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.