Advertisement
Published: January 9th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Patan
Finally the rain is over The first time I was here, it was more than 3 years ago. Kathmandu has not changed much since then, at least not to me. But to the Nepalese, this
IS the season of change. In June 2001, its crown prince went on a killing rampage, killing his own parents, the reigning king and queen, plus other members of the royal family. He turned the gun to himself after that. King Gyanendra (the brother of the king) ascended to the throne. He ruled the country with an iron fist. Naturally, he was not a popular figure in and outside of Nepal. In February 2005, he went a step further. He dismissed the Nepalese government and assumed full control of the country. There had been widespread street protests. On top of it, the Maoists, who have been controlling parts of Nepal, organised an uprising against King Gyanendra. Gruesome pictures of the protests filled television screens almost daily in April. Hyning and I were following the news closely and anxiously. The ultimate question was "to go or not to go?"
What the heck - of course, we should go. We paid for our open-jaw tickets, packed and arranged to meet up at
Mandala Painting
It takes an artist up to a year to complete this painting using 0.5mm hair brush Kathmandu (It turned out that we were both taking the same flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu - hence we actually met up in Bangkok Airport). Kathmandu Airport seemed pretty much the same since my last trip. Dim. Quiet. With occasional echo of footsteps of travellers. The immigration officers barely looked up at us when we handed over our passports. The same old 'unofficial' porters were all waiting at the arrival hall, waiting for the next innocent tourists. The roads to Thamel were still peppered with potholes, the streets were still dusty. The houses were small and simple with lines of washing hung outside. The locals never got tired of waving to tourists who drove by their houses. Some of the kids still run after tourist cars, offering their
Nameste greetings. Simple and friendly - that was how the Nepalese folks appeared to me. After all the recent drama, they are still same - simple and friendly. This is a country which has long been torn apart by civil war but held strongly together by its people's resilience to hardship and adversity.
Hyning and I did the usual touristy rounds at Durbar Square, Patan, Bhaktapur, Nagarkot etc. We had
Dal Bhat and more
Dal Bhat everyday. Lentil curry with rice, it is the Nepalese staple diet, eaten by Nepalese for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We wanted to try some other authentic Nepalese food and turned to a Nepalese for recommendations:
Me: "Where can I find the best Nepalese restaurant in Kathmandu?"
Him: "At the Best Nepalese Restaurant in Kathmandu."
Me: "I know, but where is it?"
Him: "It is right here in Thamel."
It appeared that that was the name of the restaurant! And the Best Nepalese Restaurant in Kathmandu served (guess what) more
Dal Bhat in different variations. The
Dal Bhat they served was certainly more sumptious and elaborate but they tasted pretty much the same to us after a while. Having said that, never once did we step in a 'western' establishment for food in Nepal,
Rum Doodle was probably the nearest to a 'western' establishment. But we had Tandoori and other assorted types of curry there.
Rum Doodle has attracted many mountaineers over the past 20 years. Trekkers come here to exchange stories, catch-up on the latest 'Summit Digest' and leave their 'foot prints'. Autographs of the mountaineering greats like Rob Hall, Gary Ball, Scott Fischer (God bless
Potteries for sale at Bhaktapur
I think the lady was looking for her missing pottery... their souls), all signed on paper cut-out in the shape of footprints, were plastered all over the bar area. We were due to trek up Everest Base Camp in this trip, we figured, since we would be heading to Lhasa after our climb, we would not have the chance to leave our 'foot prints' at Rum Doodle. But after looking at the photographs of the mountaineers - some standing and beaming victoriously at the summits, some attempting to cross ice-crevasse or fixing lines in precarious positions - all showing their steely determination in mountaineering. We did not think we were of the same league with them. To be specific, we were not even in the league at all.
Think about it, human beings have this undying desire to climb the highest, dive the deepest, reach for the furthest. The unsatiable appetite for more. Some are there for the glory and reward, some are there for the experience. In mountaineering, the lucky ones may just lose their toes/fingers, the unlucky ones may never return. Hyning and I were just incidental climbers. We were not committed or dedicated to the sport. Our main aim of the trip was to travel along
Email?
The old world embraces the cyberworld the much-raved about 900km Friendship Highway that would take us from Kathmandu to Lhasa and on route, we would stop by Rongbhuk Monastery and do a quick turn-around at the Everest Base Camp. Are we ready to risk everything and sacrifice everything, all in the name of mountaineering? Definitely 'no'.
We stayed in the
Tibet Guesthouse in the heart of Thamel. Although it was a Tibetan-run guesthouse, the place was, like the Nepalese, simple and friendly. The room was spacious and clean. It came with a satelite television, which was great as we could catch some of the more interesting WorldCup games (England vs Ecuador and Italy vs Australia) and watch and dance along with MTV India (it gives a whole new vibe). There was one thing about our room. The room faces the family courtyard of the guesthouse's neighbour. At approximately 4am everyday, the family would start the day by doing their washing in the courtyard. The kids could be heard chasing after their pets. But we were usually roused by something that went like this "quisshhh... quisshh...quisshh" and it would go on for the whole morning. In our half-sleeping and half-awake mode, this sound could be anything. Later,
Feel like getting high?
These are everywhere around Nagarkot we came to realised that it was the sound of the waterpump at the courtyard. A thing to note next time, Nepalese are bunch of earlybirds - avoid a room near them if one would like to sleep-in.
On the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking (I was told it is on 26 June), we went on a day-trip to Nagarkot. Our little car drove us eastwards from Kathmandu and on route to Nagarkot, we saw many Nepalese marching down the streets with banners in hand, chanting (what I was told ) anti-drugs abuse messages. Not knowing what was written on the banners and what the demonstration was about, we, initially, got a bit worried. But the demonstration was organised and peaceful. Although Nagarkot is only 32km from Kathmandu, it took us more than 2 hours to travel there from Kathmandu. The roads were narrow and winding. There were a few military check-points. Occasionally, we had to slow down for cows which enjoy taking their sweet time in crossing the roads. I did not get to see Mount Everest in my last trip here, as we spent most of our time trekking in the west at
Footprints at Rum Doodle
Only for true mountaineers Annanpurna, I thought I could catch a glimpse of her this time. But of the few hours we were there, thick fog covered the whole area. After much waiting (and many more cups of tea) later, we could see the Kathmandu valley at the surrounded area. We went for a little walk with our guide around the Nagarkot village and snooped around the village huts. It seemed that the villagers have a thing for Cannabis. The plants could be found in the surrounding area of the village and looked like there were cultivated. Ironically, this was on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking! Our guide refuse to tell us whether these would be sold in the open market or they were for the villagers' own use. But it did not appear that the villagers had it for commercial reasons.
p.s. This is a blog written after my trip. I heard that the Nepalese government and the Maoists signed a peace deal in November 2006. I hope this will bring an end to the civil war. It is time the Nepalese not only dream of peace, but live in peace.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.13s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 18; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0723s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb