Its my place: July 2013

Hi everyone.

So Pai and Chiang Mai trip posts are over, lets move on to my 26th birthday trip, Nepal.

Nepal was in my to-go list for few years, i was suppose to go to Nepal 2 years back, right after i back from New Zealand, however, for some reason, i flew to HangZhou at last.

Anyway, John and I finally made my dream come true in Nov/Dec 2012.

We decided to fly with Thai airways, return tix / pax is RM1200 (KUL - BKK - KTM), we consider this is good deal until Airasia announced their new destination to Kathmandu, with the promotion price of RM400 return. T.T

However, we did enjoyed the fly with Thai airways, despite shit happened during transiting in Bangkok, but that is another story.

We spend 2 weeks in Nepal, because i wanted to do mountain hiking in the world famous hiking destination, even though hiking is something that John not really like it.

But, this is my birthday trip, so who cares? Haha.

Nepal has a lot of hiking treks with different level of difficulty, if you have limited time, or you're just a beginner, there are heaps of easy 3d2n or even 2d1n treks available.

Of course, you're professional one, Mt. Everest, the world highest mountain is in Nepal.

As for us, i did a few mid-to-difficult treks back in New Zealand, such as Tongariro Alpine Crossing and etc, i've experience in mountain hiking but not really good in it.

John loves sea more than everything, he only has the experience of walking up or down the stairs.

So under our condition, i was planning to do an easy 3d2n trek in Pokhara.

But at last, we decided to take the Everest Base Camp trek (EBC trek), which is probably the highest level trail in the world, the trek to Everest's base camp.

Yes, we're crazy.

FYI, i'm a asthma patient, i was about to lose my life in Tongariro Alpine Crossing trail because of asthma.

The altitude of the starting point of EBC trek, Lukla is 2860 meters (9383 ft), the level that could caused mountain sickness almost immediately.

Anyway, due to limited time and John as a beginner, we decided to do only half trek, we made it to 5 days instead of 19 days.

I'm not going to the detail of my hiking trip yet. This post is all about preparation, plan and budget information sharing.

Alright, if you're planning to go Nepal....

HOW TO PLAN NEPAL TRIP?
My all time travel planning tips: You have know what do you want to do / see.
Nepal is 3rd world country, electricity and clean water is something luxury for a lot of people, and because of the country is developing, you can find heavenly scenery in this country, especially mountain.

What can you do in Nepal?
1. Hiking
As i have mention above, Nepal is a country which surrounding by world highest mountain, lots of choice of trek are available.
I've done a quick seach on the internet, here is some information on the treks choice.
If you couldn't decide or you need some advice, there are heaps of travel agency in Nepal, i will blog mine in the next post.

2. Extreme activity
All that you can think of can be found in Nepal, Skydive, paraglading, water rafting, the most-extreme one, of course is hike to the peak of Everest!

3. Culture and religious
This is what make me wanna go Nepal so much. Nepal is a multi-religious country, and all those religious and culture mix up to a culture rich country that present via their architecture, the way they live, the religious place and etc.
You can found Hindu, Buddism, Islam, Tibetan Buddishm, Christian and almost all the religious culture on this country.
Kathmandu also know as "thousand temple city", which you can spot temple everywhere and anywhere on the street of this city. Of course, you can meet Kumari, the living goddess of Nepal.

4. Relax and experience the life of Nepalese
You can just do nothing, but find a place where you can see the mountain everyday you wake up, enjoy your simple breakfast and take a walk near the lake.
While current cut off (which is happen everyday and several times), get a cup of tea and enjoy the breeze in the garden, talk to Nepalese or just do your reading.
Go and visit some temple or church, spend some time with the god followers, get inspirited and keep it with you forever, no matter where were you.

5. Shopping
Believe or not, Kathmandu is one of the best city to shop for me.
You can expect some cheap and really nice khasmir scaf, carpet, religious souvenir, hiking equipment, tea leaf, hippy style fashion and etc.
Most importantly, you can always bargain and get really nice beautiful thing with really cheap price. I spend RM10 for a pair of beautiful tiger shape padlock, John and I both born in tiger year.

Conculsion:
Except taking consider on what do you want to do and see, also calculate the time that you need, bare in mind, transportation from one city to another is tiring and take really long time, eg, 7 hours from Kathmandu to Pokhara by bus.

Do spare one or few days before or after trek for flight delay (which is happen very often due to weather), mountain sickness, rest and etc.

Temple / museum visit - Durbar Square (aka the Palace Square) that can be found in every city (because one palace in every city) is huge and lots of story, people who're really interested in goddess story usually spend more than one day in square.

As for us, we spent 2 weeks in Nepal and we feel never enough.

If you ask for my plan to refer, here you go.

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Nepal Trip:

Day 1 (27 Nov, Tues)

* Reach Kathmandu at 1030am (check in guesthouse and leave luggage)

* Walk around thamel area, meet Marvel travel for trip arrangement.

Day 2 (28 Nov, Wed)

* Kathmandu -> Lukla

* Trek to Phakding

Day 3 (29 Nov, Thurs)

* Phakding -> Namche Bazaar

Day 4 (30 Nov, Fri)

* Namche Bazaar (Trek to Panoroma Hotel for lunch and view of Everest)

Day 5 (1 Dec, Sat)

* Namche Bazaar -> Lukla

Day 6 (2 Dec, Sun)

* Lukla -> Kathmandu

* Free and easy

Day 7 (3 Dec, Mon)

* Pashupatinath Temple

Day 8 (4 Dec, Tues)

* Kathmandu -> Pokhara (early by 7am)

* free and easy

Day 9 (5 Dec, Wed)

* Pokhara

* fewa lake, world peace pagoda and devis waterfall

Day 10 (6 Dec, Thurs)

* Pokhara, paraglading / relax

Day 11 (7 Dec, Fri)

* Pokhara -> Kathmandu

* Durbar square

Day 12 (8 Dec, Sat)

* Monkey temple

Day 13 (9 Dec, Sun)

* Bhaktapur day trip

Day 14 (10 Dec, Mon)

* Kathmandu -> KL.

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Of course, this is very rough plan, in fact i didn't really follow the plan at last due to some accident (eg, very bad diarrhea or i think it is black magic in Kathmandu), also because of the budget.

And i will go into detail in the next post.

So if you concern about the budget. Here we go.

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Nepal Trip Budget Per Person:

Accomandation
Kathmandu (Asmita) 6 nights (10usd/day) = 60usd
Pokhara 3 nights (15uds/day) = 45usd
Total: 105usd

Transport
Round air tix from KUL to KTM return = RM 1200 (paid)
Taxi from airport to guesthouse return = 15usd
Round bus tix KTM to Pokhara return tix (10usd/way)= 20usd
Taxi KTM to Bhaktapur = 8usd (rs650 for 2)
Taxi Bhaktapur to Nagarkot = 10usd (rs750 for 2)
Bus Nagarkot to KTM = 6usd
Local transport = 61usd
Total: 120usd (exclude KUL to KTM return tix)

Meal
estimate 15usd per meal
(9d in nepal exlude treking) 21meals x 15usd = 315usd
Total: 315usd

5 days treking trip
Round air tix KTM to Lukla return tix = 280usd
Porter / guide / permit / Stay and meal (marvel travel): 295usd
Other: 50usd
Total: 625usd

Other
Entry ticket = 50usd
Total: 50usd

LamSum
Accomondation = 105usd
Transport = 120usd
Meal = 315usd
Trek = 625usd
Other = 50usd

Total = 1215usd = RM3888

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If you did follow my blog, you should know i usually mark up all the budget, in fact, for the 2 weeks trip, each of us only spent about RM2500 excluded KUL - KTM round tix.

And yes, the EBC trail costed you that much, because of the air tix price is crazy. If you wanna do the trail without taking plane to the starting point, you can either choose to walk 3 days uphill to the starting point.

But i tell you what, this trail is worthy to do it, and even i have to pay a thousand usd to do the trail, i will go for it.

Alright i've to go, next post will be EBC hiking post! Stay tuned for stunning photos!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
20130730, 1117am
Rach in goin to work mood.

Food, is the most important concern for John (ok, also for me) in a trip, we both love to try some really local food in some local place, just like raw octopus leg sashimi in Seoul Korea, the best salmon sashimi in New Zealand and etc.

Thailand is my another hometown, the famous tom yum and mango sticky rice no longer make us excited, as Chiang Mai is located in northern Thailand and we hope to dig out some really special place to give a try.

Then Chakree, my Thai friend told i shouldn't missed Sukonthan Buffet, which is the Moo Ga Ta aka hotpot + BBQ buffet in the town.

I replied that John and I both know about thai BBQ and hotpot (from BBQ Plaza outlet in Malaysia), we're not really into in.

Then he said, if i don't go, i will be very regret, because the restaurant place is huge that i've never seen, there are over 300 choices of foods and great atmosphere.

Most importantly, only 199bath per person exclude alcohol, cheap ain't?!

How to go Sukonthan Buffet?

Get a tuk tuk and show him the address: 46/1 Huay Kaew Road T.Chang Puek A. Muaeng Chiang Mai.

You cant find this restaurant in google map, if the driver doesn't read the address, show him below photo might can help.

If you think this restaurant is not as huge as i say, wait till you scroll down.

above photo is taken from the right, and this is left.

and this is another section.

Short clip that i took caused we reach there early

So now you think this restaurant is huge? I read from the other review that written in Mandarin said this restaurant can fit in 1000 people in one times.

Crazy, Thailand is darn hot, why people want to make them hotter by hot pot and BBQ?

Maybe because of the food?

Drinks section, if you don't like the color, there are another section of glass bottle soft drink, take all you want.

uploading all the raw meats to the bar.

Raw foods for BBQ or hotpot are not the only option here, but cooked foods, just like hotel buffet man!

You can get thai, chinese, western, japan and korea taste all in Sukonthan.

Asian ready to eat foods

some fried stuffs.

Don't think they only serve cheap food, you see the huge shrimp yet?

Ok what is you've a sweet tooth or you prefer healthy food?

Got get all the fruits that you like in the fruits section, or take one of each of the dessert they have to fill your stomach!

ice cold fruit, and my cam cant fit all the selection in one shoot

dessert, at least 30 kinds of them.

more cakes.

If you're waiting for the hotpot / BBQ photos, here we go.

The restaurant only use charcoal, and they will light it up in the back of the restaurant, by huge electronic fan because serve to customer.

lighting up the charcoal

put the pan on charcoal and now you're ready to cook your food!

freaking hot pot

and he loves it :D

yum!

If you;re seafood person, get as much as you like.

Well you might think the pot is too small for shell food eg shrimp and crab or shell fish.

The restaurant prepare big BBQ pit for those who cant wait to slow cook the food on the small pan.

Like below.