You are here: Everest Home >>Khumbu Treks >>Dispatches >>Dispatch

Kathmandu's Famous Thamel District
Kathmandu - Saturday, April 22, 2000

DISPATCHES

Berg

Hear Wally's Call LISTEN: [RealPlayer]  [Windows Media] (Requires a FREE media player to listen)

	Click For Dispatch Photos

Hi Mountain Zone, this is Wally Berg and I am calling you from the roof top of the Hotel Tibet on the morning of April 22. The morning fog is beginning to lift from the valley, really nice pleasant temperature up here. And I think it is time to resume the dispatches that will carry into the second trek to Base Camp, because it is today that most of the group that will be on this trek with me will be getting on their international flights. Some have probably already left. I won't see some of these folks until about two days from now, because it takes a lot of flying to get here, but we are gearing up to be under way again.

I have had a very enjoyable week or so, I've gotten to do something I haven't done in years and that's just spend some time around Kathmandu catching up with old friends, taking it in. I'll probably have a series of dispatches and photos regarding this time to share with you as we go into the next trek. I'll just start by describing Thamel.

For those of you who haven't been here and you talk to friends and you hear about Thamel, Thamel is what you might call the trekking district in the north part of Kathmandu. It's grown up over the last 20 years, the scene moved from the old freak street district down in, what was used back in the 60s and 70s as you might imagine, to Thamel. This is involved with the history of trekking and climbing in Nepal and you hear a lot about it. Thamel grew up based around key businesses that drew people there and it has blossomed since that time. The Kathmandu guest house and K.C's restaurant were probably the definitive places down there that drew people to that area, and in more recent times other places have come along and also defined that. You see people leaving the bigger hotels and going down to Thamel to see the sights. The sights might be Pilgrims book shop or it might certainly be The Rum Doodle bar, where the display of Everest summiters signatures are on the wall, I'll talk more about that later.

I had a nice dinner with an old Tibetan friend of mine named Tseten Norkyel. I was thinking about the history of Thamel and how things have developed because it was in 1989 that Scott Fisher's agent P.B. Thapa took Scott and I down and introduced us to Tseten. He had this new little hotel, guest house in Thamel called the Garuda. Literally new, no one had stayed there to my knowledge at that time, we met Tseten, and we began to use this place.

I stayed there quite a lot in the early 90s with Mountain Madness groups and Outward Bound groups that we were taking to Mera Peak and Amphu Lapcha and places like that. In 1990 we came back from our successful ascent of Lhotse, Tseten asked if Scott and I would put a photograph up and sign on what, at that time, was a blank stairwell that walked up to all of his rooms. There was literally nothing on the wall at that time, and Scott and I put this photo up.

Over the years since then as I stop by the Garuda it has been fun to watch the collection of expedition photographs and memorabilia that have shown up on the walls of the Garuda. And in particular now, in this era, people come by wanting to see and hear about personalities that have been associated with that place. Tseten told me last night in fact, that he has assimilated all of the Mountain Madness, Scott Fisher stuff into one area and he has also left Rob Hall's photograph right where it was always hanging, 'cause Rob would always point at it as he walked by proudly.

These involve memories for Tseten and many of us that are still very much alive and Tseten did recount to me that yes, people will come by from other hotels and walk in and just kind of say "wow, this is the Garuda," and take a few pictures of things on the wall. The Garuda is still very much a center for a lot of climbers from all over the world that have known the place well, it's comfortable, it's a home. Some of the same staff have been there for the 12 years I've known about the place, and in particular, last night Tseten related to me that the news had come in directly from Ed Viesturs that they were returning from Annapurna.

So it's still a center for us, news of friends, what's going on from around the world, climbing this season in Nepal and let's face it, it's a tourist attraction now. So I'm going to go down and get some photographs of these displays today. As I get prepared for the next group I'm going to talk some more about some of the sights of Kathmandu. Certainly the temples and all the long standing marvels of the Kathmandu valley, but you know, I'm aware that much of what people come here to see is involved with the stories and recent history of adventures and climbs that they know about and I'll relate some more of that as the week goes on here.

— Wally Berg, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

Email this story to a friend