Durbar square featured on our tv screens in Australia last April 25 when this ancient heritage-listed Royal Centre crumbled to the ground. The earth shook and down came a lot of beautiful ornate structures that had been standing for hundreds of years. Lives were lost. It’s a popular area for both locals and visitors. I expected the worst when I came to visit today but was pleasantly surprised to find most of it still standing in some form. Wooden stays support leaning walls but apparently this is enough. It’s no problem to walk around and through. A guide shows me around. The square is surrounded by multi-story shops and residences that were spared or perhaps more structurally sound to withstand the earthquake.
Adjacent to the square is a bustling, colorful market filling a labarynth of endless crisscrossing streets. It would be easy to get lost here but the urge to just wander aimlessly is powerful. This is outside the tourist area so as a tourist you can feel free to observe and absorb without being hassled. They are not interested in you unless you are interested in them. Photos don’t do justice to the atmosphere you experience here. Hindu shrines color throughout the busy lane ways. This doesn’t compare to the sterility and mindnumbingness of shopping in Australia.
For dinner I visit KCs. It’s a popular resteraunt here in the touristy part of Kathmandu and has been operating since the early 1970s. It’s quiet now because there are few tourists in town. The earthquake and the Indian petrol embargo have kept tourists away. Fuel shortages have led to power sharing throughout the city. Today the power comes on at 7pm. Power cuts makes life even more difficult for traders and tourists. Rapul is my waiter. He’s 22 years old and is working in the stressed tourism industry here for little pay. He sees the only future for him is to follow his two brothers and work abroad in menial jobs in the UAE. They have been able to send money back to his family here in Nepal and he hopes to do the same.
angusmccoll 