Category: Kathmandu

It’s my last day in Nepal so I decided to explore a street I’ve been driven down numerous times that contains the old palace, which is now a museum. Unfortunately, the museum is closed, so I pony up my two bits to see the famous “Garden of Dreams” next door instead. It’s an odd intersection because there is a large compound across the street being protected by U.S. military officers, but it isn’t the embassy. Instead, I discover later, it’s an “American club” for diplomatic staff and expats – no tourists allowed. Sort of a country club with baseball field, pool, etc. I remember seeing something similar in Colombo, but I never heard of such a thing in Australia.

Anyway, the Garden of Dreams was quite nice. It is an old garden that had fallen into disrepair prior to 2006 when it was fixed up and restored to its original splendour. It is located behind a big wall, protected from the noisy, dirty, busy street that runs between the old palace and the American club. There were a number or restaurants and cafes inside, so I decided to kick back with a cup of coffee to enjoy the surroundings a little longer. A little bit of paradise insider big noisy dirty Kathmandu.

Upon leaving the gardens it suddenly struck me that there were no cars around and all the stores were still closed. Another strike? You bet! Another strike to bookend my Nepalese experience. One strike the day after I first arrive, and another strike the day before I leave. There were police with machine guns on the street corners of Thamel, my neighborhood, so I thought it best to retreat to my hotel room since everything was closed and the streets were looking a bit edgy.

Fortunately, by evening, I was able to find quite a few stored open to buy some last minute souvenirs of the place. Nepal has been lots of fun, but it does have a lot of problems and I am looking forward to moving on tomorrow!

In the newspaper today, it was disclosed that Nepal ranks #8 on the miserability index. That is, Nepal is considered to be the 8th most miserable place to live – just below Syria and Kosovo, but above Namibia, Djibouti, Turkmenistan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Liberia, and Zimbabwe. Must have something to do with the persistent power outages, air pollution, noise pollution, crumbling infrastructure, and lack of employment opportunities. There are big plans to invest in a range of infrastructure improvements in Nepal over the next ten years now that the political situation has begun to stabilise somewhat.

I hopped on a Yeti flight today (yes, they even have an airline named after the Abominable Snowman). It took me back to Kathmandu from Pokhara for the last few nights before I fly out. I was instructed to make sure I had a seat on the left side of the plane so I could admire all the Himalayan peaks as we made our 25 minute journey. I didn’t think it would make too big of a difference with all the haze and smog that has accumulated since my hike, but we did punch our way up over most of the diffusion in our simple prop plane so I could see all the peaks along the way. And yes, they were pretty cool to watch as we flew past.

Now back in Kathmandu, I ventured out for a haircut while the offering was cheap. Like many things around here (including taxis), there always seem to be strings attached to any price that’s been quoted. One of the bizarre customs with hair cutters in Nepal is that they also provide all kinds of massage services. This has put me off many times, but I did stumble across one place that already had two Westerners getting haircuts, so I thought I would get mine done. I tried to find out the price before we started and I could only get “As you wish” as an answer. Finally, after getting him to mention 200 ringgit (just over $2), he started in and pulled out the exact same clippers I use to cut my own hair. After finishing with the cut, he starts slipping in little additional services that were related, like shaving the back of my neck and behind my ears with a straight razor. But then he starts mumbling something about putting some ointment in my hair and he starts in on his head massage. Then, before you know it, he’s trying to work his way down to giving me a back massage – at which point I had to cut him off, knowing the actual haircut was finished. The whole thing was totally bizarre.

After my usual rooftop breakfast, which is part of my accommodation deal and a bit chilly first thing in the morning, I had planned to visit Durbar Square. Durbar Square is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (one of many in Nepal) and renowned for its architectural styles. It is a compound of Hindu and Buddhist temples built between the 12th and 18th centuries. I didn’t think Nepal was too bad on the hustling front until I visited this place, then I found them everywhere! Hustling you for tours, trinkets, donations, you name it. Then they try to give you the guilt trip when you turn them down.

Inside the complex it was nice and peaceful since the hustlers were not allowed in. Some of the wood carvings on the building facades were quite amazing. Inside was a museum with endless photos and relics from the last Nepalese king, who died in 2001.

Part of the fun of visiting the square was walking through the marketplaces to get there. After getting lost in Bangkok and walking way out of my way, I decided to start entering coordinate information into my GPS watch so I always know I’m heading in the right direction. It is a little bit of a pain to set up, but very nice to use when you need it. It requires that I track down the exact coordinates for where I want to go (which can be tricky using an iPad – but major landmarks have their coordinates published in Wikipedia). I then need to convert them to the format my watch wants (there are 3 and Wikipedia only publishes 2) which requires visiting a GPS calculator site I know of, and then I need to tediously entering the correct numbers on my watch. Once the coordinates are in there, the watch can easily be set to simply display an arrow that points me in the direction I want to go. Getting back is easy because it is much easier to have it direct you to a lace you have already been through its waypoint recording feature.

Anyway, I’m sure glad I used it this morning because I set off in the completely opposite direction convinced it was the right way. I thought something must have been wrong with my watch when I suddenly realized I was totally disoriented. It doesn’t give turn-by-turn directions, but you can guess what streets to go down by keeping an eye on the arrow.

The walk to Dunbar Square was really cool and full of shops of butchers, produce, cloth, metal work, grains, and other local staples. Retailers still relied on balancing scales with weights to determine pricing. There were very crowded narrow lane-ways full of people, motorcycles, bikes, and the odd cars. After seeing the raw flesh lying out in front of the butchers without any refrigeration for hours, I think I will probably return to being a vegetarian again while I’m here!

Afterwards I had my momo dumplings for lunch. Made sure they were meat free. They were very nice and came with a tangy sauce for dipping. I hear I will be eating them quite regularly in the mountains.

Kathmandu is known for its horrendous air pollution due to old cars, low quality fuel, and surrounding mountains (which you often can’t even see due to the smog). Lonely Planet actually advises you to bring a face mask and tells you that you’re likely to have a throat infection after a few days. One of the characteristics of Nepalese men that I notices in the mens toilets back at the Bangkok airport is that they like to hack and spit, which is disgusting, but possibly related to living in such a polluted environment. They do it constantly in the streets of Kathmandu. Fortunately, Pokhara is supposed to be much cleaner, so I’m looking forward to my travels onward tomorrow.

A nationwide strike is in effect all day today. This has forced all shops to close and most traffic to quietly disappear. People are still walking the streets, possibly with nowhere to go, and there were some marches with people chanting earlier this morning. I also heard a low flying police/military helicopter buzz overhead around lunchtime. I was advised by my hotel not to leave the immediate neighborhood, so I’ve snuck out for a lunch nearby but will likely remain indoors for the rest of the day. The strike appears to be about an upcoming election in June that certain people don’t think should go ahead.

So far I’ve been eating all local food, which has been very nice and similar to Indian or Sri Lankan. There are a few other local delicacies on the menu, like momas, which look like little dumplings, that I hope to try soon. The Nepalese people have been very friendly with little hustling – other than a few odd drug dealers and mysterious dance club herders in the streets targeting what few tourists they can find this time of year.

Fortunately, I was able to work out a plan for my visit here with my hotel. Instead of throwing all my eggs in the Everest Base Camp hike basket everyone has been prodding me to do (which would have taken all my Nepalese time, lots of money, and been extra cold and snowy to do this time of year, climbing to 5000+ meters), I’ve opted for a bit more variety.

I’ve decided to head to Chitwan National Park with another personal driver and another safari (both in 4wd and on an elephant’s back). Afterwards my driver will take me to the scenic city of Pokhara, by a big lake and surrounded by huge mountains. While in Pokhara I will do a nearby 5 day trek along some of the nicest sections of the famous Annapurna Circuit, which normally takes an entire month to complete in its entirety. Trekking in Nepal consists of hiking from teahouse to teahouse for meals and comfortable accommodation, so minimal gear should need to be carried. I will have a personal guide for the trek, but no sherpa will probably be needed. Afterwards I will remain in Pokhara for several more days, hopefully getting some mountain biking in, before flying back to Kathmandu for a few days before flying out to Korea.

By the evening, the strike appeared to have ended and the shops began to open again. It is quite an amazing little neighborhood here in Thamel. All of the streets are like little alleyways lined on either side with countless shops selling crafts, counterfeit outdoor gear, maps and books, and food. The lane-ways are decorated above with strings of little flags that crisscross back and forth. There are absolutely no franchise stores anywhere sans an oddly placed Baskin Robbins stand and countless fake The North Face stores.

For dinner I had the pleasure of eating at a little restaurant across the lane-way that appeared to be run by a few Japanese guys who were training up some local Nepalese. The place was packed and I was forced to eat at a breakfast bar in their kitchen. It was very interesting to watch them cook my meal in front of me and see all the frantic stress they were going through trying to keep up with everyone else’s order. Lots of fried garlic smoke to choke on, but lots of fun.

Had to get up early to catch my flight to Kathmandu. Not that the plane was leaving all that early, but the logistics of getting to the gate always require numerous hours of necessity. At the last moment I realized that I was probably a bit short on Thai Baht for a taxi from my hotel, so I decided to hoof it towards the nearest Skytrain to see if I could navigate to the airport via public transportation. Even though a bit of hiking with all my luggage plus 3 train transfers were required, it worked out pretty smoothly in the end.

The pack I’m using has been lying dormant since my last big trip, but I really appreciate having it with all its versatility and flexibility. It is canvas, which is a bit on the heavy side for hiking, but durable enough for baggage handlers. It has shoulder straps that tuck away behind a zipper flap so they don’t get caught in airport luggage machinery, but when you need to pull them out and use them, like for hiking distances and jockeying between trains, they sure are nice to have.

Just a short flight to Kathmandu from Bangkok. Relatively speaking, anyway: 4 hours. The plane was deserted. A 777 with 9 seats across and only one other person in my row! Not exactly peak season for visiting Nepal. The flight in was quite spectacular because it comes up over flat India where you notice the hills starting to climb as you cross into Nepal. Soon enough you are flying just above some pretty spectacular mountains as the plane started to descend. Of course you think “Where are they going to land this thing with this terrain?” but then the hills level off as you get into the valley of Kathmandu and the big flat runway can be seen on the plain.

Since Kathmandu is down in a valley it is not really as cold as you would expect in February. But at 1500 meters it certainly is a lot cooler that what I’ve been traveling through over the past 2.5 months. No more hot sweaty tropics for a while, which is a bit of a relief. Kathmandu appears to be a very crazy place with Sri Lankan – style traffic chaos but with even worse roads. Some of the city streets appear to just be mud. I would hate to see what they’re like in the monsoon season.

I had arranged for my hotel to have a driver meet me at the airport. He took me to this groovy little section of town with skinny little alleys running everywhere that were full of crafts shops and backpacker guest houses. I’m one of very few guests in my hotel at the moment. Peak season is in October, November, and December, but this is supposed to be the second best time to be here.

A few facts of life in Kathmandu have already made appearances here. There are rolling blackouts every day of the week. About 8 hours on and 8 hours off. The streets go dark but most of the hotels and shops run on generated or stored solar power, so things go on business as usual. Also, there are frequent strikes here in which you are advised not to leave your hotel. My guest house manager told me there was one planned for tomorrow, but I have not been able to have this confirmed online so I’ll have to play it by ear, I guess.