227. Muktinath Trip

My mother was constantly telling me to visit this place before I get older😊!  She had gone to this place some 3-4 years back with my uncle and wanted me also to visit this place.  So, I had put it in my bucket list as one of the places to visit.  Since I had already made a trip to Kashmir early this year, I thought of making this trip next year.

My school friend, Subbu, also wanted to accompany me, whenever I took this trip.  During the first and second week of April, he mentioned about this twice during our regular phone calls.  That made me want to get more details on this trip, regarding the logistics and time period involved.  I browsed in Google and looked at various options of going about on this trip, from Hyderabad.  I came across a site and liked what I saw regarding the cost, places that would be shown, the time period and the fact that all food would be included.  I called them and they sent me a quite a detailed itinerary for a 7-day, 6-night package.  The all-inclusive cost comprised of starting from Hyderabad and ending in Hyderabad.  

Across 2-3 days, with consultation with my friend and other relatives, we arrived at a 7-people party for the trip.  The travels person said he would arrange for 3 more from his side to make it a 10-people party.  But finally, when we did commence the trip, we were only a 7-people party and the travels guy arranged for just our party.

In the meantime, my jeejaji wanted to have a Mount Everest tour also to be included in the trip, of course at an extra cost on actuals😊!   I checked with the travels guy and he said it can be done and gave me a quote for it.  I again browsed through the internet and searched whether we can do the trip ourselves directly.  I had already made the Mount Everest tour in 2010 and still had the certificate of having done the trip😊.  I went to their website and checked for availability and cost.  I found the cost to be cheaper by 30%, if I booked it on my own.  So, I booked tickets for this too before leaving for the tour.  I told the travels guy that he would have to arrange for the vehicle for this tour and he agreed for it at an extra cost.

Since 5 people were coming from Chennai, we had to pay extra for the airfare from Chennai to Hyderabad for these 5 people.  My wife and myself joined them in Hyderabad airport and started our journey.  We visited Gorakhpur, Lumbini, Pokhara, Muktinath and Kathmandu before travelling to New Delhi and from there to Hyderabad and Chennai, respectively.

The agenda was to reach Gorakhpur by flight and proceed to Nepal via road to stay the night there, before visiting Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha.  I had earlier asked the travels guy to show us the Gorakhpur Mandir as Google Maps said that the temple was on the route to Nepal border.  So, we did visit the Gorakhpur Mandir and then proceeded to Nepal border.   Next day we visited Lumbini and had quite a good time there.   Went to Pokhara by evening and the next day, from Pokhara airport to Jomson by a small flight for the Muktinath darshan.  Our hotel was just a 2-minute walk from the airport😊.  We undertook a 45-minute bus ride and then a 15–20-minute walk to arrive at the entrance of the Muktinath temple.  After climbing some 300-odd steps, we finally reached the Muktinath temple.  Had a good darshan there and returned back to Jomson hotel by evening.  Next morning, we flew to Pokhara and toured the city till evening.  Next day, we left for Kathmandu and visited Manakaamna devi temple in between.  This temple is believed to be quite an auspicious temple for Hindus.  Since there was a 2-3 kms long line for the temple darshan, we decided to skip seeing the deity and proceeded to Kathmandu.  My friend’s jeejaji got lucky and was able to see the deity by requesting the police guards to let him.  Since he was in his late sixties, they allowed him to visit the deity, without standing in the line😊!

Next day was the Kathmandu tour.  We visited all the famous landmarks here and had a good time.  Next day, early morning, we did the Mount Everest tour from Kathmandu airport and then by the afternoon, we were again in the airport to depart to Delhi.

We had a very nice time during the tour with the entire Van at our disposal.  All the stays, except in Jomson, were 3-4 star hotels and the food too was very good.

You can enjoy the video that I made on the tour here https://youtu.be/JOy4FJdCsSM

In case anyone wants the detailed itinerary, do ping me and I will send you the same.

Cheers till next time😊!

Daffy Definition

Human Nature – That which makes us insult drivers when we are pedestrians and pedestrians when we are at the wheel😊!!