It was not easy to say goodbye to the amazing views of the Annapurna Mountains and the scenic Phewa Lake in Pokhara but we had to head back to reality. The plan was to take a short hop back to Kathmandu, spend a night in Kathmandu before flying back to Kuala Lumpur.

After saying goodbye to our awesome guide and porter, we were back at Pokhara Airport.

We had a 1.5 hours delay which we were told was quite normal.

A short walk to the plane. Security personnel were firm but friendly, allowing passengers to take photos.

9N-AIM, an 18-years old ATR42-300.

Goodbye Pokhara!

Immediately after take-off we enjoyed the last view of the mountains. Up close or from far, it is still breathtaking view.

Weather was good so it was a smooth routine flight.

My first time seeing a passenger plane seat facing backwards. The reward is that you get to seat next to the crew during takeoff and landing!

Arrival in Nepal domestic terminal was quite simple. A bus ride from the plane straight to this baggage claim area.

We were welcomed by the trekking team representative who drove us to the hotel.

Views throughout the journey from the airport to the hotel.

We stayed at Hotel Marshyangdi in Thamel, Kathmandu. Not the best hotel but basic enough for us to survive the one night. Power cuts throughout Kathmandu is nothing new. We only had basic lights for the duration of our stay. No heater, power points, tv, elevator. Just lights.

View from the room.

One good thing about Thamel despite it being crowded and touristy is the fact that you can find almost anything within the streets of Thamel.

Plenty of good quality imitation of trekking equipment and clothing.

Besides the fridge magnets, I only bought this cool book as souvenir.

We were not convinced by the cleanliness of food being sold at the restauraunts nearby and the hotel food was quite pricey so we ended up eating our back-up food from Malaysia!

Not easy eating in the dark with only one small light in the room.

I am glad that we spent most of our time in Pokhara and the mountains. Kathmandhu is too busy and dusty for me although I am sure it has its attractions as well. I’ll keep that for my next trip
The next morning, we had back to KL via Malaysia Airlines. The after-effect of the 3-day trekking finally kicked in and I slept even before the plane left the gate.

#NepalAkuDatang is an amazing trip and it’s quite difficult to describe it with words and photos. I highly recommend anyone that loves nature to experience at least the basic trekking in Nepal. We have proven to everyone that you don’t have to be an iron man to trek in Nepal, so go for it!

Thanks for reading all of my #NepalAkuDatang stories. Till next time!

__

If you missed any of my earlier #NepalAkuDatang stories, click here to check it out.
Interested to Trek in Nepal? I strongly recommend Trekking Team Prvt Ltd. Leave a comment below and I’ll hook you up with them. Also if you enjoy this story and the photos, do leave some feedback below as well.

Rise and shine.

We stayed in a very basic lodge but to wake up to this kind of view is priceless.

Good morning Nepal.

While the view of the mountains is not as up-close as the view from Ghandruk, it was still a nice feeling to have breakfast while enjoying the sight of the mountains.

Gurung fried bread with honey and ‘poached egg Nepal style’!

Prayer flags – a common sight along the mountain path in Nepal.

The start of day 3 trekking in Pothana.

Easier downwards trek but after 2 full days of walking our knees started to send signals for us to go easy on the pace.

The mountains kept us entertained. While it was not really an up-close view, it was nice to see the view from Pothana and Dhampus as the distance enables a more panoramic and sweeping view of the mountains.

Got to love the stone steps after three days!

Australian Camp, another common destination along the trek. Maybe next time

Fishtail on a clear day

A ‘forest’ trek for about 30 minutes.

Dhamphus – the finishing line of our 3 day trek! Alhamdulillah we completed the 3-day trek with no major incidents and lots of interesting stories.

With our permits. The proof that we have set foot on a small portion of Annapurna trek.

With Durbar and Maddy of Trekking Team.

AzuanZahdi.com was here – #NepalAkuDatang!

Usually trekkers would continue to trek until Pedhi from Dhampus but we had a flight to catch so a 4WD truck waited for us at Dhampus.

It was a fun 45 minutes ride from Dhampus to Phedi and Pokhara. A few ‘corner baring’ turns along the way.

Good bye Ghandruk loop. Till we meet again next time.

If you missed any of my earlier #NepalAkuDatang stories, click here to check it out.

Interested to Trek in Nepal? I strongly recommend Trekking Team Prvt Ltd. Leave a comment below and I’ll hook you up with them. Also if you enjoy this story and the photos, do leave some feedback below as well.

Our adventure continues with the journey from Pokhara to Kathmandu and back to … (to be continued).

Malaysia’s first hybrid airline model, Malindo Air, has successfully started its flights to East Malaysia on 22nd March 2013. Leveraging on the strength of Lion Air Group, the airline operates brand new Boeing 737-900ER aircraft currently providing thrice-daily services to Kota Kinabalu and four-times-daily services to Kuching.

Over the last couple of weeks, I received quite a number of queries on Malindo Airlines from AzuanZahdi.com readers. People are still unsure on what to expect from this new hybrid airline concept of Malindo Air. In order to answer some of these questions and simply because of the fact that I love flying, I took the effort to book myself a day-trip to Kota Kinabalu just to allow me to experience Malindo Air on its second day of operations.

Through Malindo Air’s website I was able to get the introductory all-inclusive promo fare of RM136. Reasonable price for a day trip

OD1002 – the first flight to Kota Kinabalu from Main Terminal Building, KLIA is scheduled to be at 0650 every day. I was at the terminal as early as 5:30am.

Malindo Air occupies half of the counters at Row F.

I was welcomed at the check-in counters by Miss Adriana Aman, a friendly personnel that granted me my request for an aisle seat.

I had no checked-in luggage so the whole check-in process took only 2-minutes. I look forward for Malindo to enable its web check-in features on their website which could be a useful time-saver option for passengers without checked-in luggage especially on flights as early as OD1002.

Boarding pass.

Malindo Air Boeing 737-900ER. This aircraft (9M-LNF) is special due to the fact that it is the 7,500th Boeing 737! A huge family of 737 workhorse.

Boarding process was completed using the usual routine of special assistance > family with kids > rows at the back > front rows. No business class passengers for today’s flight. On a similar note, I shall include “flying business class on Malindo Air” as one of my target for 2013.

The business class seats.

I was the last person to board the plane. Pax load was quite low with last few rows of seats remain unoccupied.

Within minutes, boarding was completed and door was closed for push-back, a couple minutes earlier than scheduled time.

With a tagline of “Not Just Low Cost”, Malindo is not only a Low Cost carrier but also an airline that provides superior products and service. It’s ‘hybrid airline’ concept is more than just a marketing gimmick. The products offered are reflective of this concept and it is something that I personally willing to pay extra to enjoy.

In the economy class section, the comfortable leather seat offers a 32in pitch, which is significantly better than low-cost carriers and some aircrafts operate by full-service carriers.

The large seatback in-flight entertainment screen is a nice touch! Don’t forget to bring your own headset – the usual single -jack type or buy onboard for RM5).

Some screenshots of the IFE screen. Games, music jukebox, inter-seats chati and latest movies (Life of Pi) are part of this IFE system that is available in 5 languages. I was in #AVGeek mode so I decided to just tune in to the airshow channel for flight info.

If you have your own electronic device, bring your own USB cable and you do not have to worry about running out of power.

Breakfast was served as we reached the cruising altitude of 37,000 feet above the Royal Town of Pekan, Pahang.

Egg-sandwich and a small pack of mineral water. Free of charge. It is a nice touch but I personally think it would be even better if passengers are given the options to purchase a more solid food as well.

The flight was generally smooth thanks to the good weather condition throughout the journey.

Mood lighting that matches the cabin ambience with the environment outside. A nice feature of the Boeing 737-Next Generation series.

It is also worth mentioning that Malindo Air also provides free 15kg checked-in luggage allowance. For hand-carry it allows up to 7kg within the usual cabin-size bag requirements which can be placed at the overhead compartment or below the seat in front of you.

2-hours into the flight.

A friendly reminder to those enjoying the movies.

Approaching Kota Kinabalu.

Welcome to Kota Kinabalu International Airport. On-time arrival for OD1002 23 March 2013.

At the gate. Malindo Air utilizes the modern facilities of Terminal 1 KKIA.

I was the last few to leave the aircraft. All seven cabin crew were immediately occupied in preparing the cabin for the return flight. Fast turnarounds contribute towards a better aircraft utilisation rate which translates into better revenue flow.

One for my ‘aviation stories’ album!

Special thanks to the lovely Malindo Air crew members who not only help answered my many questions on the airlines and the 737-900ER aircraft but also for providing the world class cabin service that is at par with premium airlines’ hospitality that I have experience before this.

Flight OD1002 gave me a good first impression. Malindo Air is definitely in my personal list of preferred airlines and given the kind of services that I experienced (main terminal, aerobridge, good seat pitch, free IFE, free snacks, new aircraft, friendly crew) I wish Malindo Air the very best of success. I hope that the seats can be filled up easily, fares remain competitive if not low and the airlines can sustain its bottom-line while maintaining the standards of service in a long run. In the end, we passengers will be the winner.

For bookings – head over to http://www.malindoair.com/en/

p/s: With Malindo Air competitive fares to KK, we now have more reasons to travel for a holiday to Sabah! I did a short hop to Manukan Island and it was awesome! #SabahBounceBack

Coming up next: The video review of Flight OD1002! Please leave your comments below if you have any experience to share, feedback or questions

Unfortunately I was a bit late and traffic towards the terminal was quite messy with people stopping by the roadside.

Despite only enjoying the show from outside the terminal, it was still an awesome 20-minutes performance by the Breitling Jet Team over Subang’s airspace.

The final manoeuvre. Awesome stuff.

I was curious to know what else the airshow has to offer, so I did a quick RM10 tour of the static displays.

With the exception of the the Breitling Jet Team’s seven Aero L-39 Albatros aircraft and their SA227AC Metro III aircraft, the rest of the displays were quite similar with last year’s airshow.

The Aero L-39C Albatros aircraft. #6 and #8

#5

Nose shot.

One for my ‘airshows’ album

Some of my female blog readers requested for a photo of the BJT’s crew. Here’s one

The Extra-300s

Business as usual for the ATR72.

F-HPAA. The Metro III aircraft. Probably carrying the support team on their tour. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Helicopters static display

A great 1.5 hours spent admiring the beauty of the planes. I salute the organisers of this kind of aviation events as it brings the general public closer to the world of aviation. It is still in my opinion a ‘mini-scale’ airshow/aviation event but it’s definitely the right step forward and hopefully a bigger and more awesome show next year

It was only 5:55am when my blackberry’s alarm clock rings and I was so tempted to ignore it and continue to sleep. My friend and I started to feel the after effects of walking for 7 straight hours the day before but we forced ourselves out of our sleeping bags in time to witness the sunrise over the peaks of Annapurna mountains. If you have missed out on the earlier stories on my Nepal trip, click here to re-visit.

At the comfort of our guesthouse’s compound, we waited patiently for the first light to hit the peaks of all the mountains visible from Ghandruk.

Waking up to this view is one of the sweetest moments of my #NepalAkuDatang trip.

Good morning Ghandruk, Good morning Annapurna!

Morning temperature was about 1 degrees and it was quite windy by that didn’t stop us from camwhoring while waiting for breakfast to be prepared.

Breakfast was served at 7am, local gurung bread – a fried bread that some also call Tibetian bread. Served with fried egg and hot chocolate.

The view got better every minute and it was difficult to leave Ghandruk with the skies so clear offering plenty of photo opportunities.

Day 2 of our trekking covers an estimated distance of 15km from Ghandruk to Landruk and Pothana. Normally visitors new to trekking will do this stretch in 2 days but due to the time constraint, we decided to go all the way to Pothana in one day (highlighted yellow in the map below). Estimated trekking time for day 2: 8 hours.

“Semangat Harimau Malaya” to motivate me through the long day.

Good bye Ghandruk, i’ll be back one day, insyaAllah.

The first part of day 2 trek is going all the way down to the level of the river that we saw on day 1. (click here to read about day 1 trekking from Nayapul to Ghandruk).

Going down is not as tough as climbing up those uneven stone steps but it was definitely not a walk in the park.

At times I cannot help but to imagine the possibility of missing a step or stepping on something slippery.

The view throughout the day was nothing short of amazing.

I love the part where we got to observe local communities along the way.

Pit stop #2 marked that we have completed the first 1.5 hours downhill trek. A quick rest before going uphill for a few hours to reach Landruk our lunch stop.

One of the many bridges that we crossed.

The sky was clear and the sun was right up there with temperature around 25 degrees making the uphill task a bit tougher for us newbies.

Step-by-step literally.

After about 3 hours of going up on the stone steps, we finally reached Landruk. Roughly 5 hours after leaving Gnadruk.

Landruk is a pretty village. It has awesome views of the mountains and the houses are nicely organised to give everyone a chance to enjoy the view.

Lunch is served. Egg Curry and Rice. Sedih tak?

After about 1.5 hours lunch break, we continued our trekking towards the next village, Deuralli.

A combination of relaxing uphill walk and those ‘never-ending’ steep stone steps.

Passing through a small village where locals were enjoying a nice game of volleyball.

Azrul (@azrulRA) met up with a little fan. She followed us for a good couple of KMs with no signs of feeling tired.

Maddhu, our guide cheering us up by showing us the national flower.

At times it felt so difficult and after 7 hours of walking we started to take a more frequent time-outs.

Deuralli… finally. Our last pitstop before reaching the destination for day 2, Pothana.

We spent quite some time chatting with the locals in Deuralli and meeting other trekkers from other parts of the world while enjoying a cup of hot ginger lemon.

The last stretch, a 45-minute walk in the park from Deuralli to Pothana.

Finally, after 9.5 hours of trekking, we made it to Pothana just before it gets dark.

Our guesthouse was small and very basic with no electricity nor heater but it felt like Shangri-la after a long day being under the sun.

A victory dinner – Dhal Bhat, a traditional Nepali staple food consisting of steamed rice and cooked lentil soup dal.

Day 2 of our trekking adventure (3rd day of #NepalAkuDatang trip) ended with a personal achievement of completing the 15km trek from Ghandruk to Pothana. For many experienced trekkers, it might be an easy task but for both of us who rarely exercise and always busy with work, it was a personal achievement and a motivation to come back and do this again.

If you missed any of my earlier #NepalAkuDatang stories, click here to check it out.

Interested to Trek in Nepal? I strongly recommend Trekking Team Prvt Ltd. Leave a comment below and I’ll hook you up with them. Also if you enjoy this story and the photos, do leave some feedback below as well.

Our adventure resumes on day 3 as we complete our Ghandruk loop trek and return to Kathmandu… (to be continued).

Ghandruk Loop trekking is one of the easiest trek in the Annapurna Region, Nepal. A typical trek on the Ghandruk Loop takes about three to four days but since we had a tight schedule, we decided to push ourselves to complete the loop in 2.5 days. As shown on the map below, our journey for day 1 is highlighted in blue colour, from Nayapul to Ghandruk.

With a flight booked on the third day of our trek, we had no choice but to reach every checkpoint within the scheduled timeframe. A major delay will cost us our flight to Kathmandu and possibly our flight home to KL as well.

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If you missed any of my earlier #NepalAkuDatang stories, click here to check it out.

***

Our second day in Nepal (day 1 of Ghandruk Loop trekking), begins with a nice heavy breakfast at our hotel in Pokhara. Sort of like the last real food before going back to basics for 2.5 days.

“Can we really do this? Can 2 guys who seldom exercise and only train for 1.5 months survive this trek? Can we survive the cold weather?” With all of these questions playing in my mind, my friend and I met up with our trekking guide from Trekking Team Prvt Ltd, Mr. Madhu and Mr Durrba, our awesome porter.

The four of us cramped into a small taxi (equivalent to a Perodua Kelisa in Malaysia) for a short 40-minutes hop from our hotel to Naya Pul, the start of our trek.

A dose of Chai at the starting point.

The walk begins.

Birethanthi – entering the Annapurna Conservation Area.

We were lucky on that day to be accompanied by about 100 school kids on a camping trip heading to Ghandruk as well. We enjoyed talking to them at certain parts of the journey as much as they enjoyed practising their English speaking skills on us.

About an hour after leaving Naya Pul, we started to see the beautiful sights along the trail.

The first 90 minutes was quite fun with uphill walking that was not difficult. Perfect for warming up.

A small waterfall – a good place to take five.

Durbar carrying our 20kg luggage. He makes it look so easy but I’m sure it’s not at all easy.

The first glance of Machapuchare or Fishtail peak!

A river parallel to our trek.

Up, up, and more up!

Plenty of tea houses along the trek for trekkers to take a break.

Along the way, we stopped and distributed some souvenirs from Malaysia to the local kids. They seem to enjoy the Malaysia Airlines salted peanuts I took from the flight from KL.

Toilet with a view!

After a couple of hours, we could see our lunch stop not so far away.

Lunch break. Vegetarian fried rice.

Finding suitable food for Muslim is quite easy. Although there is no halal meat available and no seafood in this part of Nepal, there is always a choice of vegetarian options such as vegetarian fried rice, egg curry or even vege Dhal Bhat!

After lunch, it was the toughest part of the day 1 trek. Stairs, lots of stairs.

These stone steps are not only steep but at every point it feels like it is endless.

Remember the river earlier?

It was tough. We had trained on steps for this trip but we were never really had to go through it for multiple hours. We literally took one step at a time and seemed to make a good progress after a while. Motivation was of course the magnificent views and the friendly locals.

Azrul (Twitter: @AzrulRA) giving away an “I love Malaysia” pencil.

Anywhere I look, I could see a nice view to capture on my camera. The only problem was having to stop to take photos and slowing everybody down. Still I managed to snap some nice views on the Sony Nex.

At one point, we walked in front of a small school building with nice wall murals of flags around the world. I was excited thinking that we have reached Ghandruk. I swear that I almost cry when I saw the writing on the wall. 3.75km – 1.5 to 2 hours to go.

Like it or not, we continued to push forward. Somehow our guide made it look so easy!

With a collection of random mp3s on my phone (from running songs to jiwang karat), we somehow made it to the final kilometre for the day.

The river is now quite a distance away!

The trek on the left and the beautiful mountains on the right.

Just a little bit more.

Ghandruk finally!!!

We reached our destination for day 1 the Annapurna Guest House after about 6.5 hours leaving Nayapul.

The mountains were playing hide and seek with us so we decided to just enjoy the view the next morning when there’s less clouds.

Right after sunset and a nice well-deserved dinner, it was time for a good 8-hour sleep in the comfort of our sleeping bags as the temperature drops to zero degrees and no heater in the guest house.

Day 2 of the trekking offers us more challenges, magnificent views and surprises… to be continued.

If you missed any of my earlier #NepalAkuDatang stories, click here to check it out. Interested to try out trekking? I strongly recommend Trekking Team Prvt Ltd. Leave a comment below and I’ll hook you up with them. Also if you enjoy this story and the photos, do leave some feedback below as well.

If you have missed out on my earlier stories of this wonderful #NepalAkuDatang trip, click here to recap.

We had only 12 hours to spend in Pokhara before the start of our 3-day Ghandruk trekking adventure. A short 12 hours to recover from the tiring flights and jet lag and settle down to change of weather from 30 degrees in Malaysia to below 10 degrees celcius in Pokara.

We checked in into our accommodation for the one night stay – the 4-star Mount Kailash Resort (click here to view)

A nice little hotel with two beautiful views, the famous Phewa Lake and the mountains.

The room is basic but most importantly clean and come with all basic necessities such as attached bathroom, adequate power points with international adaptors, towels and toiletries and high-speed WiFi (very important for a blogger like me! )

Pokhara, especially the lakeside area in my opinion is a tourist resort town. Plenty of tourist-oriented shops, bars, restaurants, money changers and trekking shops. In comparison with Kathmandu, this is a nicer (and clamer + cleaner) place for holiday goers.

Nasi Goring anyone?

Too bad we only had 12 hours so we just went straight to the most famous attraction of Pokhara, the Phewa Lake.

Phewa Lake, Phewa Tal or Fewa Lake is a freshwater lake in Nepal located in the south of the Pokhara Valley. The lake is stream-fed but a dam regulates the water reserve, therefore, the lake is classified as semi-natural freshwater lake. It is the second largest lake in Nepal, the largest in Gandaki Zone followed by Begnas Lake. Phewa lake is located at an altitude of 742 m (2,434 ft) it covers an area of about 5.23 km2 (2.0 sq mi)[3] with an average depth of about 8.6 m (28 ft) with maximum water depth is 24 m (79 ft). The Annapurna range on the north is only about 28 km (linear distance) away from the lake, and the lake is famous for the reflection of mount Machhapuchhre and other mountain peaks of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges on its surface.

Source: Wikipedia

Beautiful sight. Perfect place to just chill.

It is recommended for those going to Pokhara to rent one of these boats and enjoy the beauty of Phewa Lake at different times of the day.

As the sun sets on our first day in Nepal, we head back to our hotel and stopped at a nearby trekking shop to buy last-minute equipment for our 3-day Ghandruk trek.

The product’s quality may not be as good as original items but at quarter of the original price (after lengthy bargaining), it is good enough to last for a couple of trekking/hiking trips.

It is cheaper to buy things like walking stick, gloves, headlight etc here in comparison to Malaysia. Of course for crucial items like trekking boots, it’s best to buy original and way ahead before a trekking trip.

We were caught off-guard with the rather sudden change of weather after the sun sets. When we went out around 4pm, it was still 15 degrees but as we head back to the hotel, the temperature dropped to around 2 degrees celcius. And we had our one-layer of cloth and flip flops on!

A quick dinner in cold condition! Naan, rice, palak paneer and fish curry. Honey lemon tea.

Live entertainment. A common thing for restaurants at the lakeside area.

After a well-deserved 6 hours sleep, we were all set to start our trekking adventure. A quick visit to the Phewa Lake while waiting for our guide to arrive.

The morning fog gives the lake a completely different kind of awesome scene. It is true that visitors should come check out the lake at different times of the day – from sunrise to sunset!

I’ll definitely come back to Pokhara and Phewa Lake one day to have a nice romantic boat ride with my other half. A good reason to come back.

Pokhara is pretty but we got an adventure ahead of us. It’s time to be up close with the Annapurna mountains.

To be continued in Part 3. Click here to recap on all my #NepalAkuDatang stories, photos and video.

SubhanAllah, amazing view.

More of these breathtaking photos in my Part #3 of #NepalAkuDatang post. In the meantime, please allow me to share the 10-hour journey that took us from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Pokhara, Nepal – our first stop of the trip. You may also click here for the complete list of my Nepal trip stories.

Our #NepalAkuDatang adventure kicks off on the 8th of February as many Malaysians were getting ready for the long 4-day weekend due to the Chinese New Year holidays. Equipped with a bit of physical training prior to the trip (click here to read about our prep) along with our backpacks, flight tickets, passports and visas, my friend (@azrulRA) and I were all set for the 5-day trip.

The original plan was to fly in from KL to Kathmandu on Malaysia Airlines and transfer to a domestic flight on Buddha Air for a short hop from Kathmandu to Pokhara with a rather comfortable 4 hours transfer window.

Of course, Murphy ’s Law will always make a usual trip a bit more interesting. I received a text message few hours before the flight from MAS informing that the flight has been rescheduled to an-hour later due to fog in Kathmandu airport. From 08:55am to 09:55am departure.

I started to get even more nervous as we were still seated at the departure lounge at 10:00am. Eventually 15-minutes later boarding announcements were made and the Boeing 737-800 aircraft took off about 90 minutes behind schedule bringing down our transfer window to only 2.5 hours.

It was a full flight and for some reasons my friend and I were not assigned seats nearby. I will definitely spend more to reserve my favourite aisle seat in my future flights!

To make things worse, I was the ‘lucky’ passenger to have the only faulty in-flight entertainment (IFE) screen in the whole plane with no audio/sound coming from the system. The crew and I tried a few times but we just could not get it work.

A selection of ‘silent’ movies/tv series for the 4.5 hours flight. Absolutely no audio from the system.

The good thing is that the crew came to see me a few times throughout the flight and offered me a selection of magazines and newspapers. I finished reading all these materials cover to cover.

Kill some time by slowly enjoying my breakfast meal.

I spent some time reciting a few pages from the holy Quran available on the IFE.

Even after a 90-minutes delay, a faulty IFE and being stuck in between 2 strangers for 4-hours, nothing can spoil my good mood to start the adventure and the lovely MH crew were awesome in cheering me up.

Who needs IFE when you can have this view?

As the plane approaches Kathmandu, the lovely snow-capped mountains can be seen from far.

An interesting approach and landing into Kathmandu with mountains on both sides.

Kathmandu airport has a “no photography” policy and I was too scared to risk my cameras so photos of arrival are quite limited.

Knowing that we only have 2.5 hours, we rushed out of the plane, into the bus and power walk towards the immigration counters. It was very crowded as there were a couple of flights that arrived right before our flight.

Luck was finally on my side as a new counter was opened right in front of us and we got to skip the long queue as we had our visas prepared by the Royal Nepal Embassy in KL. Less than 30-minutes after arriving we were already waiting for our bags.

Waiting.

And waiting.

Andddddd waiting.

We waited for about an hour before our bags arrived. The best part during the long wait is when there was one time that while waiting for our bags we got a little ‘surprise’ as 2 coffins ‘arrived’ at the oversize baggage section just like any luggage. Talk about having ‘good aura’ for the trip.

A quick sprint to clear customs and we were greeted by our wonderful travel agent from Trekking Team Prvt Ltd. A quick welcome followed by a short hop on a van to the domestic terminal with 45-minutes to go before the flight.

Welcome to Kathmandu Airport Domestic Terminal.

Buddha Air check-in counters.

We were glad that we made it just-in-time within the allowable check-in time. Only to be informed that the Buddha Air flight has been retimed.

After about an-hour delay, boarding call (more like boarding shout of flight number and destination with no PA system) was made and we were transfered by bus to our plane.

9N-NAIM. My first experience on an ATR-42!

One for the album.

The ‘classic-look’ cabin.

Immediately after take-off, a bird’s eye view of Kathmandu.

A short 25-minutes hop – free water and sweets.

The highlight of the flight is of course the seemingly endless chain of snow-capped peaks parallel to the flight path.

Not as near as the special Everest flights, but definitely scenic enough for me!

Welcome to Pokhara Airport!

A small and simple airport.

Where bags are still being transferred manually.

Our airport transfer!

Multiple delays, bad luck, good luck. These are all variables when it comes to travelling. I am so glad that the risk we took in taking a same-day transit works well. For record, we had to fly to Pokhara as we had only 5 days for the whole trip and trekking takes up three full days. Flying allow us a bit more breathing space instead of the more common way of taxi/bus which takes 6-7 hours one way. After all getting there is half the fun..right?

In part 2, I will be sharing a bit more about pretty Pokhara, Phewa Lake and our equipment preparations for the Gandhruk trek adventure.

This page is the “table of contents” of my recent trekking adventure in Nepal. My good friend and I had the chance to experience the basic yet challenging Ghandruk Trek in Nepal covering a total of more than 33 KMs and 20 hours of trekking over three days. This page will be the directory of all the blog posts relevant to this trip. Starting from 28th February I will be sharing the stories in phases. Please do check out AzuanZahdi.com from time to time or follow @azuan1880 at twitter for the latest updates.

1) #NepalAkuDatang – The Directory

2) #NepalAkuDatang Part 1: Road to Pokhara, the start of our little adventure

3) #NepalAkuDatang Part 2: Phewa Lake & trekking preparations

4) #NepalAkuDatang Part 3: Trekking Day 1 – Nayapul to Ghandruk

5) #NepalAkuDatang Part 4: Trekking Day 2 – Ghandruk to Pothana

6) #NepalAkuDatang Part 5: Trekking Day 3 – Pothana to Dhampus

7) #NepalAkuDatang Part 6: Pokhara, Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur

8) #NepalAkuDatang: The Preparations

In the meantime, please enjoy this 5:30 minutes “sneak preview” video of our #NepalAkuDatang Adventure. Best viewed in HD.

Planning for a trip to Nepal?, I would like to recommend The Trekking Team, a reputable, affordable and professional local agency that does everything under the sun when it comes to a organising a holiday in Nepal. http://www.trekkingteam.com/ for more details. When you contact them, please tell them that you are friends of AzuanZahdi.com and I’m sure he will give you a good deal. Or better still e-mail me and I’ll help to link you up

With our awesome guide and porter.

Just like any major cities in Asia, Colombo is packed with people, cars and day-to-day activities. Seen here, the Malay Street.

We were in Colombo for only 2 days 1 night and shopping was our main agenda with the main target being souvenirs for families and friends back home. Coincidentally it was a public holiday and the roads were less congested allowing us to cruise pass some interesting buildings and landmarks of Colombo.
A mixture of modern and traditional architecture.

White House?

Our first shopping destination, Lakmedura.

Some might say that this place is a tourist trap but I found out that the price is quite reasonable and it offers a good selection of local souvenirs. We bought some key-chains and semi-precious jewelleries here.

Next stop, ODEL!!!

This place was recommended by a stewardess-friend of mine for having a variety of goods at great price. True enough that this place is a real one-stop centre offering not only souvenirs such as t-shirts, fridge magnets but also normal items that we can usually find in a departmental store. I nearly bought a pair of branded jeans but managed to control myself and ended up buying loads of fridge magnets, t-shirts and flavoured-tea (Dilmah) for souvenirs.

The good news is that the food court just outside ODEL has a halal stall selling awesome food.

Sri Lanka is also famous for its gems but buying it is always a challenge.

Which one is the original one? Precious or semi-precious? How much? A tricky kind of shopping experience. Based on the recommendation from our guide, we went in and out of a few stores and ended up at this particular jewel shop.

It was a fun 1-hour of intense negotiation to lower the price!

But we were satisfied as we got what we aimed for within our limited budget.

“Pinggan mangkuk” in Sri Lanka? That was how my mum reacted when she heard about us bringing home 17kg worth of Noritake tableware.

Yup, Sri Lanka is famous for being one of the countries that produce original and quality Noritake porcelain. We visited one of its factory outlets and my wife was in her own world!

Again, we managed to buy something that matches our limited budget making us happy travellers/shoppers.

Professionally packed and the staff helped to carry the box to our car.

We were asked to leave some comments on the guestbook. Here’s mine, hehe:

We finished the day with a nice farewell dinner with our driver/guide who excellently made our trip a memorable one. If you are planning for a trip to Sri Lanka, I would like to recommend Mr Shaluk Gihan who owns a small but professional setup of his own http://heritagelankatours.com/ When you contact him, please tell him that you are friends of AzuanZahdi.com and I’m sure he will give you a good deal.

Colombo is actually quite a cool place to spend 1-2 nights before or after exploring other touristy parts of Sri Lanka. We were glad that we made the decisions to spend a night in Colombo although we did not had a chance to explore its tourist attractions as most museums (including the air force museum!) closes on public holiday. Still it was a fun shopping day for us and a great way to end our Sri Lanka trip Click here to re-cap on my previous Sri Lanka trip blog posts.