Serenity Now!

We're back in Dhaka after five days in Nepal! We'll still break down the Nepal trip into days so as not to overwhelm with one long blog post. :)

Kathmandu is just a short hour and fifteen minute flight from Dhaka. We arrived in the early to mid-afternoon as our flight was delayed by a couple of hours. After making our way through immigration and picking up our bags, I had an instant flashback to landing in Accra: we were swarmed by men who were jockeying to transport our luggage to the van that would drive us to the Hotel Vadjra. A team of 6 to 8 men, all presumably having contracted with our van driver, jostled one another trying to all wrangle control of our two pieces of luggage then demanded tips-- including tapping John on the arm through the window of the van demanding "one more one more" piece of currancy, no matter the denomination. Only problem? We didn't have any Nepali rupees or much by way of small change American bills. We ended up tipping the lot of them some $26 (six initially for our bags which was apparently upsetting to them, then another $20 when two more guests arrived at the van with no money for tips.)

As the above suggests, I soon learned that the portrayal of Kathmandu as a haven of peace and serenity is way way way overly romanticized. The pollution from all of the traffic hangs over the valley as a thick, smoggy mist and the din of beeping car horns and barking dogs reverberates through the crowded, narrow streets. It was therefore all the more wonderful and surreal when we arrived at our hotel-- located just a little ways off of the center of downtown-- as the courtyards and gardens of the Hotel Vadjra seemed to silence some of the city noise.

We ate a late lunch then headed back out into the city for Durbar Square. This is perhaps the biggest tourist attraction in Kathmandu: a centrally located city square surrounded by Hindu and Buddhist stupas or temples. Annoyance mixed with liberal guilt struck again as we had to fend off vendors and people wanting us to hire them to be our "guides." Nevertheless, we managed to see some of the more famous stupas, including the one pictured here: the Kumari temple, or the "Living Goddess" temple. The Kumari is believed to be an incarnation of a Hindu goddess. She is a prepubescent girl chosen from among a number of candidates who must first possess very specific physical characteristics, must then face men dancing in scary masks without crying (a goddess wouldn't be afraid of that!) and then choose personal belongings from the previous Kumari to prove that she is the next incarnation. The Kumari then lives at the temple under the watchful eyes of priestess guardians until her first menstruation. It is believed that the goddess's spirit has moved on to another young girl and the process of choosing the new kumari begins.


After spending some time walking around and looking at the other temples, we went on a walking tour of Kathmandu. The streets are lined with some beautifully preserved buildings, with intricate carvings in the Newari style. Also pretty interesting were the short doorways for stores, or as our tourbook called them "hobbit shops," including this oddly amusing store dedicated to selling instruments for marching bands.

Finally, as dusk began to settle, the pollution was too much for me and the nephew was overly due for a nap and feeding. We took a pretty scary taxi ride back up to the hotel, while John walked his way back. Dinner on the rooftop of the Vadjra was a welcome taste of some of the serenity that people seek in Kathmandu... of course, I can find serenity anywhere there is a gin and tonic nearby!