Chocolate Love on Freak Street
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2007
1
3
17
Trip End
Jul 31, 2007
Kathmandu,
Nepal
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
On Saturday we had a free day so me and the girls headed into Thamel. We spent hours wandering around the streets, people watching and shopping. For lunch we hit up a rooftop cafe. It was really nice to eat something besides daal baaht; the running joke here is that the Nepalis never get fed up with daal baaht (ha ha), but us Canadians sure do. I had the moussaka (definetly NOT traditional but delicious nonetheless) and a Mt Everest beer. My god it tasted good. Our favourite thing to do is laugh at our different expressions and manner of speaking. Amelia is from London, Robyn is from South Africa (we affectionatly call her Safa which is what she is called in London where she currently lives) and Kenzie is from a place called Rockyford Alberta which has a population of three hundred. She says funny things like Holy Boots!! which makes us all laugh. Her Nepali name in Kabita so we call her Kabertie. We have all had varied experiences so it is lots of fun to swap travel stories.
After lunch we headed to a place called Freak Street which apparently was the major hangout for all the hippies who were seeking enlightenment in the sixties. Amelia had been reccomended the famous Snowman Cafe where they are supposed to serve the best chocolate cake in all of Kathmandu. It was the funkiest little place, a real throwback to the sixties with the Beatles blasting on the radio.
Amelia and Me at the Monkey Temple
We joked that all that was missing was a nice fat doobie (Amelia and Robyn enjoyed this term so much they decided to adopt it). We sampled quite a few cakes but the chocolate love was the hands down winner. Worth the price of a plane ticket.....Most nights there has been thunder and lightining storms, our brother informed us that this is the season for it. The power constantly goes out so we do alot of card playing by candle light. It sort of feels like being at camp or something. We have learned a few Nepali games but mostly they like to play memory (which I suck at, I wonder why haha) and which Yugesh always wins. Our dad played with us, he can't speak engklish but kept banging himself on the head when he made a mistake, very funny.
Yesterday our teacher sent us on a shopping assignment in the market to practice our Nepali. We each had a list and we had to find the right market and get everything on our list but we didn't know what anything was. It totally felt like an episode of the Amazing Race. I was asking every fruit seller for a certain thing which I finally figured out was a needle, no wonder I got so many weird looks! Very comical anyways, especially since we all ended up with lettuce. One old lady kept telling us she had what we were asking for regardless of what it was so she could make her sale. Our teacher got a kick out it the next day! He made Kabertie get one cigarette, you can but them single here, but it had to be Yak brand. My god did we have to search high and low for that stupid Yak! When we finally found it she said she was going to smoke it because she was so stressed!
So that brings us up to today. We again had a field trip, we went to Patan, another area of Kathmandu and checked out the Monkey temple, the Golden Temple and various other religious sights.
Buddhist Stuppas at the Monkey Temple
We had to walk up about a million stairs to get to the monkey temple but it was worth the view. Lots of cute monkeys too. In Patan we saw a statue of Jamuna and I got a cute pic of me and "my" statue. Rajesh took us for traditional Newari food (which is the tribe that most residents of Kathmandu belong to). It was an absolute hole in the wall, you wouldn't have even known it was there from the street, and I'm sure no white person has ever stepped inside! We ahd to basically crouch through the smallest hallway ever into this little closet with the tiniest chars and tables known to man. They cook the food right there on a grill and open fire on the floor... It was so neat! Something you never would get to do as a regular tourist. We ate these omlette things with buffalo meat and the spiciest chick peas I've ever had, but we passed on the intestines....The whole day was great, and lunch and all our entrance fees to the various temples cost 150 ruppees which is less than a latte from Starbucks... not bad for a day on the town! Tomorrow we have nothing but classes but on thursday we are hiking up a mountain. There is a lot of pollution here so it is very hard to see far distances but somedays its clear. Rajesh said if it is clear thursday we will be able to see Mt. Everest so we should pray to the weather gods for wind to blow the smog away! The temperature here is awesome, warm but not too hot and not humid at all amd a very nice breeze. I even enjoy the storms at night because sometimes it rains for a few minutes so it is very familiar.
I am still working out posting pictures but I don't think I will be able to do it here... I will have to wait untill I get a free day to go to Thamel, its more touristy there so the computers are a little more updated. I already have lots though so as soon as I figure out how to do it I will share them!
