Day 67, 68, 69

I've been in Kathmandu for a week now. I've been hanging out with R. He's a cool guy, and we share a similar approach to the world and to travelling which makes spending time together east. We spend a lot of time chatting about current events and the world political scene. Good times.

So, Kathmandu:

A lot of my time here has been spent organizing for the next few months. Procuring an Indian visa took four days, while shopping for some supplies filled up a fifth day. But Kathmandu is a good city for that sort of thing. The city was, at one point, the ultimate hippie destination. The hippies have all since departed (most of 'em anyways... one still finds the occasional zoned-out graybeard walking a dog around Thamel...), but the city is still a "hang out" city Food and lodgings are cheaper here than anywhere else, and the souvenirs are pretty cheap too. The mood on the street is not one that encourages the tourist to get out and see some VERY IMPORTANT SIGHT, but rather one that encourages chilling out.

The touts touts and hawkers here are a tad obnoxious however. Particularly the "shady" drug pushers. But they can be funny, too. When I turned down one guy who offered hash, heroin and cocaine he gave me a determined look before suggesting I buy some crack.

Who comes to Kathmandu to buy crack?

The streets are wonderful here. The whole city is a bit of a maze of alleyways and bazaars. Maps are rather useless. The dirty streets twist and turn, while the low rise brick buildings on either side seem to lean in towards each other, blocking out the sun. The roads themselves are a wonderfully congested mess of pedestrians, bicycle rickshaws and a few motorcycles. The usual street vendors conduct business at all hours, and all over the city are small mandalas and temples, both of the Hindu and Buddhist type.

And the sounds... oh... the car horns... the honking of the car horns.... it's an endless cacophony. But it's not just cars... the rickshaw drivers are constantly ringing bells or their own homemade horns (something about a plastic bottle). Everyone is constantly making some sort of "get out of the way" type sound. It's a noisy city!

...

With my whole Tibetan group I visited Katmandu's famous Monkey Temple. Not much to report - it's a vaguely Tibetan style temple. With monkeys. Sort of neat. Later, with N, I visited Katmandu's Durbar Square, a central area containing many small temples and things of that sort. Sort of neat, also, but sort of incomprehensible.

I think it's time I moved on to investigating a new religion. Maybe Scientology?

What else? Lots of wandering with R. Lots of walking and talking. I find that sort of thing delightful. The two of us managed to sample lots of cheap street food while walking. I dig that, also. Today we spent an hour or so at a sheesha bar, smoking, talking and eating.

This reminds me: R spent time in Cairo studying Arabic. Sheesha became a great past time of his. And my great pastime from MY time overseas? Eating Korean dol-sot bimbmbap. There's a fine Korean restaurant in this town, and I've visited three times already.

Daily updates again soon. I hope.