Nepal had always been high up on my dream list. Being the roof of the world can only inspire and let you imagine such incredible adventures ahead.
Well, I must say that the reality hasn't let down any of my expectations!
From the moment I boarded the plane in Dhaka things already got incredible.
I had booked a window seat in order to stick my face against it and watch the landing in Katmandu. Ha! It so happened that my neighbor was this 50yr old Italian very unusual business man with whom I chatted during the entire flight. His line of work: fishing string. Can't get anymore niche than that. Such a fascinating man. He has traveled all around the world for business, and is passion ate about Asian culture and religions, and even collects books about it. He told me he owns thousands of them back home!
Anyway, Nicola and I would keep on chatting so much that we ended up sharing a cab to downtown.
Katmandu is quite a fascinating and vibrating city. Despite its air pollution, the city has something so mysterious and ancient to it. I didn't stay enough to fully grasp it, but I shall be back there mid April.
My first day there I spent most of it walking from the downtown core all the way to the outskirt of the city and to the public bus terminal to buy my ticket to Pokhara for the next evening. (Tight schedule due to the Vipassana course I signed up for).
This walk allowed me to see the back side of the city, the part unseen by foreigners as it is mostly where locals live and shop. And the bus terminal area was so interesting. Somehow chaotic (not compared to Dhaka though), very lively, partially urbanized, and very polluted. I bought my bus ticket to Pokhara for the next day and wandering back to my guest house...looking out for a place to eat.
When I got back to the touristy yet interesting area of Thamel, I found this cute hole in the wall of a place and took a seat and ordered a simple diner. Funny enough, out of all the people and foreigners in this huge city, I met three people there, an American girl, a Mexican guy, and this girl Anais from Belgium. And in a fee minutes discovered that Anais was also to take the vipassana course I signed up for. Small world.
Anyhow, the next morning, I managed to have breakfast with Nicola and tag along to check out this big mask dance festival at one of the main Buddhist temple on the outskirts of the city. It was fantastic being with Nicola as he explained the whole ceremony to me. Finally I could get it.
At noon I am took off to check out the biggest Hindu event of the year. I can't remember the name now, but according to the papers, more than 700,000 people attended. So yes, quite a crowd, which made the event even more spectacular.
There were babas everywhere. Some dressed, some naked. All most definitely high. Such a festival of colors and cultures to watch these thousands of devout Hindus lining up of hours and hours to enter this gigantic temple and pay their respect to their gods, while the foreigners simply had to show up to the guards to be immediately let in without having to make any line nor wait a single minute. Very unfair, but hey, why not?!
Unfortunately, the place was so immense, the crowd so dense, and the police check points so numerous that it took me hours to just get to the front door and ticket counter of the temple. And I was way to worried (rightfully so) about making it back to the guest house on time to bother buying an overpriced ticket ($10!) to enter the temple, so I turned around. And boy was I right. It took me almost two hours to get out of the crowd and to the place to catch a micro van back to Thamel.
Tight! But I made it all on time and to the bus terminal. So off to Pokhara and through the night I went...
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