Nepal - Day 01 - Kathmandu

 After nearly 48 hours of travel and a chaotic, midnight-ish arrival in Kathmandu, we were ready to see some sights, but first a little sleep was in order.  It’s a 12 hour and 45 minute time difference from home, and after our long travel we were tired enough to sleep until morning in Kathmandu. Getting used to the local time here and keeping active during daylight hours was part of our plan to overcome jet lag.

After breakfast and a shower at our lovely hotel, Hotel Thamel House, we walked out into the hectic streets of Thamel, the primary tourist district of Kathmandu. Our first task was to get Nepali rupees. Not all the ATMs we tried were working, but finally we had what we needed. 

We walked to Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site in Kathmandu, doing our best to stay out of the way of the cars, motorcycles, and rickshaws which filled the street. Saturday was a holiday here but local people were still going to work and opening up their shops, some with goods laid out on the sidewalk. We caught glimpses of butchers with piles of raw meat, barbers trimming customers, lots of small snack and grocery stalls, restaurants, piles of flowers and fresh fruits laid out for sale, children on bikes, people walking everywhere, construction on new or remodeled buildings, and souvenir shops close to the tourist locales. There was music, car horns, shouted conversations. Every block or two we saw temples and shrines to Buddhist and Hindu deities. We caught whiffs of incense, smells of cooking, and sometime the odor of sewage wafting by.

At Durbar Square we paid our entrance fees and agreed to hire a licensed guide, Prakash, to show us the highlights, making sure to agree on a price in advance. Prakash led us around, telling us about different temples and deities. We were able to see the Kumari (living goddess) at the window of the building where she resides. The current Kumari is only 3 years old, and we were told how Kumaris are selected to be living goddesses to the Hindus although she herself is from a Buddhist family. She was dressed ornately and made up in lipstick and heavy eyeliner when she peeked out her window at us (which she does once a day), but she still looked like a curious toddler. 

As our tour continued we were soon losing track of all the gods and goddesses, their modes of transportation, and their many incarnations, but it was fascinating. The sculptures and architecture were beautiful. At the end of the tour, Prakash told us that the agreed upon price was for each of us, and we felt a little duped, but we paid and parted on good terms. 

We ended up walking all the way to the monkey temple, Suayambunath, also a UNESCO world heritage site, getting cokes along the way and crossing the river on a pedestrian bridge. The River where we crossed is dirty and low flowing and smells unpleasant, but the smell doesn’t carry far.  We had lunch in a charming little restaurant before we climbed the long staircase up the hill, past buddhas and stupas and Hindu gods, and under flapping prayer flags and tall green trees. There were monkeys everywhere, rhesus macaques, scampering around and over the temple complex. We made sure not to be holding any food. Sarah does not trust these monkeys at all. There were also a lot of dogs sleeping or meandering and barking. It seemed like a lot of families were there for the day, many in dressy clothing. Small events seemed to be taking place in a couple of locations with music playing. After walking all around the complex, we took a path back down to the busy road and caught a taxi to Thamel. We had walked around 6.5 miles not to mention all the stairs.

After relaxing a while at our hotel, we had dinner in the attached restaurant. We sampled different Newari dishes and watched a folk dance performance. Everything was lovely, but by 9pm the jet lag was catching up to us, and we turned in for the night.