April 14th – Around Katmandu

I definitely miss the simplicity of the trail. Katmandu is polluted and noisy. You have to have a sixth sense / eyes in the back of your head to avoid getting run over by traffic. We also happen to be staying in Thamel, the tourist part of Katmandu, so you are constantly bombarded as you walk down the street with people trying to sell you trekking or other random crap.

After sleeping in this morning, I met up with everyone else at Just Shakes for our favorite breakfast of fresh fruit, muesli, yogurt and honey. Afterwards, Mike, Andrea and I were able to move our stuff back into the Deutsch House as a room had opened up. After we got all settled there, I was determined to find the Buddha statues that I was unsuccessful in finding the previous day. I took bartered a taxi driver down to 100 rupees for a trip to go see the statues, but when we got there, he sung me the blues about how it wasn’t enough. I gave him his 100 rupees and told him to wait for thirty minutes so I could take my pictures and then I would give him 150 rupees to take me back.

He had delivered me exactly where I wanted to be, but due to the way the statues faced, and the early morning light, they were all backlit which made photographing them almost impossible. When I was done, my cab driver had disappeared, so I took another cab ride home. We ended up driving up a road to the right of the statues past a long line of people on a hunger strike protesting the Chinese crackdown in Tibet. A little bit further on, and we were right back to where I had finished up the previous day on the backside of the monkey temple! Had I walked about five minutes further down the back of the Monkey Temple, I would have found my golden Buddha statues!

After returning to the Deutsch House I headed out to book a ticket to go see Mt. Everest. I had hemmed and hawed about if I wanted to spend the $130 on a ticket to go see the mountain, but then I thought to myself, “How often are you in Nepal? You’re already here and might as well spend the rather small amount to just go see it.” After I got back, the whole group decided to head to a large square in Katmandu. Along the way, we stopped and looked for a camera for Michael and Andrea, since theirs unfortunately died due to the long months of travel.

We then reached the large local square where vendors hawked their crap to the tourists. Under the awning of a local building, several kids were gathered around huffing glue. Glue sniffing is a big problem for the street children in Nepal. You often find them begging for money or food which they then turn around to get more glue to sniff. They buy superglue and put it into plastic bags to inhale. As heartbreaking as it is to see, ignore their begging as they will only use whatever money or food you give them to trade for more glue to huff. I managed to get a great picture of a kid sniffing glue, but his friends busted me taking the picture, so he came down and bothered us for a good fifteen minutes asking for money.

After that we walked through the rest of the square and found ourselves in the middle of a local market with all sorts of goods and food for sale. I went a bit crazy taking pictures as I love to photograph things in markets for sale. It was also neat to be in an area that felt more authentic. I enjoyed watching the Nepalese people barter and shop for items.

While there, we found out that we had missed a religious festival that had happened in the market / square the day before were they sacrificed almost one hundred animals. That would have been quite a site to see.

The rest of the day was spent shopping for gifts and other souvenirs to take home with us. I managed to barter down a vendor from 1800 rupees to 300 rupees for a scrimshawed elephant. I also got some wool hats for my sister for 90 rupees down from an initial offer of 350 rupees. It would appear that I improved at the bartering game. The key is to appear uninterested and be ready to walk away at any moment. It can be a bit annoying as they really try to rip you off at first, but the whole process can be fun as well. After my bartering spree, I went and did some quick work on the internet while everyone else went out to dinner. I called it an early night due to having to get up early for the flight to see Mount Everest in the morning.