Nepal

We’ve made it to the last stop of our southeast Asia tour. Nepal. This mountainous, mystical, infamous part of the world.  

Marcus has had his eyes set on the Everest Base Camp hike for years and despite being somewhat apathetic to hiking, I wasn’t going to miss this part of the trip. Nepal’s not only famous for its mountains. It’s famous for yoga, meditation, spirituality, temples. And according to a sign in the airport, it’s also the birthplace of Buddha. The information signs at the airport were fantastic. “Horn honking is a form of creative expression in Nepal.” “Alcohol is a common offering that can be shared with Nepalese people.” And other such entertainment.  

We have no guidebook for Nepal or Kathmandu. Marcus has a broad itinerary for his hike and I did a bit of searching around online to see what kind of yoga/meditation centers I could find and booked in for a week.  

As our plane descended into Kathmandu, the scenery was green, mountainous with tall, skinny buildings all over the place. It reminded me a little bit of flying into Cuzco. The rain greeted us as we got off the plane and jumped into the messy customs lines. We thought it would be easiest to get our visas at the airport, but getting in at the same time as another plane or two full of people renders the visa line very long. Actually, the lines themselves aren’t that long so much as wide, teeming with people, and very slow moving. We waited in line for well over two hours. During this wonderful time, we were very close to the others in our line. The two people behind us, Swedish I think, were lacking in that wonderful thing called spatial awareness. The lady was on my shoulder for almost the entire time! I tried subtly looking around, bumping into her, but she didn’t get the hint. Or if she did, she thought it would be amusing to continue as is. She spoke loudly right in my ear. If I turned my head I could have kissed her (as Marcus said he would if she got that close to him). I probably should have just asked her to back up but I was a little too angry. Should have tried that in the first five minutes. 

When we got to the front of the line, we rejoiced! Made happy conversation with the visa and customs men. Got our baggage and exited the building where lo and behold was yet another glorious sign with the name “Marcus Montana” on it. Complimentary hotel pick up! Once again you make my day! 

Our hotel was arranged by Marcus’s trekking company, a smelly old place whose cleanliness was questionable. Though the toilet had a flushing lever, it didn’t work. There was a knob to turn instead, a toilet novelty for this one. The wi-fi mostly worked (except when the power went out). The best thing about this place was the food. They took ages in preparing it, but I again take that to mean that it’s prepared from scratch. The food was varied, delicious, and our first exposure to Nepalese food. Dumplings (called momos) made of water buffalo. Loving the buff momos. Fresh curries with very different flavors to the curries we’ve eaten over the last few months. Tibetan butter tea—I’m not sure what kind of tea it is, I couldn’t even taste the tea, but it has milk, butter and salt added to it. It reminds me of mac and cheese, strangely. Herby, spiced tofu morsels; potato and cheese balls; thick soup with hand-pulled noodles. I’m finally starting to indulge in some chilly-weathered, autumn food.  

The day we arrived and the day after were quite cloudy and rainy. We walked through Thamel, the tourist neighborhood, the first night checking out our surroundings. And man is it touristy. Every single shop is targeted at tourists with the majority selling trekking gear with a lot of fake North Face, Mammut and other such outdoorsy brands. (I bought some fleecy North Fake pants for $4—awesome). There are also souvenir shops selling statues, masks, prayer wheels, prayer beads, cashmere scarves and sweaters, yak wool blankets, and felted items galore. Many shops called to me. I answered the call of one, justifying the purchase with the fact that I’ll need another pair of pants to do yoga in. One pair simply won’t do, so now I have a very roomy, hippy pair of travelers pants.  

 

The next day Marcus joined in on the purchases collecting the last items he’ll need for the trek. Including hiking boots. They’re certainly fake, but they look pretty awesome and Marcus said they’re pretty comfortable! A fleece hat and gloves were also necessary. Other than browsing and bartering our way through the souvenir shops, we also walked around the closer parts of the city looking at temples. I’m starting to think I should know a lot more about Hindu gods and their many incarnations.  

 

 We happened to arrive in Nepal during the biggest festival of the year, Dashain (it’s equivalent to the Indian Diwali). It’s a 15-day celebration of the gods and goddess’s defeat over evil with people paying homage to Durga, the divine mother goddess. Animal sacrifice is a big part of the celebrations, and though we didn’t see any sacrifices, we did see a few goats that must have been headed in that direction. What we did see were people wearing brightly-colored clothing, men wearing traditional hats called topis that look sort of like the old folded military caps, and many people with chunky red spots on their foreheads (which we found out was made of vermilion, yogurt and rice). Early that morning our foreheads were attacked with red paint by a religious man whose face was covered with yellow, white and red paint. We were excited until he told us afterward we had to pay for it. Should’ve known.  

Because so many people were celebrating, the city was much quieter than usual which meant that a lot of shops and restaurants were closed, but it also meant we could walk along the streets more safely (I think the drivers here are much more reckless than those in SE Asia) and we didn’t have to constantly say no to people coming up to sell us things. We felt pretty lucky. 

 

Our third day, Marcus went off on a tour with his trekking group and I, for the first time in months, sat down and blogged all day. Hence the previous three or four posts going up in such quick succession. It was a quiet day, but nice after moving around so much. We went out for a last round-up of trekking supplies, then packed ourselves up for our individual adventures. After having spent literally every day together for the last two+ months, it will be strange to be apart for two weeks. But I’m sure we’ll both appreciate our paths. And appreciate each other a little more afterward as well. J