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Published: November 27th 2011
Himalayan Range
Beautiful view from the plane flying into KTMHappy T-day!! Hope everyone enjoyed their turkey! We enjoyed some delicious dahl, curry and french onion soup!! Definitely a memorable t-day for us!
Katmandu - it is amazing! We were last here in 1996, and although it has definitely grown, it hasn't changed that much. the look and feel is still very much as we remember it. With the exception of the internet cafes, and ATMs, which were not around in '96. It still has that ' 60s feel and probably one day will become a UNESCO site!
The streets are still amazing, crammed with taxis, motorcycles, bicycle rickshaws, pedistrians all crammed in a one lane pot holed street. Horns blowing, whistles shrieking, the amazing smells of incense, small street stralls crammed with an amazing collection of trinkets, buddhas, hiking gear knock-offs, clothes, etc. interspersed with lots of great restaurants serving wonderful Nepali and Indian food. That is the Thamel area of Kathmandu. Guide book says 2500 shops in a 3 mile area. And Thamel is calm to the rest of KTM! Fascinating, exhausting, but we love it!!
We have spent the last 3 days just roaming the streets, visiting temples, one day at Bharatapur, about 20 miles
from here. Today we spent the morning getting our permits and bus tickets for our trek tomorrow. We felt we were participating in our own Amazing Race. Received directions last night, walked around for 45 minutes could not find the permit office. Back to our guesthouse for better directions. decided to take a taxi. 30 minutes later and about 4 streets away - (the traffic congestion is really amazing. you can get there faster if you walk, but only if you know where you are going...) end up at immigration that would have been fine if we had needed to extent our visas. No, no trekking permits here. Three sets of directions later, our cab driver gets us to the trekking office. Get in line for application - opps neither of us thought to bring a pen... search for a pen until finally someone allows us to use their pen to fill out the application. we return the pen, get in line again. We are now given another form to fill out - gotta go back to re-borrow the pen. fill out the form. another stand in line. Now they need 2 photos. I had read athey only needed one.
Fortunately we have 2 sets, but the poor guys behind us only have 1 photo. They have to go back to Thamel, starting over to find a photo booth. Finally, permit in hand, this allows us into the Park. We repeat the process to get a 2nd permit, this one allowing us to trek in the park!
Before I throw this netbook out the window, can someone tell me how to stop the ow keyboard from randomly jumping to prior text when i am typing!! And i am not touching the mouse pad. It is terribly annoying!!
Our 8 day trek - We are traveling north of Kathmandu to the Langtang Valley area. The bus ride is 79 miles long and it will take us @10 hours......they say that it's a bit rough. Ha Ha! We will be staying in rural tea houses as we hike up the trail for some amazing views. We are hoping the weather holds, as it has been gorgeous, clear skies, warm @ 65 degrees. We have been told that with in 4 years, the train that now is in Lhasa Tibet will be constructed thru this area and on to
Durbar Sq Patan
Beautiful Hindu temples India. So we want to see it before that happens. The area that we hiked in 95 now has a road to all the towns.
We will blog again when we return from the trek!
Hope all is well with everyone!
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Rick Mill
non-member comment
Looks like a great place to (re)discover!
Michelle & Ed, Thanks for sharing. Be safe and healthy but have fun too!