Day 31 Thamel 29th July 2009

We made a date with Lars again today to visit the Monkey Temple or Syumbu Temple today morning. We met him at the same junction at 0830hrs and walked to Wiezen Bakery to have breakfast. Lars bought a chocolate roll, cheese croissant and a pineapple bag.. We had the simple breakfast with eggs, toast, potatoes and tea/coffee.

After Lars went into the nearby travel agent to check on the Chitwan National Park package while we tried to finish our breakfast. He invited us to visit with him and we thought why not since Chitwan is 5hrs from Kathmandu and 5 hrs from Sonauli the border to India. Since we will be going that way we could just go by making our bus trip shorter with a rest day in between. He checked at Pokhara before a 2 d 1 night trip will only costs USD35/pax including accommodation, food, transport and some sight seeing. We thought was affordable so agreed and wanted to check our options. Sahara Travel that Lars went in offered USD38/pax so we told the guys we will come back in the afternoon to confirm as Lars wanted to go and check out Adam Travels the branch in Kathmandu for the Pokhara agency he checked earlier.

Monkey Temple

Man cleaning up the candle holders

Monks chanting away

We took a cab which agreed to bring us 2 ways at 400NPR, hopped on and when were arrive in Monkey Temple it was pouring. Still made our way in after paying 100NPR each for the entrance fee. This temple is almost same like Boudanath with a Stupa in the middle and shops around, nothing much to see and not much pictures can be taken as it was raining. After we climb up a steps to go into a small monastery thinking we would be able to excess the stairs to the 3^rd floor to get a better picture of the stupa from the top. The man who was in charge of the candles told we have to ask the monk if we could go up. He said we have to wait about 15mins as they were praying.. Chanting prayers from the ancient scriptures… We sat down and listen to their chantings about 20mins they haven’t stopped. We thought we got to go as it seems never ending. So we left w/o taking any pictures from the top.

We walked down to the entrance and we couldn’t find our taxi… Where did he go? We haven’t even pay him for the drive up. We asked the drivers who approached us where he went and they told he will be back in 5-10mims.. So we stood and waited but he didn’t turn up, so decided to will take another cab to go back to Thamel. Told one of the taxi driver and he said ok will bring you but you have to pay me 400NPR he could pass the other 200NPR to his friend. We were like ok fine as long you really know the other guy we don’t mind. While we were going down we saw our taxi driver.. His taxi had the hood up not sure if repairing or what ? So we asked the driver to stop he say is okay I know him very well I will pass him the money later..

After arriving in Thamel we went to look for Adam travel about the package, he couldn’t offer us that price so we decided to head back to Sahara Travel for the cheaper option. On the way Lars had to change some money so the guy who also works in the travel agency beside somehow knows we are looking for the package asked us to go in for a chat.. They also couldn’t offer us and say USD45 is the bests they could offer. Of course we didn’t take it and left for Sahara Travel. Got there confirmed with the Manager and got our tickets. Parted ways with Lars as he was planning to meet his friend for lunch.

We thought we wanted to go back to Potala Restaurant again for the Halal Food but I decided that we should go look for the one that Hari recommended, Annatolia Restaurant. We asked for directions from a shop keeper. We found it after 5mins of walking, the entrance of the restaurant seems posh and expensive. But we just went ahead cause we need some “chicken”!!

Our Lunch.. Meat!!

We were ecstatic when we saw the menu, I ordered chicken briyani and chicken momo to share. Ramli ordered veg briyani and chilly chicken. We waited anxiously for the food, and Ramli sms Hari to invite him to come have lunch with us. While we were eating he came and just had masala tea. Even after many persuasion for him to order something he didn’t want to. We were telling him our plans to Chitwan tomorrow and he said he actually wanted to invite us to his house for DhalBhat.. Oh my we forgot we had a date with him to visit his house and family. So we asked if we could go today and back the same day. He said is not possible to come back to Thamel as there is no transport in the night but he said we could stay over in his small house and come back to Thamel the next day early morning to catch our bus. So we thought since we had made plans with him we should do it. And told him we will meet him at 4pm at our hotel lobby cause we will go to Durbar Sq now to take photos.

The holy man

We rushed to Durbar sq which was about 20mins walk and met Lars and his friend Walter on the way. Said hi and parted ways.Arrived there took some photos of the temples and holymen than left. It was already 1530hrs when we left and we still need to withdraw some money from the atm and get some sweets or chocolates for Hari’s children. We are running late… On the way back we saw this boy about 9 to 10yrs old he was holding a tube of glue and squeezing out the yellow contents into a plastic bags. We have heard and seen boys doing it with the bag but to see him doing the action upfront was a real upsetting sight.. We are so curious to why no one stop them or no one take actions but let them continue doing it…

Arrived at the hotel about 1600hrs and still haven’t pack up as we wont have time tomorrow to do it. Luckily Hari wasn’t here yet, and he send us sms to ask if we arrived so Ramli told him to come at 1630hrs.. By the time we showered and pack up it was already 1645hrs we rush down to see him watching TV downstairs. Followed him to the local invisible bus stand and took the local van. The van under Singapore law can only fit 16 people including driver, but in Nepal it can fit up to 30 people… Can you imagine how squeezy it is.. People standing and squeezing into seats.. My goodness…After 15 mins we got down to change to another van. That van took about 1hr up hill to Hari’s village. When I was in the van I could see people talking to each other like they know each other very well. I felt that maybe Nepali’s are just so friendly with each other. After when I asked Hari then I found out that actually the people know each other as they all came from the same village as Hari.. Wahahahha

Hari told us we need to do some trekking to his house, so we told him its no problem for us… His house was 1500m abv sea levels in the hills so we wont get high altitude sickness it is fine. We climbed up about 15mins and finally arrived at his house… Woa there are so many children outside his house and when they saw us they were like so ecstatic and excited and everything.. They held my hands and kept talking to me in Nepali…Hmmm Sorry I don’t understand… They knew we were coming as Hari called to inform his wife before.. And they put up a branch to the entry area of Hari’s house and put purple flowers on it to welcome us.. Woa we were so honoured and touched..

Hi there !!

The kids

The kids with Hari and Me..

They couldn’t let us rest, they were pulling me here and there. The girls kept holding my hand and talking to me in Nepali. I tried to get their names but couldn’t remember any as all of them have names with 3 syllabus or more…Ramli said he wanted to take a picture for them… So they got more excited and was pushing and hitting each other just to get infront… As Hari’s kids was the youngest among all of them they had a hard time to be seen on photo… Kekekek After the kids started singing and dancing for us… And even asked to play “London bridge is falling down” game with them in Nepali version… Was very very nice to see the kids so excited and happy. But we felt bad cause we didn’t bring anything for them as we didn’t knw before. They are childrens of Hari’s brother and from the nearby houses..

Hari and Family

Before we know it is getting dark and some of the kids have to go home. We took a family picture for Hari.. His wife is only 21yrs.. So young and very pretty… We saw an old man climbing up the small slope in front of his house and asked Hari if he was his dad.. His dad was already 70yrs old but still very strong walking up hill collecting leaves and branches for the goat and cow… Hari asked us to go into his small mud house to take a seat and wait for dinner… His house has 3 storey, the ceilings was very low, Ramli couldn’t stand straight.. 1^st floor is kitchen and eating area and also a small area for the 3 goats they have. A small narrow steps leads to the 2^nd floor to the 1 bedroom and 2 beds with bags or barley and rice stacked neatly at one corner, 3^rd floor was for fire wood storage so we didn’t go up and take a look. He showed us the room and bed we will be sleeping at for the night. We felt bad as we will be sleeping at the wifes and kids double bed, and the wife had to sleep downstairs… Got to know from him that the wife sleeps with the kids and he sleeps on a separate single bed just outside the room which I thought was very weird…

Anyway after chatting to him for a while upstairs we headed downstairs for dinner. His wife prepared Veg Dhal Bhat for us and black tea with hot milk. Ermm I don’t drink milk so I gave mine to Ramli. Hari took so much rice for me and I told him to stop scooping he just continued. I couldn’t finished mine and Ramli couldn’t help me too cause we had too much briyani for lunch earlier. The food was simple but nice .. The black tea tasted a bit weird cause they put salt into it.. Hmmmm After dinner it was already about 2000hrs so we brushed our teeths outside his house and went to the communal toilet which was ermm you should know… After headed upstairs and chat with Hari and 2 kids stayed back and sat down and look at us like as if we were the “tourist attraction”. Saw photos of Hari when he was young and also the photos taken during his wedding. He kept these photos in a safe in his cupboard.. Keekekke must be very valuable for him.

The boy was asking Hari why we are leaving so early tomorrow as they wished to see us again and hope we would be able to stay longer. But we told the boy sorry cause we had to rush for the bus so couldn’t stay.. Hopefully we will be able to visit again if we go for the Everest Base camp trek in another 2 yrs time or so. Even Hari’s son Dipendra was also asking the same and looked sad. We felt really bad…

Chatted for a while more and it was about 2100hrs so we told Hari we should rest for the night.. We laid down on the super hard bed, even with the thin mattress it was too hard for us. I doze off after about 10mins and about 0011hr I was awaken by my urgent urge to go and pee… I tried my bests to try go back and sleep but it didn’t work, guess my bladder is super over flooded. So I had to wake Ramli up and tell him to accompany me to get to the toilet.. Luckily Hari borrowed us his lighter cum torch we tip toped our way downstairs and tried to open the door which was “locked up” by 2 metal beams hooking on the door. Phew relief after … Tip toed back into the room..