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Published: October 13th 2006
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Sagarmatha
Otherwise known as Everest. The 8848m tip is, of course, the highest point on earth 01106 - 03106 Kathmandu, Nepal
The first thing that you have to realize in flying from Bhutan to Nepal is that the time zone changes by 15 minutes. I didn’t believe it! I didn’t know any such time zone changes existed. I mean, I know that somewhere in Oz there’s an odd half an hour, which I thought was a bit odd, but 15 minutes!! Come on! When the pilot gave the local time, descending over Khatmandu, I thought that a) My watch must be a little bit fast and b) His watch must be a little bit slow, and c) This combination was enough to give a reasonably significant difference in readings i.e. 15 minutes and so I ignored it and didn’t reset my watch.
After being slightly early on enough occasions all the next day we found out from our hotel reception that we did indeed require a 15 minute reversal of our watches to Nepalese time. I couldn’t be bothered, seeing as how I have to hold down a button for just ages as the hands on my trekking watch slowly wind round by 11 hours and 45 minutes (anyone with a Casio pro trek with
Tip of Everest
The snow cap glows in the early morning sun hands will know exactly what I mean!). I would just remember the difference and carry on being unfashionably early.
Nepal is very much like India; it looks and feels the same. The next real point of note is the taxis. We took many Taxis, Suzuki Marutis everytime. Everytime you set foot inside a Kathamndu taxi you are paying for the thrills and spills of a theme park ride at a fraction of the cost and without the safety net of knowing that the ride is on rails and although it seems a bit scary - is actually safe! The taxi drivers are really crazy! Not one car would have passed a UK MOT. Not a chance! And the rules of the road are really simple;
* Largest or most assertive vehicle has right of way (ok, you have to understand that the Maruti car is very, very small, however this doesn’t stop drivers playing chicken with trucks as they seem to drive under the ‘most assertive’ sub-clause)
* Ignore such irrelevant signs as ‘Give Way’ and ‘One Way Street’
* Try to overtake every other moving vehicle at all times, even when there is the tiniest of
Buddha Air
Our 16 seater twin prop plane gaps to pull into before a head-on collision with a lorry.
* Try to overtake every other moving vehicle at all times, even when there is NO GAP to pull into before a head-on collision with a lorry.
We hit Thamel, the standard traveler/backpacker area to nose around the streets and I sampled the two local brews of Nepal - Gurkha and Everest Lagers. Looking around the shops, one official North Face dealer struggles against a thousand imitations. Do you want the quality goods or just the logo at a fraction of the price? - Take your pick.
On the 2nd October, we jumped out of bed at the un-earthly hour of 5 a.m. for our 06:30 mountain flight with Buddha air. A 16 seater twin prop plane took us on a 45 minute round trip at 25,000 ft and was simply stunning. The whole Everest and Annapurna ranges were on view, as well as bird’s eye views of the Everest Base Camp and Namche Bazaar. Of course the highlight of the flight was the close proximity to the highest point on earth, rounding the 8848m tip of Everest, or Sagarmatha in Nepali, (Mother of the Universe)
Bananas and Pineapples
Fruit stall in Durba Square glowing in the sun on a perfectly crisp clear morning was an experience of a lifetime.
October 2nd was also the most important festival day on the Hindu calendar in Nepal, being Durga Puja, or Dashain . Men, women and children all wear the tikka mark on their foreheads. The mark is a mixture of red dye, rice, yoghurt, banana and sugar and people get this blessing from a Bramin, or even queue for as long as 4 hours outside the palace to receive the mark from the King of Nepal himself.
Hanuman-Dhoka Durbar square is an amazingly photogenic place and somewhere to just sit back all day and watch the world go by; a place where the world goes by in very vibrant colours. It’s an official World Heritage site and therefore costs 200 Nepalese rupees to enter, if one of the guards at the many entrances catches you. (They will!)
It’s a coupling of Hindu and Buddhist shrines and temples that has evolved between the 12th and 18th centuries and was the King’s residence until the early 20th century. There are images of Shiva, Krishna and the kneeling figure of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey God,
Wooden Figures
For sale on a market stall in Durba Square to name a few. Temples, with towering Pagodas and ornate carved wooden windows and doorways are found at every turn in a maze of streets lined with fruit sellers and shops selling Mandelas, masks and wooden puppets at very reasonable prices if you have the luggage space for souvenirs. You can stop off at the market stalls and try your hand at the classical Nepali game of ‘Tigers and Goats’ and buy a wooden version with small metallic characters.
Guru looking figures in saffron, red and yellow robes with long beards and paint marked faces pose for photos (for a fee, of course!) Young boys fly home-made kites an unfeasibly high distance away from where they stand; the kites dipping and swooping around the rooftops on seemingly invisible lines of thread.
Woman wore their best saris for the festival, often bright scarlet with gold embroidery, and other bright colours, orange, pink or electric blue. I asked for one lady if I could take her photo in exchange for a couple of apples for her children from a nearby fruit seller. She agreed. I took her picture and was instantly marched over to the fruit stall, where she proceeded
to buy a kilo of fruit!!
The Bouda Stupa in north East Kathmandu is the largest in the world (maybe? - unless the new one in Colorado, recently consecrated by the Deli Lama is now bigger). We walked around it, under the gaze of the pairs of all-seeing eyes. Prayer flags from the central point stretch down to the corners, as if they are guidelines holding up a big top circus tent. We rounded the structure clockwise, no doubt sub-consciously from our Bhutanese training on Stupa protocol and avoided the helpful ‘guides’ who tried to tag onto us for a tip.
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Will
non-member comment
Wow
Fantastic blog mate. I have just spent an hour reading it - much more fun than the marking I should have done!