Author: kristina.bajoriunaite

During the last national holiday in India, I went to Nepal – visited Kathmandu and Pokhara. I was very surprised how hard it was to find any reviews or advice on what to do in Kathmandu – almost every website had exactly the same points and it did not look very appealing. I stayed only for one day, and I think everyone should visit Kathmandu at least once, because it does have a lot to offer.

1. Everest flight

The first thing I did early in the morning was a short flight around Himalayas to see Earth’s highest mountain – mount Everest. It was amazing. It did mean coming back to the airport, but it was definitely worth it. Also I did not even know that the international border between Nepal and China runs across its summit point. There are several flight companies that operate these flights and they normally happen only very early in the morning and take about 30 min. Make sure to get seats at the end of the plane, anything from seats 6/7 will give you the best view. I still would like to properly trek the mountain, but unfortunately that requires much more time than a few days, so this flight was a very convenient alternative.

2. Swayambhunath Stupa (Monkey Temple)

Monkey temple is another stop which unexpectedly impressed me. The only way to get there is to climb A LOT of stairs and it is in quite a remote part of the city, on top of the hill. What surprised me the most was the atmosphere. Temple greats you with a calming music once you reach the top, it was so serene and although there were people, it did not feel touristy at all. I can also shamefully admit that I tried (unsuccessfully) shazaming the music they were playing, as it was putting me, and everyone else, at ease.

3. Shop in local markets

Markets in Kathmandu are so pleasant – nobody tries to harass you into coming to their stalls, nobody is shouting and inviting just because you are a tourist – I literally walked through the market undisturbed. And they do have a lot of cute and interesting stuff, whether it is clothes or household items.

4. Eat local food

Enjoy momo’s and all the various types of alcoholic beverages – there are loads! As I had a short trip, I did not want to risk eating stall food so went to a local food restaurant called Bhojan Griha. It served local food and also had local performance over dinner – it was a very nice evening, I do recommend them. The only reason I found this place was because some other tourists on Everest flight mentioned it.

5. Get lost in the streets

One of the best ways to actually explore a place is just to get lost in it. Pick an area and just walk in those little streets and you will see locals going about their business, you will find various restaurants and coffee shops, multiple temples and monuments. Kathmandu is very pleasant to just walk, local people are super friendly and genuine.

All in all, Kathmandu is a great place for at least a day. You definitely do not need more than 2 days, but you should not skip this city. Local people make it extra special, and who knows, I might be back for Everest trek next.

It is true what they say about Singapore – you are Singa-poor after you visit Singapore, especially if you are a hotel snob and enjoy a night out. However, the long weekend trip was exactly what I needed after 2 months in India.

Singapore is a little gem in the Southeast Asia, and it is so modern and clean that you feel like you are in Europe, yet it also has that amazing Malaysian nature and food.

The island city-state has English as one of its three official languages, and a 0% starting income tax which not surprisingly attract a lot of expat workers. I did feel like at home.

We arrived to world’s best airport early in the morning and were a little sad to just leave it, but decided maybe we will explore more on the way back – you can enter several terminals on a slide, there is a swimming pool, cinema and much much more. We later learnt that these areas are public and you cannot access them when you pass the gate… There is even a short movie about two guys who tried to stay at the airport for 4 days – watch it before you visit Singapore.

I wanted some luxury and a nice swimming pool, so stayed at Marina Bay Sands. The service was exceptional – I arrived very early in the morning, yet the room was already ready and they let to check-in. Given that there was some time before sunrise, I went to the room and had a nap obliviously thinking that I will be able to go to the swimming pool for sunrise and take a photo while nobody is there. The pool was already full at 6am ! They only allow hotel visitors to enter the pool area, however you will struggle to find a time when there are no people. I didn’t manage to get a nice photo from there, but took a decent one once back in the room.

After a little nap, I had some coffee to keep me going and went to explore the Cloud Forest and Gardens by the Bay.

There are two main attractions to enter – Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. Apparently Cloud Forest is better, it was nice and definitely worth a visit. You can wander around the other areas for free, but you also have OCBC Skywalk (costs SGD8 to enter) to walk at the top of the trees. I was wandering around the gardens and OCBC Skywalk on my last day. I am scared of heights, but like getting those little adrenaline kicks so I just ran through the Skywalk very quickly as some parts are very narrow.

I always enjoy trying local food, so going to a local market for lunch was a must. We went to Newton Food Centre and everything looked d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. It was not packed, as apparently people go there for dinner and it gets busier from 6pm. I had lychee water, fish soup and stingray steak – highly recommend. Another must try when in Singapore is chilli grab. It is quite messy, but I think it was the nicest grab I’ve had. I had it on my last day and chose the old strip by the river in the city centre, which is filled with restaurants – many restaurants will have it.

One great thing about Singapore is that you can just get lost in the city. It is small, so you can wander around and you will always find something amazing. The architecture is absolutely stunning – I don’t think I have been in a city with so many unique buildings.

And when you are done exploring, you can go out clubbing or go back to enjoy the amazing pool at the Marina Bay sands, and everything is has to offer. We went out one night to the club area and went to a gay club, as they always has a nice vibe and the other night just enjoyed the hotel facilities.

All in all, it was a good weekend. I have never visited Singapore before and it was a big change from India. One long weekend may not be not enough, but we ticked the main spots. If I visit it again, I will make sure to budget some time to enjoy the airport more and eat more local food.

Bangalore is a great city, however it is mostly famous for pubs and food. Hence, we ventured for a day trip somewhere not too far and Mysore is considered to be very close.

As none of us drive, and we did not fancy being stuck in traffic, we took an early morning train to get there, which takes around 3 hours. As we had previous experience with public trains in India where we had chosen ordinary tickets, we decided to book the Deluxe VIP seats and literally had no idea what to expect this time. The train station itself was huge, and there were already quite a few people at 6 a.m. in the morning.

I was also pleasantly surprised how disabled carriage was called ”For differently abled”.

Train was delayed by about 40 min, but we met some local people in another carriage and ended up chatting so time passed quickly. They were both from Bangalore, a young woman and her father. We were discussing environmental issues, different Indian cities, some cultural differences and accountancy (the dad was a chartered accountant now working for PE). It was interesting to hear thoughts of local people.

By the time we reached Mysore, the delay reduced to about 30 min. We left the train and were instantly hit with heat and humidity. We often forget how fortunate we are with the weather in Bangalore, so it was a good reminder.

Mysore is a city in Karnataka state and it used to be a the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore. The cultural ambience of Mysore has earned it a title of Cultural Capital of Karnataka and it is mostly famous for the Mysore Palace.

As we only had one day, we pre-booked a taxi driver for the whole day to show us the main sightseeing spots. Several people approached us persistently trying to offer taxi, but by now we are fairly good at being assertive with ”we already have a car booked”. Our driver got to the station fairly quickly and we started our tour.

We were rather hungry and I had no breakfast, hence first stop was food. I identified one famous place, from a book about India I found when I was in Goa. It said it serves biryani on banana leaves so I was intrigued by the whole concept. I did a quick search on google, and reviews also stated that it is one of the best biryanis in town, so we went there, to the Hotel RRR. They only serve biryani and it was delicious – fairly spicy though! I have a rather curious mind when it comes to food, and will try almost anything, so I did not hesitate to pick and try whatever we had on the table – a big mistake. I did not know what exactly it was, but I took something what looked like a dried fig. I put the whole ”fig” in my mouth and it was super spicy! I had to spit it all out and just tried a tiny bit – am normally very good with spices, but this was something else. Apparently it’s spicy dried chutney and you are not supposed to eat it whole.

It was very central so our next stop was Mysore Palace located nearby. It’s HUGE. It costs INR 70 to enter inside the palace and they also have a light show in the evening. There were many tourists, both local and international, visiting the place and we took about an hour exploring it all. You also had to pay for shoes bag and take off your shoes if you wanted to enter the palace. We did go inside, however I mostly liked the outside areas. The palace is very beautiful and well maintained. We also found some elephants and camels there and I am not too sure for what exact purpose they were kept there. Palace was definitely the highlight of the day. They also do a light show at certain times in the evening, but we did not know about it at that time and eventually we missed it.

After the Palace, we stopped for a coffee as an early Saturday train didn’t sit well with late Friday evening’s events and we needed to stay awake for a long day ahead. Driver took us to some local coffee shop where we could sit down and have some caffeine. We then headed to Chamundi Hills where we could see Chamundeshwari Temple, Mahishasura statue and Big Bull. It was about 30min drive, but the drive itself was a pleasure – no traffic, no beeping. It was a nice change compared to Bangalore traffic for sure.

The temple was fairly big and it already had a huge queue of locals ready to get inside as it was just before the opening time. We looked around it and decided that we do not want to queue and did not go inside. Monkeys were everywhere and they kept fighting among themselves. The Mahishasura statue appeared to have some work being done so I didn’t manage to get a nice shot. It also stands in a traffic circle near the parking lot, so there were people sitting around it.

The Bull statue also did not impress me, perhaps we needed to read more history behind it to fully appreciate it.

Driver then took us to the view point – it is a bit bizarre that we were taken to an area where you have to pay for several minutes to take a photo, when there are so many free areas just a bit further. Obviously we found it funny and just took photos from other areas. The view was okay, you could see Mysore Palace and I believe government building.

The driver then took us to a church. It was a big church and there was also an amateur wedding dress photoshoot happening, which was rather amusing to watch. It was a nice church, but it was similar to the ones I’ve seen in Europe and I preferred the one I accidentally stumbled in Bangalore – it had a big Mother Teresa’s picture. I did not even know that Mother Teresa was Indian!

All the above places, apart from the eating places, were suggested by the driver. While he was driving us I noted a big posted about Sand Sculpture Museum and thought it would be fun to go there. Even though we had to turn around, it was really great. Once we entered, everyone was really friendly and although it was a very small area, the sculptures looked spectacular! It was also nice to support local artists with the small entrance fee. It is just on the way to Chamundi Hills again.

After the museum, we made our way to Brindavan gardens. All of Mysore is very peaceful and clean, but these gardens were even more peaceful and very well looked after. We had to pay a small fee to enter, but it was worth it. It is about 40min drive and they do light show in the evening as well. As the day was coming to an end and we were getting hungry, we did not stay there too long.

I wanted to try something very local, I found on internet a restaurant called Anima Madhava Bhavan which looked very local and had good reviews in the past. However, most recent review where extremely bad – stating do not go to this place, rats are running around and food is not good. We did however go there and we were the only people, yet it was very local, food was good, service was exceptionally good (I don’t think they see many western tourist there) and overall it was a very pleasant unique dinner experience. It did not have upscale restaurant environment, but that’s what we wanted – a unique local spot. Food prices also reflected it and because we had such a good service (we could also sense that the waiter was nervous), we left a nice tip.

Overall it was a great trip, the most interesting things were the Mysore Palace, the gardens and the local dinner spot. We got to the Mysore train station and settled in our VIP Deluxe cabin and had a nice nap before arriving home to Bangalore.