Trip to Pharphing

Pharphing is a small village about 25 km from Kathmandu which became my destination for an easy Sunday trip.

The village is famous for its many Buddhist monasteries as well as a Hindu temple and it was sai to be a peaceful, quiet spot just in the neighbourhood of the capital.

After taking off with the bus from Ratnapark and soon finding out that it was passing pretty close to our place in Sanepa, I arrived in the village after about one hour of bus ride – that took me by the banks of Bagmati River while leaving the last houses the road slowly melted into small hills and deep forest. Approaching Pharphing I already saw a few small monasteries so I constantly kept asking the man sitting next to me: ‘Are we there yet? Is this Pharphing?’.

When finally reaching the village I started climbing up and up a hill – because why not start at the top? – that I saw almost covered by all the Buddhist flags. On the way I also found a famous Hindu temple, saw some monasteries that I walked through, too, while often young monks were crossing the road or just sit around by the monasteries. After climbing and climbing I found out that it was really worth reaching for the top: besides all the flags above me blown by the wind also an amazing view of the valley was waiting for me. I finally spent here quite some time, enjoying the view and sitting under all the flags. Do you remember what I once wrote about the meaning of these flags? That when they are swinging in the wind, the wind is supposed to blow away all the problems and bring back good solutions and luck instead... Well, really having this thought in your mind, it is truly a beautiful experience to spend some quiet time under the flags, over the valley and Kathmandu city by the hillside of the village of Pharphing.