Himalayan peaks &
the Dragon Kingdom

Land early afternoon. Clear immigration, buy a SIM in the arrivals hall, take a prepaid taxi south to Patan.

• Patan Durbar Square and the Patan Museum — the best museum in Nepal, a small and beautifully curated collection of Newari bronzes in the old royal palace. Last entry around 17:00.
• Walk home past Pimbahal pond and the courtyard temples. Nothing more ambitious than that on day one.
• Indra Jatra runs 23–30 September in 2026. The main chariot day is the 25th, but the last nights still bring masked lakhey dancers and oil lamps to Kathmandu Durbar Square, twenty minutes north.
• Dinner: Newari, in Patan. Honacha behind the Durbar Square for the rough-and-real version; Café Swotha or Yala Mandala for a courtyard table.

One day is enough for the three that matter, if you run them in this order.

• 07:00 · Boudhanath. Walk the kora clockwise with Tibetan pilgrims while the butter lamps are still lit, then breakfast on a rooftop looking at the eyes on the stupa. The single best hour in Kathmandu.
• 10:00 · Swayambhunath. The Monkey Temple on its hill — 365 steps, or drive round to the back entrance. Best valley panorama in the city. Keep a hand on your sunglasses.
• 12:30 · Kathmandu Durbar Square and Thamel. Lunch, the Kumari Ghar, and a first pass through the gear shops.
• 17:15 · Pashupatinath. The Bagmati cremation ghats and the evening aarti around 18:00–19:00. Non-Hindus can't enter the main temple; the east-bank terraces are where you want to be anyway. Do not photograph the cremations.

The descent into Paro is the most theatrical landing in commercial aviation — a corkscrew between hillsides with the wingtips apparently in the pine trees.

• Welcome ceremony, then the 1.5 h drive to Thimphu.
• School of Arts and Crafts, where students learn the thirteen traditional Bhutanese crafts, with a chance to try one.
• A consultation at the School of Astrology, and a blessing ceremony. Bring your birth time if you know it.

• The takin preserve — Bhutan's national animal, which looks like a bee stung a gnu.
• Hike to Wangditse temple; prepare and offer butter lamps.
• Buddha Dordenma, 51 m of gilded bronze above the valley.
• Over the Dochula Pass (2.5 h), ringed by 108 chortens with the eastern Himalaya on the skyline. The view window is roughly 07:00–10:00 — worth leaving Thimphu early for.
• Leg-stretch at Lamperi botanical park on the way down.

• A morning of rural activities at a farm homestay.
• Hike to Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten (45 min up through rice terraces), then a picnic lunch by the river.
• Punakha Dzong, at the confluence of the Pho Chhu and Mo Chhu — go late afternoon when the whitewash turns gold. Wearing gho and kira for the visit is a compliment to your hosts, and makes for the photograph you'll actually keep.
• The 180 m suspension bridge, which bounces.

• Sangchen Dorji Lhuendrup nunnery, and time with the nuns.
• Drive to Phobjikha via the Nubding valley (2.5 h), then walk down through forest into the bowl.
• Evening prayers at Gangtey Shedra. Sitting in on the monks' chanting as the light goes is the kind of thing that stays with you.

• Early cycling on the valley floor if you fancy it — flat, empty and beautiful at 07:00.
• Gangtey Monastery, then the nature trail through pine forest and meadow.
• The Crane Information Centre. The cranes fly in from Tibet from late October, so early October is early — but scouts arrive, and the telescopes and the film are worth the stop regardless.

• Chimi Lhakhang at Sopsokha — the fertility temple of Drukpa Kunley, the 15th-century "Divine Madman". This is where the phalluses painted on house walls across the country start making sense. It is a genuine and cheerful folk tradition, not a joke at your expense.
• In Paro: Rinpung Dzong, the National Museum in the old watchtower, and the easy Zuri hike (1 h).
• A sand mandala try-out — the meditative business of placing each grain.

Up from Sangchokhor monastery through blue pine and rhododendron to a meadow at 3,800 m. Hoist a prayer flag at the sky-burial site. Camp under the stars.

• Carry a litre and a half and your shell — afternoon cloud builds fast on this ridge.
• Nights drop to around freezing. Thermals, hat and the down layer come out of the duffel tonight.
• The Milky Way from that meadow is absurd.

Descend the ridge to arrive at Paro Taktsang from over the top, ahead of everyone climbing up from the car park. This is the best way to do Tiger's Nest, and the reason the Bumdra trek is worth its two days.

• No bags, phones or cameras inside the monastery — lockers at the cafeteria. Shoot everything on the approach.
• Afterwards: a traditional hot stone bath, ideally the outdoor kind by a stream rather than the hotel version. It is the last hot water before a week of teahouses.
• Paro town for a stroll, and the Namgay artisanal brewery if you're interested.

• Land at 08:10. Nepali tourist visas are multiple-entry, so you re-enter on the one you already hold — no new fee. Draw the trek cash at the airport machines now; there is no better chance before the trailhead.
• ~09:30 · On the road. The driver meets you at arrivals. Out of the valley over the rim at Naubise, then down the Prithvi Highway along the Trishuli river — rafting camps, suspension bridges, lorries — to Mugling and on to Dumre. About four hours.
• ~13:30 · Bandipur, two hours. Up a winding side road to a ridge saddle at about 1,030 m. Lunch, the bazaar, and the viewpoint (below).
• ~15:30 · On to Pokhara, about two and a half hours, then the switchbacks up to Sarangkot. Expect to arrive around dark. Dinner, bags sorted into "trek" and "stays here", bed early.

• Morning · Drive to Kande (1,770 m), 30 minutes west along the ridge from Sarangkot, with Ram. The main bags stay at the Sarangkot hotel. ACAP checkpoint at the trailhead.
• Stone steps up to Australian Camp (2,060 m) — teahouse terrace and, on a clear day, the first full panorama. Worth the tea stop either way.
• On along the ridge to Pitam Deurali (~2,100 m), a cluster of teahouses where the Mardi Himal trail leaves the Annapurna Base Camp route. First night on the mountain.

• From Pitam Deurali the trail turns north into oak and rhododendron forest: a long, steady climb under the canopy, over roots and stone steps.
• Forest Camp (2,520 m): six to eight teahouses in a clearing, no views, all atmosphere — a good place to stop for lunch.
• On through mossy ridge forest to Rest Camp (~2,600 m), a handful of small teahouses. The canopy starts to thin and the rhododendrons get gnarled and wind-bent.

• Up through the last of the forest to Low Camp (2,970 m) — on a clear day the place where Machhapuchhre fills the entire northern sky, unreasonably close, with Annapurna South and Hiunchuli to the left.
• After Low Camp the forest gives out and you step onto a narrow open crest, dwarf rhododendron underfoot, past Badal Danda (3,210 m) — "cloud hill", and today it lives up to the name.
• On along the crest to High Camp, the last permanent teahouse on the route. Basic rooms, a dining hut with a stove, one of the great teahouse views in Nepal when the cloud lifts.
• Agree the start time over dinner, order breakfast in advance, lay out your layers where you can find them at three in the morning.

• 03:30 · Head torches on. Steeply at first, then along the bare spine in the dark.
• View Point (~3,900 m) and then Upper View Point (4,200 m) as the light comes up. Machhapuchhre's twin fishtail summit is about 2 km away and 2.5 km above you, close enough to see the flutings in the ice.
• On over easy but airy ground to Mardi Himal Base Camp, ~4,500 m — the highest point of the whole trip.
• Back down to High Camp for breakfast, then all the way down past Badal Danda, Low Camp and Rest Camp to Forest Camp (2,520 m) for the night — some 2,000 m of descent in a single day.

• From Forest Camp a different route down from the way up, to Kalimati — there around 09:00, in time for a drink.
• On down to Lumre for lunch. Hard on the knees — poles earn their place today too.
• Private jeep from Lumre, dropping Ram at home on the way, and straight up to Sarangkot, where the bags are waiting.
• Sunset over Phewa Lake from the hotel terrace, a long shower, and the first real bed in four nights.

• 05:45 · Sunrise from Sarangkot — this time with nothing to rush off to. The Annapurnas left to right, and the mountain you were standing under two days ago.
• Paragliding from Sarangkot — one of the top three sites on earth, and you're already at the take-off. Thirty minutes tandem runs about US$90–100, an hour US$110–150, and you land on the shore of Phewa Lake. Only with an NCAA-licensed operator and a CIVL-certified pilot; book a day ahead.
• The bags go down by taxi to Lakeside. Afternoon: shower again, laundry in, a cold Everest beer with the boats in front of you.

Recovery, and slack in case the paragliding was weathered off. Pick two of these and leave the rest.

• Row across Phewa Lake to Tal Barahi temple on its island, then up to the World Peace Pagoda (45 min on foot); come down by taxi.
• An hour of massage in Lakeside. Your calves will otherwise file a formal complaint.
• The International Mountain Museum — much better than it sounds the day after a trek.
• Begnas Lake, 30 minutes east: everything Phewa was twenty years ago.

• Early start. Taxi from Lakeside to the Tourist Bus Park; the tourist buses leave from there around seven.
• The road drops down the river valleys via Mugling and then rolls out of the hills onto the flat Terai: from 820 m to barely 150 m, and from cool mornings to rice paddies, banana trees and sticky heat.
• Sauraha is the village at the edge of Chitwan National Park, on the bank of the Rapti. Most lodges pick you up at the bus stop.
• Sunset on the Rapti — the whole riverbank turns out for it, and with luck there is already a rhino grazing on the far side.

Nepal's first national park (1973) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984: subtropical lowland at barely 150 m, home to the greater one-horned rhinoceros, Bengal tigers (rarely seen), gharial crocodiles in the rivers, sloth bears, deer and hundreds of bird species. Pick from these, or combine two in a day:

• A canoe trip on the Rapti or the Budhi Rapti, early in the morning — drifting quietly along the bank, with gharials and mugger crocodiles on the sandbanks and kingfishers in the branches.
• A jungle walk, always with licensed guides. More thrilling than a jeep precisely because you are on foot: reading tracks, listening, and knowing what to do when a rhino turns up.
• A jeep safari deeper into the park, to the grasslands and waterholes — the best chance of rhinos, and just possibly a tiger.
• A Tharu village: the Tharu are the indigenous people of the Terai, with painted mud houses and a cuisine of their own. In the evening there is often a stick dance.

• Take the early bus. It is Dashain week: buses are full and traffic on the road into the valley is heavy. Book your seats in advance through the lodge and count on seven hours rather than five.
• If time allows: Bhaktapur, 30–45 minutes by taxi from central Kathmandu. The medieval Newar city: Durbar Square and the Golden Gate, the five-tiered Nyatapola temple on Taumadhi Square, Pottery Square with the pots drying in rows.
• Eat the juju dhau, Bhaktapur's "king of yoghurts", in its clay bowl. Genuinely one of the best things in Nepal.
• Dashain is everywhere: giant bamboo swings at crossroads, kites over the rooftops, markets heaving, families in new clothes.

• Today is Phulpati, the seventh day of Dashain, with processions in central Kathmandu — traffic is unpredictable, so add half an hour.
• Tribhuvan departures are slow: multiple security screenings, manual checks, no jet bridge.
• Spend your last rupees airside. You cannot change them outside Nepal, and the exchange desks want the original ATM receipts.