A Ride to Chandragiri Hills from Kathmandu

It was a regular Friday afternoon in our office; as we were having our snacks our Catch Wheels team came up with a plan to go for a quick bike ride on Saturday morning. After discussing for a while, we decided to ride to Chandragiri Hills which lies on the South-west side of Kathmandu Valley and climbs up to 2551m from sea level. It was the ideal place for us as it was at a high altitude surrounded by nature and was just about 11km from Kalanki which was our rendezvous.

As decided, we met at LRI School in Kalanki at 7 in the morning. We were a total of four with 3 motorbikes. One Bajaj Pulsar NS 160 and two TVS Apache RTR 200 was our ride for the trip. We left for Chandragiri Hills as soon as everybody was on board. At the initial phase of our ride, we had a bit of trouble finding the right way to Chandragiri, however, after some failed attempts finally, we were on our way as we drove up from Satungal. We also came across a small Newari village as we went on, which was a tiny yet beautiful village. Our ride was smooth until we reached Matatirtha. From there, the road was quite wide but rough as it was under construction. Without complaining, we drove ahead admiring the view as went up and up the hill. As we rode up in the hills, the already breath-taking view of Kathmandu Valley became more vivid.  We stopped for a short break at a small hotel for snacks. Finally, we reached our destination at around 11. We parked our motorbikes and went towards the Temple.

The place was beautifully constructed with parks for children to play, cafeteria to chill and amazing viewpoints to just sit back and admire the view. There was a Cable Car service to reach the top of Chandragiri Hills and would only take around 10 minutes. However, we decided to go the hard way on our motorbikes as a little bit of adventure is always fun. The main attraction of the Chandragiri Hills was the Bhaleshowr Mahadev temple of Lord Shiva. Legend has it that King Prithvi Narayan Shah worshipped in the temple before conquering the valley during his unification campaign. So, we were very excited and went inside the temple and worshipped Lord Shiva. We spent an hour or two at the top of the hill just chilling and appreciating the view.

It was a refreshing experience of getting close to nature amidst the hassle and pollution of Kathmandu Valley. We returned back down from Chandragiri Hills using the same route we used to go up. And, by 4 P.M., we had all reached our homes.

So, in general, Chandragiri Hills is a perfect destination if you’re short on holidays and want to take a quick break from your regular routine. It is approximately 30 minutes ride from the capital city and the roads are not that rough as well. With all the amazing sceneries it provides, Chandragiri Hills sure is an ideal place to go for a short bike ride in Kathmandu Valley.

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Happy Riding!!

Route: Kalanki – Satungal – Matatirtha road – Chandragiri Hills

Riders on this journey with their respective motorbikes:

Ashish Rai | Bajaj Pulsar NS 160

Mahesh Maharjan | Apache RTR 200

Tikaram Bhandari & Pratik Shrestha | Apache RTR 200