The one daytrip I really wanted to make from Sofia was to Rila Monastery. It’s one of the, if not the, Bulgarian site most touted when I was doing my pre-trip research. (Rila Monastery even made an appearance in an audiobook I enjoyed, Street Without a Name, by a Bulgarian woman who left Sofia as a teenager shortly after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and returned years later to her much-changed country.)
Lots of tour companies offer day visits to the monastery from Sofia, many of them combining the monastery with a stop at Boyana Church, another UNESCO site. I settled on Traventuria, a company that operates mid-sized motor coaches from near the Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral to Rila Monastery and Boyana Church.
In less than an hour, we arrived at Boyana Church which didn’t open its doors for 15 minutes after our arrival. We stood outside the gates in the chilly morning as our guide explained a little about a war memorial in front of the church. Once inside, David and I opted to just take in the gardens and the exterior of the small medieval church. While the church is known for its frescoes and we admired the photos we saw of them, we didn’t feel particularly moved to pay the entry fee and be herded through in a group. I like to think of it as one of the luxuries of having traveled and seen so much; I don’t feel much pressure regarding the touted “must-sees” and “must-dos,” especially of the variety on offer at Boyana. (“Some of the best preserved frescoes in the Balkans” just didn’t pull that hard on my curiosity.) On the other hand, I guess there’s a little sadness, or at least inevitability, to that raised bar for interest that comes with age and experience.
Boyana Church and the grave of Queen Eleanora of Bulgaria
Leaving Boyana, we drove through fields, vineyards, and wooded mountains up to Rila Monastery. We arrived to beautiful weather, a gift given the weather forecast and the frequent chance of clouds and rain in the mountains. The entrance to the fortified monastery, through an arched gate and under a wide pair of antlers (lead photo), is entrancing. (There are two, nearly identical entrances to the monastery.) This place had my full attention. It was impossible not to just rotate in the spectacular courtyard, trying to take it all in. Four stories of residential apartments overlook the courtyard and surround a central church and square tower. We headed for the church, drawn by the eye-catching paintings covering the vaulted arches and walls of the striped portico. Too soon, our guide was assembling us in the courtyard for a history lecture. The stories were interesting and worth hearing, but it was hard not to be impatient to just go exploring.
Rila Monastery is located at 1300m (4200+ft) in the Rila Mountains. The monastery was founded near where Saint Ioan (Ivan or John), a 9-10th century ascetic monk, lived for twelve years in a cave and then for another seven years on bare rock in the open air. Saint Ioan is the preeminent Bulgarian saint and Rila Monastery is its preeminent monastery.
After visiting the interior of the church with our group and guide, we headed off on our own to the small museum which houses various religious artifacts along with the monastery’s prize treasure, the Cross of Rafail. The cross is made of a solid piece of wood (81×43 ccm). It is named after its creator, a monk named Rafail who carved 104 religious stages and 650 small figures into the wood, a process that took him more than 12 years. The work finished in 1802 when Rafail lost his eyesight.
Back outside, we discovered that our gorgeous day had given way to a downpour. It was actually beautiful to watch the rain pour off the surrounding buildings while we ate a picnic lunch (bought in Sofia on the advice of Traventuria whose tour info warned us that the only dining options were notoriously slow). We visited a surprisingly lavish period monk’s cell that even included an attached room for a novice/servant who cooked and cleaned for the monk.
When the rain passed, we spent our remaining time exploring the monastery courtyard, grounds, Hreliov’s tower (a defensive structure built in 1334-1335 and the oldest surviving building in the monastery), and impressive kitchen. The far room of the kitchen boasts a 20m tall, room-sized chimney of amazing construction that, along with enormous pots and utensils, converted the entire room into a giant cooking area.
Practical info:
The cost for the Traventuria 8-hour tour (9am-5pm) with English guide was €30pp and does not include the 10 lev entrance fee to the church or the entrance fees to the various for-pay sites (museum, kitchen, etc.) on the monastery grounds. Our guide’s English was decent, if not great. Pick-up and drop-off is available for a fee, but must be at a hotel with a 24-hour desk. If staying at an apartment, etc., guests need to meet Traventuria at a qualifying hotel. We walked to the meeting point since it wasn’t that far from our AirBnB apartment.
There are shared and private rides available to the monastery from Sofia as well as a public bus. Info on those is on the monastery website.
Entrance to the Rila Monastery and church is free. Entrance to the monastery church is 8 lev ($4.48 US). Entrance to the monastery kitchen was, I think, 3 lev ($1.68 US). Entrance to the Tower of Hrelio, Ethnografic museum, Bulgarian renaissance guestrooms and Monastery farm is 5 lev ($2.80 US).
It is possible to stay at the monastery, but this is geared primarily for people on pilgrimage. The monastery also owns a hotel. 150′ from the monastery.
Viewed from Vitosha pedestrian street: A streetcar passes in front of the Sofia Courthouse. Sofia has one of the longest tram systems in Europe, some of the cars dating back 50 years.
I added Sofia, Bulgaria, on whim to the 8-night side trip I’d planned for us before our latest house- and cat-sit in Antwerp, Belgium. It was really a matter of “as long as we’re in the area (Bucharest, Romania), why not?” I didn’t know much about either Sofia or Bulgaria before then. Pre-travel research confirmed my general impression of a less-than-wealthy Eastern European capital, still recovering from Communism and still relatively new to the EU. As of the latest census I could find, Sofia has a population of 1.2 million people as compared to Bucharest’s 1.8 million. Bulgaria is both the poorest country in the EU and the fastest shrinking population in the world.
We flew Romanian Tarom Air from Bucharest to Sofia. Arriving at 5:30am at the Bucharest airport, we found a long (albeit fast-moving) check-in line and a bustlingly busy airport. When we arrived in Sofia at around 9:40am, passengers on our flight were the only people in the baggage claim. Following online advice, we used an airport-sanctioned OK Supertrans taxi from the queue and had a friendly (non-English-speaking) driver with a working meter. It was a bargain 10 lev + 2 lev tip ($6.80 total) for the ride along a wide, straight boulevard into the center of Sofia and our AirBnB apartment.
First impressions were generally good. The wide, smooth boulevard turned to yellow glazed brick roads (Yes, the yellow brick road is real! :D) as we entered the older center of town. Boring residential architecture further out gave way to elegant and imposing public buildings with grand columns, arches, fountains and statuary. Less than a block from our apartment, a wide pedestrian street, named Vitosha after the mountain that rises above the city, bustled with people enjoying the many cafes and shops that lined it.
Facing the pretty open courtyard of a Spanish restaurant, our apartment boasted a much more appealing entrance than our lodging in Bucharest. Self check-in was a breeze using an electronic fob and keys left for us in a small safe locked to an adjacent shop gate. The one-bedroom apartment itself was spacious and modern with a remote that opened electric privacy shutters on windows and doors on two walls that opened to a patio and narrow side path. Nice!
We settled in and were back out the door by 10am our first day. Early flights have their benefits. After a quick run by the local grocery store to stock breakfast supplies, we headed back out to explore. Turning left at Vitosha, away from the pedestrian street, and putting the imposing Sofia Courthouse on our left, we walked toward the large Sofia statue, a personification of the city. Using the metro entrance to cross under the big intersection there, we popped up at the Serdika ruins which date back to ancient Roman settlers. The ruins are open-air and free and worth a look. David, more hungry than impressed with history, pushed for a lunch break so we left the ruins to settle into shady seats at upscale Largo Bar and Dinner under the high-arched portico of the adjacent Constitutional Court of Bulgaria building. An elegant lunch of grilled shrimp appetizer and a chicken pasta main course for David and seared sesame-crusted tuna salad for me along with local beers was tasty and reasonably-priced at 52.10 lev ($29.45 US).
The awnings of Largo on the left on the Constitutional Court building, plaza Nezavisimost on the right and the Sofia Concert Hall in the distance.
Happily fed, we continued on to the number one site in Sofia, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The cathedral, in classic Eastern Orthodox style, was a tribute/thank-you from Bulgaria to Russia and is named after a Russian national hero. The elaborate painted interior of the cathedral with its huge dome is impressive. Entrance to the cathedral is free, but there’s a charge for photography. Two smock-clad guardians busily tut-tutted anyone snapping photos (even those waving their receipts) and scolded anyone who looked like they might even be considering wrong-doing of any sort. Since kissing and touching icons is a big part of religion in this part of the world, I had to wonder what was going on when these guards seemed to complain about people getting too close to certain items.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
Interior of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
After the cathedral, we meandered our way down boulevards and through parks on our way back to the apartment. I wanted to scope out the park meeting place for the free food tour I’d booked for the following day.
The free food tour turned out to be big fun and way more than I expected from a free tour. We ate lunch (at another health food stop for a salad to counter all that hearty Balkan food) beforehand, and I really should have skipped it. The two-hour food tour stopped at five locally-owned restaurants and shops, each of which offered us hearty tastings. The tour was so well attended that we were split into two groups. The guide for our 16-person tour was an eloquent 23-year old student named Ioan. At Supa Star, an all-soup diner, we were given cups of tarator, a traditional cold yogurt soup made with cucumbers, dill and garlic. Bulgarians are very proud of their unique and healthful yogurt and eat it and cheese in a myriad of dishes. We were surprised to descend into a pedestrian underpass on blvd Vasil Nevsky in front of the Ministry of Youth and Sports for our next stop at a shop selling national-favorite banitsa, a coiled savory pastry. The lady baker cut us generous portions of the fresh-from-the-oven pastry, filled with fresh farm cheese.
The least picturesque of our stops, but we had really tasty cheese-filled banitsa at this little shop.
We had a non-traditional bonus stop at Skaptoburger, a hamburger joint (one of a small locally-owned chain and very popular) where we each got a quarter of a hamburger. After that, it was off to Sun Moon, a well-known vegetarian restaurant and bakery where we sampled toasts spread with two classic toppings, one predominantly tomato and one eggplant. Sun Moon grows and grinds their own grains for their breads. Our final stop was at the impossibly-named Hadjidraganovite izbi, a Bulgarian tavern restaurant set in a wine cellar with traditional decor. There we were treated to a shot of a pelin, a celebratory wine-based absinthe drink, along with three types of bread-with-topping appetizers. As a final send-off, we joined hands to form a cramped ring as Ioan taught us a traditional dance.
As we walked from restaurant to restaurant, Ioan explained life in Sofia. When we came across this post-wedding gathering, he explained that the crowd was shouting “Bitter! Bitter! Bitter!” until the couple kissed to make things sweet.
I’ll save the rest of our Sofia stay, including a day trip to Rila Monastery and a cooking class in the apartment of a charming local hostess, for separate posts.
Practical info:
Find the free food tour (and other for-pay tours) on the Balkan Bites web site. Reservations aren’t necessary, but they will guarantee you a spot. This is a popular tour, so book if you know you want to go. Two late-comers were almost sent away the day we took the tour. Meet for the tour every day at 2pm by the large head statue in Crystal Garden (a/k/a Crystal Park).Although the tour is free, do tip. These guides put a lot into a full 2-hour tour.
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is open 7 days/week, from 7am-7pm. Entry is free. There’s a10 lev ($5.66 US) charge for photos. Find photos and a virtual tour on the cathedral web site.
For fresh salads in a casual small lunch spot, we liked Greens near Vitosha Boulevard.
Although David’s very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about beer, reads on the subject constantly, is always on the lookout for local craft beers when we travel, and has even written on beer for our local paper, he’s never written for Wanderwiles. (I’ve definitely used his input for previous beer posts, though.) I hope this write-up is the first of many from him. -T
We’d read and heard that the craft beer scene in Bucharest is growing, so of course had to try at least one beer bar while there. I did some research and came up with a list of possibilities. It turned out that Bogdan offers a beer tasting tour and, while we weren’t interested in that, he confirmed one of my top picks as a personal favorite. So, on a free afternoon, we headed to Fabrica de Bere Bunã (The Good Beer Factory), a long stroll down Calea Vitoriei from our AirBnB apartment. Located in an old factory, Fabrica de Bere Bunã offered ten of their own beers on tap and another twelve bottled beers from various Romanian brewers. The place is brewpub chic (white subway tiles, natural wood, and chalkboard beer lists) with two-story seating inside (stools only) and outdoor tables on the sidewalk, too.
Fabrica de Bere Bunã in Bucharest
We shared a flight of four beers, all from small Romanian brewers. [See lead photo.] Haunted – an IPA (6.5% ABV) from Addictive Brewing, which just opened in July 2019 – was light gold with a slight haze and a dank, bitter taste, a fine IPA. Tamara said it reminded her of a men’s restroom without the urinal cakes, but I think that’s just beerspeak for dank (right?). Our next IPA was Fortul 13 (5.7% ABV) from Clandestin Beer (opened in March 2019). It appeared gold and clear, had a nose of apricot and grass, and a slight bitterness. A very good rendition of an American IPA, and much more to Tamara’s liking. We sampled two beers from Zăganu, a Romanian craft beer pioneer opened in October 2013 and named after an iconic Romanian vulture that appears on all their bottle labels. (Zăganu also owns Fabrica de Bere Bunã.) Their beers are widely available. We had Adonis, an American pale ale (5.9%) that was medium gold with a frothy white head. It was lightly hopped with an aroma and taste that was citrusy, grassy and slightly floral. We also tried Brună (7.1% ABV), a schwarzbier that was dark brown, almost black. Aromas of toasted malt, yeasty bread, banana, and slight bubble gum. Taste was similar with a raisin sweetness, and a hint of sour reminiscent of a Belgian oud bruin that was uncharacteristic of this style of beer but tasty.
After Fabrica de Bere Bunã, we walked a few blocks to M60, another spot recommended by Bogdan. Both its Facebook page and its actual brick-and-mortar location emphasize coffee and we almost didn’t go in. Inside, we did find a selection of bottled craft beers on their counter and refrigerated (and bought a can of Hop Hooligans Crowd Control NEIPA), but this place really is more of a coffee shop than a beer bar or brewpub. Bucharest has quite a few other venues with craft brews from Romania and other locales, including Mikkeller Bucharest, Beer O’Clock (although closed during our visit), La 100 de Beri, and Bere şi Bere Pub. For info on these and others, click here https://beerologique.org/bucharest/ and here https://www.ratebeer.com/places/city/bucharest/0/167/.
Bucharest viewed from Closer to the Moon rooftop bar
I admit I had low expectations of Bucharest. I’ve been to many former Soviet bloc countries and there are certain less-than-positive aspects to them all: the ugly over-sized Brutalist architecture (so often built on the site of historic buildings that would be a treasure now), abundant graffiti (which my dad plausibly chalks up to unleashed freedom of expression), and infrastructure and common areas suffering from the financial costs of Communism. Bucharest definitely has those aspects, but it still boasts a wealth of gorgeous French-style architecture, a picturesque old town, and lots of restaurants, cafés and bars (beyond the “drink till you puke” bars and strip clubs that some Eastern European cities use to entice westerners looking for cheap thrills). Despite some streets still holding onto that grubby party vibe and derelict buildings scattered amongst the pristinely restored, Bucharest has the feel of a city moving up and offers many charming streets, elegant boulevards, and cosmopolitan shopping and dining options at great prices.
Stavropoleos Monastery Church in Old Town
Our AirBnB apartment was Bucharest in a nutshell: Located steps from the picturesque old town with a view across the river that included the enormous Palace of Parliament, the apartment was spacious and totally modern. To get there, though, we entered through a graffiti-covered front door near a corner where residents had piled trash that was not collected during our 4-night stay. Still, the rest of the sidewalk as well as vast majority of those in the city were very clean, more so, in fact, than many Western European cities. There were grocery stores, shops and cafes in easy walking distance and we never felt unsafe wandering the city. We wanted to spend most of our time in Bucharest just rambling and exploring. Warm, sunny September weather made this a winning plan.
David by the not-so-charming front door to our AirBnB building. Fortunately, all was lovely and modern inside and the neighborhood was great for exploring.
I really didn’t have many must-sees in Bucharest itself other than the Palace of the Parliament (formerly “the People’s House”), the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. The palace was built on the orders of Nicolae Ceaușescu at a staggering cost, a cruel expense considering the deprivations endured by the populace in that era. Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, were executed before the palace was finished so never got to enjoy the lavish apartments they planned for themselves there. Today, the the building houses the Romanian parliament as well as conventions and diplomatic events, but 70% remains vacant decades after its construction. English language tours are available daily by calling the day before. I tried calling two days before, since we had a day trip planned the following day, and was told it was impossible to book then. The day before means the day before. I guess a little of that strict Communist attitude remains. The tour of the Palace of the Parliament took 2 hours and we only saw a small fraction of the building. Yes, it was a criminal waste of money, but it is a beautiful neo-Classical building nonetheless and showcases materials and craftsmanship from around Romania. Enormous chandeliers, lush carpets, parquet floors and marble cover the vast rooms, hallways and sweeping staircases.
Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, the second largest building in the world. It takes about an hour to walk the circumference.
My one big must-see while in Romania was Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle. Yes, I knew the connection between Bran Castle and Vlad the Impaler was tenuous. Yes, I knew the interior retained little of Vlad’s time and that its exterior gets all the praise. But, still. It’s “Dracula’s Castle”! And, the Romanian’s are proud of it and the exterior is everything it should be. There are lots of tour companies offering tours of varying sizes to Bran Castle. I did my research and settled on a small mini-van tour with a maximum of 8 guests and an itinerary that included Peleș Castle and the medieval town of Brașov. This itinerary makes for a long day, but all three of these destinations are worth a visit.
Our tour started out fine with our guide, Bogdan, picking us up at 7am as promised in a nice, modern mini-van. He then picked up a Spanish woman and her two adult sons, then headed to pick up the final couple whom he’d tried to pick up before us but couldn’t find. Thus, began a nearly 1h 30 min. frustrating bit of chaos as he tried to find the missing couple. Clearly, there was confusion about the meeting place, but the problem was magnified by the tour company owner’s insistance on acting the middle man between Bogdan and the missing couple. Apparently, the owner refused to give the missing couple’s phone numbers to Bogdan either to safeguard his business from poaching (a ludicrous precaution if so since Bogdan would spend the day with these people) or as some form of protecting the privacy of the clients (again, silly given the situation). After circling through clogged Bucharest traffic, leaving, getting a call from the boss to return, and repeating the same three times, we finally located the pair of equally frustrated Italians and headed out of town. We could have slept another hour and had the same departure time! Oh well, we were on the road at last.
The road turned out to be a wide, modern highway…at least for a portion of the drive. It narrowed to two lanes later, but remained in excellent condition. –EU money at work in Eastern Europe and far cry from the potholes and ox carts that greeted travelers not so long ago. Despite the decent roads, it was still nearly two hours to our first stop, Peleș Castle.
Peleș Castle was built by King Carol I and his wife, queen Elizabeth, in the 1870’s. It was a miracle of modern technology in its time, boasting the first central heating in Romania along with such wonders as electric lighting and an enormous skylight that opened with the push of a button. The palace is gorgeous inside with elaborate carved wood paneling in the German style and beautiful Romanian marble throughout. Peleș (“pelesh”) is beautifully preserved and not to be missed when exploring Romania.
Peleș Castle music room. Peleș is more a palace than a castle.
We enjoyed a cheap and tasty pizza and local beer lunch in the palace café before heading on to Bran Castle some 40 minutes away across the Southern Carpathian Mountains and into the Transylvania region of Romania. (Romania consists of three regions: southern Walachia including Bucharest and Sinaia, central Transylvania and northern Moldova.) As promised, the view of Bran Castle from below the rocky promontory on which it sits is imposing and impressive. It’s easy to imagine it as the foreboding abode of Vlad or Dracula. Inside, however, things are a bit different. Dowager Queen Marie remodeled the old castle in the twenties. Later her daughter Princess Ileana ran a hospital there during WWII (and later moved to the U.S. where she became a nun). Nowadays the interior is more homey than spooky; two overstuffed couches and a fireplace warm one large stone room.
Iconic Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle
For an extra price, Bran Castle offers an exhibit of medieval torture devices, something I’ve seen plenty of and would have skipped if David hadn’t been interested. I have no desire to spend time with memorabilia of man’s inhumanity to man. The exhibit turned out to be uncomfortably warm as well, although less crowded than the narrow and packed castle corridors and roofed battlement walks in the rest of the castle. I ended up feeling nauseous and headed back out only to be blocked by throngs of large, slow-moving tour groups. I finally threaded my way through the crowds and threatened to faint until a stubborn old guard let me exit through the entrance into the blessedly cool mountain air. A few minutes outside and all was well. Oh well, we’d been warned that the interior of Bran was nothing remarkable in the way of castles and I have to agree. Still, I’m glad we made the stop at Bran and enjoyed seeing the imposing castle looming above us like something straight out of Stoker’s book.
Brașov town square
Our last stop on this long day was Brașov, a picturesque Transylvanian village which is home to one of the largest churches in Romania, the Black Church, so named after a fire blackened its walls. We wandered the streets admiring the embroidery wares of a peasant woman and stopping for a light meal in one of the many cafes circling the expansive main square. We bought a piping hot kürtős kalács (“chimney cake” or “stovepipe cake”) from a food cart to eat as we walked. The big, hollow croissant-like pastry is similar to trdlo we’ve had in Czechia, but the caramelized exterior of this Romanian version, fragrant with orange peel, was something different and delicious. A stroll through a park past a medieval city gate wrapped up our visit to Brașov.
The kürtős kalács stand. Delicious!
As the only English speakers, the others invited us to sit up front with Bogdan as we had the easiest time visiting with him. I enjoyed talking about Romania and life philosophies on the two hour ride back to Bucharest as David nodded asleep against the window. Bogdan is twenty-six and has some of that familiar Eastern European mixture of frustration, self-deprecation, and hope that I so often hear there. He was well-spoken, thoughtful, and curious about many things including Protestant Christianity and how it differed from his own Catholicism. It was an interesting conversation as we drove on in the dark, finally arriving back in Bucharest around 9:30pm.
Caru’ cu Bere outdoor seating in Old Town Bucharest
We spent the rest of our Romania time in Bucharest. Visiting the Palace of the Parliament, exploring the streets and parks, churches and restaurants. We had a well-prepared lunch in the large courtyard of the oldest operating inn in Bucharest, Hanu’ lui Manuc (Manduc’s Inn). We put off eating at the well-known but super touristy old beer hall, Caru’ cu Bere, until our last day, then caved after hearing that they really did offer authentic versions of traditional dishes. True to the billing, we enjoyed skinless sausages, cabbage rolls, hunter’s stew, and the local polenta-like corn mash with the house-brewed beer. The beer hall itself is beautiful and the outdoor seating on a cobbled street in Old Town is delightful in good weather. On our last evening, we headed to the charmingly-named Closer to the Moon rooftop bar for a sparkling water before a return visit to Energeia, a restaurant focused on healthy food (and awesome gin-and-tonic craft cocktails) where I could indulge a craving for greens with round two of a huge kale salad. Balkan food is tasty and hearty, but really short on green vegetables!
We used One Excellence Tours for our “Transylvania Castles Day Trip” from Bucharest to Peles Castle, Bran Castle and Brasov. The tour is in a minivan with a maximum of 8 persons. The cost was $128.80 US for the two of us not including admission fees which are normally 70 RON pp for both Peleș and Bran, and I booked online with Viator. I used Viator, a Tripadvisor company, both because I trust them and the price was good, and because I could book through Topcashback for a rebate. (I’ve gotten over $800 in rebates from Topcashback on things I’d buy or book anyway just for using their links.) Entry to Peleș Castle is normally 30 RON (lei) ($7 US) per adult, but One Excellence Tours comped our entry as an apology for the confusion and late start.Entrance to Bran Castle is 40 RON (lei) ($9.31 US) per adult. Both castles offer reductions for students and seniors.
We paid a total of $217.28 for four nights in our AirBnB apartment, on the corner of Calea Vitoriei (a main road and a great place to be) and Splaiul Independentei.The apartment was a spacious and modern one-bedroom in an excellent location and run by a responsive host. I’d happily stay there again.
Uber works great in Bucharest, but we did have some issues connecting with our driver when we arrived at the airport. He only spoke a few words of English and while Uber directed us to wait upstairs by Arrivals at the big airport parking lot, he waited downstairs by Departures. We did finally sort things out, but it wasted some time. I read lots of warnings about Bucharest taxis, so was hesitant to use them. We had an early flight when we left and I worried about using Uber since I’ve had them cancel before in the States and couldn’t risk that at such an early hour in a place where we didn’t speak the language. I ended up booking a private ride with Transport Air Bucharest a top-rated company on Tripadvisor. I paid 85.09 RON ($19.81 US) in advance on the Internet and communication with them was excellent. Our driver was waiting with a new, immaculate sedan when we exited our building pre-dawn. The cost was not all that much more (maybe $5) than we would have paid for pre-booking Uber or a taxi.
We weren’t interested in trekking, but I did want to see a little more of the Kathmandu Valley while in Nepal. Research narrowed it down to Nagarkot or Dhulikhel. Nagarkot is popular with tour companies, has more hotels and boasts the possibility of glimpsing Everest in the very far distance on a clear day. Since we planned to (and did) take a plane trip past Everest, that last selling point didn’t mean a lot to me, especially with the well-known vagaries of weather. Everything I read said that having an Everest view from a Nagarkot hotel was a rare thing. Dhulikhel, on the other hand, was the smaller, less touristy option, something that appeals to me. It also reportedly had pretty awesome Himalayan views itself plus a temple or two in walking distance and the very intriguing Namobuddha monastery a short drive away. (See top photo and below.)
Namobuddha Monastery
We both paid for a flight past Mount Everest and saw it, just as clearly, on our flight from Kathmandu to Bhutan. Seeing Everest as a dot in the distance from Nagarkot just didn’t weigh much in my calculations. I liked that Dhulikhel is smaller and less touristy, and didn’t mind at all the small number of restaurants and hotels available in Dhulikhel. I found a small new boutique hotel with its own restaurant that sounded good and booked it via Agoda.
Getting to Dhulikhel from Kathmandu was another challenge. I debated using a local bus, so we made a trial run by the bus station to gauge just how hard it would be to find the right one. It didn’t take long in the small, but chaotically packed bus “station” lot to rule that out. The buses themselves looked passable if not enthusiasm-inspiring, but there were no signs at all in English on the buses or in the area and asking several people and bus drivers about buses to Dhulikhel got us nowhere. While I’m game to try local options, this was a situation where hiring a local driver seemed like a no-brainer expense (and hardly a budget-buster, in any event). Our hotel in Kathmandu could arrange a driver, but on a hunch, I called the hotel in Dhulikel and they offered an even better price (around $35, I think) and I liked having a driver who knew for sure where he was going.
Although the distance between our Kathmandu hotel and our Dhulikhel hotel was only 19.5 miles, the trip took over an hour. Most of the delay was due simply to traffic in Kathmandu. The road between the two was actually not bad and offered beautiful views of the Himalayas.
The really bad road–the worst of our three month travels–came when we hired a driver the following day to take us from our Dhulikhel hotel to the nearby Namobuddha Monastery. Wow. It’s hard to describe just how teeth-jarringly bad the road is. We felt sorry for our driver and the incredible wear the road must put on his car. The road distance is only 7 miles, but it took us over half an hour, most of that spent on the last stretch of road.
Our driver was friendly and spoke good enough English that we could commiserate about the wear and tear on his car from journeys such as this. The monastery turned out to be beautiful. The main temple area (photos forbidden) was elaborately stunning and the views breathtaking.
The following day, we walked through town past a sports field with the Himalayas looming beyond. We walked up meandering stairs to the hilltop Hindu temple of Kali where more spectacular views awaited. On the way up, we passed small groups of students who stopped us to ask for pens. We had no pens, but still had some colorful pencils we’d bought in Myanmar for just such occasions. The kids were very happy with the pencils, thanking us with big smiles. I wish we’d had more.
Practical info:
I found The Longest Way Home blog to be really useful in researching Nepal, especially my Nagarkot vs. Dhulikel dilemma. Many thanks to its author.
We stayed at Dhulikel Boutique Hotel. The hotel was new and our room spacious, stylish, clean, quiet and well-equipped. But, there wasn’t a view of the himalayas as I’d hoped. The best view was from the hotel’s outside dining, and that was across a valley into lesser mountains. Staff was friendly and great about booking us reasonably-priced drivers both between Kathmandu and Dhulikel and to the Namobuddha Monastery.
Kathmandu fabric market with a Durbar Square temple rising in the background
I spent the flight from Delhi to Kathmandu re-reading a funny-but-dire blog post I’d saved on my phone about all the horrors of the Kathmandu Airport: How I should have gotten a visa ahead of time instead of relying on the airport machines which are always broken, how the customs and immigration lines were horrible, how airport staff were rude, and generally what a miserable time we were going to have upon landing. Meanwhile, the flight was smooth, the airplane clean and new, the staff friendly, the food good (in the realm of economy seat airplane food) and the Nepalese beer free.
A very nice Nepal Airlines airplaneAlways cool: a new beer!
Happily, upon landing, we found the airport to be just as modern, clean, and efficient. All the visa machines worked just fine. We were first to them thanks to the blogger’s accurate description of the location, so had no wait to use the machines either. In no time, we were through passport control, had collected our luggage and were in a taxi. A great start.
I chose the Ambassador Garden Home in Thamel for our first nights in the city. Thamel is tourist central in Kathmandu and, while that may be a mixed bag in many cities, it seemed to be the best option for westerners staying in Kathmandu. Restaurants and shops abound around Ambassador Garden Home and traffic is limited so that only specially-permitted taxis could drive right up to the hotel.
We were greeted with a drink on arrival at the hotel and told to wait on a couch in the small lobby which opens onto a pretty courtyard that serves as the hotel’s dining room. Check-in documents were brought to us and we were soon in our standard room. The room was comfortable, if cozy, with a view onto the courtyard and a quirky shower. The hotel covers a few floors (no elevator) and is comfortably and tastefully decorated with the feel of staying in a period manor house. A large brass padlock served to lock the door when we left. As soon as we were settled, we headed out to explore the bustling streets.
It was a less than 20-minute walk from the hotel to Kathmandu’s Durbar Square at the historic center. Years after the devastating 1915 earthquake, we saw damage everywhere. There’s a $15US entrance fee to Durbar Square (and also just to pass through unless you have a resident’s pass) and we saw no point, happy to survey the square from the main road. Here and elsewhere we wandered in Kathmandu and beyond, the destruction, pollution and poverty was shocking despite all the reading I’d done before our trip. (I recommend Little Princes, written by Conor Grennan, an American volunteer and organizer at a Nepalese orphanage where many of the “orphans” still had parents from whom they’d been separated during the civil war.) Although there is an exotic beauty to much of it, we found that every bridge we crossed assailed us with the smell of an open sewer and smoke and smog pervaded the city.
Katmandu street
On one long walk to the hilltop Hindu “Monkey Temple” or Swayambhu Maha Chaitya, we wore surgical facemasks to block pollution in the worst stretches. Climbing the steps to the hilltop stupa, we found fresher air, colorful worshipers and lovely views of the city.
Steps to the Hindu “Monkey Temple” or Swayambhu Maha Chaitya
On another day, we hired a driver to take us to Pashupatinath Temple and the Boudhanath Stupa. The temple complex at Pashupatinath is vast and we’d seen smoke from there when we drove past it from the airport. Although we could not go inside the main temple, we wandered the grounds on our own (declining the offers for paid guides). A festival of some sort was going on in one area and girls gave us free boxed lunches we were welcome to share, picnic-style, with others gathered. Having just eaten, we took ours back to our driver who was happy to have them. One of the would-be guides had told us the smoke in the distance was from funerals, but we wondered if we’d understood him correctly given the size and consistency of the smoke. Sure enough, we later came upon many funeral pyres set up along the river with bodies burning and more being brought in regularly. Shrouded bodies on pallets were carried on the shoulders of mourners to the sound of a horns, deep and resonant like blowing on a conch shell. People sat on a long bench behind the pyres observing the proceedings while vendors sold drinks and snacks. Across the river, more observers sat on large bleacher-like steps. We walked to a bridge that we were told separated the common folk from the VIP’s to look down on a pyre only yards below. We could see a foot sticking out from the flame and hear the sizzle. It was disturbing and fascinating at the same time. I took video and photos, but opted not to share them here. We were the only westerners there at the time, but no one seemed to mind or find our presence odd.
We drove from Pashupatinath to Boudhanath Stupa, one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal. The stupa sits on the northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We wanted to be there at sunset to witness sunset prayers as crowds circle the massive stupa, spinning prayer wheels, making offerings or simply walking clockwise. The experience was a highlight of our stay in Kathmandu.
Sunset at Boudhanath Stupa
We found Nepalese food tasty and very similar to Indian food. Ambassador Garden Home offered good food in their courtyard dining area. We liked Fusion Himalaya Restaurant so much we ate there twice. We enjoyed chatting with the friendly owner and even tried local Divine wine that was spiced and sweet. I read rave reviews about the momos (regional dumplings popular in Northern India, Nepal and Bhutan) at Fusion Himalaya so had to try them both fried and steamed. We had a more upscale dinner at Third Eye (Indian and Continental cuisine) just down Chaksibari Marg from Ambassador Garden Home.
From Kathmandu, we headed to Dhulikel to see a little more of the Kathmandu Valley. Dhulikel and the Namobuddha Monastery are up next.
