Advertisement
Published: November 8th 2014
Our taxi
Kathmandu airportFinally after a 4 month countdown we have arrived in Kathmandu at the beginning of our months holiday. We'll be spending 2 weeks here in Nepal including a trek in the Annapurnas, then Gav will head home leaving Mia and I for a girls holiday for 16 days in Singapore.
Mia and I arrived on Tuesday afternoon and after a 2 hour wait at Kathmandu airport we finally met Gav who had flown in from Thailand. For me it was so good to be back here after 15 years - nothing has changed which I love. For Mia it was a bit of a culture shock. Even though she is an experienced traveller in Asian countries, arriving in Kathmandu (and being very tired from travelling for 20+ hours) it was quite overwhelming for her. I'm sure our taxi from the airport had nothing to do with that...(see photos)
We spent the afternoon walking around the local area before sharing an early street food dinner of egg chapati and falafel wrap. Mia was fast asleep by 7pm with me not long after her.
Yesterday we were up early so we could walk the 7km to Pashupatinath and Bodnath. It
was a scorching day which made the walk seem a lot longer but enjoyable all the same. We were staying in Thamel, the backpacker area of Kathmandu, so it was great to get away into the more local 'real life' Kathmandu. Along the way we saw many goats tied up outside the local butchers, awaiting slaughter as part of Nepal's largest annual festival - Dashain - to which we had arrived at the very beginning of. I had only realised this a week or so before we arrived and thought that it would either prove to be interesting (seeing the festivities take place) or hinder us (with shops closed, lack of transport etc). The reality was most shops were closed as the locals tend to go back to their villages to celebrate - this didn't affect us though as we're not here for shopping. Mia and I did get to be a part of the festivities though which I'll cover later!
As we approached Pashupatinath (one of Nepal's most sacred Hindu shrines located on the Bagmati river where locals cremate their deceased) we warned Mia that she may see a lot of monkeys around, but not to worry as
Pashupatinath
These sadhus were a laugh - chatting about the cricket with Gav if you ignore them, they'll ignore you. Well, within about 30 seconds of walking down the road towards the shrine, one very large one attacked a local woman, just walking along minding her own business, who had a blue plastic bag in her hand. As you can imagine, Mia wasn't very impressed. To calm her down, Gav suggested that they just give me a blue plastic bag to carry and them walk 20 metres behind me. Ha ha.
Although this was the second time I had visited the temple, I found it much more difficult this time around. There was a body being prepared for cremation when we arrived and a very distressed family member being brought to the body. We left straight away as it didn't feel right to be viewing something so personal. Having lost mum last year, I found it very emotional and upsetting myself.
On to happier memories - we then found some local sadhus who wanted a photo with Mia. Sadhus are meant to be holy men however we doubt the authenticity of most of them in these areas these days. We're sure they're just there for the tourists! We took some photos
with them and they talked to Gav about the cricket (!). Although it didn't feel authentic, it was fun. It's still interacting with locals, and brought us some nice laughs for the day - they were real characters!
From here we walked another couple of km's to Bodnath temple - one of the largest stupas in the world. Not very exciting - in Gav's words it's a 'big white thing'. We do acknowledge however its importance to those that care! Basically it's a huge stupa with a circle of touristy stores around it selling lots of souveniors. So we did the right thing and walked up a few flights of stairs to a rooftop cafe and had momo's (yummy nepali veg dumplings) and a nice icy beer overlooking the stupa... Ahhh....
We decided to catch a taxi back to Thamel where we were staying rather than walking back as we were all very hot and tired. After circling the stupa a couple of times, Gav decided we'd head back home from a exit different to where we had entered. I tried to tell him I didn't think it was in the right direction, but hey, what would I
Bodnath
The 3 bears! know? We had a lovely time walking around local country homes, monastries, impersonating doves etc (as you do) for about 30 minutes until Gav said "OK - I think we're lost" Hmmm. I'll keep my mouth shut. All good though as these usually end up some of your best memories - we found a food cart on the way back selling little crispy hollow wafer cups things that they filled with something (?) and then dipped in a liquid before serving. As we had travelled from Pashupatinath to Bodnath, we'd seen many local hindu's enjoying this street side snack. The vendor would take one small wafer cup, partially fill it with some unidentified substance, douse it in a tub of unidentified liquid, pop it on a plate and pass it to the buyer. They would devour it as soon as it hit the plate to which he'd then add another, and another and so on. We had no idea what it was but were intrigued. It was obviously very sweet - we imagined it filled with a delectable sweet bean paste and dipped in a sugary sweet liquid.
So, Mia and I being the adventurous foodies we are, both
Thamel, Kathmandu
Typical Kathmandu power lines! saw this cart and our eyes met and lit up! "Kati Ho" (how much?) we asked. "20 rupees" he responded. (AUD 20 cents). "Yes please - may we?" The vendor then did his thing of filling, dipping and serving one wafer cup to us. I tasted it first and 'WOW' - no sweetness here - this thing was savory, sour and spicy hot - yum! I told Mia and the vendor served up another one to her. Our gourmet daughter loved it and politely we both asked for more. Gav tried one and Mia and I had three each. As I didn't know how many we got for the 20 rupees I again asked how much. He seemed a bit unsure but said "100 rupees". ($1). Cool! Yum, cheap street snacks. (it was only the next day during our cooking class that I asked what the snack was and how much we should expect to pay. 'Pani Puri' was the name and it should be 20 rupees for 7 pieces exactly. Not that I care, but next time I'll know the local price!)
The highlight of today? Getting 'lost'. We have found in our travels over the years that
the best experiences come from these moments when you find yourselves off the beaten paths... Plus, Mia is now happy and over her culture shock!
We really wanted to take Mia to a traditional Nepail restaurant for dinner. We had dinner that night at 'Thamel House' - a traditional Nepali restaurant in an old Newari style house. A veg set menu that included around 10 small serves of traditional Newari food (and rice wine!)
A great second day and looking forward to the cooking course Mia and I are doing tomorrow!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.125s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0662s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Janet Scott
non-member comment
Hi guys
It's so good to be able to follow your travels again! Looks fascinating. If you get bored in Singapore you should pop over to visit us in KL - we would be happy to show you around. Safe travels. Love, Janet