I have safely arrived in Kathmandu where we are staying at Hotel Potala; it's a little expensive but clean and we have access to free wi-fi! I miss India a lot, especially Kolkata where I knew so many people and the city itself - not only where to get good food and chai (which, by the way, is none existent so far and I am suffering severe depression) and where to buy water for the cheapest and other goods, but also just to know how much a fair taxi ride should cost. It's no secret that there are "local" prices and "foreign" prices and it's a rare treat to find an honest business man (or anyone selling a service), but such is the way here...
The train ride was exhausting, and the car ride was worse. After crossing the border we ended up taking a small 4WD jeep through the mountains which was a little more expensive but half the time of a bus. Oh, and there were 11 of us...I have pictures to prove it haha. I have no idea how we all fit, except to say as the only white people all the other Indians/Nepalese were quite small.
I think we will try and do some side sightseeing to various temples in the Kathmandu Valley before moving on. Being the big city that it is (relatively small, actually - 1 million here and 13.7 million in Kolkata) we do not want to spend much time here, but the surrounding valley is gorgeous. We are looking forward to the temples, but then we will try to move on quickly. From here I think we head to Chitwan National Park; apparently, it's a great place to see tigers!
CM
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2 comments:
you should be a writer. you have an excellent eye. I think a book is in the offing. Jim
Oh, BTW, Liz, David, me and Liz's roommate Amber are heading up to Quetico for a week in the wild. Leaving Minnapolis on the 13th. when do you get back from the dark continent?
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