Kathmandu Post the earthquake in April

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Geo: 27.7029, 85.3182

It would be nice to start off this blog with it's the same old Kathmandu but it is just not the case. For some reason many of the old cultural icons have been destroyed and the new ugly concrete monstrosities were untouched. I guess that speaks volumes for reinforcing rods and concrete. We have been wandering around for two days whilst waiting for our Myanmar visas and the mood is very different. The Nepalese people are famous for being very friendly, warm and welcoming. Sadly, this just is not the case this time. This is probably not helped by the fact that the fuel crisis is making the country quite miserable for the locals and the occasional tourists. The Bandas (politically motivated road blocks) cease the movement of all other goods. Everything is getting in very short supply as everything needs to be transported overland, no fuel, no goods.

Finding somewhere to park the vehicles has been very difficult. We spent the first night camped in a mechanical workshop amongst the cars that were in various states of repair. The Germans had broken clean in two a front torsion rod and hence our first stop was Irvins mechanical workshop. The model of Delica they are driving can be found in Nepal however their vehicle is fitted with a not so common length of torsion bar!!! Freak. Anyway dismantling the bits still connected to the car were the first steps. The only real good comments about the campsite is that the guard dogs were very efficient and ran barking at anyone who even thinks about coming near the gate. And there are 5 puppies just outside the gate.

Our second day in KTM was spent in the old Thamel area doing the tourist thing which was kind of nice for us given we have been there so many times before it was familiar. The night was spent camped in a car/bus park behind the Scout headquarters… not so nice… actually it was a shit hole, but we had very limited choices. In actual fact I had politely approach someone in the scout place to enquire if we could park and camp on their grassed area which would have been perfect… Apparently it was not a good idea for some complicated reason, so I humbly removed myself… so ironically we parked right in front of their rear access gate into the car park… and… in the morning the same chap got shitty.. yep very shitty…. Move your vehicles he said…. Well bugger me, given we had to pay parking fees overnight I thought you can get stuffed.. he kept on so I let fly…. Dick head is the word that springs to mind.

Our third day in KTM… we had found a name of a place called Maya Guest house where apparently other overlanders had camped in a nearby garden… so off we went to check it out and it was nice, there was some construction work happening !!! however it had a really nice grassed area and we could park for 1,000 rupees each vehicle!!! A little steep given it had cold water showers but beggars cannot be choosers. This was going to be our last night with Sarah and Thomas, tomorrow is Monday and we collect our Myanmar Visa then we need to hightail it to East India where there is Diesel.

So needless to say our last night was somewhat marred by the sad reality we were once again going to part company with our German fiends, the morning brought an omelette feast which we ate in the garden.. fantastic.

The day was spent at Irvines where I did a few repairs and stuff, visa collection at 1:00pm then back to Irvines to say our goodbyes.

We connected with the Germans many months before our trip only to reduce the cost of the trip though China. We mutually agreed to meet in Tajikistan and travel the Pamirs together which would give us all a chance to see how we all felt as a group. And to be honest it felt good right from the onset.

By the end of Tajikistan we had moved from travellers with a common need to friends. Somewhere between Kirgizstan and North Pakistan we became good friends and now parting in Nepal it became apparent we had become family.

Sarah and Thomas I thank you for having a great sense of humour and being the most non-German Germans we have had the pleasure of spending time with. And I promise we will keep up our German language skills.. fitsa fatza.

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Photos

Camp Workshop
A little bit devoid of green grass and trees