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Reisavontuur: Maddness in Kathmandu
| Avonturier(s): | Booz |
| Continent: | Azie |
| Land: | Nepal |
| Aanvang: | 7 Juni 2003 |
| Einde: | 17 Juni 2003 |
 fter an awesome flight in a very small
airplane with only 12 passenger seats and a takeoff from the 200mtr
long Lukla Airstrip we arrived in Katmandu at 7.30 in the morning. At
around 8.00 we checked in in hotel Ganesh-Himal which is run by the
oncle of a guy who happens to work for Mark in Australia, so we both
got a double de-luxe suite for the prive of a standard single room. The
hotel really is marvelous, marble floors, fontaines, a big garden and
rooms wih airco, hot water and bath and satellite television, 24/7 room
service and this all for a few dollars a night, way to go ! After a few
weeks of trekking with no showers, the same menu everyday and heavy
walks this felt like heaven immediately. Directly after we checked in,
I took a hot shower and tried shaving myself which was actually pretty
hard, I had to cut of the hairs with my nailscissors first, before my
specially saved Gilette Mach3 shaving blades would have any function.
Anyway after long time the bathroom was full wit hairs and I finally
got rid of the beard and was really happy about it, since I didnt like
the thing at all, it's itchy and looks weird but luckily I didnt see
that :-)
At 11.00 we were sitting on the terrace of the Kathmandu Guesthouse
having fruitsalades, sandwiches, chicken massalas and beers and we
felt like we were the ancient Rome having this giant bachinal feast and
a few hours later we probably were drunk, but i can't recall that ...
The next day we decided to get lost in one of the gettos of Kathmandu,
at least try to get lost, since Kathmandu isn't really that big. We
have been walking whole day through the outskirts of the city and saw
daily live of the people who live in this city, cows running around the
dirty streets, million of waterbottles in the nearly dried up river
which floats through the city, loads of religious sites, altars on
every corner of the street and children either working or playing, old
women washing and dead people burning at the Ghats near the river. We
ate at a very local reastaurant were they slaughter the chicken in
front of your eyes and saw a million other things that were amazing in
our eyes. In the late afternoon we got back in Thamel, the part of the
city where most of the tourists stay. Thamel is a funky and vivid
neighbourhood, of just a few blocks full with shouting advertisements
for restaurants and clubs, horning cars, cracking rikshaws and a lot of
people who wanna sell you things. Of course we ended up on a terrace
again. the few days afterwards were pretty intensive, we visited every
single touristic site there was in the neighbourhood of Kathmandu and
saw a lot of the city, in the night we discovered the Kathamndu's
touristic nightlife by going to pubs and clubs till late in the
morning, and due to the guys who work for our hotel we also got
involved in the local nightlife, they took us to bars and clubs far
from the centre of Thamel where we were the only westerns ever been
there. Those evenings were really the most fun of all. After Mark left
back to Australia last week I just kept on doing the same thing we were
doing before. Sleeping late every day, waking up with a good movie,
having breakfast around 14.00 and meet people in the evening for having
a beer or just watch movies. After 2 weeks this gets a little boring by
now, and is also getting pretty tiring but still seems fun to do, every
day you meet other people and another oportunities will pop up just
when you have made a desciscion to do something else. For example, I
bought myself a bus-ticket to Pokhara 2 days ago but then I got invited
to come to a wedding of the cousin of a girl I met here, and right now
they are making a suit for me so that I look slick enough :-) So the
plan for now is that I go to the wedding tonight, and leave to the
little village of Dulche tommorrow morning at 6.00 to do a part of the
Lantang trek and afterwards do a 5 day course of wildwater kayakking,
but then again, maybe things change anyway. I still didnt finish my
previous trekking stories but I got them al written down. thought it
would be better just continuing from Kathmandu since I dont write much
here :-) I probably forgot to tell a lot about past 2 weeks but
basically Kathmandu is jus a madplace, the weirdest situation I have
been in ever and with the nicest locals I met. It's just a madhouse
here and everyone should come over to Kathamndu at least once in their
lives :-)
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