Advertisement
Published: October 5th 2007
Edit Blog Post
My brief stay in Kathmandu was good. Definitely wouldn’t rank up high on the list of places of been but I will give it interesting and definitely a place to see. I am sure the rest of the country of Nepal is quite lovely but my taste of Kathmandu was at best average. One thing I don’t get is their time zone…it was a 15 minute difference than Bhutan…why bother changing?!
I flew in the morning of September 30 to meet up with my tour group for Tibet. I had even a better flight and view of Everest on my way in….you would never expect you could get so close! Just gorgeous! Upon arrival I immediately met my roommate for the trip, Kirsty from the UK. She had been in Nepal for a few days prior. We instantly hit it off and began touring around Kathmandu together. In the morning we tried to manage our way around the muddy, bumpy, crowded streets of KTM. It is pretty dirty and there are people on motorbikes that just whizz by you. I compared it to where I was living in the city…with all the tourists (Empire State Building), shoppers (Macy’s, 34th street,
etc), and commuters (Penn Station)…although much worse! Anyhoo, we went to one of the many bakery shops here…which apparently they pride themselves on and then made our way in a taxi to the famous Bodhnath Stupa. I took a lot of pics here as it was cloudy when we arrived but then got sunny again…I think kirsty and I will do fine traveling around together as she is the picture taker herself…maybe not as many as me but I haven’t felt like i’ve been keeping anyone waiting…which is nice on a group tour!
On our way walking around we saw a sign that said we want Prashant Tamang to be an Indian Idol!! I was making a wild guess that it was similar to British and American Idol and I guess I was right. A Nepalese guy won the Indian Idol award. I was amused for some reason, I guess cuz I didn’t realize it existed outside the US and UK.
We then made our way to Durbar Square - Patan. Apparently there is more than one durbar square, where durbar means palace. Definitely par t o f the old town of Kathmandu and very beautiful. Things seemed
to be difficult to find but eventually we made our way. The Golden Temple was also on the list. Afterwards we just meandered figuring we could walk back to Thamel…the area of Kathmandu where we were staying. We came across some pretty nice neighborhoods and by the time we found a taxi after maybe two hours, we were nowhere near Thamel and pretty much off the maps in the lonely planet guide book. It was good fun though! Although I did come across a sign during our walk that advertised for New York pizza. I never did find it, but I’m not sure I really wanted to…
I’ve noticed a number of symbols which resemble the Jewish star…two triangles in opposite directions. I have learned that it is representative of purity and outside almost nearly every temple.
I think Tom and Jerry are the King & Queen of Asia…I see them EVERYWHERE…I’m fascinated by this regions fascination with them…I just don’t get it…
We had our group meeting and a dinner that night to get acquainted with everyone. I am the sole American, which is fantastic…there is one Canadian and the rest are a mix between Australian and British, although some originally hail from Germany. Pretty evenly mixed girls and guys and there are 3 couples. I think everyone else came solo. And there are 14 of us. I am not the youngest but definitely the bottom tier…we range I believe from 22 to 54…and of all the people on this trip there is actually one guy who works for Pfizer! Small world…
The next day the group went to Swayambhunath Temple, which is also known as monkey temple for the infinite amount of monkeys prancing around the premises. We climbed a butt load of stairs…one for each day of the year. It’s kind of sad to me that many of the tourist sites have a boat load of sellers with their goods outlining the property. It sort of puts of damper on visiting them when you get harassed to purchase something.
We then made our way to Pashupatinath Temple, which is on the grounds of a cremation site, and sits on the Bagmati River, the holy river. There are many sadhus that hang around here asking for money and in return you can take a photo.
Afterwards, Kirsty and I did the lonely planet walking tours to and around Durbar Square - Kathmandu from our guest house and then one just south of there and over to freak street, which is the old hippie stomping ground of those westerners who were in search of enlightenment. There are a number of squares that turn into marketplaces during the day and they are quite the hustle and bustle. While in Durbar Square we were approached several times by men who wanted to be our guides in return for too much money. They just start explaining things to you and if you don’t know that they are expecting money you could fall into a trap. We just kept saying that we had one the day before and that seemed to do the trick. I was amused by the Nepalese boy singing at the top of his lungs Bed of Roses by Bon Jovi…it was truly amazing and I burst out laughing…
For dinner, a number of us went out to this place that came recommended to me called Third Eye…which turned out to be delicious. I also picked up some long underwear as I did not have anything warm enough for the bottom when we arrive at Everest Base Camp which will be below freezing. NEAT.
And one more thing I don’t get. People with snot in their noses don’t use tissues. You could be walking around and the next thing you know the woman next to you has her forefinger and thumb on the upper part of her nose and blows out a slimy nasty wad of a booger…it is the most vile thing and I just cant get over it…it’s sick! On top of the fact that they are ALL hocking lugers left and right. I am nauseated.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.152s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 30; dbt: 0.1029s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb