Finally Kathmandu!

Not too tired-looking considering I had been traveling over 35 hours......flight from Hong Kong to Kathmandu.

After the long trip, I finally made it to Kathmandu, arriving about 1100 pm. Despite the chaos at the airport, my traveling companions and I managed to get our visas and find the right people to take us to our hotel. Before leaving the airport, I had a nice interaction with a nun who had been on our plane. I first met her while on the plane, in the bathroom line of all places. She spoke no English and possibly was from Hong Kong. While 'talking' in the line, we seemed to form a bond although no words were spoken. (I should say no words were understood by either of us) While in the customs line in Kathmandu airport, she gave me a bracelet with a really cool bead on it and a woven charm to put on my backpack. We communicated through gestures and lots of smiles. I'm guessing she was on a religious pilgrimage, as this is a popular reason for buddhists to travel to Nepal. That bracelet is now one of my most precious possessions from my trip and has remained on my wrist since that night. Despite the language barrier, our connection felt very special.



I wonder what her name is...

I didn't sleep much that first night in Kathmandu, with a time difference of about 14 hours from home and lots of extra energy swirling around my body in anticipation of my upcoming trek. The next morning, after meeting some of our fellow trekkers, we headed into Thamel, the major shopping district in Kathmandu. It was quite a shock to take in this part of the city after traveling for so long and being so jet-lagged. The streets of Thamel are bustling with nonstop activity, sounds, shops, hotels, pubs, restaurants in every direction, as well as jam-packed with lots of traffic. You can pretty much find anything you need there.



Crazy Thamel

One of our guides, gave us a quick lesson in walking on the Thamel streets to help keep us from being hit by a car or motorcycle (no sidewalks!) Vehicles there are constantly beeping their horns for all sorts of reasons. The rules for beeping and what the beeps mean are WAY different than in the US. Simply moving the wrong direction out of the way of a horn could easily result in being hit by a car. Thanks Danika!

Unlike the US and other places, where prices are set, items for sale in Thamel are always negotiable. Although I didn't feel very comfortable with the whole price bartering thing at first, by the end of my trip, I think I was doing pretty well. I even made some pretty good deals once I got into the swing of things. A word of advice: NEVER buy something for the first price they give you. It's always more than they expect to receive.



Religious men wheel 'sacred cows' through the streets of Thamel. With music blaring, they requested donations in order to touch the animals and receive a blessing. One of the cows was adorned with a fake appendage, probably belonging to a chicken. They claimed it was a fifth leg.



Sitting in her mother's arms, a young girl watches the traffic of Thamel from a public bus.



A short video to give you an idea of what it's like to travel through the streets of Thamel.

In my next post I'll show you some of the holy sites around Kathmandu.
Thanks for stopping by!