We were a little apprehensive about Kathmandu as people we'd met said that it was chaos and as busy as Delhi... For a country the size of Nepal we were a little dubious about this but either way we'd not been in big city way of living for a while so we braced ourselves for the onslaught.
So after getting off the bus and navigating our way to the hotel we were a little surprised by the lack of 'Delhi' so far. Although we were dropped in the Thamel area which is a very concentrated tourist area in the city where many people meet to start their own Himalayan adventures. We checked into the Hotel Florid and were pleasantly surprised, good place with a friendly owner (Chaman) and his family.
We ventured out that evening to a restaurant called Or2k which was recommended by pretty much everyone we'd met who had been to Kathmandu- and we were not disappointed! Israeli style food and it was great, I tucked into a giant bowl of 'health salad' and cous cous after eating namely beige foods for the past 3 weeks and Andy consoled himself with a mushroom burger (vege restaurant!).
The next day took us to the Kathmandu Durbar Square. This is where the old palaces of former kings were, royal palaces and houses and many temples and historic sights. We spent most of the day here going in between the different parts of the complex. One of the strangest things to learn about was the 'living goddess' this is a young girl who is chosen to be the goddess for x number of years until she starts her monthlys and is replaced by a younger model. Known as the Kumari the girl is said to be an incarnation of the Hindu goddess Durga and is selected from a certain family after a rigorous selection process and has to have 32 set qualities such as:
A neck like a conch shell
eyelashes like a cow
thighs like a deer
Soft voice
Be as daring as a lion
She sounds like a dream!
One of the many temples in Durbar Square next to some 'big drums' and yes that's historically correct!
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Durbar Square
Where's Wally?
That evening we headed out for some local cuisine and went out for Mo-Mo. Bit like Gyoza if you're aware of those, yummy dumplings filled with all sorts, Andy tried Chilli Buffalo mo-mo, very tasty and hotter than the sun...
Chilli buffalo MoMo, ít was as spicy as it looks!
It's been around 4-5 weeks since Andys last shave and over 2 months since his last haircut. So far he's managed to grow the same amount of facial hair that Paul Hughes would've grown in 1 day- that's a lot :) So we headed to the barbers for a hair cut and shave. Deepak took great delight in removing Andys hair and even tried to convince him to keep a 'tache! Once the grooming had finished he then started to smack Andy around a little. I think it was a Nepali massage of sorts (the guy in the chair next to him had something similar done) but it looked a little more brutal than what you might expect from your hairdresser.
Let the declutter commence...
Hair on head done, now time for another cut-throat special :)
Ta dah! There he is teenage Andy is back!
We then headed back to the Durbar Square to finish off the sights and took a walking tour of the local area and markets (courtesy of Lonely Planet). We had lunch at Pumpernickel Bakery and bumped into Vicky (keep up all, she's one of the gang from the trek!). We ended up chatting for hours and agreeing to meet up again for food over the next couple of days before we head to Thailand and she heads back out on the trekking route!
Next day it was up and out to Patan. Not too far from Kathmandu and a walk out of the City across the river to pastures new. Patan also has a Durbar Square and plenty of temples and buildings to see after 2 or 3 hours of walking around the surrounding backstreets, bahals (courtyards) and examining at least 20 stupas and probably 100 shrines or more, we had had our fill of culture for the day! That evening we headed back to Or2k to meet Alondra (yes, that's right from the trek) for a catch up and good food including another 'health' salad at Andy's request, he may have been deletion a from all the walking that day.
Patan Durbar Square
Patan Durbar Square from a different viewpoint, just so you don't miss out.
Temple in Patan that was beautifully decorated and well kept, lots of arms.
Andys version of a Kathmandu temple - dinner at Or2K
Ahhhh... A day of rest. We'd planned to do nothing the next day but sit and read in some quieter surroundings. So after a good breakfast we hunter gathered a packed lunch and headed to the 'Garden of Dreams' (I always sing it in the 'sleep on a bed of dreams style) for sun, reading and relaxing. I also needed to sew up one of my day packs so had time to do that too!
More of a garden of sitting and eating rather than dreaming...
Phew, job done... I can now use two day packs and a 60 litre rucksack :) Andy calls this the Frankenstein bag but ha to him as you will find out later on!!
When we finished the trek we'd arranged to meet up with Norsang in Kathmandu and that was planned in for today. So we started out the day with a visit to Swayambhunath (aka Monkey) temple early doors so we could fit in our last bits on our Nepali to-do list. Once done there we walked back into Kathmandu and met Norsang at our hotel. He took us out for lunch and we had more soup and mo mos, yum! Was great to catch up and we even got a t-shirt for our efforts ;) Those of you who listen about our running tales know that we love a free t-shirt from our races and runs!
Temple part of the monkey temple
monkey part of the monkey temple
We headed out for our last Dal Bhat feast with Vicky after bumping into her earlier in the day. She raved about the place as you could get a lot of good food (which gets topped up of course) for just over £1. Whilst eating Alondra had also arrived for her dinner so it was a great end to the week and nice to be in their company before heading off.
Farewell Dal Bhat- oh, I mean farewell Vicky and Alondra...
Thailand day! So up early to eat and run final few errands before departing to the airport. We had said our goodbyes to Charman our hotel owner who gave us some Buddhist good luck scarves for our journey. Which we needed!! We'd organised a taxi from outside the hotel after saying no to the same guy for 4 days and he was chuffed we finally needed his services. After being in the tiny car for 10 mins it decides to break down in the middle of a big ol traffic jam, no worries though he said it's just the engines flooded! He eventually got us going again and we arrived (thanks to the good luck flags!) at Kathmandu airport.
The owner of the Florid Hotel - Charman and us
We spent our final rupees namely on water, coffee and sweets and boarded our Thai Airways flight to Bangkok.
The flight was ace and although we had a dodgy start (some tinkering needed to be done with the steering whilst we were all on board) it felt luxurious :) We had great food served on real plates with metal cutlery! Plenty of grog for the Rotton with the most spectacular views of the Himalayas that are above our climb of 5500m :)
Closest thing to a roast dinner to date! Andy now loves Thai Airlines.
Everest... maybe!
If not it will most probably be found in amongst this little lot...
Just a few hours to Bangkok so fed, watered and crappy film watched (can't believe 'Gravity' won awards) and we touched down in Bangkok to be welcomed by the intense heat!
Time for a few days R and R in Bangkok and a Thai beach island... Can you hear Andy smiling?
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