Little India? - Kathmandu

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Day 113 - 118
Kathmandu, Nepal

So we never really planned on coming to Nepal and hadn't done any research on the place. Which of course left Steph a little unsettled with the idea of not having any info on the place, while G thought it was no big deal and was even kind of exciting with just wingin' it.

We crossed into Nepal and gained two hours and fifteen minutes back in our lives and got our single entry visa for $15. Then the plan was to go to the nearby bank for some money - but, yeah, it was closed. We at least had some dollar bills on us to get a bus into Kathmandu, but there really weren't any taxis or buses at the border. We all walked down a little further and finally got a descent offer from a guy to take us to Kathmandu in his pick up truck. Only 3 people in the group wanted to go, others thought it was too money and would rather take the bus. But the thing we didn't realize was that it was a national holiday - May Day and public buses weren't running. Eventually we were told this by some locals and it all made sense as to why there were only a few scattered empty parked buses and no one trying to get us on these buses. After a lot of debate, the two of us decided to get our adventure in Nepal started and hopped in the truck.

It was a 4 hour crazy joy ride into Kathmandu with the driver maybe only applying the brakes five times the entire trip down the rest of the mountain range. We decided to stay in the hotel where the Russian couple had booked a room - Hotel Himal Ganash. They didn't have any availabilities that night but could take us in the next night. They offered a place at their sister hotel down the road. It was a bit of a crappy hotel but it was only for one night anyways and we got to bargain down the price a bit. We really didn't do much that day other then sort out our next move. Since G had gotten word that she had to get back to the UK earlier then expected, we now had to change our original plan of going back into China first before Japan and instead just going straight to Japan. We booked our flight without the headache we had experienced with ctrip for a fairly decent price (really didn't have much of choice) via New Delhi to Tokyo.

We did go out in the Thamel area during the evening which is basically the touristy area of the city. It was a definite assault to the sense walking out into the busy streets of Kathmandu. The streets were just littered with trash that had been piled up along the sides of the road. Cars, motorbikes, rickshaw drivers all clogged up the narrow streets of the Thamel area which made simple walking into an obstacle course and the prize was you got to keep your life. It really did seem at times that the cars were actually aiming for us and it was our responsibility to get out of the way - which we did!

To say we were lazy during our 5 day stay in Nepal is an understatement. We just needed to relax from our constant go-go-go in Tibet. During our travels we've done little with "organized tours". The longest we had been on was a 3 days tour in Northern Vietnam. So it was hard having a regimented schedule for 8 days and we're happy to have our freedom to do our own thing. Which was basically to do nothing. As a way for you all to measure our laziness, G managed to read all 4 "Twilight" book series in 4 days. So our day usually started with reading books in the garden of our hotel and ended with reading books in bed. During the early evening though we did meet up with the Japanese and Australian couples for dinner and drinks - which was always a good time.

We did manage to squeeze in two sightseeing activities - Durbar Square & the Swayambhunath Temple.

The square was not really that impressive so we were glad we scammed our way out of buying tickets. It was suppose to cost a few hundred rupees, but we just told the ticket booth guy that we had tickets and waved them in the air, so he nodded and waved us in (we actually had yesterdays tickets from the Russian couple). None of the temples or stupas could be entered, so it was mostly just us sitting around watching the city go by us.

The Swayambhunath complex was a bit more interesting and worth the few bucks we paid to get there and inside. The place is also known as Monkey Temple" because of all the so called "holy monkeys" that occupy the grounds. But the number of wild dogs (the mangiest ones we've seen in Asia) that roamed the temple far over took the number of monkeys, so the monks should take a serious look at renaming the nickname of the temple. The place is mainly a Tibetan Buddhist site, but also revered by many Buddhist and Hindus. There was a long steep climb to the top of the temple where the famous stupa stands with the painted eyes of Buddha looking in all four directions.The view of the massive city of Kathmandu from the top was also pretty incredible.

We also tried to do an outdoor activity and chose to go on a rafting trip. But it just wasn't in the cards for us since according to CNN and BBC there was a "Nepal Crisis". To sum it up as brief as possible, the Maoist Prime Minister fired the army's general with led to tensions between the ex-rebels and the military that had a 10 year long civil war. After the huge uproar it caused, the pm abruptly resigned his position which apparently left the country in a "political crisis". However, as we were watching this on TV, we looked out our window to see everything was just as it was the day before - the normal hustle and bustle of this crazy city. But then again we were in the "tourist/ backpacker" area and no where near any government buildings or military barracks.

So, we got up the next day at a ridiculous hour of like 6:30AM or something and boarded a bus that was suppose to take us to the rafting site. It wasn't a private bus that the tour company runs, but rather a public bus that just passes the beginning point of the trip. A guy from the office walked us to the bus but didn't get on, so we were pretty much left to ourselves without a guide. It took about 1 hour to even get to the outskirts of town (and did see riot police piling out of a truck), but after a toll/ ticket stop, the bus pulled over to the side of the road. We looked out the window to see what was going on and there were parked trucks, buses, cars along the road as far as the eye could see. Suddenly, loads of people started to get off the bus and were trying to flag down rides back into town. We spoke to one couple and told us that they tried to get out of the city yesterday but after 6 hours of waiting on a bus decided to head back and try again another day. Not wanting to stay on this bus for hours and thinking that our rafting trip wouldn't happen after all, G decided to get look for a ride back into town. Steph followed along and G flagged down a local mini bus to take us back to town. It only cost like $0.20 for the ride but it was definitely an unpleasant ride back to town. The bus reaked of body odor and every few minutes more and more people got in and pushed their way in. At one point we had about 27 people in this tiny bus (with 11 seats) and oh yeah, there were 3 goats also on board. Kind of hilarious.

So that's all really to report from Nepal. Not really much got accomplished there but since we both intend to come back one day to properly tour around the country, it was a nice introduction to the country and culture.

We left Nepal on May 6th and changed planes at New Delhi and then flew over night to Tokyo. Will post soon about our times on the greatest place on earth otherwise known as Japan!

xx
S&G

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Photos

Tuk Tuk
It is as if the drivers think the more crap you have on your car the better,.

Downtown Thamel
Bikes, Cars, People, Dogs, and trash make this city seem overcrowded.

Local shops
Hindi woman shopping at the local store.

Grafitti
local adverts and slogans clutter the walls.

Durbar Square
Shrine at Durbar.

Cows and Temples
litter Durbar Square

Prayer garlands
in Durbar Square.

Sadhu Dreads
Swayambhunath Temple - he has been growing his dreads for 27 yrs.

Nepali Eyes
or "eyes of peace" are grafittied throughout the city.

Pilgrams
praying at Swayambhunath Temple

Mantra Stone
Oh Madi Padme Hum written on every stone of a wall in Swayambhunath

Traffic Jam
due to the roaming cows.