First days in Kathmandu

While Alex left a week earlier to climb half of Mt Everest, I only left on 5th September and headed to Bangkok for a few days first.

Besides doing girlie stuff - manicure, pedicure, hairdresser, massage (all the stuff you need to do before going on such a big trip ;) ) - I meet Gabor, a lovely colleague from university, who is (still) working in Bangkok at the moment. He took me to some corners of Bangkok that I did not know before. At this point: thank you Gabor for taking your time, it was a pleasure to meet you and I hope to see you again soon.

Then it was time for me to hop on the flight to Kathmandu where I arrived last Friday, 9th September at noon. The sun was shining, it was extremly humid and I was boiling on the way to Thamel - the touristic Backpacker area in Kathamdu. Traffic in Kathmandu is still as bad as it used to be 5 years ago: everybody is driving wherever they find space and people are practically honking all the time to make drivers ahead, behind, left and right of them aware that they are here...

My original plan for the coming days was to stay 1 night in Kathmandu to get myself organized and then head east to see the tea plantations of Ilam (just on the other side of Indian Darjeeling). However, as I wanted to be back on Tuesday - Alex is expected to return Tuesday morning - I had the following possibilities to reach Ilam:

1. Hop on a bus for 18 (!) hours, which was by the way the recommended option or

2. Take a ridiculously expensive domestic flight (350USD return) and then still a 3h bus ride including changing busses once. And even the locals said that "bus services are not always reliable".

Considering the time constraints, spending practically 2 days on a bus without even someone to talk to was not an option for me. The unreliable bus services from the closest airport AND the fact that it was pouring rain in Ilam anyway made me change my plans and stay around Kathmandu until Alex' return. As I have already been to Kathmandu before, I then discovered the Kathmandu Valley in the following days:

PATAN

What used to be an independent city-state once is now almost a suburb of Kathmandu. Once you cross the river on the south end of the city, you arrive in Patan or Lalitpur - the old Sanskrit name which most people still use for the city.

The main attraction is Durbar Square! Durbar Square is referred to as the area around the old royal palaces including various temples, monuments, water fountains etc. Nepal used to consist of several small kingdoms and the Durbar Squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur still remind of these old kingdoms.

Unfortunately, the bad earthquake of 2015 did not spare Patan and some of the main temples were destroyed and are currently being restored. Besides the old royal palace which is now housing the Patan Museum there are lots of Hindu temples dedicated to different gods.

After strolling around Durbar Square, I headed to the northern part of town to explore the little side streets and more temples. One of the most impressive temples I found was the Golden Temple, a small Buddhist monastery all decorated in gold. And I am really proud that despite the lack of street indications, I did not get lost and managed to find my way back to Durbar Square.

PASHUPATINATH

Just a few hundred meters off the runway of Kathmandu airport among the banks of the holy river Bagmati is Pashupatinath, housing THE most important Hindu temple in Nepal. The main temple which is dedicated to Shiva cannot be accesed by non-Hindus, but you can get a good glimpse of it from the viewpoint on the opposite side of the river.

Next to the river you can also see cremation sites where there is a platform to burn the dead bodies of each caste. It is a weird feeling to stand there and see dead bodies being carried around and burning on the platforms next to the river until the ash can be thrown into the water.

On the way up the hill on the opposite side of Pashupatinath temple there are many more different shrines and temples, some more, other less affected by the earthquake. I exited the temple area on the other side of the hill from where it is only a pleasant 20min walk through real Kathmandu village life to Bodnath.

BODNATH

​Bodnath is famous for Asia's biggest stupa and one of the few places in the world where Tibetan Buddhist culture is accessible. A stupa is a religious site that is originally built to house religious relics. There are differnt stories about which part of which Buddha is housed in Bodnath, but it must be something very valuable... All day long you can see Tibetan pilgrims in their traditional clothes walking clockwise on the kora (pilgrim path) around the stupa, turning prayer wheels and continously mumbling prayers. All around the stupa you find many shops that produce Tibetan handicraft, such as prayer wheels, butter lamps, Tibetan drums and much more.

Like many other sites in Kathmandu, also this stupa has been shaken by the heavy earthquake. Even though damage is only minor, reconstruction work is going on and the cental tower with the watchful eyes of Buddha is currently covered and big parts of the white dome are scaffolded. Even though this reduces the beauty of this place a bit, it is nonetheless a very interesting and lively place to see original Tibetan culture outside Tibet.

As it has been raining all day long in Kathamndu today (streets in Thamel are partly flooded - how practical it is to have those trekking sandals as anyways your feet get completely wet after 5min and I can at least walk through all puddles and creeks without problems), I decided to be lazy, sleep longer and hang around at a nice coffee place in Thamel to work on the blog, continue research on the coming destinations and read a book.

Alex is already in Lukla and we are both praying for good weather so he can depart tomorrow morning (today no flight departed yet) and I can finally hug him after his once-in-a-lifetime trek in the Himalayas. He is already working on an article to share his experiences with you.

Hope you are al doing fine and talk to you soon again.

Moni