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Published: October 22nd 2009
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We flew from Aurangabad to Delhi that afternoon so we could fly to Kathmandu the next day. I have to say we were disappointed with our hotel in Delhi. Someone had really not paid attention to the housekeeping details in our room. The sheets were dirty (had many dark chocolate stains), we didn't have enough towels or a bath mat in the bathroom. To top it all, there was a badly designed shoe storage area below the suitcase stand which kept falling down. At one point, it fell on my leg, my feet started swelling and I couldn't walk. This was quite alarming since we were leaving on the Himalayan trek the next day. So I took a Bacardi bottle from the bar and stuck it on my foot inside a sock. I had to go to the hospital and the hotel made all the arrangements. The docs and nurses at the hospital had a good laugh since they had never seen a patient walk in with a Bacardi bottle on their foot before. The doc on duty (incidentally Sanjay) had also trekked to the Himalayas many times. He took personal interest in the "patient with the Bacardi bottle" since he
really wanted me to go on the trek. There is a certain camaraderie amongst trekkers that we noticed throughout our trek. To our relief, the x-ray showed no fractures. The doc wanted to keep the Bacardi bottle as a reminder and so I had to pull one more out from the mini bar for my swollen foot. So Rindi is spreading stories about how I cannot sleep without a bottle of Bacardi.
We flew into Kathmandu the next day, sleep deprived after having slept 3 hrs because of the Bacardi foot saga. The visa process was a nightmare and we almost didn't get in since we barely had enough money for the visa fee. There is no visa fee for Indians in Nepal, but it is 25$ for everyone else. You can only pay the visa fee with strong currencies. Indian rupees or even Nepali rupees are not accepted. Luckily, I had stuck some Euros and dollars in my pouch and had just about enough for my visa fee. The ATM only took MC ATM cards and both of us didn't have a MC. We tried exchanging our INRs for dollars. INR notes over 100 Rs are not accepted
in Nepal. We barely had enough 100 Re notes for Rindi's visa. Needless to say, we were the last ones to leave the airport. I regret not getting an OCI card then.
We were met by our guide, Vivek Limbu at the airport. Vivek is from Darjeeling and speaks some Hindi, but good Nepali. He has been working as a trekking guide in Nepal for 2 years now. We were taken to the hotel (Yak and Yeti) and briefed about our trek. We were relieved to find out that it would just be Rindi and I along with the guide and porter. That way, we didn't have to worry about holding anyone up if we were slow. We were then met by our guide who took us on a sightseeing tour of Kathmandu.
Nepal is beautiful and we had fresh air everywhere we went, except in
Kathmandu the capital of Nepal. This is probably because 3 million of the 25 million Nepali people live here. I was surprised to find out that tourism is only the 5th largest income generator for Nepal. Agriculture, remittances (taxes paid by Nepalis working abroad that send money home), carpets, clothes (mostly exported
to the US) bring in more revenue than tourism. Our guide seemed happier with the monarchy than with the current democratic system. He also mentioned that the Himalayas has less snow each year. Temperatures in winter used to go down to -3deg Celsius when he was a boy whereas it is now about -1 deg Celsius. There are a lot of Tibetan and Bhutanese refugees coming to Nepal. Indians are mostly businessmen. A lot of Hindus are converting to Buddhists (20%!o(MISSING)f population are Buddhists). Mallas and Newars were the important dynasties of Nepal.
We visited the
Swamanbhu or monkey temple, but alas the eyes of the Buddha were closed for maintenance. Rindi was disappointed. There were a lot of monkeys on the premises. There is also a Hindu temple that is common to both Buddhists and Hindus - Maya Devi temple. There are 108 prayer wheels inside which prayers are written on paper. You circle it in a clockwise direction repeating the prayer. I found out that the front piece of the traditional dress worn by Tibetan women is different for married and single women. If it has stripes, they are married. If it is a solid color,
they are not.
We visited
Durbar square or Hanuman Dhoka which is famous for 2 things: the palaces of the Newar kings which is now a world heritage site and freak street, a popular Hippie hangout in the 70's. Since it was Diwali time (Tihaar), the old city was lined with stores carrying dry fruits. Tihaar is celebrated a bit differently in Nepal. It is a celebration over 4-5 days. On the first day, food is offered to a crow before anyone else eats. Over the next 2 days, food is offered to dogs and cows. The last days is for celebration of brothers and sisters. Sisters give dry fruits to their brothers who in turn buy new clothes for their sisters. They don't burst fire crackers (not many anyway).
We also went to the Kumari Ghar which is in Durbar square. Since it was late we couldn't see the Kumari. I was disappointed since this subject has always intrigued me. There are 32 signs of perfection that the chosen Kumari should exhibit. Three who show all these signs are chosen from goldsmith families. As a final test, the 3 are taken into a scary room with buffalo heads. The
girl who is fearless, is chosen as the Kumari. She has several caretakers - both men (we saw one on a motorbike) and women. Once the Kumari reaches puberty, she loses all her power immediately and she is just an ordinary girl.
On the way back from the trek, we visited the Pashupathinath temple. I was surprised that only Hindus are allowed inside the temple which is usually not the case. The same was true with the temple in Kashi Vishwanath temple as well. I was told that this is because these are some of the holiest temples for Hindus. Only Indian priests are allowed to perform puja in the temple. The Nepali government is opposing this and so there was heavy security around the temple. It was interesting to see that even though we have given up untouchability here in India, it still exists in Nepal. Along the Baghmathi river, there was a separate area for lower castes. The Baghmathi river is considered holy since it joins the Ganges. People perform their last rites along the river just like it is done in Kashi.
India is the biggest foreign investor in Nepal. A dam was built by
India in Nepal and when it flooded a few years later, the Nepalese blamed the Indians for not maintaining it and the Indians blamed the Nepalese. Oh well!
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