The idea of going to Kathmandu first entered my mind when my mom confirmed that she was going for a couple of weeks to teach a workshop at a teaching hospital there. I felt a little protective of her, I guess; I didn't want her to be so far away. What if something happened, what if she got sick (as is the norm in Nepal for foreigners)? But more than that, it seemed like a great opportunity to share a unique and amazing experience with mom. When I spoke to Bill about my idea, he was all for it, to my relief. So, we did it. We went to Nepal for three weeks in April and loved every minute of it, as did Mom. She had rented an apartment in Patan, just across the river from Kathmandu, with three bedrooms, a spacious living room and kitchen, two bathrooms and a "didi"- a housekeeper - to tidy up, do dishes and laundry, and make food if we wished. All this for $35 US per day. After we had experienced the traffic, tourists and noise of Kathmandu, we were happy that we were "living" in Patan. Tourists usually do day trips to Patan, as opposed to making it their home base. As a result, it has not been taken over by tourism as much as, say, the Thamel neighbourhood of Kat. There are fewer touristy shops, fewer trekking outfits, fewer touts, and fewer hostels and restaurants, but just as much beautiful architecture and just as many intriguing hole-in the wall shops and hidden courtyards.
Since we hadn't really been planning to go to Nepal, I admit I knew very little of it. Kathmandu I pictured as a small mountain city filled with groovy hippies and weather trekkers and mountaineers. Wrong. Big, big city. Let me try to describe it in a few sentence fragments. Kathmandu: densely populated, surrounded in the distance by mountains, of course, busy, choked with traffic. Stray dogs barking and trotting around, and the odd cow ambling through the streets. There is so much beauty and colour. Women in bright saris, some with the slash of colour on their foreheads - the tikka or bindi. Men wearing the skinny white pants, tunics and vests and the traditional Nepali caps. Gorgeous wood carvings on doors, posts, and window frames. Buckets of spices, food being cooked on the street, boxes of chicks for sale. The endless blaring car horns. Flowering trees spill into the streets and over the electrical wires. And, the thing that I loved the most, the warm eyes and smiles of the friendly, wonderful people.
More about Nepal in the next post......
More about Nepal in the next post......