kathmandu, nepal

Nepal has been a roller coaster of fun, culture shock, and food. The minute I stepped foot in Nepal, I was greeted with hot and humid blasts of air inconsistent with my perception of the mountains and Himalayas, persistent taxi drivers, and just plain confusion. It all ended well, of course, and I was happily settled in at Hotel Florid with a courtyard in the middle of Thamel. 

We didn’t do much but walk around the city, enjoying all it has to offer on foot. However, Kathmandu has the most insane traffic I’ve ever seen. When I say traffic, I do not mean boulevard traffic. I’m talking about alleyway traffic. Small narrow street traffic! I mean, our hotel is on Z street in Thamel. It takes me a full 5 steps to cross the street, if THAT! But somehow, a car, a rickshaw, and a motorbike can squeeze through, all at the same time!!!  In addition, there are a million pedestrians walking about in this same traffic! I’m one of those pedestrians, and I find it insanely hard to walk in this city. I have never feared for my feet the way I have here. Every which way, there are wheels coming at me, pedaled and mechanical wheels, all either honking, tinkling, waving at me. I started wearing my Merrells to walk the city because the minute I look up, I either step into a pothole, or come dangerously close to losing some toes. After a day or two, I got better at watching for traffic coming at me as well as the traffic coming from behind me. We made it to Durbar Square where all tourists must go. It’s a large square with a few larger streets intersecting through it, each street having its own personality. One is called Freak Street. We found some good jewelry and a cute café with a gorgeous rooftop terrace to have lunch on.

local beer...had to try them all

Darbur Square shopping

this bowl makes the coolest sound

this is out protector buddha!

streets of Kathmandu at night

My friend recommended a place to eat some amazing pizza in Thamel [Fire and Ice is featured in Lonely Planet as well] and since we have refrained from any American food except for spicy tom yum chicken wings at a Thai McDonald's, we went for it. The splurge was quite substantial for our travel budget but it was worth it. We got an amazingly thin crusted Italian pizza with ham, artichokes, mozzarella and olives. The salad was not green as expected, but was a combination of tuna, tomatoes, capers, olives, and the sweetest onions I've ever tasted.  We also got a bottle of Australian Shiraz to share and I was quite buzzed by the end of the meal. Dessert was ice cream with raspberry syrup and I ate it all by myself. We walked home from the restaurant and played cards till late, knowing we could sleep in the next day although the sun rises at 5 am.

Fire and Ice...the best pizza in Kathmandu

On another day, we decided to head out of Thamel and see Swayumbhunath, also known as Monkey Temple.  The temple is outside the city, so we taxied out. It dropped us off at the bottom of the hill and we looked up at a thousand steps. Of COURSE there would be steps. Why would we think it would be flat??! Silly us. So up we go, step by step. Right now, I think my thigh and calf muscles are the strongest in my body, followed by my upper arms and shoulders from carrying my backpack.

chilling with the monkeys!

monkeys everywhere!

The walk up Swayambhunath was quite fun actually. It’s called Monkey Temple for a reason! Monkeys are everywhere! They are not afraid of humans at all, and the locals actually have to scare some of them off, they flock around so much. On the way down the steps, a dad was carrying his little girl, and a mama monkey lost her baby, so she jumped on the dad’s back and started shrieking. Although I’m a giant fan of monkeys and all that fun, I do NOT want one shrieking on my back! The little one ended up running and used me as a hopping tool, bouncing off my back into the bushes, and the mother followed. 

At the top of the temple, we walked around taking pictures of the monks and the landscape. A lot of pilgrims come to pray here, and butter lamps are lit around the temple. We got there late in the day, and got to see the sunset from the top, which was one of the most beautiful and relaxing days in Kathmandu. The colors are just perfect, and I was happy that I brought my book Eat, Pray, Love to read. The book, the city, the temple, and the sunset were the perfect combination, and I sat there for almost an hour soaking it all in.

this monkey was ahem...funny

don't ask why, we are kind of obsessed with butter lamps

dirty calloused feet!

nepalese colors

nepalese shirt, random tights, tibetan earrings, aldo shades

My wardrobe for the last few weeks have been abysmal. I wear the same things over and over again, staying grungy because we've been active in Nepal. I have not shopped for any more summer clothes since Tien left. There just isn't enough room in my backpack. However, I couldn't resist these two Nepalese shirts. They are reminiscent of the Moroccan shirts I love. I was walking to Durbar Square and came across this random shop. Tourist shops flock Thamel, but this one just caught me. The owner of the shop makes all of these shirts [his wife was sitting by the window measuring out the fabric to be sewn]. The shirts are thicker, and the color is striking. I bought one in blue and one in maroon.

fly over everest

This is the closest I will ever get to Everest. Flying over it and looking out of a window of a plane is the only way I'll ever get to see Everest...f

Lhasa airport was a doosey. To get their, we drove for one hour through the mountains of Lhasa. Literally, through the mountains. It was quite interesting as we approached the base of the mountain and saw the entrance to the tunnel. That was when i realized the ingenuity and work this 3rd world country has endured to get to where it is today. The roads are new but a part of it was still dirt and unfinished. The cab went through it all the same.

During the flight, the captain announced that we could see Mt Everest and everyone went into a hoopla over it. As soon as he said "it's on the left," the whole place shifted left of the plane to see it. Ok maybe not shift. It was more of a leap, similar to a white water guide calling out "LEFT!" and everyone leaps a hard left as told. A million telefoto lenses came out, vying for the window and right then, the captain said "it's on the right". I saw in slow motion as 100 people on the aisle turned their attention to my window. Thank god I was wingside so I  only got trampled for about a minute.

We got off the plane from gorgeous Tibetan weather, to a very hot humid frantic and chaotic Kathmandu.

Katmandu airport was also a doosey, but differently so. A favorite Nepalese phrase is "same same but different" and it's applied everywhere! We heard it in Thailand, Cambodia, and even Vietnam ... but we were shocked to hear it outside of Southeast Asia. We stepped out of the terminal and the taxi drivers attacked us. When I asked how much it would cost to get into Thamel, they said oh it's all same same price, but different. I was so shocked to hear that phrase again, I just stood their laughing and didn't even bother to respond. [Taxi drivers bombard you the minute you get out of the airport and will tell you the ATM was broken when it was not so that they could get you in their cab faster and stop at the ATM later.]

We met a nice backpacker named Tori at the taxi stand and shared a cab with her into the city. The driver wove in and out of traffic, in a maniac like manner, jarring us out of our zen like mood from Tibet. We are pretty accustomed to taxi drivers in southeast Asia, but this one was a little excessive. He drove over dirt roads that are not even roads at all, avoided ox / yaks [just barely], and then worked his way through the narrowist streets I've ever been on in my life...and I've seen some NARROW streets in my life.

We found our hotel and negotiated the room down from $20 a night to $7.50. That's $3.50 person!!! The people are amazingly sweet here and we are so happy to have found a place in the heart of Thamel. The staff is exceptional and we are very lucky to have found a place with a really cute garden terrace to lounge in as well.

My friend recommended a place to eat some amazing pizza in Thamel [Fire and Ice is featured in Lonely Planet as well] and since we have refrained from any American food except for spicy tom yum chicken wings at a Thai McDonald's, we went for it. The splurge was quite substantial for our travel budget but it was worth it. We got an amazingly thin crusted Italian pizza with ham, artichokes, mozzarella and olives. The salad was not green as expected, but was a combination of tuna, tomatoes, capers, olives, and the sweetest onions I've ever tasted.  We also got a bottle of Australian Shiraz to share and I was quite buzzed by the end of the meal. Dessert was ice cream with raspberry syrup and I ate it all by myself. We walked home from the restaurant and played cards till late, knowing we could sleep in the next day although the sun rises at 5 am.

That was our first night in Kathmandu, and it was a very very good start to Nepal.