Soooo, transportation in Nepal has come a long way in the past 10-20 years. Nowhere is this more evident than the daily flights to Lukla, gateway to Everest. Instead of a ridiculously long bus ride, or even using a dirt strip for clunky ex-Soviet castoff planes, Lukla now boast a fully paved and modern runway that can handle up to 40 flights a day.
Except (grr...) if there happens to be fog or low cloud...
Which is precisly what happened to us two days running – we'd wake up early to be at the airport at 6am... then wait. And wait. And wait some more – hoping for a break in the weather that never came. Then it was back to KTM after 6 hours of faffing about the terminal to get ready to try it all again tomorrow.
Sigh.
'course, once we actually were able to catch a flight on the morning of the third day, the reason for the caution became abundantly clear. Check out this runway... and imagine a bit of cloud making visibility the slightest bit iffy:
The two days of futility weren't a total loss – I was able to check out a bit more of Kathmandu, including the legendary Durbar Square, which is home to doens of temples, a gaggle of vegetable vendors, taxis, and cows.
Perched on the steps of one of the main temples, it's impossible to not watch the stream of humanity roll by – you almost don't know where to look next!
Oh, and holy men:
Heck, and even the odd Maoist demonstration:
On another random note (yes, yes, they do seem to be adding up!) - I ended up having coffee with our driver back in KTM and the conversation turned to improving the Sherpa Society's website. Soon enough, I was involved trying to explain SEO and Google AdSense in basic English – surreal, surreal experience. Plus, this only goes to show that should the UK economy continue to, well, suck – I could corner the Nepalese market as an SEO/online marketing dude. ;)
The 2nd day let me explore a bit further away from the tourist quarter – which featured some amazing lesser-known temples, including one that was adorned with every position from the Kama Sutra. The funny part was that as you walked around, you'd start from missionary to various more, uh, advanced positions. By the end of the 4th wall, it was clear the guy was trying to fill space, and ended up making some rather unique positions that would be involve a quick trip to the back surgeon if attempted!
The other plus side about this walk – these neighborhoods didn't really see that many tourists so I had a lot of smiles and 'namastes' as I wandered around. The best part had to be when I ducked into one of those hidden town squares – and ended up chatting with a bunch of kids.
The conversation went something like this:
Kid 1: “Give me pen.”
Me: “No, sorry.”
Kid 2: “Give me rupees.”
Me: “Sorry, buddy – no can do.”
(pause as they are stumped for what to ask for)
Me: How 'bout some gum?
That seemed to break the ice, and soon enough they were asking for a photo to be taken of them... digital is awesome because kids always love seeing themselves in pics:
Now the soccer fans among you might heckle but I decided to pass up a chance to watch the Champions League final. Starting at 12:45am, that was just crazy late – especially since (optimistic American that I am) I was still holding out hope that we'd be on our way on the trail at 6am...
No comments:
Post a Comment