As we straw through the busy streets of Tampa, the city centre of Kathmandu, I suddenly feel like throwing up because of the horrific smell of some very young street children, their blankets, glue and their dogs. It is the last day of my stay in Nepal and I haven’t been able to get accustomed to it, neither to the smell, nor to the idea these children probably have been living on the streets of Kathmandu their whole life. The past few days I have been visiting my Dutch friend Wieteke who currently works here; and these days have made something utterly clear to me: Nepal really is a very poor, underdeveloped country.
However, (or maybe because?) the people of Nepal are the most sweet, shy and helpful people. Of course there are the ones who try to rip off tourists, but in general I was surprised with the kindness of the Nepalese. Not only Wieteke’s friends, whom I’ve met the very first day I arrived after being on a plane for almost 12 hours with approximately 2 hours of sleep, and who adopted me in their group of friends as if we known each other for years, and who exhausted me with drinks, food and partying in Narangot (an hour from Kathmandu). But also her colleagues, the other passengers on the busses we took (especially compared to the arrogant, improperly behaving tourists), the salespersons, the tourist guides, the boating people, the managers in the busses (or, as we liked to call them: our men), and random people helping us when we were looking to a map with confusion.
In addition, it must be noted that Nepal’s nature indeed is one of world’s treasures. Although I only had a good look at the roof of the world (or as some people would like to call it: Himalaya) when I was in the plane back to the Netherlands, since there was a hazy air the day we arrived in Phokara from which you ought to be able to have an astonishing view, which we, unfortunately, did not have…; I must say that even a little peak was exciting enough for me. And at least now I have a good excuses to come back.
After Pokhara we decided to travel down to Chituan, the region where Wieteke lives and which borders India. There is a large nature reserve park where we stayed for two nights. And to honestly say, the Himalaya is nice, but elephant bathing ROCKS! When we were on elephant safari the day before and saw wild rhino’s and there baby’s so incredible close that we could almost touch them, I really thought that was the most exciting I would ever encounter; and it sure was very special, but compared to the next day when we had the opportunity to sit on the back of an elephant in the river while he’s splashing you with water and falls in the river with you… oh my, that is just so much fun, and the elephants are the most sweet animals I know. Ok, I agree, these are in captivity and still are dangerous, don’t to want to have a foot of an elephant on mine, that’s for sure; but it was very magical.
Furthermore, the temples (Hindu) and stupa’s (Buddhist) I have seen were very impressive either. The second day in Nepal Wieteke, Rahesh, Manisha and Bikal took me to Baktapur, an old king’s town outside of Kathmandu which is on the list of world heritage (surprisingly enough you are allowed to drive through the tiny streets with cars and motocycles). And the last day of my stay in Kathmandu we visited one large stupa called Bauda which is located in a normal neighborhood and is surprisingly large; and the temple where the Hindu cremate their deceased; both being very impressive in a totally different way.
Nepal for sure is a country you have to have visited in your life-time and hopefully I will be able to return and do some trekking in the Himalaya, see the friends I made again and enjoy the delicious food!
For pics of my trip go to my flickr account
