Nepal Cont..

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I unfortunately had to fall off a bit from the blog to due power cuts and bad internet connectivity while in Nepal. The internet was so slow when it worked, and after we watched a guy lose a very long email I decided I would just catch up later. So Nepal was great. I keep saying it is like India 30 years ago. In central Kathmandu, I watched women get their daily supply of water from a hand pumped well, next to vendors selling vegetables in the middle of a traffic circle.

On our second day we decided we wanted to venture out of the city to see some of the other sites in the Kathmandu valley. We spoke to our hotel and for about $40 we were able to hire a taxi for the day. Our itinerary would be a medieval city, the most well preserved in Nepal, followed by a drive into the hills where on a clear day, one should be able to see the snow capped Himalaya.
We had our breakfast and then hopped into the car. I thought I would try to do some postcards while in the car but quickly found out that was not going to be an option. The government decided to resurface the roads and all at once so we were driving on gravel along with large trucks and carts with Animals for about an hour and a half.

The first place we stopped was pretty cool. It had the typical Nepalese Durbur square with temples. The tallest temple in Nepal was in fact here. We wandered quite a ways, explored local life and then decided to go find our cab driver. We got back in the car on the unpaved roads again and headed towards the hills. One of the great things about travel is being on the road, you are able to see how ordinary people live their lives but in a manner so different to you. We saw two busses, where not only was the interior packed with people but also the roof rack, packed with people. It was quite an experience.

We finally reached our second destination, it was from here we parked and headed up a series of stairs. It was a park basically and on either side were families having picnics and parties. At the very top was a lookout tower that one could climb and hanging from it to the trees were a series of Tibetan prayer flags. It was such a nice day but a bit hazy so there was absolutely no view of what we went there to see. So we headed back. On the way back we asked the driver to stop somewhere to eat and ended up picking this road side stand with a view on the landscape. The unfortunate part was the only thing they had to eat was spicy uncooked ramen noodles, a bit of beer did the trick though. The place was funny, a dirt floor and a squat style outhouse as their facilities.

The next day we had to be up really early as we booked a flight to see Mt Everest. We had to be at the airport by 6:30 and the domestic terminal was a trip basically a glorified bus terminal. We paid our departure tax and checked in. Our flight was not supposed to be until 730 so we just waited around for about 15 minutes before going through security. I thought I would ask the check in when we should go through when she told us that she put us on the 630 fight, it being 640 we rushed through. It would’ve been nice if she told us that at check in.

We boarded the plane it had about 10 rows with a seat on each side and of course we were seated over the wing. We took off and within 10 minutes we could see one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world. They had a diagram of each of the different mountain peaks and the flight attendant would come around and point out the different peaks from our window. They also allowed you to go up to the cockpit and look out the windows from there. Steve sat on the side of the plane that did not have the initial view, so this was the side that went to the cockpit first. He was pretty impressed. At the point I was able to go up there was a direct view on Mt. Everest. The sky was so blue and the snow on the peaks was so white, as if it had just fallen.

We were in the air for about an hour and it was such a wonderful experience. We headed back to the hotel for the trekkers breakfast, a good hearty meal with Muesli, fruit, eggs, toast and a few other things. It was filling enough so that you could eat a late lunch if you wanted to. We had a plan to hire a taxi again for the day and see a few different temples. Our hotel had offered a car again but we thought we were being a bit overcharged so we decided to find our own. We found a taxi and negotiated a good price. We had four temples we wanted to see. We gave the driver the route and he tried to tell us to do it in a different order so we did.

So we started on our Journey. The first temple we arrived at was still in Kathmandu. Swayambhunath, was the first one and one that I had seen in many photos, the only down fall was the main stuppah was covered in scaffolding. We wandered around to different parts, there were people praying, monkeys running all over the place, and of course to the souvenir stores around. Steve ended up buying a Ganesh statue and I found a mask for a friend.

We next headed to Patan, which was once a separate city but is now basically a part of Kathmandu. They are supposed to have the best Durbur square in the country. We explored the temples and decided to have lunch at a place just off to the side that had a decent view. We ordered Thali which is a mix of different dishes with rice and bread, this one was of course Nepalese style and pretty good.
From here we headed to another temple, Pashupatinah. Our taxi driver decided to come in with us. As we walked into the temple we were of course approched by someone wanting to be our guide and said no, immediately. He was pushy but we had our cab driver with us so no worry. As we turned the corner we saw a headless goat sitting next to a temple. This was a sacrifice I guess. As we moved further into the temple, we saw piles of smoldering wood. We crossed a bridge where there was a crowd and discovered that this temple was used for funerals and there was in fact one in progress. We felt weird but we were able to watch a funeral, even down to the cremation. It was bizzare but the family had a photographer. We continued on though as we had one more temple to see.

The final temple for the day was the Buddha stupah. We discovered this was the most sacred temple outside of Tibet and there were many pilgrims there. The temple itself was really incredible. There were Buddhists spinning prayer wheels, monks and tourists all walking around the temple in a clockwise circle. This was definitely one of the highlights of the day and one of the most ornate temples we had seen.

The day of temple tours was coming to an end, so we headed back to the hotel and arranged for our taxi driver to take us to the airport the next day. We really picked a really nice and friendly driver for the day and wanted thought he would be a good choice to get us where we needed to go..

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