On the Hippie Trail

Kathmandu - Oft referred to as a living museum. A city that lures both foreigners + Hindu pilgrims alike with unspoken promise - The promise of wonders.

Hippies first discovered it in the sixties, not long after the King had opened the countries borders to the outside world. It was unknown + exotic sounding - The perfect off-the-beaten-path destination. Though heavily touristed now, it still retains some of that wonder if you delve deep enough. Nepal's biggest draw for most tourists are it's mountains predominantly, and architecture secondly. The mountains we've seen, and they ARE all that! The architectural highlight of Kathmandu is, at least for ME so far, just wandering around the older areas adjacent to Durbar Square. Here there are COUNTLESS shrines tucked away in courtyards, temples and older masonry buildings with intricately carved windows. Perfect for hours of aimless exploration.

Speaking of courtyards - Just last night as we were walking home from dinner, we were drawn into the open courtyard of a temple, and were disturbed, but not ENTIRELY surprised to find it crawling with large rats. They were climbing up steps + across altars, nibbling away at all the bits of puffed rice prasad/offering they could manage. This noturnal bustle sent chills down my spine! Just before, we'd passed intersections where, during the day, produce vendors line every imaginable inch of periphery while bikes, rikshaws, cars + people all compete to weave their way through in what is often a full-on gridlock. Now, it was the domain of cows FEASTING on the remains of the day. And the dogs! Lest I forget their ceaseless nocturnal quaralling + howling over food scraps. People + vehicles may rule the day, but animals certainly rule the night here.

But back to architecture - My favorite Nepali architectural detail, besides the pagoda (which THEY, btw, not the Chinese, introduced) is the outwardly canting window box. This beautiful, yet functional design allows anyone inside a discreet view of the street below through wooden latticework while affording those at street-level an optimal perspective in which to admire the remarkable carvings. The disappointing part of Kathmandu is that they've torn down MANY of these exquisite buildings and replaced them (and HUGELY expanded upon) with concrete monstrosities. Darin remembers reading somewhere that the photographer Galen Rowell had once rated the city as a 10 out of 10 back in the 70's, but had lowered his opinion to a 3-4 for this very reason. Having never been here before though, the place still certainly has charm if you stick to the aforementioned areas and outside the depressing tourist ghetto of Thamel. The reknown "Freak Street" still exists, but in name only. There's certainly nothing "freaky" about it left and several storefronts lay vacant. WE'VE come to haunt it for the cheap Indian dhaba (restaurant) where we can both leave full for under $1.50. They also make very good tandoori naan which we've been buying "to go" for scrumptuous fresh cheese + veg wraps which we enjoy in the sunshine on our hotel roofdeck overlooking the square. (Thank You! to our friend Claudia from Varanasi for turning us on to Hotel Sugat)

Today, we head out on bikes for a week-long cruise through the eastern part of Kathmandu Valley. It'll be a refreshing break from the bustle to get back into nature + smaller villages again... the things we REALLY love about Nepal. We'll be missing Thanksgiving at home so I hope you all eat some tasty stuffing + pumpkin pie for us... Mmmmmm!

Here's a "link" to photos from Kathmandu + the surrounding areas