i ambitiously wanted to go to tengboche, a village draped with a panoramic view of the himalayan mountains, including the peak of mount everest. there's this monastery which i thought would be a great experience. but to reach the village we need to hike for days from the nearest town. we weren't really prepared to hike. and also we didn't have that much days spared to travel. so the more reasonable place to visit to experience the himalaya was nagarkot, which is easy to reach from kathmandu.
initially i hesitated to put nagarkot on the itinerary cause it seemed like a place that looks good on the photos but isn't really that spectacular in person. i was wrong. when we arrived in the evening, even from the balcony of our budget hotel, the view was amazing. the only problem was that it was so cold. it's winter and we're on higher altitude, and there was no heating whatsoever in all rooms.
in the absence of heating, it was a real struggle to wake up at four in the morning. even the water heater was not turn on yet at such hour. i really didn't know how i did manage to get up. we went up to a place where we could see the sunrise. getting up there in total darkness was quite an adventure of its own. luckily some local sneaked out from the dark out of the blue offered us a ride, paid of course. and to witness the sun rose slowly among the snow caped himalayan mountain range was definitely a one of a kind experience.
i was initially worried about the long road to travel ascending down from the panoramic spot back to the village, as everybody else were going back with taxi and we chose to go on foot. but it turn out to be also a pleasant experience. walking down the road with the snow caped mountains as a view was definitely not something i get to experience on my daily life. we often stopped at spots just to enjoy the gorgeous sceneries. not to mention a dog who kept following us along. it probably is nothing, the experience of himalaya in nagarkot if we compare to the experience of hiking the proper himalayan trails, but for me for now it's more than enough.
