22 May 2015
Postcard from Kathmandu
December 2012
We had imagined this capital of the most mountainous country in the world to be rather a bleak place: high, cold and far in the north, probably populated by hardened mountaineering Buddhists, a sort of Lhasa without the Chinese. This is reinforced by the plane journey, where everyone is in high-tech mountain clothes, hiking boots and the latest in backpacks.
In fact, at 1,300m altitude and at the latitude of Miami (even further south than Delhi) it's not that cold here, even in winter. Our hotel even has an outdoor swimming pool, which is more surprising because there's an acute water shortage in the city.
If India is covered with a layer of plastic rubbish everywhere, then the Nepal equivalent would seem to be a layer of stones, bits of brick, gravel and other building materials. Many houses appear to be being built or rebuilt, giving the city a distinctive ramshackle look. It's as if they decided to build a city, had the materials delivered, then ran out of enthusiasm before finishing the job.
This is the only place on the trip where our hotel belongs to an international chain - it's a Radisson. The problem with these global chains I find is that you can wake up in the morning not quite sure in which country you are, let alone in which city. They've worked hard here to make sure that doesn't happen, with saluting security guards, a shop selling Gurkha knives, an outdoor barbecue serving Water Buffalo, and a glass wall between the bathroom and the bedroom (just in case you want to make sure your other half washes behind the ears properly, no doubt).
After the outdoor BBQ dinner we end up in the Corner Bar, which promises live music. They're an odd-looking band: the electric bass player is a Men in Black character (the one in the truck of Mexican illegal immigrants, whose head turns out to be a mask on a stick). Next to him is a (possibly) Filipino girl whose role may be more decorative than musical, as the bass player has to show her how a tambourine works ("you hit it in time with the music". "OK, but do I hit it against the chair, or my leg?"). Then there's the band leader: Korean perhaps, with white-framed glasses and Bradley Wiggins sideburns, playing the guitar. Finally there's the Californian beach-bum, with dreadlocks down to his waist and a wispy beard, playing the Djembe, a hand-drum from Mali.
In fact, at 1,300m altitude and at the latitude of Miami (even further south than Delhi) it's not that cold here, even in winter. Our hotel even has an outdoor swimming pool, which is more surprising because there's an acute water shortage in the city.
If India is covered with a layer of plastic rubbish everywhere, then the Nepal equivalent would seem to be a layer of stones, bits of brick, gravel and other building materials. Many houses appear to be being built or rebuilt, giving the city a distinctive ramshackle look. It's as if they decided to build a city, had the materials delivered, then ran out of enthusiasm before finishing the job.
This is the only place on the trip where our hotel belongs to an international chain - it's a Radisson. The problem with these global chains I find is that you can wake up in the morning not quite sure in which country you are, let alone in which city. They've worked hard here to make sure that doesn't happen, with saluting security guards, a shop selling Gurkha knives, an outdoor barbecue serving Water Buffalo, and a glass wall between the bathroom and the bedroom (just in case you want to make sure your other half washes behind the ears properly, no doubt).
After the outdoor BBQ dinner we end up in the Corner Bar, which promises live music. They're an odd-looking band: the electric bass player is a Men in Black character (the one in the truck of Mexican illegal immigrants, whose head turns out to be a mask on a stick). Next to him is a (possibly) Filipino girl whose role may be more decorative than musical, as the bass player has to show her how a tambourine works ("you hit it in time with the music". "OK, but do I hit it against the chair, or my leg?"). Then there's the band leader: Korean perhaps, with white-framed glasses and Bradley Wiggins sideburns, playing the guitar. Finally there's the Californian beach-bum, with dreadlocks down to his waist and a wispy beard, playing the Djembe, a hand-drum from Mali.
They are excellent, particularly the Djembe player. In a break while his fingers rest from having swollen to twice their size, we discover he's not a Californian beach bum at all, but a local musician with a global reputation for Djembe, who even plays at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
The next day we tour Durbar Square, the World Heritage city centre of Kathmandu, with over 100 temples, monuments, royal palaces overrun by street vendors, vegetable market stalls, cows, pigeons and strangely-painted religious figures keen to be photographed with you (there's a required donation attached to the photo-opportunity). We visit the house of the Living Goddess and glimpse her for a minute as she comes to the window (the current one is 8 years old and will hold the position until puberty).
In the afternoon we visit another World Heritage site, at Bhaktapur. Entry into what amounts to a village is steep at $15 per person, reduced to one dollar for locals. But it's well worth it, for its great range of temples, traditional architecture and shops. We plan to return.
The next day we tour Durbar Square, the World Heritage city centre of Kathmandu, with over 100 temples, monuments, royal palaces overrun by street vendors, vegetable market stalls, cows, pigeons and strangely-painted religious figures keen to be photographed with you (there's a required donation attached to the photo-opportunity). We visit the house of the Living Goddess and glimpse her for a minute as she comes to the window (the current one is 8 years old and will hold the position until puberty).
In the afternoon we visit another World Heritage site, at Bhaktapur. Entry into what amounts to a village is steep at $15 per person, reduced to one dollar for locals. But it's well worth it, for its great range of temples, traditional architecture and shops. We plan to return.
# posted by DavidF @ 16:55 
