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Traditional Newari dinner
In our cups is chang and it was 80% alcohol... not for the faint heartedI'm feeling sad as I sit down to write this final blog. I can't believe that we are at the end of an 8 month jaunt around the world, having explored some of the most inspiring places that most people only dream of visiting. I hope that you enjoy this final instalment of our blog (for this trip anyway!) and thank you all for your most appreciated feedback and support!
Well, we were almost reluctant to return to Kathmandu after our back to nature experience in Chitwan National Park. But the lure of the best pizza in the world ensured that we did in fact get on the bus back to the Kathmandu chaos. As on the way to Pokhara, the journey from Chitwan to Kathmandu is 150km and takes 8 hours. Luckily we met a lovely man, in possession of an English passport, but of no fixed abode, who has been travelling around the world for the last 15 years, and we passed much of the journey discussing the past, present and future of Nepal and its people. He spends five months of every year in Nepal and has done so since he began life as a nomad. This
is as long as his visa will allow, as no foreigner can have permanent residency in Nepal. Even those married to Nepalese citizens can only reside with their spouse in Nepal on the condition of a $50 payment each month. He has seen kids grow up in Chitwan and has many friends here. Like us, he is captivated by Nepal and finds it addictive. When we asked him how he thinks Nepal has changed over the last 15 years, he told us that in his opinion, things haven't changed all that much. While there might be more traffic on the roads, more pollution and more people in Kathmandu, he feels that the Nepali standards of living remains the same. He criticised the 8,000 NGOs registered in Nepal for either their lack of meaningful work and also, for their intrusion into the Nepali culture and psyche. Mark and I were really interested to hear his views and the bus journey passed quite quickly!
Arriving back in Kathmandu was as chaotic an affair as ever, but we managed to walk to our hotel unscathed. It was nice to be back. Kathmandu really felt like home for us right from the beginning.
That evening we went back to our favourite restaurant, Fire and Ice, for salame pizzas, a glass of red wine, a bottle of Everest beer and chocolate mousse for dessert. Divine! I am convinced that Kathmandu must be the culinary capital of the world. You could eat out there every night for at least two weeks (as we've done!) and eat at a different top class restaurant every night. We had a few more things to tick off the "must do" list so the next day we were up bright and early for breakfast in the hotel garden and then jumped in a taxi to Patan, a suburb of Kathmandu which boasts some of the finest Newari architecture in Nepal. After haggling with about 4 different taxi drivers for a knock down price we arrived in sweltering Patan. We headed for Durbar Square and wandered around the ancient Hindu temples and admired the impressive stone carvings. The atmosphere was great, much more chilled out than Kathmandu's Durbar Square and no touts hassling us. We spent a lovely morning there and enjoyed the views of the square from a roof top cafe with a lemon soda to cool us down. We
then went for a very relaxing lunch in the garden of the museum. The museum here is supposed to be one of the best in the subcontinent but since neither of us are really museum people, we decided that having lunch there would be more enjoyable! After that it was back into another taxi, after haggling again for a "non tourist" fare and off to the Monkey Temple at Swayambunath.
This Buddhist temple is justly famous for its incredible location, perched on a hill with sweeping views over the Kathmandu valley. It's a lively place, with hundreds of Buddhist pilgrims, including many foreigners. It is also full of very very poor people, begging for rupees. This was pretty hard to take, and it was difficult to drag our eyes away from a little girl holding a baby, who looked completely lifeless. I think when you spend even a small amount of time in cities like Kathmandu, you become almost immune to all the poverty around you, since there is so much of it. We climbed the 330 steps to the temple which was not easy in the oppressive heat! It was worth it when we got to the top
though. The buildings were beautifully ornate, there were loads of little trinket shops around the vicinity of the main temple and of course there was the obligatory gold Buddha statue. In keeping with the touristy theme of the day we figured we'd better go to one of the Newari themed restaurants which Kathmandu specialises in. The place we had chosen was a 5 minute walk out of Thamel. On our way we were followed by a small group of street kids who were trying to sell us their drawings. They were literally hanging off our arms and holding onto our legs as we tried to pretend they weren't there (usually the best tactic). They were so funny though, it was hard not to laugh with them. They seemed so happy, even though they were starving. They started coming out with some hilarious phrases in English, such as " You are VERY VERY sexy", and one little boy looked at Mark and pointed at me "She is MY girlfriend". They followed us the whole way to the restaurant where the security guard was waiting and chased them off with his stick. Just a regular evening in Kathmandu! (the next evening we
saw some kids inhaling glue which wasn't funny at all).
We had a lovely evening thereafter, with lots of singing and dancing and about 7 courses. Although, one of these courses was Dal Bhat (basically rice, lentils, and potatoes), which we were really sick of at this stage, after eating it for 2 weeks while trekking in the mountains. Mark was asked up to dance by one of the lady dancers and learned some traditional moves, while I tried to run around after them with a camera.
We had planned to visit the village of Bhaktapur the following day, which is supposed to be one of the highlights of the Kathmandu valley. But, after all the action of the day before, we were exhausted and feeling lazy and so we just chilled out at the hotel for the day. And the day after too... We also figured that it will be something to look forward to on our next visit to Nepal. We did manage to venture out for our last night in Nepal for yet another slap up meal at Fire and Ice. In our attempt to savour as much of it as we could, we ended
up eating WAY too much and I had to eat both desserts as Mark was too full. We stumbled home in pain, but it was worth it!
And so that marked the end of our 5 week adventure in Nepal. We were very reluctant to leave, as we had become quite attached to this incredible place. We had visited at a historic time in Nepali politics - the Maoist former rebels won the majority seats in the government last April. From reading the Kathmandu Post every day, it seems that violence, kidnappings and brutal torture at the hands of Maoist leaders is still ongoing. Some people we have spoken to believe that the new government will bring improvements to Nepal, but who knows. It's going to be interesting to see how things develop over the coming years. We plan on getting back here soon to find out... and hope that we have inspired others to do the same some day.
We were actually dreading going back to India after our awful experience in Delhi where the people were horrible and we just felt that we wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. In any event,
we arrived at Kathmandu International airport and paid our airport departure tax (not as hassle-free as you might think! They insisted on giving us dollars in change and we ended up shouting at them, "We're not American, why would we want dollars?!" and eventually we managed to persuade them to give us Indian rupees instead). When we were waiting in the departure lounge we were sitting beside a group of about 20 young Nepali guys all bound for Dubai... to work like slaves on building sites we imagine.
Arriving at Delhi was a wholly chaotic affair, as we had expected. After queuing for 45 minutes at customs behind a group of Afghans who were taking ages to get through, we finally picked up our bags and headed for the shuttle bus to change to the domestic terminal. There we were faced with more of the same rudeness and lack of common sense that we encountered in Delhi five weeks ago. Basically, they wouldn't let us on the shuttle bus as we didn't have a paper ticket for our next flight (it was booked online). We tried to explain that we booked online, that we had a reference number and
that we were flying with Spice Jet. They were having none of it (for security reasons apparently, we can't go into the airport without a paper ticket, yet we are already in the airport!). It was absolutely ludicrous! Eventually, after Mark and I raising our voices, we were allowed on the bus, but had to be accompanied by a security guard with a gun. The security rationale was made completely redundant, as the shuttle bus actually leaves the grounds of the airport and drives around Delhi to get to the domestic terminal!!!!! An hour later we arrived at the domestic terminal and got a print out of our flight details (which we had already written down, but that wasn't acceptable) and finally managed to elbow past the crowds and into the airport. What an unnecessary nightmare! When we eventually got through to the departure lounge (1 hour later), I decided to go to the toilet- in typical Delhi rudeness, two women unashamedly pushed past me in the queue ( I was the only person waiting before them, it's not like I was standing there outside a toilet cubicle for the good of my health!). At this stage, I was ready
to hop on a plane back to Nepal.
Anyway, we did make it to Goa that night and our hotel was there to pick us up when we landed. Things went much smoother from then on. Turns out that Goa is actually very nice. We had booked into a beautiful boutique country house hotel, outside the (thoroughly unattractive) town of Calangute, with a lovely shady garden, pool, four poster bed and a friendly dog to play with! This was heaven to us and a perfect way to end our trip. We spent the next few days sleeping in, relaxing by the pool, swimming, eating and reminiscing about the start of our trip, eight months ago. We had a taxi man at our beck and call and on our second day we went to a market at nearby Mapusa and then had lunch by the beach at Calangute. Mark's highlight of the day was seeing an elderly Indian man with a beard at the market, wearing a long skirt and frilly blouse, complete with bra and handbag! Oh those crazy Indians! Calangute was one of the first hippie hot spots in Goa but now it is just a dirty clapped
out town, with a beach occupied by fully clothed Indians, who stand at the shore in droves (no-one seemed to be lying down, it was a very surreal beach scene!). We had a delicious lunch in a beachside restaurant, including the best naan bread either of us have ever tasted. Calangute was full of shops with very strange names... our favourite one being, "Genuine Fake Leather Shopee"! However, it really is the wrong time of year to attempt a walk around the town, as we think it might actually have been as hot as hell. No really, it was that hot!
And so that brings us to the end of our blog. We can't thank you enough for your encouragement and support and we must admit that if it hadn't been for all the interest you've shown we probably wouldn't have bothered to keep it going. To be able to share our experiences with everyone, made our travels so much more enjoyable. We hope that you will follow in our footsteps someday (if we haven't already followed in yours!).
And so, this is Mark and Kate signing off, for the last time, Adios and... See you in Dublin!
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Byeee!
Have really really enjoyed your blogs team - you've given us a fascinating insight into the places you've been and maintained an excellent standard of wit throughout!!! Can't wait to see you both soon. Have safe journey home. XXX