Running in Kathmandu

Country: Nepal

City: Kathmandu

Crew: Pahadi, Anna, Maag

Boudanath Stupa and Yellow Color

Our Last day in Nepal spent in running on the streets of Kathmandu, we had to cover complete city in a single day of course only Superman can do that without a private cab, in our case, we chose Local conveyance. Note: if you have a single day and you plan to roam complete city, it’s always better to go for private cabs/cars because it’s a big city and to go from one site to another takes a long time via local. Initially we planned to cover whole city, but as the clock was ticking, we had to wrap it up after visiting 3^rd site.

First we saw Pashupatinath Mandir, next we moved to Boudanath. It’s the biggest stupa of Nepal which stands on 3 tired platforms raised over crossed rectangles in order to bring yantra form. 2 interesting incidents happened here, 1^st: Stupa was all white in color and the authorities were pouring yellow colored paint on it, so we fools were mocking on it saying that “stupa has been here from thousands of years and now authorities found time to color it”. But later we found out that they are not just throwing color on it, they are making a lotus shaped painting on it and it’s a practice. It is interesting even if we don’t know something; we can laugh on it, fools. 2^nd: when we were clicking, one old lady called Maag and said something due to which she had to change and stitch her dress, it is better not to go into details on this point. It was another funny instance that took place in Boudanath.

Narayanthan

Next we moved to Changu Narayan (Narayanthan) located on a magnificent hill top commanding a fantastic view of Kathmandu valley. This temple of Lord Vishnu is full of art works in metal and wood, finest example of Nepalese Architecture. This is the place where we understood that all along the journey we were just running from one place to another (due to time constraints) and hence we slowed down here and enjoyed the place. At this time we also learned that last bus to border leaves at around 6 PM (later we knew that it was not the fact, you can even catch bus last by 8-9) so we dropped other spots since it was already 4 o clock and again started running to our hotel in a local bus. There were 3 locals sitting behind us and they only knew English so I was continuously talking with them about the routes, time and about them, kind of flirty, but fun, they were also enjoying. Then I asked Maag to take pics of us.

Then we reached hotel, collected bags and moved to bus station, as soon as we stepped down there, one bus was leaving so we boarded the bus. Later we found out that the bus started before time so other bus drivers didn’t allowed any passengers to board it and hence bus returned station, after an hour or so again started from there.

This journey took the same time (12 hours) to reach border, where our bags, identity cards were checked properly. When we moved to another country Nepal, nothing was checked but when we came back to our own country everything was checked, funny isn't it. Then we had the most favorite snack of India: Samosa as our lunch and headed back to railway station: Gorakhpur.

View of Kathmandu Valley from Narayanthan

We had some time before boarding our train so we thought of visiting Geeta Press or Gorakhpur Mandir, but both were far away from station and there was a possibility of high traffic while returning  so we dropped our plan and relaxed on station only.
Since sleeper coach waiting rooms didn't had proper bathrooms, we paid some money to care takers and entered into AC coach rooms for proper bath. After all this adventure Maag was hell tired, fall sick and slept there for 30-45 minutes, but even this little time was enough to get her strength back.

We boarded our train and headed back towards our routine, I had some private chat with Pahadi about the ups and downs of my life, since she was the only one who can understand it. Anna felt bit jealous due to this and same was seen in whole trip, Maag always seemed to be in her own space. I, Pahadi and Maag stepped down at Bhopal, while Anna continued in same train towards Mumbai. There was a cab waiting for us in Bhopal which was sent by Dad, all boarded it and then finally returned our homes.
Overall it was a nice trip with lots of ups and downs, adventures, secrets and fights. I am never gonna forget this trip and its true that for Naturally Nepal, Once is not enough.