Tansen and Palpa

Tansen sits at 1,350 metres on a hillside in Palpa district, halfway between Lumbini and Pokhara on a road most itineraries do not use. It is a Newar town (steep cobbled lanes, tiled roofs, a bazaar that has not been rebuilt for visitors) with a view of the Himalaya from the hill above it and a nineteenth-century palace ruin in the river gorge below.

Nobody comes here. That is most of the recommendation.

The town

The streets are too steep and narrow for much traffic, which is what keeps them pleasant to walk. Sitalpati, the octagonal pavilion at the centre, is where the town meets. Amar Narayan, built in 1806, is a three-tiered pagoda with carved struts that would be a headline sight anywhere in the Kathmandu valley and here is simply the temple at the bottom of the hill. Bhagwati temple has a chariot festival in August or September.

Tansen Durbar, the Rana-era administrative palace on the main square, was burned during the conflict in 2006 and has been rebuilt; it now holds a museum.

Dhaka

Palpa is where dhaka cloth comes from. The geometric handwoven fabric used for the dhaka topi, the hat that was standard formal dress for Nepali men for most of the twentieth century, and now for shawls and panels. The weaving is done in the town, mostly by women, on handlooms, and several workshops will let you watch.

Patterns are counted rather than drawn and a good weaver holds them in her head. Prices reflect the hours: a fine shawl is not cheap and should not be.

Rani Mahal

The reason to give Tansen a second day. A white neoclassical palace on a rock terrace directly above the Kali Gandaki, built in 1893 by General Khadga Shumsher Rana in memory of his wife Tej Kumari, who had died two years earlier. He was in political exile from Kathmandu at the time. It is usually called the Taj Mahal of Nepal, which oversells the scale and understates how strange it is to come round a bend in a forest path and find a European-looking mansion above a Himalayan river.

It has been derelict, partially restored, and is now maintained rather than lived in.

Getting there is the point: about ten kilometres and two hours downhill from Tansen through forest and terraced fields, past Ranighat village. Coming back up takes three. You can arrange a jeep for one direction, and most people should, walk down, ride back.

Start early. There is no shade on the last section, no food at the palace beyond a tea stall that may or may not be open, and the climb back in the afternoon heat is unpleasant from March onwards.

Srinagar Danda

The hill immediately above the town, twenty minutes up through pine forest. Sunrise over Dhaulagiri, the Annapurnas and Machhapuchhre when the air is clear, and the Terai plains stretching south into India on the other side. Being able to see both from the same spot is unusual.

Practical things

• Buses run along the Siddhartha Highway between Butwal and Pokhara all day; Tansen is on the route and easy to reach from either end. The road is winding and lorry-heavy.
• Accommodation is a handful of guesthouses and one restored Newar house. Book nothing elaborate, because it does not exist.
• Cash. ATMs in the town work but do not rely on cards anywhere.
• Very little English outside the guesthouses.