Exploring Kathmandu

The capital of the Nepal kingdom, Kathmandu is the biggest city of the country with an over 740.000 inhabitants. Actually is the only city of the country, Pokhara the second city and tourist destination being just a small town. The city is situated in Kathmandu Valley just next to Patan being separated only by Bagmati river. The other city from the Valley, Bhaktapur is very close also, just 20-30 km far away. The original inhabitants of the Valley are called newars.

I woke up quite early in the morning when the weather was cool, the best time for visiting Kathmandu in a summer day. Of course I stopped first in the main tourist area of the city: Durbar Square. This area used to be in the Middle Age the center of the city. Here was the palace of the king, the central square and a lot of temples. In all the three cities from Kathmandu Valley there is a Durbar Square. In The Middle Age each one was a medieval kingdom and it was a kind of competition among the kings for building a lot of temples in Durbar Squares.
The fee entrance for Durbar Square in Kathmandu was 250, but somehow I manage to cross the checking point without being asked about the ticket. Actually I didn’t know where was that point until I effectively crossed it. The place is very interesting and different. Imagine yourself two huge squares joined together with a lot of pagoda temples and statues all around. The name of the city is called after a temple from Durbar Square called Kaasthamandap, buit in 1596 A.D. by King Laxmi Narshing Malla. The entire temple is built from wood without any metal nails and it’s said that it was built from the timber from a single tree. All the temples from the Square are hindu temples, but there are completely different from the Indian temples. All are pagoda temples with two, three, four or five story. And most of them have erotic carvings on the roof strut. It’s an entire Kamasutra carved in wooden. You can see there animals, women and animals, gods, people all of them having sex in different position. There is also a big sculpture in the Square with Kali the bloody goodness, where every year during the Indra Jatra Festival in September water buffalos and goats are sacrificed being decapitated with a single blow of the sword. In front of the square is the former king palace and on the right side of the palace there is a very nice building with a lot of wooden carvings of it. It’s the house of Kumari, the living goodness. The name of the building is Kumaru Bahal. She is a young girl chosen from a certain cast of Newari when she is very young 4 –5 years old, and she is not a goodness all her life. As soon as she is a women, after her first period or after she loses a lot of blood because of an accident she is not anymore a goodness and she has to leave the house. The process of finding a Kumari is very complicated. There are a lot of demands for her. She must have the body of the Banyan tree, legs like a deer, neck like a conch and eyebrows like the cow. She must never have lost a drop of blood. But once she is chosen she lives in luxury life. Her feet must not touch the ground. When she leaves the palace she is carried in a palanquin. Is very difficult for an ex-Kumari to find a husband. It’s said that a man who married a Kumari will day young.
Although Durbar Square is not anymore the center of the city is the most used place for meetings, and is the perfect place to come and observe the Nepalese life. Here, around the Kaasthamandap temple the vegetables vendors come to sell their products. And also here the young couples or the good friends come in the evening to meet, sitting on the stairs of the numerous temples and talking. Here in Nepal the cows are also holly like in India, and in Durbar Square u can find lots of them. Most of the temples are still in use and u can walk around and watch the hindu people praying or dooing pooja, the hindu ceremony of offering food, fruits and flowers to the gods. It’s a kind of jumping in time the walking tour in this Durbar Square. All around you amazing medieval streets, buildings and temples, ladies in sari, ancient traditions and ceremonies. And not only Durbar Square is like this. The entire part of the old Kathmandu city is like that. The streets are narrow and all around you is full of pagoda temples, in the same style. Almost all of them are small two or three story temples. Some of them are with a huge clock in front of the temple, or they have a 4-5 meters pillar with a god statue on the top in front of them.
In Lonley Planet guide there are two walking tours from Durbar Square. One is going up north of the Durbar Square and the other one down south. Along this walking tours you pass narrow streets, big chowks where 4 – 6 streets meet and form a kind of square with some temples, streets vendors and old newari traditional buildings. The water tanks, so called Hiti, with a lot of sculptures and steps where is the place where the women go for the water with huge pots carried on the top of the head and stopping for a small chat with the other female neighbors. This is the old part of the city. There is also a new part with fancy shops, large streets, nice buildings. It’s the best place from Nepal to see the different between old Nepal and new Nepal. The imposing king’s palace is situated just next to Thamel, the tourist district of Nepal. The pink modern building is surrounded with a double 5 meters fence, with huge gates and guards everywhere.
After half of the day walking around Kathmandu I’ve started starving. A good time to eat something, I was thinking. And where can be the best place to eat in Kathmandu? Of course that Thamel, the tourist district of Kathamandu. This place is amazing. It’s packed with restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, travel agency. And tourists everywhere. And nepalis hanging around and asking you if u want some grass. Or trying to sell you something. The travel agencies offers great tracking trips, rafting trips, paragliding, safari trips, Tibetan trips. Nobody can complain of coming here and becoming bored. I noticed, that the price are slightly bigger than in India for rafting and tracking, but it’s understandable as far as Nepal is one of the best destination from world for this kind of activities. After thirty minutes of walking around Thamel I’ve spotted my restaurant: “Yak Café”, a Tibetan-run restaurant. And what else can u try in a Tibetan restaurant than MOMOS, the Tibetan well-knows dish. I’ve order buffalo momos(mince buffalo meat wrapped in dough and fried) and tongba (hot millet beer). The momos were delicious. They Tibetan equivalent of Romanian sarmale. The tongba was quite strange. I didn’t like it so much I guess because I wasn’t used with it. They bring u a wooden mug full with wet millet seeds and they pour inside hot water. And u drink it with a straw. U can feel the alcohol inside the hot beverage.
After having such a nice lunch it was the time to move on. Next destination was Swayambhunath, a Tibetan stupa one hour walking from Thamel. The stupa is known as the “monkey temple” because of the large number of monkeys that are everywhere around you. I decided to walk to the stupa from Thamel. In my way I passed one village where I was followed by a lot of nepalis eyes. From the base of the hills there is a road around the hill for the cars and there steps up to the stupa. I took the steps.