June 20 Day 125
We got up fairly early and had a nice breakfast in the garden. We then got some work done in the room. Our hotel said it as illegal to change Indian rupees past the 100 bill but we found out later that it could be done.
We didn't hear from our friends and went out exploring Thamel and in search of lunch. Many places seemed kind of familiar but we couldn't be sure. We picked a place for lunch (which we later found out to be the #18 place to eat in town) and had a good lunch talking with an American woman travelling alone who had been to many of the same places as us.
On the way back we kept searching for stick anti-perspirant for me (impossible to find, it seems) and Meg managed to trade our old books at a used store. We tried to remember where places were but only a few names were familiar and all side alleys kind of looked the same.
Back at the hotel more relaxing and catching up happened. We tried contacting people but there was no response. We watched Doctor Strange on tv and then headed out to dinner to a pizza place we remembered.
The walk was much calmer than India. The streets were cleaner but there weer more nudie dance bars than we remembered. There were no tuktuks or cows but lots of motorbikes driven just as badly as those in India.
The food at the restaurant was as good as we remembered and was our last wine and Italian food for at least 10 days because of our retreat. We walked back, Kathmandu feeling quite safe after dark. We slept well.
June 21 Day 126
We woke up and had breakfast, hoping to see our old charity today. Rajan called to say that there was no school today so we made plans to meet after the retreat. We then packed and I went out to exchange our Indian rupees. This was tricky, as our hotel said that there was much forgery with them and most places wouldn't exchange them. I found a place and headed back to the hotel.
We got packed up and had time to go to Durbar Square before leaving. It now requires a $20 ticket to enter the area after which you have to dodge clusters of touts offering to be your guide. Several of the buildings are supported by scaffolding and a few are still being rebuilt from near rubble. Almost no buildings can be entered and many are fenced off. They are still an impressive collection with at least a few places where Hindu worshipers are active and the architecture is still excellent. Many people there are selling bird food and many incomplete temples are covered in pigeon dung, which can't be good for them.
There's one museum you can go to about the quake and rebuilding the square. To get there you have to pass through a walkway lined with info about how much the Chinese have donated to the rebuilding effort. One funny part lists many things the Chinese did followed by a mention of the Nepali government contributing a storage shed. Well-funded propaganda.
The museum has before and after pictures of monuments affected by the quake with much background info. They had models of effected buildings with information of how they were hit during the quake. One of the most interesting parts was a wall of papers where people could post their own story about the earthquake. A few were in English and highlighted how scary it was even for people not hugely impacted by the whole thing.
As we left there wasn't much time before our ride to Kopan so we frantically looked for fast places. One momo place told us 10 minutes, another only had yak momos. Others were reluctant to tell us they had nothing, the whole Asian thing about hating to tell people "no" even when its true. Finally we found a bakery just before our hotel that had savory and sweet buns ready to go. We got back, got into our cab and were off.
Our trip to the monastery highlighted that we had been deceived. We thought that the roads in Kathmandu had been greatly improved, but that was only in the touristic Thamel area. As we drove across the city, we encountered both paved and dirt roads with huge divots and constantly bumping traffic. The final road up the hill to the monastery was the worst, real 4 x 4 terrain. Our driver tried to get more money out of us because of the road but we had paid a premium price, given a tip and he knew what the road was like when he agreed to take us. At least we got to Kopan intact!
We got up fairly early and had a nice breakfast in the garden. We then got some work done in the room. Our hotel said it as illegal to change Indian rupees past the 100 bill but we found out later that it could be done.
We didn't hear from our friends and went out exploring Thamel and in search of lunch. Many places seemed kind of familiar but we couldn't be sure. We picked a place for lunch (which we later found out to be the #18 place to eat in town) and had a good lunch talking with an American woman travelling alone who had been to many of the same places as us.
On the way back we kept searching for stick anti-perspirant for me (impossible to find, it seems) and Meg managed to trade our old books at a used store. We tried to remember where places were but only a few names were familiar and all side alleys kind of looked the same.
Back at the hotel more relaxing and catching up happened. We tried contacting people but there was no response. We watched Doctor Strange on tv and then headed out to dinner to a pizza place we remembered.
The walk was much calmer than India. The streets were cleaner but there weer more nudie dance bars than we remembered. There were no tuktuks or cows but lots of motorbikes driven just as badly as those in India.
The food at the restaurant was as good as we remembered and was our last wine and Italian food for at least 10 days because of our retreat. We walked back, Kathmandu feeling quite safe after dark. We slept well.
June 21 Day 126
We woke up and had breakfast, hoping to see our old charity today. Rajan called to say that there was no school today so we made plans to meet after the retreat. We then packed and I went out to exchange our Indian rupees. This was tricky, as our hotel said that there was much forgery with them and most places wouldn't exchange them. I found a place and headed back to the hotel.
We got packed up and had time to go to Durbar Square before leaving. It now requires a $20 ticket to enter the area after which you have to dodge clusters of touts offering to be your guide. Several of the buildings are supported by scaffolding and a few are still being rebuilt from near rubble. Almost no buildings can be entered and many are fenced off. They are still an impressive collection with at least a few places where Hindu worshipers are active and the architecture is still excellent. Many people there are selling bird food and many incomplete temples are covered in pigeon dung, which can't be good for them.
There's one museum you can go to about the quake and rebuilding the square. To get there you have to pass through a walkway lined with info about how much the Chinese have donated to the rebuilding effort. One funny part lists many things the Chinese did followed by a mention of the Nepali government contributing a storage shed. Well-funded propaganda.
The museum has before and after pictures of monuments affected by the quake with much background info. They had models of effected buildings with information of how they were hit during the quake. One of the most interesting parts was a wall of papers where people could post their own story about the earthquake. A few were in English and highlighted how scary it was even for people not hugely impacted by the whole thing.
As we left there wasn't much time before our ride to Kopan so we frantically looked for fast places. One momo place told us 10 minutes, another only had yak momos. Others were reluctant to tell us they had nothing, the whole Asian thing about hating to tell people "no" even when its true. Finally we found a bakery just before our hotel that had savory and sweet buns ready to go. We got back, got into our cab and were off.
Our trip to the monastery highlighted that we had been deceived. We thought that the roads in Kathmandu had been greatly improved, but that was only in the touristic Thamel area. As we drove across the city, we encountered both paved and dirt roads with huge divots and constantly bumping traffic. The final road up the hill to the monastery was the worst, real 4 x 4 terrain. Our driver tried to get more money out of us because of the road but we had paid a premium price, given a tip and he knew what the road was like when he agreed to take us. At least we got to Kopan intact!
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| How wiring is done in Kathmandu. |
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| Rebuilding Durbar Square for the pigeons. |
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| Creepy face in Durbar Square, no further explanation. |
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