One day in Kathmandu

We arrived in Kathmandu at around 11:00 pm and had to go through the business of obtaining a 30 day tourist visa at the airport before we could go through immigration. This is supposed to be a fairly straight forward procedure which consists of filling out two forms, providing a passport photo and paying $40 USD each. We had our visa pasted into our passports and exchanged just enough money  to pay for a taxi and a few extras at a very overworked money changing booth . As our turn came around, there was an electrical power failure which fortunately was short lived and everyone around us laughed and said “ Welcome to Nepal”. 

It’s easy to catch a taxi ride from the airport which cost around 800 rupees to the Thamel district. A salesman who tried to sell everything from a trekking guide service to a city tour guide service and beyond, jumped into the taxi alongside us and performed a nonstop sales pitch to us the entire journey. We politely thanked him and said that we would think about everything and he certainly used fear mongering to make us think we would need a guide and/ or porter for our hike.

I must add a lesson that I have recently learned here. The word Sherpa does not mean “ porter”. Sherpas are a race of people, and yes, many Sherpas are porters but someone who carries your gear may come from a different ethnic group and they are therefore not Sherpas but porters. People erroneously call porters Sherpas. We however would like to carry our own backpacks and are going it alone. We realize that hiring a porter is a source of income for the Nepalese people but we will be providing income by eating and sleeping at tea houses along the way. 

After a fabulous breakfast in the Buddha Peace Garden Restaurant at the Hotel Buddha we had booked into, we took a walk through the streets of Thamel to commence our hiking preparedness chores for the day. There was no difficulty changing money at all and we were quite amazed by the narrow prayer flag lined streets and the insane sight of the Nepalese power grid... these electricians must be miracle workers!

Next up was purchasing an outer shell jacket, gloves and a Nepalese woolen hat for Two Feathers which was amazingly inexpensive all amounting to $45 USD for knock off North Face brand products which look and feel like the real thing.

We hired a taxi driver to take us to the Board of Tourism where we had to apply for our two hiking permits, one for entry to the Annapurna Conservation Area and the TIMS permit ( Trekkers Information Management System) which you cannot obtain without proof of travel insurance. Each permit cost 2000 rupees ( $20 USD).

It was here that we discovered that the person responsible for filling out Dreadknot’s 30 day visa had made a mistake and had only given him a 15 Day visa expiry date. We figured that we should resolve the issue right away to avoid problems down the line and made our way to the immigration department where we had to go through a hellishly slow third world bureaucratic experience to have the expiry date changed... but it was eventually done and we received a lesson in patience.

Once we had all the important business out of the way we could be tourists for the day and we experienced the vibrant and fascinating Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square and larger district on foot taking in the sights and sounds of the very lively and bustling heart of the ancient part of the city of Kathmandu. 

Stray dogs are very prevalent but they are all quite sleepy and hang around the shrines napping. Street vendors are abundant and the store fronts lining the narrow single lane roadways that meander through the city are bursting with every type of artifact and consumer item you can imagine from brass goblets to saris and ornate daggers to name but a few.

The square is a complex of beautiful temples and shrines, both Hindu and Buddhist. Most of them are built in the pagoda style, embellished with intricately carved exteriors between the 12th and 18th centuries. This is where kings of Nepal we’re crowned and it is now a living museum we’re people go about their daily lives amidst the crumbling buildings and heritage sites.

We happened to be there during a lively street festival which included, singing, chanting, shouting, drumming and the playing of other instruments. Some of the participants looked like they were in a trance-like state and some looked as though they had worked themselves into a frenzy.

Lunch was Nepalese curry on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the ancient city.

It was fascinating to see how many of the ancient buildings damaged during the earthquake of 2015 were being propped up with wall-bracing beams of wood and the painstaking business of preservation and restoration of these beautiful structures is underway. The entire area has been declared a world heritage site.

Back at Hotel Buddha we are repacking our packs and preparing for the vigorous journey ahead. Hopefully we’ll get a good night of sleep but if last night was anything to go by, we are not in luck due to the vast amounts of noise coming from the streets. 

Namaste and thank you for joining us on our journey which will take us way out of our comfort zone and up into the Himalayas: roof of the world.