Chapter 4: Touring Kathmandu

On Day 3, back in Kathmandu, at the Backyard hotel, we were given a free night's stay for one room. It was a gesture of goodwill from them to restore our faith after we expressed our disappointment on having to stay at another sub-standard hotel on the first night. We bargained further and asked for two extra mattresses to be allowed to bunk in one room and they agreed. Well, two of the girls didn't like the idea of sleeping on the floor with mattresses, so they ended up getting the nice master bed. And us two sensible kids who's economical idea it was in the first place, roughed it out on the floor with mattresses. So that night we saved US$ 60 among us. More for shopping, yay! I was also having a bad sore throat and cough by now, which I was self-medicating.

The early next morning were spent exploring the streets of Thamel. There were shops selling so many types of colourful art and crafts that we literally went crazy. These people were extremely skilled in their handicrafts and the talent, patience and effort they took to make these showed in each and every item on sale. It took awhile to walk around and realise that the first price quoted by the street vendors are always inflated many-fold. After several rounds of bargaining, using their calculators to show them what we wanted to pay, sometimes pretending to walk out of shops to be called back in, deals were struck. The Procurement Manager and Miss Algeria were very vocal, so the two of us patiently waited for them to conclude the transactions. We had to learn quickly though. I still think we overpaid for most of our souvenirs, but that was the way it worked. 

They knew we were foreigners so they worked hard to make best use of their opportunity to make a sale, while competing with so many other vendors selling simliar products. I don't think their lives are that rosy. Tourists came in hoards only during certain times of the year. During the monsoons and winter, they hardly made any profit. And the tourists' demand for their crafts created and fueled so many local industries and provided jobs for many others. Every street I went to, it was clear that everyone – from taxi drivers, to rickshaw men, to street vendors to tour agents - worked very hard to make their living. During negotiations, they were often chatty, asking lots of questions about where we were from and what we worked as, etc. Some even told us sad stories of their families and hardships. This was also a good chance for us to ask about the area and things to do. Normally, I would not talk or give away that much details to strangers on my own or in my country. But here, no one knew us and it was easy to enjoy doing it while in the safe company of three others.

Beautiful embroidered bags. They were so colourful!

Art on the road - part of Thihar celebrations

I was so fascinated by the intricate thangka paintings portraying various mandalas from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition

Carpets, cushions, woodwork 

For meals, we ate from a variety of decent looking places as the travel guide books warned that food contamination and food poisoning were very common. We stayed off raw food like salads. Only bottled water was used. Due to the heavy influx of tourists, it was easy to find all types of international cuisine here for a little extra cost – Thai, Chinese, Italian, French, Indian, Tibetan, Nepali – anything to one's fancy. Once, two of us tried street food sold by a lady in a mobile cart. She sold hot roti stuffed with a spicy potato filling. Her three little sons surrounded her and watched as she made our order. Again, it was a little heart wrenching to watch this family. I felt compelled to help her by giving her extra money, but in all honesty, I felt like that so many times during my time there. It was impossible to help everyone or go about handing cash like that. So most of the time, I just had to settle to readily buying their products and perhaps letting them keep the extra change. When converting currency here, everything seemed relatively cheap to us, yet the low income people here suffer so much physically to earn just a few bucks.

Cows are treated with respect here - only because of conservative religious beliefs

After a rushed tour around Kathmandu Durbar Square we headed to Pasupatinath Temple. Again, my SAARC passport proved useful as I paid only a fraction of the entrance fees that citizens of other countries had to pay. We also found a student guide who gave us a good tour of the area for a small fee. As we passed the main Hindu temple, I was told that as a Buddhist, I can enter the temple and have a look inside if I liked, but my friends from other faiths were not allowed, so I passed on the offer. The most unforgettable part of that area was seeing cremations of dead bodies going on beside the Bagmati riverbank. Family and friends of the deceased would follow the procession to the designated cremating stone. After the corpse is washed in the river, it is placed on a stand made of dry firewood and grass. The (male) relatives would set fire to it and everyone watched as the body burned and turned to ashes, almost as if they contemplated on the impermanence of our lives and the inevitable end. The cremation stones were even arranged according to privileges of caste. One for the royal family, the next for the highest caste of brahmins and the following divided among lesser castes. Like in India, discrimination based on castes still exist in Nepal. 

Vendors outside the Hindu temple of Pasupatinath

Views of Pashupatinath Temple grounds

Piers for cremating the deceased

Watching a ritual for the dead

Having our last dinner in Nepal as a group of four at a fancy-looking Italian restaurant didn't go too well. We waited for nearly two hours after ordering for the food to come in. Due to space constraints, we had to share our table with another stranger and having to make conversation with him kinda spoilt the ambiance and our purpose of this dinner. Worst of all, he came much later than us and he got his food first. Even I lost my temper (it happens, when I am very hungry) and we all expressed our disappointed to the staff about their poor service. I even felt a little sorry for shouting at the serving staff later on. He was pressured to face the unhappy customers and keep everyone calm, despite whatever the glitches that were going on in the kitchen. That night, Kara and Charmaine returned to Dubai. It was sad to see them off. Ila by an oversight, had booked the following night to return. So she had an extra full day with me. And I was glad I had company for another day.

Breakfast of fresh and warm croissants with good coffee!

The next morning, two of us headed out to the streets and chanced upon the Pumpernickel Bakery. It was so refreshing to finally find a good western cafe, where we indulged on chocolate croissants and fresh coffee. The area had a great number of European tourists, some even looked like they have been living there for a very long time – the tanned and toned bodies, the hippie-like fashions and some even managed to speak the local language. I suppose many of them had the luxury of taking off extended time of their normal lives to experience a simpler life in a spiritual land such as this, searching for whatever it is that they were looking for. Brings to mind the plot of Eat, Pray, Love – which was a great read, by the way. A few days later, I tried to find this same spot when I visited Thamel on my own, but I failed. That's the way it is, the streets look surprisingly similar and it is easy to get lost in the maze of winding roads. (Note to self: download the map and set up GPS on the phone next time round!)

The next item on the agenda was Swayambunath, also known as the Monkey Temple. We had to conquer a long flight of stairs to get to the summit of that hill, where the temple was built. With a heavy Tibetan influence, it looked similar in structure to the Boudhnath stupa. Oh, and there was a huge population of monkeys, pigeons, ducks and even rats! Ila had a nervous breakdown when a rat almost ran over her leg. I was highly amused by this. 

Up the flight of stairs leading to the temple were street kids begging for money from tourists

 This type of turning cylinders were commonly seen at every Tibetan Buddhist temple. Devotees slipped their palms across each of the cylinders as they chanted their prayers.

Swayambunath stupa, very similar in appearance to Boudhanath

The monkey residents, very comfortable by human presence and seen feeding on flowers offered to the temple

The details in their architecture never ceases to amaze me

More souvenirs!

Carving on stone - this guy had heaps of patience. Plus, mistakes on stone can't be undone

On the way back, we also discovered the elusive Java Cafe, recommended by Hysh. During the time all four of us were together, we tried so hard to locate it and asked several people too, but no one seemed to know the what we were talking about. I had a divine iced mocha with whipped cream and a Mexican vegetable wrap! I made an exception for having a raw salad, just this one time. If only we found this place earlier when the others were here! I vowed to come back on my own when Ila left and I did, only it was memorable for a whole other reason. But later on that.  

Java Cafe had Starbucks-quality coffee for only a fraction of the cost!

There was one more thing left to collect before I left Thamel. During our countless times in and out of the Backyard Hotel, I noticed a small tailor shop by the road. A young guy managed the shop from early morning to late night. There were plenty of embroidered designs on t-shirts displayed and he even had an album for designs not on display. Partly out of admiration for his hard working attitude and partly because I wanted to buy a souvenir for a friend who loved dragons, I visited his shop. We got rather friendly, he told me that he had to work long hours to make up for the rent and support his family. He asked for my details too - this was very common, they were all rather curious about tourists. Earlier that day, I chose a flaming red dragon's design to be sewn on a black t-shirt. After checking out of the hotel, I went to pick up my order. To be very honest, the t-shirt material didn't exhibit great quality, but the amount of work that went into sewing the design for such a small price was touching. Before I left Dubai, I bought some key tags (that had Dubai written all over it), thinking it would be ideal to give away to people I meet who will help me in Nepal. Although he didn't really fit that criteria, I gave away one to this guy. He got so emotional about it, thanked me profusely and pleaded with me to drop by his shop if I ever visited Nepal again.

By the time I left Nepal, all my key tags were gone. I should have taken more, actually.