11 Oct
I woke up only two times during the night--shortly after midnight and again at about 2am--but went back to sleep until a little after 4am when barking dogs and realizing that I’d slept for eight hours told me that it was time to just get up, write in the blog and upload photos. That done, I went downstairs to make a call home to check on things and reassure my wife, Becky, that all was well. I then went to breakfast and was quite pleased with the service and food that included porridge, sauteed beans and carrots, potatoes, fresh fruit, small omelets, breads, juices, and yogurt.
After eating, I completed some more work in the room and then went outside for a short walk around the neighborhood with my camera to see the city starting to wake up.
By about 8:45 everyone was in the lobby or eating breakfast. Debra Powell was incoming today, so I reconfirmed her pickup at the airport and sent her messages with additional contact info and some reassurance.
We’d arranged for a driver to pick us up at 9am, but he didn’t arrive until almost 9:30. Lama pulled up in a small silver van that seated six and had air conditioning, I sat in the front passenger seat with the others behind and we decided on the day’s itinerary with a phone call to Lama’s boss, Bimal. It was decided that we would start by driving out of the city to Sanga, followed by visits to Bakhtapur Durbar Square and then back to Kathmandu and the Buddha Stupa or Buddhanath.
We drove through heavy traffic, once again on the obvious route that would be taken the following day by the Presidents of China and Nepal for their summit as indicated by all of the portrait photos along the way, banners, clean-up, and armed security. In the city, the quality of the roads is generally better than I expected or remembered, but there are some rather incongruous patches where they go from perfectly fine to about 50-100 meters of just pen gravel and potholes.
It took us about 45 minutes to get to Sanga, the site of the world’s largest Shiva statue. It’s kind of like Rio’s “Christ the Redeemer Statue” or the Virgin Mary statue about Beirut except without the massive crowds. The statue stands 43 meters high and has some dimple temples around it and great views looking west towards Bakhtapur and Kathmandu. They would be even better views if the air wasn’t so hazy from vehicle and other exhaust causing an inversion layer that limited visibility to about 10 miles. Occasionally, during the drive, we could catch glimpses of the snow-capped Himalayan peaks to our north.
We spent about 45 minutes at the Shiva statue taking photos and relaxin. The air was noticeable cooler in the higher altitude and it felt very good. We then rejoined Lama for the torturous drive down from the site, sliding past narrow streets and sleeping dogs down to the busy highway that connected Nepal with the Tibetan border about 150 kilometers away.
Next we drove back to the west and then veered north toward the temple complex and ancient city of Bakhtapur. Lama parked outside the gate and, as we descended the van, we were immediately accosted by local guides that wanted to show us around for two hours--only 10,000 NPW or about $9US. We decided that we just wanted to walk around, so we avoided them all, paid our normal 1500 NPR entry fee and walked in unescorted. We’d made an arrangement to meet back at the van with Lama at 2pm and it was now 11:30am.
I was both impressed and disappointed with the condition of Bakhtapur. Some of the most famous temples were barely piles of rubble still five years after the earthquake, but a surprising number were still in good shape. Very few looked to be in any serious process of rebuilding, though. In Pottery Square, the damage seemed to be quite severe.
We walked around for about 90 minutes just soaking in the sights and taking photos. The crowds weren’t bad, but we did notice that there were few if any Americans or English speakers of any kind. Most of the tourists seemed to be southern or eastern European or East Asian, though many were local or visiting Nepalese.
After enjoying the sites, we did a big loop of the complex and settled into a small garden cafe for lunch, ordering cold drinks and some local style food. As usual, Grace was served last, some drinks were forgotten, several ordered items weren’t available, but we enjoyed the meal anyway. It was shady, cool, and the break felt good. Time passed quicker than we thought and by the time we paid the bill, we barely had time to walk back to the van to meet Lama.
It took us another ten minutes to get out of the parking lot because a taxi was blocking our van and he refused to move until he saw Lama’s paid parking ticket. From there, we braved the crushing afternoon traffic to go to the giant Buddha Stupa in the northeast corner of town. This involved driving past the airport and a few other sites and some back-tracking from earlier travels. We saw more “Xi signs”, too. Lama finally got off of the crawling main highway and took us through shortcut to end one block away from the entrance. He gave us directions on which way to walk and we made it there easily in two minutes, crossing one major road that had been reduced to dust and gravel from disrepair.
The rest of the group was getting better at crossing roads as they adapted to Nepalese driving and we managed the traverse without incident. The entry fee was 500 NPR, so we paid and went inside to see the huge white stupa with the golden top and eerily observant eyes painted on the tower. Flag ropes fluttered in the breeze as hundred of locals, tourist--some devout, some just enjoying the weather circulated around the monument always clockwise, turning the hundred of prayer wheels on the outside, surrounded by a real tourist shopping mall experience on the exterior complete with multiple coffee shops and the usual souvenir stands. A walk around the outside was about 200 meters and maybe 120 meters on the elevated level on the inside. Everyone was stopping to take photos, staged and selfies with the flags an stupa in the near-perfect weather conditions. Many families with little children and grandparents were there as well.
We toured the facility and then went into Himilayan Espresso for an afternoon snack. Grace was served last again. We retrieved Kevin, who’d become separated and he joined us. MEanwhile, I went out for a last few photos after downing my double espresso and using the shop’s wifi to check on Debra’s status and make sure she had landed and had transpo back to the hotel.
Lama returned us to the hotel about 4:20 and we agreed to meet again in the lobby at 5:45 to go to dinner.
I use the time to post-process all of the day’s photos again and began to upload them. Meanwhile, I was comforted to see that Debra was en route, Hoot had landed in Doha, and both Deb and Sue seemed to be on track with their flights.
I met Debra in the lobby and we got acquainted quickly just before dinner departure. I introduced her to the rest of the team except for Kevin who’d decided to stay in. The hotel staff then tried to arrange for a pair of taxis to take us to a restaurant, but that didn’t work very well and caused us about 20 minutes in delays.
By the time we got to the restaurant, chosen by my friend Utsav--brother of the bride in a wedding I photographed in Kathmandu five years earlier and brother-in-law to one of my US Air Force friends--it was almost 8:30. Utsav was waiting for us outside of the unexpectedly closed restaurant, but he assured us that other restaurants were nearby and that we could walk to them.
Indeed he was right. Just around the corner, we found a nicely upscale place serving local food called Nilgiri Thakali Delights. We decided to let Utsav order everything for us and we would pay. I was surprised that he brought a gift--a bottle of Nepalese “Old Drubar” Whiskey and thanked him profusely. He read to me a very nice note just received from his sister by email and we settled down to dinner.
The conversation was even better than the excellent food as we learned about Utsav and his job. A civil engineer with a MS in environmental engineering, he worked on water and power projects in Nepal, attempting to coordinate water storage, preservation, and distribution improvements throughout the country. He likened the water infrastructure to the cable/telephone/power infrastructure with its thousands of unknown, hanging, exterior wires--in an undocumented pattern unknown to all and completelboth insufficient and undocumented. We also talked a lot about the history and current politics of Nepal, really enjoying the chance to learn more about this fascinating but challenged country.
The food he ordered was great, too. We tried the dried mutton (really goat) that was like a salad with crunchy jerk, the roti (fried bread), a pasty blob made of millet that you made into balls and dipped into sauces, the standard mo-mos, fresh vegetables with dipping spices and sauces, yogurt, etc. All was very good.
We agreed to pick up the tab for our host, took a few photos, and said our goodbyes after a very memorable evening. Hal took a taxi back, while Debra, Mike, Grace, and I walked the 2.2 km in the dark back to Thamel and the Eco Hotel.
The walk was uneventful as traffic was light by almost 9:30pm. Hal was waiting for us in the lobby. We made plans for the next morning (6:30 am departure for the Monkey Temple, emailed that new to Kevin, and then sat down in the lobby for more chat and a wee nip of the Old Durbar.
The whisky wasn’t bad at all. Not exactly McCallum 25, but drinkable. We were confident it would enhance the rest of the trip--especially the many upcoming evening discussion in Lamahi.
I went up to my room, checked emails on WhatsApp one more time and settled in just after 10pm. Tonight, I put in ear-plugs to defeat the dogs and the music coming from the beer bar across the street and was quite successful, sleeping almost straight through to 4:30am so that I could get up and write in the blog.