Finally out of Thailand and back to a trip that involves more than one big city filled with lady boys, seedy white men and clean bathrooms!. The trip began with me trying to save a few dollars by staying over at the airport since my flight was pretty early, sadly i realised too late that the airport i was flying out of was not the new pretty airport that has burger king and subway, but the one that Bangkok left to rot until Air Asia decided to use it for cheap flights.
All the
seats were bucket shaped so you couldn't lie down, there was nowhere to get any
half decent food, and sleep was almost non existent! although funnily enough
Ive done this so much now that it wasn't even that bad. After pretending my bag
only looked 8kgs (Air Asia max) even though it was more like 15kg i jumped on
the plane and flew to Kular Lumpar for the second time this trip. After another
big layover i get to Kathmandu!
Once i land
I'm greeted to a much more temperate country compared to Thailand which was a
welcome change. Getting the 30 day visa was a piece of cake and i had already sorted
the hostel i was staying at to come pick me up so i could dodge the 300 taxi
drivers outside. Kathmandu was definitely a change to anywhere else i had been
on this trip, it reminded me of when i first flew into Lima to meet up with day
all those years ago, expect this time i was prepared!. Once at the hostel i got
out $30,000 rupees (approx 360nzd) and called it a night.
Over the next few days i went and and looked
at all the tourist hotspots like the
monkey temple, Bodnath Stupa and Durbar Square which was much of the same thing Ive seen
everywhere else except for one of the temples in the Square called the Kumari Ghar.
It absolutely fascinated me, which was funny because before i finally broke down
and bought a local guide i didn't think much of it, but this temple is where the Nepal's "living Goddess" lives. If you don't know about these girls
you best read up, its honestly the most interesting thing Ive learnt in my
whole trip. Sadly when i was there she didn't come out to the balcony (which she
does every once in a while) but it was still awesome to just hear about how she
is picked, brought up and treated. Next door to here temple is a massive golden
throne that's used one a year to carry her through Kathmandu (because she could
never touch the dirty ol ground) which is carried by any and everyone!
The temple
above is the location where after the priests pick out a suitable girl, they
stuff her in a room full of dead animal parts in pitch black darkness and
literally try scare the shit out of her, if shes deemed worthy after this abuse
she becomes a goddess!....well until she bleeds, gets a pimple, gets sick or
anything, after that the goddess part of her has moved onto another host.
Another
thing i did was prep for some sort of trek i hadn't yet picked out yet. This
included finding the only size 11 trekking boots in Kathmandu, some shirts, a
down jacket, a fleece, some "hip
as" zipoff pants, a trekking bag, chlorine tablets for water and some
trekking socks, all of which cost me
maybe $200? (i really need to learn how to keep track of my money).
Note: Evvvvery warned me about buying new boots and not "worn in" boots just in case the new ones gave me blisters etc, but #YOLO.
Spoiler:- They were amazing.
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