Advertisement
Published: July 24th 2006
Edit Blog Post
We are in Katmandu, our first vacation spot on our trip. It is 180
degrees different then Tibet. Not only the scenery that changed from
our decent from the dry mountains of the Tibetan platue to the green,
river filled hills for Katmandu valley. If China was a very regulated place
then immediately after crossing the boarder you feel the chaos of the
Far East. The smells of insent (KTORET) and curry. The language is
suddenly familiar (English). Even the driving is done on the other side
of the road so not to confuse this place with china.
We also have for the first time in over a month a shower in the room at
a real hotel (with a lobby and everything) and all we could do is sing
the
Holy-Holiday song 😊
In the heart of Katmandu are 4 streets called the Thamel. This is
probably the most advanced Backpacker ghetto in the world. There are
dozens of guesthouses here and an infinite number of restaurants and
bars serving every kind of food imaginable. In 1 week we had Nepaly,
Italian, Indian, Israeli, Jewish, Mexican, Stakes, German and ice cream.
this is our daily schedule
0600-0900 wake up with no alarm clock. at first we woke up
early due to 2.5hr time different between china and Nepal. as the
week passed we woke up later and later.
shower #1 0900-1000 - eat breakfast. our favorite restaurant is a German
bakery with excellent sandwiches
1000-1200 - sightseeing. only 2 hr a day no more. we are on
vacation 😊
1200-1400 eat lunch in one of Katmandu’s many restaurants.
we have not yet returned to the same restaurant twice
1400-1700 -
shower #2 and sleep. a very important part
of vacationing
1700-1800 - walk around in the 4 streets of the thamel around
the hotel. this is for sport and shopping
1800 - 1900 - our daily Internet hour. seeing how the war is
going along, sending and reading mails
1900 - 2000 -free time. we
Shoping
more bags cant always be doing something we
are on vacation
2000 - 2100 the bakeries in town start selling their merchandise
at 50%!o(MISSING)ff. we buy some sweets and go watch some TV in the hotel
lobby (unfortunately CNN is our latest favorite)
2200 - drink something and then
shower #3 and go to
sleep. tomorrow we have another full day of vacation.
Biet Habad
on Friday night we went to Kabalat Shabbat at the local Biet-Habad.
the tastiest food in Katmandu. Homemade Israeli salads followed by
chicken-soup with KNIDALACH and soup-almonds (Skediy marak) and a
main dish of Chicken (REVA-OFF). we have a very nervous time waiting
for the main dish not knowing if we get REVA-OFF or BOREKAS. (Hagit
was also worried how people will know she was an engineer’s-wife).
the cost of this fabulous meal - our sole to the Habadniks
there were about 20 other Israelis. all of them except us were 22 year-
old kids that could talk only of their drug trip in India...
Patan - Durbar Square
the bird from the song Gali Atari Bird
ומספרים,
כלואה ציפור הפלא
שבאבן מפוסלת
בנפאל הרחוקה, הרחוקה.
צמאים פילי האבן
ומנגד
מבזבזת את מימיה מזרקה
our (measly) translation:
they say,
the wonderful bird stone ,
is caged
in far away Nepal
the thirsty stone elephants
stand in front
of a fountain wasting it's water
and the song continues by explaining that when the bird flies and the
elephants drink the water then there will be peace. by the last 2
weeks we were skeptical that would happen in the near future but we
went to look for the famous bird that is supposed to be in Patan's
Durbar Square. if you tell the local kids that you are from Israel then
they will start singing the song and point to the statue with a bird.
We were disappointed to find that it is not made of stone. it is made of
bronze. we did find the elephants though - they are indeed in front of
a water fountain. we think the whole thing is a scam or at
best "wishful thinking" of an Israeli traveler to Nepal thinking the song
is about a real place...
by-the-way - the local ledged said that the bird is there waiting for a
king that ran away from the spirits. he will return one day
Kathmandu - Durbar Square
statues of Shiva and Vishu looking out of a temple window and the bird
is there to save him a spot. a window in the palace in front of the
statue is always left open for his return.
Chapatti
Chapatti is a round doughnut kind of oily Nepalese bread. it also rimes
very nicely in Hebrew in the famous saying "AHALTI Chapatti
Ve'NIRGATI" (I ate a Chapatti and relaxed)
thanks to Yariv Sh. for introducing us to that...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.131s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0446s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Hagit S
non-member comment
Nice clothes buba!