Mon- Sept 29: Kathmandu (Thamel, Bodnath, Swayambuth Stupa, Chobhar)
Team M&D left at 5A to get an early start for their week long trekking tour of either the Pokhara or Anupurna Trail, so I can sleep in and take my time. I met with Theo, the head of my resort in Le Chobhar and he’s sending their driver over for me. i’ve already negotiated with the driver, a rate for him to take me around sightseeing..
Today is my tourist day. I usually dedicate one day to knocking the entire TO SEE List off, so that I can concentrate the rest of my time wandering, experiencing and creating unique experiences. When you’re traveling with others, I’m always at the compromising whim of other agendas & with Team M&D, I always feel like a reluctant tourist at the whim of always paying $ for my experiences. Now, I have the day’s agenda – tourist or not, all to myself!
Itinerary:
Monkey Temple (Swayambuth Stupa)– for video click here
Thamel with its winding maze of streets is shared mostly by anything from pedestrians to 2-3 wheeled vehicles, is very touristy and shopping-oriented. The city is like a one-stop shop for both, tourists and locals with its abundance of marketplaces, restaurants, and stores selling trekking clothes and souvenirs for tourists and specialty shops dealing with spices, product, teas, saris, technology, handbags and clothes, etc…for locals. Nepali people LOVE to shop and have a love for celebrating festivals! (& I think more than India) It is said that festival time is a time of great traffic and people flood the markets as sales signs come out advertising “festival discount”.
Prominent are produce dealers and butchers with their livestock laid out. Skinned goat heads, chickens, etc… are laid out on a table for eager marketers who don’t mind dust on their food. But tomorrow it is also nearing Dusain, one of Nepal’s biggest festivals which is also known to have a lot of goat sacrifices. Over a hundred goats are said to be sacrificed in Durbar Square in Thamel in honor of this festival. Tomorrow I am going to Dakshinkali Temple, another pilgrimmage spot for worshipping and sacrifices.
There are periodic blackouts at night but it doesn’t halt shopping. Instead, it means business is conducted by candlelight or electric lamps.
Clothes manufacturing is another well-known attraction of Nepal. Anything can be fixed or sewn from scratch both, efficiently, speedily and cheaply. The clothes in Thamel can offer a variety of styles from Tibetan, Indian, Western but my favorites are the kinds of hip styles that hippie, artsy boutiques carry in Williamsburg or Brooklyn for a marked up yuppie price. Knitted wool or felt bags, hats, purses or clothing stitched in bohemian design or Western/Nepal fashion. You can get well-design and stitched clothes here for cheap.
Haggling is performed here but not aggressively like India. Rather, it is like a courting game of friendly persuasion and sometimes when you haggle too low with your first quote, you find you’ve offended your seller a bit, as there is a pride the Nepalese hold above their work. Some shops have their own factories and workers to manufacture their own clothes.
a produce seller at the marketplace
LONELY PLANET GUIDE BOOKS are the common denominator for tourists to find tips on places to eat and rest and they have great traveler advice so that one should not feel lost in a culture they’re visiting. Interestingly in Thamel, there are several shops which treat LPG like a religion. LPG books are a lucrative specialty for these shops, as both NEW & USED are stocked. Some bookstores even operate like College Campus Buy-Back bookstores! You can purchase your Lonely Planet Guide, use it and then sell it back for 1/2 the purchase price!
The Nepalese are infamous counterfeiters! If a USED book is missing pages, the bookshop owners insert counterfeit pages in its place (*SUPER GOOD XEROXING QUALITY*) such that the integration and appearance of the book is virtually undisturbed! I could barely tell a difference until a shop owner pointed it out. For 1500 Rs (about $20), I bought a “counterfeited” used book as my authentic Nepal reference guide and coffee table souvenir! “Nepal Used” is nowhere as cheap as “Amazon.com Used” but with the convenience of not having to carry it in your backpack through India, you chalk it up to the cost of Xeroxing!
The SECOND highest counterfeit brand sold is NORTH FACE! Nepal is trekking country! Bags, backpacks, cargo pants, etc… Ironically, I had just purchased a pair of NF cargo pants before coming on this trip and got it on sale in NYC for $65 (A VERY GOOD SALE!) I sent it to get laundered in Thamel and they accidentally broke one of the zippers, so I left it with a seamstress to get fixed. In the meanwhile, I purchased 2 similar NF pants for $16 total!
Motorcycles are very popular with the contemporary Nepali kids and can transport friends as well as, families packing children. Thamel during peak traffic hours will lend itself to a butt-to-butt lineup of loud impatient motorcycles, honking and farting black exhaust fumes. Perhaps this is what adds to the surprising amount of pollution surrounding Thamel. When you’re on the roads- you’ll see people on motorbikes wearing dust masks to filter out their breathing air. For myself, I have to wrap my scarf around face as if I’m in the Sahara, to keep from inhaling the fumes.
The Monkey Temple (click on the link for my fun video) is about 5-10min outside of Thamel. This is the one temple I HAD to go to- monkeys are EVERYWHERE- hanging from trees, sitting upon statues and monuments, crossing your footsteps… On my hike up to the temple top via a1,000 or so steep steps, I passed a small park-like area with public benches and high grass. In the grass, families of monkeys were playing, chasing each other and jumping on and off of trees. When I reached the top of the temple grounds, there was the view of Thamel and a giant monument decorated with prayer wheels which people would turn as they walked clockwise around the large base.
The soundtrack of Buddhist monks chanting Om Mane Padme Hum plays like a broken record at tourist-known temples. While the deep monk chanting, makes you feel like you’ve just stepped into the movie soundtrack of 7 years in Tibet, you get to wishing they would change it up a bit so that you’re not violently aware of subliminal product placement and that your consumer tastes as a tourist are being targeted. The music is wonderful to surrender yourself to though.
It was dark when I arrived at Chobhar at 6P. A concerned manager, Shankar waiting with the cook and all was in blackout mode save for the electric lamp Shankar had given to me. I take a late meal of the best vegetable momos and tomato onion soup my mouth has ever tasted and go to my room to absorb my day.
Goodnight!
