Kathmandon't

Hey all, apologies for the delay since the last post! (and sorry for the lack of photos, internet connections really suck out here) I guess I was waiting for something as special as Yumthang and Thangu to write about and unsurprisingly have been left wanting...

I have learnt/learned (which one? which one?) a few things in the last few days since I last put fingers to keys:

Firstly, I learnt/learned that moving from the clear air of the mountains to the stifling pollution of an Indian border town is quite a shock for my newly-smoke-free and slightly gloating lungs... seriously though, you really notice the pollution as you come down from the mountains!

Secondly, I learnt/learned that if you are feeling ill you shouldn't even think about getting on an overnight, 20-hour cramped coach ride from the border of Nepal to Kathmandu... you shouldn't think about it and you most definitely (unless you are as big a fool as I) shouldn't actually do it!

Thirdly, I learnt/learned that if you do, as I did, decide to get on a 20-hour cramped coach ride from the border of Nepal to Kathmandu you should not expect to arrive feeling too healthy. You should not expect to recover quickly.

And so it was I spent the first of my days in Kathmandu feeling like absolute shite, a combination of tiredness from having travelled around 3000k in 10 days or so, descended around 16,000ft in 2 days, having had my air degrade in quality by a factor I never want to know and having travelled for 20-hours in serious (if drugged to the eye-balls) discomfort. Boo-hoo... poor old me.

Anyways... I did manage to find my way (courtesy of my two lovely new friends Henry and Juanell) to a lovely hotel in a quiet part of Thamel (the tourist area) and from here I have been able to make the odd darting and sometimes even meandering missions into the heart of Kathmandu, before being forced back to my hotel for reasons neither you nor I really want me to go into.

Kathmandu is a cool city, it seems, I am sad that I have been feeling so low on the energy front as it seems to be the sort of town that could absorb the energies of the most annoyingly enthusiastic traveller. Thamel itself is packed to the rafters with shops selling all sorts of goods, some nice, some tacky. It was kind of funny how many hippy, eco travellers you'd see walking around... the sort who wouldn't dream of buying Nestle or saying a nice word about Shell but thought nothing of buying loads of child-laboured jumpers and necklaces, crystals ripped from pristine mountains by unrepresented peasant workers and flying them half way round the world to adorn themselves and their like-minded friends in self-congratulatory splendour... I have to say that I too was among the purchasers, a few gifts for some of my readers perhaps... but then my favorite chocolate bar is the Kit-Kat after all.

Anyhows, fellow travellers aside (a lot of the ones out here do look a little odd... slightly murderous looks in their eyes...) Kathmandu has been lovely, kind of like Delhi's shorter sibling. I've visited the Monkey Temple, Durba Square, Indra Chowk and got lost a number of times in the side streets in between. I've gorged on momos and veg thukpas... I also did something very silly last night, which was to stand on the roof of my five story hotel during a huge thunderstorm. It was pretty exhilarating and the first thunderstorm of my adventure... just what I needed to get me back on my feet. And so I go, to Bhaktapur and then Nagarkot before returning to India for that most crazy of Indian towns... Varanasi!