Katmandu - Clubs and Cremations

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Katmandu/Nepal - November 4th-26th 2007

Katmandu felt like our base for the full three weeks we were in Nepal. The trips we arranged never required all of our stuff so we were constantly leaving luggage in hotels, hoping it would be there when we returned.
The Journey to Katmandu felt like it took forever. First was the bus from Gorokpur (India) to the Nepal border, This wasn't exactly National Express on the M1 ! The border was reached in about 4/5 hours, you then had to recieve a stamp to leave India and arrange a visa for Nepal. To be honest if we would have just walked through no one would have noticed !
A private minibus was our next method of transport to Katmandu. This journey should have taken about 6 hours but it was more like 9. It seemed the driver had a nice little earner of being a taxi service even though he had paying customers already ! We seemed to pick up his friends/ relatives and local schoolkids and then drop them off half a mile down the road. Patience starts to go but then you realise you are not in any rush ( its not like we are heading for work like you lot ! ) and the schoolkids were funny so you go along with it !
We finally arrived in Katmandu at about 10pm in the tourist area of Thamel. The first thing that suprised us was just how many bars and clubs there were, it is like a travellers Magaluf ! It wasn't exactly clean but it was a hell of a lot cleaner than Delhi !
We made our way to our hotel which was included in our trekking trip. Compared to the rooms in India, it was heaven, just having hot water again !
We had the first day to ourselves apart from a quick meeting with our trekking guide for the Everest Base Camp trip. The next day included again in the trip was some local sightseeeing with the guide who took us to Boudha which is the largest stupar in Katmandu and also Pospatinath (awful spelling) which is an important Hindu temple site used for cremations. On the way we came across several cows having a stroll in the main road as usual, just like in India the cows are considered holy. If you run over and kill a cow you receive a more severe punishment than if you kill a human ! Comedy.
The cremations were again quite strange to see happening, if we had been there on another day we could have witnessed an 'animal offering to the gods' , basically just live slaughter of various animals , glad we missed that one !
Durbar square is another sight in Katmandu to tick off the list, we went there on one of our final days . We should have hired a guide really, due to not having one we were hassled every 5 yards to have one ! Its a small area filled with many temples. It is also the home of a living goddess, unfortunately this is not a very pretty lady but an 8 year old girl ! A bit strange you might think, the selection process for the goddess gets even more weird ! Firstly girls with the correct looks are chosen, they then are all put in a dark room whilst men in scary masks run around them trying to frighten them.......... the thinking being that a true goddess would not be scared of mere mortals. The remaining girls then have to chose outfits of the previous goddess...... the girl who chooses the correct wardrobe becomes the goddess ! Fantastic ........ then she hits puberty and is replaced !
We were sad to leave Katmandu, Nepal had been a great 3 weeks, especially as we were heading back to Delhi ...... AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Photos

New friends......
It costs money to make new friends though !

Live cremations....
... a strange experience

My friends house
he didn't invite me in for a cup of tea though

Flag Day ...
We couldn't work out what was going on , colourful though

Reggae Bar
They provided us with a lot of dodgy covers ! Really good though

dodgy bus , dodgy road
On the way to Katmandu , grim