The journey continues across the border in Nepal. If you are also traveling in Nepal or would like to know what it's like here, feel free to chime in.
00
Anonymous05/12/26(Tue)11:57:39
Note the little sign that says "Immigration Office". You walk into a pleasant little office with a green front yard, hand over a fifty dollar bill, and get your thirty-day visa sticker.
While leaving India I crossed paths with a German backpacker hippie bum in a sleeveless shirt and a do-rag. Why do whites dress worse than a street wino when they go to foreign countries?
The first step for the crossing was to ride the passenger train one stop from Tanakpur to Banbasa. Then I walked 4 km through squalid Banbasa village and its surrounding forests to the "barrage", a dam bridge basically. The border doesn't quite follow the river, so after you go across the bridge, you're still in India. Lots and lots of people hit me up offering a ride along the whole way, which was lined with market vendors selling backpacks as low as $2.50, among many other things.
However, I had spent the last of my Indian rupees on breakfast, so I had zero cash on hand and couldn't pay for anything. I got stamped out, then passed through two cordons of tough-looking police on either side of the border.
A young Nepalese guy on a bicycle started harassing me as I began the 6 km walk into town from the border area. He kept saying he wanted to buy a dollar bill, but when I agreed to sell him one, his demands quickly escalated. Now he was no longer interested in a dollar; he wanted ten dollars. I told him I'd sell him a dollar bill for 150 Nepalese rupees, but he wasn't going to "see" any larger bill. He kept making rude remarks under his breath before trying some other tactic of demanding my attention. At last he settled with pretending like he was going to buy the dollar, then refusing to hand over the Nepalese currency as we agreed to, instead demanding that I show him ten dollars. That didn't go over well. I started trying to grab the payment from his hand, at which he handed me the dollar back and I snatched it up while calling him a robber. Thereafter he returned to his village.
Later on I'll post a pic or two of the streets here in Mahendra Nagar. They are so much neater, wider and more orderly than the streets of India. Even the main road had a gravelled shoulder suitable for walking alongside. Construction projects are actually cleaned up here; the rubble and debris isn't strewn everywhere without a care like it is in India. Bureaucracy in general also seems less onerous. It took me barely three minutes to get a cell phone SIM and plan going. Hotel check-in was a breeze as well. The German was also trying to buy a cell plan, but it was taking him a lot longer for some reason. He was also lathered in sweat and appeared to be stroogling, while I had already pulled cash from an ATM, found a semi-upscale A/C room, showered, changed into fresh clothes and eaten a filling lunch. Due to having no money I refused most people's offers of a ride, but an old man came by and gave me a lift the last 2 km into town without expecting any money.
The afternoon has turned warm and muggy now that the sun has burned away the thick haze. Still not quite hot, only 33 C or so. I picked a random ATM and paid a 500 rupee access fee to pull twenty 1000 rupee notes (the fee is refunded by Schwab). Then I went to a different bank and broke four of the big bills for small purchases. Chinese food was a bad choice here; the flavors were very disappointing, and the 200 mL Mountain Dew bottle cost about $0.45 USD, which is double what they typically cost in India. Maybe soft drinks are more expensive in Nepal...my room is hardly a good deal either at 2500 NPR ($16.50 USD), but it has a modern A/C unit, good seating area and it's quiet inside. You can get rooms for much cheaper here; I just went for the first nice hotel I saw.
Some online sources said that printed passport-size photos were necessary for the Nepal visa, but the officials took a digital photo and did not ask for any printed photos.
00
Anonymous05/12/26(Tue)12:57:26
>>2881439 >Later on I'll post a pic or two of the streets here in Mahendra Nagar. Take some creep shots of the women and do some cold approaches bro. I only met a few Nepalese so never got a good gauge on them
>>2881442 So far I haven't seen young women loitering around in public here. Of course it is May in the flatlands, hot and sunny with an average high of 39 C. Who in their right mind would be standing around on the street (apart from the buxom ice cream vending ladies).
There's a lot of ethnic diversity here, but that's no different from India. It's hard to say what the typical Nepalese looks like - some are almost black, while others could pass for Aryan. Once you go up into the mountains, the phenotypes change radically as certain tribes strongly prefer to live at altitude.
There's a national park near here, Sukhlaplanta, but admission for foreigners is $10 USD. Not counting the taxi costs of getting to/from the park either...and then what? You go walking through the forest in the sweltering heat, or else pay even more for a tour of the park.
Currently waiting on laundry, so I've gotta stay in this city one more night before boarding a bus to some other place, hopefully cooler and more mountainous. This room has useless WiFi and no hot water, despite costing $16.50 USD. I've been dissatisfied with the value of Nepal so far, though the people are quite friendly.
1600 rupees for this A/C budget room with thin hard beds. 1000 for non A/C. That's $10.75 USD and $6.50 USD respectively. The A/C makes an awful squeaking noise, but at least it works. There's always something wrong with these budget rooms, but most of the time you can't figure out what it is until you've already paid and checked in. By then it's too late.
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)05:53:53
I don't see what you get out of this lifestyle. If I go somewhere its to do something, not wander around shitholes and back alleys having petty disputes with locals.
Probably some sex or drug thing you aren't telling us about.
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)06:35:42
>>2881598 >>2881602 It sounds like everything is a gouge there and India is better. Don't you have to pay $125 for the 90 day visa too
>>2881608 The population density is lower and pace of life is much slower here, which is probably its biggest appeal compared to India's relentless traffic congestion. It's remarkable how few cars there are on the roads of this city (9th largest in Nepal BTW). Traffic is nearly all motorbikes and electric tuktuks. People are graceful and don't have that brusque indifferent manner when doing business that they have in Indian cities.
Most Nepalese restaurants are grimy and traditional. No menu cards, no food photos, no branding. You eat what they serve and pay whatever price they tell you. Commonly they serve kanna sets, which are basically rice plates with dal, chicken/veg sabji, and an assortment of sides. Chapati are less common than in India. Typical non-veg price is 200-250 ($1.30-1.60 USD). I went to a nicer hotel restaurant and paid 350 for the chicken kanna set in picrel. A little overpriced; flavor was okay.
Another thing worth noting, alcohol is sold literally everywhere here in Nepal. Local restaurants have liquor in display cabinets, and there seems to be a liquor store on every block. Across from my hotel is a dance club, kek. I guess people here like to drink and have a good time. >>2881604 To you, "going somewhere" is setting out from your home on a journey. That's why you need a list of goals to structure your limited time away from home. My travel life OTOH is nomadpilled: >find a hospitable place to stay using public transport >acquire essentials: shelter, food, water Because most Third World destinations are shitty when you're living in a budget, I grow tired of them quickly. The constant change of setting is the principal mental appeal of the travel life, and public transport makes it very easy to move to the next town. If I stayed in one place for a long time, the lack of external stimulation would basically shut down my brain. I've always loved the idea of needing only a passport and a wad of cash to live free of others' expectations.
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)11:36:40
>>2881642 Youre not living though. Youre just existing in a state of transit. You make no long term friends, have no accomplishments, you dont really do much of anything except go from point a to b over and over. Its truly hellish. Transit is always the worst part of visiting backwaters in the third world but its what you seek exclusively.
No, there is another explanation for this fixation of yours.
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)11:36:48
ATM fees are quite high in Nepal. One ATM demanded 500, the next 850, and the next 750 (about $5 USD). I withdrew a big wad of cash in anticipation of tomorrow's trip into the mountains; you never know when local ATMs are not going to work. $100 in local currency sounds like a lot, but it's only five days' worth of expenses.
As for a phone plan, 40 GB of data with 30 day validity cost me 600 NPR ($4 USD). The SIM card cost 100 NPR.
There are many buses going to Budar, a small village at 1250 meters elevation about four hours' ride from here. Might as well stop there for a night. For now I'm drinking some Gorkha premium Nepali beer in my room, because it's still hot and humid outside at 5 PM. The beer cost 275 NPR or $1.81 USD per 500 mL can. English proficiency is limited here, but eventually your point gets across. They never have the beer selection or prices on display in these shops, so if you're not familiar with what they offer, you have to ask a bunch of questions. But this is South Asia, not Poland. Nobody's going to get annoyed with you for asking fifty questions about beer offerings & prices like you've never bought a can before.
BTW I set out from Pune on April 3rd with the intention of flying out of Kathmandu on June 8th. You'd think that would be way too much time to cover this distance, but I've felt consistently pressured to keep moving forward since then. People think the world is small and easy to explore, but this is only true if you fly from one city to another. On ground level, the world remains vast and arduous to traverse. My Nepal visa is valid until June 10th, so I lost a couple days with a late arrival. No biggie; 28 days to get to Kathmandu allows for plenty of rest along the way. The flight to Bangkok was pricier than I wanted to pay. $239 for 2210 km is a ripoff in terms of cost per km, but there is no other option for leaving Nepal. The entire country has only one international airport.
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)11:50:19
>>2881651 Imagine flying across the world with a pocket full of simpbux just to simp for some brownie hole that might offer you a higher probability of hole access than the pink holes back home. LOL, couldn't be me.
There is literally no elaborate explanation. I got tired of living in a minivan that was on the verge of breaking down and decided to travel overseas instead so I could NEET it up in a real building with toilet and shower, and ride public transport to get to someplace new instead of driving. This isn't rocket science, unless you've been mindbroken into submission to your boomer parents and can't imagine a life without depending on them. LOL, couldn't be me.
Despite still having plenty of money, I have a plane ticket back to America coming up in July. So I'll have to go back and try my luck in some shithole like Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Life is a perpetual stroogle, so you might as well accept it.
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)12:24:11
>>2881651 It's a misdirection. He's doing this to post on facebook and have an alibi for his family/friends back home. He's flying to Bangkok in June and that's where the real fuckery begins
He's going to all of these random outcrops in India and Nepal just so when he goes home he can memory his degenerate romp in Thailand where he banged/gets banged by ladyboys continually for a fortnight straight.
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)13:08:05
Is Mt Everest base camp worth visiting if I don't plan to actually climb the whole mountain, just see it up close? Like is there anything to do in the actual town nearby?
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)14:04:20
Why are there so many Nepalese criminals? When they get caught they pretend to be Tibetan.
00
Anonymous05/13/26(Wed)20:22:00
>>2881436(OP) What is the Public Toilet Situation in nepal?
00
Anonymous05/14/26(Thu)09:35:47
>>2881657 >Like is there anything to do in the actual town nearby? >Town *Village This ain't a town, bro. Does it look like there's anything to do here?
The trip to base camp is something you do for the sake of the trip to base camp and to see the mountains on the way. I had a great time but if you're not someone who enjoys hiking through mountains then I dunno what you're doing in Nepal.
>>2881642 Lowland Nepal is the worst part of the country imo. Beeline to the Himalayas and enjoy the mountains.
00
Anonymous05/14/26(Thu)11:40:23
>>2881805 Nepal is a lot duller and more uniform than India. English proficiency is limited in the countryside, and the people aren't very smart or literate either, so they struggle to understand the most basic ideas like "I would like to get a room". The food at the local dining shacks is pretty awful. They sure as hell don't know how to cook with spices like Indians do. Ingredients never seem to be fresh either, with customer volume as low as it is. Poor digestion is inevitable. Fuck, it's been six weeks since I last felt healthy and full of energy, ready to go climbing mountains every day. Eventually you forget what it's like not to be tired and out of sorts all the damn time.
Rooms are very cheap in these dull mountain villages. 1000 rupees per night seems standard for a room with attached bathroom. But this village Budar isn't worth a stay. There's nothing to explore in the vicinity for a foot traveler, nothing to photograph. Hazy hills covered in pine forest or hideous village shacks along the roadside, that's about it. No wonder everyone says "go to Pokhara". >>2881716 Awful dirty shitshacks near restaurants where buses and vans stop for rest breaks. Public transport is very disorganized here. Bus parks are a free-for-all of drivers and vehicles, all going wherever they please. Getting information is a real pain; you have to state your destination to somebody random and then he asks somebody else, etc etc until word gets around to the right driver, and then they direct you to the vehicle which is going where you want to go. With the curvy mountain roads, vomiting is very common among the passengers.
Interestingly, electric vans are the norm here, even in the mountains. Every village has several fast charging stations. >>2881662 South Asians are opportunists. Cash drawers are never left unlocked for a second here, because nobody trusts their neighbors. I don't trust anyone in this part of the world either, and the locals can definitely sense my wariness.
00
Anonymous05/14/26(Thu)12:16:03
>>2881805 I like hiking, I'm just not in a position to climb the whole mountain. I'd do a basic hike though
Now I have a gigantic wounded spider hiding in my room; somehow I lost track of it when it was running away, and now it's out of sight. Will it seek revenge for my attempt to kill it once the lights go out?
Man do these villagers love to talk. Nothing else to do here, it seems. There's been non-stop chatter all afternoon and all evening outside my window, along with cooking fumes (that don't smell appetizing at all, despite my hunger).
Bus fares in Nepal are more expensive than India. A 50 km ride cost 350 NPR or $2.30 USD. In India it would've cost 110 INR or $1.25 USD. But Nepalese hotels never say "no foreigners", so you are free to stay wherever rooms are available. In fact, the bigger challenge here in the Himalayan backcountry is finding hotels and restaurants that offer acceptable quality for a tourist. Nepalese have so much less spending money than Indians do; stagnant prices and disinvestment is the norm.
My room here in Amargadhi cost only 600 NPR or $3.98 USD, a new record for cheapest room in all my travels. Bathroom is outside; there doesn't appear to be anyone else staying here. There's no electricity due to repair work. In fact, I haven't had a hot bath since I arrived in Nepal. Might as well stay one night and then move on to the next town, slowly making my way across the expanse of the country toward Kathmandu.
A bunch of ladies were selling Himalayan mulberries at the bus rest stop. A pint cost 100 NPR (about $0.65 USD). They seemed rather desperate for customers. In most of Asia I haven't seen much desperation for money, but here in Nepal people seem very needy. Lots of money gets wasted on alcohol, that's for sure.
Finally got to enjoy a great Nepalese kanna set last night, with hot roti and savory chicken and steaming dal and veggie sides. They charged 300 NPR per plate, but business was brisk because it was good stuff. While eating, a barefoot teenager stepped out of a transport vehicle on the nearby highway, walked into the restaurant, and grabbed my water bottle off the table for a drink. I reached out and grabbed it back out of his hand before he could drink any. He didn't apologize or show any indication of caring. This is the second local youth in the past few days who has tried to take something from me without my permission. While Indians strive to be likeable and deceitful as they attempt a scam, Nepalese seem more feral and resentful of white privilege.
00
Anonymous05/15/26(Fri)09:15:56
>>2881953 >In fact, I haven't had a hot bath since I arrived in Nepal. If the places you're staying at usually have electricity and buckets consider an immersion rod. In India they cost 600 rupees and were the MVP of my stay. It's how poorfag locals take hot baths if they dont have a geyser
>>2881963 Interesting, I've never heard of such a device before.
Today's hazy overcast morning gave way to a warm sunny afternoon, perfect for a walk in the pleasant community forest near the village, which sits on a mountaintop at nearly 1800 meters elevation. Nepali villages are ugly and squalid, but the people do a good job of preserving their forest greenery. All along the mountain highways you can see beautiful untouched forests.
Tonight's mountain rainstorm is gentle, with lots of lightning but no wind and no hard rain either. May is usually the month with the most clear days in the Himalayas, but the stormy weather pattern that started back in March for northern India has continued to sweep through again and again. Funny how the forecasters were calling for failure of the rains due to El Nino. But instead, swaths of South Asia are being deluged with rain during the height of the dry season. Temps are also much milder than expected, especially in the hilly regions.
00
Anonymous05/15/26(Fri)12:38:09
>>2881652 >ATM fees are quite high in Nepal. One ATM demanded 500, the next 850, and the next 750 (about $5 USD). I withdrew a big wad of cash in anticipation of tomorrow's trip into the mountains; you never know when local ATMs are not going to work. $100 in local currency sounds like a lot, but it's only five days' worth of expenses. How do you fund all this shit if you just transit around thirdie countries all the time?
Ridiculously flimsy supports for this mountainside shop. Despite the poverty, there are numerous vendors of jewelry, gold and women's clothing in these small hub villages. Nepali men slave away overseas to send money back home so their women can live a comfy idle life, gossiping with neighbors all day and going shopping every weekend. Same as in every Third World country. The migrant laborer men get exploited to the max while they are away from home, then when they come back home it's their turn to loaf around all day gossiping and drinking tea while their women do all the work of maintaining the household.
There are many posters by visa agencies promoting "Work and Study in Japan" to Nepali villagers. All the young men are infected with the greed bug: they all want to work overseas and make money, then come back and buy a new motorbike. They don't seem interested in starting a street snack stall or otherwise trying to make it in their home village. Too much work for too little money.
00
Anonymous05/15/26(Fri)13:04:23
>>2881983 >There are many posters by visa agencies promoting "Work and Study in Japan" to Nepali villagers. I'm surprised it's not Australia you're seeing on the posters. I work in immigration and yesterday I had to approve 20 fucking 'skills in demand' visas for barely literate Nepalis working as cooks. Like, I appreciate that the hospitality sector is a big part of the economy these days but the public accept these existence of these visa categories because they think we're bringing in nurses and aged care workers, not fucking fry cooks.
00
Anonymous05/16/26(Sat)06:20:35
nepal seems like those tiny countries that exist unnecessarily because of some political european mistake 100 yrs ago, because next to india it doesn't seem all that different from any other indian state with its own ethnic makeup and local language, it has little natural resources to fend for itself and practices the same religion as the rest of india even though its the home of buddhism
>>2882111 Nepal sure as hell doesn't feel tiny when you're on the ground and it takes four hours to cover 60 km across the rugged terrain. Today I went from 1800 meters elevation on a mountaintop ridge down to 450 meters elevation in a river valley. Hot and sunny down here in Dipayal, but the village looks quite pleasant, and my A/C room with minisplit unit, desk and attached bathroom cost only $9.95 USD per night.
There's a big cultural difference between Nepal and the Gangetic plains, but Uttarakhand does feel similar to Nepal in many ways. From what I've read, the Nepalese mountain kingdoms always maintained their independence from whoever was ruling North India. Their scarce resources made them unattractive to British colonizers, and the Mughal invaders likewise failed to subjugate the mountain people.
Yes, I got off to an expensive start in Nepal's big border town. But prices in the Nepal interior are significantly cheaper than in India. Food quality and taste is the biggest disappointment compared to India; the rooms are okay, if spartan. Hotel managers here are genuinely glad to serve a guest, whereas in India the hotel staff treated foreign guests like crap. I hated feeling like a beggar going door to door asking for a room, getting either refused a room or charged an inflated price like I was a nuisance instead of a guest.
Nepalese highways are in much better condition than I expected, barring a few landslide zones. The construction is very consistent in its quality. Traffic is much lighter than you'd expect given the remarkably high population density of the country (over 500 people per square mile in one of the most mountainous countries on Earth). Every village is full of people, but they just loiter around all day doing village stuff. Encountering horrible traffic in bumfuck nowhere India, you can't help but go "Jesus Christ, why are all these pajeets constantly zooming around in such an awful hurry?" That's not the case here.
Okay, Dipayal is kinda cool. It has this suspension bridge strung high over a gorge. Lots of teenage girls come here for selfies, even climbing the steep staircase in the midday heat. The boys seem to prefer splashing around in the rushing river below.
The highway to Dipayal descended from the mountaintop to follow the Seti river down to the village, but Himalayan rivers take winding paths through steep hilly terrain and do not make good routes for roads as a general rule. To continue eastward, the highway climbs into this pastoral valley before climbing upwards across the hills through dozens of switchbacks. Then it descends downward to Sanfebagar in the Budiganga river valley. Extremely arduous and slow travel is the result. It's still interesting to see the forest change as you go from higher altitudes to lower altitudes, but travel here is definitely an unpleasant ordeal. Transport vehicles don't depart until they are completely crammed with people. Thankfully, the human crush eases as the journey continues and people hop off at their villages.
From up high it's clear just how tiny even these principal Nepal mountain villages are. The map is covered in villages, yes, but very few of them have that economic magnetism which drives uncontrolled population growth. That was definitely not the case in Himalayan India, where the market-hub villages along the highway blanketed hillsides and spread out for kilometers in every direction along the roads. Indians would rather crowd together in appalling slums for a chance at success than relax in their comfy village homes somewhere far away from money and jobs. Nepalese as a general rule haven't caught on to this hustle culture yet.
More unappetizing food lacking in flavor and freshness has been featured for today's diet, along with loose, vile-smelling bowel movements. The chewiness of the chicken in every dish I've ordered here indicates that it has been sitting for days in a fridge that barely cools before it got cooked and served. Yes, the food is properly cooked, so it doesn't make you sick outright, but the bad quality still has an impact on digestion, and the lack of flavor reduces your willingness to eat sufficient calories. Today I ordered a $3 USD chicken pizza, but despite taking an hour to prepare, the crust was completely dry and devoid of good yeasty flavor. Barely any cheese on top, and no tomato sauce either, only a smear of that yucky orange sauce that is served with everything in Nepal (be it pizza, momos, chow mein, breakfast paratha, etc.). And you're supposed to dip it in ketchup that looks fake as can be. Spices? Forget about spices. Nepal doesn't use a tenth of the spices that India uses.
00
Anonymous05/16/26(Sat)15:36:39
>>2882159 >Lots of teenage girls What phenotype? Standard north indian or chinky?
>>2882180 There's a big range of ethnic phenotypes here, from dark-skinned fuzzy wuzzies to people with eyes like Xi Jinping. But there is much less Dravidian admixture than in northern India.
Smartphones are not universal here, but they are still very common, because Nepalis like all South Asians love to be constantly talking on the phone with each other. Can't help but wonder how many of the girls have remote boyfriends they videochat with and periodically ask money from. You see quite a lot of single young women in random rural villages with nice clothes and facepaint, their phones perpetually in their hands. Where do they get their spending money from? They clearly don't herd goats or harvest wood for a living. The e-simp economy has enabled a lot of pretty village girls to live a comfy life without having to peddle their ass in the city.
80 km to Sanfebagar was a tiring trip, although I was had a lucky seat placement and was not squeezed in like everybody else. This time the van filled up to the brim with sixteen passengers and stayed that way for the entirety of the journey, which involved about fifty phone calls to the driver and twenty different stops along the way.
Sanfebagar itself is an ugly riverside village, with some really old buildings on its ratty streets. So many people, so little commerce going on. There is a disused airport right next to the village; as if people would spend a bunch of money to fly to this hot dirty shithole, kekek
The abandoned airport's control tower in picrel. Villagers were cutting grass by hand all across the airport grounds. Some chatty boys came over from their cricket game to say hi and ask some questions. Kids sometimes ask me for money here, but these boys didn't.
Travel burnout has definitely caught up with me after five plus months on the move. Nepalese want foreigners to enjoy their country, but I haven't found much about these untouristed parts to be enjoyable. Bed time is the best part of the travel day. Fall asleep to dream of fun roadtrip adventures with (imaginary) friends in America, feeling on top of the world, then wake up and realize that you're poorfagging it in Nepal instead, with months of weary, solitary onward struggle to look forward to. Such is the life I've chosen, both abroad and back in America. On the bright side, six weeks in Thailand should be very restful and restorative.
Today's fish curry kanna plate was pretty good, served at one of the nicest restaurants in the villages for 300 rupees. A different eatery had sliced potatoes sitting out in the sun on a filthy back porch, next to a bucket of discarded food swarming with flies. Evidently after sun-drying, they marinate the potatoes in some kind of sauce and serve them raw as a side dish? Previous kanna plates had some crunchy potatoes like that. Hardly a surprise that diarrhea resulted. Daily probiotic capsules seem to fix the unrest within a day or two.
00
Anonymous05/17/26(Sun)14:13:51
>>2882365 what are you gonna do in Thailand? come to malaysia bro lets fuck shit up
I don't want to overexaggerate the ugliness of Nepal. The market villages are ugly, but the green hills and forests of the countryside are quite beautiful on a sunny day. You see, it takes affluence to enjoy a natural aesthetic. Wealthy people go for a weekend or a holiday in the hills and brag on Instagram about how they so enjoy unwinding in nature and letting the stress lift off their shoulders. But from a poorfag perspective, both as a tourist and as a local traveler, the rugged terrain is merely an obstacle that makes everything difficult. Instead of feeling blessed to be in the hills, you begin to feel stuck in this labyrinthine hellscape of steep slopes. Transport vehicles pass by so seldom, and they are always jam-packed. You are completely at the mercy of the driver...though to their credit, the fares charged are consistent with the distance covered, at NPR 6 per km.
The next village with lodging, Mangelsen, is 37 km away on the side of the mountain...easy to get to. But after that is a 130 km stretch of rugged mountain & river road connecting Sudarpaschim to Karnali province with no sizable villages for the entire stretch. Is there even going to be shared transport options along that route? Who knows. Hitchhiking is hardly an option when there are close to zero private cars roadtripping along these hilly highways. You can only hope a coach bus shows up and covers the distance you need to go in order to continue eastward.
>>2882367 I already completed the overland traverse from Bangkok all the way down to Johor Bahru. It's a seriously long journey, though still much easier than traversing these goddamn Himalayas.
Would rather visit Nakhon Ratchasima and Ubon Ratchathani, check off a few new provinces. Continue living cheap, eat good food for a change, stroll the flat wide roads of the provincial towns, and forget all about chasing rugged scenery. Hopefully those rural provinces still have cheap weed easily available...
00
Anonymous05/17/26(Sun)15:23:31
>>2882378 You could have got weed easily from the nigerians in delhi. even if you get caught if you pay the cops 1000 rupees or so they let you go
00
Anonymous05/18/26(Mon)04:16:11
>>2882391 Nope, the weed-smoking Nigerians are few in number, and they're also very suspicious of strangers. They're not hawking or smoking joints on the sidewalk in India, that's for damn sure. And even if you do get a connection to a seller, they're going to price-gouge you. I'm not such an addict that I'd pay $15+ USD for a gram of hydroponic skunk weed that is going to stink up my hotel room and get me in trouble. Most Indians smoke village weed that smells like a burning brush pile and has maybe 2% THC content. I passed by quite a few people smoking in public in India.
Nepal also has a cannabis culture, with the stuff growing wild in many hilly areas. Decades back, there used to be hash shops in Kathmandu before the US government pressured Nepal to outlaw the herb. Villagers remain very discreet about their cannabis usage. I haven't seen anyone smoke weed in public here, nor has anyone offered weed to me. There are also a surprisingly large number of police in Nepal, mainly standing at traffic checkpoints on the edge of villages. Evidently it's to curb drunk driving. One hardass policeman at a checkpoint started searching my bag as I entered the country, but I casually told him it only contained laundry and he lost interest in pawing through my dirty clothes.
00
Anonymous05/18/26(Mon)05:18:00
>these slums arent dense enough >the men arent brown and sweaty enough >women are on their phones >my feet hurt
Sounds like slumtard ran out of gay indian cocks to suck and is feeling a bit catty after a few days without dravidian spooge lubing his cheeks.
00
Anonymous05/18/26(Mon)06:21:44
>>2882564 Ah, yes. Another day, another fantasy about gay buttsex with sweaty unwashed Indian guys
00
Anonymous05/18/26(Mon)09:01:07
>>2882367 >come to malaysia bro lets fuck shit up What are you doing in Malaysia to fuck shit up? >nothing bro
One week in Nepal is complete! >Total spending: $132 USD or $18.95 per day This is the lowest first-week spending figure of any Asian country I've been to. >Lodging: $62.50 or $8.92 per night Room prices are very low here, especially if you go for the cheaper options with cold water, no A/C, or hallway bathroom. >Food: $339 or $5.55 per day Same cost as India. But I did skip meals on several occasions. The mountain roads can leave you feeling sick, especially if the driver is a hellraiser. >Transport: $14 to cover 286 km Almost twice as expensive as India per km. It also sucks a lot more. Overcrowding, random departure times, etc. Hours of bullshitting and phone calls before departure and all along the route are the norm. The Mahindra I rode today didn't even have benches in the back. The driver was an asshole and after two hours of bullshitting around he abruptly took off in the wrong direction with my luggage in the back. I rushed out into the road to stop him, but a fellow passenger convinced me not to stop him. "In ten minutes he'll be back, he's just picking up some guy on the other side of town". Nearly an hour goes by, and a coach bus passes through the village with seats available, but I can't hop on board because I let the guy drive off with my bags like a cuck. Lesson learned; keep your bags by your side and never trust these fucking drivers. >Laundry: $7.30 Ripoff pricing, but at least it was ready in 24 hours. >SIM card and phone service: $4.60 for a 30 day plan with 40 GB of data Very easy to get, stores all over sell SIM cards. Data speed is trash, barely usable for the simplest tasks at times. >Beer: $3.60 for two cans Mindblowing how prevalent alcohol is here. Every single restaurant and most shops have a liquor cabinet or a beer fridge. But drinks are not cheap here. Even soft drinks cost double their price in India.
00
Anonymous05/18/26(Mon)15:21:28
A room with attached bathroom here cost only $5.30 USD. Picture can't upload because the Nepal Telecom network is refusing to give me 4G coverage here in Mangalsen. This OPPO phone takes awful photos anyway, much worse than the old Motorola despite its four cameras.
So far, none of these villages are worth more than a single night's stay. Which means tomorrow will be a sixth consecutive day of travel through these hills. Human habitation on every hand, from the highest hills to the river-bottom valleys, terraced along the slopes. At night with so many lights strewn across the hillsides, you really get a sense of just how populated the region is.
Lack of trust has made it difficult to be friendly with the locals. In fact I've become more wary here than I was back in India, just because so many of the guys look like scruffy unemployed drunks, whose friendly mannerisms toward a white guy mask a fierce desperation to get their hands on some of that American money. Nepal is a low-crime society, but it is also a low-trust society, where keys are never left in a motorbike parked on the street.
Anyway, this was Mangelsen, a hillside slum built on ten different levels. There was a government palace on a hilltop that was rebuilt after the communists attacked and destroyed it back in 2002. Thick wildfire smoke has been plaguing the hilly areas lately, ruining the vistas at sunset. There were still quite a few people hanging out.
To continue onward, it was necessary to walk 2 km uphill to the far edge of town, where a Mahindra left for Karnali province with the usual load of people crammed in anywhere they could fit. The townspeople offered to bring me on a tuktuk, but I declined.
After climbing up to 2100 meters elevation, the Mahindra descended to 650 meters at the crossing of the frothy, fast-flowing Karnali River, which marks the boundary between Sudarpaschim and Karnali province. Making some progress at last! The village of Rakam, with hotels and restaurants aplenty, was located 6 km upriver of the junction, but the transport vehicle was headed downriver. The locals offered a tuktuk, but I refused and flagged down one of the minibuses passing by. A 19 year old daredevil drove it like a maniac with his laughing friends. They asked 100 rupees for the short ride, but I told them 50, and since they were impatient to continue on, I handed over 60 and they took off.
Roads are awful in this area, evidently due to a recent flash flood that destroyed the pavement in every water crossing and also trigged many mudslides. The Karnali river highway sees a huge number of transport vehicles passing along it. I'm thinking about ascending to Jumla district, which is closer to Tibet than India. With the thick haze ruining the vistas, is it even worth going all that distance trying to get a glimpse of some snowy peaks? Besides, the highway turns into a dirt trail up there. Yes, there are endless backcountry villages and trails to explore up in that high terrain. But I just don't feel up for a trekking adventure deep into the mountains, where I will have to endure cold weather and rain, climb steep rocky trails, eat awful peasant food and sleep in a filthy shack or tent surrounded by quiet staring children and old people. Travel along the principal highway is difficult enough.
The truth has been revealed. I'm not one of those Real Travelers. The Himalayans offer difficult adventure far beyond my comfort zone of short bus trips, short day hikes, and plenty of time spent relaxing in the room.
Tonight I'm ready to chill in a comfy A/C room with a big soft mattress and a water heater for a change...even if it is the most expensive room available out of the dozen hotels in the village at 2000 rupees per night. Why, that's only $13 USD per night. None of the other places of lodging in this village had A/C rooms, and the beds all have thin pads instead of real mattresses.
The cave-like gloom of windowless restaurant shacks with grimy cooking setups, rank odors and flies swarming everywhere has made it difficult to get a good appetite going. At least a few owners have renovated their joints to be bright and clean and cozy inside. Some of them even have printed menus. If you're starving and unsure what to eat, momos are a good option. They are popular with locals, so they're always freshly made, and quite tasty as well.
00
Anonymous05/19/26(Tue)13:52:26
>>2882624 >especially if you go for the cheaper options with cold water, no A/C, or hallway bathroom. This guy...
Nepalese have no more concept of aesthetic beautification than Indians do. South Asian development is simply hideous. But at least my fourth-floor room faces away from the highway to look out over a pastoral gully. Nice and quiet up here. Rarely do you get plagued with noise in Nepalese villages. Even the street dogs don't seem to bark as much as their Indian counterparts, and hotel keepers are happy to give you a room facing away from the road if that's what you want. Earplugs haven't been necessary so far here.
Quite a few guys here approach me for a chat, though I respond with neutral indifference and don't show any desire or appreciation for overtures of friendship. They always seem perplexed as to the purpose of my journey across their country, particularly along this difficult route. In their mind, tourists are supposed to be enjoying themselves in the company of friends or a woman. They are supposed to hire private transport and go straight to the tourist destinations, where they can spend money having a good time. But I'm determined to do this journey my own way, village by village to Kathmandu over the course of four weeks, following the principal highways on Google Maps and getting a glimpse at the travails of daily life in this land of endless hills.
A typical plate of Nepalese momos, eaten in a windowless restaurant so dark (even with the one dim lightbulb on) that flash photography is necessary. Price for a plate of ten ranges from 120 to 180 rupees. These were 120 and their flavor was lacking. Today was a day of eating cheap crappy food. One restaurant here offered a chicken kanna set for 400 rupees, ready in an hour or so. Half an hour later I saw them burning the feathers off a freshly killed chicken in a fire. That chicken plate wasn't going to be ready for a long time.
Regarding the darkness so prevalent in the village shacks...glass windows are still a luxury in the mountains of Nepal. Wooden shutters are the norm for houses, if they even have windows. Many don't.
00
Anonymous05/20/26(Wed)14:41:40
>>2883134 >Half an hour later I saw them burning the feathers off a freshly killed chicken in a fire. That chicken plate wasn't going to be ready for a long time. I used to go to one of those butchers where they kill the chicken and chop it up in front of you. It takes like 15 minutes from live chicken to meat
00
Anonymous05/20/26(Wed)14:41:51
>>2883134 are vegtables or daal going to make you shit too? also have you seen anything cool to do with hinduism and buddhism?
Today's journey took me 85 km up the Karnali Highway, a road through a horrible endless gorge that nature destroys with floods and rockslides faster than man can repair it. It's called Nepal's deadliest highway, and has been featured in several documentaries. A branch of the Karnali River rushes alongside through bouldery rapids of extreme violence, sometimes right next to the road, but more often far below it on a treacherous dropoff that is constantly needing reinforcement. The road surface is more rocky sections than pavement, though repairs and paving are underway everywhere you look. At some points, the bus had to squeeze past gigantic overhanging shelves of rock, leaving only a foot to spare on the dropoff side.
To help defray the costs of construction, the government of Nepal fixes very high fares for bus travel. My fare from Rakam cost 1600 rupees or over $10 USD - that's triple the rate of my first bus ride here in Nepal. The high earnings from this route incentive a huge number of transport vehicles to make the difficult journey. Despite the poverty of the mountains and the high bus fares, demand for transport remains extremely high, as the highway is the only connection to the capital city of Sukhet for hundreds of thousands of mountain dwellers. Every transport vehicle is jam-packed with people and piled high with merchandise on top.
During past years like 2010, people starved to death when mass flooding wiped out the Karnali Highway and made it impossible to bring goods into the mountains short of trekking for dozens of kilometers along footpaths. For some reason, nobody uses burros or mules up here. All packing of goods along footpaths is done on people's backs, with a strap around their forehead. Women carry heavy loads more often than men do.
00
Anonymous05/20/26(Wed)14:54:24
>>2882909 >>2882624 Anon can you talk about your extreme passion for ... frugality? noh8 but the amount of scrutiny that is shed on what I would consider extremely cheap ($9!) rooms is totally foreign to me. Is it because of long-haul traveling + small budget, are you saving for something... or do you just love da struggle lol
Nagma village was where the ride ended, so that's where I'm staying. Don't forget to segregate your trash as you throw it off the side of the hill! Cardboard boxes in one area, glass bottles in another, plastic in a third. The slopes all around the village have been denuded of trees; a surprisingly rare sight in a country where wood cookfires are still the norm.
Despite being 2000 meters above sea level, temps have barely dropped after dark - a heatwave must be underway. A quick check of weather in Delhi reveals that it's a very good time of year to be at altitude.
Nepal for all its faults is a very hospitable country, much like Laos. Search for hotels on Google Maps and you will get a "no results found" error, but don't let this fool you. If you zoom in to the maximum level in any highway village, you will see many places of lodging appear. There are even more hotels IRL than the map shows. A far cry from many other countries, like India or even Thailand, where sizable villages will have very few places of lodging, making it essential to plan ahead and pick a town with lodging options to spend the night in.
Here in Nepal, it's considered obligatory for hotelkeepers to offer food to their guests. But the cheap hotel restaurants inside the lobby always smell stale and yucky, and they look completely unpatronized as well. >>2883142 Loss of appetite, bad digestion and low energy is part of travel in highly impoverished places. As long as I don't get outright food poisoning, it's okay. Part of the struggle that is life. >religious stuff Everyone has the dots on their heads up here, but I saw a lot more ooga booga temple activities in India. Indian temples were also much larger and more conspicuous with their colorful spires. Nepalese shrines look like a dumping ground for random knick-knacks, and temples are inconspicuous.
>>2883146 In India - the country with the world's fastest rising hotel prices - I was a frugal bargain hunter always hunting for a deal and protesting when they tried to charge me $16 USD for a basic-ass non A/C room before offering $13 USD like it was some kind of special deal.
But I'm not a bargain hunter in Nepal. The same basic-ass non A/C room with attached bathroom is offered upfront for $6.50 here at any property you go to. Reasons are several: >lack of local spending power, i.e. most fornicators can't afford rooms >lack of prosperous Indian businessmen and corrupt babus who pay inflated rates for rooms without a care >glut of hotel supply in every village due to past hopes of a tourism boom in Nepal - versus a dearth of hotel supply in India >stagnant tourism economy in the Nepalese hinterlands - versus every scenic corner of India being flooded with Instagram pajeets >steadily devaluing currency, which ensures that USD price declines over time if the market fails to justify room rate hikes It's the perfect combination of factors keeping room prices depressed in rural Nepal. Hotel prices aren't affected much by the supply chain dynamics which jack up prices of food and transport even in an impoverished remote area (one could say especially in an impoverished remote area). Hotels in areas with tourist potential are a long-term investment which may not make bank for decades. Construction costs are sunk costs, forgotten over time. ROI may be very low for years, but what if traveling the Karnali Highway becomes an Instagram fad among foreigners next year? At least that's what every hotel owner hopes. Renting $5 per night rooms is still better than sitting on a stack of Nepalese rupees in the bank and watching it lose value on a weekly basis.