11/22/16,
“Kamar-Taj”
Kathmandu,
Nepal
If my reader
thought that Doha was my final destination for the trip and expected to read a
week’s worth of entries set in Arabia, he or she should would be mistaken. No, this Phase of the trip is “Doctor
Strange: The Experience”, not “Aladdin: The Experience”. Like Doctor Strange, I have made the journey
from New York to Kathmandu. Though I am
not in search of a sorcerous solution to my ailments, after just a short few
hours here, I can imagine how, if I believed in the supernatural, this would be
the kind of place you would expect to find the ancient sanctuary of
Kamar-Taj.
This whole city drips with a
mystical energy, and it feels as foreign as any land I have ever visited. Only nearby India and Iran come close, which
is ironic, since those were also both countries I visited on Thanksgiving
trips. This will be my most ambitious
Thanksgiving trip yet, consisting of three phases.
To my readers who were expecting those
Arabian entries, don’t worry, I will return to Doha on my way back for a brief
Phase 3. I am now in Phase 2, and that
will be spent entirely here in Nepal.
Iran, India, Egypt, and now Nepal, those have been my four Thanksgiving
trips, and they are each entirely exotic locations. My friend Raymond will be meeting me here
soon, though he was supposed to meet me this afternoon but had issues with his
flight. Together, we will be embarking
on an epic journey from Kathmandu to Lumbini, which is considered the
birthplace of the Lord Buddha. It will
be a trip to remember, and, here in Kathmandu, Phase 2 begins.
I am now smoking my 2010 Christmas Pipe. On my three Christmas trips, this is the pipe
I smoked in Quebec, Istanbul, and the Bransfield Strait. I have also smoked it in Lake Placid and the
capitals of Belize and the Bahamas. I am
always reluctant to displace a smoking aboard the Corinthian, but this smoking
of the 2010 Christmas Pipe beats them all.
I’m in fucking Kamar-Taj. I can
see the Swayambhu shrine out my window, and that was one of the many filming
locations in Kathmandu used for Doctor Strange.
Unfortunately, the pollution of the city makes for a very blurry picture
at night. The moment I got off the airport
at Kathmandu, I knew I was in a magical place, and I expect the next few days
to be nothing short of pure magic.
After
I closed en route to Doha, they soon brought the food, and I was beyond
starving. It was a beef dish, and I
ravenously ate my fill, having an almost empty stomach. I fell asleep soon after my dinner, but we
landed at Doha all too soon. I was not
properly rested. More, I had been so low
on caffeine that I had a splitting headache.
I needed coffee, proper Arabic coffee, which had been lacking from my
time in London, where only espresso and tea served my caffeine needs. My flight to Kathmandu would depart in 2
hours, so I expected to have to race through border control and security
screening again, but no such thing occurred.
Instead, the transfer passengers were lead straight into the departure
area with no formalities whatsoever.
That was odd.
I headed to get
some coffee, but they were out of Arabic coffee. Instead I got a Turkish coffee with a bagel
and lox. Talk about a clash of
cultures. I scarfed it all down and
headed to the duty-free shop, where I found very well-priced cigars, picking up
a box of H. Upmann cigars. They were
about half of what they should have been for cigars of that quality and
size. I went to the smoking lounge and
lit up a Cohiba from the 3-pack that I had also gotten, but I was tight on
time, and I couldn’t finish it. I was
soon boarding my plane, and that’s when it hit me.
I was actually doing this. I was going to Kamar-Taj. I was going to the Land of the Buddha. I was going to a city that many people probably
don’t even think exists: Kathmandu. I
watched the original Disney “Alice in Wonderland” en route, which had its
moments, and they soon brought out breakfast, but I was already fed, so I just
picked it at. Coffee and juice was what
I really wanted. After the movie, I fell
asleep, and we soon landed. Clearing
border control was a bit of a process, and I was tight on time to get to
Swayambhu shrine before dark. If I didn’t,
it would be a real hassle to come back later, as it is in a very inconvenient
part of the city.
I got some cash from
the ATM and took a taxi to my hotel. Traffic
was brutal, non-stop and bumper-to-bumper, but it was really no different than
when I visited India two years ago.
However, I was just as shocked today as I was in 2014. I was fighting against the sun to get to the
hotel in time. The hotel was located
right next to the shrine, so it would be easy, but I knew how quickly it gets
dark after sunset this close to the equator.
Check-in was quick and easy, and I grabbed my stuff and headed straight
out. It was still about ten minutes before
sunset, so I was good.
Lighting up one
of my new H. Upmanns on the way, I trudged up the stairs to the shrine,
realizing that the inscription photo was actually taken from the other side,
and it was no easy task, especially at this elevation. I was accosted by vendors, guides, and
beggars on the way, but I carried on.
When I got to the top, I found some nice souvenir stands and got
decorative Buddhist prayer bells. I was
then fully accosted by a beggar woman and her children, who followed me around
as I attempted to find the inscription spot.
I kept telling them no, but they kept following. Eventually I found the inscription spot, and
but the wind was too strong to properly hold the printout. Without my asking, she held the other side of
the printout so that I could take a proper ceremonial picture.
Since she had technically provided me a
service, I provided her with a small amount of money. That was when the older child continued to
follow me as I returned to the vendors to buy a keychain. The view from the top of the shrine was a
breathtaking vista of Kathmandu. Though
I had seen a similar vista in Tehran, I still couldn’t quite believe it, houses
packed tight as far as the eye could see.
I then made the treacherous journey back down the stairs and back to the
hotel, it already getting dark. I picked
up some water, beer, and “potato crackers” on the way. The whole hotel was smoking-friendly,
including the lobby, the restaurant, and the staircases. I went up to my room to finish my cigar and
relax a bit before taking a nap.
After
my nap, I headed down for dinner, which would be my first Official meal in
Nepal. I lit up a Montecristo before
heading down. The menu looked good, and
it was cheap. I got chicken spring rolls
for my appetizers, and it could have been a meal on its own. My main course was “Nepali chicken set” along
with a local whiskey. I had finished my
cigar by the time it came, and it was almost exactly the same that I would have
expected to get in India. I used my
chopsticks for my first Official meal in Nepal, announcing to myself that I had
now Officially visited 67 countries. I
didn’t count Qatar yet, but I will when I return at the end of the trip.
The meal was decent enough, and I headed up
to my room afterwards. With some
difficulty, I rearranged the furniture and lighting to get a proper establishing
shot for my entry. I then sat down, lit
up my 2010 Christmas Pipe, and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now
close so that I can publish.
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