After our week serving in the village of Chiti with Choice Humanitarian we headed back to Kathmandu to start a few days of sightseeing to see a bit of Kathmandu and some of the rest of Nepal. We returned to the same hotel we stayed in before we started our service week with Choice. It was so nice to return to a nice clean, real bed, and get a proper shower. We had a final farewell dinner with the Choice team and switched gears to spend the rest of the trip exploring. Kathmandu is a hectic, dirty place, and it has also been gravely affected by a major earthquake the year before. But it's rich in history, culture and certainly a feast for the senses.
View of Kathmandu from our hotel rooftop
In our min tour bus setting out to see the sights of Kathmandu
My first real glimpse of historic Kathmandu
Our first stop was a visit to the Kumari Bahal, the home of the living goddess, the girl painstakingly selected to be revered as a goddess until she reaches puberty. We hurried to this spot first because the Kumari was about to show herself through the top window openings in the Bahal courtyard. Photographing the Kumari is forbidden, so I was only able to photograph the building when she was not present. Becoming the Kumari is a hard life. She spends much of her time in isolation and after her reign as Kumari is finished when she reaches puberty she has difficulty assimilating back into normal society.
After visiting the Kumari Bahal we wandered around Dubar Square to have a look at the many interesting Nepali market stalls. Dallin got a knife and Trevon got a traditional Nepali game, Bagh-Chal.
The streets of Nepal, an incredible display of colour, life and chaos.
The iconic temples of Durbar Square
Bird ladies selling pigeon feed to tourists
The iconic pigeons of Durbar Square. I know pigeons are not most people's favourites, and they can be a nuisance, but I am glad they are still around Durbar Square. They seem to belong here, and I was glad to see so many of them to capture these images. It was a bit risky getting right there in the middle of them, and I did sacrifice my trousers kneeling in pigeon poop to get these shots.
Kal Bhairav
More scenes around the streets of Kathmandu, amazing!
The colourful bead market
Seto Machhendranath Temple
More Kathmandu street scenes
Spice market
Stephash kids take Kathmandu
The toothache shrine, sufferers nail a coin to this shrine to appease the toothache God
Kathesimbu Stupa in central Kathmandu
Signs of the Himalayas are all over Kathmandu, many shops selling mountaineering gear.
North Fake
Cannot overstate how dirty Kathmandu is. The air quality is the worst I have ever experienced in my life. You could feel the dirt and smog you were inhaling just walking on the city streets. It was not a comforting feeling. Many people wear face masks as a part of daily life here. I am 100% certain I would don a face mask every day too if I lived here. Dallin was smart and got a face mask souvenir while in Kathmandu.
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