Cycling through the natural area surrounding the Kathmandu Valley is a good and affordable experience, starting and returning back Kathmandu itself. We cycle through rural areas, forests, crops, villages, farms and monumental world heritage villages with views of the Himalayan peaks from time to time. A very adaptable itinerary that can be either a trip in itself or part of a longer tour to Nepal.
To stand at the foot of Everest is naturally an attraction itself. Watching its mass rise into the sky from the valley floor at the mythical Rongbuk Monastery amidst awe-inspiring surroundings. But of course, there is much more on this trip. Travelling along part of the route that has linked Lhasa and Kathmandu for centuries of trade and cultural and economic exchange.
Kathmandu is the country’s capital and largest city. A somewhat chaotic city, but full of life. It is situated in a bowl surrounded by mountains at an altitude of about 1400m. It combines areas stuffed with buildings with others with single-family houses. Some large avenues always full of traffic and a network of streets and alleys that follow an uncertain pattern. Some tidier areas and others rather neglected. Outside the “Ring Road”, which is like a belt around Kathmandu and Patan, the city continues in a mix of low-rise houses mixed with orchards and fields that have yet to surrender to the onslaught of the city.
Chitwan National Park is in southern Nepal bordering India. Surrounded by a rural area of fields and farms, Chitwan National Park is a large extension of forest, savannah and rivers with a good concentration of wild animals, including Asian rhinos, different types of deer, birds of all kinds, crocodiles and gharials, leopards and a large population of tigers, although these two species are almost impossible to see.
Patan, along with Bhaktapur and Kathmandu, is also a former royal city. Although it is attached to the south of Kathmandu as if it were a suburb, it is an independent city and is quieter than the capital, with a different rhythm and atmosphere. Its Sanskrit name is Lalitpur, which means “city of beauty”. The old part is known as Patan Dhoka. The whole neighbourhood is full of shops selling religious art in bronze or other metals.
To the east of Kathmandu there is an interesting triangle formed by Dhulikhel, Namo Buddha and Panauti. Old villages, Holy temples, countryside life, farms and crops, one important Buddhist Monastery and good views over the Himalayas.
