Nepal Day 1 - Sightseeing

Kathmandu intersection

After breakfast and a quick nap, the driver was there to take us to the tour company to meet the guide. More hairy rides through the streets…they have left-side drive here, but seem to drive in the middle if no one is coming, very disconcerting for a life-long right-side driver! The streets here are filled with buses and motorcycles (cars are too expensive for most, and families of four will travel together on a motorcycle!), bicycles, pedestrians and cows. Honking is a means of communication, mostly meaning get the heck out of my way - I'm a-coming, and traffic lights are non-existent. Some larger intersections have a single traffic cop, directing the flow from a small platform. Mostly it’s a free-for-all. Apparently there aren’t many serious accidents here, though. Most bad ones occur after dark, when the crowded streets are dark yet still filled with people walking and cycling, and when alcohol more likely plays a part. The traffic movement is pretty slow, so I can buy that most accidents could be non-lethal. Like most places, what seems like anarchic chaos at first does actually have a system that the inhabitants all understand. We were thankful to be driven by a skilled young man, and not flung onto the streets on our own.

temple carving at Buddha Park

Our guide in place, the first stop was a Buddhist temple with three giant golden statues surrounded by prayer wheels (cylinders set into the outside wall that devotees spin as they circle around clockwise) and on a brightly painted base studded with snarling, smiling figures. The temple is re-painted every three months. I used up the last of my camera batteries snapping their pictures, managing to get one last one of me and Jim in front of the three golden giants (see first Nepal post). There was also a smaller temple with a thousand small alcoves each housing a small Buddha. Beautiful. Marred slightly by the people begging, especially the ancient man lying face down on the ground, his legs bent unnaturally beside him.

We drove around to the other side of the hilltop to the Monkey Temple. The monkeys cavorted all over, carrying their cute 6" babies, checking out the tourists, and jumping in to their dedicated swimming pool. Jim had to take photos on his Blackberry, as my camera was completely out of juice. The vendors accosted us with forearms laden with necklaces, and sucked me in with a reversible pendant (Buddha eyes on one side, the mantra Om Mani Padme Hom on the other). We climbed the steps to the hilltop for the panoramic views of the city, the stupas and temples and monasteries. Our guide filled our heads with the architecture and history, and we dodged teenagers on a school trip to look down the vertigo-inducing steps that we didn’t have to take. Again had to run the gauntlet of vendors who follow you with their goods and the sad beggars lining the steps. I wanted to give money to everyone, but I understand that it’s better not to encourage the begging, rather to contribute to a reputable charity. I still bought two more necklaces on the way out, not able to resist the sad stories and emotional pressure…I rationalized it by telling myself I didn’t mind giving these poor women a few of my dollars.

Next stop was the Kathmandu Durbar Square. Every town and city has a Durbar Square; it’s the old palace/temple area. The main Kathmandu one was fascinating…crumbling palaces, pagoda-style temples, and temples of other shapes all over. Carved hindu gods set into the walls, dusted with coloured powder and crowded with offerings of rice, flowers, food. In one ancient, open-air temple that used to be a stopping off place for pilgrims, a blood drive was in progress, with donors reclining on old lawn chairs in the dusty common area, small vials sitting out in a beaker holder, and the collected blood going into well-used coolers. We arrived at the wrong time to see the Kumari, or Living Goddess. She is an actual child, pre-pubescent girl chosen for her physical attributes and lack of fear, who resided in the Kumari palace as the reigning Kumari until her first period, when she again becomes mortal and another Kumari is found. She has attendants and tutors, and waves at the crowds below at set times of the day, coming out of her tiny palace only a few times a year for festivals. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari. We were able to go into her courtyard and look around, and I bought one of her official photos. I soaked it all up, but Jim was a little disappointed that the temples and buildings were so run down, many of them crumbling, all of them dirty. When we were satisfied with the Durbar Square, we deked out to an electronics shop so I could buy a new camera battery charger, just in case.