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Namaste. 😊 This will be a two part entry....
Part 1: Happy Darjeeling..
Well our last day in Darjeeling turned out to be quite pleasant. In the morning we tried to go to a place called "Lloyd Botanical Gardens", which was really just a park with some plants. We decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. In the late afternoon I looked out the window and saw that the foothills were visible so we decided to go to the main square to see if there were any views from the top of the hill. Tourists and people from the community go to the main square everyday and just sit and talk. Some local vendors also bring around chai and other snacks, so each time we sat there we had some. This cup was as good as usual. The valley around Darjeeling was visible for the first time all week, its a beautiful scene with lots of tea fields and villages dotting the hills. As we were finishing our chai the monkeys came around, and as usual, I wanted to follow them. There was an old Tibetan woman sitting on a bench eating corn, with a baby monkey dangling above her head ready to pounce. I thought it would be courteous to let her know, at which point she screamed and ran away. So we followed the monkeys around the path that goes around the top of the mountain. They were assualting the locals, trying to steal their food and grabbing womens clothing. Jake of course would not take my advice to not go near mommy monkeys with babies, they tend to be the most aggressive. So alas, he tried to take a picture of one and she freaked out and chased him. Luckily there was a dog nearby who came to our rescue and chased the monkeys over the fence. When all the monkey chaos had subsided we looked up to find that the entire Himalaya range that we'd been seeing pictures of everywhere had come out from hiding! This was the first glimpse of the real mountains we had seen all week and it was really amazing. We sat on a bench admiring this scene until it got dark. But this was a really good ending to our time in Darjeeling.
Part 2: Julus!
According to Lonely Planet Nepal a Julus is defined as the following: A procession or demonstration; see also bandh and chokka jam.
Bandh: strike
Chokka Jam: literally, jam the wheels ..... literally.
The next morning we were off to Nepal. Now, the buses to Nepal had not been running all week due to massive strikes (julus) that were blocking most major roads. We were told the strikes had ended and the buses were back running. We took another jeep down from Darjeeling, (3 hours) through a very beautiful, jungle-type area, with several tea plantations. About a third of the way down our jeep stopped and the driver got out and started taking our luggage down from the roof (confusion...). Another jeep then pulled up... another VERY VERY full jeep (we had somehow managed to snag a jeep with just the 3 of us. now we know that if they don't fill up they don't go). So we were forced into a jeep that already had 16 people in it. I actually thought it was quite hilarious and fun. Once two people got out it really wasn't so bad. Indians really do have a way of fitting more people than seems physically possible into any given space, and NO ONE complains.
At the bottom of the mountain we switched to another jeep to take us to the Nepal border. We got our visas at the border as we crossed into Nepal. Now, I was under the impression that there was an atm at the border crossing ( I swear lonley planet told me this), but... wrong I was. So we almost didn't have enough money for our visas (no atms for 18 km in either direction). Luckily Jake had a secret storage of US dollars hidden in his backpack that covered our visas. However, after this we needed bus tickets, but we had no money.
We found a really insane western man who told us that he hopped a local bus to the nearest atm on the Nepal side, and that it took only 30 minutes. This was really our only choice, as there was only 1 taxi who wanted almost 10 dollars for this trip. So, we hopped on the bus, backpacks in tow. This particular bus happened to have some serious issues. We ended up stopping in the middle of nowhere for about 45 minutes, then we had to stop at about 5 military checkpoints (julus again..) in which soldiers got on the bus and checked under all the seats before getting into yelling matches with the driver. Sketchy. So the 30 minute trip actually took 1.5 hours. We finally found an ATM that accepted foreign cards and headed back to the bus station on another 45 minute trip.
We initially thought we were going to miss the bus. Despite the fact that Nepal is in fact in a time zone that is 15 minutes ahead of India, the bus ended up leaving an hour late so we were fine. This bus ride was suppose to take 13 hours, so we watched the scenery until it got dark, and then fell asleep. Turns out, the julus were not over. We stopped several times in the middle of the night for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. I was a little delerious so I'm not really sure what exactly happened. At 1am we stopped for food at a roadside restaurant. Then back on the bus. I woke up at aournd 7am, and was expecting that we would reach Kathmandu in about 3 hours. Oh how wrong one can be. We were on a mountain road .... for the next.... 11 hours. It turnes out there was a broken down truck blocking the road. All in all, the bus ride took 24 hours.
Now here we are in Kathmandu. The first day we went on a walking tour around the old city. This city is actually very cool and interesting. Its somewhat similar to India, with the traffic, animals, and such, but there are far less people and the buildings have an almost middle ages meets Nepal kindof feel. The old city is FULL of really amazing Buddist and Hindu temples that we explored. The main squares in Nepal are called Durbar (Palace) squares and have lots of temples and really interesting architecture. Around lunch time I started to feel a little ill so we stopped at one of the rooftop restaurants (about 6-7 stories high) for a refreshing sprite ( I don't know what it is about sprite when i travel, but its all i ever want to drink when its hot). From the restaurant we could see the entire city and the surrounding areas. Our waiter explained the different types of temples and the ones we should visit, and also attempted to explain the current political situation here in Nepal. (After another long explanation and a local newspaper I'm still confused). We ended the first day with a little splurge ($12 dinner) at one of the tourist Italian restaurants, which was actually pretty good.
Yesterday (Wednesday) we walked to one of the nearby towns to see a famous Buddist stupa (temple). Its called Swayambunath, also known as the monkey temple, and is on the top of a VERY large staircase about 3 km from the main city. After climbing about 1000 stairs (yes, i'm exaggerating.. i think. but it was A LOT) we reached the hilltop temple. The stupas are the ones with the eyes of Buddha painted on them. For those of you who may have seen pictures of Nepal. They are one of the things I was most excited to see here. The temple was really cool, with lots of prayer flags, trees, monkeys, and candles all around. We spent about 2 hours exploring the hilltop before heading back to town for lunch. In the late afternoon we went to another place called Bodnath, home to the famous Bodnath stupa, and a very large community of Tibetan exiles from the first wave of refugees that came here in the late 50's when Mao started his assaults. I was particularly excited to see this place because I'm really fascinated by Tibetans and because I am still really bitter about not getting to go to Tibet. We went in the late afternoon becasue this is when all the tourists have left and the Tibetan community comes to the stupa to pray. Part of their prayers consists of walking in the clockwise direction around the stupa, usually chanting and carrying prayer beads. As the sun started to set there were TONS of people who came to pray, many of them were older refugees and monks dressed in traditional Tibetan clothing. Apparently this is one of the few places in the world where one can see Tibetan culture unhindered and so out in the open (something not possible in Tibet at this point). It was really beautiful and a lot of the people circling gave us huge smiles as they passed. We even made friends with a few monks, one of whom jokingly asked Jake if he was a lama in training.
On the way back from Bodnath (literally two blocks from our hotel street) we saw a HUGE riot in the street, complete with fire sticks and people pumping their fists in air. Now people keep warning me to stay away from protests. I really don't know what gives everyone the idea that I would be the kind of person to find myself in the middle of something like that 😉. Just kidding. But don't worry, I went against my curiosity and kept a safe distance. Jake did agree to get a teeny bit closer to see what was going on, but by the time we did it was mostly over. Oddly enough, this is by far the most intense political demonstration I have ever witnessed, but none of the people nearby seemed the least bit concerned. From what I gather, the strikes last week were to get the prime minister to resign, which he did. Now the Maoists (the largest political party here) are upset becasue the president has decided to reinstate a former military head. They are refusing to settle down until he changes his mind. Its all very complicated. But don't worry. I am safe.
Today I am feeling a little ill, so we've decided to take a day off and hang around. I'm not sure whats in store for tomorrow, but saturday we are leaving for a 4 day canyoning/rafting trip, which I am very excited about.
So until next time😊 Hope you all enjoy.
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naila
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i wanna go...
fun fun fun! i love the monkey stories! but i still like the monkey stole your banana story the best! i want to go. booooooo. have fun rafting!