On top of the world: Journey through Kathmandu

Kathmandu, Nepal. The glamour of this place had all but evaporated upon closer inspection. Though Nepal may be home to extraordinary natural beauty, history and culture, it has also become home to an unstable government, civil unrest and immense poverty.

Nepal is the twelfth-poorest country in the world according to the World Bank, a fact visible through the entirety of the nation’s capital.

A walk along the haphazardly paved streets of Kathmandu entails dodging piles of cow dung, holding your breath as you pass burning piles of rubbish and evading vehicles, the drivers of which seem to have little regard for your presence.

Kathmandu is not a city one can tackle and hope to overcome; it is instead a place you must submit to wholly. You can’t fight the traffic, because it has little qualm with fighting back. You cannot ignore the beggars, peddlers, petty thieves, homeless children, bhelpuri stands or that terrible, spine-chilling and ever-present sound of the locals hacking and spitting, something I feared I could never grow accustomed to being witness to.

For all its noise, hideous sights of human suffering and pollution, there is still a certain wonder about the place.

No, it is not the lush layer cake of lights and romance like Paris. It is not sleek, modern nor polished in the vain of Berlin. It is not fair old London, and it lacks all the ambition and ingenuity of New York City.

Kathmandu is instead a place difficult to imagine for many of us westerners, nestled in an ancient land and desperately forcing itself into modernity.

The city largely a hodgepodge of loosely related architecture, structures colored in pastel shades, with a design philosophy seemingly consisting of the general idea that one only need design a single floor, and repeat it, stacking each segment on top of the other.

Much of Kathmandu excels at offending the senses, or at the very least, my own western sensibility. The ever-present sound of cars and motorbikes honking is accompanied by a thick wall of brown air, lingering over the city.

There are exceptions, however. One must simply venture to Durbar Square, located in the heart of the city, to find escape from the chaotic and disorganized muddle.

It is perhaps one of the most tranquil sights within the capital, though not entirely untouched by the hands of time. The occasional motorbike must still be evaded, and the crowds are difficult to maneuver during certain times of the day, but the sights are worth the effort and the entrance fee.

The Square houses a multitude of Hindu temples and was once the place in which Nepal’s kings were crowned. To this day, it remains one of the few places in which traditional Nepali architecture can be seen within Kathmandu.

The entrance into Durbar Square is a narrow alleyway lined with shops, selling the same trinket, jewelry and scarf seen in every other shop dispersed throughout the capital. It is only within the square that you finally see a Nepal more akin to the romanticized fantasy depicted by Internet travel sites and brochures.

Even within this sanctuary, Nepal’s poor and disenfranchised masses make their way through the hoards of tourists, begging for scraps and, on occasion, soliciting them for a rupee note or two in exchange for a photo.

Crowds of Nepali gather to pray at the temples, into which entrance is not permitted to tourists or non-Hindus. At the same time, crowds of Nepali gather around the wells and water fountains located throughout the square, filling their metal jugs and plastic water canisters.

Despite the fact that shopkeepers are out to scam every western tourist who enters into their place of business, the people are extraordinarily gentle, kind and affectionate.

Nepali men go as far as walking hand in hand with one another or wrapping their arms about each others shoulders in public, something one would not see from many heterosexual men in our overtly macho western societies.

Nepal is a place of many unique wonders, but Kathmandu will wear away the patients of any visitor when inhabited for extensive periods of time. The hours in this city pass with a sort of lethargy and the heat is becoming a minor nuisance when compared to wondrous mess that is Kathmandu

­— asimic@ius.edu