I admit I might have been slightly hungover as I woke at 6am to desperately search the streets for some water. With my prize I returned and crashed in bed.
But a bowl of muesli and a "hangover cure" juice (ginger, papaya, cinammon and parsley?) seemed to fix me up so I continued with my plans to celebrated Nepali new year at Bhaktapur (yesterdays new year was Newari, they love to celebrate here). Caught a badly overcrowded bus for 20c, hunching over under the low ceiling as I stood for the better part of an hour. I had considered staying overnight to make the most of the 10US entry fee into the city but it was just another templed square, particularly overcrowded with tourists and locals here for the festival.
I was about to order some Momos for lunch on a rooftop restaurant when I saw a girl waving and yelling from another rooftop. It was the french student from last night and I had to go all the way down then up again to join her for lunch. She had been given a tour of the town by her doctor hosts but decided to stay and show me around. I was thankful as I was pretty lost and already bored, plus the doctors had shown her some places that I would never have found on my own such as the university of music, a peaceful little place with good gardens. Slurping on the famous "King of Curd" yoghurts, we watched hundreds of people playing with a giant pole placed in the ground - symbolic of a gods willy and his wife's "yoni". Erotic art and sculptures plagued this crazy little town.
Was lucky enough to score seats on the bus trip back as the bus boy crammed more and more people in. We weren't sure where in Kathmandu the bus was heading but a local lady said that it wasnt Ratna Park, the place we had hoped! We decided that when we saw something familiar we would hop out the window - there was no way that we could get past all the people to the door! The lady was helpful and told us when to get off (her stop) and even put us on the next mini-bus to Boudha so Marie (the french chic) could grab her bags from the Monastery she'd been staying at. It was an impressive place, very peaceful compared to Thamel but at 750rs it was 5 times as expensive.
It took another hour by mini-bus before we arrived at Ratna Park, with the clouds closing in fast. There was a huge crowd of people on the street; from a vantage point we could see that the huge chariot the locals pull around for the festival had been blown over in the wind! This was crazy as there were 6 guys clinging to the top as it crashed into a few cars. We had to stop and take a few pictures but gave up when it started raining heavily.
Glad to be back in the area I know best, we went to Sams Bar to meet the Polish guy and American. Pigged out on the free popcorn before grabbing a yak cheese sandwich and calling it a night.
