My week of doing nothing in Kathmandu

And I mean...nothing.

Nada.

After our first night in Kathmandu, in which we walked around overstimulated by the freedom of information around us, I reckoned a good couple of days of doing nothing were in order. The gardens of the hostel were perfect for sitting around having a chat and drinking masala chai for hours on end. The Thamel region has a bookstore every other shop - as if they knew we were coming and that we had been deprived of any kind of sensible English language publication for 2 months! Photos of the Dalai Lama and Free Tibet references are plastered every where. As we walked around our first day I kept dragging Heather into stores

Looooooook ...peanut butter!

Wait...looooooook...postcards where the photo is not only of something relevant, but in focus!

My eyes must have been as big as saucers as we wondered the streets in amazement, petting book titles and English language DVD titles.

The first order of the day was internet - and our first view of facebook and other banned sites in 8 weeks. Heather forgot how to log in and upload photos. I kept forgetting it was possible to access that website. All throughout the day I really did have the feeling that I was hyperventilating. We were reveling in the sensation that we were back in the real world.

Since then I have been spreading my cafe business around the area (as I locate the best free wifi), doing the odd bit of shopping in which I attempt to figure out just how hippie clothing is supposed to be worn (they are all one size and have confusing assembly methods), and reading books that are banned in China (7 years in Tibet!)

My Belgian friends - the ones I first met in Yunnan province in China and who are staying in Kathmandu for a bit - suggested that, should I ever actually leave Thamel, I might need a guide and a porter to walk further than the 4 block radius that I have so far covered.

It's just that, after 2 months in China I need some sense of normalcy, and the hostel in which I have my own room (with a shelf and a desk) and a beautiful garden with fantastic food is so homey that I have no inclination to do anything of a touristy nature just yet. No need to fear me staying here indefinitely (as would appear some of the travellers do, judging by the looks of them) but just at the moment I don't wanna move.

Now Kathmandu is by no means paradise.

There are regular blackouts (actually regular - set-your-watch-by-them 6:30pm the lights go out for 3 hours, get out the candles type of stuff), wifi isn't as prevalent as I assumed it would be for backpacker central, squat toilets are still around, and I have that predictable New Country Digestive Adjustment Disorder.

You can't walk 2 steps down the street in Thamel without being offered tiger balm / trekking guidance / pashmina / weed / rickshaw / taxi (I'm fairly certain their greetings of namaste are not actually honouring the goddess within me). In the process of saying namastenothankyou to these kind extensions of Nepali hospitality you're practically run over by a motorcycle/rickshaw/taxi heading whichever way they choose down what should be a pedestrian-only street (I'm told that technically you drive on the left side of the road in Nepal but it would appear to be 50% left / 50% right). Traffic obstacles are still resolved with a firm, extended honk of the horn, to which I anticipate being immune on my return to the Western world.

On a more serious note the place is in political chaos thanks to the constant disruption from the Maoist political party - whose most serious infractions towards tourists tend to be the suggestion that perhaps they might like to donate to their cause along trekking trails, but to the rest of the country they keep the NGOs and diplomats on their toes - and the presence of 26 other political parties who naturally all get along and execute policy making as you would expect grown ups to do. There are regular reports in the (English language! Non-propaganda!) daily newspaper about extortionate prices of rice leading to concerns about starvation in some regions of the country.

And then there's the goat problem...