DAY 11 (Sunday 31 July 2011)

Well we set of for THAMEL at a reasonable hour as we weren’t sure how long it would take us and today was busier than yesterday so crossing the road would be more of a challenge as over here there are no such things as pedestrian crossings or even traffic lights (well saying that though there are traffic lights on the freeway outside of the centre of KATHMANDU. 

Charlie wanted to try and get to the KASIER MAHAL which is inside the GARDEN OF DREAMS, so that we could stop there for a little bit and have a drink and relax.  We were supposed to go to the Garden of Dreams first before heading to THAMEL but it took us a little longer as we took a wrong turn (thinking we were going the right way) and ended up at the Durbar Square in Central Kathmandu.  We had a look around there, took some photos and headed on our way.

From our home we headed down the ring road (took a picture of the SACRED COWS)

2 Baby Cows on the sidewalk outside a car showroom

 this took us over the BAGMATI RIVER

 

Traffic going over the bridge out of our part of KATHMANDU

and up past one hell of a big park called RATNA PARK, we walked and walked and came to a road that we thought for some reason would take us towards THAMEL, how wrong were we, this is where we turned down NEW ROAD and GANGA PATH that took us into DURBAR SQUARE,, KATHMANDU.

From there we went down loads of back streets (had a look at our compass and it said we were going North) so off we went thinking we had a bit to go before we got to the Garden of Dreams, oh but we most definitely did have more than a bit to go as we actually ended up past the other side of THAMEL on a road called NAYA BAZAR, however, it wasn’t until we got to the VISHNUMATI RIVER and could see the hills that we thought we had been going in the wrong direction but weren’t sure, so with that we had a look at our map to make sure we were going the right way and realised we had to turn around and head back the way we came until we got to the top of the hill and took a different road, this actually took us into THAMEL and I managed (after all these years) to recognise where I was as I had been here about 14 years ago.

We walked through all the tourist area of THAMEL (I shall be going back to get some bits and pieces and also to buy some souvenirs for myself at a later date).  When we got to the other side, we actually knew where we were as we saw an Irish Pub that we had passed last Sunday on our way to the Sterling Club with the Hetherington’s.  Just up the road and around the corner was the Garden of Dreams, so happy that we had finally made it as I was really ready for a sit down and a long cold drink, once we were inside the Garden of Dreams we went to the KAISER MAHAL for our drink and also ended up staying to have a spot of lunch.

View from inside the KAISER MAHAL at the GARDEN of DREAMS

 As time was sort of getting on and we knew we had at least another hour or more to walk back home we set off (in the right direction this time).  As we were walking back I took a photo of the Traffic Control Cop as he was having a pretty busy day. 

Traffic Control Cop (traffic coming just out of picture shot)

We also came back down along RATNA PARK where we passed the part of the park that is called RANI POKHARI which is also known as THE QUEEN’s POND. I shall have to take a picture at a later date as I was on the other side of the road and really couldn’t be bothered to cross it to get the picture.

We headed back across the BAGMATI RIVER and took another photo of how some of the poorer people live.

 

How the poorer half live.

 

It took us nearly 2 hours to get home.