Kathmandu – Durbar Square
First trip to India, January 2015
In the morning, we got up around 9. We had a plan to find another hotel and move into it. We still believed that it was possible to find the perfect hotel in Kathmandu…
Probably the main thing we wanted was hot water.
We went to look at other hotels that we had chosen yesterday online. Lately, we’ve been choosing hotels on TripAdvisor (plus, in the old-fashioned way, on Booking.com) — there are always lots of comments on any property there, it’s convenient to sort by price and choose the one with the highest rating.
We visited three hotels and settled on a room for $10. We liked it because it had large windows facing the sunny side — there was hope that the room would warm up during the day and it wouldn’t be so cold in the evening… The hotel owner promised hot water.
After checking in, we climbed onto the bed to warm ourselves in the sun, which was simply pouring through our large windows. It was so pleasantly warm. In Nepal, at this time of year, it’s chilly — so you start to value warmth very much.
Almost by force of will, we managed to make ourselves leave our warm sunny lair and went to see Kathmandu’s main attraction — Durbar Square. There are many temples in the square. Pigeons have taken a liking to the temples’ roofs.
After exploring the square, we went in search of food.
She was waiting for us in a small courtyard, not far from the square. We looked in there because we saw a sign for some café, but in the end we decided to eat momo at a local hole-in-the-wall. We noticed a large steaming pot, then a Nepali man opened the lid and we saw momo steaming inside under the lid.
The price was pleasantly surprising — $0.6 for 10 momo. Soon the small room filled up with many Nepalis; some even had no place to sit and were eating standing outside — apparently it was lunchtime.
After filling our bellies, we went on strolling around Kathmandu. We visited a square where various souvenirs and trinkets were sold.
We returned home through the vegetable market; the vegetables in Nepal are very similar to ours.
In the evening, we wandered around Thamel. We had read a variety of reviews about this district of Kathmandu. For some reason, many people don’t like Thamel. But I felt very comfortable here. Especially if you choose a hotel like we did — not on the main street, but in some little side alley — it’s completely quiet. On the other hand, you can calmly wander around even after dark until late in the evening — there are lots of tourists here, lit-up streets, and there’s always something to look at in the many little shops. That’s how we whiled away the time.
We made the right choice with the hotel — the windows facing the sunny side really did the trick, and even in the evening it was much warmer than in yesterday’s hotel. True, the little man somewhat misled us about the hot water — it was hot only in the morning. Before bed, I had to show real endurance and wash under a barely warm shower. By the way, I noticed that after such a cool shower, you feel warm. And two heavy blankets were also pleasantly warming.
