October is for exploring...

So... as I mentioned before, October is THE month for holidays/festivals in Nepal. Something else I noticed? October is high season for the tourists. Which means they are everywhere. Having spent the last week going back and forth between Patan and Thamel (not that close of a distance, but when you've got friends either staying there or working there or meeting up for dinner there, it's hard to say no), I'm definitely over the tourists overrunning the city and the country.

It's been a busy time here in KTM for me lately. Work has definitely picked up, which I'm very excited about. It looks like November could be just as busy, but with no holidays. :) Aside from work, I've been having a lot of fun seeing a little more of the KTM valley area.

Yogi, a coworker of mine, took a bunch of us on a great day hike near his hometown of Bhaktapur (you might have heard about this town in the news because of the recently picked Living Goddess). It was a fun, easy hike with great views of the valley and yay - mountain views! It was nice to get outside and hike and not breathe in KTM air. Whenever I leave KTM, I'm always amazed by how noticeable the difference is in the air. KTM is so polluted and everyone's constantly coughing and spitting (ew). You leave KTM and it's like all of a sudden you can breathe easy. It was nice to go with Yogi, though. He's named the hike Hanging Valley, but it's somewhere between Sangaa and Bhaktapur. He's a great guide and I'm trying to convince him to join me on my Mt Everest Base Camp trek in April (as well as you, Seth!). Here's some pics from the hike.

View of the mountains from our snack spot. Look there! In the clouds... those are mountains!


A Nepali woman harvesting.


Rice and the tiered paddies.


Tiered farming.


The valley we hiked through.


I explored Bhaktapur and Bhaktapur Durbar Square a different day with Natalie, Sam, and Luke (3 Australian friends - Nat and Sam are in Hetauda and Luke was visiting them and came for a trek). Now that I've seen all 3 Durbar Squares (Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur), I have to say that Bhaktapur's is very nice. It's really clean and quiet (or at least more quiet). I love Patan Durbar Square just because it's always bustling with people and it's fun to just people watch there. The four of us were undecided on if we should pay the 750 NRS (approx. $10) or sneak in, but then our crazy taxi driver dropped us right in front of the gate and so there was no chance to sneak in. However, I did get a marriage proposal. A guide who wanted us to use him told me I look Nepali (never gets old, does it?) and that I should "make Nepalese marriage". Luke, being the funny guy he is, asked the guy if he meant I should marry him. Thanks, Luke. And the guide said that he would, but he is too poor to offer me anything... implying that if we paid him to be our guide he'd have enough to marry me. Awesome. Sadly, I am unable to "make Nepalese marriage" since I've already got Gordon back home. Obviously, we chose to do without a guide and left my Nepali would-be fiance back at the main gate. :)

Bhaktapur Durbar Square is a great place for photos. Lots of really cool architecture and locals running around doing their thing. Since it's so frequented by tourists (told you... high season, folks), the locals now charge 2 NRS if they see you taking pictures of them. Sam and I discussed the fairness of this and I guess he's right. Would I want randoms taking pictures of me everyday and all day long? I'd probably ask for cash money, too, if people wanted to take pictures of me all the time while I'm just trying to work or something. Or... you can take photos of people while they aren't paying attention, which is what I chose to do because I don't want them to pose or smile at me. So here's some photos of Bhaktapur Durbar Square.

A woman organizing her pottery to sell.


View of Taumadhi Tole with the tallest temple in Nepal - Nyatapola Temple (left).


I think this might be the Siddhi Laxmi Temple with statues of animals along the steps.


A building along Bhaktapur Durbar Square.


A cool statue outside of the National Art Gallery.


Pottery in Potter's Square - these are actually piggy banks.


Women in Potter's Square.


Enjoy... next post will be about Tihar or 3 days of lights and fireworks. :)

My Night as an American (13/09/08)

So last night was my roommate Libby’s last night in Nepal. I really like Libby and will definitely miss her in the house. Last night was almost my second experience in Thamel. Still crazy (if not crazier than the last time I went) and still crowded with foreigners, street kids, and aggressive shopkeepers who think a “Hello American!” is enough to get you to buy things from them.

We ate at Or2K for dinner with my classmate and only other Heller person in Nepal Elle. Or2K (I have no clue as to what the name is for or means) is a popular Israeli restaurant with the local foreigner crowd. The place is very hippie with low tables and floor pillows and cushions to sit on. You’re always bound to see at least 3 people with dreads, 1 Che shirt, 1 Bob Marley shirt, and the other person is probably wearing something light and flow-y in linen. The food’s good and at least gives me a place to get pretty good hummus and pita, baba ganoush, and falafel.

After dinner, the three of us went to Tomaz to meet up with the other roomies, Tom (the neighbor), and some other friends. Tomaz. How to describe this place. It’s got a South Beach-y feel with neon, long billowy bright white curtains, dim (I mean, DIM) lighting, and loud music playing (anything from Fergie to techno/house and we even heard The Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”… yup, anything.). So with the South Beach-y feel, throw in some random Hindu religious art and sculpture, some jewel tone interiors, and you’ve got a pseudo-swanky bar for the young hipster Nepali crowd to mix with the foreigners that are bound to find their way there.

What did we find out? Their long island iced teas are strong, their other drinks taste like a juice box, and they don’t understand the concept of straight liquor shots. They have shooters (kamikaze and other girly like shots), but ask for Smirnoff Red vodka shots and they bring it to you in big tumbler glasses and ask you if you want ice. Also, when you order a drink, say you order the long island iced tea… they say, “how many?” Not “how many” like how many does your party want… but how many do you think you can hold right now at this very second. Our waiter didn’t really quite understand that we only wanted one drink at a time. Then again he asked me a couple of times why I don’t want to order snacks (though other people in the party did).

And then the impromptu dancing started. So there’s a new minister in power in KTM who has decided that places need to shut down at 10. So this includes the shower bars (actual bars where showers set up and girls dressed in bikinis dance around… though not always IN the shower. Obviously these places are also fronts for prostitution rings – keep in mind, I’ve only heard about shower bars from locals and other westerners and never want to experience them for myself), bars, dance clubs, and regular restaurants. So we decided that Tomaz needed a dance floor… as we proceeded to dance in the little space by the DJ.

So there’s like what, 7 girls? Plus Tom. Of course some random guy from Oregon who just finished law school and is on his last hurrah until joining the wonderously boring and long hour days and weeks at the public defender’s office would join us. Weird. Luckily, maybe he got the hint from Libby and me… or it could have been the constant elbow in the side from Tom, but the random guy from Oregon left without a word.

Anyway, this morning, Libby, Tom and I ate breakfast overlooking Patan Durbar Square (very cool, quiet, and not like the rest of KTM). And then Libby left this afternoon for Dhaka. :( I spent the rest of the day moving into her room… there’s always turnover at Sushil Villa they say. Still it’s kind of sad. It was great hanging out with Libby and finding out we’re alike in some ways. Wonder how much Dhaka flights are? I’ve never been to Bangladesh.

The Love/Hate Relationship Begins…

So I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Thamel, but if you’ve ever or will ever go backpacking, trekking, or climbing in Nepal, you’ll most likely end up in Thamel. It’s a small section of Kathmandu where the foreigners outnumber the locals. It’s very westernized with it’s Zara, Mac store, cute coffeeshops, and cheap outdoor gear shops. It’s the place you go to buy everything and anything you left at home from nalgenes (I forgot mine) to down sleeping bags. It’s also probably the highest hippie capital (in more ways than one) as well. So there’s a lot of dreadlocked, dirty hippie people (not that I judge) all running around in their Birkenstocks and linen tunics.
Okay, so that might be the hate part… well at least part of it. I’ll get to more of that later. I went into Thamel with my Cali roommate and her colleague/friend. I thought I should probably get it over with now so I can know where to go later on when no one’s around to show me. So we took a taxi to get out there because it’s pretty freakin’ far away and then as soon as you’re out of the taxi, you’re immediately hit with the sound of honking of taxis, motorbikes, and rickshaws. Throw into the mix, the constant calling of “Hello!” from all the Nepali sellers trying to make a rupee (or a thousand) off of the nearest westerner. Shoot… I meant to get to the love part of the relationship and I’ve immediately slipped back into the hate part.
The love part, here goes. I like Thamel because it’s the place I know I’ll probably go if I feel like I’m missing the states. As I said before, foreigners are a mainstay in this section of Kat. That means that things that foreigners like are available in Thamel. They have gifts and souvenirs, bars and restaurants and dance clubs and prostitutes. My roommate likened it to Bangkok, which I am not really interested in visiting. My roommate, her friend and I stopped at this café with its sleek leather chairs and western food and people watched as different foreigners and westernized Nepalis alike sat and chatted in their cute, trendy clothes. It’s nice to just sit and absorb the western-ness.
Plus, where there are tourists, there are touristy shops. So Joy, I’ve scoped out the place for magnets and know where to find them when I’m about to come home. I’ve already figured out a lot of the gifts I’ll be bringing home and by the time I leave, hopefully (big hopefully) I’ll know enough Nepali to bargain well.  I bought a few things for myself… I can’t help it and it will be a long 7 months. So I bought a warm hat (a little early, but it’s getting a little cooler in the evenings), a new bag for when I need to carry more stuff around town, a map of Nepal so I can orient myself, and season 1 of Mad Men (because I’ve heard a lot of good things about the series). So now I know where I can at least marginally keep up with American movies and television.
A little more on the bad part of Thamel (just a little). Another common occurrence in Thamel is seeing the street kids sniffing glue. I saw it a few times and was stunned. So the street kids asking for money from the tourists, I’m a little wary that that money isn’t going towards food, but towards more glue.