A way – to the Unknown/A return – from the Unknown
Nepal – tickets bought on the Valentine’s Day! Interesting, that I never thought to go to Nepal. Even some two weeks earlier – at the beginning of February it would have never ever come to my mind to go to this distant landlocked Asian country.
The cheap tickets
On the Valentine’s Day Austrian Airlines sold during one day the cheap tickets. From the whole list of available destinations, Kathmandu seemed the most favorable, most interesting as it unusually not included as a holiday location; and therefore I just felt that have to try it. It became like an obsession – I have to get there.
Flight to Vienna
I and my friend with whom I planned to travel got the only possibility to go to Nepal through Vienna and stay there (in Vienna) for two overnights (going and coming). That was OK as we could have a look at this city as well.
Interestingly, there were approximately ten free seats on our flight from Tallinn to the Austrian capital although it was told at various travel agencies in Estonia that all the tickets to and from Vienna were sold out. And here we were – with free places!
We arrived later in the afternoon, got easily to our guesthouse with rather comfortable location and we met my other friends – Maria and Gregory who were working in the Austrian capital – the same evening. Our evening passed at one of Bermuda pubs in the center of Vienna where I ordered fried potatoes (and not French fries!). Talked a lot. Next day My friend and I spent walking around Vienna. The sun was shining and we just slowly moved around the city. It is a former Habsburg Empire capital, historical and not so much modern, at least the feeling was more of the beginning of the 20th century or even earlier. Some moments from Stefan Zweig’s “The World of Yesterday” emerged. We visited Mozart cafe and some historical sites. Later we had some food at a café and first time my friend ordered tomato soup which later turned into a kind of habit of favorite order in Nepal with the only exception that in Nepal it was usually on menu called “the fresh tomato soup” as in Nepal practically everything of food was declared as fresh (e.g. fresh juices).
Flight to Kathmandu
Our flight was in February happened to be on Thursday about 10.30 in the morning. Austrian Airlines’ flights to Kathmandu took place only once a week and it also happened to be the only European nonstop flight at the time (one of two in the world on weekly basis, the others – New Dehli). The country was thus closed and the reason was – the Maoist terrorists in country and they carried out violent actions, killed local people, however declared that all the tourists are welcome.
The airplane was a rather old model and it was written Asian flights on it. As for the destination – Nepal – was and still is one of the poorest countries in the world then it is understandable also why the airplane perhaps was of the aged version. Everything on the airplane felt old, e.g. the earphones for radio and TV listening. But it was also clean nevertheless of the little shabbiness of everything. The airhostesses and stewards were nice and beautiful. Our airhostess looked like Catherine Zeta-Jones. The co-passengers on board of the airplane were interesting – many sole travelers! I have never seen so many lone passengers on their way to another long-distance world. Long-distance in direct and indirect meaning and it meant going to the mountains in Asia and going into another cultural world. Knowing before about the paradox of Nepal where Maoist revolutionary rebels were fighting against the government and Nepal being one of the lowest rates of criminality in the world (according to some fact books that we studied before, like – “The Rough Guide” and several internet sources) we were still in confusion when we saw the unaccompanied travelers old and young, middle aged, men and women. And I was also planning to go alone at the very beginning. My friend turned into the plans just the last minute before I bought the tickets. So I would have been the ordinary individual traveler in Nepal. Perhaps that is a tradition to go there just by yourself or it was not the season and … I still do not understand the case. We met many solitary travelers all the time of our stay in Nepal.
As we ordered vegetarian food we were the first ones who had it served (ordinary menu was delivered much later). We had very delicious meal (on Tallinn Vienna flight we had had especially good vegetarian food which was most probably prepared in Tallinn, that is the usual tradition that food is loaded on the departure airport). Otherwise the flight was as usually rather dull and it lasted a little bit more than seven hours. I was little nervous because we did not have visas and I had no idea whether we are delivered that at the airport or we are just sent back. Our foreign ministry had web information that assured – Estonians had to get visas at the embassy beforehand (not on border and it was also non-visa-free country for the Estonians). Travel agency reassured it vice versa.
So we were at last at Kathmandu airport at 23.10 and lined up first to change USD to the local money and later to get the visas. We needed photos and 30 USDs. We had to fulfill perhaps two formulas, copied on Xerox-like machine and they were not very difficult to complete (in comparison with the very many other countries in the world that I have visited). Two lines were meant for the non-visa travelers (who had to obtain one). Perhaps one hundred (at least) lined up there, together with us. In fact the whole procedure (standing in line and getting the visas) took about 30 minutes! And here we were at last – in Kathmandu, actually in the darkness of the airport! A lot of taxi drivers waiting for the passengers and proposing their services. We had been informed beforehand that we’ll be met by the Kathmandu Guesthouse special buses. It was a little bit murky but relatively warm, like 18-20 degrees of Celsius; and it was windy. We saw immediately our Guesthouse signs on one of the buses and moved there. At first we were put into one mini-bus and then asked kindly to change into a rather shabby car (the bus was also something like a very old one). A lot of loud talk among the men who had met us. A lot of people around us all arranging something. Finally we started to drive towards Kathmandu. No street lights, all in mystical darkness. And then there were the checkpoints, about three or four times before we reached our guesthouse. We were lightened by the local militaryin uniform with weapons and old flashlights (like the Soviet ones). Kathmandu was surrounded by the military circles because of the Maoists’ threat. By the way, very much like Pristina in Kosovo. That was understandable in both cases. Our driver-hosts apologized and briefly explained the cause of the checking. In fact, the military paid no attention to us, that is to the foreigners. The Maoists themselves target only locals and government representatives, the rulers so to say (including as much I understand also the royal family). Finally we were at our guesthouse and it looked very shabby at least, at night. The whole town seemed terribly awkward in the darkness. Like a big unlighted village but also dirty and extremely poor. Our guesthouse lobby was OK but our first room did not look like very pleasant. Anyway, it was only 14-15 USD per night which is like seventy Estonian crowns per person per night. OK. Reasonable for the cost. With bathroom etc. although I lacked fresh air.
Friday – first day in Kathmandu
Next morning we woke up and went out to have our breakfast. Our hotel Kathmandu Guesthouse was located in the middle of the Thamel – so called tourist center which itself was practically in the center of Kathmandu. The way down to the Durbar square (the actual center of the town) took about 20 minutes walking. Kathmandu guesthouse is one of the biggest and oldest (from 1960s) hotels in the town and its considered a good one also because it is a big socializing place and it has a bit quieter location than the others. It has inner garden and long passage from the noisy street. Whenever you entered the courtyard all the noise was behind. Really a good place to stay.
Thus, in the morning we had our first breakfast in the Guesthouse accompanied by Nora Jones’ music quietly playing when we had our coffee and all the other delicious things at the courtyard cafe-restaurant. We did not know at the beginning who was singing but later the day my friend went to a music shop and asked the shop assistant who she (the singer) was. In 2003 she had received several Grammies which we did not know at that time in Nepal and recognized the fact only upon our returning back home. And then we started our very first way to the Durbar square in town called Kathmandu.
What a shocking moment on the streets of Kathmandu during the first minutes! What a noise and the crowd! The terrible traffic! Aggressive and polite people. Namaste on every step. Left-side driving in general but everywhere the crowds! Noise! Fuss! Rather difficult to explain the perception as it was more like a confusion, bewilderment, whatever but not a definite feeling (emotion) like – “how beautiful place it is.” Yes, perhaps bewilderment is the exact word to denote incomprehensible. As for the streets, they were narrow and accommodated at the same time people crossing the street or going straight ahead, cars (smaller and older ones, brand new jeeps), bikes and bicycles, rickshaw-style “carriers,” and what-ever I forgot. At the beginning we did not see the streetlights or any regulation of the traffic in Kathmandu. Later, on the following days the picture changed, but only a little bit as there were perhaps 3-4 streetlights (what we saw) and mostly some policemen or policewomen who tried to regulate something but they were in any case only at the bigger crossroads. In the narrower streets which we passed through in Thamel or elsewhere in the center, we did not see any traffic police presence. The first day in Nepal we headed towards the very the center of Kathmandu – Durbar square – the actual heart of the whole town and the old palace was also located there, as well as the living goddess and many other cultural monuments.
The monuments are “just behind the corner” style that is in the middle of the poor (shabby and dirty) local crowd which is simply passing by or begging or carrying out some rituals before numerous monuments. You even do not pay attention to the world’s most exciting monuments which are on the UNESCO’s list! The monuments are not the tourist attractions or something extraordinary for the locals who happen to worship some of the Shiva images or whatever they were.
As for the tourists, then the season had just begun and there were still very few foreigners on the streets, however, I still think, that even during the so-called high season (in October-November every year after monsoon rains) there are, however, not very many tourists. The air ticket prices are high up and you must have a very specific motivation or interest to visit Nepal. One has to buy a seven-day-ticket to visit the square. The square itself is just a place with extraordinary buildings, pagodas. The old palace is pagoda and it has 9-storied tower where one can get up to have a nice overview on top of the town of some 700, 000 people which is (a little less than) twice of Tallinn’s population.
The palace is also a museum and one has to pay extra to get into the police guarded place. No photos and videos are allowed to make inside – you have to leave your things downstairs. The palace itself is a strange one. It seems to be a little bit too impressive word to use “palace” for the building where, by the way, the royal family, however, used to live at the first half of the 20th century. It comprised mostly of dark brown narrow rooms. Not much furniture. Stairs up. Strange (old) smell floating around. The “castle” comes most probably from the 16-17th centuries but it takes a westerner to an entirely different world, the atmosphere of the old world and that all together makes the overall picture psychologically surreal – it seems to you that the unknown architecture of the 400 years’ past has taken you back to several thousand years’ history which of course is not the case. The difference from the Western civilization causes unreal perception of history or just loss in understanding the time distances.
People on the streets were mostly Hindus (about 85 percent of the total population) and perhaps too aggressive for the Westerners, at least for us. I still think (according to the stories and experiences of people who had visited India) that in Nepal, and in Kathmandu all the aggressiveness was still less than in the neighboring India. Maybe it’s a wrong idea. Need to be checked in India. Our way back to the hotel took practically the same time (and feeling). Thus we returned to our guesthouse with very puzzled emotions as being in a totally different world and I still consider it the only right answer when thinking or speaking about Nepal – unlike to the Western people with their Western civilizational background, Western values, perceptions of the world, traditions, rituals, behavior etc. absolutely poor country from the point of view of everyday life. According to the world statistics, the average income per person in a year is about 220 USDs. Such a small annual income!
We stayed in the international part of Kathmandu – in Thamel on the first evening. Walked around and looked what the people were selling (window shopping). I bought a nice T-Shirt for a present at home. The T-shirt had a label “Yak-Yeti-Yak-Yeti“. It was a very elegant green T-shirt with yellow nicely manufactured words. The shop assistant asked us the standard question – “you are from where?” As usual, they did not know anything about Estonia – the country’s location or population etc. We experienced that geographical ignorance in the following days, with three exceptions. And why should people know all the countries of the world, moreover, many with the population with high rank of illiteracy or minimum education. But the shocking awareness arrived after the next question: “How long have you been here?” We looked with my friend at each other; and were speechless for some time. It did turn out that we arrived only “yesterday late evening, practically at night”. The real feeling conversely proposed imaginary comprehension as if we had been in the country for four-five days already! The only explanation we could give to the shocking realization that we had had so many new impressions, feelings, smells or in other words – cultural shock that our understanding of time disappeared. Therefore, we had the long sense of time in Nepal’s capital – Kathmandu, although the latter is of course far from any other surprising experiences in comparison with the countryside which we were told, especially with the mountains (nature plus the extreme poverty, sanitary conditions etc. of the local people in their villages).
As we finally felt quite hungry we quickly found the very first meal at a nice place called the Alice’s Terrace. We ordered the national menu. I took the vegetarian version whereas my friend ordered the ordinary variant with meat. The Nepalese food is really unfortunate. They have mostly rice. Thus, rice is eaten twice as the late breakfast and late afternoon. These are considered to be the main meal courses for the local people. Every day it is rice and rice, although we were told that potatoes are also popular wherever they are cultivated or locally imported. For example, in Kathmandu we had it everywhere. Another peculiarity is that their rice food is very hot. So, I had to miss some of the dishes. As for the dessert, they also have rice – rice pudding with raisins and nuts. Nothing special, just rice porridge. At the same time we started a new habit of drinking Masala tea as an introductory order everywhere. We liked it very much and it was a very good one in Nepal. Mild spicy tea prepared with milk. We tried to repeat the tea at home but never reached the Nepalese quality.
Before finally returning to our guesthouse we decided yet to visit another place called Irish Pub which was located opposite to the Alice’s Terrace and from where some loud music was heard. Unique combination to have an Irish Pub in a town called Kathmandu! That is a kind of a little combined civilization… Inside the pub was a singing-playing band that most probably had thought that the loudest the music, the best it would be. We sat down and the waiter approached us immediately. However, the music was too annoying and the Hindu-looking men gave no impression of the genuine Irish musician-music and therefore, we made up our mind to leave the place with the intention never to return.
One fact slipped from my mind – already in Friday (that is the day before the official one) we were proposed marihuana on the streets of Thamel in Kathmandu. On Saturday – marihuana was everywhere as this was the only and one officially drug-allowed day for locals and pilgrimers from far away.