Our Many Moons of Honey: Nepal: The Kathmandu Valley

Here we are starting our fourth moon of honey and about to land on our fourth continent (we're counting Dubai as an American state). Time sure does go by fast when you're unemployed and travelling! Flying into Nepal was amazing. We first hovered above the clouds with the peaks of the Himalayas breaking through… it was simply breathtaking. Then we turbulently flew into the Kathmandu valley past all of the tiered farmland and safely landed at the Kathmandu airport.

Traffic at Tahiti Tole

The drive towards our guesthouse gave us a good glimpse of Kathmandu: poor, dirty, lots of garbage, run down, alive, bustling, and crazy traffic with lots of trucks, buses, cars and motorcycles all honking at the same time. What to us seemed like complete chaos and gridlock to our driver was "not bad at all". He told us that on some days it takes 3 hrs to complete the 6 km drive. The thing that we can’t help but be shocked at is the style (if we can call it that) of driving by the Nepalese. The fact that there are no road rules makes things a bit interesting to say the least. The lack of these rules becomes quickly clear to us as we continuously watch our driver passing slower vehicles over the sidewalk … and people going around US as we are doing this. Add no traffic lights or signs and horrific road conditions and you have pure insanity! However, astonishingly, amidst all this insanity and continuous honking (by anyone that has a horn) everyone is pretty calm, some would even say Zen. As a side note, we were surprised at how many nice speed bikes there were on the roads (note: the vehicle population in Nepal is ten motorbikes to one car). They were pretty pimped out speed bikes compared to the crappy mopeds that were all over Morocco. We were told that it isn’t that difficult to get a bank loan to lease to own a bike, which costs about $1500 - $2000. Not bad for the quality bikes people had. Add high fuel prices to that equation and everyone and their dog has a motorbike.

Thamel, Kathmandu

We stayed just outside of Thamel which is Kathmandu’s largest backpacker and tourist area. For anyone that has been to Bangkok this is an entire neighborhood that looks like Koh San Road. It is littered with hotels, restaurants, shops, trekking agencies, rickshaw’s and tiger balm salesman. Here you can find the best of fake North Face apparel money can buy or any pirated DVD Hollywood movie that hasn’t even reached the theaters in North America. Then there are hundreds of stores selling Nepali clothes, yak wool or pashmina products. Its great, salespeople are constantly offering you “cheap price” as you’re walking by. But that’s not all that Kathmandu is about. As soon as you get out of Thamel and step inside old Kathmandu you can find countless gems scattered throughout the city. There are temples and shrines that are hidden around every other corner. Some dating back to the 5^th or 6^th century like the standing Buddha statue that stands 60 cm high along a nondescript wall under a ‘Raj dental sign’. Random and priceless.

Buddha Statue (from 5th or 6th century)

Religion is said to be the cornerstone of Nepali life and it becomes obvious to anyone walking around the country. The two dominant faiths in Nepal are the Hindu religion and Buddhist faith with very little tension between the two - Hindus and Buddhist often worship at the same temples. Throughout the valley there are countless temples and shrines just waiting to be discovered, particularly in Kathmandu and the UNESCO World Heritage listed towns of Patan and Bhaktapur. On the walk down the backstreets of the old town in Kathmandu you are constantly stumbling upon centuries old temples, shrines and statutes. It is quite amazing. In the Kathmandu Valley the following seven monuments within a 20 km radius are considered the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site: the historical palaces in Durbar Square in each of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, the Buddhist stupas at Swayambhunath and Bauddhanath and two Hindu Temples of Pashupatinath and Changu Narayan. We saw 6 of these 7 sites. We will tell you a little bit about the Durbar Squares of the three medieval cities. Durbar means ‘palace’ and so the square is from where the kings ruled. Each square is filled with spectacular traditional architecture and an assortment of temples. Nepal’s only living goddess, Kumari Devi, is a young girl (who we were lucky to see) who lives in a building known as the Kumari Bahal beside Kathmandu’s Durbar Square. Note: children beware of the erotic art on some of the temples. We could write pages and pages on all of the magnificent sights but we will let you look at the pictures and you’ll hopefully decided to go and see them all for yourself.

Patan's Durbar Square

Before we sign off, we want to tell you a little about Nepal and life for the Nepalese. A large portion of the country is mountains and valleys with the country’s elevation ranging from 60 m above sea level to Mt. Everest (the highest point on Earth) at 8,848 m tall, all within 150 sq km’s. It is really a superbly beautiful landscape. Nepal has 101 ethnic groups (which makes for some really beautiful people … inside and out) and 92 spoken languages. Nepali is the national language of Nepal. We were told that its possible to have two villages right next to each other speaking different languages.

Day to day life in Nepal can be very trying for the Nepalese and an adventure for the visitor. In addition to the traffic issue we discussed above one also needs to get used to rolling power cuts throughout the day, which can range from eight to sixteen hours per day (tip: when booking a hotel ensure that your hotel has a generator or battery and that you get a room far away from the generator!). As well, the shortage of water (esp. hot) can be nuisance. Considering these and other hardships that the Nepali people live through on a daily basis it’s absolutely inspiring that their spirits are always high. The Nepalese people are really good people; so calm, warm and hospitable.
　
As always, here are a few pictures from our week in the Kathmandu Valley. For many more pictures please click on this link (password: pollution): http://s912.photobucket.com/albums/ac322/sandymilos/Nepal_Kathmandu%20Valley/