Namaste or Should I Go? A Few Days in Kathmandu, Part 1

I was given five days of vacation by my rather stingy employer, and chose to go visit Nepal again, for the food, the animals, the nice people and, of course, the ticket price. Let me tell you what I saw, in a couple of posts, to make it easily digestible and easy to bail out, if you choose.

I left Korea on Wednesday afternoon. I flew the surly skies with China Southern, a kind of Dollar General airline. (Like Monty Python’s “Fly EZ, the airline that can’t afford to crash.”) The cabin was hot enough to steam salmon, and the lukewarm drinks were served in 4-ounce paper cups.

I finally had the opportunity to play this little airplane joke, which my seat-mates did not see the humor of, but I was pleased.

I transferred planes in Gwangzhou, China, and was a few seconds away from missing the connecting flight and spending the night there. The Chinese TSA opened everyone’s bags and patted down (full body) every transferring flier. It took quite a while. On the grass, just off the tarmac, tractors aplenty. John Deeres!

After another sweaty flight on what must be China’s least-respected airline, we hit Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu at about 11:30 pm. Saw female and male Nepali TSA giggling over who had to frisk the obviously trans-female going through yet another screening on the way out. The fake female was giggling too. He knew he was fooling no one.

I paid the $30 visa fee and pretty quickly was into the blur and chaos of the arrivals lobby, mobs of people, incredibly loud clanging electric fans, and above it all, “Hotel California,” blaring out of the coffee shop. Coffee’s a newish thing in Nepal. Drinking it gives off the impression of money, so I was told. Tea is old school, but coffee plantations are taking root. (Bought two bags of beans. They’re GOOD.)

Osho (subject of a must-see Netflix documentary) welcomes everyone to Nepal. Glad to see he’s found another country to flee to!

One thing I learned last time I was in Nepal is that you have to be ready to shrug a lot of things off. That’s Nepal! Amid the great Himalayas, Annapurnas, the forests and the welcoming environment, the country is a mess - no traffic lights, frequent power outages, poverty and NOISE.

I would wager that even if you check into an expensive resort, something major will be wrong with your room. (Last time in Nepal, at a “resort” in Chitwan, mud crept into the room at weird intervals.)

I wasn’t in a resort this time, but what was supposedly a 4.5-star TripAdvisor hotel. It looked pretty nice and clean. (There were old mattresses here and there in the hallways.) I chose it for the Indo-Nepali veg restaurant attached, with free breakfast. I got a room with a view of a huge Hindu temple and a whir of colorful, bustling activity, women in bright saris and men in dhaka topis, Nepali square hats. I know nothing about Hindus, but they definitely buy a lot of marigolds, colored powders and beads at all hours. And they “cross” themselves kind of like Catholics.

Despite the view, I got a room with a ceiling covered in mold, no wifi, no working TV, no hot water, and a broken bidet (a sprayer). That’s Nepal!

The desk clerk was amenable but surprised when I told him I wanted to change rooms. He couldn’t believe I wanted to give up that temple view! I was moved to a room with no mold, no windows, no wifi, no working TV, but with hot water and a bidet (a sprayer, like you’d have in your kitchen sink).

Okay, but the food WAS great. That, too, is Nepal. During my stay, I ate nothing but Indo-Nepali food (there is quite a bit of overlap), two meals a day, and did not eat the same thing twice. Let’s stop here with a picture of one of the last things I ate, Sandeko Momos, a spicy Nepali vegetable dumpling.