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Published: June 11th 2013
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As you read the blogs from Nepal, it will become readily apparent that I loved the country. There hasn’t been a place before or after that I’ve enjoyed that much yet, and I promised myself that I’d not only return, but I’d return knowing the language.
My love of Nepal is twofold: the Himalayas and the people. There are no better mountains and there are no nicer people. I felt accepted – I was called “Nepali” by a couple individuals, including a Sherpa - and I could do nothing but accept (except for a couple instances, one of which being the food, which was more of the same). I also liked that it is the only country in the world whose flag is not a rectangle.
Kathmandu was our first stop. We spent the first day or two just relaxing after India waiting for our friend Gosia, who was going to accompany us on our Everest Base Camp (EBC) trek, to arrive from Poland. We were nursing some new stomach aches, so, on our arrival day, we visited a medical clinic in the Thamel district of the city, where we were staying. We learned that we
had giardia. It wasn’t really a surprise – in fact, two months later, I still think I have it, but I guess I’ve learned to live with it for now until we get back home and hopefully receive some proper medical care. When we arrived at the pathologist’s office in the clinic, stool samples in little, clear bottles were lying around like beer cans after a frat party. Klaudia hesitantly walked up to the counter and asked for an empty bottle for her sample and received a used on in return; and when she requested a device with which to insert her sample into the bottle, she literally received a twig. No, seriously, it was a twig. We then realized that we didn’t need to visit the pathologist for direction and equipment; we only needed to visit the pathologist after we’d secured our samples. We left to look for some clean canisters, which we found at a pharmacy a couple doors away. In terms of getting the samples into the canister, the twig worked great.
Once Gosia arrived, we started our site-seeing then because we didn’t want to repeat certain spots. We strolled the city and visited
Durbar Square, which contains the Kasthamandap Temple, for which Kathmandu is named; it is said that the temple was built with the timber of a single tree. The square also contains other beautiful architecture, some of which dates back to the 11
th century, with intricate wood carvings on the roofs and doors. One of the more intriguing buildings is the Kumari Chowk, which is the home of a pre-pubescent girl, called the Kumari, believed to be the human form of the goddess Durga. She is worshiped by both Hindus and Buddhists alike, while, every day, gaping tourists wait in the courtyard of her palace hoping that she shows herself from a latticed window that was intricately ornate, but unfortunately soiled with pigeon excrement. From what I understand, she is usually scheduled to do so once in the morning and once in the afternoon, but does not always hold to that schedule, sometimes having the audacity to not show herself at all. She did present herself to us, and it was then clear to me why she sometimes refuses to give a glimpse of herself – she looked like a spoiled little brat. But I suppose if the people of a
nation thought I was a god incarnate, I’d probably let it got to my head as well, especially as a nine-year-old: she went on strike once and refused to show herself to anyone for months until the Nepalese government finally conceded to her demands for more money. I’m not certain what life is like for them once they reach puberty, but I did see a couple books written by former Kumaris if you’re interested in that sort of stuff. The selection process for the Kumari is similar to Tibetan monks’ selection of the Dalai Lama, with some fairly rigorous criteria, such as she must come from the Shakya clan (Buddha’s clan), must not have ever bled, must not yet have lost any teeth, and must possess the qualities of a goddess, of which there are many. The right candidate must then pass several tests of fearlessness and finally pick out objects amongst many that belonged to the prior Kumari.
We spent the evening preparing for our EBC trek, purchasing some gear we’d need at some low prices. Thamel is certainly a hiker’s delight.
Throughout our time in Nepal, Kathmandu became our home base for
other excursions we’d made in other parts of the country, so we’d returned to the city time and again – it sort of became a home away from home. Thus, since I’ve been writing these blogs in chronological order, I’ve decided to stay consistent and will be writing on Kathmandu some more based on when we were there. This seems easier than trying to mash together several Kathmandu stories that occurred at different times and will make the unifying parts of our Nepal journey more coherent. So more on Kathmandu later - our time in the Himalayas is next.
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