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Published: April 3rd 2010
Today I join the group for the Kala Patthar and Everest Basecamp Trek. Very much looking forward to meeting some new people. The last two days have been very good, recovered from my various previous ailments and I'm now ready for the hills.
On Thursday, I met up with Ram again, and we took a local bus from Kathmandu to Bhaktapur - another UNESCO World Heritage site. The contrasts between here and Kathmandu are extreme - it is a quiet, almost rural, and architecturally extremely beautiful city, 15km further south of KTM. Getting there was a drag - the Japanese are funding the construction of a new road between the two cities, but it would appear (from my brief experience of building roads) that it's being built in a very piecemeal, inefficient and laborious manner, not helped by the fact that the construction site for the road is also multi-tasking as the CURRENT road, so traffic mayhem, dust, construction and diggers all thrown into the mix. Bumpy ride!
Which made getting to Bhaktapur all the more rewarding. As we arrived, there was a big festival taking place, which from my understanding appeared to be the equivalent of a first holy communion or something similar at home. Needless to say, this involved more animals being slaughtered, and for better or worse, I found myself at the very front of the crowd as a huge water buffalo was being slaughtered. Literally having to jump out of the way as the animal flayed... almost a bit too much for me. Having seen animal slaughters at the weekend at Dakshinkali, I suppose you could say I was slightly more used to it, but here, it felt less spiritual and, given my proximity, quite brutal. However, this is part of the culture and, once cleaned, the meat is used to feed a feast for the child's family and relatives, and again, the whole thing is consider a sacred and religious part of the festivities.
Other than that, Durbar Square in Bhaktapur is massively impressive and the temples there, of which there are a lot, are amazing. The backstreets, also are beautiful, with tiny open shops selling everything from metalwork, to CDs, to Bhaktapur's speciality - wood carvings.
Yesterday, I went with Ram to Godavari - hometown to both the Royal Botanical Gardens, and Ram and his family. He invited me to his home for breakfast, which I was extremely grateful for. His house is located in a small part of the village on the hillside, overlooking Godavari town, and surrounded by the homes of his brothers. The houses here are very primitive, but I was made feel really, really comfortable, not to mention being made feel a real novelty for his children, nieces, nephews and, most of all, his 78 year old mother!
There is no doubt that the people here are very poor, and material possessions might be considered, particularly among the rural people, to be very few and far between. But sitting on the bare concrete ground in that very simple house yesterday, eating Dhal Bhat and fruit and being surrounded by Ram and his extended family, it was quite special to see such a happy, smiling and loving family life, and the friendliness of the everyone there, and their love for each other, was just fantastic. The kids, who were beautiful, were so cheerful, interested and interesting, and to be honest, I didn't want to leave!
However, we did, and Ram, his 10 year old nephew, 13 year daughter and 16 year old son took me around the Royal Botanical Gardens, about a 35 minute trek from his home. I guess once you've seen one botanical garden, you've got a good idea of what they're all like, but this one, so near to the chaos and smog of Kathmandu, was such a peaceful, pleasant breath of fresh air... maybe I'd leave it for others to comment on how good a garden it is (botanically speaking), but it was a lovely place to be for an afternoon, particularly just before having to head back to the city to get everything ready for the trek. Ram and I then went for a beer and a bag of crisps at the edge of the village, and I got on the bus back to KTM to ready my stuff for today.
So now I've got to go to meet the trek group - checked out of the hotel and glad to be moving on. Hopefully I'll get online again fairly soon (and before getting too far into the mountains for internet to be possible). Tomorrow at 6:30 I fly to the foothill village of Lukla and start hiking straight away, so wish me luck...
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Margaret Martin
non-member comment
Wishing you luck on your next venture
You certainly seem to have made the very very most of Kathmandu and all your entries have been fascinating. Don't know if you will get this but the very best of luck on the next part of your trip. It will be so incredibly different. Glad to hear that you are well again.