Melanie and Gavin's Travels

Chilling out in Kathmandu

I feel like I am on vacation at the moment. Which I know is funny since I haven't worked since end of September. But hiking through the mountains or arranging travel is not always relaxing. So now we are taking our time and reading, checking out the shops (there is tons to buy here so I'm mostly resisting), eating a nice dinner every night and doing some errands.

Yesterday we even had sushi for lunch! We were so excited to find a sushi restaurant and it was really good too. it's also a luxury to buy fruit on the corner and have that for breakfast. Our room at the guesthouse is good as it's on the top floor and there is a little garden terrace there.

Along with doing laundry we also had to go to the Indian Embassy. Oh boy. It's pretty close to Thamel, which is the backpacker's area we are staying at in Kathmandu. There were about 30 people there also applying for visas. It's a long string of events. You have to find a 'telex' form (they aren't just sitting out waiting to be filled in of course) and fill that out. Then you get in this long line and after an hour get to the front. The man takes the form and they have to fax it to the Indian Embassy in Canada to make sure it's okay you go into India. So we have to go back in 3 days, get the clearance, then hand in our actual visa application form. then go back AGAIN (3rd time) to pick up the visa. This is given me an indication about the length of time it is going to take to do things in India, and it's going to drive me nuts!

Either way we are going, and I know that it's going to amaze me, incite me, frustrate me and at times make me fall in love with the place. So early next week we will go to Southern Nepal to Royal Chitwan National Park and see the elephants and rhinos etc. Then we will take a 5hr bus ride to the border, cross over into India and take a 10hr bus ride to Varanasi. Sounds simple enough but I will tell you now that it won't be. Varanasi is the holiest city in India, and they actually cremate people by the river by the dozen. I'm sure it will be fascinating. From there we will go to the Taj Mahal in Agra, possibly Delhi and then to Rajasthan (Jaipur etc), down to Bombay and Goa and Kerala which are all on the West Coast. for Christmas we would like to be somewhere where we can treat ourselves to a nice hotel for 2 nights. I can't believe Christmas is next month already. I doubt we will get a turkey dinner though.

Last night we went to a steak house here called K2. It was excellent, I had a hamburger. My first meal of meat in one month and I seem to be fine today.

We are going to go to Darbur Square and the monkey temple today and tomorrow to check out Kathmandu's sites. I also just finished downloading photos from our trek on the sacko website we have. I hope everyone enjoys them and can live some of the adventures we had!

posted by melaniewilkes @ 4:47 PM