Kathmandu, Nepal

These are my early general observations of the section of Nepal that I have been exploring called Thamel.

Everything in Kathmandu is very cheap price-wise relatively speaking. This is a destination for tourists that will result in your monies going a long way. The stereotype of young backpackers with dreadlocks and tie-dyed tee shirts is completely true. There are many wandering the streets. Plus, some older hippy like people. There are quite a number of tourists as the Thamel area caters to tourists. No surprise there. It is chaotic, but full of energy. The people seem very genuine and happy. Their living conditions would not be up to North American or European standards though. You need a good map to navigate, but I doubt these maps exist.

The locals wear some beautifully coloured clothing. The shop owners have colourful signs so it is a city that represents its culture.

As you can see below the occasional intersection might have a large Nepalese stupa. There isn't much greenery though so this picture is unusual.

OK, I have to catalogue some of the bad with this area. There are places where garbage is just left to accumulate in the street. Not good news, but I think is evident of a country trying to come to grips with modernization. There are many requests by taxis and others for payment. There are beggars, but not too many. For certain, there is a police presence and they are beautifully attired in some nice blue outfits. Both male and female officers.

The picture below is a common sight in Kathmandu. There will be a central point where thousands of wires are connected to. Apparently, in Kathmandu the power goes out at random times. When I see this all around Thamel - no wonder.

Thamel is a cacophony of noise! You won't get more than 10 seconds of relative quiet. Cars, small trucks, small buses, small motorcycles are all blowing their horns. Even the bicycles are using their ringers. Quite simply, the streets are so narrow and there are no sidewalks so you need to keep everyone aware of your presence. As mentioned previously, they inherited driving on the opposite side to North Americans. There are no street signs or addresses.

In some cases, you can negotiate or bargain down in price. Many tourists and locals are wearing masks over their mouths due to the pollution. As indicated before you are constantly approached wondering if you need a ride. As well, there are wandering people who want to see you "tiger balm." Many of the locals spit. I first found this irritating habit in China. Both women and men do it. 

In terms of businesses in Thamel neighbourhood, this is only a small summary: Music shops, bookstores, restaurants, spas, money exchangers, clothing, jewelry, tourist knick knacks, trekking clothes and equipment, travel businesses, carpets, cloths, hotels, many guest houses, knives and swords, pashmina sweaters, woollens, cashmere, handicrafts, knitwear, incense, teahouses etc.

Wolfgang's observation was this is much like neighbourhoods in Bangkok, Thailand some parts of South America in terms of noise and chaos. Same level of energy as well. Some of the streets are not maintained. There are no public toilets to be found. 

All in all though it really is an adventure being here in Kathmandu. Plus, we have more to explore and will be doing that Wednesday, March 18th with Wolfgang.

Tuesday, March 17th in Kathmandu

My first full day in Kathmandu! Not a very long sleep of about two hours, but that is better than no sleep. I am up by 5:30 am. I had both my customized earplugs in as the dogs were barking loudly and non-stop. The funny thing is that by dawn, the crows were cawing even more loudly so they were competing against each other to see who could be the loudest. Also, I discovered later in the morning one of my windows was open! With jet lag, the body isn't sure where it is, but it isn't in Kathmandu! I think the low was around 9 degrees Celsius. According to our guide, Kathmandu never gets to zero degrees and is very warm most of the year. Who woulda thunk? The high today is estimated at 25 degrees with sunny skies. Yeh! Palm trees outside the hotel and some beautiful tropical style plants so this place must be warm. The smell of incense was wafting through the room in the early morning.

Can't drink the water here or anywhere in Nepal unless you make sure it is clean. The internet is deadly slow for both my iPhone and MacBook. Took one of my No Jet Lag homeopathic pills which really help deal with jet lag. Dorjee was meeting me at 0930 to help with errands. When I tried to have a shower the warm water wouldn't get warm. I discovered that after about 10 consecutive minutes of letting the water run it finally became warm.

Dorjee our Sherpa guide.

Dorjee showed up and we went walking through the narrow and hectic 'streets' of Kathmandu's Thamel district. It is really excellent having someone who speaks the language. He showed up with a Nepal SIM card although it needed to be cut to size. A Ncell SIM card here costs around a $1.25CDN. It comes loaded with some data (20MB and 40 minutes call and 60SMS) so that is a fantastic deal. Before we leave Thursday I need to add data and talk/SMS time to the card. I have an unlocked phone so this is easy to do. There is free wifi in the hotel and some other places in Kathmandu.

Next stop is at one of the hundreds of money changers. I get an exchange of about 79 Rupees to $1CDN dollar which means I have over 16,000 Nepal Rupees. In addition, I need an Asian adaptor for my MacBook power cord. This costs 100 Rupees so around $1.25CDN = very cheap. Also, this gives me a chance to walk with someone who knows the area. This large area is not in a grid system and the roads are extremely narrow and filled with people, cars, motorcycles, bikes, trucks etc. In Nepal they drive like the British - the other side of the road. Check out a typical street in Thamel area. There are NO sidewalks so very often motorcycles and cars miss you within inches as both you and traffic navigate these narrow streets.

I have a chance to sit with Dorjee and go over the plans and discover that our flight from Kathmandu to Lukla leaves at 6:15 am Thursday morning and he will pick us up at the airport at 5 am. Oh well, I probably won't be sleeping anyway. I find that Dorjee is a super nice guy who speaks good english and has travelled to Europe. He has been guiding for decades. He has summited one minor peak in the Himalayas and has no desire to scale Mount Everest. He was born at high altitude and is a true Sherpa.

I decide to get an early lunch and stop at Weizen Restaurant. It was recommended for its German bakery. I order a Yak Cheese sandwich and a banana lassi which cost a total of 300 Rupee or our Canadian equivalent of $3.75. The bread was delicious and the cheese tasty as well. At the bakery, I order an apple strudel which I ate at various times of the afternoon. It cost basically one Canadian dollar. Yup, food and other services are very inexpensive in Kathmandu. 

I had done some research on Indian Head Massages in Kathmandu. I like to do these upon arrival at a new destination as they help with jet lag and the accompanying insomnia. What an adventure trying the find the place. I had a copy of the Google Map, but in this area it offers no assistance. Remember none of the streets have names listed and nothing runs in a grid pattern. Eventually, I stopped at a corner and a tuk tuk driver pulled over and helped with other people to find the place and offer a ride. Commonly, with the lack of addresses, places of business describe themselves as next to a larger business. In this case a nice hotel. He wouldn't commit to a price though. Weird being driven in what is basically a bicycle. When we got to the hotel he wanted $10US for the shortish ride. No way I am paying that much. We negotiated in his poor command of numbers and english and I ended up paying him 500 Rupees = $6CDN. He will live on that for the next few days. He was OK with me taking his picture though. See below:

I did find the Kathmandu Spa that showed up on Trip Advisor as the best in Thamel. You are greeted inside a hallway and then directed upstairs. http://www.kathmanduspanepal.com I was quoted 800 Rupee for 30 minutes and my treatment was from 12:40 to 1:10 pm. It was excellent although left me with pretty oily hair as that is part of the massage technique. The girl was very strong and it felt so good. Relaxing spa music playing, complimentary green tea, free wifi, very professional place. I recommend highly. After the excellent head massage I drank green tea and used their free wifi to load some pics. Then back out into the chaos.

I wandered the streets of Thamel and eventually found a place selling shot glasses. One of my nieces collects shot glasses. I am pretty certain she doesn't have any glasses from Nepal. There wasn't a lot of choice, but I did find a nice looking scene of Annapurna's peak called Fish. I am hoping that is the extent of my shopping though. It is a nice hot day in Kathmandu so wearing shorts and a polo shirt. Eventually, I decide to head back to the hotel and check my emails and load pics for the blog and get ready for Wolfgang's arrival with Dorjee. 

Earlier that morning, Dorjee confirmed the airline had my missing trekking bag at the airport so he would pick it up when he picked up Wolfgang. Hooray!!!! What fantastic news. Later in the afternoon, my bag was returned along with Wolfgang. We sat outside in the beautiful back garden adjacent to the hotel (an oasis of calm amid the chaos of the streets) and talked more about the trek. Sun was setting although still pretty warm. 

Our refuge from the chaos!

The Nepalese beer is Everest and it is a tasty lager that comes in 650ml bottles.

After Dorjee leaves, we decide to get headed out for dinner and a walk around the neighbourhood. This is Wolfgang's first day in Kathmandu. He is a very seasoned traveller and has lived in various parts of the world. He now lives with his wife and baby daughter in Heidelberg, Deutschland. We meet up around 6 pm in the lobby and off we go.

We do a lot of exploring and walking. It becomes dark which makes navigating more difficult. We end up near Durbar Square area south of our hotel and get lost trying to find our way back to the Yak Restaurant. Wolfgang has his english copy of the Lonely Planet and we do find ourselves close tot the restaurant. We get a booth and catch up on news from each other. The menu is in english and there are many tourists in this recommended restaurant that serves authentic Nepalese food. I order some Buff (buffalo meat) Momos (dumplings) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_(dumpling) = delicious. For fun Wolfgang orders a very unique hot beer called Tonga beer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongba. It is hot and millet-based and very much an acquired taste. After this beer, Wolfgang ordered an Everest beer. The food was good and we had a great chat. Asian toilet which means there is no toilet seat and you squat over the toilet in the floor. No toilet paper either. We are both fatigued from the day and the jet lag. We make it back to our rooms a little after 9 pm.

Wolfgang with his Tonga beer. It was warm and steaming. Comes in a wooden container that sits in what looks like a doggie bowl.

I decide that 9 pm is too early to try to sleep. I catch up on emails and load some more pictures. I take a dramamine and lights out around 10:15 pm. A very interesting day in Nepal. My next blog will be about my general observations of this large city.

Day 1 Travel to Nepal

One of the adventures I have wanted to pursue was to physically get to Mount Everest base camp in Nepal. In 2013, this came up in a discussion with a German friend Markus and he was keen as well. In the summer of 2014, our mutual friend Wolfgang was joining us at the Wiesbaden wine festival and confirmed his strong interest. In the Fall 2014, I decided to get organizing and do the necessary research.

The conclusion was a trip to Nepal to trek to Mount Everest was very possible and I organized it for March 2015 based on the availability of Wolfgang given he had business in India around the same time. Our friend Jim from New York confirmed his interest in trekking to Mount Everest base camp so plans were made. My friend Christine had been to Nepal on three separate occasions and trekking each time so she was invaluable and loaned me quite a lot of her stuff for the trekking. As well, she set me up with her guide in Nepal named Dorjee.

Nepal is situated between India to the south and Tibet to the north. Nepal is 12 hours and 45 minutes ahead of Vancouver's time zone.

Bhutan is just to the east. Lana and I were in Bhutan about five years ago for more than a week.

The plan is a three week trip for me. I leave Sunday, March 15th and return to Vancouver Saturday, April 4th. The actual trekking is from March 19th to returning to Kathmandu on April 1st. Jim and I will trek together the entire duration. Wolfgang will trek for the first three days and then return to Kathmandu via Lukla. Our friend Markus couldn't make it so we'll need to take good pictures.

Lana drove me to the airport so I was at least two hours before my scheduled departure on China Southern Airlines at 12:30 pm Sunday, March 15th. Pretty nervous for the very long trip and one connection, but excited about the potential amazing adventure in Nepal and getting to Mount Everest. I had my suitcase, a very large trekking backpack loaned by Christine and Christine's smaller day backpack. We have a porter to carry the heavy stuff and Dorjee is our Sherpa guide for the actual 14 days of trekking.

You cross the International Date Line while flying westward over the Pacific Ocean so you lose a day.

The actual flight time from YVR (Vancouver) to Guangzhou, China was about 13 hours in the air. We lifted off the tarmac around 12:50 pm so not too late. I have two hours in Guangzhou airport to connect with the flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. I have a window seat and the young girl (21 years old) sitting beside me was pretty talkative. Her name is Cassandra and she grew up in the same east Vancouver neighbourhood that I did. Her final destination will be Bangkok, Thailand. Her first flight across the Pacific Ocean or any flight beyond five hours. Uneventful flight with zero air turbulence. Watched a couple of movies, did my NY Times crosswords and KenKen and the Sunday Province crosswords and sudoku. 

Arriving in Guangzhou (southern China) it was very smoggy. Tropical climate so the warmth was appreciated and humidity. You deplane and a shuttle bus takes you to International Arrivals. Cassandra and I navigated through international terminal security and fortunately we had lots of time to spare before our connecting flights. We had pizza and a glass of wine. The pizza was OK and the wine not too bad. I am off to Gate A108 and China Southern Airlines to Kathmandu. I did stop at Duty Free and purchased a nice bottle of Black Label whiskey for Dorjee as part of his tip. In addition, I need to give Dorjee the remainder of the US cash for the trekking.

The loading of the plane was pretty chaotic. There was one particular extended family and others who wanted to sit together. They wouldn't get out of the aisle so everyone was delayed getting to their seats. The flight attendant was very patient. I traded seats to enable a family to sit in the same row. Bad move as the woman behind me loved to get up and of course grab the back of my seat and pull on it. The flight was very weird as nobody had personal screens and most of the flight the lights were off. A number of people sleeping, snoring and passing gas. I did finish reading my Sunday NY Times so all is good. Did some sudokus and then tried to sleep, but only got to what I call "never never" land meaning I am not sleeping, but not super conscious either.

Our arrival into Kathmandu was slightly earlier than expected. Warmish at night and it is pitch black. You need to complete a Nepalese arrival form and have your Visa ready. Fortunately, I got my Nepal travel visa in Vancouver so I made it through customs very quickly. Small airport and pretty informal. I was one of the first to be at carousel two, yet the last to leave as my huge trekking backpack (Christine's actually) was missing. My suitcase arrived though. Phew. I filled out the necessary paperwork with another traveller who was missing her other suitcase. Oh well, hoping my trekking pack will arrive before Wednesday night.

When exiting the airport it was filled with many Nepalese waiting for who? Not sure as there were no flights after our flight. Many taxis and other shuttles hustling for business. I saw Dorjee's welcoming sign across the small street and finally met our guide. We were in a smaller car with a guy driving while Dorjee and I sat in the back and chatted. Not much traffic and the airport isn't too far from where I am staying in the middle of Kathmandu and in particular in the Thamel neighbourhood.

My hotel is the Nirvana Garden. Recommended by Christine and her husband Don. The desk clerk spoke good English and I got set up with Room 208. Needed to fill in a form with a lot of information relative to the passport. No elevator. A clerk carried my bags and then showed me around. Trouble is I don't have any Nepal Rupees to pay him. I promise to pay him tomorrow. As well, I need bottled water so that is another 55 Rupee owing tomorrow. Free wifi and ID provided. The carpeting is dated and it really is just a functional room.

Smallish room with two single beds. A writing desk. Television and armoire. Decent sized bathroom with a shower spray. Two chairs against the side wall. A deck with a table and two chairs to catch the morning sun. Not bad for $30USD per night!  :-)

OK, you may not believe this but Kathmandu has a lot of palm trees. These palm trees are part of the hotel's property and just outside my room. 

I get my MacBook Pro out of my suitcase and try to get it on the wifi as well as my iPhone. Many dogs barking outside so it looks like I will be going to bed with my customized earplugs. I take a Dramamine (gravol) to help me sleep. I send emails to family to ensure they know I am safely in Nepal. I get to bed around 12:15 am local time. Hoping my backpack shows up Tuesday.