research, Naomi booked an AirBNB listing located in Thamel, a touristy section of Kathmandu. We had also decided to make a 3 day, 2 night trip to the Chitwan National Park. A former royal hunting ground, outfitters now offer safaris to view the animals. To get there, we booked flights with Buddha Airlines and made lodging and activity reservations at the Sapana Village Lodge.
Nepal – more planning
With the major parts all planned, we now looked at the various sites and places we wanted to visit while we were there. As with all of our trips, Naomi creates a spreadsheet that summarizes this information so with a glance we can easily look at our options. This helps us immensely. Usually we try and determine what we want to do and on which days, but we try and maintain flexibility as once we arrive circumstances may change. Naomi found a book online titled “Nepal” by David Ways, author of the blog “The Longest Way Home”. This book was tremendously helpful with our planning and helping us to understand the religious culture.
Nepal – ready to go
With the major planning out of the way, we felt we were about 90% ready to go. Last minute details account for the other 10%. Having the majority of planning completed alleviates most of the anxiety prior to a major trip.
Nepal – come follow us
We made the decision to wait to blog about our adventures until after we arrived back home for reasons of security and also of convenience. Stay tuned to our blog as we share about our trip. And as always, feel free to comment.