Kathmandu - 3/5/1999
| TRAVELS WITH MOM - Table of Contents |
Our first email from Nepal, sent from Kathmandu son March 5, 1999:
We're in Kathmandu, checked in to Kathmandu Guest House. Mom is asleep, and I've been enjoying 22-oz Kingfisher beers at the bar for merely 90 rupees ($1.40) apiece. And I finally got a chance to have one of those Lars Teten cigars I brought along, since the bar's outdoors.
Our flight out of Bangkok on Royal Nepal Airlines was, of course, late. As it turns out, though, that wasn't all bad. We spent a while talking to some Israeli boys who were going to try to get from Kathmandu into Tibet, and Mom gave them some tips on the Tibetan visa regulations, which they wrote down for reference, like the fact that you have to at least pretend to be part of an organized group. She also tried to tell them about how to avoid altitude sickness, but these guys were jocks and one of them said "oh, that won't be a problem for us." I smiled at that, because I remember that some of Mom's much younger and better-conditioned traveling companions said things like "you're so damn healthy" when they went to Tibet in '93 – they'll have to live and learn, I guess.
The announcements on the PA system were mostly indecipherable, but I liked the way they loaded us on the plane in the middle of a powerful thunderstorm and then a voice said "the pilot believes that it will be most safe if we wait half hour for takeoff, thanks for patience." Meanwhile, I tightened some loose screws on the tray table in front of Mom's seat (finally got to use that all-in-one tool I took along).
Taking off from Bangkok was interesting to a golfer like me, because there's a golf course between two of the runways and the golfers actually walk across one of the taxiways to get from one hole to another. I can't imagine that in the U.S. – the insurance would probably be a bit pricey. I took a photo of a guy pulling a pull-cart across the runway right ahead of our 757.
Another nice thing about the delayed flight was that we got into Kathmandu right at dusk, and the orange light added to the surreal nature of this place. I know that some of the people you're forwarding these e-mails to have been here before, so I won't gush too much, but this place is INTENSE. The streets are very narrow, much color and noise, motorcycles doing 40 between pedestrians 3-4 feet apart, cars almost touching all the time, etc, etc. Mom tells me that it will be like this throughout India as well. Cool. I feel like a country bumpkin for thinking that Cambodia was weird -- Cambodia was merely different, but this place is truly weird. "If I ever get out of here, I'm going to Kathmandu" ... Bob Seger was on the right track, by golly.
Kathmandu Guest House is very nice, a peaceful oasis in the midst of the tourist chaos of the Thamel area. We have a first-floor room facing the garden in the middle of their compound, and our room is old, small, crude, and very comfortable. They take customer service very seriously here, though, and at $30 per night we're being pampered more than you get for several times that price back home in the U.S.
Tomorrow morning we have arranged for a taxi to take us to Dakshinkali, where the ritual animal sacrifices happen on Saturday mornings. Then on Sunday we're going to take a 2-hour trek through the Kathmandu Valley (from Nagarkot to Bhaktapur), which was Mom's idea. I keep telling her that she's an old lady and should act her age, but she just smiles and does whatever she wants to do. At least I come by it naturally (g).
Oh yeah, one other thing ... we saw Mount Everest from the plane, which was pretty cool. After reading Krakauer and Boukreev's books, I must admit it gave me a chill.
As it turned out, that was our only glimpse of Everest on this trip. Occasional glimpses of the Himalayas up to the north reminded us it was nearby for the next week, but we never saw it again.
More later, I have to go take one more walk before calling it a night.
- ### -
We're in Kathmandu, checked in to Kathmandu Guest House. Mom is asleep, and I've been enjoying 22-oz Kingfisher beers at the bar for merely 90 rupees ($1.40) apiece. And I finally got a chance to have one of those Lars Teten cigars I brought along, since the bar's outdoors.
Our flight out of Bangkok on Royal Nepal Airlines was, of course, late. As it turns out, though, that wasn't all bad. We spent a while talking to some Israeli boys who were going to try to get from Kathmandu into Tibet, and Mom gave them some tips on the Tibetan visa regulations, which they wrote down for reference, like the fact that you have to at least pretend to be part of an organized group. She also tried to tell them about how to avoid altitude sickness, but these guys were jocks and one of them said "oh, that won't be a problem for us." I smiled at that, because I remember that some of Mom's much younger and better-conditioned traveling companions said things like "you're so damn healthy" when they went to Tibet in '93 – they'll have to live and learn, I guess.
The announcements on the PA system were mostly indecipherable, but I liked the way they loaded us on the plane in the middle of a powerful thunderstorm and then a voice said "the pilot believes that it will be most safe if we wait half hour for takeoff, thanks for patience." Meanwhile, I tightened some loose screws on the tray table in front of Mom's seat (finally got to use that all-in-one tool I took along).
Taking off from Bangkok was interesting to a golfer like me, because there's a golf course between two of the runways and the golfers actually walk across one of the taxiways to get from one hole to another. I can't imagine that in the U.S. – the insurance would probably be a bit pricey. I took a photo of a guy pulling a pull-cart across the runway right ahead of our 757.
Another nice thing about the delayed flight was that we got into Kathmandu right at dusk, and the orange light added to the surreal nature of this place. I know that some of the people you're forwarding these e-mails to have been here before, so I won't gush too much, but this place is INTENSE. The streets are very narrow, much color and noise, motorcycles doing 40 between pedestrians 3-4 feet apart, cars almost touching all the time, etc, etc. Mom tells me that it will be like this throughout India as well. Cool. I feel like a country bumpkin for thinking that Cambodia was weird -- Cambodia was merely different, but this place is truly weird. "If I ever get out of here, I'm going to Kathmandu" ... Bob Seger was on the right track, by golly.
Kathmandu Guest House is very nice, a peaceful oasis in the midst of the tourist chaos of the Thamel area. We have a first-floor room facing the garden in the middle of their compound, and our room is old, small, crude, and very comfortable. They take customer service very seriously here, though, and at $30 per night we're being pampered more than you get for several times that price back home in the U.S.
Tomorrow morning we have arranged for a taxi to take us to Dakshinkali, where the ritual animal sacrifices happen on Saturday mornings. Then on Sunday we're going to take a 2-hour trek through the Kathmandu Valley (from Nagarkot to Bhaktapur), which was Mom's idea. I keep telling her that she's an old lady and should act her age, but she just smiles and does whatever she wants to do. At least I come by it naturally (g).
Oh yeah, one other thing ... we saw Mount Everest from the plane, which was pretty cool. After reading Krakauer and Boukreev's books, I must admit it gave me a chill.
As it turned out, that was our only glimpse of Everest on this trip. Occasional glimpses of the Himalayas up to the north reminded us it was nearby for the next week, but we never saw it again.
More later, I have to go take one more walk before calling it a night.
- ### -
/// thoughts on the above; see callouts in the original web version
/// Kathmandu butcher shop is important; briefly note it; haven't decided whether to ever post what I wrote about that experience: (OR – just do it and link to it? Note that subpost hides it from main feed)
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