3 Kathmandu – Gateway to the Himalayas

[MPone]

A visit to the Himalayas almost always starts at Kathmandu – the capital city of Nepal. Tucked into a bowl-shaped valley, this gateway city has a population of almost 2 million people and lies dangerously above a fault line and is prone to a major earthquake anytime. Yet this real danger is discarded and it remains as the gateway city for thousands of tourists, hikers, mountaineers, adventurers to the Himalayas.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Loved that, thanks.
Fond memories of a 2012 trip (pre earthquake) and good to see the rebuilding of the old areas / temples is well progressed.
We arrived in the off season to do a 28 day walk (Kanchenjunga) and we almost had the streets to ourselves for many days prior to departing on that trip.
Second stop after that walk, we spent another 4 days exploring, and the streets were getting busier !
We left again for Bhutan, and when we came back again 12 days later, you could hardly walk in the streets it was that crowded.
Thanks for filming the various temples, we visited all of them and was good to see them once again.

 

[mark.pinskey]

A visit to the Himalayas almost always starts at Kathmandu – the capital city of Nepal. Tucked into a bowl-shaped valley, this gateway city has a population of almost 2 million people and lies dangerously above a fault line and is prone to a major earthquake anytime. Yet this real danger is discarded and it remains as the gateway city for thousands of tourists, hikers, mountaineers, adventurers to the Himalayas.

Very well done…..A wonderful overview and perspective. Although I will ask how much was shot by drone vs handheld video….

 

[JimSteadman]

Very nice. Thanks for posting. I really liked the narrative you posted on the video to explain the background and what was displayed.

 

[Gagey52]

Great video, thanks for sharing. The information helped, was that smog or smoke in the background?
Regards

 

[Dale D]

A visit to the Himalayas almost always starts at Kathmandu – the capital city of Nepal. Tucked into a bowl-shaped valley, this gateway city has a population of almost 2 million people and lies dangerously above a fault line and is prone to a major earthquake anytime. Yet this real danger is discarded and it remains as the gateway city for thousands of tourists, hikers, mountaineers, adventurers to the Himalayas.

I enjoyed revisiting Kathmandu, having been there twice. Once, in the year 2000 when I trekked to Everest Base camp and Kalla Patar (18,500 ft), and once after entering Nepal through the Gate of Friendship at the Chinese/Tibetan border. I was saddened by the tremendous destruction from the earthquake that destroyed the pagoda in Durbar Square and was happy to see your film of the scaffolding and reconstruction going on.

I did not realize the density of the city until seeing your drone footage. It is quite packed with buildings only feet from each other.

Generally, I liked the film but found the repetitive scenes of flying over the city with a rapidly speeded up film rate sort of annoying, and quite often repeated. I wound have dwelled a bit longer at each of the famed tourism sites such as Swyambunath, the cremation site4 (I have been there), and others.

Dale
Miami

 

[DaveS]

If I had a "bucket list" Kathmandu would be on it. I certainly looks like they don't have any earthquake building codes given all those buildings on top of each other. Pity. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dale D]

If I had a "bucket list" Kathmandu would be on it. I certainly looks like they don't have any earthquake building codes given all those buildings on top of each other. Pity. Thanks for sharing.

Dave:
Kathmandu was a fascinating visit in 2000. The old town where all of the mountaineers go to get outfitted was fascinating, and wandering around the town was filled with temples, stupas, as seen in the video. Many of these pagodas were a pile of bricks after the earthquake and I was glad to have seen it before that disaster. I took my son-in-law on a 16 day trek with a leader (Sirdar) and 14 other sherpas carrying food, tents, etc. We hiked about 10 hours a day and made camp. Our packs and gear were carried by sherpas and they ran ahead to prepare the camp and tents and meals.We reached 18,500 feet looking at Mt. Everest, then hiked back and flew back into Kathmandu from a dangerous runway at Lukla, short runway on the side of a mountain at 9,000 feet. I could certainly not do that hike today at age 84 but then I was recently retired and 66.

Dale

 

[DaveS]

Dave:
Kathmandu was a fascinating visit in 2000. The old town where all of the mountaineers go to get outfitted was fascinating, and wandering around the town was filled with temples, stupas, as seen in the video. Many of these pagodas were a pile of bricks after the earthquake and I was glad to have seen it before that disaster. I took my son-in-law on a 16 day trek with a leader (Sirdar) and 14 other sherpas carrying food, tents, etc. We hiked about 10 hours a day and made camp. Our packs and gear were carried by sherpas and they ran ahead to prepare the camp and tens and meals.We reached 18,500 feet looking at Mt. Everest, then hiked back and flew back into Kathmandu from a dangerous runway at Lukla, short runway on the side of a mountain at 9,000 feet. I could certainly not do that hike today at age 84 but then I was recently retired and 66.

Dale

Yes, I knew you had been to Everest...amazing. Hey Dale, how you doing on editing video from your latest trip?

 

[Dale D]

Yes, I knew you had been to Everest...amazing. Hey Dale, how you doing on editing video from your latest trip?

Hi Dave S:
Thanks for asking.The Middle East trip was exhausting but fascinating. Today I worked on Abu Dhabi. I have been at this computer since 9 AM and it is now 4 PM and I am going to rest and watch some news. I have been editing every day since my return but I have a ton of material. I was actively shooting from March 9 through April 3rd (24 days trip). I have just completed March 15th. So I am about 1/3rd the way through editing. Then, once I have my assets folder, It will take another week, and I am figuring it will be about a month or two before I can generate the show. It will be about 30 minutes. The folder has about 44 GB of data.

Dale
Miami

 

[waynorth]

the Gate of Friendship at the Chinese/Tibetan border

The friendship bridge at Kodari?
In the early 80's I rented a motorbike in Kathmandu and crossed the border to Tibet there, without a visa. I got a few miles before I was stopped by Chinese police and friendly, but very determined told to get the hell back to Nepal...

From the video I see that Kathmandu has changed immensely since then, it looks like a totally different city. But I like the film, and the text information was a good idea.

 

[Dale D]

The friendship bridge at Kodari?
In the early 80's I rented a motorbike in Kathmandu and crossed the border to Tibet there, without a visa. I got a few miles before I was stopped by Chinese police and friendly, but very determined told to get the hell back to Nepal...

From the video I see that Kathmandu has changed immensely since then, it looks like a totally different city. But I like the film, and the text information was a good idea.

My wife and I were thrilled to get the hell out of Tibet. It was a grim drive daily for a week along the widely spaced villages, and the "hotels" were awful with rock hard beds, bad food, and bumpy roads. When we walked across the Friendship bridge into Nepal, it was a relief. We stayed at the Yak and Yeti Hotel in Kathmandu (love that name).

 

[DaveS]

My wife and I were thrilled to get the hell out of Tibet. It was a grim drive daily for a week along the widely spaced villages, and the "hotels" were awful with rock hard beds, bad food, and bumpy roads. When we walked across the Friendship bridge into Nepal, it was a relief. We stayed at the Yak and Yeti Hotel in Kathmandu (love that name).

Now you know what I do for a living every day...edit, edit, edit. Can't wait to see it Dale. Good Luck.

 

[waynorth]

My wife and I were thrilled to get the hell out of Tibet.

I spent a few weeks alone in Tibet in the 80's, I loved every minute of it! But I was young, adventurous and immortal then

 

[MPone]

Very well done…..A wonderful overview and perspective. Although I will ask how much was shot by drone vs handheld video….

All the aerial footage is by drone. Flown from the rooftop of my hotel in Thamel. Ground footage shot by DJI Poc 2

 

[MPone]

Great video, thanks for sharing. The information helped, was that smog or smoke in the background?
Regards

Kathmandu is very polluted. It’s all of them smog, smoke and dust.

 

[MPone]

I enjoyed revisiting Kathmandu, having been there twice. Once, in the year 2000 when I trekked to Everest Base camp and Kalla Patar (18,500 ft), and once after entering Nepal through the Gate of Friendship at the Chinese/Tibetan border. I was saddened by the tremendous destruction from the earthquake that destroyed the pagoda in Durbar Square and was happy to see your film of the scaffolding and reconstruction going on.

I did not realize the density of the city until seeing your drone footage. It is quite packed with buildings only feet from each other.

Generally, I liked the film but found the repetitive scenes of flying over the city with a rapidly speeded up film rate sort of annoying, and quite often repeated. I wound have dwelled a bit longer at each of the famed tourism sites such as Swyambunath, the cremation site4 (I have been there), and others.

Dale
Miami

This video is just an brief introduction of Kathmandu. I have more unprocessed videos of the places of interest there. I will post it later. Stay tuned. Sadly I couldn’t drone at Swayambunath as it is too close to the airport.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Kathmandu is very polluted. It’s all of them smog, smoke and dust.

Yes, sadly the infrastructure / services can't really cope with modern packaging etc.
Weekly, people would just throw their rubbish onto the street, sweep their shops out into the streets, and collectors would come by to themselves sweep it up and take away in open dump style trucks.

The rivers through town (Bagmati & Bishnumati Rivers) were full of rubbish

No one would drink tap water, well, no one in their right mind that could afford the bottled water, which from what we saw everyone there did, tourists and locals.
Thankfully the products there matched people very low incomes, from memory 1lt bottled water was about AU$0.20c, a roll of toilet paper AU$0.15c . . . and if you drank the local water you'd probably be using a lot of toilet paper !!

I remember our 'hotel' had tepid water once in our perhaps 8 overall nights staying in town, the rest of the time it was very cold, and at anytime, from the rank smell of the water, you would come out smelling worse than you went in !!

Anyway, those are the experiences of travel, and the things you remember like yesterday.
Along with the Nepalese people being some of the kindest you will find.

 

[MPone]

Yes, sadly the infrastructure / services can't really cope with modern packaging etc.
Weekly, people would just throw their rubbish onto the street, sweep their shops out into the streets, and collectors would come by to themselves sweep it up and take away in open dump style trucks.

The rivers through town (Bagmati & Bishnumati Rivers) were full of rubbish

No one would drink tap water, well, no one in their right mind that could afford the bottled water, which from what we saw everyone there did, tourists and locals.
Thankfully the products there matched people very low incomes, from memory 1lt bottled water was about AU$0.20c, a roll of toilet paper AU$0.15c . . . and if you drank the local water you'd probably be using a lot of toilet paper !!

I remember our 'hotel' had tepid water once in our perhaps 8 overall nights staying in town, the rest of the time it was very cold, and at anytime, from the rank smell of the water, you would come out smelling worse than you went in !!

Anyway, those are the experiences of travel, and the things you remember like yesterday.
Along with the Nepalese people being some of the kindest you will find.

Exactly! I wish they have better infrastructures. It is such a beautiful place and they should spend more to improve infrastructures as their main income comes from tourism. And what really swept me off my feet was the filthiness of the rooms at the tea houses, sheets not change (God knows how many people used the same bedding sheets), toilet was probably washed ages ago, no hot water, and no electricity.

 

[rhberg]

Exactly! I wish they have better infrastructures. It is such a beautiful place and they should spend more to improve infrastructures as their main income comes from tourism. And what really swept me off my feet was the filthiness of the rooms at the tea houses, sheets not change (God knows how many people used the same bedding sheets), toilet was probably washed ages ago, no hot water, and no electricity.

The country is too poor to rebuild infrastructure. I hear ya on the state of cleanliness there, and sporadic electric supply (especially in other cities like Pokara). The kindness of the people is a strong draw...

Thank you for this excellent video.