Kathmandu

 

We got to Kathmandu extremely tired, we’d met a few people on the bus (An Italian fella who made ice cream and an American girl…. I think)  who’d been to Nepal before and decided to follow their lead. We booked in to the Thamel White Lotus Guest House. A simple 4 story guesthouse with rooms varying in size, we got a 3 bed with an ensuite, but more on that later…. Thamel is the backpacker district of Kathmandu, with tall 4 story buildings towering above small alleyways. Full of shops selling trekking equipment and novelty hats as well as a few bars dotted about. We were really tired after the long and cramped journey so we took a few hours to rest before going out to explore Kathmandu.

Our first stop, as always, was food. After the spectacular cuisine of India we had high expectations for Nepal. Our first stop was a cheap and cheerful cafe, from the outside the place looked crap, and it didn’t get much better inside, but we’d learnt to not judge a book by it’s cover, and we were hungry. We all had chilli momo and we were blown away. Momo are basically dumplings, and with this particular dish smothered in a delicious chilli sauce. An excellent start. We watched a friendly bee fly around the restaurant for a bit. We named him John the Bee and watched as he got into a little bit of trouble involving a dusty corner and what could only be described of the bee equivalent on walking out of a bathroom with a whole load of toilet roll connected to your shoe. Stepping on the toilet roll only causes the toilet roll to stick to the other foot. We’re not entirely sure what happened to John the Bee, but I doubt it was a happy ending…. avoid dusty corners kids….. silly John.

We followed that with a night on the town, we met up with our two friends from the bus and went to the nearest bar. We hadn’t a proper night out in a while, and this place had a live band and was really buzzing. It was a great night. A definite highlight was shouting along “Are you going to be my girl?” by Jet after the power went off mid way through the the song….. that didn’t stop us.

The next day we really started to get a picture of what Nepal would really be like. When we woke up all the power was out, apart from one light. We asked the friendly workers at the guesthouse and quickly found out this was very much the norm. For a large majority of the time there is no power and generators are run, creating enough power to run the base essentials. No hot water, just a light, and a shit light at that – this is the type of travelling I like. That said, we were three young men with raging hangovers and consequently in dire need of the bathroom. We quickly discovered that the ensuite was an understatement. A handy vent acted like a tanoy system for the other roommates. Bowel movements were broadcast for the masses and of course put under the most rigouress scrutiny, leading to infectious outbursts of hysterics and again, a consequential need for the toilet. A vicious circle, a downward spiral, a place of no return; A place where great friendships were forged.

The lack of power made for some interesting situations. We ended up investing in a very basic gadget that converted a lightbulb socket into a plug socket. Because generators gave power to one light bulb it was possible to turn that lightbulb socket into a plug socket. Matt also invested in a heating element (the inside of a kettle) to make cups of tea with. This led to me sitting in the dark, with a long cable hanging dangerously from the ceiling, trying to heat a large bucket of water with a heating element. After about 20 minutes of swirling the water I tested the water; It was luke warm and had a rather large electrical current running through it., that was the day I learnt how a heating element worked. 

We spent quite a few days in Kathmandu. While we were there it was Robs birthday, we booked in to a nicer hotel for the night and got a really good nights rest – probably the first good sleep we had since we began the trip. We also went out a few more times, ended up drinking with some sort of oil baron who was very excited to buy us all drinks. I went and got my visa extension from the visa office and we also got our trekking stuff and passes. Kathmandu has hundreds of trekking shops, I would definitely stress that you get what you pay for though – read the Annapurna Sanctuary post to see why….

We took a little time to check out Kathmandu, the main square is home to a few pagodas and monuments. It was nice weather so we watched the world go by and also pigeons causing havok – pigeons are the same everywhere……

Eventually we were ready to head to Pokhara and to think about our trek. We jumped on another cramped Nepalese bus and headed onwards….