Thursday 23rd March
Travel day from Delhi to Kathmandu – it only takes 1hr40. It has a time difference of 15 minutes – RANDOM!
Got in, settled in our hotel room. Stop press, we have a DOOR between our rooms. Lovely, having spent a month in family rooms, haha! Had a little wander round our backpacker area – Thamel. Goodness it is AMAZING – so backpackery – amazing food, shops, little moments of Western things! No issues with all the food being spicy for the kids. We had a doner kebab for dinner – with MEAT and SALAD. Phew! It feels like Kao San Road 20 years ago.
It’s also such lovely weather – sunny, a cool 20 odd degrees. It also feels so quiet. Everyone says Kathmandu has terrible smog but honestly, compared to India, it feels like a breath of fresh air. So quiet too, hardly any cars/ tuk tuks/ motorbikes.
Friday 24th March
Went to Durbar Square with all the amazing temples. So different to India. So beautiful – gorgeously ornate wooden carvings. We had a lovely guide show us round, talk a bit about Nepalese history. I must confess I didn’t know how difficult their political history has been, a series of democracy vs the King in fighting until very recently.
Also, you can still really see the impact of the 2015 earthquake on all the temples and buildings. It really did bring Kathmandu to its knees, and it takes so much money to rebuild it.
It was a lovely morning though, it feels so lovely just walking around here, feeling the buzz of the city.
One very interesting person they have here is a living goddess, called a Kumari. She is selected age 4/5 and remains in a Palace in Kathmandu until she has her first period. After which it is said her magical powers disappear. The same applies if she cuts herself. So she is kept inside the house her whole life, with a special family looking after her (not her real family). She never goes outside, and if her family looking after her don’t have any kids, then she never plays.
To become a kumari, she has to pass a series of tests, one of which is – spending a night alone in a room among the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes without showing fear. Age 4 or 5. Phew!
Then after her first period, she is sent back home to live a ‘normal’ life. But apparently marrying an ex-kumari is deemed unlucky, so she spends the rest of her days single.
More info here!
We did our own street food tour, from this website here. It was awesome – lots of the places had moved/ had different food there but still exciting none the less. First up we had a kind of sweet and sour savoury tortilla thing.
Then eggs and noodles.
Beloved Jalebi and samosas – the Indian influence on food out here
A lassi stall in a temple
Then found a small sweet stall in someone’s house!
Dinner was amazing pizza – proper, delish pizza & broccoli. But it cost around £23 quid for a meal. For context, our street food probably cost about £4 all in. I think we will be doing more street food from now on!
Saturday 25th March
Temple day! The first one was a whole temple complex where they hold cremations – it was a bit full on for me because there was one happening whilst we were there. You have to cremate the person the same day they died. They do it next to the river, decorating them with flower garlands. The eldest son puts rice into their mouth. Then they shave their heads, eyebrows and then go and live in a temple for 13 days. Apparently this spot is more significant that Varanassi for the Hindu religion. I won’t include photos of the ritual as it feels disrespectful.
The afternoon we went to Boudanath temple which is the most significant (Buddist) stupa in Asia. It really is impressive. We came in the afternoon because the monks walk around it in a clockwise direction.
Sunday 26th March
Henry is struggling to read with home school – or indeed do any reading at all. So C kindly stepped up and did some reading with him this morning – it was lovely to see.
Henry used my Google maps to get us to the ‘monkey temple’ (everyday is a school day!). It was a 40 minute walk so he did v well – and learnt about thinking about where the sun is in terms of direction. Map reading is an essential skill in my book, so we’ll do more of this!
Then hit up a swing overlooking Kathmandu – it’s not popular at all, and really hard to find, but it should be. It had amazing views and Charlotte had a great time!
Next up…Bandipur!
Team Mossy on the move 