Bangkok - Kathmandu

  Kathmandu, Nepal
Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Itinary : Bangkok - Calcutta - Kathmandu (airplane)
date : 15th October to 16th October 2007
Mileage so far : 5500 km still!

Finally out of Thailand and in Kathmandu now! We left from our hotel in Bangkok at 3h30 am yesterday morning to be on time for our flight which was departing a 5h50 am...I boarded the Royal Bhutan airline plane which was bringing us from bangkok to Calcutta still sleepy and with my eyes still closed...And I think it was better that way so that I didn't have to see the state of the plane.

in airport bus going to the plane...still sleeping

Royal Bhutan Airlines...

When we landed in Calcutta for the 7 hour transit, it was my first taste of the indian culture with the airport authorities...Kevin warned me a bit about how they could be and I thought he was exaggerating...But no it was not a joke and they really are tiring! Kevin didn't have a visa so we couldn't exit the airport to have a quick look at Calcutta...So they made sure we didn't escape and they were all over us, really exhausting...They were pushing us around the airport to see different people we apparently needed to see, until we ended up in a transit room with no food, no drink and the aircon full blast...I took the whole process with alot of patience and found that the way they were behaving with us was hilarious. Maybe that's because I've had to deal with it for only 7 hours..Nevertheless I tell myself what a smart move to have taken my Indian visa in advance in Singapore...And what a smart move as well to have sent the bikes in Kathmandu instead of Calcutta!

With Kevin, They were both refused entry...

Never trust an indian chair...

The Air india flight left on time from calcutta and I asked a window seat on the right side of the plane so that I could see the mount Everest. Which I got to see thanks to a nepalese guy that was sitting beside me! He was nice, very talkative, and was pointing out which mountain was which...I was lucky because had no idea what mountain I was looking at until he came to sit beside me...

Mount everest from the plane, do you see it?

Arriving in Kathmandu...

My airplane guide...

The only Everest I saw was a beer!

Once in Kathmandu airport, we got our visa, which looked like a piece of recycled paper on which they handwrite something on...Hmm I found it too simple to be true so I double checked with the immigration guy if I did everything correctly...And he confirmed that I was all set to enter Nepal...I guess I will just have to change passport now, because I know that if I go to the states to visit my mom with this "shitty" piece of paper sticked in  my passport, the american authorities will put me again in a separate room with all the bearded men with arabic names, saying that I have a fake passport...

We arrived in Kathmandu exhausted after a sleepless night and couldn't wait to finally arrive at the guest house. And as we had expected, when we arrived in the center of Kathmandu, all the guest houses were full because it's the peak period and a festival was on. After walking around Kathmandu for an hour, we finally found a "crappy" hotel for 20 usd a night.
Not nice and dirty but anything will do, as long as I can drop my stuffI to go walk in the street...It was super hectic! I was surprised by the amount of people and how narrow the streets were. The streets are wide enough for one car and I thought it was all one way streets at the beginning but I was wrong. The streets are sometime paved, sometime unpaved, and it's complete chaos. There are buses, cars, bikes and bicycles all over the place and constantly horning...To top it all up, people walk in the middle of the streets because there are no pavements! I was just amazed and loved the chaos which made me feel I was out of Singapore...I was also excited to discover new people and see new faces...

Kathmandu by night...

Cute little Nepalese girl in a tea house...

After a quick bite in one of the restaurants, I headed early to bed, exhausted...But it still was a short night as I was woken up at 6 am by a group of people walking in the street, banging their bells and singing something...As I checked by the window, I realized that it was not my "federation friends" coming back from a party completely drunk but more a religious ritual. So I poured back in the toilet sink the bucket full of water I prepared...

It was raining the whole day and it was quite cold as well...So first thing I did was to take advantage of all the hiking shops and buy a fake "made in china" North face sweater, pants and jacket. I know I will need it as well later in the trip when reaching Kashmir region so I got all geared up for 60 usd...After trading my "roots attitude gear" with the "hiker attitude gear", I was ready to confront this cold rainy day and I took one of the many bicycle taxi to go to durbar square. The ride was not a confortable one as the bikes were not equipped to absorb all the holes on the streets and I didn't feel at ease watching this old man struggle to pedal his way trough the traffic on this muddy road...

Kathmandu bicycle taxi...

Kathmandu by day...

In the bumpy bicycle ride...

Durbar square is amazing! Even in a rainy day like today, it was just stunning. It was nothing like I've ever seen before. So I took a guide to show me around. It was the best thing to do as he could explain me a bit of history and he had a couple of anecdotes to share.

Durbar square...

Market in Kathmandu...

We started by visiting this temple with the soya bean poll which apparently helps you heal aching parts of your body...You apparently have to rub the aching part of your body on the poll...I was quite amused to see the people rub their back, their stomach, their knee on it...Maybe if I drink a couple of beers tonight, I'll go tomorrow and rub my head...This temple was apparently made out of a single teak tree! 

Soya bean poll in temple...

We saw as well the "hyppie temple" of Durbar square where apparently Georges Harrison came already to run away from the crowd and smoke weed...Apparently there's a weed festival where people from all over the world come to smoke around this temple and the police close a bit their eyes...By the way, I've been 1 day in Kathmandu and I was offered weed maybe 20 times while walking in the streets! So after beeing told "you want boum boum" in Thailand, now I get "you want flying" in Nepal...

Hyppie temple on Durbar square...

Then my guide Toya brought me to the house of the holly goddess, which is apparently the only living goddess in the world...she was taken away from her family at the age of 3 to live in this house with a priest...she is 9 today and she will be able to leave this house only when she gets her menstruation...We were very lucky because she does rare 5 seconds apparition once in a blue moon trough a window giving into the little garden inside her house, and as Toya was explaining me the story, she decided to have a look outside! The guide was all excited as well and told me that I was very lucky...Of course no pictures allowed...So I only got the window in which she appeared...The last time I took a picture with a window alone was in front of Julietta's house in Verona...

Holly goddess house...Locked up with a priest!

We continued moving around this Durbar square and Toya showed me the "beer god"...Apparently once a year, there's a ritual where they spray beer on the god and then the beer is collected underneath where a hose is placed so that the beer can pour out...As the beer flows out of this hose, people have to fight for this hose in order to drink the beer and have luck...Toya was explaining that only the biggest Nepalese could shuve their way trought to the hose and drink...And that it was unfair for him because of his size, he never got to taste it...So I decided to tip him 2 usd more so that he could go have a beer later tonight...

One of the funniest encounters was when we bumped in one of the "followers of shiva"...apparently this man decided to sacrifice his life, to have no family (and smoke weed all the time instead) so that he could become a follower of shiva...Toya told me to take a picture and hand him a dollar so that he could buy weed...Hmm I think it's a big tourist scam...Nevertheless it was a funny picture...

The follower of shiva...Hmm or weed smoker...

Then we headed for the "Kamasutra temple" which was full of sexy figurines...Toya tells me that it was built to help fertility and reproduction, in order to increase the population of Nepal. He added that, altough today they had porno, this temple was still important...

The "kamasutra temple" or local sex shop...

My favorite position!

Finally, after a quick picture with the local army...which by the way have sticks! I met the god of justice...Very colorful and Toya was explaining that it was not good to lie when near this god. That if you lied, you would die and go to hell...Funnily, this god was just in front of a police station and Toya was explaining that the police sometime brought suspects in front of the god to question them! haha! So I immediately ceased the oppotunity to ask Toya if he was over charging me for the tour...He started running away...

The army guys guarding the square with a stick!

The god of justice...

Very exciting day as all this is new to me...Got into a bicycle taxi back to the hotel to mentally get ready for a maybe difficult day tomorrow when I have to pick up my bike at the airport...Can't wait to get on the bike to discover the rest of the country...