KATHMANDU

2nd - 7th March 2015

So we made it to Kathmandu via Delhi. Other than me loosing my boarding pass shortly after checking in at Heathrow, locking myself out of my combination pad lock and my bag jamming the X-ray machine in India the journey went swimmingly. After touching down in Nepal we got a cab through the city to Hotel Silver Home, tucked away in a back street in Thamel.

Thamel is a maze of quirky narrow streets chock a block with motorbikes, tuk tuks, rickshaws, cars, lorrys, cows, donkeys, wise painted men, chickens, push bikes heavily loaded with peculiar large items and many other things that are trying to run you over. Imagine if the lanes in Brighton was the setting for Dickdastardly and Mutllys Wacky Races. Crossing the road was like trying to play frogger after a large dose of speed and acid. I couldn't even tell you what side of the road they drive on, I don't think even they know. That all aside, Thamel is an amazing place, we are loving it. It took a day or two to get used to it, but now crossing the road has become my new extreme sport. The adrenaline rush of reaching the other side is something special. 

We spent five days in Kathmandu, which is more than enough time to get a good dose of the place. 

The Buddhist and Hindu influences are everywhere. Statues, stupas, prayer beads, holy men, temples, and small shrines are at every turn, you are never far away from salvation. Cows are sacred here and if there is a traffic jam, it's usually a cow taking a stroll down the road. 

The amount of shops crammed into the narrow streets are crazy and the things you can buy are even crazier. We did pass a legendary book shop called Pilgrim books. It's great and we killed a good hour in there wondering the maze of shelves. I bought a book called The Ascent Of Rum Doodle. It's a story about an eccentric British expedition to climb the fictional world largest peak called Rum Doodle at 40000 and a half feet. So far it's pretty good here is a little snipit. After an impromptu game of cricket broke out at base camp, one of the characters swore at the umpire. This was apparently a definite sign of altitude sickness as it would never happen at sea level. There also is a bar in Kathmandu called Rum Doodle, apparently the book sold terribly, but is a cult classic in the climbing world. 

We spent some time trying to learn a bit about the history of the place as well as soak up some knowledge about Hinduism and Buddhism. We visited Durba square which is one of the main squares in the city. It's crammed full of temples each one more elaborate and beautiful than the last. One of the temples in the centre is supposed to have been built by one single holy tree. We visited the living goddess Kumari. The goddes is a young girl who is supposed to have special powers until she has her first period, then the search for the new Kumari begins. Parents put their children forward to go through a range of tests in the temple. Priests try and scare the young girls by slaughtering animals, masked dances, creating horrible noises, and various other tests. If the young girl does not cry or get scared she becomes the new Kumari and moves to the temple in Durba Square. She looked a bit bored when we saw her. There are a lot of nice rooftop cafes you can sit in overlooking the square. It really is a magical place.

We also ventured a bit further to some other Buddhist temples around the city. The Monkey Temple to the east of Thamel is worth a trip. It's up a shit load of stairs but the view from the top is breathtaking. Red blue yellow and green prayer flags stretch from the top in all directions. Each one is supposed to represent a different element and are printed with sacred verses. It wouldn't be called the Monkey Temple if there weren't loads of monkeys pottering about. They were climbing everything and anything even the web of power cables. This might explain why there are so many power cuts in the city. 

We met some folk in the hotel planning on trekking the Annapurna circuit. So over our few days in the city we all got to know each other and we asked if we could tag along. There was a Brit called Joe, a couple of Danish chaps called Du (Yo) and Rasmus, a German called Steve, and us. Apparently more were supposed to have been coming to join them, but a plane crash landed at the airport the day after we arrived closing the airport for about a week. They were all a good bunch and like us were planning to do the whole trip without a guide or porter. 

Some good places if you're ever passing through. 

Pilgrim Book Shop - Great shop.

OR2K - Amazing falafel and vegetarian food, there also is a street food stall below.

Everest Momo - Best Momos in the city, the place was crammed full of locals.

Hotel Silver Home - Nice enough place, good breakfast, Ranjan who works there is such a nice guy.

Rum Doodle - Great bar full of climbers and good mojitos.

Durba Square - Lots of temples and traditional architecture.

Shonas Alpine - Good trekking and climbing shop run by a really helpful and experianced British climber.

Monkey Temple - Monkeys and temples.