The Wandering Chocoholic

Kathmandu, Nepal

“That’s where I’m goin to Kathmandu
Up to the mountains where I’m going to
If I ever get out of here
That’s what I’m gonna do”
-Bob Seger

Namaste from Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu!

The name Kathmandu evokes all sorts of ideas in the west — an exotic mountainous destination full of spiritualism and wonder. Well, Kathmandu is surrounded by mountains — some pretty famous ones at that. And it does have plenty of spiritualism and wonder. But it also has lots of cars, trucks, dust, noise, traffic and chaos. It’s no Delhi or Varanasi by any means, but it’s also a jolt back to reality after the peace and serenity of Nepal so far.

The long and winding roads

Yet another early start today. I’m getting a bit tired of being awake before the sunrise. We bought breakfast off a croissant and pastry vendor who came to the hotel, and boarded our purple bus for one last travel day.

Today’s drive from Pokhara to Kathmandu was our longest yet. It took us nearly eight hours to navigate the 200 km distance. The road conditions were, on the whole, not too bad, except in a couple of places. But the going is slow on the windy mountain roads, and the last hour into Kathmandu was log-jammed with traffic.

So it was pretty much just a bus day today. Which may have been a good thing, considering the state of some of the tour members. It turns out it was Adi’s birthday yesterday, and some of the girls took him out and got him some tequila shots. Quite a lot of tequila shots. Enough tequila shots that he spent most of the day passed out asleep on the bus. A few of the others were feeling a bit rough today, too, and there was a bout of bus sickness going around. I felt fine, but the bumpy roads combined with some people’s various illnesses and hangovers made for a pretty terrible combination.

The day wasn’t that exciting. We slept on the bus. We snapped photos out the window. We stopped a couple of times, for coffee, lunch and bathroom breaks. Mostly, we just watched the scenery go by.

Monkey business

Mid afternoon we made it nearly to Kathmandu and stopped to visit Swayambhunath, which is better known as the Monkey Temple. It’s an ancient temple originally built in the 5th century, and since reconstructed multiple times over, most recently after the earthquake. The nickname Monkey Temple is for the obvious reason: Monkeys, monkeys everywhere! The temple itself is up on a hill and has a lovely stupa. It also has a ton of souvenir shops, hawkers and the usual hoopla surrounding tourist spots.

We spent about a half hour checking out the temple and grounds. Des and Kaija found some puppies to make friends with, and I was half convinced they’d want to take them with us on the bus. The monkeys, on the other hand, were far less cute; they’re aggressive and ready to pounce on anyone with food.

Dinner in Kathmandu

We checked into our hotel, which is in the touristy Thamel neighbourhood of Kathmandu. There are conveniences all around here — shops, ATMs, restaurants, pubs — and there isn’t much evidence of earthquake damage right here.

Dinner was our last “official” group dinner, at a garden restaurant just down the road from the hotel. I say official, because most of us are still here at least another day. But technically the tour ends tomorrow morning. We ate, we drank, and we got birthday cake for Adi. Then it was an early night, because tomorrow is — you guessed it — another early wake-up.

We’re in the home stretch now. More from Kathmandu tomorrow!