December 31, 2013 — Year’s End in Kathmandu

December 31, 2013. Kathmandu Nepal

Namaste (Don’t know how to say Happy New Year, but maybe after tonight I will) 

Went for dinner last night to an Indian Restaurant on the second floor of a very interesting complex called Baber Mahal Revisited — that honors Rana architecture (which was the period from mid 1800s to mid-1900s when the Ranas ruled Nepal and introduced a mixture of European, Indian, and local architecture). In 1996 one of the Rana descendants who owned the property decided to develop it himself with the help of a Harvard-trained architect who specialized in historic restoration. They created five courtyards with low buildings (one and two stories) surrounding each courtyard and each courtyard and building set depicting a particular pre-existing building or style in the Kathmandu Valley. Naturally, it attracted a set of upscale Nepalese restaurateurs and vendors who have a knack for finding unique items to sell.. and also some really good international cuisine. We ate at the Indian restaurant (called something like Buwarki) and were greeted by the owners’ son who surprised us with really good American English! We asked where he learned to speak English (since those Nepalese that speak English have Indian and British accents; his was distinctively American)… turns out he went to Wichita State University to study aeronautical engineering. Spent 6 years in Kansas, completed his degree… and in his own words, “became a redneck!”

The food was good, but way too much. Mike decided to order three starters and one main course, but the starters were big enough for a main course. Anyway, we checked out the shops in the complex but everything was closed so we put this on the list for today.

Got back to the hotel at around 10 pm and waited until midnight to call my office in Oakland to deal with year-end logistics (10 am in California) and then crashed.

This morning after waking up to a wonderful surprise birthday present from Mike (a really beautiful opera-length gold necklace made of individual cylindrical links) and breakfast and discussions about how to navigate today’s plans — we headed out to Boudhananth – one of the holiest Buddhist sites in Kathmandu. It’s about 11 km from the center of town. The focus of the site is a huge stupa surrounded by a village-like presence with shops and buildings completely circling the structure. The Buddhist Boudhanath stupa dominates the skyline and is one of the largest in the world. Boudhanath, like so many other religious sites here in Kathmandu, is a UNESCO World Heritage site… and thus a popular destination, but given the time of year it wasn’t really crowded and we could stroll the whole complex easily and mingle with those coming for religious reasons. Boudhananth is apparently situated on the ancient trade route from Tibet which bypasses the center of Kathmandu. The stupa is supposed to contain the remains of one of the many Buddhas.

We used all the skills we learned yesterday – Get a taxi driver and sign him up for the day so that you don’t deal with finding new ones as you attempt to navigate the city and go from place to place (at fairly great distances); cross streets with groups of Nepalese and always stay in the middle of the group; etc. By the way, there aren’t any traffic lights in all of Nepal — so traffic just sort of flows or stops, and this is one of the reasons crossing the street is so difficult.

After strolling Boudhananth for about 90 minutes (actually it was a calm oasis, since there aren’t any cars — it’s sort of a pedestrian zone with shopping on your left and the stupa on your right), we asked to be dropped off in the Thamel neighborhood. I think this is probably a heavy tourist area in high season. It prides itself on having Wi-Fi everywhere and is probably where the hippies focused their time in the 60s, although I assume it’s a lot different now than it was then. (But still, some remnants of tie-dye and those classic Nepalese shirts and skirts with patchworks of cloth in different colors and patterns — the stuff I always wanted to wear but could never pull off!) Thamel has narrow streets crowded with shops and vendors and lots of cars and motorcycles. My guess is that you can buy anything here, but that there is a heavy concentration of pashmina stores, trinket stores, etc. It seemed upscale next to Indra Chok from yesterday… and while it may be a tourist haven in high season, we didn’t run into any Americans and only a handful of non-Nepalese.

Thamel must be the pre-base camp for a lot of mountaineers, since there are a lot of gear shops and money exchanges. By the way, using an ATM here is interesting in that the ATMs are like little rooms, just big enough for one person, but fully enclosed. Generally they are up a few steps.. so it’s sort of like going up to a little apartment door, but when you get there and open the door it’s a very very small closet. Mike used one just fine, but my card didn’t work – twice. I’ll just wait for Delhi.

From Thamel we went back to Baber Mahal Revisited for lunch and a little higher-end shopping than what’s on the streets. When we were at the complex last night we spied a cute little café called Chez Caroline — so we headed there. We were in heaven – a little French café in a quiet courtyard, tastefully decorated with beautiful plates and settings. We each had the soup of the day – ginger carrot, and then Mike had the mushroom tart with walnut sauce, and I had the tomato/chevre tart; two glasses of good, inexpensive wine — all followed by a shared slice of ginger cake. Fantastic! We were also starving by then.

Strolled Baber Mahal Revisited for an hour or so — purchased just a few small items (but spied some other things that might be worth a trip back again, and certainly we are considering dinner there tomorrow night at one of the many restaurant options). Then we headed back to the hotel to rest and get ready for New Year’s dinner here; decided that it made most sense to just enjoy the hotel where a very special dinner and party is being prepared for tonight.

The streets at night are extremely dark and difficult to navigate given the preponderance of pot holes, unfinished or partially demolished sidewalks and roads, cyclists without any lights, the mist, street fires being used for cooking and heating, and more.

More tomorrow from Kathmandu (probably another temple — getting templed out, but frankly they are much easier to take than those in Tibet; less climbing; and the strange mixture of shopping and temple seeing because of the way these temples have been built within village-like settings. And then we’ll probably go to another neighborhood.

Best for 2014 – Fern