Curare's Adventures

Exploring the Kathmandu Valley

After a trip of 20 hours we finally arrived in Kathmandu where we would spend two days getting over our jet lag while LE strolled down memory lane and GG discovered a new country. LE did not expect Kathmandu to be the same as it was more than 40 years ago but she thought she might recognize a few things. A thought that was brought to a screeching halt as soon as we started to walk around.

Nothing was the same. The late seventies were a magical time in Nepal. There were few vehicles, no pollution, and the streets were quiet. Food and accommodation was cheap, the city encompassed rice paddies and grassy fields and the majestic Himalayas could be glimpsed on the horizon. This all started to change in the mid eighties and what was once a small attractive city, seemingly untouched by time, is now a metropolis of 3.5 million people with appalling air pollution, traffic congestion, loss of open spaces, daily electricity outages and a declining water table. The earthquake of 2015 created additional changes; destroying houses, damaging roads and toppling many of the picturesque ancient temples. Kathmandu is still a magical city, it is just a little harder to see the sparkle beneath it's facade of grime and on-going reconstruction.

One of the first things we noticed was that about 1/2 of the people on the streets were wearing face masks. This was not because of THE VIRUS, the masks are used as a filter for air pollution, especially the particulates which cause most visitors and locals to cough, spit and rub their eyes. At the end of the day your face feels gritty. LE decided it would be prudent to wear a mask as well because starting our trek with a cough did not seem like a good idea. Little did she know that in just two weeks mask wearing would be fashionable.

Over the next two days we walked from our hotel in the district of Thamel south through the crowded streets toward Durbar Square, west to the hill crowned by Swayambhunath Stupa and east to the sublime Stupa of Bodhnath. Every direction we looked was something to remember, after a while we stopped taking photos. Most corners had a temple (or two or three), and tucked into small alleyways were carved wooden doors, lattice enclosed balconies, and stone carvings of fierce creatures. Almost every building was a business selling something; brass singing bowls and prayer wheels, padlocks, paintings, fruit vendors, knock-off trekking gear, bangles and beads, restaurants, Tibetan thangkas and carpets, packets of spices, hand made paper products, prayer flags and bakeries selling warm slices of apple pie.

Kathmandu's Durbar (Royal) Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the name used to describe the area containing the old royal palace. It is an important site for Buddhist and Hindu rituals, holy ceremonies, royal events, and kingly coronations. The site, actually three loosely linked squares, is the location of numerous pagoda-style temples, small shrines, idols, water fountains and ponds. The first royal palace was built here in the third century but at present the oldest temples date from the mid 1500's. LE remembered the square as a place of stunning architecture and was looking forward to see if this memory was correct but we did not arrive until just before closing so instead of rushing around we decided to delay our visit until the trek was over. In hindsight this was a mistake because Nepal was in lock-down when we eventually returned to the city and then we could not go anywhere. So that memory bank remains intact, in LE's mind Durbar Square remains frozen in time.

Our visit to Swayambhunath, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, was more successful. This Buddhist temple complex is located on the top of a hill and 40 years ago LE walked through fields and rural roads to reach the summit. This time we walked along busy streets, dodging motorcycles and buses, then climbed the steep stone pilgrim stairway dodging troops of rhesus macaques. The temple compound is centered on a gleaming white stupa topped by a gilded tower painted with the eyes of the Buddha staring out across the valley in the cardinal directions. At it's base is a ring of prayer wheels embossed with the sacred mantra Om Mani Padme Hum (hail to the jewel in the lotus) and pilgrims, circling the stupa in a clockwise direction, spin each one as they pass by. Thousands of brightly coloured prayer flags with similar mantras flutter above the stupa and their prayers are carried to heaven by the wind horse (Lungta). The stupa on it's own would be a splendid sight but what makes Swayambhunath one of the definitive experiences of a visit to Kathmandu is the temple's location. All around the stupa are a jumble of religious buildings, monuments and sculptures displaying both Buddhist and Hindu iconography and crowds of local people jostle together engaging in seemingly random rituals. It was a chaotic, colourful, noisy, fascinating scene of everyday life in Nepal.

The third UNESCO World Heritage Site on our visit was the Bodhnath Stupa, the largest stupa in Nepal and one of the largest stupas in the world. The stupa stands 36 meters high and the whitewashed dome stands on three levels of plinths built in the shape of mandalas. As at Swayambhunath the dome is topped by a gilded central tower with the all-seeing eyes of the Buddha gazing north-south-east-west, and surrounding the entirety is a low wall set with a ring of prayer wheels. What is very different is the stupas location; it is at street level and completely surrounded by buildings, not visible from the main road. According to legend, Bodhnath Stupa was built during the 5th century by an an old poultry woman who asked the king for land to construct a shrine to the Buddha. The king agreed, and offered her as much land as she could cover with the skin of a water buffalo. The woman proceeded to cut a buffalo hide into thin strips, and placed them end to end to form a huge circumference. The king realized that he had been tricked by the old woman, but he adhered to his word, and the stupa was constructed according to these dimensions. Historically the stupa was on a major trade route between Lhasa and Kathmandu. Tibetan traders would pray here for a safe journey before driving their yaks over the high passes of the Himalayas. Today Bodhnath is the center of Tibetan Buddhism in Nepal with at least 29 gompas (monasteries) located within 3 km. Maroon clad monks and nuns are a common sight and can be seen either wandering along the prayer-flagged side streets, or performing their daily kora (ritual circumnavigation) repeating the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum either quietly or aloud.

It did not matter to LE that nothing was as she remembered, it was a whole new exotic city in which to make other memories. A great beginning to her birthday trip.

Carpet shopping

After two busy days gazing at temples and dodging sacred cows it was time to go shopping. Our goal was to purchase a few Tibetan carpets for the cabin that GG is intending to build. The foundations have not yet been poured but already we are purchasing floor coverings. I guess that is one way to choose decor, from the floor up, now everything else will have to match.

The best place to buy Tibetan carpets is in the suburb city of Patan, separated from Kathmandu by the murky, garbage strewn, Bagmati River. It was approximately 5 km away from our hotel, so we decided to take a taxi. Our destination was the Jawalakhel Handicraft Center, also known as the Tibetan refugee camp. When Tibet was occupied by the Chinese in 1959 thousands of Tibetans fled to the south and some of them came to Nepal. They were given a piece of land on the outskirts of Patan, now surrounded by urban sprawl, but originally this was far away from the city. Our taxi driver did not actually know where we wanted to go but after much shouting out of his window, and a little bit of driving in circles, we arrived.

This Center was built in 1960 so that the refugees could make carpets, doing something to support themselves instead of relying on handouts from the Nepali government. Initially the carpet factory was a small place employing only a few weavers but today it is a large compound employing about 500 people (now mainly non-Tibetan) in different processes of the carpet production like wool sorting, hand brushing & spinning of yarn, dyeing, ball winding, weaving, trimming & finishing. It also has a large show room in which to purchase the finished products.

Traditionally Tibetan carpets were made from Tibetan highland sheep's wool and had a maximum size of 3 X 6 feet; they were used for sleeping, sitting or as saddle blankets. The designs were simple, and the colours were non-dyed or tinted with natural dyes. Motifs consisted of Tibetan geometric designs and Chinese influenced designs such as medallions and flowers. Modern Tibetan carpets are vastly different, the wool comes from New Zealand, the vivid colours are derived from chemical dyes and carpet sizes have increased to fit the floor of a western room. You can even order a custom size if your room is exceptionally large.

The day we visited was rather quiet, in fact we were the only customers and there were few weavers at work. We peeked our heads into the workshop to watch the women knotting carpets on their looms and then we went into the show room. So many carpets, so many sizes and so many designs, all them stacked one upon the other. An energetic woman who spoke excellent English was in charge and she had a group of six men to help her because each stack had to be taken apart so that we could see the colours and designs. When we saw one we liked it was removed and placed to the side. Once we had a whole lot of interesting (to us) carpets laid out on the floor it was time to decide. We chose a few and then the rest had to be re-stacked, no one seemed to mind.

When it was time to pay a minor hiccup occurred, one minute the internet was working the next it was not which meant we were unable to use our credit card. There was much running around, peering at, and pulling of, wires as well as telephone calls but after one hour it was still down. We decided to wait a little longer and left for lunch going to a small neighbourhood diner where we ate Chebureki - a deep-fried turnover with a filling of ground meat & onions and a plate of Momo – a south Asian dumpling. Things worked on our return, we paid the money and were assured the carpets would be shipped to us by air the following week.

But that was not the end of the saga. There was no following week - Nepal went into lock down, all air flights were cancelled until May 15 (possibly longer) and our carpets remain in Nepal. Will we ever see them? Our fingers and toes are crossed.

Leaving for Our Trek

Our trekking guide Nar told us, more than once, that we were going to picked up at the hotel at 7 A.M., so we were rather surprised to see him in the breakfast area at 6:30 A.M. the morning of our departure. We gathered he was not used to trekkers being on-time and ready, especially early in the morning. Rather than taking a public bus we had paid extra to hire a private jeep; with four of us, plus our luggage and driver it was a tight squeeze.

Our destination was the community of Syabrubesi, a distance of approximately 137 km - a seven or eight hour drive. Despite leaving early there was still a lot of traffic on the main road out of Kathmandu. This is the only road to the west and south, and all vehicles travelling to the Nepali city of Pokhara, the border crossings to India, or northwards to the Tibetan border drive in this direction. Kathmandu is located in an elevated valley, so the first part of the trip was down, down, down - twisting on a seemingly never ending series of switch backs. This was a slow journey, most of the vehicles were large trucks and there was no where to pass. An unexpected bonus was a distant view of some snowy Himalayan peaks.

By the time we arrived at the bottom of the switchbacks it was time for tea and a snack at a small road side eatery. This 'restaurant' was very basic, but the tea was hot and sweet and there was a stack of freshly made Sel Roti to munch on; a traditional homemade, sweet, ring-shaped rice bread. Sometimes called Nepal’s answer to the doughnut (because they’re deep-fried and round), Sel Roti are in fact much less sweet than, let's say, a doughnut from Tim Horton's or Crispy Kreme.

 

A bit more driving on the main highway and then we turned north on the Pasang Laahm highway, heading towards the mountains. It was a highway in name only because the road was in terrible condition. In a few places there wasn't a real road, just a bouldery, potholed, track next to the river, and even where there was pavement it was in very rough shape. LE wears a Fitbit on her wrist to record her daily steps and during this trip she 'walked' over 15,000 steps, just from being tossed around in the jeep. We went up, we went down, negotiated more switchbacks, passed over bridges and crept through tiny villages avoiding the roaming cows, goats, and chickens. Then it was time for lunch.

Lunch was dal baht, Nepal's National dish, and a food we would get used to on the trek as it was readily available and there was always a second helping. Dal is a lentil soup/stew and baht is steamed rice, rather boring on its own but the dish is always served with vegetables, some sort of curry, pickle(s), and a round of Papadum. If GG was lucky the curry had bits of chicken or buffalo (buff) but to LE's delight most curries were vegetarian. Nar had told us that you could judge a restaurant by the taste of it's dal baht, and he would tell us if it was good or only so-so, but to us the dal tasted pretty much the same no matter where we ate it (and we ate it a lot!). This lunch stop was also the place where GG enjoyed his last Everest beer, while walking in the mountains we drank tea.

More driving after lunch, still very rough, but the scenery was getting better with an occasional red blooming rhododendron tree and views of the mountains in the distance. The road went parallel to, but high above, the Trishuli river, which eventually flows into India to join the sacred Ganges. This river is named after the trishula or trident of Shiva, the most powerful god in the Hindu pantheon, and in the summer months it is a fiercesome sight, but March is a time of low water and local children were tubing. Most of the traffic on this road were trucks going to, or coming from, Tibet. Our driver honked the horn as he approached each corner to warn others that we were coming but even so we had a few near misses. Someone later told us that when you did hit another vehicle you did not get badly hurt because you were both going slowly, somehow that was not a comforting thought. Sharing the road were motorcycles, buses, people walking to the next village, children playing football (soccer), women carrying huge piles of straw, and men tending flocks of goats - even if the road had been great we would have had to slow down.

About four hours after lunch, descending a final series of switchbacks, we arrived at the town of Syabrubesi. Although small, the town is very busy as it is the last large community before the Tibet border, and it is the starting point for the trek up the Langtang valley. This is where we stayed overnight, our trek would start early the next morning.