Kathmandu
MORE ABOUT OUR ENTIRE ROUTE AND THE WALKS WE TOOK IN NEPAL – see HERE.
READ ALSO HOW THIS ENTIRE JOURNEY BEGAN BY READING THE DUBAI TRAVELOGUE
What is it like to be in place 3 years after a devastating earthquake, to ride in a packed-to-the-brim Asian bus, how four people can have lunch for a whole… 12 levs, and to attend a Nepali wedding – read in the following Travelogue for Nepal: KATHMANDU.
Our flight from Dubai to Kathmandu was at 15:50 again with Flydubai and lasted about 4 hours. Flydubai has about four flights a day from Dubai to Kathmandu and all of them were 100% full, including ours. Besides our group of four, there were only two other white people in business class. Everyone else was Nepali. It was very interesting when we started approaching Kathmandu and nothing could be seen outside through the airplane windows. Pitch darkness. Here and there, a small light of a tiny house was flickering.
We landed at around 22:00 at the small airport in Kathmandu. There was very little staff at that time of night. It was necessary to get visas, as a 15-day visa cost 25 dollars and is obtained via a machine. It is only necessary to scan the passport and take a picture, and the machine automatically issues the visa. There were also staff members who helped us through this whole process. Then you pay at the cash desk and go through passport control. This was the longest passport control we have had so far. Also, at the airport we exchanged dollars for rupees, just enough to have for a taxi to the hotel and for dinner. Afterwards, we realized that the exchange rate at the airport might be the best in all of Nepal.
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From the airport, we took a taxi to the hotel, which cost 700 rupees, as transfers after 21:00 cost an additional 100 rupees.
As in all the rest, so in this travelogue for Kathmandu, Nepal, I will try to provide specific information regarding hotels, prices, and personal opinions. Our hotel was called OYO 117 Osho Holiday Inn, booked through booking.com, and pleasantly surprised us. This is a whole hotel chain, having several hotels in Kathmandu and Pokhara. I recommend them with both hands. Upon welcoming us, the room had complimentary bottled mineral water, and the beds and bathroom looked very clean. Also, the hotel's location was more than wonderful – two minutes away from the center of Thamel (the tourist district of Kathmandu) while at the same time located on a quiet little street, far from night bars and discos. The price was 12 dollars for an overnight stay in a double room with breakfast included.
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This first evening in Kathmandu felt quite stressful and tense for all of us. From modern and luxurious Dubai, we ended up in a very dark and unfamiliar place. We left our luggage at the hotel and went to look for a place for dinner. It was close to midnight when we found a nice rooftop venue on one of the buildings. As for a first evening in a Third World country, we strictly adhered to hygiene rules – to wash our hands before every, but really every meal, to wipe our hands and forks, not to eat raw vegetables and fruits, and not to order anything with ice. Also, the food must have undergone some kind of heat treatment.
The foods that were present in every menu in every restaurant were burgers, chowmein (noodles), omelets, momo, and a wide variety of rice dishes. Nepal is not the only country we have been to where it turns out to be much cheaper to eat at restaurants than to buy food from a supermarket and cook yourself.
The next day we had breakfast at the hotel: toast with butter and jam, spicy omelet, and banana. Then we went out to get acquainted in daylight with the surroundings and the atmosphere outside. As soon as we stepped out of the hotel, such a strong smell hit us, a mixture of dust, dirt, and incense, that for nearly half an hour I didn't stop sneezing. We found a place where we got a local SIM card, which cost 300 rupees for the plastic itself + 2500 MB internet and another 550 rupees for 4G 2500 MB and 50 minutes of calls to local numbers.
Right next to our apartment ran the most interesting street in Thamel – the one connecting Thamel to the famous Durbar Square. It was dotted with various shops for cashmere scarves, yak wool, trekking gear, singing bowls, as well as agency offices offering various tourist services. Hanging along the street were the typical Nepali flags with prayers for health, luck, and prosperity written on them.
I went to Nepal with a very negative expectation that everything would be quite gloomy and gray there, but this street turned 180 degrees my idea of Nepal. So colorful, so noisy, and so well-disposed people towards tourists. There was no mentality of ripping you off and constant cheating, as it was in Dubai just a day earlier.
Strolling down this interesting street, we passed several Hindu temples. At one end of one of the temples, I heard children's voices. I approached and saw that it was a school. I got a little closer and saw in what miserable conditions these children are forced to live and play. Earlier I had brought some small things from Bulgaria to possibly gift to the children there. I decided this is the moment to do it. I went inside, talked to the teacher. I greeted the children. They had such sincere, warm smiles and so many in number. Probably about 30 children… I gifted them small puzzles and fun party blowers, but since the count I brought was fewer than the children, the lady judged it would be more appropriate to give them later. I asked the lady if they could speak English, and in response the lady gathered the children, lined them up in two rows and led them to sing a whole song in English. I took pictures with the little ones and continued onwards. These little ones left a deep mark in my mind and memory just for the few minutes spent with them. Just look how wonderful they are!
We continued along the colorful, lively street. We arrived at Durbar Square, which is a complex of several old buildings and temples. The entrance was 1000 rupees. Later we found out that this complex is also home to the Kumari-goddess. The story of this girl is that she is chosen from all high-ranking clans and placed to live in the palace in Durbar. There that girl lives like a true goddess, everyone worships and pampers her. All residents want to see her. This continues until the moment of her first menstrual cycle. Then it is understood that she is actually not a goddess and is removed from the throne and replaced by another child. I had a huge desire to see this child-goddess, but it turned out that the chance to even just catch a glimpse of her is very small, because she appears only for ten seconds at the window, waves, and goes back inside. A greater chance to see her is in August or September, when there is a special festival and then the doors of her palace are open to visitors.
From there we continued to the modern part of Kathmandu, which, however, did not impress us with anything. We went to the Nepal Tourist Board, where we had to get our trekking permits.
Starving from walking and taking pictures, we sat down to eat at a roadside diner outside the tourist part. Our bill was a total of 12 leva for lunch for four!!
We caught a city bus to Patan, one of the main sights in Kathmandu. Again, like Durbar Square, it is a complex of old buildings and temples. On the way, we witnessed a Nepali wedding, or more precisely the moment when the groom expects his bride to arrive. There was an orchestra and a buffet dinner. The men were dressed in suits, and the women in very beautiful typical Nepali dresses.
There we also saw an ultra-modern Mall, compared to the rest of the reality outside.
This, however, with which we will remember this day in Kathmandu is the dust. Exactly half of the pedestrians and 100% of the motorists wore masks over their mouths due to air pollution. Wikipedia claims that up to 2 million people live in Kathmandu. According to us, however, they are way more. The traffic there is extremely heavy, as is in most South Asian countries – with many cars, scooters, motorcycles, mopeds, trikes, buses, marshrutkas. We also had to get face masks.
Later in the evening we went to the OR2K restaurant to see other Bulgarian acquaintances of ours who were in Nepal at the same time. We walked into the restaurant and what did we see – the entire restaurant full only and exclusively 100% with white tourists! And we were wondering where the tourists are in Nepal. Here is where they hid :) The restaurant was more like a Bar&Dinner and offered a variety of dishes and drinks at completely tourist prices. Our acquaintances told us about their experience of taking a helicopter flight around Mount Everest and stepping on the base camp at its foot. Flying in a helicopter around Mount Everest is one of the main attractions in Nepal, but since prices start from 300 dollars/person we decided to skip it.
Most of the roads and streets in Kathmandu are unpaved or gravel, with only the largest boulevards being wide and asphalted. After our tour around Nepal, it turned out that Kathmandu is indeed the busiest and most crowded city in Nepal. Pokhara is considered the second largest and most populated city, but it is much calmer, paved, and, of course, more tourist-oriented.
After the first day on Nepalese soil, so saturated with noise, music, and dust, getting up at 5:00 AM the following morning was pure torture. We had planned to take a taxi to Nagarkot to watch the sunrise and Mount Everest. The evening before, we had arranged a taxi to take us to Nagarkot and then drop us off in the town of Bhaktapur for a price of 2200 rupees (22 dollars). However, the taxi driver arrived with a very old and narrow car, and we judged that we wouldn't fit in it. Therefore, we found another driver. We left the hotel at 5:15 AM and arrived at 6:50 AM. The distance was 27 km. Only the road to Nagarkot was terrible – pothole after pothole. Half the road was wide asphalt, the other half was full of huge potholes. We arrived just a few minutes after the actual sunrise. We were annoyed that the weather wasn't very favorable to us and we couldn't see Mount Everest.
From there we continued to the old capital of Bhaktapur, again on a similar road strewn with numerous potholes. The entrance fee for the complex was 1500 rupees and includes many temples and old buildings.
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When we were there, some religious festival was taking place, where the locals were dressed in red and offering gifts. There were also two men dressed as Hindu gods, and as we walked past them, they asked us for money in a particularly rude manner: "Look, this is the Hindu god, give money:" and they had blocked one of the streets and no one could pass through there before giving money. In the exact same rude manner, I refused them.
Also in the old capital Bhaktapur, we hired a guide for 5 dollars. But my, he had such an English pronunciation that nothing he said could be understood. He just smiled and urged us to move forward, to finish with us faster and go to the next clients. In Bhaktapur, you can buy very cheap clay Buddhist or Hindu statues for 30 stotinki/piece as a souvenir from the trip for close friends and acquaintances.
From there, instead of a taxi, we decided to take the intercity bus to Kathmandu. We were crammed very close to each other and it was very hot. I kept thinking there was no room for more passengers, but lo and behold, the conductor (the caller) kept packing more and more… 😊
Prices in Kathmandu vary significantly depending on whether you are in the tourist area (Thamel) or not, for example, burgers were from 120 to 250 rupees, the traditional Nepali dish MO-MO and noodles were between 120 and 250, and rice dishes with various sauces and toppings cost between 250 and 650.
ALSO READ THE FOLLOWING TRAVELOGUE FOR NEPAL: TREKKING IN THE HIMALAYAS
