Balthali Village Resort
Deciding to come to Balthali is deciding to go really off the beaten path. You’ll have to go through ancient villages that have never seen tourists, walk through fields of corn that are higher than you, cross rivers, go via a UNESCO World Heritage site, pass through acres of rice fields of the brightest green and pretty much everything else that you can imagine. And, trust me; it’s not easy finding an ‘unbeaten’ path in a tourist haven like Nepal.
Resting on the very top of a mountain surrounded by mountains from all 360 degrees – Balthali Village Resort is that little piece of untouched Nepal that all the tourists yearn to find but always seem too late to get to. There is no real road to the resort and you have a one hour walk to get there, after a quick one hour drive from Kathmandu. All in all, you should be at the resort within two hours from Kathmandu, but you would never believe it from the pristine greenery, the villagers who will look at you as curiously as you will look at them and magnificent views. Till now the resort has been a closely guarded secret kept by serious mountain bikers, hikers and of course, writers.
For all its isolation, the resort is remarkably efficient. The rooms can compete with any three star hotel in Kathmandu, there are solar panels for hot water and the resort is set on three hectares of land – most of which is used to grow food for the resort itself.
There are some excellent hikes to be had around the region – especially a walk to Namo Buddha, said to be the birth place of Buddha; you can swim in the river in the summer and if you are interested, Balthali is a birders paradise. In fact, this is as close to paradise you can get to overall!
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