Advertisement
OMG it's Mt Everest!!!
They were trying to sell us t-shirts saying "I didn't touch Mt Everest, but Mt Everest touched my heart." Lameness overload. I was happy to escape the bugs and heat of Chitwan as we made our way to Kathmandu. We arrived during the day, and could tell we were getting closer to the city as a heavy blanket of smog hung over the valley. It’s an extremely colourful city, the homes in the suburbs are like bizarre, twisted versions of the McMansions of Suburbia back home. The houses are similar to display homes, all looking the same or at least very, very similar, but oddly designed. They are generally 3 or 4 stories high, and very thin, with each house painted in a different bright colour. Some of the houses have no windows on an entire side of the building, instead they would use that space for advertising, so it is not uncommon to see massive billboards of Everest Beer or Coca Cola painted on the side of someone’s home. We stayed in the centre of the Thamel area, the main tourist hub of the city, at the Kathmandu Guest House, the first hotel to open in Thamel. The hotel hosted the Beatles during their trip to Nepal in the 1960s, with a sign in every room reminding you that the Beatles
were once guests, but when you’re gone, no one will care.
The next morning a group of us headed to the airport for our mountain flight to see Mt Everest. The weather was terrible (or maybe the smog was THAT thick), and we didn’t see a single mountain until we were above the clouds. But that proved to be the most amazing part of the flight. Seeing the mountains jot out from above the clouds is just not something you see everyday. The fact that there are people that believe climbing to such heights is ‘fun’ is just insane. Although having seen Mt Everest popping up through the clouds, I can imagine how amazing it would be to be physically standing on top of it looking over the clouds, and onto nothingness. But peering at it from a seat in an airplane is as close as I’ll ever get, considering climbing 2 flights of stairs at work leaves me breathless!
We visited two temples while in Kathmandu, the first one being Swayambhunath, or ‘The Monkey Temple’, named after the families of monkeys that have chosen to make it their home. Legends tell that Kathmandu was once a lake, and the
hill that the Monkey Temple was built on was self-arisen, not unlike a lotus leaf rising from the muddy waters of a lake.
We made our way to the Bodhnath Stupa, one of the biggest stupas in the world (or the biggest? Not sure....) It was built in 600AD after a prince accidently killed his own father, and searching for forgiveness from a monk, was told to create something spectacular as penance, and so he built the largest stupa of his times. It is really impressive, prayer flags fly off the stupa in all directions, monks and holy men walk around the stupa spinning the prayer wheels as they do so, and lots of Tibetan ladies trying to sell you their handmade jewellery.
There is a huge Tibetan influence in Nepal, not only can you see it in the jewellery and handmade beanies and socks made of yak wool, but there is Tibetan food on nearly every menu in the country. And I love it. Nepalese food is more similar to Indian, with Thalis and basic curries, just without as much spice as the Indian varieties! Momo is staple Nepalese food, and they are delicious. They are very much like
Chinese dumplings, little dough packages of vegetables that are boiled and served on a plate with dipping sauces. Tibetan food is very similar to Chinese food, as in very basic, but very tasty. The most delicious meal I’ve had so far is Tibetan Thungtha Noodle Soup. Consisting of a soup that’s mostly vegetable stock, heaps of herbs, cabbage, carrots and thick noodles. So simple, but oh so delicious! The problem with the restaurants in Nepal (and we found this to be so in India too) was the painfully slow procedure of payment. It’s not so bad if you’re by yourself, but with a big group of people, patience is definitely a virtue. You get your own separate bill, which sounds like a great idea, however they bring only 2 or 3 out at a time, go through it with each separate person, tell them how much the extra service charge is, collect the money, work out the change, try and find someone who has the correct change to give back, and then start all over with the next person. The process tends to take over 20 minutes, and it is so frustrating!
For the last night of our tour, we
headed to Rum Doodle, one of the most popular places in Kathmandu. It is covered with paper feet which visitors write their adventures or their hometowns on. We sat under the Everest Summiter’s Club wall, where paper feet dangled containing names of those who climbed the “Big E” as it is affectionately called. Most bragged about climbing Everest 6 or 7 times. I mean, why? I get that it’s an honour and an achievement to reach the top, but do you need to do it over and over again? Isn’t once enough!!!! I later read in the Kathmandu Times about a crazy Sherpa who had recently set the world record for climbing Everest the most amount of times. I’m pretty sure the paper quoted 32 times. 32!!! Unbelievable. We had a fantastic night at Rum Doodle, we all got very drunk, and the band was amazing (or was that because of my drunken state?) and played lots of old rock and roll songs that we jumped up and danced like crazy fooles too. Our paper foot came along far too late in the night, I’m pretty sure they won’t be putting it up for other’s to view considering some of
the language that found it’s way on there! We probably should have written on it pre-drinks. The texter meant for the foot found it’s way to various body parts on all of us, we woke up the next morning with random swear words and insults over our arms and legs! Too funny. We said our goodbyes to our awesome travel mates, as we all headed our separate ways.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.103s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0514s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Sarah
non-member comment
:-)
I'm glad you're updating so regularly. I'm loving reading all this. I think you really did miss out though by not buying the Mount Everest shirt. Love you and miss you!