17 Jan 2003 Kathmandu, Nepal

Another sunny and warm day.  We walked to Patan, a few kilometers south of Kathmandu.  Durbar Square here is fascinating, lots of large Hindu Temples.  The carvings are very intricate.  We had a snack on a terrace restaurant.  The view was great and it was relaxing to sit in the sun and watch all the activity in the square.

Then we walked down to a famous Buddhist Temple (Golden Temple).  We had to remove any leather shoes and use sandals they provided.  The carvings and statues, all covered in gold were gorgeous.  We were able to wander around and go upstairs to the monastery where several people were praying or having a discussion.  One of the men from the front showed us around and wanted to have his picture taken with us.  He showed us lots of pictures of himself with other visitors.  He gave us his address and we will send pictures when we get them developed.

Nepal is five hours and 45 minutes ahead of GMT.  Apparently this is to set Nepal apart from India.

It is amazing watching the Nepalis carry large loads with their head.  They use a wide strap which goes across their forehead then to their back where it is wrapped around the load.  At the monkey temple we saw women carrying large baskets of bricks like this and have also seen them carrying water containers in baskets like this.  The best are the men with huge loads that tower over them and stick far out to either side.  They cross the busy roads and go up and down the sidewalks with their huge loads.

We have most of the lines down now.  Around the main squares (Durbar Square in either Kathmandu or Patan) they walk up (not hard to pick out the tourists wandering around, looking up, guide book in hand, camera around neck) and ask "where you are from?"
     "England"  (This saves a long story and most people believe I am English.  One shop owner picked Emma out as an Aussie)
     "London is the capital" he replies
     "yes, very good"
     "When did you arrive?" they ask.
     "Tuesday"
     "When are you here until?"
     "________" fill in next day, if you provide the real date and it is more than a couple days away they will try to sell you some kind of trip)
     "Is this your first time to Nepal?"
     "Yes"
     "Let me show you around and explain all the sites,"
Without fail, everyone who wants to be your guide will follow this same script.  You get it so many times just in one square that you run the whole emotional realm.  You try to be polite the first couple times then you get frustrated, then angry, then it becomes funny when the next one comes up and launches into the same routine.

As we walked past a large intersection in front of a large government compound containing the Supreme Court and other buildings.  It is one of the few intersections in Kathmandu with traffic lights and pedestrian crossing signals. (They all seem to be in front of government buildings on compounds.)  There is a large sign that says that this intersection was part of a program to improve traffic intersections around Kathmandu that was made possible by a grant from Japan.  It is funny that with all the problems Nepal has and could use aid for, I would guess that improving intersections in Kathmandu would be near the bottom.  It is ironic that two to three traffic officers still have to police the intersection because people rarely follow the signals.  Pedestrians run across if they even see the slightest gap and many of the cars keep going.  Even with the latest lights and signals they still need traffic police for the intersection.  More aid dollars (or yen) put to good work.

It is fascinating wandering the streets and seeing all the stores and street carts.  There are no large stores, just row after row of tiny stores.  There is the man with a small fry pan on his cart and a pile of eggs, ready to whip up an omelet for a snack.  The tiny butcher's shop, some just a small black hole with only one chicken chopped up on the counter.  There are lots of material shops, filled with wonderful fabrics covering the entire spectrum of the rainbow.  The tailor sits out front on the sidewalk (or edge of the street as is usually the case) sewing dresses or suits with his manual sewing machine.  There are lots of small restaurants where they use a large fry pot frying up Nepalese dishes while sitting on the floor near the door opening.  There are small (closet sized) tire repair shops, all that are in the shop  are a few bike tires and scooter tires and a couple tools.  The guy sits on the floor banging away with the compressor running in the background to pump up the tires.  Then there are the electronic repair shops.  Piled with ancient TVs, stereos, tape decks, appliances and other relics.  The guy sits at the counter, surrounded by several others working on a 30 year old TV.  In the street there might be a couple goats tied up and some cows wandering down the street.  

16 Jan 2003 Kathmandu, Nepal

Had another fun day.  We slept really late again as we are still a little jet-lagged and had a hard time sleeping.  We managed to find the Royal Nepal Airway office to reconfirm our flight out.  It is a good thing as our tickets had our old date on them and it caused a little confusion but was quickly fixed, we were confirmed and had the dates fixed.  While we were waiting for the office to open during lunch we wandered across to a huge park.  It was very dry and barren looking but at one end it was packed with people having lunch.  We wandered to the other end where there was a big soccer game going on.  The field was all dust but they did have a paying crowd.

Then we roamed around Durbar Square, Kathmandu.  There are dozens of Hindu temples, some almost 1000 years old.  The locals all hang out on the steps of many of the temples sleeping, chatting and playing.  The hassle is all the guides who want to give you a tour.  They hound you and follow you around.  One guy admitted that with visitors way down they need the money.

Then we wandered across the river to the Swayambhu Temple.  It is a huge Buddhist Temple on a hill with spectacular views of Kathmandu and the valley.  It is also called the monkey temple since monkeys roam freely through it.  It is a lot of fun to watch them playing around.  We walked up the very steep stairs to get to the temple.  It is very pretty and roofed with prayer flags blowing in the wind.  We had another wonderful dinner at Rum Doodle, which is filled with signatures from climbing expeditions.

The weather has been sunny although it does cool off quite a bit in the evening.  It is very hazy during the day making it hard to see the mountains.  It is interesting to see the effect Lonely Planet has had on travel.  One of the restaurants in Thamel has a huge banner noting it is recommended in the Lonely Planet.  One of the guys trying to get us to pay him to show us around noted that he knew all the info in the Lonely Planet.  It is such a common sight to see travellers roaming around with the Lonely Planet guide in one hand.

We continue to find great food of all kinds for dirt cheap.  I had a chicken burrito for lunch and pepper steak for dinner.  We then had some fresh squeezed orange and pineapple juice for dessert from a street stand.  The average lunch or dinner cost $3-4 in the tourist restaurants we are eating in.  This includes the meat plus potato or rice and vegetables in good size portions.

Nepal is a fascinating mix of Hinduism and Buddhism.  It is a Hindu country by a large majority but the two religions have merged and many temples are both, as they have borrowed gods from each other.

It is sad to see the effects of the loss of visitors.  Restaurants are empty.  Since there are so few visitors, the beggars, trek companies, tour guides, and pedicabs can all gang up on the few travellers here and they will hound you for much longer since they have fewer people to make money from.  They are a very friendly people but start to wear on you after being hounded all the time.

15 Jan 2003 Kathmandu, Nepal

I remember all the times I would pass through the airport in Honolulu or LA, you could look up in the departure lounge and see this huge board with flights leaving to everywhere on the globe.  Usually I would be heading somewhere I had been before or somewhere similar.  Some people may have thought where I was going might be exotic like the Philippines or Morocco, we all have our own destination.  I would just scan the board and dream about getting on a different flight to somewhere exotic I had never been with no timeline or itinerary. 

That was the excitement Monday night (Jan 13) at Heathrow.  While we already had a planned destination (Kathmandu), it was probably the most exotic place on the board and we had no schedule.  We were off for four months to wander and explore.  We could stay as long as we liked, change our plan to suit our mood or if we learned of somewhere we hadn't heard of.

We flew on Qatar Airways to Doha, Qatar, had a short layover, transferred planes and flew into Kathmandu. (Qatar Airways is a very good airlines. Good service and quality. The Doha airport is very small with only a few gates.  The Airbus 330 was the only large aircraft in the airport that early on a Tuesday morning.  You could see several US C17 and C130 aircraft at the far end of the airport.  Qatar has been a base for US forces building up in the Middle East.  Just a reminder of what was going on in the world.)  I was surprised to learn that Qatar Airways has a daily flight from Doha to Kathmandu.  The flight was close to full so they obviously have enough business.  The view as we came into Kathmandu was spectacular.  It looked as if we were flying level with the mountains as we were still cruising at 33,000 feet.  As we descended in, the scenery of the hills and houses perched on them and the terraced fields was spectacular.

The airport was very small and we were the only flight arriving.  Getting bags and through customs was uneventful.  There was a car from the hotel waiting just as arranged.

It was a reintroduction to Asia as we were hounded by kids wanting to carry our bags and once in the car they all wanted money.  The guy from the hotel said not to give any but when you are not used to it you feel bad.  I still had some English coins ( We didn't have and Nepal Rupees yet) that I passed out as the car left with the kids holding onto the windows reaching their hands in.

The 15-20 minute drive into town was another reintroduction.  Most of the roads are narrow and deeply rutted.  They drive on the left (hard to tell!) and very chaotic.  The music of Kathmandu is the horn.  Everyone honks all the time for all reasons.  We survived and arrived at Hotel Lily.  They were all very friendly.  We have a fifth floor room in Thamel.  We have two single beds, TV with satellite (CNN,BBC,Cartoon Network, and a few other English channels) and toilet with hot shower.  It is interesting that there is no separate shower, it just comes out of the wall and you shower standing next to the toilet (it is not a squat!).  There is also a lovely garden terrace on the roof with good views of the city.

We wandered through the Thamel area in the evening and had dinner at one of the many restaurants.  The Thamel area is where most tourist stay and there are dozens of places to eat.  It is almost shocking how cheap everything is.  We had a huge dinner (we both had Indian with lots of rice and naan and diet Coke all for about $10.  It was excellent!)  Again we had the shock of poor kids begging, mothers all pleading.  Also all the guys in the street trying to sell treks.

This morning we met the wife of the owner of the hotel.  He is in Japan on business.  We had tea and she confirmed what you can already tell.  Business and tourism in the country is way off.  She said they only had a few rooms with guests.  She then invited us to go with her to their family new year celebration in a town just outside the city.  It is new year for her caste and they have a big party every year.  She is from the Chantyaal caste.  We took a cab out.  They had set up in a field in the town.  There were at least a hundred people and they are all part of the same extended family.  They are from the far west "one day bus trip, two day walk".  They had some music and a lot of speeches by the elder men, all in Nepalese

There was also a big archery contest with the men.  They were shooting from at least 50 meters (much farther than I have shot). They all had homemade bows and arrows.  They are well made.  It didn't take a lot of pressure to get the arrow very far.  They asked if I wanted to try.  Emma was worried about me trying as the rest of the party was right on the edge of the shooting area, no buffer area.  They agreed it might not be a good idea for me to take my first shots from so far with so many innocents nearby.  I did get to shoot a few arrows from about 15 meters.  While I didn't hit the target, I didn't injure anyone.  The guys shooting were very good.  They had two teams and would go several hours.  There was money in it for the top shooters.

A few of her nieces were studying English in school and had a good time practicing with us.  One of the men had been with the Ghurkas and lived in England for 12 years.  After several hours we walked back to town, had another wonderful dinner, including steak, for even cheaper than the night before.  We then wandered the roads down to Durbar Square and back.

Retro Travelogue Blog-What is it?

28 July 2009

In October 2002, two months after we got married, Emma left her job as an attorney in San Fransisco and I quit my job as a Purchasing Manager in Silicon Valley and we went walkabout. On November 1, with the car overflowing, we left our apartment and headed south on the first leg of our journey. We had a few adventures as we drove down south and then across the US to Minneapolis. We then flew to England at the beginning of Dec. On January 13, 2003 we left from London to begin our big adventure. Our first stop was in Kathmandu, Nepal. We spent five months travelling through Asia before we returned to England to settle down in London, find jobs and get the house fixed up.

During our trip, blogs were still in the future. We kept handwritten journals of our adventures. Every few days we would find an Internet cafe and send out an email with a summary of what we were up to. When we left on the trip we didn't even have a digital camera. ( That is another task of mine, to get all our photos into digital form so we can share those too. You are always welcome to stop by and look at our albums.) Times have changed and Emma keeps reminding me that another goal of mine was to transfer the journals into digital format so we can save them and share them. The purpose of this blog is to relive our big adventure. I am really writing for us, but many friends and family enjoyed our emails and expressed interest in knowing more about what we did and saw. My aim is to just put down what we wrote in our journals, without changing anything.  I will try to correct spelling but write everything else as we recorded it, without fixing mistakes or misperceptions we may find through hindsight. This means you can relive the whole experience; the mundane and boring, as well as the humorous and adventurous.  Mostly we wrote by candlelight, a small bulb or our headlamps. We sat on small beds, tiny plastic chairs or on the ground. My journal is unreadable except sometimes by me. Our trip was six years ago so take any travel details or prices with that in mind.

Excluding our flights there and back, our target budget was $50 a day including lodging, food, entertainment and all activities. We were budget backpackers and after five months we pretty much stayed on budget.  Emma started her journal on Nov 1, 2002 when we left Millbrae, California. I did not begin mine until we left the UK for Asia on Jan 13, 2003. Emma's journal ran out in March and I kept writing until we got back to England. For now I will start when we left England.  I hope you enjoy our experiment with our retro-travelogue blog. This blog is dedicated my wonderful wife and the extraordinary five months we spent together on the road at the beginning of 2003. Relive our big adventure with us and remember, it is never too late to get up and go!