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Published: December 24th 2014
Our first stop in Nepal...Kathmandu - After yet another change over flight at Kuala Lumpar (and out last chance for a spicy malay curry at a noodle restaurant) and we were there. We arrived at night and after preparing ourselves for a very long wait to sort our visa on arrival we were VERY happy that it only took around 30 minutes! arriving at night definitely had its advantages! After a sleep we hit the streets, we stayed in Thamel– which could be classed as the back packer area. It all really looked the same, no cement roads, so lots of dust and dirt, we didn’t see any traffic lights, the roads were busy with no pavements to dive onto when lots of traffic whooshed passed us. Everything looked very old with lots and lots of tatt shops selling trekking gear, blankets, new backpacks, paintings, and jewelry. Great stop to buy some items we had been lacking, such as walking shoes, warm clothes, and a new bag for me as the baggage carousel had made a meal out of my day pack and was hanging together by a thread.
We had planned around 3 days in Kathmandu, which turned into
5. One day we spent seeing the local sights, our first stop was the famous Durbar Square in Katmandu. We didn’t really go much on this. I got harassed by a guide who in the end l had to tell to do one after he became quite aggressive towards me, not the best sales technique! The place was crawling with touts and it was very OTT. The main reason we headed here was to see the living goddess (Kumari) who lives within the grounds. This is a Nepalese tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy or devi in Hindu religious traditions. Potential Kumari have to pass a basic test of being in excellent health, and void of any disease and following this must pass the 32 perfections of a goddess which includes having the following body like features which include; a neck like a conch shell, a body like a banyan tree, eyelashes like a cow, thighs like a deer, chest like a lion and voice soft and clear as a duck! If they pass all of these they are given the status of being the incarnation of Tekeju Bhavani, who the girl is
Kathmanduuntil she has her period, as it is believed this is when the goddess vacates her body. We were lucky to see the current Kumari and she allowed us to see her for around 10 minutes at 4pm, looking out from a balcony window all dressed up, she gave us a little wave whilst locals prayed to her, she looked like a bit of a diva to be honest and l bet that is how she is having so much so young and everyone worshipping her tending to her every whim. It was very fascinating and well worth the trip to the square just to see her.
We did enjoy simply wandering around and finding our own way, everything was just so OLD, it was beautiful and there was so much to look at, old streets with little windy paths and alleys, leaning brickwork, intricate doors, secret courtyards with fountains of old brick and a mix of wooden and brick houses. We kept finding different shrines around many corners, all in use with people praying, this really felt like experiencing another place in another time. From here we hired a taxi to take us to the famous Swayambhunath (Monkey
Temple), which is a Buddhist sight and is 2600 years old. I was a little anxious having heard how aggressive and dominant the monkeys are whilst you are climbing up, but luckily we had no food on or near us and we hurried up before they had a moment to think about chasing us. After a very steep last section we were up there and we were greeted with smells of incense, the sound of chanting and the glorious sight of bells, prayer bells and people praying. The views from the top of here were beautiful over the city of Kathmandu, and we watched the sunset behind the clouds. En route down the other side we watched the young monks playing a game of throwing a coin into the middle of a fountain in a pond. Sounds boring but it was great to watch them having some fun, as usually when you see monks they are quiet and quite reserved. It was intriguing to see a fun, competitive streak coming out, which perhaps wouldn’t be the norm. The first night there we had our first taste of Nepali food, in the form of a Nepali curry of dahl baht. This
is super popular and consists of steamed rice, dahl (lentil soup), some sort of pickle, roti and some curry. The thing to do is to pour it all over each other and mix it up for a delicious dinner. It is delicious and this would be the first of many dahl bahts we would enjoy in our 3 weeks in Nepal. That first night we got our first taste of COLD weather, which we had not encountered since being in south America, a definite visit to buy some fake north face clothes was called for the next day.
Using our same taxi dude, lets call him Dave from the previous day we headed to see the sight of Kathmandu valley as it is known. We decided on a price of $30 for a day of him driving around, with a pick up of 6am. We kept agreeing the pick up time (6am) and he must of thought it wouldn’t happen as when we arrived he literally whooped into the air (in a Nepalese style). He was so pleased to see us, $30 must of been a good rate for him, he was even dressed down and different to the
day before like he was a non-school uniform day and throughout the trip he had incense on and a flower wreath around him, lovely bloke. His car was ancient and it stalled all day long, we didn’t think it was going to make it half the time but he kept plugging away and we had a fantastic day bumping about in our seats. First stop was up to Nagarkot; this is where you can view the Himalayan mountains. It didn’t take long to leave the city and be amongst the fields, it was so green and pretty. It was a bumpy journey with no cement roads and we saw lots of local homes and lots of friendly people, staring and waving at us as we drove by. The countryside was green, lots of farms, but with giant out of the place smoke stacks dotted around. After seeing the fields came the mountains as we climbed and climbed In this ancient, clapped out car. It was a fantastic view, unfortunately a cloud was right in front of Mount Everest but you got the idea. I could have looked at this view all day. We had a lovely coffee, got hassled by
a guy selling maps but it was great talking rubbish to him.
We carried onto Bhaktpur, which is called the city of devotes, and again this was just so old and full of character and culture. It was so mediaeval and we stumbled upon the pottery square, in which there were 1000s of pots out in the square being dried so later be sold. Next stop was onto Patan which is in the Kathmandu valley and is a very rich cultural sight and after having a little wonder around the character fueled town we stopped for a coffee in a rooftop café and had a gaze around the beautiful durbar square, despite it being the slowest of service this seemed to fit into the old slow paced nature of the town. We were stung by some scams here, men coming up to us wanting to practice their English but all to lure us into their shops. We headed back towards Kathmandu, we declined going to the burning ghat due to the steep tourist price and that this was something we would probably see in India later on so just had a cheap bite to eat across the road. We
headed after lunch to Bouddhanath (the god of wisdom), which is considered as one of the largest stupas in the world; this was really a sight to see and a highlight (if there could be) from such a fantastic day of sightseeing. There were prayer flags everywhere and it was very iconic. Our last stop was 8km out of Kathmandu and called Budhanilkantha which is where the largest of Vishnu’s stone statues lies. It is the largest granite figure of Lord Vishnu, who is reclining on a bed of serpents and seems to float in the pond, the shrine dates back to the 5
th Century and lm glad we included it in the tour as it was unusual and different to the other things we had seen this day. What a hectic whistle stop day, which ended around 5 o clock. We were pretty tired having covered so much in one day, we had seen and done loads and l think in hindsight we should have done this at least in two (maybe three) days with a night staying in Bhaktpur. Next time....
That night we decided to get blind drunk and l cant really remember what we did
or where we went, all that we both know if that when we went into the local café for some food the next day they were very sure of who we were and were laughing their heads of at us, you can take us out of Britain, but you cant take the Britain out of us.
Following that and Craig having a poorly tummy we ended up in Kathmandu for an extra day meaning we were there 5 days. We had booked our white water rafting trip through a local agent we found called Blue sky tours and they came recommended to us by a friend who had used them for her trip. We had decided we needed a bit more adventure so two days of white water rafting would do the trick.
We were picked up early again and onto a tourist bus (there are tourist and locals – we eventually went on both). This meant a very bumpy journey and being flung out of our seats on man occasion (how much worse could a local bus be we thought!). The roads we extremely mountainous and at times it was best not to look out the window
at some points. But the scenery was beautiful. There are only three main roads in Nepal, these join together the main tourist/local towns. These are from Kathmandu to Pokhara and to and from Chitwan back onto the Kathmandu to Pokhara road. We were dropped off on the side of the road mid point between Kathmandu and Pokhara. On this part of the road was a shop, a couple of houses and storerooms. The first day of rafting was fantastic, and we were with 3-4 other people. Two of who could not swim, one of whom wanted to take his super duper high tech camera with him and another who had a dodgy leg. Great team! I must say moving along the river and having the mountains on both sides was an experience l wont be forgetting, l kept saying to Craig – we are actually white water rafting in Nepal!!!! WOW!!!
The level of rapids wasn’t too scary, mainly 1 and 2’s moving to 3's later on, which was a good start for us beginners but we would have liked something a bit tougher. At one point we could jump in and let the rapids take us, this was
fun but VERY cold! After a few hours we ended out rafting for the day and had a lovely lunch with the team, which consisted of thali, then we got a lift back to our starting point. We had a tent waiting for us (it was only Craig and me staying over), which was set up at the edge of the river, and it was the perfect setting. Our guide (a young man called Santos who had a young family) took us along a suspension bridge and then up to the hills for a little walk and to show us where his family lived and the views from the top. Whilst we were driving earlier we would never have thought this world was above the road. It was like another world, so basic but so fulfilling. We met the locals who were working the fields, coming home from school and work and everyone was so nice and friendly towards us. As the sun started setting we ate with the local family who worked with the rafting company and who had a roadside restaurant. A huge meal of dahl bhat was made and dished out, with local waifs and strays popping
Roadside dining
Somewhere between Kathmandu and Pokhara in for food and very strong locally brewed spirit. Some seemed very drunk, but still we felt safe and looked after. We talked to the boys (around 20-25 years old) from the rafting company about England and also Nepal and we had a great night. One of the boys was distinctly westernized and has been to the university in Kathmandu to do IT but loved rafting so much he had turned his back on that for a life outdoors. Who can blame him? We also adopted a little puppy for the night, shame we couldn’t have taken it with us. We camped out by the river and with just some blankets (and each other of course) to keep us warm, but we managed and had had a fantastic experience. The second day we had some bread and jam for breakfast and lots of hot tea, followed by another day of rafting. It was just us and the two boys and we had lots of fun and laughs, chatting away whilst riding the river and despite trying we didn’t flip the raft (luckily), but we did get very wet.
The boys fixed us up with some lunch (dahl bhat -
when will we tire of this i wonder?) and after getting changed they flagged us down a local bus heading to Pokhara.....a LOCAL bus.... EEEK!!.... next stop.... POKHARA.
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