Coming to Nepal

Without really planning it I think we had a bit of a lucky approach into Nepal as far as cultural stepping stones go. We spent 24 hours in Thailand, partly to check out Bangkok, partly to take a break from airplane seats and partly, it turns out to take culture shock into more manageable bites. I remember in thinking in the Taxi driving us to our hotel that we were not in Colorado any more. Unfinished buildings, families with no shoes, dogs wandering the streets. Nothing really shocking but certainly a massive awareness of being in a different place.

After walking the old part of Kathmandu yesterday I just think if I had been directly immersed there instead of being "introduced" via a few other places that acted as stepping stones then maybe I would of just ran back to my room to wait for a flight home! Wow this place is something else. The streets date back to before any real period of time can really be described by me. The original part of Kathmandu is from before Christ, much of it really became set in stone around 750AD and I think we walked around some places that didn't really change much since then. The wobbly streets, often better described as a network of alleys, remind me of what I had read about old London, tall buildings so close to each other that you can reach over and shake the hand of the person in the opposite house. There are statues everywhere but they are not all clean and preserved, they just blend in with whatever building has been erected around it. Taking a football to the face every now and again. Only these statues date back to the 1500 and 1600s! Many of the temples was passed were last restored in the 17th century!



We went a good mile or two south from Thamel. I was armed with my trusty GPS and honestly I think I would be lost for days in this city without it, you just can't get your bearings, and if you drop your guard for a second you just loose them right there and then, gone. The GPS struggled actually because the streets make for a man made narrow canyon, not getting great signals. But it worked well, I we needed it when we started to come across blockades and a strike of locals against riot police. I don't know how serious they were, we read in the paper about a little riot the day before, I think they would prefer not to hurt tourists but it is best not to be in the cross fire. I kicked the Gamin into action and made a b-line back to the Kathmandu Guest House.


Kathmandu is a NOISY and stressful place. Street peddlers, trekking salesmen, honking horns, there is no order. At first it is kind of cool, but then it just wears on you. Luckily their are small gardens and rooftop gardens that are the perfect getaway. We ducked into the garden for some lunch, tea, beers. Ah, chaos going on right outside the wall, but not in here.

It is hot here, hot and humid, seems we are in a rainforest or jungle of some sort, so the best thing to do during the lunch hours is eat, drink, rest and even catch a nap. We had heard about a place called "Monkey Temple" that we wanted to visit. So after a restful lunch we grabbed a rickshaw and headed in a direction that turned out to be West. The buildings quickly started to think out, exposing wondrous views of the lavish tree covered peaks around us. A chance to breath some! We spotted some very nice looking properties, not sure who would live in them, based on the rest of the city I would assume royalty!

Monkey Temple was atop 350+ stairs, the kind of stairs that you can easily topple back off from. And, on the journey up the stairs you are accompanied by...monkeys. These little guys just hang around the area in the trees, same as pigeons in Trafalgar Square.

I got some of the GPS track uploaded to MotionBased form the Rickshaw trip and the hike! The GPS I am using is not designed to work perfectly with Motionbased so the track gets chunked into pieces, I bet I can figure out a way to merge it at some point. It makes me laugh that Google Maps gives such a clear depiction of the streets, because they sure aren't that obvious when you are on them!




The view of the valley form this summit was magical, again photos are available for your enjoyment.

Some things come to mind here, now and again. You know how kids in the US can be sent to "camp" if they are troubled, basically spoiled and bitchy, I think they should just be sent here. A dose of reality here would both scare a US kid but also maybe arm them with some knowledge and tools for making themselves and then their neighborhood a better place. We saw a crowd gathered around a little man who had hot knifes and old plastic buckets. He was using strips from old plastic bowls and buckets to repair a crack in a locals cracked bucket. Something we would throw away from instead a useable skill and even a form of entertainment. I think things worked like this in our country once, where shoes, clothes and buckets were repaired instead of being replaced. It is just amazing, these guys reuse everything, most of us should be ashamed.

Tomorrow we pack our bags and move to the Yak and Yati to meet up with the rest of the expedition group.