Durbar Square (24 Oct 2006)

24 Oct 2006, we checked out Hotel Hana and moved to Hotel Blue Diamond which is cleaner and nicer. We get better room with the same budget. We took our time to have the breakfast, probably the longest breakfast that we took in 3 weeks. Then, 8 of us proceed our way to Durbar Square. Hai Poh stayed in hotel to write his article. We were attracted to a t-shirt shop not far away from hotel. There are a lot of t-shirts shops in Thamel area. The shop provides a series of pattern. They will sew these patterns to t-shirt according to the customer selection. So, it’s totally handmade and customizable. We spent quite sometime in this shop before walked towards Durbar Square.

On the way to Durbar Square, we passed by the local market. It was crowded with people, cars and motorbikes. There is no traffic rule here. I heard motor-horn everywhere. This place reveals part of the real life of Nepalese. Tourists will have to pay 200 Rupees for admission to Durbar Square. I had entered Durbar Square before on the 2nd day at Nepal. 3 weeks ago, our flight to Lukla had been cancelled. So, we spent the day to leisure around. I didn’t notice I was entering Durbar Square that time as nobody stopped me. But I didn’t visit this place in detail that time as team mates that stopped by the officer were waiting for me at the entrance.

Durbar Square is the important cultural site in Kathmandu valley. There are statues, ancient temples and monuments in this area. The restoration project is carried out at this moment. I went in a big temple for visit. From the brochure, this temple is named as “Kumari-ghar”. It is the home of the “Kumari” or living goddess who is considered to be an incarnation of the goddess Taleju. Kok Yuen and Foung Yee told me that the girl that had been chosen as “Kumari” will be the goddess until she gets her first period, when the goddess takes a new incarnation. “Kumari” never gets married when she returns to human form. This is probably because Nepalese believe that married a “Kumari” will bring unfortunate.

Restaurants were closed because of Deepavali celebration. We were only able to buy some snacks from a bakery shop. Peng Meng decided to go back Thamel while the rest of us would like to explore other area of Kathmandu. By looking at map, there is a tower which is not far away. So, we followed the map to look for the tower but we were lost. Instead of the tower, we reached a soldier camp. We asked for help from locals and finally found the tower. Admission ticket is needed for entering this white color tower. We were not interested to go in, only took photos from outside. It’s only after I went back Malaysia that I found out this is Bhimsen Tower, a landmark for that area. Then, we came across a shopping mall. We were curious but have no chance to go inside as it was closed. On the way back, Kok Yuen and Kok Ming were attracted to a special drink selling by hawker on the street. The drink was stored in glass bottle. We saw the seller used something to open up the glass bottle and pour the water from the bottle to a glass with lime. A lot of locals drink that. So, Kok Yuen and Kok Ming bought one. Dee and I also tried it out. It smells like drain water and taste salty. Well, I don’t think I want to try second time.

At night, it was really hard to find place to have dinner. Most of the restaurants were closed. We went to the Korean restaurant yesterday. The door was opened, so we walked in. We met Mr. Kim – the Korean man that can speak Mandarin again. The restaurant was closed for business. The owner served only a few regular customers today. The owner agreed to serve us with limited choices of dishes. This is because her workers are not working. She has to prepare all dishes herself. We were glad that finally found a place to have dinner. Kim helped out the owner to cook for us. Once the food cooked, we served ourselves with the food. :D

As usual, we were shopping around after dinner. Then, we back to the hotel and played cards until late at night.