From Myanmar we flew to Kolkata in India, thanks to the 1 year visa for 100 dollars that we got in Hanoi. We arrived at the airport in Kolkata at 3 a.m., a fatal hour to find accommodation!
We met a couple, Momo and Qcumber, from Bulgaria and Thailand. With them we went to the addresses we had found of experiences in other blogs in search of a hotel, but being so late they wanted to take advantage of it, they asked us for a very high price for hideous hovels …
The best thing we found was a hotel that called itself luxury, which charged us 30 dollars for a room shared between the 4, a normal bed and a filthy double mattress lying on the floor. We needed to sleep, so we had to accept …
The next day we went on a 12-hour train to Raxaul, an Indian village bordering Nepal. We walked a couple of kilometers to the border, it was quite a show !!!
It was full of all kinds of vehicles !! Bikes, rickshaw, trucks, gas tanks, ox carts … all commercial traffic between India and Nepal was concentrated in that street. On the sidewalks, the currency exchange station …
The activity was frantic, in both directions … We left India without problems, receiving the exit stamp, but entering Nepal was not so easy … When we arrived to pay for the visa we found a problem: they only accept dollars Americans as payment !! They do not accept Nepali rupees, the currency of their country, only dollars!
It smells a lot of scam … I only agreed to charge in rupees if we paid a third more … hahahaha … gangsters … So I had to go back to India to change while Mayra waited there.
There was no exchange site for dollars, it was illegal in that area. I went back to explain the situation to the man on the visa, nothing, without dollars we did not have a visa … At the end they let me into Nepal, take a rickshaw to Burganj, there to find the only window that changed dollars and return to pay …
So I did it, it took me 4 hours to find it, I was desperate … and it was about to close !! A crazy … Then take another rickshaw, and with ease, I went to the border and paid the visa … Mayra’s experience was no less bizarre. He waited outside the office, and a crowd of people stared at him as if possessed by seeing extraterrestrials … Well, that’s what it takes to travel to the other side of the world …
In Burganj we bought a bus ticket to Kathmandu for 600 Nepalese Rupees (about $ 6) each. And while the train was not leaving we went around. The town is peculiar, there was a lot of movement in the afternoon, market, fair, street food, goats, chickens and many people who kept staring at us. We tried several street dishes that we liked a lot … Everything was very colorful !!!
And when the time came, we got on the bus and went to Kathmandu !!!! Another 12 hours of bus on demented roads !!!! We had been told about the state of Nepal’s roads, but the reality is beyond fiction !!!! We were giving votes !!! At some point we hit our heads with the roof … It was very difficult to sleep, but we were busted, so for a few hours we fell exhausted.
The arrival in Kathmandu was at dawn, between cars and buses, an infernal traffic, the dust was chewed in the air, the pollution is very high in the whole city, although it was already perceived a special character … Due to the traffic the bus It did not continue anymore, so we continued walking to the area of tourists and hotels, Thamel.
When we entered the neighborhood with old buildings we were perplexed, it was like a movie, the wooden houses everywhere, with engravings, different people, the hustle and bustle, the pollution …
We passed Durbar Square, we were amazed by its temples, half destroyed by the earthquake that occurred in 2015, giving it even more character. It is said that Kathmandu is the city of the temple, there is one in each street. It is also full of places of rest for travelers, constructions made with wooden columns and carvings. The city has a lot of charm.
We stayed at the Hotel Pomelo, next to the Chhetrapati roundabout, where we paid $ 10 with breakfast, and after 2 weeks we got it down to $ 8, also with breakfast. A decent hotel with comings and goings of backpackers and mountaineers.
Kathmandu has many tourist areas to visit. For example the Shree Pashupatinath temple, where they burn the bodies of the deceased in a ceremony. The visit to this temple costs 15 dollars per person, but you can enter for free by the next street, between the small bridge that crosses the crematoria river and the ticket office.
Nepal, as it could not be less, is governed by corrupt people, not because we say it, but because the locals have repeated it to us ad nauseam. Even the whole world repeats that the dynasty that is now in power, Dynasty Shah, is perverse, assassinated the Malla dynasty that reigned until the eighteenth century with the admiration of the people, to be crowned in power until now. Fight of kings and dynasties that seem like a story, but that ultimately results in money and exploitation of the most defenseless.
The area of the historical center is beautiful, to get lost in its streets, visit the small temples, the street market of the Ason Square, observe the details of the wooden buildings with carved windows, it is like moving to another century. Sometimes we felt that we were filming a movie … The Durbar Square, the Freak Street.
We also visit the Swayambhunath temple, also known as the Monkey Temple, which as its name suggests has an area full of monkeys. The temple is very beautiful, its stupa, images, relics.
But as temples, the one we liked the most was the Budha Stupa. A gigantic and colorful stupa, which people surround, always in the sense of the clock, with shops and hotels around.
We coincide on the day of the full moon, and the circle that surrounds the stupa is filled with candles that people light as a prayer. It is beautiful to see all those lights dancing with the wind, in endless lines, illuminating the faces of the Buddhist monks who light them one by one concentrates.
In addition there is Bhaktapur, a beautiful medieval town about 15 km away that can be reached by bus. You have to take into account that in Kathmandu you pay for everything, and it’s usually not very cheap. However, we must also bear in mind that there is always an easy way to avoid the ticket offices, usually parallel streets … We look for a balance between paying and avoiding paying … criticizable? Insurance!! Our argument is based on the volunteering we carried out at zero cost for the country.
In Kathmandu we enjoy eating, for example, one of the typical dishes are the momos, a kind of tortellini stuffed with meat or vegetables, accompanied by a spicy sauce, very good and they are everywhere.
At the Chhetrapati roundabout there is a very shabby place that for 100 rupees (1 dollar) you put a plate, always 10 units. In addition there are many restaurants of Indian food, very crappy but very good. For example, the restaurant Lumbini, near Chhetrapati, where you can taste channa masala, paneer butter masala, with naan or roti … ummm … great!
Of course, you’ll have to get used to the spicy, they usually bite a bit. Another shabby-great restaurant is the Western Tandori, very picturesque. Our personal discoveries were: the Yujin coffee in Paknajol Marg street that serve buffalo burgers that are delicious! And for only 120 rupees !!! ($ 1.2).
Another discovery was the Fresh and Baked bakery in Gangalal Marg street, dreamy cakes for 50 rupees … we were addicted !!! And what about the Lassis !!!! Natural liquid yoghurts to which they add nuts and the typical sweet as cheese … buenísimoooo !!!! For only 60 rupees. Two good sites were: on the corner of Chhetrapati with Swachapu Marga Street and on this same street a little further away. There is also another famosete in Gangalal Marg.
To get money we use EVO Bank, although we must be careful: they recently changed the currency exchange policy in July 2017, before they used the same change as Visa (like most banks) but now they apply their own change .
That means that the previous advantage of not having commission when withdrawing from ATMs abroad has decreased. I compared it in Nepal with ING that charged me 5%, the difference was not yet too wide, but still in favor of EVO Bank, I think it was 4.5% and 5% for EVO and ING respectively. However, we must check the difference in each country, because the proportion is not maintained.
Also, WARNING: if you need money in Nepal do it with time !! sometimes the cashiers do not work … We recommend that you take out Everest Bank Limited, which apparently does not charge you commission (the rest of the banks charge you 5 dollars every time you take out). The problem is that they do not always work. It happened to us that we were going to do the trekking and it did not work until the last day !!! We needed a lot of money in cash and the commission would have been very high … So, preved to get money with enough time for unforeseen events.
The visit to Kathmandu was part of the trekking to Everest Base Camp, an unforgettable adventure. And from Kathmandu we went to continue our trip to Pokhara, in sight of the Anapurna !!
