Day 138 - Dashain Festival Laziness

It was another day of laziness as most businesses remained closed for the Dashain festival. Spent most of the day enjoying reading the Alchemist and also planning the rest of my trip. I anticipate being home by late December or early January, ending my trip in NYC during Christmas and New Years. Things change suddenly though. A couple days ago, I planned on visiting Greece and Brazil, but now those two are not a part of the plan, since I don't think I have enough time or money to visit them this time around. Tickets to South America are so expensive!

My intended plan as of today is to fly to Turkey and explore the country for a couple weeks, then fly to Prague and explore for a week, head down to Rome and Venice with my cousin, explore southern Italy afterwards, and head to Spain for my last leg before heading back to the United States. I made a rough budget of my remaining spending money, and I'll be overspending even with this plan.

At the end of the night, there was a small celebration at the top of our hostel for the Dashain Festival. People drank and played music happily. I met a fellow accountant from the UK who also quit her job and plans to move to South Africa with her husband. We all told stories about our adventures so far in Nepal, including some of the accidents and dangers we heard about. We laughed a little just at how many accidents we had all heard about or witnessed, whether it be from planes skidding off small runways, trekking accidents, vomiting on buses, and broken legs from paragliding. All before my bungee jumping trip...

Hostel Lounging

One of our wonderful chefs

Chicken Breast with Garlic Butter Rice

Buffalo Meatballs with Garlic Mayo

Day 136 - Garden of Dreams in Kathmandu

The next couple of days would be lazy days, as most of the city would remain relatively quiet due to the Dashain festival. I headed to the Garden of Dreams, which was the number 1 recommended activity in Kathmandu based on Tripadvisor.com reviews.

Just outside of Thamel, the Garden of Dreams is a renovated garden area where people come to just relax, sit around the gardens, nap, have a bite to eat, and just enjoy the surroundings, a stark contrast to the noise and grime right outside. It reminded me very much of my visit to the Peace and Wellness Labyrinth Gardens in Los Angeles that I wrote about prior to my trip. Both were quiet and beautiful places to relax and reflect, right in the middle of an urban jungle. They had a photo exhibit that displayed before and after renovation pictures. Much of the garden could have been lost, had the government not done something to prevent it. The architecture of the area was beautiful with elements of symmetry throughout.

Afterwards, I headed around the commercial shopping area of Thamel, since it was the last day many of the shops would be open before a 3-4 holiday break. There were a lot of bootleg shoes, and it was hard to tell the difference between a genuine Nike vs a fake one. Even fake shoes were sold in some pretty legitimate clothing stores, but I guess you could tell by the outrageously cheap prices that they were fake. I ended up purchasing some Puma sneakers from the official Puma store. It's nice because unlike many of the other countries I'd visited, the prices here were cheaper or similar to what I'd find in the U.S.

I headed back to the hostel, but not before finding a book to read, since my Kindle decided to break down...good thing it is still under warranty, although I'd like to get my hands on one of the newer ones that were recently released. I purchased The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I heard many good things about it from friends, and it is a popular book to read while traveling.

On the way back, I saw what appeared to be the beginnings of a goat sacrifice. A group of people, including many children, were gathered around a goat that was tied to a string. They were all loud and excited, anxiously petting the goat on the head. One of the older men dragged the goat towards their village, and everyone followed, helping to push the helpless goat forward. I didn't stay to see if it was sacrificed, but I assume it was.

Late at night, a group of us at the hostel decided to head to Durbar Square to see if we could find some more slaughterings. Everyone kept telling us different times and dates to go see it, so we decided to go tonight. Of course, when we got there, the square was quiet. There was barely any activity, although we did come across a small area that appear to be where a couple goats were sacrificed, with blood spilled over the pavement.  

Garden of Dreams

Animal Sacrifices in Durbar Square

Day 135 - Durbar Square in Patan-dhoka

We took a two hour walk south of Kathmandu to another Durbar Square in the Patan dhoka area. It started to rain and flood through the big city halfway through our walk. It was funny to see the traffic jam caused by the flooding, and the pedestrians all trying to find little islands in the puddles to step over to get from one place to another. I wore flip flops so I just walked through the flooded areas without too much trouble.

The Patan dhoka area, another UNESCO site, was nice to explore, with small mazes of alleyways throughout, and old traditional style buildings still intact. The Durbar square was similar to the one in the Kathmandu Valley, but a little bigger and with more appealing temple structures. We walked around for about 30 minutes, but I think Niels and I got a little tired of seeing some of the same sort of things since we've been traveling for so long.

At night, we headed to Thamel and got another steak dinner, meeting up with my CS friend Sylvia from Austria. She was headed to Pokhara the next morning to trek a little and we shared our experiences with her over dinner.

We were going to head to Durbar Square early tomororw morning to see some animal sacrifices during the Dashain Nepalese Festival (it's like Christmas for the Nepalese) but were told that it would occur another day. One of the workers at our hostel already sacrificed 11 goats during the day at his home by beheading them. The festival lasts 15 days, so I'm sure I'll come across some special things while exploring the city this next week.

Golden Temple

Durbar Square