Kathmandu

5 April 2009

We made it to Nepal! We were both quite thrilled as we had never visited the king of all mountain chains, the Himalayas!

But to start from where we last left off, we drove from Varanasi to Bodh Gaya, the place where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment. After a quick visit to the cheap and tiny museum of Archeology, we went to the temple, where a beautiful Buddha statue is located. Right next to the temple is the Bodhi tree, under which lord Buddha sat when the said event happened. It was nice to see the devotion of certain pilgrims which must have come a long way with a lot less means than us. But apart from that, it did not seem like the town had a lot more to offer except for overpriced drinks and tourist touts. So we hit the road!

Our next goal was to make it to the border with Nepal. After a night at a gas station, we thought we would have an easy ride to the border. Little did we know, we were about to face the worst roads we had seen yet! Highway 28a took us a lot longer than we expected, and we didn’t reach the border until 5pm. The Indian customs and immigration were quite straightforward, apart for the usual bribe attempt from the immigration officer, and off we were to Nepal!

On the Nepali side, it seemed like a nightmare come true. Trucks were lined up as far as we can see, and it looked like we might be there for awhile. So JD went off to try to figure out what the deal was, and MC took the wheel. A few smiles to the truckers later, and MC had somehow amazingly appeared in front of the hundreds of trucks! Quite an impressive feat. During that time, JD sorted out the visas, and got started on the importation of the car. A couple of young guys, helped us out and within 20 minutes all was done! Of course, it was well dark by now. We asked the guys for a safe place to park for the night, and a little later, we were off to their village, where we were a welcomed with a fantastic hospitality! We were offered a delicious dinner, although we couldn’t finish the amounts they served us, and went and had a good night sleep after watching a couple of innings of cricket.

The next day, we took a quick visit of the temple in Birgunj. It was a holiday and it is what people do. Then, we hit the road for Kathmandu. The road, as i mentioned earlier, was everything we expected from Nepal. It went very high very quickly, with a million different stunning views, and the pure smell of the mountain. It was quite refreshing after India!

Arrived in Kathamandu, we found a parking space to camp. Our main goal here is to obtain a visa for Pakistan. Of course, we arrived on a Friday, and we cannot obtain any information until Monday. So we are just hanging out, enjoying the cool weather, and catching up on much needed chores- like laundry!

JD