Camping in Kulekhani-Markhu & Chitlang: 2-Night Weekend Near Kathmandu

Two hours from Kathmandu, there is a lake quiet enough to hear a paddle drip. At dawn, mist sits on the water, fisherman works his net from a wooden boat, and the only sound is the birds waking up. It feels like the oldest, most untouched corner of the country. It is, in fact, a reservoir engineered barely fifty years ago to keep the capital's lights on.

That contradiction is the whole appeal of camping at Kulekhani-Markhu. You drive out to escape the city, pitch a tent on the shore of Indra Sarovar, and fall asleep beside the very lake that helped power the city you left behind. The trails are short, the drive is easy, and the cost is low, which makes it one of the best camping trips near Kathmandu for families and first-timers alike. Go now, while it's still this quiet. Here's how to do it over two nights.

Indra Sarovar (Khulekhani Dam): The Man-Made Lake

Come in from the Pharping side and the road drops you at a broad sheet of blue water filling a whole valley, its arms reaching into the hills - seven kilometres end to end. It looks like one of Nepal's great natural lakes. However, it isn't. 

This is Indra Sarovar, also known as Khulekhani Dam, and engineers willed it into being. Work on a 114-metre dam across the Kulekhani River began in 1977; by 1982 the valley behind it had filled, and Nepal had its only reservoir-based hydropower project. Every other plant in the country runs on the river's passing flow - Kulekhani alone can store water, holding it back to make power when the country needs it most. The lake was named for Queen Indra Rajya Laxmi Shah, and from 1982 to 2002 the electricity it produced was the backbone of the national grid. When Kathmandu's lights came on at night, this water was often the reason.

There is an irony to camp on: you come to Indra Sarovar to get away from the city, and the lake is one of the reasons the city runs. Escape and infrastructure, sharing a shoreline.

The lake has also survived its own near-loss. In July 1993 a once-in-a-thousand-years cloudburst broke over these hills, bringing down hundreds of landslides. The disaster downstream was terrible, taking many lives across central Nepal and cutting Kathmandu off for weeks. Into the reservoir itself the flood carried close to five million cubic metres of mud and rock - enough to nearly bury the power intake. That the lake still shelters campers and fishermen three decades later is its own quiet testament: a made landscape the valley has chosen, again and again, to keep.

Camping in Markhu: A Night on the Lakeside

The village of Markhu sits on the reservoir's north-western shore, and it is where the camping actually happens. After the dam, it's the first proper settlement you reach - a scatter of homes, a boat jetty, and a long pedestrian suspension bridge slung more than a hundred metres across the water, swaying just enough to make you grip the cables and grin. From the middle of it you can watch fishermen work their nets below and the hills lay their reflections across the surface.

Pick your patch of shore, and pitch. Some travelers carry their own tents and camp free by the water or up on the flat open ground at nearby Bheda Farm, a sheep-grazing plain that has doubled as a film backdrop and makes a fine, level pitch. Others let a lakeside lodge or one of the small resorts handle it - several now offer ready-pitched "safari" or deluxe tents, a bed and a hot dinner included, for those who want the shoreline without the setup. Either way, the ritual is the same.

You take a boat out as the light goes gold - a rowing boat for a slow drift, or a motorboat for a faster loop of the arms of the lake. You eat fresh fish hauled from these cold waters, fried crisp or simmered into a curry, the local specialty for good reason. Then the fire, the local raksi, and if you're lucky a bit of singing from whoever's around. And when the flames die down, you look up - and there they are, the stars this valley keeps hidden under its haze, spilled clean across a sky with no city glow to drown them. Sleep comes to the sound of water. You'll wake, as promised, before you mean to.

Chitlang: Nepal's Goat Cheese Village on the Old Trade Road

The morning after the lake, the road climbs back up the ridge to Chitlang - but long before it was a weekend escape, this village was a doorway. For centuries this was the main route between the Kathmandu Valley and the plains to the south - the road traders from Tibet and India walked over the hills. Nepal's first motor cars, the story goes, were carried into the valley this way on porters' shoulders. Local legend even gives the village a role in the country's founding: it was from a hilltop near here, they say, that the young Prithvi Narayan Shah first looked down on the Kathmandu Valley.

Walk the old lanes and the age of the place shows. Carved wooden windows lean over brick walls, stone water spouts still run, and inscriptions in the settlement reach back more than a thousand years. Look for the old Chitlang Durbar and its Newari woodwork, the Swochhanda Bhairav Temple, the seven sacred spouts of Satdhara, and an Ashoka Chaitya said to be roughly 2,300 years old.

But the reason most people come is smaller and stranger: cheese. Chitlang is home to Nepal's first goat-cheese farm, where hill milk is turned into firm, pale rounds using French methods. It is not what you expect at the end of a mountain track, and that is exactly the charm. Pair a wedge with the village's home-pressed plum or pear wine, and you have a reason to stay the night.

Kulekhani–Markhu and Chitlang Itinerary for a Two-Night Weekend

This works best as a loop - in the back way via Pharping, out the front way over Chandragiri - so you never drive the same road twice.

Day 1: Kathmandu to Markhu (camp by the lake)

• Morning: Drive from Kathmandu to the lake via Dakshinkali and Pharping (about 2–3 hours).

• Afternoon: Reach Markhu and set up camp on the shore. Cross the suspension bridge; take a boat out on the water.

• Evening: Fresh-fish dinner, campfire and stars. Night one by the lake.

Day 2: Markhu to Chitlang (village and homestay)

• Morning: Sunrise and an early boat while the lake is glass. Then head up to Chitlang - hike the trail (about 2 hours, uphill) or drive round.

• Afternoon: Explore the old village, the temples, and the goat-cheese farm (tasting included).

• Evening: Dinner and night in a Chitlang homestay, in a family's own home.

Day 3: Chitlang to Kathmandu

• Morning: A last village walk, or the short Champadevi climb, then drive back over Chandragiri - home by early afternoon.

Camp rough on the first night, sleep warm in the village on the second: the order does you a favor.

How to Get to Kulekhani and Markhu from Kathmandu

This is a road trip. Two main routes work, and many travelers combine them.

Route 1: Via Pharping and Dakshinkali (direct to the lake)

The Dakshinkali–Pharping road runs south to the dam and Markhu directly - roughly 2 to 2.5 hours and about 42–47 km. This is the simplest way to reach the shore if the lake is your main goal.

Route 2: Via Chitlang and Chandragiri (village first)

The Thankot/Chandragiri road connects Chitlang to Kathmandu in about 90 minutes (~27 km) - the natural way home once you've climbed up from the lake to the village. A scenic variation is to ride the Chandragiri cable car down on your way out (a cable-car ticket applies). .

By local bus

Buses run from the Kalanki/Balkhu side of Kathmandu, but a private vehicle or jeep is far easier. Parts of the road are rough, so drive in daylight in something with decent clearance.

Best Time to Visit Kulekhani-Markhu and Chitlang for Camping

Autumn (October–November) is the best all-round window - clear skies and calm water. Spring (March–May) trades a little haze for rhododendron and magnolia on the higher slopes. Winter (December–February) is cold at night but quiet and crisp, with the lake at its stillest. Avoid the monsoon (June–August): the roads turn muddy, leeches appear on the forest trails, and landslides can block routes. The Pharping–Kulekhani road also closes occasionally for mid-year maintenance, so check before you set out.

Where to Stay and Camp in Chitlang and Markhu

1. Night one: camping in Markhu

The shore itself is your first-night stay. Pitch your own tent by the water or on the flat ground at Bheda Farm, around Markhu and the Kulekhani dam side.

1. Night two: Chitlang homestays

For your second night, stay in a Chitlang homestay up in the village - a family home with meals included, and the most authentic (and affordable) way to sleep here. The well-known Chitlang Organic Village Resort offers cottages and tents if you'd prefer a resort setting.

1. Free camping spots

Independent campers can pitch by the shore or at Bheda Farm. Bring your own kit, and pack out everything you bring in.