April 18, 1986
Our overnight stay at the Taj Mahal hotel in Delhi followed a flight to Kathmando, Nepal the following morning.
On our arrival at Kathmando, Nepal we were driven to Hotel Del’Annapurna, a small more on the modern style hotel.
Kathmando, capital of Nepal is a city of pilgrims, carved brick temples on every street, mobbed by beggars, monkeys, accompanied with dusty crowded roads.
Afternoon Prayer
Prayer Bells
Nepal’s history is largely the history of Kathmando Valleys on the southern slops of the mid Himalayas with a population of more than 26 million people made up of over 40 Races and Tribes.
The endless viewing of the exterior of these temples between the crowds of people was tiring. One had to be careful where you stepped. Having lived in Taiwan, both Eric and I were familiar with the open drains known as the Binjos in Taiwan, laughingly I told Alan he better look where he was walking, a few minutes later Alan had stepped into one of these Binjos.
Here is Alan washing the waste matter off his shoes, at the Hotel.
Indian Jewelry
While in Kathmando a helicopter flight over Mount Everest was on our itinerary, however, both the wives of this foursome group declined this adventure. One can say a helicopter flight over the most famous Mount Everest is one of Eric and Alan’s biggest achievements, where so few have had this opportunity.
Our Tour Guide’s Legend of Kathmando:
“Legend speaks that this valley was once covered by a Lake until the Bodhisattva Manjushi raised his sword of Wisdom and sliced a passage through the mountain walls draining the water and creating this first settlement.”
The country was frequently called The Gorkha Kingdom, the source of the term “Gurkka” used for the Nepali soldiers.
In Kharagpur, India, where I was born, we had Gurkkas living at the Armory, neighbours to The European Institute in Kharagpur. If my memory is correct, these Gurkkas in WW2 were Britain’s number one fighters in Burma.
The following has nothing to do with Kathmando, since I do not have much to add to this visit, I thought I would end it with Mark Twain’s words on India.
“So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature to make India the most extraordinary country that the Sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten nothing over looked.”
Mark Twain
“Following the Equator”.
We leave Kathmando April 21, 1986 via New Delhi arriving Darjeeling April 23, 1986.
The end of this 1986 three-week vacation of India is coming to a close. Memories of this vacation will always be with me.
Are you up to meeting me at Darjeeling?
God bless
Clare
