Going home after 5 long years (५ वर्ष पछि मातृभुमी फर्कदां)

Summer holiday began for both myself and my sister, as we finished our exams.  Both of us have been in the UK for almost 5 years now, since the last time we came here was back in August 2004.  Both of us needed a nice break from our daily life here, so we planned to go back to our beautiful motherland Nepal, and visit our family and friends there.  We were glad that both our parents were very supportive and gave us their thumbs up as soon as the proposition to visit Nepal was made.  As soon as we got our green signal from our parents, we bought our air tickets online and started all our necessary preparations, bearing in mind the strict code of practice or in other words "Dos and Don'ts" our parents had taught us for our trip to Nepal.

Our journey began on 28^th of June, when we took off from London Heathrow Airport on Qatar Airways. It was a long journey taking us around 8 hours from London Heathrow to Doha, and then around 4 and a half hours from Doha to Kathmandu. We landed at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu at 8 AM, to be exact, in the morning where our Bathe Captain Hom Bahadur Gurung was there to receive us. The feeling of being back to Nepal was astounding. The environment, the people, the language were not something new to us, although we had missed them dearly. I am sure any Nepalese can relate to the feeling we had.

On our stay in Kathmandu, we resided at Basbari at our Bathe’s place. The hospitality from our Bathe and Athe was amazing, and made our stay of 5 days in Kathmandu very enjoyable, since we were not so familiar with Kathmandu.  Our Phupu, Mrs Meena Gurung took the responsibility of our Kathmandu tour. She took us to Dakshin Kali, Bhaktapur, Narayanhiti Palace and other popular places of interest, like New Road, Bag Bazar, Bishal Bazaar etc. We had a wonderful tour of Kathmandu, and really enjoyed our short stay there.

We then headed off to Pokhara in a private car, which probably was the best idea, as we got to witness the beautiful greenery on our way to Pokhara, thanks largely to Meena aunty's sister and brother-in-law. The view was just mind-blowing, and we just could not stop admiring the beauty, which was right in front of our eyes. The green hills congregating alongside Trishuli and Marshyangdi River flowing so flawlessly just made us feel very good inside.  We felt even better when we finally arrived Pokhara.

Pokhara is a city that we both have a very deep connection with.  We both have been born and bred there with our very close relatives.  Just the feeling of being in Pokhara was indescribable.  We had planned to stay in Pokhara for two weeks at our maternal grandparents place at Srijana Chowk.  It was the same place and same house we used to live in, when we were in Pokhara. The city had not changed at all. Everything was more or less the same to what we had seen and left 5 years ago. Meeting our grandparents after so long was an emotional moment for both of us. We were just glad to see their priceless smile on their face when they saw us.  We had the pleasant opportunity to meet our paternal grandmother Mrs Hari Kumari Gurung who was there too.  It felt good to be back home.

In Pokhara, we had the best time with our very close family and friends.  Going around Mahendrapool with our ex-school friends, where we spent most of the days window-shopping, was great fun, as there is nothing better than spending quality times with your friends.  We made a genuine trip to Lakeside and definitely didn’t miss out on the boat ride in Fewa Lake, which we found a bit expensive.  Fewa Lake had never looked so beautiful before. The best part was we felt closer to our Tamagi village, just looking at the view, which was breathtaking.

Our stay in Pokhara felt so short, as everyday we spent our time with our friends and every night with our family members.  We felt really good to see everyone so excited to meet us again, and they were more than happy to take us around places.  As the saying goes “good things don’t last forever” likewise the good time we spent in Pokhara had to come to an end.  We flew back to Kathmandu and were back to Basbari again to our Bathe’s place.  Leaving Pokhara was quite sad for both of us and all we had was good fun memories to bring back with us.  We stayed in Kathmandu for three days, which we spent doing some last minute shopping.  And finally the day of 22^nd July arrived.  We sadly said goodbye to our country, and flew back with one thing in mind that we would be back again.  We have realised that there is no other country like Nepal. The importance of our motherland and the culture our ancestors, our parents and we were brought up in, was felt deeply by both of us.

We would like to thank our Baje, Bajais, Bathe, Athe, Phupu, Nisha Didi/Soltini, Hosiyar Mama and Phupu and all our close relatives from the bottom of our heart for making our stay in Kathmandu and Pokhara so much better than we had expected.  Thanks also to everyone who made our visit in Nepal full of wonderful memories. 

Here are some of the photographs from our wonderful trip to Nepal.    Miss Akriti Gurung, Rayleigh, Essex, UK