2nd May - Swimming and Durbar Square

Tired to go for a swim first thing but the pool was being cleaned and so went back and had breakfast with Johnie. It was very frustrating as the internet connections here are really rubbish and it took 2.5 hours of faffing on the internet to book the hotel I want in Hong Kong. This was after I had spent ages choosing one yesterday. This is one reason why I am currently really behind on my blog.... rubbish internet connection to update it.

I am very excited about meeting up with Jacob in Hong Kong. It will be another break from biking and budget. Even though it took ages to book the hotel it will be very worth it! We have booked an awesome place.

Went for a long swim at lunch time. When I first got in the pool I could hardly breathe. It was very cold and I am fighting off a cold. It took a few lengths to warm up and I ended up doing 200 lengths and felt much better afterward. I am missing doing exercise but I can't do much at the moment as I can't breathe very easily. The cigarette smoke from the 4 chain smokers that I am spending most of my time with has not helped neither has the bad pollution in Kathmandu.

When I got back from my swim I found Johnie sitting in the same place. He had been there since breakfast drinking beer and the green moonshine that we got from the cafe yesterday. His head was completely addled. He was not like a normal drunk person or behaving like he normally does when he is drunk. He behaved like he had lost about 75IQ points in the last couple of hours but was not acting drunk. It was very strange. The green moonshine really is very "special" stuff.

Katherine came to join us at the cafe for a beer and said that she had got a good deal on bookings with the guy at the reception at our hotel. Therefore, I went and asked him about a mountain scenic flight booking with transportation to the airport and back. Other deals we had been offered were $160 (USD) not including the transportation to and from the airport. The guy at the reception offered $140 (USD) including transportation and so we all booked! Awesome. Booked on a flight to see Everest and the Himalayers tomorrow morning. :-) Have to be up early though as need to be at the airport for 6.30.

We left Thamel about 4 and got a Cycle Rickshaw to Dunbar Square. It is very strange being carried along by someone else on a bike. It is a great way to see the city though and they know all the little back lanes and are very fast at negotiating traffic. The old streets are lovely and narrow and very busy. The architecture is fab.

Johnnie was on "go slow" with green moonshine brain and so it took ages to get anywhere. He has borrowed my bike horn and was using it against the touts when the bothered us too much. He had several of them in fits of giggles as they were just not expecting it...... He tried to sell them the horn for a lax (100000RS) and each time they bargained would increase the price and warm the metal with a lighter, rub it and pretend it was gold. Some of them did not get it - others really did. One lady could not help but laugh and laugh. He did not come across as drunk but he just behaved very very strange. That green moonshine......

We arrived at Dunbar square about 30 mins before we where supposed to meet the others at the Krishna Temple and so we had a wonder round. The architecture is very impressive. Nepal is very different to India. This architecture has been strongly influenced by China. Nepal was cut off from the outside world for about 200 years before it opened up for the first time in the 1950s. During the 200 or so years of separation there was not much development of infrastructure for most Nepalese people. The main development was concentrated on making more and more elaborate palaces etc for the royal family. Kathmandu was a much smaller place with several large towns which are have now merged together to form one huge city. he population of the country was only 8 million at this time anyway and most people lived in the hills.

We sat and waited for the others to arrive for about 30 mins and then Johnnie disappeared off to go to the toliet leaving me to wait for the others but did not return for 30-40mins. Apparently he felt rude just using the facilities of the bar in the square and so stopped off for a rum and coke at the same time.....


I actually enjoyed just sitting there people watching. There is a main street that goes through the square. There are no gates to get in and out of the square and locals walk though carrying huge loads on their backs and head. Some of the old men that are doing this look like they are about 70 and they are carrying weights of 60kg. Sometimes their loads have the weight written on them in marker pen.

The clothes and the way of carrying loads is very different to India. There are 4 main ethnic groups in Nepal. One group where originally from North India. They were high caste Indians which emigrated to Nepal to escape the Muslim invasion of North India several hundred years ago. Therefore there is a large group of people in Nepal that look very Indian but behave very differently. The English skills of the touts and the people working in the Tourist trade is generally very good and better than my experience of India. However, that could be just because most of my time in India was not in major tourist areas.


After we gave up waiting for the others we went for a wonder round. I love this guards socks. Everything else black and white - but bright yellow socks :-)

As a tourist you are expected to pay a few hundred rupees to get in at one of the security gates. However as there are so many tourists milling about the place and several entrances to the square it would be reasonably easy to get away with not paying this fee. We did pay like good little children.....

It was a shame that we left it until late in the day to visit the square as by this time the weather had turned. It is taking a bit to get used to the fact that normally the mornings are beautiful and sunny and then the thunderstorms roll in mid afternoon. We really should get up early (most Nepalese are up and about by 6 - very different to India who are only up and about by 8) and then head to bed early. It does not happen when everyone has had a drink in the evening and the night just continues as everyone is having fun.... Emma, Ang and Liam do not seem to surface until midday.

This deity outside the main palace area just looked like a big orange blob - orange paint on a big rock with orange material wrapped round it . I am not sure what the deity is but it is very different to the Hindu deities which are always beautifully carved and painted - usually with a face etc. There were many people bowing and praying to it. I know when many people travel to the East they find it a very spiritual experience and come home inspired by the alternative culture. I just feel even stronger that religions are all insane and no one has the right answer or the truth. People can find anything to pray to - it is just part of human nature to idolise.


We gave up trying to find the others by about 7 and headed back to Thamel on a bike Rickshaw. We bartered 50RS but then gave a good tip. I prefer doing this. It does generally mean that you get much better service in India and Nepal.

We were going to go to the Hot Chill Restaurant again (were we went yesterday) but this time with Liam, Emma and Ang but as we had not found them and they were not answering FB messages etc we ate at the Northfield cafe again. There are 2 restaurants - both owned by the Hotel were we are staying. We ate in the smaller one. Katherine joined us. I had a Thai Red Curry but it was rubbish and so sent it back and got and instead got a bad Butter Chicken Curry. There is so much variety available in Thamel: Mexican, Italian, French, American, Thai , Indian and Nepalese. However, what you end up getting are Nepalese versions of the different dishes. It is lovely to have some western food but it is not exactly fine dinning.....

Ang and Liam turned up about 10ish. Apparently they had been at the square at the same time as us but must have been sitting somewhere different. We all compared photos and time stamps to try and work out where they were and where we were and how we all managed to miss each other for 1 hour! We failed to work it out then but later on we found out that there are 2 Dunbar squares in Kathmandu. They were at Patum Dunbar Square and we were at Kathmandu Dunbar Square. The buildings are very similar in architecture and both and a Krishna Temple..... oops!

Johnnie, Ang and Liam decided to finish the bottle of the green stuff! Madness. It is like fire water..... I was not really drinking and so it was funny to watch them. For once in my life it was not me making a fool of myself :-) (I made up for it tomorrow night though).

I gave up waiting for them all to go to bed as we have to be up at 5.30 for a mountain flight to see Everest tomorrow morning. They did not stop drinking till 1ish.

I felt rather bad for this lovely security guard who was trying to get rid of us. He sleeps in the corridor and we were keeping him up.....