Yoga & Culture Tour February 2014

For the second year in a row, I have joined the Adventure Travel Company in Edmonton to guide and lead a group to Nepal for 2 weeks of daily yoga practice and walks in the local villages and cities. This year we had a wonderful group spending 12 nights in 4 amazing locations!

The first 3 nights were spent at the Vajra Hotel in Kathmandu. This is known to many Europeans as a favorite place to stay as it is away from the throngs in a quiet neighborhood within a short walking distance of the Monkey Temple (Swayambunath), the National Museum and the Military Barracks. We did our yoga early each morning in the Theatre Room in the upper part of the hotel. After breakfast we went walking to the local markets, temples and interesting quarters of Kathmandu.




















We took a short excursion to the town of Bhaktapur, one of the old Kingdoms of the valley, which is known for thanka paintings, pottery, hand-made paper products and being a walled city, it still has the old charm of the past.

We then took a 6 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara on busy, narrow roads through the Nepal countryside. We saw banana trees, jungle, terraced farms and loads of cows, buses, cars, taxis and numerous small villages perched on the side of the road.

Here the Buddhist monks were making Losar bread for the Tibetan New Year celebrations at the refugee camp just outside Pokhara.

We spent 4 nights in Pokhara at the Gurkha Haven Hotel in damside Pokhara. Morning yoga practice was held in the top of the hotel in view of Annapurna South, Dhaulagiri, and Macchapucchre in the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. Stunning views greeted us every morning. We even got up at 5am and headed up to a local mountain (Sarankot) to watch the sunrise on the Annapurna's! Amazing experience.

The local culture was evident in the local Pokhara market, Tibetan refugee camp and walks along the lake Phewa. The food in Pokhara was great, especially at the Moondance Restaurant. Cold beer, tasty Indian and Nepali curries, naan bread, etc. topped off with a big slice of Lemon Meringue pie and local organic coffee! We also made a short trek to the International Mountaineering museum where they have a number of displays of climbing the 14 highest peaks in the world of which 8 reside in Nepal!

Then we took a short bus trip to Begnas Lake for a boat ride across the lake to the Begnas Lake Resort, where we stayed for 3 nights at this 4 star hotel in a rural area. Beautiful sunrises on the lake and morning yoga practice in the garden were amazing. We had many warm days of +20C although a bit hazy at this time of year. However, after winter in Edmonton it was heaven to walk in a t-shirt and shorts every day with the sun on your skin! Nights were still cool dropping to around +6-8C at night.

We walked to the Hindu temple on the ridge, an organic coffee plantation for delicious, fresh coffee and to a local school where we met the students, viewed their new library and saw the new community room in its finishing stages. An Ayervedic doctor is available for consultation every day at the resort and most of us booked a healing massage!

We packed up and took the boat back to the road and bused to the Pokhara airport for a 30 minute flight back to Kathmandu where we checked into the Hotel Tibet in the Lazimpat area. We had a delicious buffet dinner at the Radisson the first night back in Kathmandu.






Holy men at the Hindu temples in Pashupatinath...

The next day was spent visiting the Hindu temples at Pashupatinath, which fortunately was in full festival mode celebrating Shiva's birth. We then spent an afternoon in the Tibetan quarter of Boudhanath where the largest stupa in the world is located surrounded by 32 temples. That evening we went to UTSAV for a Nepali cultural dinner and entertainment show! This concluded our last night in Nepal. After a good night's sleep and final shopping in the markets, we had dinner at Fire and Ice for the best pizza in town before delivering everyone to the Tribhuvan international airport for the flight to Hong Kong, Vancouver and home!

 The beautiful Boudhanath Stupa above...