Descending the hills to Nepal

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New country, new feelings!

After the noisy night in the Nepali-run hotel in Zhangmu (China/Tibet) our 8km trip to the Nepali border was eventless. Pasang, our guide took us to the customs, we wished each other good karma and waved goodbye. We walked the border area to the Nepali side. Funny but this no man's land looked like it's "everybody's land" as there were so many Nepali people in the place as on a normal street. Apparently wanna-be drivers can enter this zone fetching for customers. After some search we found a guy with a cool red, but old Toyota Corolla who gave us an OK (read: less-rip-off) price for the 110 km trip to Kathmandu. We could have bargained further, but I was so happy to rest again (after suffering from stomach flu for 2 days). On the Friendship Highway it takes 4 hours to ride a 110 km distance, indeed, it was a long trip. The road on the Nepali side is pretty much ran down to a bad gravel road. Seeing this I wondered how our Corolla will take the road and whether we should have gone for a 4WD, but at the end all worked out. We were happy anyways, as the view in Nepal was so different to Tibet. Still huge mountains but due to the lower elevation (around 2000 meters) lots of greens, rivers, waterfalls all along the way. Lots of Hindi people sitting on the streets, ladies washing clothes in the streams or just chatting in groups.

Kathmandu/KTM

KTM is in a valley, which makes it a bit dusty, slummy place. It took me a day to get used to the smog after the superclean air of Tibet. We heard that KTM used to be a charming city, but by now it is more like a traffic dusted, dirty town with lots of beggars. I assume this is a good prep for us before going to India... But it still has charms! The Durbar square (previous coronation square) area is OMG (Oh my God!) Lot's of big and small temples scattered all over the place dedicated to the various Hindi gods. And apparently there are temples where both Hindis and Buddhists worship their gods/buddhas. Yes, this is possible, 2 religions can manage in one place without wars, bad looks, tension. The temples in Nepal are so different to those of China. Here they all look really old, dirty from the candle wax everywhere, sometimes I have the feeling the altars have not been cleaned for hundred years. And this is all right, the whole thing looks authentic. Besides temples, there are tiny worship spots on all streets, sometimes unrecognizable figurines/stones, only the red colour and remainder of wax tells you that yes, someone comes to worship here.

Patan, the city of beauty and the home of our consulates

We made a day trip to Patan. It was not planned. But it happened. One of the missions of our stay in KTM is to get visas! This time to Pakistan and India. Yes, we go to Pakistan, by now it's pretty sure!! Smile!!

So we went Monday morning to the Paki embassy to start our visa application to this tricky country. Apparently it was closed due to some holidays, so we went back Tuesday. Yes, we were in, but very quickly out again as they requested Letters of Recommendation from our local consulates. This piece of paper is not always required, but here yes... Since we did our homework properly, we knew that both the NL and HU had consuls in KTM. We called our dear consuls quickly and yes, they did not take the holiday between Xmas and New Year. Thanks God! So we were off in a taxi to Patan aiming first for the Dutch as they closed within 45 min... we missed it with 10 minutes... auch.

So we went to the Hungarian honorary consul. Mr. G. is actually not Hungarian, but a Nepali businessman. 75 years old, in pretty good shape, he invited us to a very nice chat in his office. Had a great time, heard some typical consul stories...

For example: recently a Hungarian person decided to go to Nepal and convert to Buddhism. He straight away threw away all his papers, passport, money as he wanted to get rid of all worldly belongings of his... Guys, don't go that fast! Apparently few days later a sherpa (local villager from the mountains) found him in the woods in a miserable state, hungry, shivering etc. He took the guy to the consul, but this wanna-be-monk did not speak any languages besides Hungarian, so even the Hungarian Embassy in New Delhi had to be involved...

An other story was about a lady who was convinced that she is followed by some organised crime group in Nepal and was afraid of being kidnapped with the aim of using her body parts after being killed. The consul recommended her to go back to Hungary but she did not want to (!). She said she wanted to go to India, so the best advice the consul could give was to leave Nepal towards India asap. The lady did not return to the consul, so hopefully she made it...

At the end I got my recommendation letter nicely stamped and sealed, cool! We spent the afternoon in Patan, as it is actually an important tourist site. The Durbar square here was more impressive than the one of KTM, but what we liked most was the walking tour zig-zagging in the town. We passed beautiful courtyards, pretty small streets, met very friendly locals.

Here we come again - Patan II

Next morning we started at the Dutch consulate and this time success. We heard stories from the consular officer there too, but did not manage to meet the consul. The Dutch consulate is a much bigger than the Hungarian one, as the consular services are basically done by SNV, a Dutch development organization. From there we were rushing back to the Paki's but got on a wrong tuk-tuk bus (we should have taken tuk-tuk 14, but we took 14b, but try to figure this out when the digits are in arabic-like style characters), so at the end had to fetch a taxi to make it there in time. And we made it, our applications were handed in. And now the funny thing: consular interview tomorrow!!! So we dropped the idea of a white water rafting for new year (so bad...) in order to attend our (5 minute) interview. Having a western friend in Pakistan is like a joker in a card game. So, Renate, here we come! Our plan is to fly from KTM to Islamabad and then look around in the neighborhood. From ISB we plan to travel by land to Lahore and exit the country to India towards Delhi. This all should be possible, so fingers crossed. But we still have to get an Indian visa! So next Monday this is our mission.

The funny thing is that there is a local eatery right next to the Paki embassy, and as we went to the embassy every morning in the last 4 days (damn, I have never made so much effort for a visa) we had our breakfast/lunch always at this place. By now we are regulars. Probably they will miss us tomorrow morning (finally long sleep!) but we will be back on Monday!

North Fake

Yes, it's not misspelling. KTM is the shopping paradise for outdoor clothing and equipment. And 80%!o(MISSING)f the goods sold bear the North Face symbol. We decided not to check for the authenticity of these goods as they look damn good quality for so little price. So we do outdoor shopping in KTM. Yes, I love it! Already bought double fleece jackets for 5 EUR each and now looking at sleeping bags, windstopper jackets and similar goodies. Henk and Jenny, you can expect an other parcel, now from Nepal!!

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Photos

Our red Toyota Corolla.
Note the writing on the hood.

People from the Mountains
For a few rupees you can take pictures of them, or you just zoom in properly ;-)

Agi's haircut...
No washing, no combing of the hair beforehand, but just an old paper scissor can do the trick! And actually she likes her new haircut!

Lovely woodcravings on a temple....
Note the lifelike details. True craftmanship!

An other piece of carving....
This time a bit less pleasant...

Temple with some streetgarbage.
And it actually didn't smell too bad....

Market in Ratna Park.
No clue what they all do there, but the food is good!

Gurkha's on the march....
We had a lovely view of the parading grounds in downtown Kathmandu.

Attack of the pigeons among the holy cows...
Please note the happy face of Agi...

The weekly shower.
Public wells in Patan, south of KTM.

Monkey sculpture in a temple.
And this wasn't even in the monkey temple, where we still have to go.

Durbar square in Patan.
Patan is actually better than KTM.

The letter of recommendation
from the Hungarian honorary consul in Nepal. What we had to do in order to get the bloody Paki visa... Renate, you owe us a Paki beer...

Thanks God, it wasn't actually on stock
But normally we drink the cheapest beer....

Party in the streets.
Had some fun with the locals.

Tuk-tuk taxi in KTM.
This time we had the space to make a picture. Normally we sit inside with ~6 others....

Comments

[Iwe]

Oranjeboom
Too bad they didn't have any Oranjeboom Malt in stock, your favourite! I'll give you a lolly when you're back if you show me photographic proof of you sipping on one of those....:)