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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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