Shives Travel and Tour

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about ‘nearly trekking in Kathmandu Valley’. We walked from Changunarayan to Talkot but didn’t quite make it to Nagarkot. I had heard the view from Nagarkot was wonderful and it was possible to see Everest so when my friends mentioned they were taking a trip up there I was happy to join them.

We planned to catch the public bus to Nagarkot, spend the night in a hotel and wake up early to see the sunrise. I was secretly more excited about the chance of getting a hotel with a nice hot shower then I was at waking up at 5am to see the sun. It has been about three months since I have had a hot shower which didn’t involve some kind of bucket and jug arrangement.

At Ratna Park we found out there was not a direct bus to Nagarkot. The bus from goes to Bhaktapur and then you need to change buses to get to Nagarkot. When we arrived in Bhaktapur we simply asked people in the street and they directed up to another bus park a few blocks away.

The bus from Bhaktapur to Nagarkot is more like a big van and we were told it leaves every 40 mins till about 5pm. It gets pretty packed and I wish we had decided to wait until the next bus. I travelled for an hour and a half sitting on top of a sack of rice, wedged in between one of my friends and an old man who kept trying to feel my legs. The bus cost 40 NR.

The road to Nagarkot has some wonderful views of the countryside and at this time of yeah it is still nice and green. The road is pretty narrow and feels more dangerous than the road between Kathmandu and Pokhara.

The bus just stopped at a roadside café (more like a tin shed with a woman selling tea) and the bus driver told everyone to get off. We had arrived in Nagarkot pretty late, it was already getting dark and there wasn’t a hotel to be seen. All the bus passengers seemed to be shuffling off up the road so we followed.

A five minute walk will lead you to the first of a number of hotels which are all pretty much the same. Hotel Himalayan Heart, a red brick building on the right side, was clean enough, warm enough, cheap enough and they had lemon sugar crepes on the menu. I was happy. A double room was 400NR. We were told they had hot showers.

Further up the road are a number of more plush hotels. Rooms range from 600NR-1200NR, depending how well you bargain. The cheapest offer we got was 300NR at Hotel Fish and Chips. The hotel had a lot of character but didn’t have hot showers so we decided to splurge the extra 100NR at Hotel Himalayan Heart.

In hindsight we should have spent the extra 200NR and got a hotel with actual hot water. The water at Hotel Himalayan Heart could have been considered hot if you had never had a HOT shower before. It was warm enough to stand under but in no way was it HOT. If you’re visiting in summer then you don’t need hot water and everything else about this place was fine.

Nagarkot was pretty relaxing. There is really nothing to do in town except wait for the light to come so the TV works. When we woke in the morning there was a thick blanket of cloud stretching across the valley and hiding all the mountains. I didn’t see a single mountain, NOT ONE!

I think Nagarkot would be a nice stop over if you happen to be trekking that way. There isn’t much to see, especially if the weather is bad.