Kathmandu Will Do!

We're really enjoying Kathmandu. This is our third night in Kathmandu and it feels nice to stay put, to really get to know a place.

Our first night, I mentioned finding the magic.  What I neglected to mention was my glorious hotel find, ahem…  I no longer think I can trust the opinion of TripAdvisor.  I found Hotel Silver Home on TripAdvisor and it was rated at 4.5 out of 5 stars, and the reviews mentioned large rooms, comfort, and cleanliness.  Well, the room was a nice size.  It was large enough for a twin and a double bed, a table, and a couch.  But that's where the review's reliability ends.  I couldn't get comfortable in the room due to the uncleanliness.  The carpet was gross, the bathroom was even grosser, and the sheets were definitely not clean.  The toilet seat was an abomination, and there was a hole in the wall of the bathroom that lead to nastiness.  And if that wasn't bad enough, as we were getting comfy in our travel sheets (a must while traveling) Seth found a roach trying to snuggle with him.  Yuck! So we shook out our sheets and tied the top opening in a knot.  Fire hazard, maybe, but at least it was effective in keeping out the bugs.  At the end of the day, it was really my fault.  No matter where you go, a ten dollar hotel is still a ten dollar hotel.  I had set my hopes too high on the exchange rate and put too much trust in TripAdvisor.  Never again!

The next morning we made our way to Hotel Courtyard, which is much better.  Clean and comfortable, it has it's own quiet courtyard and it's far enough away from the busy section to have a quiet night's rest.  Ahhh...

In Old Kathmandu is Durbar Square.  After walking through twisting narrow streets, lined with shops, we made our way to the sectioned off part of the town.  The asian influence in this area is quite strong.  The architecture shows it.  We meandered through countless temples, pausing to take in the sights of various depictions of gods in the various forms.  The highlight for me was seeing the living goddess of Kumari Chowk.  Yes, you heard me.  The cult of Kumari worships a living prepubescent girl who is said to be the incarnation of Taleju.  There is a selection process in which girls aged around three to five from the buddhist Shakya clan of goldsmiths are interviewed a lot like how the Tibetans choose their incarnation of the Lamas.  Apparently there are 32 auspicious signs of the Kumari which include odd things like a neck like a conch shell, and eyelashes like a cow.  Horoscope is, also, rigorously checked to see that it is not in direct conflict with that of the king (though at this point in time there is no king in Nepal anymore).  The Kumari's feet never touch the ground, and she is not allowed out except on special occasions, like festivals, where she is carried upon her throne.  Though photos are strictly forbidden, we were lucky enough to show up right as the Kumari decided to make a short appearance at one of the courtyard windows, where she looked around for about half a minute before returning inside.  This Kumari was chosen in October of 2008 at the age of three, making her about 7 years old.  It is said that when the Kumari bleeds, whether from menstruation or otherwise, the goddess's spirit leaves the body, and therefore she retires and a new Kumari is chosen.  Becoming a mere mortal can be difficult, even to find a husband, because it is said that whoever marries a Kumari will die young.  So, Seth and I saw the incarnation of a goddess.  I thought the whole situation was weird and really interesting.

On a side not, this has to be the most awesome cutout we've ever seen.

In the evening we went to a fancy shmancy restaurant in a super fancy hotel.  In this restaurant you get to choose anywhere from a six to twenty two course meal.  We opted for twelve and it was definitely too much food, but you better believe that I finished most of it.  I think the experience was way more exciting than the actual food.  Though I did like the momos, little dumplings, and the pureed fruit and yogurt dessert was good.  It was nice to be dressed up, in a country that we, so far, like, and drink wine with my husband.  

Today we did a bit of shopping, or at least browsing.  Then we went somewhere really cool.  We went to the Buddhist temple.  It is like walking into it's own little world.  There is a large domed temple in the center and people walk clockwise around the temple on the path.  There are tons of restaurants and shops selling prayer beads and other handicrafts.  The temple area and the maze of streets that spiral outwards consist of a little Tibetan community.  The architecture and everything else inside reflected that.  

We ended up finding a basement restaurant called 3D.  We had delicious Tibetan food.  Buff momos (buff = buffalo), and Seth ordered hot and sour soup, and I ordered egg thukpa (a noodle soup).  The food was really delicious.  We also ordered honey, lemon, and ginger tea, which was perfect.  We were really jonesin for some warm liquids to soothe our throats.  Kathmandu has a lot of road construction taking place right now, which causes a lot of dust to be in the air.  Today we bought face masks, but the soup and tea were needed and enjoyed.

Tommy Can You Hear Me?

Hello, from Nepal!  I'm writing this post to see if I can get some kind of response.  People tell us that they, and their friends/coworkers/family/etc. read our blog, but aside from somebody 'liking' my status on Facebook every once in a while, we don't get many comments on our blog.  So, If you are reading this, please take a second to post a comment.  For one, it will let us know that you are out there, and secondly, it will make us feel loved!

So, who's reading this?

I've Found the Magic

Like Seth mentioned, India was easier for me to handle than for him.  But, that doesn't mean that I wasn't confounded or appalled at times.  As a matter of fact, upon leaving India I ended up becoming so infuriated that I was barely holding myself together.  If I were a different person I would have started punching people, but luckily I have a thread more of patience, but really it was only a thread.

We began to see enormous mountains peeking through the clouds from the airplane.  It was really exciting.  But the real excitement came when we began to walk around the area surrounding our hotel.  We, luckily, booked a crap hotel in a good area.  Thamel is the super touristy area, but that means that food is basically safe wherever you go.  There are tons of shops, overpriced of course, but many things to look at.  Bustling streets, live music, and the best part… no cows!  And when there are no cows, there are no cow patties.  And, on top of that, the streets are clean!  I can walk without looking down.  I can look at shops as I walk past.  It's amazing.  But, what I really found here in Kathmandu on our first night, was the magic that was missing in India.  It was clean, safe, and smiling.  I felt as if a huge weight, that I didn't even realize was there, was lifted from my shoulders.  I'm not going to say that I completely disliked India, because there were parts that I enjoyed.  But, I don't think I felt as relaxed, comfortable, or happy one single day while in India, as I felt this first night in Nepal.  

See ya later stink town!

So, Berkley has been a bit more kind about her description of India than I would have. The last month in India has been above and beyond the most frustrating, and at times perplexing, portion of our trip so far. I don't even have the energy to write about India. Lets say it took quite a few of these to make me someone Berkley wanted to travel with.

We left Delhi (after an infuriating situation at the airport) and took a short 1:45 minuet flight to Kathmandu, as soon as the plane touched down it was like the monkey on my back had jumped off. (pun intended)

It feels great to be out of India, Kathmandu has been a wonderful change.

A Symbol of Love

We left Jaipur bright and early to make it to Agra with enough time to make some visits.  Our first stop was to Fatehpur Sikri.  This is a combo fort and deserted city visit.  We visited the old fort, which we think was not actually a fort, but a mosque.  I think we got some info wrong, because it was set up like a mosque, and the happenings inside the building were very reminiscent of the mosques we've visited.  We were going to go to the deserted city, which was what we were initially interested in anyways, but it was unbearably hot and we were getting quite hangry, hungry + angry (thanks Emily and Neil, that one's come in handy).  So we made our way to Agra proper to have a bite to eat at a South Indian restaurant named Dasaprakash. We ended up ordering the vegetarian thali, and it was so much food that we couldn't finish them.  Delicious though.  We paired them with mango lassis, which were quite tasty.

We, then, got in the car to visit the Taj Mahal.  For me, this was the highlight of India.  I was a bit apprehensive of visiting the Taj Mahal, because we had run into one or two people who said that once you got there it was a bit of a let down, because you already knew what it looked like from photos.  I thought it was beautiful.  Gleaming white domes and spires with nothing but blue skies and fluffy white clouds draping around it.  Surprisingly, we were the only white people there.  Maybe there was another couple that was hiding behind a bush, but the majority of visitors were Indians.  And quite reasonably so.  It is quite inexpensive for an Indian to visit the Taj Mahal, only 20 rupees (the equivalent to abut $0.40, or the same price as a litre of milk here).  For foreigners it was 750 rupees, which pans out to about $15.  In the US everyone pays the same price, with the exception of small discounts for students, children, or seniors, and the difference is quite minimal.  Since we've left Europe, the discrepancy in entry fees has been unreasonable.  India must make a killing off all of these attractions.

This is a picture of Seth at the Taj Mahal.  Note the many people between the camera and Seth.  Once you leave Western countries, the idea of waiting or taking turns disappears. Whether it's someone pushing between you and a railing to see into an exhibit in a museum, or walking through the line of a camera lens, all semblance of patience is nonexistent. 

Our hotel was quite comfortable and clean so we were quite happy cooling off for a bit before dinner, even though they charged 200 rupees per hour for internet.  The way they rip off tourists is not right.  This is the one thing I will not get used to while traveling.  

For dinner we went to a place that locals visit as well.  We ordered two delicious dosa, and they were for the local price, which was nice.  

The next morning we were dropped off at the train station to make our way to our next destination.  The train station was filled with beggars.  The majority of the beggars were little children who obviously had a handler nearby.  This means that whatever you give to a child will go straight to the handler.  But, before we came to that conclusion I had given a shirt that I no longer wanted to a little girl.  I really hope she tucked it away for herself, because when I handed it to her she got really excited and smiley and held it up to her body for quite some time.  I really hope it didn't get confiscated.  Something else we saw while we were waiting was another tourist give a bar of soap to a boy.  The boy got really excited and immediately took the bar of soap to the fountain and began washing himself vigorously with the soap.  He was pretty excited about it, and after he was through soaping up he carefully replaced the bar in the plastic, and then the box, then tucked it into his shorts pocket.  Well save a bar of soap for any train station kids we see.

Aside from the beggar children there were the usual 'sad woman with sick child', shuffling old man, and man without limb.  Sometimes when you turned your back or they thought you weren't looking their limp would disappear or a child would smile.  I'm not saying that they didn't have issues, but what am I supposed to do. I gave the shirt to the little girl before she began begging.  And aside from the beggars, there was the filth.  The train station smelled like a bathroom, because essentially it was a bathroom.  There were people doing all types of their business, on the platform and squatting off the platform onto the tracks.  The weird thing is that you'd see people using the train tracks as a toilet when there was a toilet no more than 20 feet away.  I don't get it.

After a fairly comfortable and air conditioned train ride with pretty countryside views, we made it to Jhansi.  That train station smelled even worse and was more crowded than the one in Agra, so we were a bit nervous.  But, luckily we were heading to Orchha, a small village.  The village is small and there a few monuments to see.  The palace was pretty and had some nice views.  Luckily it was a small town because our driver and I think guide (it was a weird thing where he was there and then he left with the driver), they left us.  That was about noon and we didn't have any info on the town in our guidebook, no info given by our tour company (surprise) and we weren't even quite sure of the name or location of our hotel.  We wandered around for a bit before it became too hot and we found our way back to the hotel.

That night just before sunset we made our way down by the river, and the amazing sunset made up for the difficulty we have been having, quite beautiful.

Today we went for an extremely hot walk to the river and watched some kids swimming.  It's a very pretty village with a nice river, but we can't go in it, so…  This evening we hop on a train to Delhi where we spend the night before catching a flight to Nepal in the morning.

Honk, Honk, Zoom!

We're back in a big city.  Jaipur, known as the Pink City, we've decided is actually more of a tera cotta color, but that's ok.  Yesterday, after an absurdly awkward switch in drivers, we are now in better hands.  Not only does this driver speak English, he offers tidbits of information while driving, he drives safely, he honks his horn minimally, and he answers questions.  Man, we've missed out.  If he had been our driver from the start we would have had a much better experience.  Oh well, what can you do? Anyway, we started off by seeing the City Palace in the Old City.  It really is pink (or terra cotta).  Though it was a pretty complex with intricate designs on the ceilings, we've seen so many that we're overloaded.  But, this palace had attractions! Heh… I finally got henna.  So, I walked around the palace trying desperately not to run into anything.  The highlight of the city palace were the giant silver urns that one of the maharajas had made to bring holy water from the Ganges on his trip to England.  They were huge!

Just outside of the City Palace exit was the actual highlight of the day.  There was a snake charmer with two real live cobras.  I'm not afraid of snakes, but cobras are venomous.  So, I was a bit nervous getting near them. But, this guy was confident and they seemed still enough for the tourist before me.  They were pretty still while he played his horn like instrument, but then they got feisty.

http://vimeo.com/49591497

After the city palace we came back to The General's Retreat (our hotel/homestay) to do some internet chores.  This is the first hotel on our tour that actually has functioning internet.  And it's pretty fast.  It's much appreciated.

In the evening we went for dinner at yet another Lonely Planet find, The Peacock Rooftop Restaurant.  It was really delicious.  We ordered the vegetarian thali (remember, that's a set meal) and it was huge.  That alone was enough for the two of us.  But, we didn't know that and ordered Chicken Tikka Butter Masala as well.  The sauce was really tasty, but you really can't beat the protein in the US, the chicken was ok.  That's why we've been mostly vegetarian here.  With our meals we drank our honey lassis, and they were excellent.

Today, we went to the Amber Fort.  Yet another fort.  This one didn't have much to look at inside.  It was mostly empty, but cool to wander around.  There was an ancient underground tunnel that turned out to be filled with bats.  We smelled them before we found them.  But it was really neat.

Afterwards we went for lunch at Natraj.  Seth has been searching for dosa since we went on the food tour in Delhi, and we found it.  Seth ordered the Dosa Paper Masala, and I ordered the Dosa Paneer Butter Masala.  God those were good.  Seth's was long like a tunnel, and mine was in a triangle shape.  We ordered well, because I preferred mine, and Seth preferred his.  My paneer was the consistency of scrambled eggs and it was so delicately delicious.  We had daal (lentils) and a coconut curry concoction to dip the dosa into.  Seth really enjoyed the daal, while I really liked the coconut.

Once our bellies were full, we ran some errands and came back to the hotel, because we had a cooking demonstration.  Because it's the offseason, there was no proper cooking instruction available, but the wonderful women at our hotel offered for us to watch as the cooks made us dinner, and they would explain the process while it occurred.  We decided that with the right spice kit, Seth could make delicious Indian food.

On a side note.  All of the beggars call out to Seth his actual name.  They say, "Seth, Seth, Seth!"  True story.  The coincidence is that seth in Hindi means wealthy person. So, Seth keeps getting distracted and creeped out when people tap on the window at stop lights and call out his name.