Highway to Himalaya: Chaotic days in Kathmandu

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These are dark and troubled times, times we're all have to stay home, to be alone, we have to cancel our hollyday plans and we have to pray for our families and friends. It seems the whole wide world is out of control, it's a mess, the end of an era when we had the chance to discover the world and visit places far away from home. There we found friends and saw things that were strange and great... it's over.

But now let me take you with me to a distant land that is completely inaccessible to any of us right now. And let me tell you some pictureque stories from another time and another place: Nepal, the kingdom of the Himalaya. Follow me and believe: One day we all get back the chance to fly and ride and found out how it it where we not at home.

No other city has more traffic, but at least it is nowhere more chaotic. The historic old town of Kathmandu is twice a day like a moped parking lot, over which trucks and cars are pushed, which are made out of respect for their size. An SUV costs three to four times as much as in the West, but thanks to rampant corruption in every construction project, there are enough people who can afford the latest models.

The contrast to the ubiquitous dirt on the streets is all the greater. Even in the vicinity and in the sanctuaries of Bhaktapur and Pashupatinath, garbage piles up. The Hindu takes it easy, everything will be better in the next life. Even the Buddhist, for whom the Bodnath stupa is the most holy place, sees it calmly. A few prayer flags are tied around it, and the hopelessly ramshackle shopping district of Thamel and the bazaar streets staring at pigeon droppings become an exotic place with tourists strolling in amazement.

There is also a lot to be amazed at. Everywhere temples, all sorts of former royal palaces, carved wood and tea shops. Red bricks and yellowed wood to the front, green mossy backyards behind - on the river behind the sanctuary Pashupatinath, which only Hindus are allowed to enter, the bodies of the newly deceased smoke.

Whole family groups, at least the male part of them, accompany the dead on their last journey, which they begin in the middle of a pile of wood on the river bank. Smoke is in the air, monkeys rage over the bridges, bereaved people put on mourning clothes and the women of the family grumble from a barricaded balcony on the second floor.

Between Pashupatinath, one of the most important Hindu temples and world cultural heritage, and the old town, an incessant chaos of people and construction work and traffic rages. The further you get into the city centre the denser the traffic becomes and only in the narrow streets of the old town you feel like you have been transported back centuries. The people here are poor, but there are also ultra-modern office buildings. Century old buildings and temple complexes are slowly crumbling apart, holy cows are standing over all of them and from the temple complexes you can hear the songs of the believers again and again. It smells of smoke and past glory, there are beggars and monks, tourist rip-off artists and exchange offices. A strange, strange world.

All around are brick houses with their communal courtyards and elaborately carved shutters. Tourists can live here - just like and with locals. And they do not have to do without modern conveniences. In Kathmandu, people have found a way to preserve their cultural heritage, modernise it and make a living from it.

It is also worthwhile to go shopping here, at least to be amazed. Kathmandu is the capital of fake outdoor clothing, Jack Wolfskin has more outlets here than in all of Europe. Apart from that, a lot of tea is offered, prayer flags and the essential t-shirts. Favorite the model with the "30", which is not 30, but an "Ohmmm" as in "Omm mani Padme humm". Whoever says ohmmm instantly calls 3.3 million gods. But you can also put on a T-shirt as it hangs in the window of a shop. Or you can just order an omelette.

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To be continued... and we go to the open air cremetory and met boys who dive for bones in holy water.

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