28-29 November 2008

We arrived safely in Kathmandu, Nepal yesterday. We had to get up before 5 AM to catch our early flight out. The plane was very crowded and smelly. Someone was in my assigned seat, so I ended up sitting in the middle seat next to Kendal, which was nice except the person on the other side of me was obviously sick and I was worried about catching a cold. Anyway, we landed in Nepal on time. The views as we approached were beautiful. We could see the Himilayas and a whole bunch of small housing villages.

We were able to get our visas and our bags quickly and didn't havce to go through cutsoms. A representative from our hotel met us there to bring us back to the hotel. A whole bunch of our people followed us to the car whose apparent purpose was to put our bags in the car. We didn't realize that they weren't associated with the hotel until they started demanding money. We gave a little but managed to then drive away.

Our hotel is ok, but by no means luxury accomodations. The mattress are rock solid, the toliet doesn't work, and there is no heat. The lows last night probably dropped into the 40s, so I slept in my sleeping bag under the covers and in a sweatshirt. I was pretty warm with that.

Anyway, after we checked in to the hotel, we decided to get some lunch and wander. We are staying in the Thamel district of Kathmandu, which is the big tourist center. The majority of the Westerners here are either hippies or mountain trekking, and it is amusing to see them wandering around. I also got to see a UN car, which is the first one I have ever seen in my life. We ate lunch at a little garden restaurant and then decided to go the monkey temple. We didn't know how to get there so we hired a couple rickshaws (carts pulled by bikes) to take us there.

That was a rather scary experience as the rickshaws are not sturdy things and we were driving down steep hills on roads filled with pot holes. Eventually, we got somewhere in the vicinity of the temple, but we had to procede on foot from there. The temple is on top of a huge hill on the outskirts of the city. To get to the top, you have to climb hundreds and hundreds of stairs. By the time we got there, the sun was all ready starting to set and we wanted to be able to see the sun set, so we hurried up the stairs, which was very difficult and exhausting.

The reason the temple is called the monkey temple is because it is overrun with monkeys. They were everywhere. When we got to the top, we were able to watch the sunset a little, but since Kathmandu is in a valley, we could only watch the changing colors of the sky. Afterwards, we wandered around the complex, watching the monkeys and doing other things. In addition to being a Hindu place of worship, people lived there, and there were dozens of sellers trying to sell touristy items, CDs, pictures, and other things.

The monkeys were really entertaining. There were a bunch of little babies. There were also a lot of dogs there (as there is everywhere in Nepal) and at one point during monkey feeding time, a puppy tried to play with the monkeys. Only one monkey seemed remotely interested, but only if he could surprise attack the dog. Once the dog started fighting back, the monkey jumped away. Once it started getting dark, we decided to head back down the hill since the stairs are not lit, and it would be difficult to go down in the pitch black. Before we left though, I noticed how dark the city is. There are not a lot of street lights and no tallk buildings, so for being a big city, Kathmandu is pretty dark.

When we got down, we hired a mini-bus type vehicle to bring us back to Thamel. We then went to supposedly the oldest hotel in Kathmandu for dinner. There were a bunch of people in the lobby there who had apparently been planning on going to Bangkok, but there flight had been diverted due to the civil unrest there. By the way, we have been keeping up on the news in India and it appears the main intended targets were not foreigners. We will continue to watch the news, and as of now, are not sure when or if we will be traveling to India.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel where I took a nap since I have not gotten a lot of sleep lately. We then went out to see the nightlife. A bunch of places had live music and it was a party pretty much everywhere. We went to one place that seemed interesting but was way too over crowded, and we eventually ended up at a much calmer restaurant. We stayed there until 11:00 when they told us they were closing. Apparently, everything closes here at or before eleven. Finally, we went back to the hotel to go to bed.

This morning, we didn't get up and going until 11:00, since we were all pretty tired from the night before. Jeremy had gotten up earlier and gone shopping, and Max had apparentl gone to church, but the rest of us slept in. When we did get up, we got breakfast at this nice rooftop place and then started walking to Durbar Square. Along the way, we stopped at a travel agency to make plans to go river rafting tomorrow. After getting lost a few times, we eventually got to Durbar Square, which is a conglomeration of a bunch of temples and the old royal palace. We went through the museum in the palace, which was pretty boring except for the nine story high tower we could climb to get a nice view of the city.

After the museum, we tried to find an internet cafe to look up directions for yoga for this afternoon. It took us a long time to find one, and we ended up traveling down a whole bunch of different streets in a local market. The market was a lot more crowded than the tourist markets in Thamel. It became quite overwheling as cars, bikes, motorcycles, people, and dogs were everywhere. We eventually found an internet cafe through a back alleyway. This cafe had the slowest internet connection, but we were able to get the info we needed.

We had to hire some rickshaws again since the yoga was happening soon. Unfortunately, the rickshaw drivers got confused and brought us back to Thamel instead of to yoga. At this point, Jeremy, Daniel, and I decided to stay in Thamel to shop and hang out at the hotel. Kevin and Kendal hired a taxi to go to yoga. Shopping was fun; I bought a few things and got to barter for all of them, which I am becoming good at. Afterwards, I went to an internet cafe, and here I am.

So far, Kathmandu has been amazing. The weather is cool, and it is relaxing. However, it is very polluted. Traffic is bad and horns are honking constantly. There is extreme poverty, with people sleeping in the streets, and at least one boy tried to pick-pocket us. The government has signs up saying to not encourage begging by giving handouts. Its a little hard to do sometimes, expecially with the children.

Aside from those few things, everything is going pretty well. I will write more next time I have a chance.

-Lindsay