Kathmandu restdays: seeing the sights around Thamel
Our first rest day in Kathmandu, we didn't do much.
The big event for the day is taking a taxi over to the Summit Hotel to meet up with Harrie, the warmshowers host who gave us route advice, at Bunker Hill Restaurant nearby. The Summit Hotel Patrick remembers from his first time cycling into KTM in 1992. He and his Dutch cycling partner had made a contact with NGO personnel staying at the hotel to use as a mailing address. As the name implies, the hotel is located on top of a hill. In telling our story of getting over the shortcut, Harrie mentions how she cried riding that road. She promised to find out about the backroads to Pokhara and how they would compare to what we just did.
The second rest day, we were ready to go explore again KTM. We walk to the Monkey Temple, and climb up the many steps to get to the temple on the hilltop. We see the changes from 2007 with the destruction from the 2015 earthquake. As we walk the streets, we joke about missing having to walk around cows and how clean the streets are in comparison to India. Walking back to the hotel, we try to go through Durban Square. There is a charge of 1000rupees for foreigners and we choose to walk around the Square. There also was much destruction from the earthquake.
The best part of rest days in KTM is the selection of familiar food choices. Just may make getting back on the road difficult where dal bhat will probably be our only option.
We meet with Harrie, a "warmshowers" host and two of her friends to discuss our route options to Pokhara.
Woman carving stone tablets. We bought a nice one at this location nine years ago, when we were flying back to the States from here. Now that we are cycling on we have to consider the weight of attractive souvenirs. Rachel bought two of the necklaces with Buddha eyes.
Back in Thamel. Just walking around and taking in the sights, every street can hide a small temple, shrine or stupa. People selling vegetables on the pavement. Lots of opportunity for good photos, the trick is to find a balance between observing and being a tourist behind a lens.
The earthquake of 2015 did a tremendous amount of damage. We see many brick buildings shored-up like this. Not much options but to tear down and rebuild, but there often isn't money. The next quake could be real bad with all these unstable structures around.
