Out and about in Kathmandu
We arrived in Kathmandu yeasterday, and put simply this place is amazing!
The layout of the streets and their seeming organic growth, the vibrant culture mixed with what this first time traveller would call desperate poverty. My Indian colleages at work would tell me that I would see all of this but you really can't describe it and get the full idea accross.
Even so and I feel that I need to stress this point, the Nepalese do not seem depressed over this, well not that that would be the correct choice of words. This is their home and their world, it has been a tumultuous over recent years with the Maoist rebelion and then the ousting of the King.
Not that we as travellers have noticed this in any great way during our short time here. At any rate these sorts of stats can be gained from elsewhere!
On arriving at the Airport we met up with Jiban, our Nepalese trip oraganiser. After settling in at the hotel and a quick debriefing Jiban invited us out to dinner at a restraunt close by, if some what difficult to get to due to the confusing nature of the streets. Sufficed to say that the food was great and so was the conversation. Jiban asked me what travelling I had done before this, on my reply that I had done none (overseas), he asked wht I thought of Nepal, I responed I thought it was amazing, vibrant and so on, but avoid mentioning the poverty, possibly a little bit insulting to his (or anyones) intelligence, but I was on the spot...
Next morning we where up early for breakfast at 6 then piled into a bus for a tour of three of the major temples in the city. Our guide, Krishna (named after the God of same name), also gave us a comentary along the way pointing out the notable features e.g. govt. buildings, or explaining the details of Buhddist and Hindu religions how they are treated in Nepal, the impact of the secularisation on the status of these religions and so on.
The first of the Temples that we visited, Swayambhunath (aka the monkey temple), a Buddhist temple is set upon a hilltop and in the midst of a huge garden, at the top along witht the temple there are stall holders, artisans and even a cafe. The details of the temple can be found here, but with the difference that our guide explained the name as self existing lord amongst other things.
Next temple was in the Tibetan quater of the city Bouhanath (Lord Buddha). Again explaining the details of Nepalese / Tibetan cultural contact, there status today and history upto recent times.
The final temple Pashupatinath is Hindu, and due to the strict caste system in that way of life we are not allowed to enter that temple (as we have no caste, but you can find out details about how that works elsewhere), so we could only enter the area from the back of the complex and over the river. This is where the people are cremated when they die, and they had a couple of funerals going at the time, it was a strange feeling being spectators in such an intimate part of other peoples lives, but if you are to be the tourist and want to see and understand other cultures then put simply, shunning one aspect of that culture is counter productive.
Once the tour ended and we got back to the hotel then went our seperate ways for lunch, shopping and general sight seeing.
I have not mentioned this so far in the blog but the people that we have had contact with so far all have working to good ability to speak english, obviously the shop keepers only need a rudimentary knowledge but some are quite good and can hold conversations well, this is not counting Jiban and others like him where his business requires a high fluency.
Murray.
The layout of the streets and their seeming organic growth, the vibrant culture mixed with what this first time traveller would call desperate poverty. My Indian colleages at work would tell me that I would see all of this but you really can't describe it and get the full idea accross.
Even so and I feel that I need to stress this point, the Nepalese do not seem depressed over this, well not that that would be the correct choice of words. This is their home and their world, it has been a tumultuous over recent years with the Maoist rebelion and then the ousting of the King.
Not that we as travellers have noticed this in any great way during our short time here. At any rate these sorts of stats can be gained from elsewhere!
On arriving at the Airport we met up with Jiban, our Nepalese trip oraganiser. After settling in at the hotel and a quick debriefing Jiban invited us out to dinner at a restraunt close by, if some what difficult to get to due to the confusing nature of the streets. Sufficed to say that the food was great and so was the conversation. Jiban asked me what travelling I had done before this, on my reply that I had done none (overseas), he asked wht I thought of Nepal, I responed I thought it was amazing, vibrant and so on, but avoid mentioning the poverty, possibly a little bit insulting to his (or anyones) intelligence, but I was on the spot...
Next morning we where up early for breakfast at 6 then piled into a bus for a tour of three of the major temples in the city. Our guide, Krishna (named after the God of same name), also gave us a comentary along the way pointing out the notable features e.g. govt. buildings, or explaining the details of Buhddist and Hindu religions how they are treated in Nepal, the impact of the secularisation on the status of these religions and so on.
The first of the Temples that we visited, Swayambhunath (aka the monkey temple), a Buddhist temple is set upon a hilltop and in the midst of a huge garden, at the top along witht the temple there are stall holders, artisans and even a cafe. The details of the temple can be found here, but with the difference that our guide explained the name as self existing lord amongst other things.
Next temple was in the Tibetan quater of the city Bouhanath (Lord Buddha). Again explaining the details of Nepalese / Tibetan cultural contact, there status today and history upto recent times.
The final temple Pashupatinath is Hindu, and due to the strict caste system in that way of life we are not allowed to enter that temple (as we have no caste, but you can find out details about how that works elsewhere), so we could only enter the area from the back of the complex and over the river. This is where the people are cremated when they die, and they had a couple of funerals going at the time, it was a strange feeling being spectators in such an intimate part of other peoples lives, but if you are to be the tourist and want to see and understand other cultures then put simply, shunning one aspect of that culture is counter productive.
Once the tour ended and we got back to the hotel then went our seperate ways for lunch, shopping and general sight seeing.
I have not mentioned this so far in the blog but the people that we have had contact with so far all have working to good ability to speak english, obviously the shop keepers only need a rudimentary knowledge but some are quite good and can hold conversations well, this is not counting Jiban and others like him where his business requires a high fluency.
Murray.
posted by Murray Sutherland @ 3:25 AM
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