A couple of days in Kathmandu

What a crazy night sleeping. We had decided to sleep with the windows open instead of leaving the fan on all night (there is no AC at Nirvana Gardens). The night was filled with barking dogs, noisy birds and what think were monkeys. The noise just doesn't stop. We will probably sleep with the fan on tonight just to muffle the noise but there seems to be roving brown outs so you never know when you will have electricity or not. We are learning to recharge everything as soon as we notice that the power is on,

No showers for us this morning. There is no hot water (apparently this is a rare thing for the low to mid level hotels. We're waiting till the day gets hotter, when taking a cold shower will seem like a more inviting option.

Breakfast is pretty standard here: eggs, toast, porridge, pancakes, plain yogurt and fresh fruit. Bacon seems like its hard to come by...it seems to be on the menu but they always seems to be out of it. The option for non-vegetarians is sausage, which is really hotdogs.

We now have 2 days to spend in Kathmandu. Usually in this situation we would walks around and just experience the sights and sounds. Were we are located in Kathmandu, the layout of the roads is very confusing and we are kinda worried about getting lost. it seems that the streets are filled with thin shops—street upon street of them, no matter which direction you go. They are all selling the same goods— mountaineering/trekking gear, clothing, toiletries and snacks ( you need to buy your own toilet paper here), restaurants, banks, art dealers, knife shops  and jewellery. The duplication of products is unbelievable. We've decided that while we are in Kathmandu, we will try and not eat at the same restaurant twice. We are also trying hard NOT to buy anything at this early date.

Our second day we had a guided tour of the city. Since we only had 3-4 hours to do this, our main stops were the monkey temple (which is actually within about 1/2 hour walking distance from our hotel if we get the nerve and a good map) and Durbur Square.

The monkey temple was NOT what we had expected. Yes there are moneys everywhere but in such a small area you have a Buddhist monastery, a huge stupa with prayer wheels encircling it, a Hindu temple, multiple shrines to various gods and goddesses,  some very old buildings and structures that are hundreds of years old, some under renovation and of course...lots of shops. The whole lot is situated on a hill overlooking Kathmandu—a spectacular sight.

Our next stop is Durbur Square. Again this is not what I expected. I had expected a lot of shops (similar to what surrounds our hotel) but not so. This is an old part of Kathmandu that has many very old temples. There was so much to see in so little time, among them the Hippie temple (which is really a temple to Shiva), the Shiva and Parvati temple, Hanuman statue at the entrance gate to the palace, and Kumari Gar where the living goddess Kumari lives. We also visit "Freak Street", another popular hippy location form the 60's We see a few "hippies" that look like they've arrived in the 60's and never left.

Driving back to the hotel our guide Krisha spoke about the living conditions and the current political situation in Kathmandu. The deadline fro the creation of the Nepalese constitution is on May 27, 2012. We're hopeful that there will be no conflict at that time since we will be in Kathmandu past the deadline.