Katmandu...eventually!

  Kathmandu, Nepal, Nepal
Friday, September 14, 2007

prayer wheels

You know what they say about the best laid plans... I did not bed down as anticipated in Kathmandu on Sunday. Border formalities completed, I learned that buses north had been temporarily suspended due to landslides caused by an over-excited monsoon. There was nothing for it but to stay the rest of the day and the night at the border settlement accurately described in the guidebook as 'hot, dusty and mosquito-infested'. The tedium was alleviated by the company of James and Kate from Sheffield: we shared dinner, beer and our mutual disdain for the cocky, loud, smart-arse 'Gap Year' kids who seem to pop up everywhere.

prayer flags

We had been assured that road clearing was in progress and that our bus would leave at 7.15 the following morning, due in Kathmandu 6 hours later. The road-clearing teams had a monumental task before them, however: as well as the two landslides there were two collapsed bridges. The workers slaved over replacement bridges modeled from mud and stones but these were flattened after every few vehicles and had to be rebuilt. We spent much of the day cooking in the stationary vehicle, unable to seek air or shade outside due to the torrent of mud and water on the road, and lulled into a stupour by the heat and humidity.

temple carving

film posters

We finally checked into a guest house in Kathmandu at 1.30 a.m., our 6 hour journey having taken 17. A few days later on a hike, I realised we had got off extremely lightly: from a high vantage point on a hillside I had pointed out to me the houses which had been flattened in landslides, killing their sleeping occupants and the rice paddies which had been decimated by the cascading mud and stones, destroying livelihoods. I resolved to try not to feel put out on the next delayed journey...



The long bus ride was worth it. The following day I composed a list of things I liked about Kathmandu:

There is no cow shit on the roads

People are very smiley

There is no oppressive humidity

The men wear lovely wee hats

Drivers don't drive with one hand on an ear-piercing horn for no reason

People don't constantly spit on the ground beside you

Men don't stare lecherously at women

The streets don't stink of urine

There aren't mounds of rubbish on every street

Traders are gentle rather than pushy

Beer is available pretty much everywhere!



Examining this list it dawned on me that most of these observations were making a comparison with India. It is only now, after a few days in Nepal that I'm beginning to appreciate that traveling in India, especially as a lone female, was much harder than I realised at the time. Everything seems so much easier here.

temple tortoise

spices

Thankfully the political situation here is much more stable than during my visit last Easter, so I was not held in my hotel due to a curfew. I explored Kathmandu on foot, enjoying the chaotic jumble of buildings among which lie fantastic temples and squares with everyday life bustling around them. Another day was spent in the nearby town of Patan, where 2 young lads selling souvenirs abandoned their futile quest and instead showed us the sights for

pashupatinath hindu temple

'all-seeing eyes' of the Buddha

free. They were a great insight into Nepalese childhood and it seemed a terrible waste that their obvious brains were not being challenged at school: they haven't sufficient money to attend so they sell to tourists instead and hone their language skills speaking to the foreigners. A trip to Bodhnath was a highlight, with its Tibetan exile community circumambulating the stupa and I joined the chanting throng, hypnotized by the endless repetitions of 'Om Mani Padme Hum'.

monks

Tomorrow I will head west to Pokhara with James and Kate, whose company I am enjoying as we discover further mutual loathings in addition to posh-accented, rich, 'Gap Year' kids, subsidized by Daddy...mostly other flavours of tourist, but I won't mention them here, unfamiliar as I am with the complexities of libel law. My age is showing, these things never used to bother me when I traveled before...God, I hope I'm not turning into my dad...!!!!!