As most of you know, I had the incredible luck to be able to spend three and a half days in Kathmandu after attending a conference for work in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dhaka itself was crazy - it took at least 90 minutes to get anywhere because of the constant traffic jams, and the city just seemed to have this incredibly frenetic pace with literally people everywhere. The poverty was really noticeable, so hoepfully the country continues its work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
But on to Nepal!
July is the low season for tourism as it's the monsoon season and the height of the rain. I had thought that it would rain constantly, not having experienced monsoon conditions before, but I was pleasantly surprised. While we did have one day where it rained most of the day, mostly it was just an occasional downpour, and on one of the days we were lucky enough to have over 30 degrees and sunshine. The perfect antidote to an awful London summer!
On our first day we (my colleague Mazida and I) got our bearings, as we were staying in
Lazimpat which is an area just north of the main tourist area which is known as
Thamel, and the main central area of the city itself. It was nice being within walking distance, but good to be away from the complete hustle and bustle of the city. Just as in Dhaka there was incessant honking on the streets - I don't know how the cows coped!
We stayed at the loveliest guest house called
Tings Tea Lounge which I would absolutely recommend as it was such a haven to come home to after a day out and about. The food was great, as were their selection of delicious teas. Not to mention the incredibly friendly staff - a rave all around! Speaking of food, on the first day for dinner we found the best place to eat in Kathmandu (in our opinion at least), this Szechuan restaurant called Chang Chengs. While it was in the Lonely Planet, it was a little out of the way, and we couldn't understand how it wasn't absolutely packed. This enormous meal you see in the picture cost something like NZ$15 because we completely over-ordered but was soooo yum. Another definite recommend!
On our first full day in the city we spend the day looking around Kathmandu's
Durbar Square. Durbar means palace, so it is essentially the heart of the old city of Kathmandu, full of temples, palaces and shrines everywhere you looked. Mazida convinced me to get a guide, and I'm so glad we did. Our guide Krishna was excellent, taking us on a three hour tour around the square and telling us more about the intricate system of Hindu gods and goddesses than I could ever remember. But it was definitely fascinating at the time!
The Nepalese obviously have great respect for some of their previous royal families, especially the king who brought democracy to Nepal,
King Tribhuvan. The country has a really interesting history, and I didn't realise that it was so recently that the country was brought together as a single state, nor the diversity of people who are now part of Nepal. The massacre of the royal family in 2001 was just awful, and I really hope the country can get back on its feet after its recent troubles.
After our visit around the city centre we went out to
Swayambhunath, also known as the Monkey Temple as there are big troops of monkeys just hanging around. It's a Tibetan
stupa which is the name for a Buddhist temple/shrine complex. I loved the prayer flags and the serene eyes of Buddha watching out from every direction. It was really interesting to get above the city too (it's on a hill to the west) and see it spread out within the Kathmandu valley.
On our second day we went to
Bhaktapur which is the most ancient of the three royal cities in the Kathmandu valley. We took Krishna with us again and it was really good to have the almost neverending series of temples explained to us, as there's no way we could work out from the guide book which was which! But, as you can see, our temple enthusiasm was never-ending... I really liked the quietness of Bhaktapur, as it was mostly pedestrianised, so the omnipresent threat of being run over by a rouge motorbike was (somewhat) reduced! The view out over the mountains with the clouds rolling over them was also pretty spectacular.
On day three we visited Patan, the third main city in the valley. We had a bit of a shocker as we thought we'd get money out when we were there (as foreigners you pay a pretty hefty fee to enter the historic areas) but the ATMs wouldn't take Mazida's card... Fortunately however we had enough money to get back to Tings to get my cards and try getting money out at a much bigger bank which worked. Phew...! Patan was interesting in that there was a music video of traditional Nepalese music being filmed right on the steps of one of the temples which we watched for a while, and we also headed up the main market street to this crazy busy market at the bus station. It was lovely and hot that day, so just being out and about and wandering in the sunshine was brilliant.
And then on the afternoon of day three we went to
Boudhanath, another Tibetan stupa just outside Kathmandu. This was hands down my favourite thing of the trip, as the place just had this incredible feel to it and I could have stayed there just looking at it for hours. I loved the prayer wheels right around the edge, as well as the giant ones inside the monastery just adjacent to the stupa. It was just so alive and interesting, yet such an obviously central part of everyday life for the people who visit it. It really made me want to go to Tibet that's for sure.
As well as looking at all the sites we also managed to get a bit of shopping done as there was just so much on offer! I particularly liked the gorgeous strands of what I thought were beads, but turned out to be rubies, emeralds and sapphires! While a medium-length strand was only GBP30, it was still a bit out of my price-range. We managed to do the entire trip, including return flights from Delhi for less than GBP300 and didn't skimp on anything, but a multi-strand emerald necklace seemed a bit extravagent for a student! I was happy to settle for my GBP2 prayer wheel and same priced pashmina...
All in all, I absolutely loved Kathmandu and can't recommend it highly enough. As my first visit to a South Asian country it made a massive impression on me, and I really want to go back to the region and see what else there is to see.
