The next day I treated myself to a non-meat-tasting breakfast and spent some time reading before transferring to another hotel and reading some more. I can't be blamed. The new hotel had these cushiony window seats in the warm sun and they provided a whole pot of complimentary tea. That evening I moseyed down into the city proper for dinner with the Yale girls! We ordered enough apple cakes for an army and caught up until late (9 pm).
On New Year's Eve, Nara (my Korean bestie who has braved four countries and five New Year's Eves with me) and I headed to Swayambunath, a Buddhist stupa on the west end of Kathmandu. Not only were we unable to negotiate a good price with the taxi driver but he also very nearly set us on fire; as we rounded a corner his incense burner fell off the dashboard and onto the floor. It was a toss-up between dying a in a conflagration or a traffic accident but he managed to retrieve it. Having narrowly escaped death we were unceremoniously dumped at the bottom of a long slight of stairs. I took quite a few photos on the way up the temple if only because I needed to catch my breathe; a trekker I am not.
Nara and I did our three circuits of the stupa and then retired to a rooftop tea shop to consult the guide book and learn what we saw. Such as:
the tower has thirteen levels, a symbolic number in Buddhism
the eyes represent the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha
the nose is not a nose but the symbol for "ek" the number one
the dome at the base represents the world
the monkeys that live there are holy! Evidently, Manjushri the bodhisattva of wisdom and learning let his hair grow long and his lice transformed into the monkeys. Not holy lice but holy monkeys
holy monkeys!
A scientific interlude: the air quality in Kathmandu is so bad these days that even Nepalis are wearing facemasks. In fact, the 2018 Environmental Performance Index (which A worked on) names air quality as the top public health threat and Nepal is in the bottom five.
See?
Then I spent an hour watching Nara agonize over which carved mountain stone to purchase.
That afternoon we went to A's mehendi celebration where all the ladies ate lunch, got henna tattoos, and danced the afternoon away. I was genuinely surprised that I could sit still for the twenty minutes it takes to get henna'd. I also didn't touch anything for the hour it takes to dry!
My freak of nature fingernail has never looked better.
Then the dancing began in earnest. We were subjected to learning "a traditional Nepali dance" which turned out to be the equivalent of "my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard."
After this good-natured hazing, the Yale girls crammed into a taxi (with a driver who taught us to count to ten in Nepali) to get a New Year's Eve dinner. We talked career and personal goals while accompanied by sitar music and headed home once midnight struck in Korea. That's right, we made it until 9PM. Have to rest up for more family festivities!
Guys look! I'm writing about a trip within the month that I took it! Over New Years I went to Nepal for my friend Anobha's (A) wedding!
For my second trip to Kathmandu, I decided to deviate from the tourist norm and avoid the neighborhood of Thamel. I booked a hidden away hotel with airport pickup in the next-door city of Patan and ignored my gut feeling that they would forget my pickup without a reminder. I arrived at 10PM after about 24 hours of travel, whizzed through customs (so fresh faced that when a Chinese youth asked me how old I was and I said 25 because I misunderstood the question he didn't even blink), sped past the men offering luggage carts and beelined toward the taxi line -- to find that I was forgotten. Although one man laughingly accepted my suggestion to hold his sign right side up, even he wasn't there to pick me up.
So I went to the pre-paid taxi stand, and handed over $10 while a growing crowd of drivers discussed where my hotel was. They called the hotel (and my friend A) several times before putting me in a taxi. As we were pulling away another man got in the cab (which in international travel is a red flag) and he said "Did they tell you what's happening? We're taking you to my place for tonight." to which I responded, "I'm sorry, WHAT?"
There are many many ways this could have gone wrong but it didn't -- except for the fact that breakfast the next morning was super icky. I've never had scrambled eggs that simultaneously tasted like meat and like sugar at the same time. Blech,
After touching base with A, I headed out to Patan as planned. I arrived in Durbar Square and was immediately set upon by a tour guide. Knowing that even with my trusty Lonely Planet (why is it called that?) the experience would be richer with narration. I wanted to take copious notes for you reader because I knew my jetlagged brain wouldn't absorb much...but I forgot my pen!
Patan is one of three royal kingdoms of Nepal. It was the center of fine arts, while Kathmandu was the center of business, and Bhaktapur was agriculture.
Patan's Durbar (Royal) Square is unique because it t used to be separated by a river with temples on one side and palaces on the other.
This window is where the Queens would greet her people from the royal palace.
During the celebration of Dasian they sacrifice 108 buffaloes, goats, ducks, sheep, and chicken. Each animal represents a vice (anger, lust, apathy, stupidity, and fearfulness respectively). This door is festooned with entrails.
This bell can be heard for 3km. It was used to call people for the square but lately has been SnapChat Central.
The queen's bath!
As they restore the temples post-earthquake they are storing the buttresses in the palace. These represent all the ways you can be tortured in Hell. (The other carvings showed the Kama Sutra)
After explaining all of the buildings and the bonus Golden Temple, my guide took me to the traditional thangka selling racket. (Thangka's are Tibetan Buddhist paintings depicting a mandala, the Buddha's life, or the saints.) While a lama and master painter demonstrates his prodigious skill and talent (no sarcasm) the salesman shows the four traditional paintings and how the gold leaf sparkles in the light. He or she shows you how the painting looks backlit and even how it is still magnificent when dark. The seller asks the lama to discount the painting just for you -- undercutting the poor starving artist -- and if you still refuse he asks your price. Then the seller shows you an amateur's work and how you *could* get it cheaper but it's crap.
We went from $130 to $90 but I don't really need a thangka. So my guide stepped up his game and brought me to a metalwork shop. You may have heard of singing bowls, but just in case they're small metal bowls that make a sound when a wooden stick is run around the rim. I don't find it soothing (It sounds like ringing ears) but it's supposed to replicate the Om, the first sound of the universe. As it turns out, I don't have a talent for singing bowls so we moved on to healing bowls. Much larger, and made of a combination of metals, they are hit with a mallet. Because our bodies are 70% water, the vibrations from the bowl can cure insomnia, migraine, back pains, etc. And I got a demo! I was made to sit on a stool with my eyes closed, and while I hoped this wasn't a ploy to steal my backpack, the vibrating bowl was rubbed against my knees (which hurt like foam rolling) and then my back. Then the bowl was put upside down on my head and chimed. It was not unpleasant but I didn't buy one.
Here is six hours of singing bowls courtesy of YouTube:
Then I was dropped off at the Patan Museum which was fantastic with clear and informative displays about all sorts of Hindu and Buddhist things that have been explained to me multiple times without me absorbing them. I ate at the courtyard restaurant there which as the young boy sitting at the table next to me said was "exotic." Not really. You could pick your own typhoid salad and eat upscale versions of veggie pakora in the warm sun. It was quite pleasant!
After walking in several circles around the neighborhood I caught a taxi back to Kathmandu to have dinner (exotic pizza) with A and her fiance. Also quite pleasant!
