The Old City, Durbar Square, and Thamal are three of the main tourist areas in Kathmandu. The hotel that Matrika and his partners opened a few days ago is situated in walking distance of all of these. In fact, the hotel is on the edge of Thamal (it’s the area where the tourist sleep, eat, and shop).
On my first full day in Kathmandu, Matrika took me on a tour of these places after we left the Monkey Temple.
“I’m in Kathmandu. Fricken’ Kathmandu!!! This is better than I ever imagined! Oh, wow! Look there, there! ...And there!” I repeated this to myself the entire afternoon and evening like a mantra on a prayer wheel going round and round...
The fourteen-year-old boy in me loves this place. Big knives and swords!
....I’m in frickin’ Kathmandu! Just like Bob Seger! “Ka-Ka-ka-ka-Kathmandu! I think it’s really where I’m going to- Ka-Ka-ka-Ka-Katmandu. Well, If I ever get outta here, think I’ll go to Kathmandu!”
Prayer Flags! I bet the prayer on them is for an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle. ...Where’s Matrika?
There is a lot going on in this picture and in the city...
Some far Eastern trinkets I seriously considered buying and having sent home for gifts or for myself...
Temple, temple, temple...
We went in the temple...
It was ornately decorated with hand carvings, and it gave me a chance to take this cool pic looking up at the corner of the roof..
And this one...
These lined the temple’s outer walls...
Worshipers...
Bagh Chal game. The tigers have to capture the goats (all or some depending on version of rules) and the goats have to surround the tigers so they can’t make a move...
Oh wow, look at this street! I’m already lost. Where’s Matrika...
It was another overload to my senses. Buildings and streets arranged like a two-year-old stacks his blocks, uneven, towering, and winding. The streets were bustling with tourists, local shoppers, bicycle rickshaws, delivery trucks, motorcycles, shopkeepers, pedestrians, stray cats and dogs, the occasional monkey, and me and Matrika.
My eyes were wide and my jaw was agape at the vibrancy of it all.
—-I like this picture a lot—-
This was mostly the market area of the Old City. I’ll post more pics of it and Durbar Square in the next parts I post.
P.S. If you plan on giving up drinking beer and you’re going to have one last beer before you quit, make it a Nepal Ice. It tastes so bad that it’ll help you not miss beer,
Travelman log...
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