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Joe`s small house in Tarebir (north of Kathmandu)
If you are traveling to Nepal for 2 or 3 weeks you will definitely find a hotel or guesthouse in Kathmandu or up here in the rural area around Kathmandu.
My offer is aimed at people who a) either want to be in Nepal for a longer period of time or b) come to Nepal again and again and would like to have something permanent of their own here.
The offer is particularly aimed at people with a Buddhist background.
I’ve been looking for it for a long time and I’m very happy to have found it in this best location.
location
Tarebir is a Buddhist village, the vast majority are Buddhists. Right next door to the east is a new monastery of the Gelug tradition. 1km to the west of the house is a stupa and a retreat place where various Rinpoches have visited and practiced. Further down in the village 2 more monasteries are being built.
price
completely ( 4 rooms) 140€ / month.rent half ( 2 rooms ) 70€ / month.
Minimum rental period 1 month
If you are in Nepal for Buddhist reasons you can also get it for free
I could also imagine giving away one part completely to some one for a period of 5 years.
It has minimalist furnishings: futon bed, blanket and duvet cover. A large metal box and minimal kitchen equipment.
for retreat purposes – you can be there for free.
The offer results from my observation that there are good retreat offers in the West but many are very expensive so you can’t really let go of your normal life. I really like the basic idea of Buddhist monasteries and have already benefited a lot from them. The basic idea is simple: if you practice seriously then you are given food and simple accommodation for free.
I am planning to set up a Retreat center for meditation in Nepal and the place it Tarebir is the first step in the project to have a base / office in Nepal. People, who are accepted as tenants have to fit a bit in with the place and with this idea of a simple meditative life. I am not renting the property for income. It is so cheap that I could simply leave it unused for a year. My aim is to revitalize this place and I would be happy if a small circle of friends could develop around this house.
water, electricity, wifi, air quality, noise/silence
Water
Anyone who knows Kathmandu knows how exhausting and poor these things can be. When I rented an apartment in Kathmandu 10 years ago, I was told I had no water connection. to my irritated question the answer was : about 80% of the houses in this quarter were not connected to a water supply and I would have to get the water pumped into a tank in my apartment from a company at night. That was water that they pump from a river, I had to buy drinking water in 20L containers.
In Tarebir now you live with a water connection of the fresh spring water and for free. There is a very nice way to the national park where you do not found a smal stream from which our water comes.
The staircase leads up from the house to the spring. It was built a few years ago with money from the government.
After about 1km you can get your drinking water directly – than even in a more fresher quality. People who know how important good water is for our health will appreciate this very much.
The water pipe to my house is under this path, a 1 inch PE plastic pipe. The water gushes at the house day and night when it is not in use it just flows down the hill.
air quality noise/silence
You can sleep in a hotel in Kathmandu for 200€ a night but that doesn’t change the fact, that you are sleeping in the exhaust of millions of vehicles. Kathmandu is not really a valley but a boiler. It was also a big lake for a long time until an earthquake cleared a path for the water and the Kathmandu valley was created. This means that the air only clears when really strong winds blow away all the fine dust and tons of nitrogen oxides.
Tarebir is 500m above Kathmandu and there is always fresh, good air. It is in the north which means that the sun warms the area well. In the cool seasons it is significantly warmer than in Kathmandu itself.
silence
One of my biggest challenges in Nepal was always getting a good night’s sleep because I always wake up to the loud barking of street dogs fighting. No matter how much I meditate or send love. My system is simply built to wake me up. When I lived in Kathmandu for a year, I never slept through the night because I heard the barking every night outside my balcony in Durba Square. In Tarebir there are no street dogs but most people have a dog as a guard dog. The one from the family I am with is older, very sweet and rarely barks. Further down in the village there is sometimes the usual concert where one starts and everyone else joins in but it’s further away and doesn’t bother me. So now I have finally found a place where I can sleep well 😉
I think that’s ( air polution & noise) the main reason why in recent years most people don’t really like to stay in Kathmandu longer than necessary. „Necessary“ means that both: Nepali Airline and Air India are not super reliable and that they often cancel flights and you can then choose another flight. Both of my flights were canceled. This means that you should not arrive here too close to the return flight. Most people use the days for shopping tours in Thamel, which is still really worthwhile. With the prices for tracking clothes and sleeping bags, you naturally wonder how long they will last and whether the seams will come apart faster than you need for the flight home. My experience with this Kathmandu stuff is surprisingly good. I’ve been wearing jackets and T shirts, backpacks for years and most retailers now seem to be doing a quality check and not selling the super cheap trash quality anymore.
So yes get inging bowls, thankas, clothes & tracking stuff to make the 23kg or 30kg full 😉
accessibility – public transport
A scooter from Buddhanielkanta to Tarebir costs 2€ a car taxi 1000NRS – 7€ but ask the driver if he knows the route as it is off-road. You should double the amount for the 2 wheel otherwise it’s to less – the app can’t recognize and the 500 meters of altitude and the off-road road.
For people who are there longer, a school bus drives up to the village from Kathmandu twice a day. 8:00 to pick up students for high school and 16:00 to bring them back. The bus driver is a friend of the family and sometimes sleeps there. The family can then arrange everything for you and the bus driver is happy about some extra income. I would offer 200-300 if you want her to transport larger items
it all sounds really great. what could be challenging ?
If you don’t know Nepal yet then it’s good to say that life there is very simple – super simple. That’s exactly what’s nice for many people – the enormous reduction in complexity and unnecessary bells and whistles.
So far there is only water in the yard from a plastic water pipe. To wash, I took a bucket of water into the room and washed myself in a large aluminum bowl that you can stand in. There is a gas stove for heating.
The toilet is shared with the family who lives in the house right next to it and is…well, really ok and clean for Asia, but Asia. I have permission to build my own small bathroom with toilet. But that won’t happen until the next 1 or 2 years – depending on how the whole thing is received and some income is generated.
and….
The other thing is I love living on the floor without chairs.
There is only one desk and one chair per room on the 1st floor. I’ve been meditating a lot and my legs are „bent“ for it. I know that it is not so easy for other people to eat and sit on the floor. In the following video you can see how the first room is now set up. Everything is very cheap in Nepal, if you need it you can buy plastic chairs and a table in KTM and the school bus will bring it up to you. A chair costs €5 and a table costs €8.
A quick look at the room that is already finished, the floorboards in the other still need to be sanded.
if odysee das not work
downloade the video here :
2023-joe-room-tarebir
That all sounds pretty interesting, how can I reach you?
Either via the contact form here on the website or via Telegram (search for user joe_schraube).
I hardly use Facebook and Whatsapp anymore since the US services blew up our ( German ) gas pipeline to Russia and tried to push us into a war with Russia. Nothing against US citizens, but I am not a friend of the US government and its geopolitics. Unfortunately, the US Tec companies are completely on board with this.
bookings and availability
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If anyone knows how to get Google Calendar to always appear in English no matter what the browser wants – feel free to tell me
FAQ
my contractual partner is the grandfather of the family. He has 3 sons around 30 years old and the property is already divided into 3, where each family lives with their children. He has two daughters who have moved in with their husbands‘ families. The grandfather doesn’t speak English, the son who is the direct neighbor and unfortunately neither does his wife. But the 2 sons of the son who lives 50 m further down. Neten and his brother whose name I’m missing right now. The two of them speak English quite well, Nieten helped with the renovation of the house, his brother doesn’t have a job at the moment and is happy to do something should there be something. At the moment in the village you are very happy with 1000 NRS / 7€ as a daily rate for around 8 hours.