Vegetable vendors at Thahiti Tole
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Monday, November 28, 2005
Small shrine in Thamel
Small shrine in Thamel
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Reminding me of Bali and Kuta beach, Kathmandu has many small shrines with puja, the red paint on them. In the mornings, Hindis carry small offerings to the shrines and smear the red ink on their foreheads, symbolizing the all-seeing "third-eye".
This is a predominantly Hindu country, but has a significant Buddhist community (from the ethnically Tibetan groups). Kathmandu has several temples with both Buddhist and Hindu worshippers.
We stayed near the Thamel area, a big Khao San Road tourist ghetto. There are plenty of tourist shops selling loads of rip-off trekking gear, cds/dvds, wool-products, books, and great restaurants. Actually, I think this place is better than Khao San Road as it less about drinking and dancing, and more about relaxing after a long trek.
Our guesthouse is in the Paknajol area, a quieter place next to Thamel.
After Tibet, Kathmandu is a beautifully warm place with wonderful food. The touts aren't pushy and insistent like in other countries. One "no" is all it takes for them to leave you alone.
Chicken biryani
Chicken biryani
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
My first meal in Kathmandu was pretty mediocre considering. I had better chicken biryani in Singapore. We ate at Delima's in the Thamel area, where Emily subsquently left her handbag. In the morning, we returned to retrieve it, camera and wallet still in there, but money all gone. Fortunately there was only 500 Rs inside (about $6). We never went back to Delima's.
School kids
School kids
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Cheeky kids! Nepalese kids we encountered are constantly asking tourists for pens, paper, books, sweets, or one rupee. At a military checkpoint (one of many we passed through to get to Kathmandu), these kids came up and Simon made the mistake of giving them an apple. He wanted to help carve up their apple and reached into his backpack for his knife, when they all climbed on board the bus with hands outstretched for any toys or gifts he was going to bestow upon them. He had to order them off because they were getting their hands into his pack!
We have encountered begging from almost exclusively tourist-impacted areas, which is a really sad impression.
Bhote Kosi valley
Bhote Kosi valley
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
A place for whitewater rafting, canyoneering, kayaking, climbing, and bungee-jumping.
Landslide stops traffic
Landslide stops traffic
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
The mountain roads in Nepal aren't too great, and the driving is a bit chaotic. It can take hours to travel just a short distance. Here a landslide was being cleared and we had to wait our turns to make it through. The drive from Kodari (the border town in Nepal) to Kathmandu took about six hours because of traffic.
Chihiro's Toyota Corrolla?
Chihiro's Toyota Corrolla?
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
I learned how to drive a manual transmission on one of these back in high school. For some reason Nepal has loads of these old Corrollas all shiny and polished. This is where they come to get a new lease on life.
Tourist bus to ourselves
Tourist bus to ourselves
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Simon haggled a ride on a tourist bus for us to go to Kathmandu. We got it to ourselves for 300 Rs a person (1 US dollar is about 72 Nepalese Rupees). The Dutch Austrian team thought they could beat us by hiring a jeep for 500 Rs each, but they ended up paying 600 Rs for a small hatchback! And we STILL beat them to Kathmandu! And they paid twice the amount we did to stay across the street from us! So we DID beat them in the end.
The Austrians walking through Kodari
The Austrians walking through Kodari
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Those damn Dutch and Austrians! We went through immigration together (they even got their Nepalese visas easily at the border without wasting a morning in line in Lhasa!).
Leaving China
Leaving China
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
This is the bridge that crosses the Khote Bosi river where you get checked again by the Chinese officials and enter Nepal. Ah, Nepal. This place is the real Shangri-La after the snowy realms of Tibet.
Exiting Chinese immigration
Exiting Chinese immigration
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
From Zhangmu, you exit Chinese immigration and then take a 10 RMB ride in a minibus to the bottom of the gorge, 8 km away, where you go through Nepalese immigration. In between these two posts is a no-man's-land, but it actually contains a town and lots of people.
Carving up a yak head
Carving up a yak head
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
I saw this while talking to the moneychangers.
Zhangmu
Zhangmu
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
We stopped in Zhangmu, the Chinese border town on a mountainside. There was tight traffic on the narrow roads; people unloading goods off of trucks and reloading them on other trucks for further transport through China or Nepal. We tried to change money with the blackmarket money changers, but they were just offering bad rates, so we only changed 100 RMB, and took our chances on the Nepalese side.
Ah, warm again!
Ah, warm again!
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
We stopped to enjoy the warmth and shed our layers of clothing. Far in the distance, Simon eyed the snowy peaks we had just left.
Bhote Kosi valley
Bhote Kosi valley
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Wow, it was getting warm in the Landcruiser. We were all wearing thermal underwear, but now we were baking inside the SUV. This is one of the steepest drops for a river gorge in Nepal. One moment we were next to a stream, and after a bit, the gorge opened up far below us.
No guard rails!
No guard rails!
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Just an image of how driving is on the steep mountain roads.
Terraced fields
Terraced fields
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
As we got closer to the border, we dropped in elevation, and the scenery changed again. It wasn't warm yet, but it wasn't painfully cold anymore.
Prayer wheels at a pass
Prayer wheels at a pass
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
Over another pass, we came across this awesome view of the Himalayas, "the Abode of Snow" in Sanskrit.
Snowy plains
Snowy plains
Originally uploaded by bastchild.
The last day we left at 8 am, before the sun rose. It was minus 7 C outside. Cold! As we drove off, we could see another glimpse of Everest and Cho Oyu. After an hour we entered this snowy landscape. There had been a storm that had come through a few weeks ago (and wreaked havoc over trekking areas and climbing peaks in Nepal, but we didn't know about this at the time).
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