The Land of Himalayas- Nepal (part-Kathmandu)

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Nepal- the land of Himalayas. A small, peaceful territory where the majestic snowy Himalayan peaks stand in pride. I love mountains- I love the rolling greenery, I love the winding roads across the mountains, I love the snow covered mountain peaks and I absolutely love the slightly chilly mountain weather. So visiting Nepal-which is so close to my homeland, was a must for me!

Kathmandu- where you can find more tourists than natives. Well, it might be a false statement statistically but it definitely seemed so when we arrived in our hotel in Thamel. Thamel- is the tourist hub in Kathmandu. Its jam packed with souvenir shops, food shops, hotels, bars and of course backpacker westerners! Nowhere else in the world had I seen so many white people in such raggedy outfits? And for some reason most of these western tourists have a tendency of wearing Asian clothes when they are in Nepal. The Arabian style draped pajamas, the cotton kurtas with Om or some other scripture printed on it, beads around their wrists and/or neck gives them a typical hippi look. Nepal- which has mountain tracking, river rafting, kayaking, bungee jumping, spa, massage parlours, nightclubs and all other type of fun activities and that too at a very cheap price- must be very attractive to these types of budget conscious western tourists. It seemed to me that most backpackers were living in Nepal for weeks and did not have any plan of returning to their country anytime soon.

Thamel is a very active place. The food outlets are awesome- you get all types of culinary choices at a cheap price. In very relaxing atmosphere, they would provide you yummy Nepalese thali or any continental dish you order for and you can literally spend hours over there. The small shops sell traditional masks and handicraft items and pashminas at a very cheap price. The entire place is congested, the streets are narrow and dirty but this place buzzes full swing tourist activities. The days start late- most shops not opening till around 11 am, but the evenings are thriving. The time I visited Nepal was during football world cup season. The bars arranged to screen the matches live so that people could enjoy in groups. As the hotels and bars are almost tangled with each other, the cheer and shouts would last up until way past midnight- and sleeping peacefully before the matches were over was simply not possible. There are lots of travel agencies in Thamel – where you can book adventure sports or tours within the country any time. These agencies offer some pretty good deals.

Like most South Asian cultures, Nepal is also a place for bargain. You should be a good bargainer to take advantage of the affordable tourism services provided by Nepalese. Starting from travel agencies to souvenir shops to hotel bookings to even money exchange, bargaining is a must. As we ourselves are from South Asia, we were able to cut a seemingly very good deal with one of the travel agencies and booked a 4 day trip to Pokhra and Chitwan. We rented a private chauffer driven car for those 4 days- but still it was well within budget.

Kathmandu has a few tourist spots within the city- but those take hardy a day to visit. I am referring to Shambhunath Stupa and Patan Darbar Square. The Shambhunath Stupa is a religious place with lots of monkeys running loosely all around the place. There are traditional prayed wheels, some temples on top of a small hill and lots of monks living there. The place is swarmed with people, people praying, people eating- and monkeys and sometimes dogs are also eating leftover food not more than a few feet away from people. The place has a very different cultural vibe and the top of this hill provides an excellent view of the entire Kathmandu valley. It wouldn’t take more than two hours to experience the vibe of this place and it might be an interesting experience for people who have never been to this part of the world.

I liked the Patan Darbar Square more than the Shambhunath Stupa. This square actually is the ruins from an ancient city where the kings lived. The ancient Nepalese architecture captured my interest. There are still some ancient, dried, rotten cow intestines hanging on the entrance of many ancient houses- they used to believe this would protect them from earthquakes. The houses are a couple of stories high, with traditional Nepalese roof, with sculptures of animals placed on the doorsteps, stairs, verandas and roofs. Who knows what significance this might have held to the previous generations? But such ancient places always give me an excitement and Patan Darbar Square was no different. Tour guides are available- you can hire one if you want to know details but be sure to bargain the rate first. We made a mistake by not taking a guided tour but I would definitely recommend taking a guide with you- as there is a lot of Nepalese history and culture hidden in this place.

Nagorkot- which is not strictly inside Kathmandu- is a very beautiful place to watch sunrise I have heard. But as we had booked a tour to pokhra and Chitwan, we didn’t really get the time to make it to Nagorkot. We dropped this option as we were looking forward to making this up by seeing a sunrise on the majestic Annapurna in Pokhra. But if you have ample time, do go and visit Nagorkot too for half a day- this is probably worth a half day trip.

My Pokhra and Chitwan experience will be described in a separate blog. But I would conclude by saying- though Kathmandu doesn’t have that much to offer in terms of natural beauty or adventure sports (all of which are done out of Kathmandu), still I somewhat liked Kathmandu. I liked the less crowded uphill roads, I liked seeing holy(!) cows sitting in the middle of the roads and no one bothering about it, my hubby did not like the particular massage we took (it made his back ache rather than relaxing him) and I absolutely loved thriving Thamel- but only for a couple of days! I wouldn’t be able to spend more time than that over there!

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Photos

Yummy Dinner
Nepali Thali and Continental Steak

Photo 5
Great restaurant in Thamel