Kathmandu

Three years ago, after my great trip to India, I fell in love with the Indian Subcontinent and decided that the next country I wanted to visit would be Nepal. Finally, I made the trip and following is my story about another adventure in my life.

24 April 2009 - In Bangkok, I had a room at 1am and slept a few hours before going back to the airport for my connecting flight to Kathmandu. At 5am, I woke up and felt terrible stomachache. I guess I caught cold as I had cold shower and kept the fan going on all the night. Feeling very tired and dizzy, I even thought maybe I coudn’t fly to Nepal on Thai Airways that morning. I decided to go anyway regardless of my sickness. After a 3 hour flight, I arrived in Kathmandu. My guest house sent a car to pick me up at Tribhuvan International Airport and when I got a room, it was 2pm. I walked around Thamel, which is an old district where you can find many guest houses, restaurants and travel agents for tourists. The traffic here is crazy, like in Vietnam. Imagine the narrow streets where you see rickshaws, bicycles, motorbikes, cars, people, street sellers, oxen and goats. I love the chaos, smell of incense, music and beautiful Sari dresses that the local women wear. They all were fascinating to me.

25 April 2009 - I walked from my guest house in Thamel to the Royal Palace. The Nepalese King was forced to leave his palace last year after a new government was established. From February this year, the Royal Place was turned into Narayanhiti Palace Museum. There are 52 rooms in the palace, but only 19 are open for public viewing.

It took me 30 minutes to wait in the long line of people outside the palace until I could go through the entrance gate. The locals gave me priority, so I could make a short cut and quickly get close to the ticket booth. Photography is prohibited and we had to leave our cameras before entering the site. We went through different rooms, but the most impressive place is Tribhuvan Sadan. This is the place where the “Royal Palace Massacre” took place on 1 June 2001. In this place, the bullets were fired at the king, the queen, the crown prince and other members of the royal family. This building was dismantled after the incident so we only saw the empty site. However, there are 4 spots marking the places where the massacre happened. We even saw bullet marks on a tree.

The next place I visited was Durbar square. While walking through Indra Chowk, it reminded me of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi. Both markets have some similarities. There are many great temples at Indra Chowk which made me feel like I was going back time to the old days. I met 3 Nepalese boys in front of their shop and they were very friendly to me. There were many people on Durbar square watching music peformances on the stage. I went back to Thamel by taxi in order to book for my trekking the next days.

29 April 2009 - Boudha temple of Tibetan style and Pashupatinah temple by Bagmati river (or the “holy river”) were other sites in Kathmandu that I visited. I also watched a cremation process at Pashupati area. The dead body is placed on the wood and it takes 3 hours until cremation finishes. After that, they spray water into the ghat, so that ashes could go directly into the holy river. Some people clean their faces with this water. It was so stuffy there and I felt sick because of the smoke. However, the view of temples at this site was great. I was not allowed to visit one of the temples since it’s only for the Hindu people.

30 April 2009 - I wanted to go to Monkey Temple where I could view Kathmandu from the hill, however I ran out of money, so I decided to stay in Thamel. I chose a street by chance, just kept going down and found Kathmandu square at the end of the street, which was really beautiful with many temples. So in Kathmandu, I visited 2 squares (Durbar and Kathmandu squares). A Nepalese boy who is a tour guide approached me and we chatted for an hour. He also invited me a cup of Nepalese milk tea. He has been to Everest Base Camp and this week he goes back there again with a group of trekkers.

Here are some notes for you if you plan to visit Kathmandu:

1. Bring a mask with you as it’s very dusty in April. A Nepalese boy said in May it’s even worse because of the wind. Many roads are under construction, so there is a haze of dust. During rainy season the road is muddy.

2. A torch (flash light) is necessary since blackout happens everyday. At the guest house, they give us candles or little lights with batteries. I couldn’t sleep the first two nights because of mosquitoes. Finally the receptionist at my guest house gave me a mosquito coil using electricity and fortunately we had power on three other nights, so it worked out for me.

3. Be patient when you wait to apply for a Nepalese visa on arrival and when you leave the country. It takes much time to get a visa since there are only 4 immigration officers. 1 passport photo is required and you fill in a form. I paid US$25 for a 15 day stay. When you leave the country, they check your bags as well as your body carefully (2-3 times) for security purposes. I saw some foreigners were upset, complained and showed their disrespect for Nepal.

4. You can find all types of food in Kathmandu. I chose safe food to eat like pizza or fried rice, toast and Nepalese milk tea. The Nepalese eat chicken, mutto and vegetables. I once ate beef steak at a restaurant. I asked the local man there why they served beef as they worship oxen. He said “Well, after 10 years people will eat everything”. That’s funny.

5. Not only power, but water and gasoline are other issues in Nepal. Women try to get some water on a deep well. When a water supply truck comes, many women bring their jars to get water. I saw a crowd and long line of cars in front of a petrol station waiting to buy fuel for their motorbikes and cars. It reminded me of Vietnam 10-20 years ago.

6. There is a dual pricing system for sightseeing tickets. We have to pay more than locals, for example, to visit Royal Palace, foreigners have to pay 500 rupees while locals pay 100 rupees. SAARC (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives) tourists also get a different price at some sites.

7. Food and hotels are very cheap as Nepal still is one of the poorest countries in the world. My meal often costs US$1-2. As for taxis, there is no meter, we need to bargain the price with the drivers. I didn’t try a rickshaw, but once saw a blond western boy sitting on a rickshaw which went very fast in Thamel. The local driver used a horn to warn people stay away from them. I’ve never seen any rickshaw that went so fast and it was scary in such crowded traffic. We felt funny anyway.

8. I’ve been to different areas of the city. I even passed by the Prime Minister's office and counted 5 military check posts along a wall. The street in front of the Royal Palace seemed a more developed area with many shops, cafe and pubs, as well as clean asphalt road.

9. I've never seen so many old houses. The ceilings are very low as well. It is sad to see these living conditions, but things change very slowly here.

10. The locals are very gentle and friendly. "Namaste" means "Hello" and you'll hear this very often from the locals. I love to see their smiles, no matter how hard the life they are experiencing.

(Xem bài viết về Nepal bằng tiếng Việt trong Blog: Bhaktapur - the City of Devotees

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