Kathmando's and Kathmandon'ts
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
12
29
Trip End
Apr 01, 2009
Kathmandu,
Nepal
Saturday, October 18, 2008
We arrived late in the evening having flown in from Guangzhou, just inside China. We'd had breakfast in Hong Kong, eaten at the airport and then again on the plane.
Sarah spent part of her gap year at a school in Nepal and we were staying in Kathmandu with the family of the former head teacher, Mahash. Mahesh has recently moved to the U.K to study, but his wife - Soni, and youngest daughter Lily are still living in Nepal. Their other 2 daughters, Mahema and Raksha are studying Dentistry and Medicine in China and Bangladesh respectively, although Raksha is home in Kathmandu on holidays at the moment
In the minibus
. Soni, and Raksha, and Raksha's cousin were waiting for us at the airport, and were so excited to see us - although we have been meeting up regularly with Mahesh in London, it is 8 years since Sarah has seen the others. It was late at night, about 22.30 by the time we actually met up with them, and we drove through a very dark Kathmandu towards their flat. They immediately welcomed us into their home, insisting that we should take the large double bedroom while they all squashed into the smaller room next door - no amount of us insisting that we really didn't need the biggest room all to ourselves, as we could sleep on the sofas, did any good, Nepalis are incredibly generous hosts and their minds were made up! Their generosity also extends to food, and once we had had a tour of the flat, we were sat down to eat our fourth meal of the day - huge neverending portions of Dal Bhat (Lentil soup and rice) - eating was something we'd do a lot of over the next few days!!
Morning came and after a breakfast of fried eggs (2) and pieces of toast (4) we got the bus into town.
If you believed what the Lonely Planet (boo hiss) has to say then you wouldn't catch the mini-buses which seem to cover every road in Kathmandu
Tuk tuk
. If you didn't you'd be missing out on a wonderful experience and, contrary to what they say, a lot of fun. Fun, but it a very uncomfortable way! The mini-buses are really just little vans with benches bolted to the floor. They are the kind of van that you see delivering Flowers, or Sandwiches. My major problem is that I'm 6'2" tall, way over the average height of a Nepali adult. Standing on the pavement beside the van I am slightly taller than it. We were pushed onto the bus and there were no seats, I would have to stand- or at least try to!
The internal height of the van can only be about 4 1/2 foot, I was bent like a contortionist over sideways around a chair, and a couple of other passengers, and this only got worse when more people boarded. There must have been over 20 people in the back of this van, but at least it was cheap, just 8p a journey!
In Nepal they drive on the left (or at least towards the left), just like in England. The road signs are also Red and White, but the similarity between the two countries ends there! Some of the roads were probably cemented over once upon a time, but now they're just a series of pot-holes
Waiting for the shop to open
. They're also used by any form of transportation; foot, horse, horse and cart, car (always a Suzuki!) and of course the various buses tuk tuks and rickshaws. Oh, and then there's the cows!In Nepal cows are sacred. If you kill one, even accidentally, the prison term is 2 years. With this is mind you'd think they'd drive a bit more carefully through fear of driving into one. But they don't drive carefully, not at all! Somehow we had actually managed to get on the right bus and we made it to Ratna Park, our intended destination, which is pretty central in Kathmandu and wandered through the bustling streets towards the tourist ghetto of Kathmandu that is Thamel - but more about that later. After quickly tiring of Thamel we made our way back to ratna Park and somehow managed to find amongst all the craziness the bus which was going in the direction we wanted to go, and, as this was the starting point for all the buses we were one of the first on and managed to get seats. Bonus!
But when we arrived home we realised that we had done something very stupid whilst we had been out - we had eaten lunch - bad move! When we got home it was about 4.30pm. Tea time!! We are happy as although we were still full from lunch, we thought that this was probably just light dinner as we'd had such a big breakfast
Who needs a trailer?!
. Bread, and lots of yoghurt and sweet desserts and lots of very sweet milky Nepali tea. And then there was a large dinner to come in a hour or so. On another day in Kathmandu we took the bus out to Pashupatinath, a temple by the river where all the funerals for Kathmandu's residents take place. On the way, after a good 25 minutes of us riding on the back seat, the driver stopped, opened the back door and out jumped a goat! A goat that had been just centimeters from us for all the time without us realising. This is life on Nepalese mini-buses.
We spent a while at Pashupatinath, witnessing funerals of people who had died just the previous day. The bodies are blessed with the holy water from the river before being cremated on top of Ghats, small concrete pillars. It sounds distasteful to watch random people's funerals but in Nepal it is a very public event, none of this stiff upper lip and behind closed doors business that we insist on in England. Although we did find ourselves shocked and a little embarrassed by so many of the tourists all jostling for the best view to take a photo at the front of the crowd.
We then walked on through a small village to Boudhanath, home to an amazing Stupa and a lot of monks
He stole our banana
. There are Stupas all over Nepal, but this was a particularly big one. It's a sacred Buddhist structure, with a large mound and a colourful statue on top that has a friendly smiley face! By the time we had reached Boudhanath and walked (clockwise) around it, it was about 2pm and at least 3 hours since our large curry breakfast!! It was time to eat, again. Although we kept telling Soni we really couldn't manage any more food, I think she either thought we were lying, or mad, as she insisted we must find somewhere to eat Momos so we wandered around for a while until she eventually spotted a restaurant (well it actually looked more like the door to someone's house, but she banged on the door and they let us in and sat us down at a table!). Momos are delicious - dumplings filled with fried spicy minced buffalo meat and vegetables. But they are very very filling. So imagine our relief when it appeared that only one plate (12 Momos ) had been ordered as a snack for us to share. The plate came, and we decided that maybe we were a little bit peckish, and could probably manage one or two. Then the other 4 plates arrived, and the soup! We couldn't believe it, but managed to eat a respectable amount and the rest were finished by Lily and Soni. Then the bill arrived - a plate of momos, a bowl of soup and a bottle of coke each came to the equivalent of 2 pounds - 40p each
The ghats next to Bagmati River
! We ate all our meals with the family that we were staying with, and every meal is an event and the flavours are incredible, by far the best food we've eaten so far on the trip.
However, I have learnt some lessons about eating with a Nepali family, and should you ever find yourself in the same situation I shall offer you some words of advice:
Never say you're hungry, you will never be more than a few hours from your next meal and you don't want to fill yourself up unnecesarilly.
For the same reasons, don't eat a meal when you're not with them, they'll be expecting you to eat 3 meals a day in their presence!
Eat slowly, very slowly, and don't expect that clearing your plate means you're finished. There will be something else to follow, or more of the previous dish. After 3 servings you'll probably get away with saying you're full.
Soni, Lily and Raksha
We spent our last night in Kathmandu at a hotel, as we were leaving early in the morning for a rafting trip. The touristy area of Kathmandu is known as Thamel and it's where the vast majority of people end up staying. It's also one of the busiest areas, and full of people trying to sell you anything from Chess Sets to Tiger Balm (and 'Hasheesh')
We got out of the taxi and the sharks scented blood. You are at your most vulnerable with a rucksack strapped to your back!
After telling a guy our budget was $5 to avoid his offer of a $50 a night luxury place, he said he knew somewhere for this price and promptly marched us over there. No harm looking, we thought. We got the price down from 450 to 400 Rupees (about $6) but decided to try around elsewhere.
Before long we were approached by another hotel tout, he said he knew a nice place so we followed him.
Ther place was nicer, the shower was hot, and Sarah, after mistakenly lying about the price of the previous place we'd looked at somehow managed to get a room for 300 Rupees, roughly the same price as a bottle of beer in Nepal!
We packed our bags for rafting, had a quick meal and had an early night. There aren't really any late nights in Kathmandu, every shop, bar and restaurant suts at 10pm sharp. But we had time to stock up on Nepalese rum for the trip, just 2 pounds for a suprisingly good 750ml bottle!
