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Other entries in Kathmandu

Relaxin' in Nepal

We spent 2 days in the border town of Zhangmu, Tibet afer finally catching a ride from Shegar!!  We met 3 other people to share a land cruiser with while hanging out and flagging down EVERY vehicle that happened by.  As our group began to grow, we realized that this would be a very crowded ride to the border, but would cut the coss down as well.  After10 hours of waiting, all 5 of us finally got a ride in a land cruiser for $7/each.   Needless to say that the ride was squishy and after 6 hours we were ready to pour oursleves out of the vehicle.  Unfortunately, the driver that we hired had just returned from another all day drive when he took us on.  He was tired and probably hungry and this was supposed to be a very dangerous road to take even in the daytime.  Thankfully one of our group was a Chinese guy who could speak to the driver and help to keep him occupied and awake during the journey.  After about 3 hours, 3 checkpoints later and about 2000metres of vertical climb, the driver decided that a "short cut" was in order.  Of course none of us knew what he said, but when he started to slow down and started to turn to the left going WAY down the mountain in the dark of night, we kinda got the picture and all screamed "NOOOOOO!".  That's when our Chinese friend asked the driver what was going on and we were told that the driver wanted to take a shortcut down the mountainside and end up at an ajoining road.  That's when Andre said he had seen too many "shortcuts"at night turn into cliffs drop offs and since we were paying, he was going to stick to the assigned roads, especially at midnight!  It was a little insane at that point.........

Eventually we made it to Zhangmu and we all got out to check out the first place we saw.  Very damp sheets and open windows to the mozzies was not our cup of tea as we also didn't have a sleeping bag and no blankets were provided -  we opted to check out a better place to stay.  The second place we looked at had people sleeping in the hallways, we made a comment about it being a flop house and left.  The third place we saw at 1:30am was the Sherpa Hotel and for 150RMB ($15) we checked into a very clean and well kept place.  The guy even offered to open up the restaurant for us if we were hungry!  We just went straight to bed.

The next morning we were surprised to see that Zhangmu was so beautifuL!  The huge green mountainsides just thrust up into the sky and there was greenery all around.  It was unfortunate that we had to drive through the night as we missed the awesome scenery along the way......Since the streets were full of western restaurants and bars, we were really excited to get out there and have our fill of something more than rice!  We were not disappointed!  We decided to stay for another day since the place was such a welcome respite from the quiet of Tibet......who woulda thunk it?

We made tentative plans to meet up with our friends at the border and cross together so that we could once again share the cost of a ride, this time into Kathmandu.  The border crossing here was wild!  We were never really sure if and when we had crossed the 'line' other than when we crossed the Friendship Bridge.  But anything after that was complete and total confusion.  Of course, there was nothing to fear as we were soon befriended by a local who followed us around and  pointed us to the appropriate office.  It's always bitter-sweet to have someone like that along.  You know that they'll want something, but without them, you may not get a clue as to where and when and what is going on!  So after getting our passports stamped we continued along the VERY congested road, filled wih the most colorful people I have every seen!  The women are stunning and their clothing is every color you can imagine all glowing at once!  It was such a site I was in complete awe!  We walked and walked looking for the bus station that was supposed to be here.  We only found dilapitated buses, minivans, tons of people in many lines all waiting to board various modes of transporation.  We were yelled at and told we had to buy this bus ticket, or buy that bus ticket....then we would walk a few feet and another person would befriend us and tell us we should go here to buy this bus ticket.  We were told that some buses are only for tourists as they take the least amount of time at the many checkpoints along the way......and we should be buying that ticket.....As we didn't have a Tibet travel book, we really weren't sure what we should be doing so took our time, while waiting for our friends and also to take in the sites and the smells of this new country.  And the SMELLS were the absolute BEST part.  After SE Asia, this place was absolute heaven!  Curries in the air everywhere!  What a way to be welcomed to a country! 

We eventually ended up walking down the hill, only to come back up in the blazing heat once we realized our best bet for getting out of here was in the confusion we first faced.  That was the other thing.  The temp was so different here than at the 4000meters of Tibet.....we were melting again!  As we made our very slow ascent again, we were asked if we wanted a ride in a landcruiser.  We said we would pay 1000Rupies to Kathmandu for 2 people and he said ok at which point we realized we weren't going to be able to wait for our friends any longer.....(as it turned out, we later met them in Kathmandu and they didn't leave until the next day anyhow).   So for about $15 and 4 hours later, we arrived in Thamel, Kathmandu.....confusion city!

We got out and started walking in the wrong direction, asked someone for help, they called our hotel for us to get directions and then took us there.....It was great to be in a country where people speak English again!!!!  We have now been in Kathmandu for 3 weeks and 3 days.  The rainy season was upon us as soon as we arrived.  It rains every day but we don't care since we just finished a huge trek in Tibet and were up for some R&R.  Even though we haven't done any trekking since we arrived because of the weather, we found a gym that we made a second home - and we sweat and sweat at 30degC and no aircon and about 200% humidity! but then we run back to the comfort of our HBO and ultra-cold air-con!  We eat curries as much as our bellies can take and have become hermits inside the confines of the Kathmandu Guesthouse where you can't hear a horn blaring as hard as you may try!   Now we're moving on (finally) and will go to the place in Nepal that gets the most rain out of anywhere around - Pokhara - yay!  BUT we'll also have the most amazing views there too!  We plan to do some mountain biking and trekking if the rain holds off a little longer......

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