Post Earthquake Katmandu
I flew Air India from London to Delhi and on to Katmandu Nepal. A friend in London like a particular hotel called the Holy Himalaya, in Thamel. (www.holyhimalya.com). I have been here four nights. It’s a bit more upscale than I normally travel but in relation to London it’s very worth the money. It’s around $40/night. The rooms are big spacious with tv and clean. Yeah, I can stay a couple nights.
The airport was still crazy because many tourists have returned but not on the normal scale. Great! The taxi ride is 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on traffic. On the drive in a noticed many cracked buildings usually of redbrick, and other building materials as well but just not as apparent. I spent the afternoon sorting out the next step which is Bardia to spot a tiger and hopefully some fresh water dolphin that are basically trapped behind a dam and this time of year with the monsoon rains swelling the rivers the water is deep enough for them to hunt for fish in a larger area.
I called me friend Bishal (9803171826) I highly recommend him. He’s knowledgeable and has rescue training. We hopped on a motorbike and he showed me the two other squares I hadn’t seen, Kathmandu Dubar Square and Bhaktapur Dubar Square. Winding around to get to the squares was as much as a goal location. There is a lot of damage and especially near the squares because these were the squares of the three kingdoms that used to be separated by farmland and terraced rice paddies.
The squares and the surrounding homes are all redbrick and date back. The wood carvings are inmost cases are intricate and show a devotion to creation.
The squares are all old and lost temples or shored them up before they do fall down.
Down the narrow side streets are piles of debris from the earthquake and in some harder hit areas half the street is one long line of debris from falling buildings and rubbish thrown there for whatever reason.
I don’t know any details about the clean up or even if there is one in motion. The kids are still having fun and life on the surface seems to be back in motion minus a few tourists but that’s a good thing for a little while I think.
October is supposed to be the best month before winter hits, so says the bartender ‘V’ at Sam’s. She also said she would probably turn down an invitation to Bardia at this time of the year because it’s so hot and humid that it wouldn’t be as much fun as at other times. We’ll see.
Anyway, I just wanted to show a couple photos of the condition Katmandu is in after 3 ½ month time.
