Well, there's plenty to do! I've been here 12 days and I haven't been bored at all. Since I'm going on a trekking on Sunday, I decided to stay in Kathmandu until that day. Well, to be honest... I stayed in Thamel. That's the backpackers area, the busy neighborhood, the place to be for action, the beating heart! I left Thamel a few times because I had no other choice (and it was hard) but I made it back alive! ;-)
My 2 weeks here were all about Balance. Combining the functional and the dysfunctional. Let's start with the functional part. I took Yoga classes every morning and every night. I figured if I want to survive a trekking, my body would need some kind of training. And Yoga is also good for breathing and concentration. Both are things that could save my life up there on the mountains. My teacher in the morning, Mister Bim, is a bit weird. He gives us a very active workout and then pushes us real hard to stretch and hold our poses. He also gave a few comments that were maybe a little inappropriate... The evening teacher is a lot more relaxed and is in my eyes a proper teacher. He doesn't push us, he wants us to push ourselves and he always, always explains what we are doing and why we are doing it and he corrects our poses. I stopped going in the morning, partly because I wasn't learning anything, and partly... because getting up early has not been my favorite thing here. The good thing about my evening class is that he's gonna give me some small exercises that I can do in the morning and in the evening while on trekking. He says they will give me energy and oxygen! And honestly I feel very good. The first days my body was aching all over, but now I don't even get that stiff anymore. I can stretch a whole lot more than two weeks ago and I feel my muscles slowly building up. I think I'm ready for the trekking!
Other functional activities have been a little bit of sightseeing. Not too much as most of that is outside of Thamel, but just enough to learn some things about Kathmandu. Also we had to prepare for the trekking and since we are not taking a guide (No; we are taking our Greetje!) we needed to get our permits. All of that went very smooth and having the right papers is already half the work. I had to buy a few little things to make the trekking more comfortable, like socks and a water bottle, but other than that I am so glad I can finally use those big boots and warm clothes that I've been carrying around for ages. The past 4,5 months I have cursed the bottom half of my backpack. It contained useless stuff if you're traveling in India. But now I remember again why I took it all! It's all about this, the trekking, the moment has arrived where I can say..."yes, have that, brought that... I'm ready!"
I'm a bit scared about going, but I feel like this is one of those things you just have to do. The main reason why I think I'll enjoy it, even though I might cry a little at tough times, is the people who are joining me. When I arrived 12 days ago I had no plans, but my friend Greetje invited me to join her and 3 other Belgian women on this trek. I've met them all except one and it clicks! I know we will get along and that humor will be just as important to them as it is to me! The trek we are doing is not a very heavy one (THANK GOD), but it's supposed to be a very beautiful area. For those experienced trekkers, we are going to Gosainkunda.
Another very functional part of my stay in Thamel are books. I neglected my reading after leaving India, but now I'm making up. My goal was to read all the books of Paulo Coelho and if I finish the one I'm reading now, I only have 3 more to go. If it wasn't for the 'dysfunctional' part of Thamel, maybe I would have finished them all by now... haha! But I'll keep going and hopefully I will have reached my goal. I still have four weeks to go!
And then we come to the dysfunctional part. Parties! Man, Nepalese people are a lot like Belgians when it comes to going out. They never want to go home and always feel like having 'one last drink'! Bars close around 11:30 pm, but there are ways around that. If your friend from Belgium brings you in touch with her friends, and they know the owner, there's always room for one last drink behind closed doors. Haha! Makes me feel like home! ;-)
I was also very fortunate to be here for the Holi-festival. I celebrated it last year in India and there it was pretty aggressive. I know we spent maybe one hour outside that day. But here in Thamel it was fun. Holi is the first day of spring after the full moon and people celebrate the coming of spring by throwing colored powders at each other making us all look like walking rainbows. Prepare yourself to get colored and wet, but other than that it was a lot of fun this year. We spent the whole day outside walking around, having a few drinks, something to eat. We heard afterward that around a thousand people got arrested that day, but that is also because Kathmandu police were out on the streets in high numbers. Everybody had been warned that this year should be a friendly year and that any kind of violence, dodgy substances for coloring, traffic violations... would be taken very seriously. And it worked, because apart from traffic jams, everything stayed pretty friendly here in Thamel. The weirdest thing for me were the streetkids. There's a whole bunch of them that wander around in Thamel, begging, sniffing glue... but on Holi they were playing along just like all the other kids. Okay, maybe not like other kids, since they did take a little break every now and then to sniff, but still. Just for a few hours you could clearly see that they are 'just kids'!
And continuing on about parties... last night was a big highlight for me. Greet and BJ were invited to a party of one of their friends and me and Martine were also welcome. It was a celebration for their baby who turned six months. This day the baby gets her first rice feeding and everybody gets together to celebrate this. It was amazing! First we got to witness the baby getting fed the rice. This was at their house and you only go there to say hello before going to the party hall, but I guess we were there right in time and I saw it all happen. The women were dressed in their most beautiful saris and the mood was just so relaxed. After the feeding and when most people have arrived, of about 500 guests!!, you take turns to eat. Everybody sits in long rows and then the staff comes and fills your plate. It's Newari style and you get several different dishes on one plate. There were at least 12 different dishes and then desert. Yep, there was plenty of food and the family went all out with chicken, mutton, bone-marrow... and of course 'drinks'! There were several choices; whiskey straight, whiskey cola, whiskey fanta or some kind of rice wine. Well, I went with whiskey cola! As did almost everybody there...In between everybody takes turns to go greet the mother and child and hand over presents and blessings. And this baby was just so calm through all of this. Yep, born in Kathmandu and already used to having noise and people around all the time! :-D
I could tell you more about concerts, bookclubs... but some things are just between me and Thamel (and Greet and Bj and Martine and...)! Haha!
My 2 weeks here were all about Balance. Combining the functional and the dysfunctional. Let's start with the functional part. I took Yoga classes every morning and every night. I figured if I want to survive a trekking, my body would need some kind of training. And Yoga is also good for breathing and concentration. Both are things that could save my life up there on the mountains. My teacher in the morning, Mister Bim, is a bit weird. He gives us a very active workout and then pushes us real hard to stretch and hold our poses. He also gave a few comments that were maybe a little inappropriate... The evening teacher is a lot more relaxed and is in my eyes a proper teacher. He doesn't push us, he wants us to push ourselves and he always, always explains what we are doing and why we are doing it and he corrects our poses. I stopped going in the morning, partly because I wasn't learning anything, and partly... because getting up early has not been my favorite thing here. The good thing about my evening class is that he's gonna give me some small exercises that I can do in the morning and in the evening while on trekking. He says they will give me energy and oxygen! And honestly I feel very good. The first days my body was aching all over, but now I don't even get that stiff anymore. I can stretch a whole lot more than two weeks ago and I feel my muscles slowly building up. I think I'm ready for the trekking!
Other functional activities have been a little bit of sightseeing. Not too much as most of that is outside of Thamel, but just enough to learn some things about Kathmandu. Also we had to prepare for the trekking and since we are not taking a guide (No; we are taking our Greetje!) we needed to get our permits. All of that went very smooth and having the right papers is already half the work. I had to buy a few little things to make the trekking more comfortable, like socks and a water bottle, but other than that I am so glad I can finally use those big boots and warm clothes that I've been carrying around for ages. The past 4,5 months I have cursed the bottom half of my backpack. It contained useless stuff if you're traveling in India. But now I remember again why I took it all! It's all about this, the trekking, the moment has arrived where I can say..."yes, have that, brought that... I'm ready!"
I'm a bit scared about going, but I feel like this is one of those things you just have to do. The main reason why I think I'll enjoy it, even though I might cry a little at tough times, is the people who are joining me. When I arrived 12 days ago I had no plans, but my friend Greetje invited me to join her and 3 other Belgian women on this trek. I've met them all except one and it clicks! I know we will get along and that humor will be just as important to them as it is to me! The trek we are doing is not a very heavy one (THANK GOD), but it's supposed to be a very beautiful area. For those experienced trekkers, we are going to Gosainkunda.
Another very functional part of my stay in Thamel are books. I neglected my reading after leaving India, but now I'm making up. My goal was to read all the books of Paulo Coelho and if I finish the one I'm reading now, I only have 3 more to go. If it wasn't for the 'dysfunctional' part of Thamel, maybe I would have finished them all by now... haha! But I'll keep going and hopefully I will have reached my goal. I still have four weeks to go!
And then we come to the dysfunctional part. Parties! Man, Nepalese people are a lot like Belgians when it comes to going out. They never want to go home and always feel like having 'one last drink'! Bars close around 11:30 pm, but there are ways around that. If your friend from Belgium brings you in touch with her friends, and they know the owner, there's always room for one last drink behind closed doors. Haha! Makes me feel like home! ;-)
I was also very fortunate to be here for the Holi-festival. I celebrated it last year in India and there it was pretty aggressive. I know we spent maybe one hour outside that day. But here in Thamel it was fun. Holi is the first day of spring after the full moon and people celebrate the coming of spring by throwing colored powders at each other making us all look like walking rainbows. Prepare yourself to get colored and wet, but other than that it was a lot of fun this year. We spent the whole day outside walking around, having a few drinks, something to eat. We heard afterward that around a thousand people got arrested that day, but that is also because Kathmandu police were out on the streets in high numbers. Everybody had been warned that this year should be a friendly year and that any kind of violence, dodgy substances for coloring, traffic violations... would be taken very seriously. And it worked, because apart from traffic jams, everything stayed pretty friendly here in Thamel. The weirdest thing for me were the streetkids. There's a whole bunch of them that wander around in Thamel, begging, sniffing glue... but on Holi they were playing along just like all the other kids. Okay, maybe not like other kids, since they did take a little break every now and then to sniff, but still. Just for a few hours you could clearly see that they are 'just kids'!
And continuing on about parties... last night was a big highlight for me. Greet and BJ were invited to a party of one of their friends and me and Martine were also welcome. It was a celebration for their baby who turned six months. This day the baby gets her first rice feeding and everybody gets together to celebrate this. It was amazing! First we got to witness the baby getting fed the rice. This was at their house and you only go there to say hello before going to the party hall, but I guess we were there right in time and I saw it all happen. The women were dressed in their most beautiful saris and the mood was just so relaxed. After the feeding and when most people have arrived, of about 500 guests!!, you take turns to eat. Everybody sits in long rows and then the staff comes and fills your plate. It's Newari style and you get several different dishes on one plate. There were at least 12 different dishes and then desert. Yep, there was plenty of food and the family went all out with chicken, mutton, bone-marrow... and of course 'drinks'! There were several choices; whiskey straight, whiskey cola, whiskey fanta or some kind of rice wine. Well, I went with whiskey cola! As did almost everybody there...In between everybody takes turns to go greet the mother and child and hand over presents and blessings. And this baby was just so calm through all of this. Yep, born in Kathmandu and already used to having noise and people around all the time! :-D
I could tell you more about concerts, bookclubs... but some things are just between me and Thamel (and Greet and Bj and Martine and...)! Haha!
Emme,
BeantwoordenVerwijderenVergat te zeggen dat Baktapur ook een aanrader is (vlakbij kathmandu).
Geniet nog van je avontuur want het einde nadert. Ik kijk er in ieder geval naar uit om je verhalen live te horen.
Tot snel
Dorien