K-K-K-K-K- Kathmandu...I think it's really where I'm goin' to

For spring break this year we decided that instead of taking a trip to another beach (Thailand, anyone???) that we would do some travelling.  So we packed up our long pants and skirts and headed to Nepal.  Kathmandu, specifically, would be our hub for seven days.   The view from the plane window was perfect... you can see Mt. Everest in the distance. 

Now I don't know about you, but when I picture Nepal I imagine something like this:

OK, just so you know, this is not my picture, this is from
photoblog.nbcnews.com   but this is what I IMAGINED Nepal to look like... 
 

What we got instead was a complete riot of sounds, colors, smells;  really, ALL the senses were assaulted the second you step off the plane in Kathmandu.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we didn't like it... there was just some cognitive dissonance occurring.   Here is the scene outside the airport.  

I have enough pictures of the general craziness to probably do two or three entries about Nepal, but I am going to cram it all into one entry.  If you get overwhelmed and confused... well, then you know how we felt! 



This is the view from our hotel window on the first morning.  What we noticed is the blanket of haze that sits on the city.  The haze is a mix of dirt, exhaust, pollution (no scrubbers on these coal plants), and the use of biomass (wood, agricultural residues and dung) for cooking and heating in households,  all trapped in Kathmandu valley. 
On the first day we took a trip to the Thamel area for some shopping and sight-seeing. 

I just love this sign.  I need one of my own.

It seems everywhere you go, there is a stupa to take a picture of.   



You can't really browse around much, especially if you look like a foreigner, because as soon as you glance at something, you get hassled until you just flee from the scene.  It is hard to do, because part of travelling is talking to people and looking at stuff.  Another difficult thing is realizing just how poor some people are.   About 25% of Nepali people live below the poverty line, and according to the World Bank, the Gross National Income per capita is $540 per year.   So we did our best, haggled just a little, and took lots of pictures. 

As I was looking for some statistics I came across this interesting interactive map, so, not much to really do with our trip, but if you are curious, you can see the hunger map

http://cdn.wfp.org/hungermap/#NP
 

Stupas in Nepal have the Buddha eyes looking out from the top, and those eyes are also on t-shirts, stickers, hats, backpacks,  pretty much everything.   Everything is very photogenic here, and it seems that if you live here you kind of take it for granted.  It reminded me of being in Italy, like, here is this 8oo year old thing, I think I'll hang my laundry from it.   

This is not laundry, however, it's prayer flags, but the laundry is hanging from everything else.

 

Pigeons are also big at the Stupas.  Most places have monks or kids selling corn or rice to feed them.  Below are some more pictures  of the Thamel area.

Our taxi home.  These taxis are LITTLE!

I think almost every road was under construction, which did not help with the dirt and dust. 

See the cow?  Right in the road.

While we were in Nepal we were staying up to date on all of the drama with North Korea by watching CNN.  It was scary to watch from outside, because when we are here in SKorea, we can talk to all our friends and find out what is really going on, and most of them have a much calmer and more rational perspective on it than Wolf Blitzer... but I'm getting off track... so we were avoiding all of the NK drama, when what should happen but a Maoist protest strike that shut down all driving around the city.  Great.  So rather than try to go anywhere we decided to walk to that stupa we could see from our room.  YAY!     

This stupa is actually a world heritage site, and a has a large Tibetan monk community. 

and a lot of pigeons.

Like everything else we have seen here, it is vibrant, colorful, crazy. 

We met up with another teacher and went for a little snack at this place.

The menu.  One US dollar is about 85 Nepalese rupees, so most of the meals here are under $2. 

We got veggie and cheese momos... little dumplings with spicy dipping sauce.  Remind me to tell you when I see you about what happens next...

After our snack we walked some more around the neighborhood.

This is a room filled with yak-butter candles. 



Where are we going? 

Heading back to the hotel.

Next Day.  Bhaktapur.  Kind of like going to Strawberry Banke, only about 200 years older, and real people still actually live and work here. 

Love the doors made out of a box...

These on the right are from coke boxes.

It is hard to tell from this picture what is going on here, but there are about 50 stairs that connect the two main roads, and a motorcycle ramp goes right up (or down) between the stairs. 

Nothing much going on in this picture, but I love the Hello Kitty sticker under the license plate.  So cute!

Ahhhhh... here it is... what you have been waiting for.... the plane trip to see Mt. Everest. 

On Yeti Air. 



I have at least 150 pictures of the Himalayas, so please let me know if you want to see more.  This is not Mt. Everest, by the way, it is Gauri Shanker on the left, and Melungtse on the right, both of which are just over 23,000 ft tall. 

Just for comparison, Mt. Washington is 6,488 ft., and the roof of the Four Seasons Hotel Miami (the highest non-natural point in Florida) is 789 ft.

If this spurs your interest, here is a list of the 100 tallest mountains in the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_mountains

none of which are in the US. 

Back to the plane.  So they let us get up and go see the cockpit.  Seeing the view from here was totally worth the trip. 

And here it is... Let me give you some names:
The highest peak on the left is Everest (29028 ft).  That broken off one directly to the right is Lhotse, which comes in at #4 in the world (27940 ft), in front is Ama-Dablan (22349 ft) and the tall one on the right is Makalu (27766 ft). 

So what happens is, the plane flies at 23,000 feet, and we look UP at these mountains. 

Here they are again, from another angle.  And so while we never actually got to touch Mt. Everest, we did get to SEE it, which was great. 

And we got these cool certificates.... 

The kids and the other fliers. 

After seeing Everest, what do the kids want to do?  Feed the pigeons, again, of course. 
 

Am I the only one that takes a picture of each cow?  I think so.

Two days left, so today we take a tour around the city.  The first place we stop is called Swayambhu, otherwise known as the monkey temple.  Not because it is dedicated to a monkey, but because there are hundreds of monkeys running, climbing, and looking pretty intimidating here.   

From the top, on a clear day, is a beautiful day of the entire city.  Of course, there hasn't been a clear day in a long time, but I am sure that once it was a nice view!  Gary and Pooks took their masks off for the picture, R-man was going for authentic.  We wore the masks for the whole day.

For 5 rupees you can buy a candle (remember that 1$ is 85 rupees) as an offering.  With that comes a free "third eye", a clump of red goo is stuck on your forehead, and then some white, gold and silver adornments are added on.  I'm the only one that gets one.

The stupa at the top of the monkey temple.

At the bottom of the hill are these three Buddhas. 

And more cows in the road. 

This picture is a kind of typical view along the 'ring road', the main road that circles Kathmandu.  The buildings are a combination of old and new, with piles of rocks, brick, dirt, and trash everywhere.  The cows and chickens have pretty much free reign.  Every vendor you drive by is dusting, which is quite hilarious, because the dust is everywhere, and I think dusting here is a full time job. 

We took the ring road to our next stop, Pashupatinath, which is the most important Hindu temple in Nepal.  We were allowed into some of the parts, but not the main temple area, which is for Hindus only.  This place is really interesting, and we would have liked to spend more time here, but there are all of these "guides" that want to show you around.  And are very persistent about it.  And who follow you around, trying to "guide" you. 

If you don't know much about Hinduism, (don't worry, I don't know much either) let me tell you one thing:  Hindus do cremation.  Out in the open.  Along a river. 

Luckily for the Hindus in Kahmandu, there is a river that runs through this temple:  The Bagmati River.  It is one of the most sacred rivers, and it is lined with cremation "ghats".  Actually the set-up is quite convenient.  The hospital is up on the hill a little ways away, and when it isn't looking too good for the patient, they move him  down to one of the little buildings (see the picture below with the crowd in front of it?)

So that crowd is the family and friends of the unlucky guy inside that darker gray structure... and then, when he dies, they move him out to the river for the final part... that rock table type structure will be where he is cremated. 
And yes, that gooey green water filled with trash and cows is the sacred river.

So while Gary is watching for signs of the drama occurring above, the kids and I are looking down at this fire, not realizing what it was. 
And I took a couple of pictures before I heard Gary, who came over and whispered (so that the kids couldn't hear).... see that bright part??? 

me:  clueless, as usual... What?  What are you talking about?

Gary:  That bright part.  Look.  It's his head.

So, not wanting to be disrespectful, I didn't take any more pictures. 
But I still can't see a head.
 

The tall dairy queen looking building is the part of the temple that we can't go into. 

But we could go here. 

This poor guard.  I think he was just trying to do his job and show us around, but we had been hassled all day,so we were trying to lose him, but he kept following us.  I'm not sure if he was trying to keep us safe from all of the other "guides", but I took his picture in case he rolled us.  Then I could show the cops... it was THIS guy!  And so let me say here, I am still not sure if he was a good guy or not, but I'm sorry if he was just doing his job.

At Pashupatinath there are also these monks who do all kinds of ritual things, some have waist length dreadlocks and paint themselves with different colors of paints.  For a small donation you can take your picture with them.  

Another part of the sacred Hindu temple we can't enter.

Heading back to our hotel, again, along the ring road.   Let me just say one more thing about the traffic here:  people LOVE their horns.  LOVE!  Everyone toots constantly, for no reason, all the time.  It is EXHAUSTING.

It's five o'clock somewhere, but here it is 12:18.  It has been a long morning!

The back view of our hotel.  Nothing felt better than washing off all that dust with a  cold dip in the pool.

Last day in Nepal we decided to take a drive up to Nagarkot to see the sunrise over the Himalaya.  After a 4AM wake up call, we are in the car for an hour of hair-raising, stomach clenching roads.   About 65% of Nepal has electricity, which means that about 35% of Nepal does not.   So one thing you notice is that the cities have these amazing clots of electric wires, but as you leave the city, there are none.  NONE. Also, each night we watched darkness fall on the city, and while during the day you could see hundreds of buildings, at night it was almost complete darkness, with one or two lights on, or a fire flickering. 

If you want to read more about energy in  Nepal (and who wouldn't want to), this is a good website

https://energypedia.info/wiki/Nepal_Country_Situation#Share_of_Fuel_Types

Back to the roads.

And the sunrise.

This guy, Dhana, was the best driver.  He carted us around each day, and told us a little bit about himself and his family.  Best part, he never complained about the traffic! 

Passing a tractor on the way back. 

And one parting shot of the stupa from our window. 

So, while we enjoyed Nepal, I think that will do us for a while. 
By the end we were longing for some sunshine, fresh air, and warm sand.