Returning to Kathmandu

We arrived in Kathmandu late at night. Obviously I still haven’t gotten my mellow on yet as I found getting through immigration, applying for visa and picking up our bags a rather frustrating inefficient process. The airport hasn’t changed at all since I was here 13 years ago except they’ve got an automated machine now to read your passport, fill out initial paperwork for the visa and take your photo. Of course I swore at that machine more than once!

It’s such a dramatic change to be here, especially having just experienced Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a shiny façade and you have to look for the flaws. Kathmandu is all about the flaws and that’s what makes her so special and interesting.

On the drive into the city from the airport there were few streetlights. The metal overhead doors on the shops were pulled down and only the headlights of a few other vehicles – taxis, motorcycles, and small tourist buses – lit up the area.

I thought I recognized a certain small hill and, sure enough, we soon drove past the gates of the Royal Palace.

Our hotel, Nirvana Garden, is on the outskirts of Thamel, the tourist area of the city. It’s situated on a side street and has a lovely garden area (hence the name and why we chose it). We’ve already found it to be a quiet, relatively peaceful escape from the rest of the chaos. Well, that is if you don't include the 5:30 wake up call from the squawking crows.

View from our hotel room

After breakfast our first morning we wandered up to the Monkey Temple, a place we’ve been each and every time here. It’s fun to see the monkeys but they are nasty! First, you definitely have to hang on to anything you want to keep (i.e. cameras, bags, etc.) and the big males are very territorial especially when it comes to food. They were fighting a bit amongst themselves and we even saw one jump up onto a guy. We were extremely cautious around them!

The long set of steps up to the temple are crowded with people trying to sell their wares. Years ago two teenage girls convinced Andrew to buy some bracelets for me ($1 for three). Spying the ring on my left hand, they shyly asked him if we were married. Was it a love marriage? (As opposed to an arranged marriage.) They giggled and blushed when Andrew said yes.

The temple is visible from quite a distance away

Taking the scenic route to the temple

Many prayer flags blowing in the breeze and sending prayers to the heavens

Walking back towards our hotel later, I realized that to be in Kathmandu means that you have to be aware and in the moment. It’s a constant struggle to stay focused. To not trip on the uneven roads or step in dog poop, monkey poop, mashed bananas and peels, to dodge the bicycles, honking taxis, motorcycles, rickshaws and tourist buses. (There’s no walking and looking at a cell phone here!) To be assaulted by sudden smells – dog poop, rotting garbage, gas fumes, incense, flowers in the garden or passing by a fragrant bush.

A small field area in the middle of the city

We wandered and got more familiar with the area around our hotel in the afternoon, found a coffee shop and had latte and a banana lassi, made some new discoveries and went to one of our favourite restaurants, Fire and Ice, for supper. 

Our welcome necklaces made with fresh marigolds

Thamel - the tourist area

Latte and banana lassi

Hong Kong - Random Thoughts and Photos

Andrew and I have enjoyed visiting Hong Kong but are now ready to move on to Kathmandu! I'm excited! Although it will be my fourth time (Andrew's fifth) in Nepal, it's been way too long! After a few days in Kathmandu itself, it will be great to get onto the trek which the main purpose of our whole trip.

This morning we were able to check our bags in at the in-town airport check-in at Hong Kong station.  A fabulous service when your flight doesn't leave until evening. We've had a great experience in Hong Kong. Very friendly and helpful people and, despite all that's on the TV news and in the papers, have seen very little of the Occupy Central activities.

We like our new Arc'teryx duffles and after the trekking we will leave some stuff behind,
send other stuff home via FedEx, and then they will much lighter and smaller for the remainder of our journey!

Here's some other random thoughts and photos . . .

I have never seen so many people walking with their heads down, looking at their phones! It's seriously epidemic proportions here and amazing that more people don't run into each other. The escalators even have recordings and signs telling people to pay attention and watch the moving steps instead of their phones!

If the fashions I see people wearing are fashionable . . . apparently, I have zero fashion sense. I wouldn't leave the house in the some of the clothes and wouldn't be able to walk to the end of the driveway in the shoes!

A very crowded two-storey Apple store. So many people! Has no one ever heard of on-line shopping? And this wasn't even on Saturday which I'm sure was even busier if the rest of the city was any indication.

The "Travelator" is a popular way to travel several steep uphill city blocks and, in the heat and humidity, was very appreciated by us!

In the walkway to get to the "Travelator" these paintings on the walls and pillars are fun and colourful. The kids theme reminded me of my favourite 3-year-old.

At the botanical gardens and zoo, various animals held up the benches.

Garbage can in the children's play area of the zoo. 

Walking pebbles . . . by the end of each day's endless miles of walking, I think this would have felt good on the feet!

The clock tower in Kowloon.

Our apartment was in the trendy SoHo area near lots of restaurants and bars. We ate at two great vegetarian restaurants (Herbivore and Life), an Italian restaurant and had authentic Chinese cuisine at Ho Lee Fook restaurant which was just a couple doors down from WTF Tapas Bar. Humorous!

Big Buddha, Cable Cars and Tea

Along with about a bazillion other people, we went to see the Big Buddha today on Lantau Island. Officially named the Tian Tan Buddha, it's 112 ft tall. Huge! Unfortunately it was a very grey and cloudy/smoggy/foggy day so photos are not the brightest.

Transportation to the Buddha included the metro and the Ngong Ping 360 (a very, very long cable car ride). Humourously, as we got closer to the front of the line the staff were looking for two people to fill one of the gondola cars. They quickly scanned and waved us forward. It took me a while to figure out how they knew we were only two. Duh! Tall white people! Which two of these things don't look like the others?!?

After getting a closer look at the Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery, we found refuge from the crowds in a fancy tea shop where we learned the art of making a cup of tea. Boil water to a very specific temperature, warm the tea pot and cups, rinse the tea (once or twice depending on the type of tea), then strain and pour (no steeping for the type of tea we had). We tried the fermented Pu-erh, which neither of us had ever had before. "Good for digestion," we were told.

One of two pillars guarding the entrance to the monastery.

Inside the monastery.

The Art of Tea

Nature in the City

The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens is a bit different than those elsewhere. To start with . . . it's free!!

There are several large aviaries, lots of different kinds of primates (gorillas, orangutangs, various types of monkeys and ring-tailed and ruffed lemurs) and a few turtles both very big and very small. A few of the monkeys were very active so we sat for a while, watched and laughed at their antics. It was great to see that they all have quite large areas to move around in.

I didn't take many photos as the aviaries were not ones you could go into and of course the monkey enclosures were cages so both were not ideal for photographs. And I leave most of the flower photography to Andrew for obvious reasons. (Obvious to those who have seen his photos compared to mine!)

In the afternoon we took the Star Ferry over to Kowloon and headed to Kowloon Park. It was extremely busy so definitely wasn't a highlight. We later learned that October 1 is Chinese National Day so everyone was enjoying the holiday.

Starr Ferry, from Kowloon looking back toward Central Hong Kong

Today we took the metro (two different lines) and a taxi out to the Mai Po Marsh Nature Reserve in the New Territories. The Reserve is now a protected area and is managed by the World Wildlife Federation. It was great to get out of the city for a day!

Our guidebook indicated there were several 3-hour English guided tours a day but in actual fact there was a Cantonese tour in the morning and an English one in the afternoon. Since you can only go into the protected area with a guide and we didn't want to wait several hours, we went on the Cantonese tour. Luckily the guide was kind enough to give us a very abbreviated English version at each stop and answer several questions. 

These water lilies were  gorgeous and plentiful! 

The area is extremely diverse with several different wetland habitats including freshwater ponds, mudflats, reedbeds and mangroves. 

Birds we saw included herons (Great Blue and Chinese), black kites, grebes, Chinese bulbuls, cormorants, egrets, ibis and doves.

Between the sweltering hot and humid days and all the walking we're doing, I am sleeping very well at night!!! 

First Impressions - Hong Kong

Three words to describe our first day in Hong Kong . . . humid, hot, hilly.

In several words . . . the kindness of a stranger; the largest spider I have ever seen; a quiet, beautiful walk along the Morning Trail.

Beautiful little bird

Ginormous spider - about 5-6" long!

View from Morning Trail

We had a good flight to Hong Kong. I highly recommend premium economy. Not that much more expensive than economy but worth it! 

Got thru HK airport very easily. From the airport we took the Express Train to Central Station and, after only a couple wrong turns, managed to find the escalators to take us part way up the hill. (There are a lot of escalators in this city!) Then there was the hunt for the tiny little numbers for the building we were looking for. 

The new Arc'teryx duffles work okay as back packs for a short distance but by the time we found our apartment and got up the seven flights of stairs I was ready to set it down. 

For the first time ever, we rented an apartment through airbnb. We'd gotten all the directions from the owner a couple weeks ago and were to find the key under the doormat. 

No key! Are you friggin' kidding me?!?!? Sweat was dripping off my face and onto the front of my shirt and we'd barely slept in the past 24 hours. 

But it gradually all worked out. We knocked on the neighbour's door and he was amazing! Nam called the numbers we had for the owner and her "helper." No answer at either but we left message hoping someone would call us back. Nam had another suite in the same building so he let us wait there. He brought us a bowl full of grapes to eat and ran back and forth between suites to deliver messages once the owner got our message. It was about an hour later when someone showed up to let us in. Thank you Nam for your incredible kindness to a couple of strangers! 

After totally crashing for the night we were awake early and shortly after 7 am were on the tram heading to the top of Victoria Peak. The 3 km walk took us a couple hours as we stopped often to look at the views, examine the big spiders and their webs, try to take photos of the flittering birds, watch some new-to-us bugs, read the information signs about all the different kinds of trees and check out a few little side trails.

Panorama from the Morning Trail looking down on Central Hong Kong with Kowloon across the water. 

In an attempt to avoid the heat of the day, we spent the afternoon checking out the interesting architect of some of the downtown air conditioned buildings. The most interesting was the HSBC building with its 170-foot atrium, mirrors at the top of the atrium and the longest freely supported escalators in the world. The building is reputed to have the best feng shui in the city due to its unobstructed view of the harbour and its location "on the meeting point of five auspicious 'dragon lines.'"

Inside of the HSBC building

An Inukshuk doing Tai Chi
(Well, ok, it's not an Inukshuk but that's what it looks like to me!)

Building reflection

Fortunately, we haven't yet seen or been affected by the Occupy Central crowds (and riots) but there is certainly a lot of police presence, especially walking by Government House on the way to the tram.

They definitely do not want anyone going over this wall!