Kathmandu

Day 37 – Pokhara to Kathmandu – 30 Sep 2018

As we have always associated the terms Nepal, Kathmandu and all with Mount Everest and the Himalayas, there was a picture of Kathmandu that was gradually painted into our minds over years – a picture of lush greenery, cold climate, and snow cladded mountains! To our shock, around 20kms before Kathmandu, the roads became so worse and dusty that there was no visibility at times. The roads were too crowded, and we got stuck in atleast three terrific traffic blocks. And one more thing, after entering Nepal, I have seen the people driving sensibly at most of the places. However, as we approached Kathmandu, the busy city life made people lose minds as usual and they were driving recklessly. We could see the cabs plying fast through the mountain highways. 

After a little struggle, we reached Kathmandu around 5.15pm. After checking into the hotel we went out to explore the close-by  Thamel street – one of the most popular tourist attractions of Kathmandu! Thamel could be one of the busiest streets on earth and vehicles are still allowed on these streets which makes walking here pretty difficult. The street was colourful and chaotic at the same time! Tangled electric cables running all along the streets, prayer flags fluttering in the evening breeze, and busy rickshaws squeezing through the narrow roads made the street walk so amazing for us! We had a pleasant walk, and did some shopping after some really hard bargaining. We shopped a lot of Nepali souvenirs including fridge magnets and key chains citing the mountain ranges, and Mt Everest T-shirts for friends and family back home. We found it difficult to get back to hotel as we were tired walking and couldn’t get any reasonable transport options. The rickshaws were either not ready to come or were over-priced. We had a candle light dinner with our daughter, in the open restaurant of our stay, spent some time talking to the hotel manager who was a very friendly guy with a Nepali Topi, and later headed back to room for a comfortable sleep!

Day 38 – Kathmandu – 1 Oct 2018

Kathmandu would be one of the most crowded cities we have been so far. And we were too lazy to go out just thinking of the crowd we had to face the previous day at Thamel Street. We had a very decent breakfast at our stay early in the morning, and quickly headed to visit Durbar Square walking through the streets of Thamel. Kathmandu seemed to carry more vehicles than it can afford, dust and smoke filled the atmosphere most of the times on the busy roads. As we reached the Patan Royal Square, we could see a city which is still trying to recover from the earthquake of 2015. The earthquake had caused serious damage to the square and maintenance work is still going on to keep the building upright.

Even if the street is really crowded, we had a very good walk there, with ancient temples around and some amazing street food on the way. The streets were really vibrant, with a thick blend of Buddhist and Hindu culture. We could experience both Buddhist prayer flags fluttering in the winds, and the Hindu sadhus chanting hymns at the same time, in this enchanting city. The place offered us the perfect settings for the best street photography as well! We roamed around the city, visited a lot of jewellery and souvenir shops, and often stopped by to gulp some delicious street foods and sweet delicacies including gulab jamun, jalebis and paavs!

We returned to our hotel by noon, took some rest and in the evening we went to the nearby Garden of Dreams. This is not a large garden but a really peaceful place amidst the busy and crowded Kathmandu city. The Garden was tucked within very high walls, and it was really hard to guess such a calm place resides on the other side of the huge wall that separated it from the busy and dusted roads! The garden also had a museum and nice cafe, at the price of a small entry fee for the whole day! We spent our time lying down in the garden until dark. We were back to hotel once it got dark, had a very good dinner, and was soon asleep!

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