‘… And your strange, bewildering time
Will hold me down…’ – Cat Stevens
We arrive in Katmandu after an overnight flight from Sri Lanka.
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(There are several ways to spell ‘Katmandu’. We go with the one that has the least letters.)
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Like many developing countries, there is often a tangle of wires overhead.
There’s a lot of commerce going on. Mostly souvenirs and trekking equipment.
It’s a long way from the hippy days of the 60s and 70s. Still, we see cute elderly Western couples who look like they may be revisiting the venues of their dope-smoking youth.
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Among the wares are textiles and fabrics of all kinds. Some are even authentic.
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Also available: an army of Buddhas and other aids to elevated consciousness.
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There’s always something going on in the traffic-thronged streets.
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Our first morning: a flight to view the Himalayas is on the cards.
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Notwithstanding the plane engine right in my face, the view is pretty spectacular.
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The flight takes about an hour.
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Some people would know the names of these peaks by heart. I do not. But the cabin crew give details.
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‘ The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi (both written हिमालय), the Himalaya (ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡ་) or ‘The Land of Snow’ (གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་) in Tibetan, the Himāliyah Mountain Range (Urdu: سلسلہ کوہ ہمالیہ) in Urdu and the Ximalaya Mountain Range (Chinese: 喜马拉雅山脉; pinyin: Xǐmǎlāyǎ Shānmài) in Chinese.’ Thanks, Wikipedia
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Surprisingly in this age of anxiety, we are allowed to enter the cockpit one by one for a pilot’s-eye view.
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Sight or Insight of the Day
We stumble across the Garden of Dreams. Another real people place.
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It’s a peaceful oasis of tranquility in the centre of cacophonous Katmandu.
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Another example of how everything’s connected: one of the pavilions has a quote from the ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam‘ engraved in marble.
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A little over a month ago, we visited the tomb of Omar Khayyam in Nishapur, Iran.
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We learn in Iran that Omar is better-known as a scientist than as a poet. Who knew?