Kathmandu
Went exploring, found Kathmandu Guest House, Sherpa Guest House. Same price or more than the Potalla. Agents already in the streets harassing you. Passed Garuda Hotel, had breakfast at the Kathmandu Guest House. Going to speak to someone at the hotel at nine o'clock about our trek.
Hotel management sent Kumar with us to the Himalayan Waves Trekking agency and another agency. We decided to go with Himalayan Waves. The representative Deepak Bhandari convinced us to hire a guide and a porter, $640.00 cdn./ each for the trek (28,040 RS). This pays for everything except bottled water, soft drinks or beer. This is the agency I had heard about on the Internet from Scot Yost. It was owned and operated by three very handsome young Nepali men who were educated and spoke English very well. Deepak was on his way to meet the Prince that day wearing his traditional Nepalese hat. He had met him at school and was still friendly with him. Will meet with the guide and porter at 1700 hrs Sunday. The agency will get our trekking permits for us so we had to leave our passports with them, also two pictures. Dana, whom we sat with on the plane from Bangkok also came with us to the Himalayan Waves, but decided to go with just a porter.
We all had lunch at a very nice restaurant.
Dana took our picture in the beautiful garden.
Pauline and Jeannette.
In the afternoon we walked to the Swayambhunath ( monkey temple).
Walking to Stupa we crossed over the Vishnumati river, a tributary of the Bagmati. A big fat pig was laying in the shallow
water, people washing clothes, a man washing a car, a lot of garbage on the river banks (many plastic water bottles), result of
the tourists. We have decided to use Iodine treatment of the local water rather than buy water. Our bit to help the pollution
problem.
The soaring central
stupa is topped by a gold coloured square block from which the watchful eyes of the Buddha gaze out across the valley. Love
those Buddha eyes. We spun the series of prayer wheels which are set around the base of the central stupa. It is proper to do this
from left to right. Each prayer wheel caries the sacred mantra "om mani padme hum". The prayer flags also carry mantras and
with each breeze the prayers are carried away. We went into the bhuddist temple and listened to the monks chanting and trumpeting in the gompa. A few tourist were sitting around on the floor listening. A service takes place here every day at 4:00 pm. This is a combination of Buddha and Hindu temples which indicates the constant
interweaving of Buddhism and Hinduism in Nepal.
Many people on the steps begging and selling things. Lots of monkeys around, some sliding on the stair railings. Bought a mani stone necklace and a silver bracelet 200 RS each. The young women selling them asked me if I had any lipstick . It is difficult for me to bargain for things, perhaps taken advantage of because of this hang-up
Went to supper at a Nepalese restaurant. Food very bland, couldn't eat it. Rain coming down in buckets when we walked back to hotel. Paid hotel for 2 more nights. Strange discussion with the clerk about trek. He kept saying we paid too much. Think there is a lot of wheeling and dealing going on behind the scenes with these guys. Every one is working the angles to get a piece of the money. This is the price of progress. Nepali are seeing the value of the tourist and prices have gone up accordingly. Still cheap by our standards.
Note: Our guide told us the hotel or person referring you to the agency gets 30% of the money paid for the trek.
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