Second day in Kathmandu

This morning I went for an early walk to Swayambhunath Stupa, commonly known as the Monkey Temple.  Armed with a hand-drawn map and a sense of adventure, I decided to walk there rather than take a taxi.  Kathmandu wakes up late, so at 8am, the streets were calm and pleasant.  In the way there, I met a very nice monk that told me about Nepalese politics and how the Maoist grabed power and changed the country from a monarchy to a democracy. 

After a 25 minutes walk, I was at the bottom of the steep steps that lead to the temple.  The temple is well known by the large troop of monkeys that patrol it.  The monkeys are a pleasure to look at, jumping all over, showing their climbing skills by using the praying flags and making use of the many pools in the lower part of the temple.  They can be aggressive towards people with food, but as I didn't  have any, they just ignored me.

The temple complex is bigger than it looks, with several levels, many shrines, and a monastery.  In one of the shrines, a flag seller invited me to enter Shantipur which translate as the House of Peace.  The temple is just a locked door surrounded by frescos.  The flag seller told me that the door leads to two other locked doors that protect an underground chamber where a Tantric master lives since the 8th century.  The Tantric master keeps alive thanks to his meditation techniques.  He also has control over the weather, so in times of drought, the king will enter the chamber and ask the master for a mandala (scroll) to command the weather.  The moment that the mandala is shown to the sky, clouds will gather and it will start to rain.

After visiting the temple, I came back to the hotel for a bit of a rest.  The walk back was very different as it was time for kids to go to school, so they were thousands of children in school uniforms walking the streets.

Next I went for a "random walk" on the medieval streets south of Thamel.  It was an amazing experience and a reminder of what makes Kathmandu an interesting city. Just around every corner there is a shrine.  Very few are signed, but the ones that I was able to located on my book date from as further back as the 5th century.  The sculptures in some of the shrines would be major pieces of art in any western museum.

After finding my way out of the maze of streets, I headed back again to the hotel for my introductory meeting with the Intrepid group with whom I'll be spending the next 2 week...  It turned that it will be 4 Australian girls and me. 

After the meeting, we headed to KEEP, a NGO that tries to minimize the impact of trekkers on the mountain environment.  Most of the presentation was a rehash of Minimum Impact but they were some interesting comments about Sherpa and Nepalese culture (never point with your feet, don't walk on any "clean" surface, receive or hands things using both hands or your right hand).

I then headed to Durbar square.  One of the main attractions of Kathmandu.  This is an amazing square that reminds me of a square in a medieval European city.  From the maze of tiny streets, you suddenly arrive to a large square with multiple temples.  If you don't look Nepalese, you will be asked to pay about $4 to tour the square (if you have a passport picture, you can trade the ticket for a visitor pass that is valid for the length of your stay; or without a picture, you can get a 3 day pass for any three consecutive days of your choosing). 

I hired a local guide that gave me an excellent description of each of the temples and a rare sighting of the Living Goddess.  The current Living Goddess is a little girl just 4 years old.  She is believed to be the incarnation of the goddess Taleju and she is selected by testing her under 32 different criteria, including beauty, intelligence, and courage.  Her status of Living Goddess ends when she reverts to be just a human by having her first menstruation. 

Tomorrow I'm heading to the mountains with a very early flight to Lukla and a 3-hour hike to Phakding.  I'm not sure about Internet access during the next two weeks, but I'll update the blog as often as I can.

Kathmandu

Namaste.  Welcome to Nepal.  I finally arrived...

My flight from Bangkok landed on time in Kathmandu.  I didn't get the Nepalese visa in advance, so I had to go to the Visa On Arrival line.  Despite the warnings about long waits, it wasn't too bad, it took just under 20 minutes.  Something that nobody mentions is that in addition to the $40 fee, you need a passport picture to get the visa (fortunately I brought several passport pictures as I knew they were required for the trekking permit).  At the airport, a van from the hotel was waiting for me and after a longish wait for three other passengers that were in the same flight, we headed into Kathmandu.  My first impression wasn't that great.  Kathmandu is an extremely polluted, dirty, and noisy city.  Motorcycles and cars sound their horn all the time and the lack of sidewalks mean that you are surrounded by a pandemonium of people, bikes, motorcycles, cars, cows, and dogs.  Lonely planet warns about a sensory overload when arriving at Kathmandu, they were not kidding. 

After checking in at the Kathmandu Guest House (a historical lodge with a lot of character), I headed out for a walking tour.  I stopped at the Kaiser Library which is an old building with historical paintings and photographs from the 19th century and early 20th century.  The place is a fascinating portrait of Nepal under the colonial influence of Great Britain.  From there, I was walking to one of the temples, when  I was "approached" by a buddhist scholar that wanted to show me his temple.  I tried to get rid of him, but he stuck to me as I was walking to Thahiti Tole (which turned to be his temple).  He started explaining things to me and he turned to be a pretty competent guide, so I hired him for the rest of the day (he asked initially $80, we ended agreeing on $20). 

With my guide, I visited Bouddhanath, the largest stupa in Nepal.  The place is remarkable as a tiny entrance opens into a huge courtyard with the stupa in the middle.  A stupa is a large dome, topped by a representation of Nirvana with the eyes of Buddha painted on it.

Then, we went to Panchadeval, a Hindu temple to Lord Shiva.  This is a very strange place.  There was a cremation going on by the river while monkeys were frolicking in the water.  In a different area, Holy men were sitting around and they were very willing to start a conversation with anybody who cares to listen.  There is also a fertility temple with very explicit wood carvings and hundreds of Linga where people wishing for fertility make offerings of rice and milk.

We finished the day by going to Kopan Monastery, famous because it was founded by the Dalai Lama and for being the home of more than 10,000 Buddha. The monastery is a working place of meditation and study full of monks on colorful robes.  The monastery overlooks Kathmandu and it would have been a very nice view if it were not for the thick layer of pollution covering the city.

We then headed back to my hotel where I was surprised by the taxi driver turning off the meter and starting to re-negotiate the cost of the ride due to the fuel shortage in the city (they were actually hundreds of cars lined up waiting to fill gas in every gas station we passed).  To my surprise, he started at $60.  I ended paying about $30 which according to the hotel desk is about $5 more than it should have been, so I didn't do too badly (I'm a horrible negotiator). 

Overall a pretty nice day and a great introduction to Kathmandu and its very rich heritage.

Departure Day

After all the preparation, departure day finally arrived.  It's kind of cool to to be blogging from seat 30A at 35000ft.  Too bad I have to wait until I land in Japan to post this. 

Today is going to be a long day...  11 hours to Japan, 2 hours layover, 6.5 hours to Bangkok, 11 hours layover, and then finally 4 hours to Kathmandu.

Some people asked me how did I pack for the next 5 weeks.  My packing list is simple as I'm trying to travel with just a carry-on (an REI Grand Tour pack).  Here is a list of what I'm bringing:

• Travel Documents
• Travel books: Trekking the Himalayas, Moon Thailand, and Frommer's Japan.  Plus some selected copies from Lonely Planet and Hiking in Japan.
• Clothing for 7 days.  I'm planning on doing laundry.
• Sunglasses, sun hat, and flip flops
• Warm sweater, thermal underwear, and a warm hat for the mountains.
• Toiletries
• Sleeping bag and sleeping mat (I debated long about bringing them).  Hiking shoes.  Iodine pills. 
• HP Netbook for blogging
• Electronics: Android Phone, Garmin Vista, SPOT Locator.
• Photography: Canon SD850, Canon Rebel XSI and lots of memory cards. 
• An assortment of cables and adapters to keep everything charged (Japan uses US-like plugs, Thailand uses Euro-like plugs, and Nepal uses India-like plugs)

Next update when I get to Nepal.

My itinerary

Google has a wonderful sabbatical program that allows employees to take 2 months off every 5 years. This is an unpaid leave, but all the other benefits continue. I passed the 5 year mark, so I decided to take advantage of it. Very soon, I'll be leaving for a trip and I'm planning to keep this blog updated with my progress. Here is my tentative itinerary:

• Apr 24: Last day at work
  
• Apr 26-Apr 29: in the way to Kathmandu
• Apr 29-May 19: trekking in Nepal
• May 19-May 28: Thailand
• May 28-Jun 05: Japan
• Jun 05- Jun 08: Back to the San Francisco Bay Area
• Jun 08 - Jun 23: Galapagos
• Jun 23 - Jun 28: Diving with my brother in Key West
• June 29: Back to work!

If you want to know where I'm heading, don't forget to subscribe for updates or follow the blog.