OK!!! I am actually here in KATHMANDU!!! After a nearly disastrous event in the Lufthansa plane bathroom – I accidentally bumped the toilet paper holder (with my foot) into the toilet just seconds before it would have been sucked into never-never land of the holding tank. I rescued the holder from the toilet bowl & tried to put it back together. This was all to prevent my fingers from becoming dirty by not touching the flush handle! Then I had to try & sterilize my hands from the toilet bowl! Yikes! Off to a bad start!
The other event I had NOT planned for – was that I had carefully packed a carry-on with all my "essentials' & made the mistake of asking it to be weighed – thought I was doing the "right" thing, but….it turns out I was 2 kg overweight & they HAD to check my ESSENTIAL items – those items I was sure I couldn't live without, if the baggage was lost! So I was praying the whole time – from Portland to Frankfurt to Delhi! As bag after bag circled around, I thanked my guardian angels that both bags arrived safely! Lesson - DON"T ask to have your bag weighed - just bring it on the plane like the rest of the passengers did with their HUGE bags!
Although there were long waits for each plane, I arrived safely in Kathmandu on Friday, 10/19 (2 days after leaving Ptld) after being up for over 48 hours. What a relief to see my smiling, Annapurna mountain trekker-daughter, Kirsten, standing outside the building waiting with the hotel car! YEAH!!!!!
Our hotel, Hotel Ganesh Himal, is quite nice for $12/night – shower in room, balcony outside our rooms on every floor, restaurant with room service, nice gardens with tables, travel service & laundry service (temporarily not available because of the 2 week festival, called Dasain – celebrating the goddess, Durga, overcoming the forces of evil. Or something like that??? The following day we saw goats & small water buffalo, having been slaughtered (their heads are swiftly cut off with a sword, & they were being loaded up in rickshaws or carts – to be taken to be barbecued! I have pretty much gone back to my vegetarianism – except for occasional miniscule pieces of chicken in rice, soup, or with vegetables!
Sunday, we climbed a trillion steps to the top of the monkey temple after about a 45-minute walk through town. The monkeys were playing about on the way up, but got interested in my little bee hanging off my backpack – Kirst was in-between me & the monkey & he started to go after her! We jumped out of the way & another guy yelled at the monkey to go away! We avoided any more monkey attacks, but got some great shots of little baby monkeys with their moms! AND of course the views from the top were incredible! That was the morning activity! The afternoon we spent relaxing in beautiful gardens & playing cards!
Monday we hired Gyanu, Kirsten's Annapurna trekking guide, to negotiate taxis (quite an art considering their are blocks-long gas lines of taxis waiting for gas, increased gas prices, & the festival) & show us around 2 cities, Bhaktapur & Patan. Lots of temples & people - celebrating their festival & enjoying all their rituals. We seem to be able to find great roof-top restaurants in each of these places for cool lemon-soda drinks, simple meals & photo opportunities!
It is Tues today - Kirst & I have just had a nice breakfast with toast, eggs, fried bananna, coffee & potatoes, tomato for $1.50. This needs to be our internet & packing day as we head for the mountains, THE LAST RESORT, up by the Chinese border of Tibet, tomorrow - have to be at the rafting company by 5:45am. We will sleep in what looks like really nice tents! Will go rafting on the Bhoti Kosi river on Sat & Sun - the easier upper river on Sat - come back to the resort that night to sleep & then do the lower more difficult - grades 4+ on Sun. They drive us back to Kathmandu that night. Then we have 3 days to play around until we fly back to Delhi on Nov 1 to meet Chuck.
Although their are inconveniences due to the festival - no resturant service in certain places & certain times, no laundry service (did my own in the tiny bathroom sink last night), BUT their are 1/2 price baked goods after 7pm - delicious!
Kathmandu is quite an incredible city! Easier to manage than India was for me - but it may be that since I have experience India, this seems like a nicer, more organized, more cosmopolitan city than what I saw in southern India. There is any kind of food that you would want - we have had wonderful Thai food, Chinese, English, Indian, & Nepalese!
SOOOOOO many international trekkers from mostly all over the world - a few US, but not that many. We have been seeing temples, gardens and sooooo many stalls of beautiful clothes, fabrics, jewelry, etc - I could spend sooooo much $$$ here, but thankfully I have no room to put anything, so I have limited my 1 thing to buy - a marionette from a sweet little village we went to yesterday, using the Nepalese guide that Kirsty used for trekking. He is really a sweet guy & offered to carry my bag yesterday - really made a difference - even helped me up the stairs at a temple that didn't have any railings - so I knew I would be too dizzy to do it myself!
Soooo, we head to the mountains tomorrow! I will continue my blog when I am back in Kathmandu – on the 29th, if we survive the rafting! I am looking forward to the river – it should be sooooo much fun!
Hopefully, more pictures & stories to come! TAKE care everyone! Luv, ann
