Once we arrived back in the familiar carnage and nostril singeing stench of New Delhi's streets, we didn't mess around and hopped on the metro straight to the airport. We regretted the decision not to eat before going to the airport as the prices were astronomical, however we saved a bit of money by sleeping there.It was a chilly night what with the air con blasting in the waiting room but around six in the morning we were able to check in our bags.
May 30th 2017
The flight itself took less than two hours, a comfortable and relatively empty flight into Nepal's capital of Kathmandu. We were worried about getting our visas at the airport, we'd heard some nightmare stories about immigration only taking American dollars, and refusing people because they didn't have passport photos, but when we arrived in the dated arrivals and baggage reclaim (it reminded me of an 70's
American police station), it was a time consuming but easy process to get our stamps to enter the country! To make life easier we took a cab to the place we booked up. We decided to spend four nights to get used to things and do a bit of sight seeing before we went to a host. Pretty much as soon as we left the airport you could feel a change in atmosphere, although the roads were busy there was hardly any honking or road rage and everyone just seemed to have time for each other (on a few occasions cars actually stopped to let us cross the road!). Our hotel was situated pretty far out from everything so one of our priorities was to find a place closer to the action!
Thamel
Central Kathmandu, Thamel is the heart of tourism in the capital (also nicknamed the tourist ghetto)! Narrow and dusty (since the earthquake a few years ago the capital is riddled with dust and around every corner is construction) streets, which are difficult to walk on due to maintenance work on the roads, the area is a maze filled with bars, cafès, restaurants, night clubs, Irish pubs, nik nak ornament stalls, cheap rooms, people selling fruit off the back of bicycles, rickshaws and taxis, lots of trekking equipment shops, tourist offices and pretty much anything else you can think of. We found a cheap guesthouse down an alleyway which was perfect for us. The area was always busy and with the symbolised writing on banners and colourful flags everywhere it had the feel of China. One night we treated ourselves to a few drinks (in comparison to everything else alcohol is very expensive) in a bar with a Nepalese rock band covering a lot of classics from Bon Jovi to ACDC, the singer didn't have the best of voices however the guitarist was impressive! It was good to get out and have a few beers, in India doing that was a rarity! We also brought some country badges to sow on to our bags, but first we must learn how to sow!
Swayambhunath & Boudhanath
These are ancient landmarks, stupas and temples! They are incredibly peaceful places to visit, the two are quite similar, circular in shape with a towering golden tower with eyes that followed you all around the area! There were many pilgrims crawling in their hands and knees around the stupa, and some were just laying in front it face down! Our favourite was Swayambhunath, or monkey temple (a bit less of a mouthful to
say), it was like a small scale holy Townsend steps to the top were a challenge in the heat! At the very top the view from the roof of an antique shop was stunning, you could see all of the Kathmandu valley and all the the multicoloured houses and hovels! To bring good fortune and prosperity they say you should walk clockwise (at first we didn't realise and some man started clapping and barking at us and waving his arms screaming 'OTHER WAY', after politely telling him to go away, we continued mother way we was going and found out later the meaning behind going clockwise!) around the stupa and spin the cylinder shaped blocks, we did this a couple of times so hopefully our fortune is only around the corner!!
There was a few things we decided not to do, due to the expense and the time it takes to reach them, Kathmandu (also one of the most polluted in the world!) is a huge city!
Host
After a few days exploring we went to the host we'd arranged to stay with in the capital. After an awkward encounter with a taxi driver we we're met by a girl who worked in the house, walking along the road every house seemed to have about five stories, and opposite was a military hospital (there were people wearing camouflage fatigues everywhere, also in Kathmandu there's a big police presence), we walked in. We met Pushpa (on this host's listing it says they charge a fee to help support with the orphanage and their dog sanctuary but after walking
into the large house, and seeing that they had two girls that clean and cook for them we feel they didn't need the money!) and she explained what needed doing, we also went to see Janak (the husband) in the pet shop that they run. We didn't see a lot of him as he trains dogs every morning and runs the pet shop which closes late. Their orphanage project had finished. so it was just a case of walking their eight dogs three times a day! There were other helpers here (one could make music with spoons) so this task was pretty easy, however some of the dogs would fight each other and would try to attack stray dogs. The breed of the dogs was extremely varied from a pug and a German Sheppard to Labradors, most of the dogs were easy to walk, but three of them were mental;
The huge German Sheppard named Rambo was good as gold until he saw other dogs play fighting or barking, then the beast would charge towards them, because of his size he was so strong, holding him back was like breaking up a brawl in a pub (on the other side of coin, he loved to play with plastic bottles)!
They had a young Labrador that was hyperactive and would constantly pull, resulting in you just being yanked around. The last troublesome mutt was named Lucky, the crazy canine would just try and attack every dog it saw apart from Rambo!It only took about an hour or so to walk all the dogs between us, we weren't allowed to take them too far as neighbours in the past have complained about the poo everywhere! The food was always plentiful however it was the same thing everyday, eggs for breakfast then Dal Bhat which is rice, mildly spiced vegetables and like a watery soup made from lentils or corn (in Nepal Dal bhat is pretty much the only thing that's eaten, it's good but can be bland and boring when you're eating it for every meal).We didn't see much of the hosts, only Janak in passing and Pushpa for some of the meals, but they were good people and very accommodating, the two girls Menesa and Jenniser looked after us, both were around eighteen/nineteen they didn't speak much English but the pair were nice but a wee bit different, everything we said they found highly hilarious and called everyone either brother or sister pronounced 'brudddaa and sizztaaarr'. We spent six days at this host, we enjoyed our relaxed stay (we thought there would be a lot to do at this host, it's nice to chill out but we really wanted to get stuck into some work!) but we were looking forward to moving on, we paid (begrudgingly) and embarked on the seven hour journey to the lake city of Pokhara, the adventure capital of Nepal!
