Lost in Nepal: Day 1

Jess and I first talked about going to Nepal a few days after we decided to go to India.  Why not?  We probably would never go on our own if we weren’t already in India.  We knew nothing about Nepal except that they have a mountain named Everest, which, at the low end, it would cost about $26,000 to climb.  That is for guides and equipment.  Higher end packages push upwards of $100,000.  When climbing to outer space, it seems silly to try and pinch a penny. 

Our trip began at 5am on Friday – that is 8:30pm on Thursday for you.  It was raining to beat hell.  We made good time though, and were at the airport in fifteen minutes.  The soldier at the entrance to the airport held us up a little bit because we did not have our “ticket”, which we learned is the itinerary email we got when we booked our plane tickets online.  You cannot enter the airport in Delhi without it.  The soldier directed us to the visitors section were an attendant pulled our reservation and printed it for us.  We then turned right on our heel and handed the hot paper to the soldier.  He diligently read our reservation, focusing so hard and taking so much time that Jess dared to shake him to see if he maybe had fallen asleep.  Through the exacting-scrutiny gate, we smashed our way up to the ticket counter to check in.  All went well. And, with tickets in hand we were about to leave when the attendant snatched the tickets back out of my hand and tore them up.  She quickly printed new tickets for us with only a minor change to our assigned seats.  She moved us from the 10^th row to the very last seats in the back.  Awesome.  We were mad, but it turned out to be a blessing because we were on the right side to see the mighty Himalayas (sometimes pronounced him ale eeia), jutting up from Earth.

 

 

We disembarked Spice Jet “Garlic” right onto the tarmac.  I tried to take a picture but the soldier next to me aggressively discouraged me.  Thankfully she did not see Jess triumphantly bounding down the steps snapping away.  We had a time with immigration and customs.  Nepal requires visitors to have a tourist visa.  We did not have one.  So, we had to fill out the short application and get our photo taken, for a small fee.  Jess posed like Jim Morrison for the poky in Florida ’63, while I… well, let’s just say I gave them an uncharacteristically toothy smile.  Pictures taken, money exchanged, we bounced back and forth between two adjacent immigration desks until finally we were released into the wilds of Kathmandu. 

Jess and I forgot to confirm with our guesthouse to get a ride from the airport, and left all the information we had on Kathmandu back in Delhi.  Armed with only a vague memory of the name of our guesthouse – Mahamamana? Matahuey? Mahatumandalsi? something like that – we stepped out hoping to find someone more responsible than us.  And we did!  He was a tall, thin, toothless man, probably over 60, standing in front of a sign tapped to a window that read, “Jessica Weinberger”.  He must have seen us squinting like two blind mice to read the sign because he started waiving at us and pointing to the appellation. He showed us to our Suzuki jalopy and then disappeared into the streets.  Off we went through Kathmandu to our guesthouse in Thamel (pronounced Taa mel). 

The Madhuban guesthouse is a real gem run by Laxman, a man I can confidently say is our friend.  He is probably just shy of 5’6”, paunchy, soft spoken to the point of being retiring, and very, very nice. His rooms were as clean as could be outside of a 5-Star hotel.  Our room had a balcony that overlooked the driveway and a nice wooden bed with a sheet over it.  It was a stiff board too.  The staff was very nice and helpful. Jess and I arrived, dropped our bags and went out for lunch.  Laxman recommended Everest Steak House for a safe, clean restaurant that served good meat.  As a reminder, we live in the land of many, many cows, but it is illegal to serve beef in many parts of India because just one of their millions of gods happens to be one.  Jess and I broke our beef fast with a barely cooked fillet and a gigantic hamburger pancake. They were yummy! pancake. They were yummy!

After lunch we went exploring.  Themal is crazy.  The streets are less than one lane wide and filled with people, cars, motorcycles, buses, rickshaws, dogs, Buddhists, Hindus, lost hippies, big statues, shrines, shops, venders, etc., etc., etc.,…. We were newborns lost in a street maze.  We dropped breadcrumbs but the birds ate them.  We remembered landmarks but there are duplicates a few blocks further on.  Blocks?  No, they are more like meandering lanes that round out into still other lanes.  We were lost.  To compound matters we stopped in a random bar and had random beers with random people.

We were exhausted from aimlessly walking in the heat, diesel fumes and dust. People aggressively offered us, beads, The Northface gear, food, hash, singing bowls, hash, flutes, beads, rides, hash, flutes, yak wool, paintings, flutes, beads and hash, all day.  We had to go back to the guesthouse to rest before dinner.  Lost on what to do on our second day in Nepal, we asked Laxman.  He suggested we try to kill ourselves on one of Nepal’s wonderfully dangerous whitewater rafting tours.  The price was right and we were both down to tempt fate.  We impulsively committed ourselves to the adventure and wandered out to lost dinner. 

Jess had a recommendation to try “Fire and Ice” a local Pizza place.  Our guesthouse gave us directions to follow on the map I had lost, and we took the crowded streets hoping for better luck.  Lost again…, but with a few different routes attempted we soon found ourselves at Fire and Ice.  It was delicious, thin crust pizza, served with a tasty chilly-oil dipping sauce.  We ate till we were beyond full because who wants to waste delicious pizza.  Our long day of travel and tourism had tired us out and had to be up early in the morning, so we didn’t get a taste of the Nepal nightlife tonight.  Instead, we lost our way back to the guesthouse and tried to fall asleep on our board. 

This is the first part of a three-part series on Nepal.  So, please check back in.  We will have the whole story posted by the end of the week.