Our final day in Kathmandu...

Our final day in Kathmandu we had lined up a taxi driver to meet us at the hotel and take us to two other squares that are must-see sights along with a monastery. We had a full day to us, with an overnight flight back that was leaving at 23:00.

We were up, had enjoyed a quick breakfast, and were talking to the hotel staff about other things to see and how long it would take to get to the airport when they told us we wouldn't be able to get a taxi to the airport because there was a strike on. What?

Oh, a late flight should be no problem but not during the day because there are no taxis now. And what about the taxi that we arranged the day before? "He might show up if you are lucky..." He didn't.

And this wasn't just a taxi strike, this was a nationwide general strike which meant that nobody worked at all. The streets that we couldn't walk down the day before due to masses of people, bikes, motorcycles, and cars were mostly empty, only a people and a few bikes. There were a few small stores open and some people selling veggies in the market, but the only other people working were the riot police that milled around at ever corner. The strike was called by the government to try and clam people over some killings that happened when they were trying to evict some squatters from a forest. Yeah, something like that, google it if you want to know more...
Now, I'll admit that I don't know much about running a country, but I'm guessing that telling people that they can't work one day and getting everyone to just wander around isn't the best way to prevent a riot from breaking out.

The airport was still working though, flights were going in and out, and to accommodate people there was a shuttle for tourists that went to the airport from the center of town. Getting to/from the center and your hotel was your own problem. We did see a lot of people struggling with suitcases, but lucky for us the strike only lasted until 19:00 so we would be able to get a taxi.
We were able to wander the sights we had seen on Friday when we got in, we missed some sights that we wanted to see. Tina lost a 300 rupee deposit on a shirt she was having made since the store was closed and we couldn't pick it up. Not the day that we were expecting.

Luckily the hotel still served food and beers, we sat in their courtyard playing scrabble, listening to our iPod and just enjoying the perfect weather. I suppose that it could have been worse.

Kathmandu and more of Nepal

Sorry for the day off in posting this but work and coordinating a move home got in the way. Not a great excuse, but I'm sticking with it....

Saturday morning we were up first thing and in a taxi to the airport. Our driver us off and told us to meet his brother when we came out of the airport to get a ride back to our hotel.

Our flight was a quick mountain flight that Tina had booked once we knew that we were heading to Nepal for the weekend.
It's a quick flight up and around that lets you get a great sight of the Himalayas and turns around right near Mount Everest.

We were lucky and ended up in the back row of the plane.

The video is when we first got airborne and shows the range when we were first airborne. In addition to being lucky enough to get more photos then you need you also get three videos with this one - we recommend that you watch them all.

View from the cockpit - that's Everest there just on the left.

Another shot of Everest over the wing.

Once more, Everest there with the clouds around it.

It was a great flight, and although we were delayed in landing for 15 minutes the pilot didn't want to turn around to get another view of Mount Everest for us.

Our taxi drivers brother wasn't there when we returned, or we couldn't find him, so we grabbed another taxi. We had agreed to pay 500 Rupee and then we tried to barter down to 400 the new driver got too excited - we then finally agreed to pay him 300 to take us back, about $4.10. We had him drop us off in the tourist area so we could have a quick lunch.
Two hours later we were fully fed, lunch took a long time, and we wandered down to barter for a new taxi. We bartered for a trip to Dhulikhel and Bhaktapur, apparently a 2-3 hour trip - we finally settled on 2000 rupee (30 USD).

Dhulikhel is a small down that affords great views of the Himalayas, but since we got there in the afternoon the clouds had sunk in and we couldn't get a great view. No photos of that, but then we returned to Bhaktapur, which is yet another USNESCO site. Our taxi driver dropped us off in a small square to tour around and told us that he would meet us just outside of the main square in an hour.
The city is amazing with tiny alleys and wonderful buildings that all look like they are about to collapse. When we finally walked out of the square we were in we walked into a bigger square.
Ok, that must be what our driver meant, on the street out of that square we ran into a band marching up the street.

I know that's the second video in the post, but watch this one too. At the end you can see how people are running up telling them to stop playing....

Video 3 explains why, as we also got to witness a funeral procession walk by. This was crazy to see, and since I had my camera up I just hit record and never moved it as they passed. Tina has a great photo and that will eventually end up on Flickr...

At the end of the street was a couple of car parks, but none of them had our taxi driving waiting. Asking at the entrance to the UNSECO section of the park we find out that there is another lot near the main square - a square that we manged to miss altogether. Tina said something and I pulled out the information packet they handed to me when we initially paid out entrance fee, and yeah I had a map that showed all sorts of areas that we missed.

We backtracked to the main square and our driver quickly found us, we told him we were idiots and needed a few more minutes to go off and photograph the main square that people come to see. It actually worked well since now the sunlight seemed to help us...

Another hour and we were back in the tourist section of Kathmandu. We paid our taxi driver an additional 500 rupee to cover the additional time we took for me not understanding that we had a map. On the way home we agreed with our driver to pick us up the next day at 10:00 to take us to two more sights that we really wanted to see. Everything planned out we enjoyed a few drinks and a nice dinner before collapsing into bed for the night.

Kathmandu - Day 1

As we warned you yesterday, posts our trip to Nepal are going to be a little photo heavy. Hopefully we've reduced them to a size where they load up quickly and if you don't feel like reading you are free to just scroll down and look at the photo titles.

We took a flight out late in the afternoon last Thursday which got us into Kathmandu just before midnight. After dealing with the simple issues of trying to barter for a taxi and then finding out that the airport ATM was out of order we were shortly in our hotel room and sound asleep. The 2:15 time difference confused us and we were awake by about 7:30 local time to find no power in our hotel room - at breakfast they inform us that the city has scheduled blackouts, usually in the morning for them, but that they can't really say when it will be.

After a quick breakfast we head out to see the city, our first day we've decided mainly to just wander around and make sure that we get to see the UNESCO site of Durbar Square. Off we go...

The rough street to get to and from our hotel.

Coming out of one of the many temples in the city.

A neighborhood stupa we find tucked away on our walk towards Durbar Square.

It was crowded everywhere, streets filled with cars, people, bikes, motorbikes, and rickshaws.

Small pigeon filled area in Durbar Square, there are also two cows in the photo.

People of all ages are carrying goods to and from the markets.

View of Durbar Square from a rooftop restaurant.

After a few hours of walking and snapping photos we finally decided that we should stop and get some lunch, and what better then a nice rooftop restaurant right inside of the whole Durbar Square.

My meal was a plate of oats...

...but desert consisted of a local whiskey (it was rough).

A good meal and a few beers later we were back on the wandering path. Tina and I had similar meals with lots of small foods that were then dipped in oats for me and eaten with rice for the meal Tina selected.

The afternoon crowd wasn't any less then the morning crowd.There were lots of balconies like this, many old buildings look like they are about to collapse.

After all our wandering we headed over to a built up bar area, full of western bars, restaurants, and local shops selling all sorts of goods, it was another crazy busy place to wander through, only at night it is filled mostly with foreigners and thus markedly different from the crowded wandering we had spent the day doing.

The bar at the Rum Doodle

We finished the night at the Rum Doodle pub, where they had covered the walls and ceiling with signed footprints of the many people that come and attempt (or successfully do) climb Mount Everest, apparently starting with the signature of Sir Edmund Hilary. The place was packed full of people, but we managed to secure two bar-stools in the corner where we could relax and enjoy a nice wine and the music of the band....

Back from Kathmandu, Nepal

Well, we made it back safely from our latest trip out - and as always we return with some stories that we rather wish we didn't have. As much as we enjoy saying "Well, this will make for a great post", that type of help is better when we are still sitting in Xiamen trying to think of something interesting to write. When we are off someplace so stunningly amazing that just tossing a few photos up along with some captions like "Wow" or "Everywhere you looked were sights as beautiful as this" is enough to count as a good post (at least in our mind), we don't really need the additional items for blog fodder.

So, as I've stated, it was a good trip with some twists that we never would have seen coming. We are tired now from an overnight flight that has you spending an hour and a half in Dhaka, Bangladesh where you aren't allowed to get off the plane, then collapsing into a chair in the Hong Kong airport where you wait far too long of a connection time to catch that last short leg home.

Tonight we will sort through some of the photos and try and narrow them down to the ones that are good enough for us to share. Starting tomorrow we will have stories of this latest trip of ours.

Our next trip....

Today we head out for a long weekend in Kathmandu, Nepal, where we will be in one of only two time zones that is off from universal time by an increment of 15 minutes. Yep, it'll be 2 hours and 15 minutes earlier then our standard China time, crazy huh? I'm guessing that we will be out of internet contact until we return back to Xiamen on Monday, but by then we should hopefully have some good stories and photos. Tina has already booked an early morning flight that will take us up around Mount Everest on Saturday, and all the weather reports are calling for clear skies.

Yep, we're excited about this trip and we are thinking that this will be a good last weekend trip before we have to start worrying about organizing and packing up our belongings for our return to the States.