Blogs from Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia - page 151

All is booked for Pokhara. I am leaving Saturday morning at 10:00, flying with Shangri-la Airline. This gives me some time to do some further tourist things in Kathmandu for the day. After a late wake up, I feel like a colony of bats have taken hold of my head (a peculiar feeling, I assure you). I decide that a shower will do the trick; it fails miserably. I head out into the painfully strong sun to plunge my head underwater in the swimming pool. It helps a little. I try to explain to the waiter that I am in need of a super-strength espresso but I get instead a large cup of weak coffee. 2 swims and a small nap later, I finally feel ready to tackle the bustle of the city. I take a ... read more

Kathmandu is a pearl nestled in the green valleys of Nepal. Its power of attraction to foreign visitors has always been huge, be it for the cultural aspect of its art and culture, the easy going fashion of the locals, the stunning views and outdoor expeditionary potential or even just for the hippie in search of a cool place, yeah man. I find it to be a bit of an odd town: its history is apparent everywhere, there has been development and a beginning of modernity but, at the moment, it seems to stand still, not really knowing in which direction to head. It gives the impression that it is uncertain as to what is coming next. It is little bigger than a large village, yet it gives out the impression of a larger town. It ... read more

After three weeks of paperwork, John and Betsy finally received the official sanctioning of their marriage by the Nepali government. Sangbu-bhai and some of John's cousins joined us as official witnesses. Back home, John shows off his purple thumbs -- part of the required process for the marriage certificate that included many forms of "identification" such as our photos, signatures, copies of passports and visas, witnesses, police reports, birth certificates and notorized approval from the US consulate. After hours of standing in line, miscellaneous fees and offering "tea breaks" to key personnel, our beautiful marriage certificate, in Nepali and English was issued.... read more

As I think everyone who shows an interest in this will agree it's always hard to put a finger on what the appeal of traveling actually is. Of course they’re all the obvious things; new sights, new people, different cultures. But with the explosion of the ‘Gap Year’ these have become such a cliché at times it turns my stomach. What I’m driving at is not the STA finding-yourself propaganda of the western middle classes but the deeper experience of being on the road indefinitely. I was wondering around a train station in Henan provinces in central China last week when the reality of this question settled on me like a patch of calm in the surrounding bedlam. Now Louyang train station is not the prettiest place in the world and especially when there is a ... read more

We left Pokhara in the morning, all buses to Kathmandu leave from the same place at 7:30 a.m., very practical. We had the choice of different companies and chose any bus, rather convinced that they were all the same. The bus was better than most we had experienced in India, but this time we had opted for a so-called 2x2 (only two seats per row on each side of the aisle) tourist bus. The drive from Pokhara to Kathmandu took only five hours, but it was the most scenic we have had in almost four months! First of all, Nepal is a very green country, soothing to your eyes, then we followed the course of a river all the way to Kathmandu. Actually, we were on one of Nepal's highways, the road was either in excellent ... read more