Kathmandu II - Nepal

4/11/05
After our long bus ride, we finally arrived in Katmandu around 7pm, brought our backpacks to the hotel and then rushed to NEAT's office to schedule another hike. We chose a 2 day hike for the 14 and 15 of April which would allow us to visit the Katmandu valley and its points of interest.

4/12/05
Since our arrival in Nepal, it was the first day we slept until late in the morning which meant actually 9 am. We walked around in Thamel which is the busiest neighborhood in the city. There are plenty of restaurants, bars, shops specialized in tea, CDs, funky clothes, Tibetan and Nepalese handcraft.





I ended up buying a nice Nepalese shirt. We stopped for lunch in a place specialized in momos (the Nepalese dumpling) .It was really good and cheap.
We then tried to publish England and India on our blog, but we had problems to upload our pictures, somehow we couldn't connect to our server on the Internet. After trying in 5 or 6 different places we found a very friendly one.
The guy first called his provider to ask what was wrong and called his friend who has a web publishing company. He offered us to come to his office and upload our pictures from there.
At night we were invited by Shandra, the owner of NEAT, for a traditional dal bat at his place. We bought some Nepalese sweets for the occasion, made either of milk balls or dough balls fried and dipped in syrup.
To get to his place we crossed different neighborhoods and we realized that most of them do not have light in the streets at night. The interesting thing was that most of the people leave the door of their apartment wide open with just a curtain hanging on the door. So, we could see inside and most of the families were sitting on the floor sharing dal bat in a large number. At Shandra's place the dinner started with Nepalese snacks made out of rice dough. We had some beer, but we learned that an employee would never drink alcohol in front of his boss or a son in front of his parents; it is part of their culture. After that we had some dal bat and to finish a delicious dessert made of tangerines and curd. The weird thing was that Shandra's wife worked hard to prepare that good meal and did not eat with us. She ate in the kitchen as requested by the culture.

4/13/05
The next day we wandered around in Thamel again. Did laundry from trekking and exchanged some books in a second-hand book store. We got a Lonely Planet Indonesia, our next destination.
At night we were again invited for a home made dinner, this time with Sappa.



We had some chilli buffalo as appetizer and then another very good Dal Bat. It was Nepalese New Years Eve, so after dinner Sappa went to Thamel with his friends to celebrate. Angie started feeling bad so we decided to go back to he hotel. Again she had a food poisoning and spent the whole night in the bathroom.

4/14/05

Sappa came in the early morning to pick us up for the two day hike in Kathmandu valley, but since Angie was still throwing up and didn't sleep at all, we decided to cancel the hike. We just rested the whole day at the hotel. At night, she felt better, so we had a short walk in Thamel where most of the Internet cafes were busy with Nepalese people sending their best wishes for the New Year 2062.

4/15/05
Our last day in Kathmandu was quite interesting. We visited the Buddhanath temple which is the biggest stupa in Asia.



It is a nice place with many stores around the monument waiting for the tourists. We walked around and climbed it up. Since the tourism in Nepal is down due to the Maoist issue the place was quite empty, very few tourists were on the site.
There was a monk worshipping in the traditional way. Using a kind of block in each hand he stretches up his arms, then he claps 3 times bringing his arms back down. After that he gets on his knees, then in a toddler position and keeps going down until he is completely laying down with his arms stretched facing the ground. After getting back up, he steps once ahead and repeat the whole process.



So, like that, he goes around that huge temple.
There was also many Tibetan women were walking around dressed in their typical dress and the stripped apron.
After that we went to see the Holy Area of Pashupati Nath, a Hindu area around a river with many temples.





This is a sacred place for cremation, just like they do in the Ganga in Varanasi. We watched a cremation ceremony from the beginning to the end. It was interesting to see all the rituals of a cremation.

4/16/05

We left the hotel in Kathmandu at 5:45 am. Shandra and Sappa came to say good by and arrange the cab to the airport. Following a Tibetan tradition, we received a silk scarf as a present which is also a way to wish good luck on the trip. Sappa also brought us shell roti, a kind of rice donut, a Nepalese delicacy.
At the airport we had no major surprises, we checked in and waited for the departure. We arrived in New Delhi around 10 am, but didn't feel at all like going to the city with the bags, find a hotel and stand hasslers to be back at the airport at 7 am of the following day to catch our flight to Jakarta. So, we decided to hang around in the airport, rest and catch-up with the blog writing.
We couldn't get in the departure area because, to be a ticket holder is not the only requirement to get in, your flight must be within no more than 3 hours, otherwise you have to stay out. So, we went on to look for a place to stay and we found it, but it cost 30 Rps each to get in. So, there we spent the day writing, we waited, waited and waited. The entertainment of the afternoon was an Austrian guy that started to tell us his stories from Varanasi where he worked for 6 months as a voluntary baker in a charity village called Kiran.
At 3.30 am we were allowed to get in the departure area.