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Published: March 20th 2008
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After six days without a shower and living on a diet of predominately dahl bhat and Tibetan momos, it was nice to return to Kathmandu for some Nepali-style Mexican food (even if it is based on buffalo meat...and damn I'm getting tired of eating buff!) and luke-warm showers. Just a short 6 day trek was enough to wear our unshapely bodies out, requiring us to lay low and do some easy sightseeing around the Kathmandu valley. We made our way to Patan’s Durbar Square and caught the a festival (can’t remember the name, but apparently it only happens once every 5 years) where, all of the Buddha statues in Patan are pulled out of their temples and placed in one of the large city squares for viewing. During this festival, thousands of people line up to walk in front of the buddhas, pray, then walk a congo line of the less fortunate, dropping a handful of rice, rupees, flowers, cookies, or whatever else is desired to donate. This amounted to fantastic people watching as all the colorfuls were out in full bloom just waiting to be observed and photographed. Spirits were high and the square was jammed pack with all types
looking to take part in the 24 hour celebration.
We continued to roam around Patan until we got to Durbar Square, and, much like Kathmandu, the buildings of Durbar Square were handcrafted to detailed perfection….all the same intricately carved windows, doors, columns, etc; amazing stuff that really has to be seen to be appreciated. Multi-armed deities, animals, sex scenes, skulls, flowers, etc…almost anything you can imagine carved into wood decorating every square inch of the Square. Amid the amazing architecture, people were living out their daily lives…the homeless sleeping on the stairs leading up to the buildings, kids running around in the water tanks, touts working their scams, teens gathering, fake sadhus wandering, cows munching, and wide-eyed tourists stumbling over one another.
Back in Kathmandu, we could hear the crappy live band at the bar next to the Kathmandu Guest House starting up for the night. Back in Black, Sultans of Swing, and Eye of the Tiger were just a few of the songs we heard EVERY SINGLE NIGHT we stayed in Thamel. Thamel, with its Western restaurants, trekking shops, hotels, craft shops, etc is interesting in its own little way, however, it is certainly faux-Kathmandu and walking
just one street outside of the neighborhood shows what most of Kathmandu looks like…candle lit vegetable stands, mini-hardware shops, butcheries, snack carts, and a busy late night scene as people struggle to make enough Rupees for the day.
In understanding Nepal, I think it is important to realize just how badly “leadership” in this country has failed its people. More concerned with pocketing aid money and out-corrupting the previous official in power, Nepali royalty and government alike have failed miserably to create even the most basic functioning infrastructure in the capital city (and I can only imagine that this is the case all throughout Nepal, most likely considerably worse in the non-tourist areas). Apart from the abominable capital airport, the rest of Kathmandu’s infrastructure is in shambles to say the least; all roads are pure crap, citizens are blessed with twice daily schedule power outages (referred to as “load balancing”) lasting for about 4 hours each, public buses consist of minivans roaming around with no discernable routes, trash lines all streets, and on and on. Very frustrating as I can only imagine that the country has had multiple opportunities to capitalize off of substantial tourism (airport taxes, national park
fees, etc) over the past 50 years since opening up. Hopefully the future will brighten for Nepal, however, myriad issues seem to continually plague this country and the average person we spoke to didn’t exactly seem optimistic about change or progress even as UN officials arrive to monitor national elections.
Regardless of Nepal’s issues, it is an incredible place to visit!!!! Come to Nepal, explore the Himalayas, learn about the amazing culture, buy some beautiful handicrafts, spend money, and have an incredible time. The people here are extremely friendly (and need tourist money to survive!), the Maoists are not a problem for tourists (at least in all of the places we visited), prices are quite cheap, and the experiences will change you!!! Rozy and I both loved Nepal and I have already begun thinking about a return trip to get all the way to Base Camp and to explore Pokara, Bhaktipur and other areas.
Final blurb…..back at the airport once again for departure. After going through the first level of metal detection (were literally nobody was watching the display for the Xray machine), we queued to get our boarding passes. Unfortunately, I was about 600 Rupees short on
the 2715 Rupee departure tax, so, I had to break out of line and search for money as the tax could only be paid in Rupee cash. Since the only ATM in the airport was still broken, I had to visit to the counter of a tiny branch of Nabil bank that sat at the front of the airport. By the grace of God, I still had a $10 AUD bill in my portfolio and this just happened to be enough to cover the shortage of Rupees needed to for the departure tax. I took my pile of rupees over to the checkin counter, handed our departure tax to the person checking us in who smiled broadly and promptly put the wad of rupees into his pocket. After getting our boarding passes, we tried to get information regarding our flight…after searching around for a while, we finally found one 15” television displaying the departures in the main check-in area…and that is about it…no mention of gates or if the flight was on schedule. As we proceeding through the next level of X-raying, body frisking and physical baggage search we ended up in one big waiting room where everyone departing on
all flights was gathering before being whisked away on buses to the airplane sitting on the tarmac. We sat in the waiting room without any information until our departure time came and went. Finally, 20 minutes after we were supposed to depart, a single person walking through the waiting room informed us that the Jet Airways flight to Delhi was delayed due to fog in Delhi and that we were all to go back through security and up to the restaurant on the 2nd floor for a quick lunch. After eating a lunch (paid for by Jet Airways I was told) we were pushed back downstairs and through the same metal detection, bag searching process again. Finally, 2 hours late we were piled onto a bus and taken to the plane where another body frisking and physical baggage search ensued on the tarmac next to the plane. Finally, finally, we were taxing down the runway listening to the Jet Airway’s pilot apologize for the flight delay due to fog in Kathmandu. Confusion and chaos are our constant companions here.
STATISTICS * Flights taken = 7
* Intercity trains rides taken = 9
* Intercity bus rides
MY DEBUT NOVEL AVAILABLE NOW!
Visit me at www.danielshortell.com for purchase information. taken = 29
* Times lost = 12
* Total instances of diarrhea = 3
* Total number of requests for pictures with Daniel = 2
* Total megabytes of pictures taken = 19,030
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GG
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Thank YOU
Danny and Rozita, Thank you so much for keeping up the blog. I look everyday to see if you post. It is a joy to follow along. Nepal seems like a great place to visit. You will love India. Enjoy... GG