Newari New Year

Thamel lit by the Tihar lights

Thamel lit by the Tihar lights

Day 74 – Location: Kathmandu; Nepal

14/11/12

After the festival of lights I’d been planning to leave Kathmandu, but Ashman (my waiter friend from the hotel) had invited me to join him for the final day of the festival, tomorrow, so I decided to stay for that. Today was the Newari caste’s new year, and during breakfast I heard that there was music and dancing at the Durbar Square so I hurried out to catch it. Most of the shops were closed today, it being another national holiday. Durbar Square was crowded, and I climbed up the steps of one of the tiered temples to watch a long procession of musicians, flag bearers and shouting groups walk past the square for twenty minutes. One man was carrying a very long pole covered in flags, maybe two stories high, and was twirling it around his body athletically. The musicians in the procession played drums and cymbals and most of them had traditional dress: the men with black clothes and black Nepali hats, and the women with black and white dresses.

A festival street mural for Laxmi, goddess of wealth

A festival street mural for Laxmi, goddess of wealth

I walked into Thamel to collect my camera which had been in for a clean. There was a long convoy of open-backed jeeps driving through the streets, each full of young guys and girls drinking, singing, shouting and waving flags. Most had big speakers and were blasting out distorted dance music or had people shouting chants through microphones, with their passengers yelling out replies. It was fun and very noisy!

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After collecting the camera I came across a big convoy of motorbikes clogging the streets. There were hundreds, mostly ridden by young people, honking, revving, cheering and waving flags. There was barely room to squeeze past.

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On the way back to Freak Street I bought a 100% goose-down jacket for the cold evenings. A copy of course, but three times cheaper than you can get at home. It made me look like the Michelin man but it would be really warm and ideal for trekking if I went again. Goose-down jackets are very light and they compress to the size of a small sleeping bag.I passed more convoys of jeeps blasting out music, and dancing in the streets on the way back to Freak Street.

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I got some lunch in the wi-fi bar across the road, one of the only open places in the area. A graying, overweight and long-haired German hippy in his 50’s joined me at my table and we got chatting. He works as a translator online and has been travelling for 6 months in India. He’s now in Nepal for another 5 months. He had a nasty story; in India his landlord sent a gang of guys to beat him up to try and get money from him. He left the country soon afterwards, disillusioned with the attitude of the locals to Westerners living there. He told me that although on the surface this area of Kathmandu seems alright, he’s been hanging out for a while in shisha bars and he’s seen guys throwing around big wads of cash – he is convinced there’s a lot of drug dealers and human traffickers around here. Like every big city there’s a seedy underworld. He was going to be travelling South East Asia as well and gave me some advice on good places I should check out.

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I bid him farewell and rested at the hotel for a while. Once it was dark I was bored and feeling fed up and a bit lonely. Although I like Freak Street it’s not a great place to meet solo travelers. I decided to head into Thamel to see if any celebrations were still going on. Sure enough I came across a street performance with singing, music and traditional dancing. The dancers had painted faces and were dressed in gold, twirling around energetically to the songs. It drew quite a crowd.

Celebrating with drums and singing

Celebrating with drums and singing

 

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After it was over I went to Yak restaurant for dinner. The tables here are shared so I hoped to find some company. Sure enough I was sat at a table with an old lady from Brussels and two Dutch girls. The old lady was a bit eccentric but quite an inspiration. In her late 70’s and she was still going trekking. She said she loves walking and Scotland is her favourite country. She had recommendations for the best trekking areas in Nepal and India. The Dutch girls were cool and were travelling together. They’d be leaving the day after tomorrow for Bangkok. We ended up going to a nice bar together and chatting the night away. It was just what I needed to perk me up a bit and we suggested meeting tomorrow evening.

Made completely from coloured rice and other vegetables!

Made completely from coloured rice and other vegetables!

I walked back home and hit the hay, quite tipsy after happy hour cocktails. Although it was after 10, in other countries you might think twice about wandering dark narrow streets at night, but in Nepal people of all ages are still wandering around and it doesn’t feel dodgy as long as you use common sense.

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Thamel is lit up for the new year

Kirtipur

Camille

Camille

Day 69 – Location: Kiritipur, Nepal

10/11/12

Whilst I was having breakfast at the guest house Camille appeared. I met her and her sister Gersende afterwards. They’d been to Nargakot for the sunrise and sunset, near Bhaktapur. Although I’d been advised it’s one of the best views in Nepal, Camille wasn’t too impressed and said the visibility was poor. They’d had a good time walking around the area though.

Kirtipur sidestreet

Kirtipur sidestreet

They were off to Kirtipur today, a recommended town close to Kathmandu, and invited me to join them. I agreed and we caught a local mini bus from the bus station nearby. It was pretty big and comfy by Nepali standards. We drove through the sprawl of Kathmandu for about half an hour and wound our way through a short bit of countryside up a hill to Kirtipur. I was expecting some charming village but it was a typical, although very colourful town of stacked houses on the hillside. We were dropped off just outside town, where kids were playing football and a team of guys were stuffing blankets on the grass, beating the blankets with sticks to make the down more fluffy.

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The terrible twosome!

Gersende and Camille

 

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We walked uphill from the bus stop along the tall streets and came upon a big Thai-style Wat (temple) which we’d seen from the bus stop, decorated in red and gold with a large large golden stupa next to the main building. There was a memorial stone for a Thai airlines plane crash which had happened nearby. We saw two tourists inside, and for the rest of the day we didn’t see any more, which made a nice change!

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We climbed up a steep path from the main road where the houses became more old and traditional, reminding me of Bhaktapur and Patan. We followed the sound of music to find a procession of people in black dress playing flutes and drums. We later learned they were promoting the opening of a new museum in the town.

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As it was Saturday there was lots of activity as we wandered around the charming backstreets. The people here were really friendly and quite happy for us to take photos of them at work and play. Lots of women were drying rice on mats in the baking heat of the streets.

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After a nice little stone temple we found a group of guys clustered around a piece of paper on which symbols were drawn. It was a dice gambling game. The participants dropped paper money from above to land randomly on one of the symbols. Then 6 dice were rolled, and you got a payout if your money was on the symbols which came up on the dice. The guy running it asked if we wanted to try. I gave it a go and got lucky – double my money back!

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Shortly afterwards we passed a cute kid wearing a tiny bike helmet which was really funny, his mum let us take a photo.

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Soon we found a collection of stupas at the top of the hill, with prayer flags fanning out like webs from each one. The central stupa was unusually painted blue around the top where the eyes were.

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Down the other side of the hill we came to a small temple next to one of the big communal ponds that you can find in the old cities, which was covered in algae and had rubbish floating around in it. Cam had been chatting to a local guy who introduced himself. We’ll call him Kamal as I can’t remember his name, it was something like that! Kamal spoke good English and told us some history of the area, this was one of the five big city states of Nepal back in the day, and we were in the main square. I suspected that Kamal was a guide and was proved right later, but he wasn’t offering his services for money, just curious to get to know us and tell us a bit about the area. He explained that the green pond gets cleaned and filled with fresh water at certain times of the year for festivals.

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Next to the pond was a very old and ornate wooden building with sloping windows. He said it was the old house for the king and queen of Kirtipur, back when it was a separate city-state. He offered to show us inside, it’s just a normal house now. The interior was quite dark and had low ceilings, with steep and simple wooden steps separating the floors – I had to bend on them to avoid bumping my head. We went into a simple bedroom where an old lady was sitting. After greeting her, Kamal insisted we sit in the windowsill seats overlooking the square, in the same spot that the king and the queen used to sit to watch their subjects.

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We chatted about ourselves and found out about our guide. It turned out he is transgender, a devout Buddhist and does a variety of jobs including an unofficial tour guide. He was enlightened about his sexuality some years ago when a German couple was visiting him, they talked with him about his feelings and ultimately encouraged him to try women’s clothes and makeup! From that point he became open about his sexuality – not something to be sniffed at in this conservative country. He was already in an arranged marriage and actually sent his wife away, telling her he liked men, but romantically she kept coming back telling him she accepted him as he was. Eventually he took her back, and now they have a son and have been together for ten years. Luckily for him the locals are now very accepting of him and his sexuality. He’s now a gay and lesbian ambassador for Nepalese people, and goes to Kathmandu to meet other transgenders. It was pretty random to run into one of Nepal’s very few openly gay guys!

Tip lady

Tip lady

We left the house and I asked to photograph an old women in the courtyard who agreed via Kamal, as long as I paid her a tip. After giving her one small note she kept motioning for more until she had 3 and I wouldn’t give her any more!

Kamal in his home

Kamal in his home

Kamal invited us for tea at his house a few minutes away. He lives on the middle floor of one of the old street buildings. We took off our shoes at the living area/bedroom where his young wife was, and his two year old son was sleeping in the bed, despite it being about 2pm. It was a simple house, classic Nepali. We sat on cushions and his wife brought us some tasty local sweet tea which I hadn’t tried before. Kamal told us about his wife and his problems making money now he had a son to support. Other foreigners have visited him before and the German couple he’d met had even donated 400 euros to pay for his son’s medical checkups. Because of his sexuality and marital situation he used to have problems getting work, and had to do menial work like cleaning. Now he sometimes works as a guide amongst other better quality jobs. He obviously makes a bit of money from people like us who he invites to his house and shows around – who then pay him for the hospitality.

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We were offered food, Kamal’s wife produced plates of beaten dry rice, which is hard and chewy, served with soy beans and pickled spinach. Although it was a simple meal, the flavour combinations were very tasty. Kamal’s son woke up and smiled to see the visitors in his house. Then Kamal did some prayers for us, sitting cross-legged and lighting incense. He prayed for our good luck and health one by one, sometimes murmuring under his breath. At two points he whipped his head sideways, which he told us afterwards was throwing bad premonitions he’d had away, about me and Cam. He’d also forseen a problem with Gersende’s arm and had put a protection charm on it. After this nice gesture we went outside, and he mentioned maybe we could give him something, which is as I’d expected, but it’s not often you get invited into a local house and shown around for nothing!

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As we walked up the hill to see a temple we came to a political event in the street, with a big audience and a stage, with a large riot police presence, some carrying huge rifles. There are upcoming elections in Nepal and due to the very troubled political history there’s always the danger of trouble. It was a Maoist event judging by the flags, the party currently in government. First on stage there was traditional dancing by a woman in full Newari dress, twirling, running and swinging her long ponytail around to music. Then a guy came on stage to sing. A band with cymbals and drums marched past the proceedings, we’d seen this setup before, leading political marches around Kathmandu, presumably it was from another party sent to disrupt the occasion, as they were shadowed closely by the police keen to avoid trouble.

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Our guide led us uphill to the biggest tiered temple of the town, another really old one with worn wooden carvings on the beams. The stone elephants guarding the steps had big spikes to stop people sitting on them! Kamal told me this was a temple where if you are single you should pray there to get a girlfriend. Of course he made me do it! There was a great view over Kathmandu from up here.

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Around the yard there were some Nepali mountain bikers milling around and pulling wheelies. We got chatting to one of them who told us he and his friends go out riding every Saturday exploring the area around Kathmandu. He gave us some recommendations for places to visit too.

View from the temple

View from the temple

We left the temple and said goodbye to Kamal, we figured the cost of a normal lunch each plus a bit more was a fair price to pay him. He thanked us and invited us to visit him for the upcoming Diwali festival. We walked down the hill, passing the political event where an man was shouting animatedly, I guess they got to the meat of the proceedings. A line of riot police had blockaded one end of the street but let us pass. Blacked-out jeeps were waiting nearby, presumably to ferry off the politicians in a hurry afterwards before any trouble could start. The audience were clapping and nodding to the energetic speech.

Skipping game

Skipping game

We twisted our way down the hill through the old streets until the main road, passing some nice views of the Kathmandu valley, until we reached the bus stop. We hopped on a mini bus back to Kathmandu and on arrival tucked into some momos from a street stall. As is quite common here they were served in bowls made from leaves, an eco-friendly way to do fast food! They were really tasty and covered in a tomato and chili sauce. The girls were heading off to a Nepali friend’s house so I said goodbye and went down to the restaurant to write this diary entry, and chatted to Ashman who I’ve got to know the past few days, before turning in early.

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Kirtipur “rest station”

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