Hippies Freaks & Wierdos

Having travelled for several months now I'm starting to get the feel for travelling stereotypes. There is definitely a huge difference in the travellers that a certain place attracts, e.g.

• Italy (and most of Europe for that matter) - under 25s Aussies, Yanks & Canucks on their 3 week /14 city mega tour, never any actual Europeans

• China - Chinese and, bizarrely, French (at least a quarter of all the backpackers I ran into in China were French...China must have really pushed a tourism campaign there...either that or the French really dig pandas).

Of course, there was a striking but not altogether surprising change in the type of traveller encountered upon entering Nepal. They fall into two usually mutually exclusive groups - the uber fit trekking w*anker (more on them later) and the spaced out hippie. There are also lots and lots and LOTS of Israelis who, it was explained to me, come to Nepal after their required stint of military service to 'relax' by climbing Mera Peak or Everest or whatever.

Anyway, the first hippie I met was dear Henry, a 22 year old English art student who had been 'wandering around India' for the past 7 months and had spent the past 3 weeks in Nepal practising tai chi in the garden of Yellow Guest House. Nice enough guy but you could tell he really had no plan other than to go back to Ladakh soon...someday...eventually...maybe...not really sure....

Henry managed to collect a group of like-minded individuals to hang out in the garden every afternoon, playing table tennis and banging a drum in a trance chant fashion and talking about that time they went overland from Cairo through the Middle East into Dharamsala. There were also a few hippie groupies, such as the bright-eyed, blonde-haired American girl with the annoying laugh who looked and sounded really impressed with anyone who could hit a drum with any degree of rhythm. - Ooh particularly if they could accompany a guitar!

So this group (A gaggle of hippies? Commune of hippies?...I'll go with commune) managed to interrupt my afternoon Kathmandu nap on a regular basis with their inane blather and poor musical skills. Naturally I was desperate to let them know they were neither original nor clever in what they were doing but I managed to just steer clear and quietly raise an eyebrow from my book in the garden instead.

Clearly these guys don't just stumble upon this life - it takes time to develop and build the skills necessary to be accepted into the counter-culture of travellers in Nepal and India. So! For those of you thinking of embarking on a career as a wandering hippie type I offer the following advice and recommendations:

Required reading list

Enter any vegetarian cafe in Thamel and you will undoubtedly see at least 4 of the following books being read:

1. The complete works of Paul Coehlo

2. On the Road and Dharma Bums

3. Shantaram - or other monster volume of India-related literature, e.g. Salman Rushdie. Shantaram is particularly popular at the moment, I've picked it up and frankly find it really irritating thus far but will persevere...it took me 3 months to get through Anna Karenina after all.

4. Seven Years in Tibet

5. Life of Pi

6. Tibetan Buddhism for Dummies

7. Ancient instruments of South Asia

8. Sun Tzu's The Art of War

*Ok Ok I did read The Alchemist and Life of Pi in Kathmandu. And liked them. But Jack Kerouac, please - I read that in, like, 1994 man.

Clothing

Nepal is a hippie's clothing paradise! Your choice of natural fiber, rainbow coloured, one-size-fits-all, heavy fabric clothing is on sale in every other shop in Thamel and Pokhara. Some of them look better than others but ultimately they all have the same characteristics - non-colourfast dyes and confusing assembly methods.

As I continue to resist elastic waistbands and 'poo catcher pants' (is it a skirt? No! It's a pair of elastic waistband pants, gathered at the ankle, where the inseam stops at mid-calf!) my only other options are long wrap skirts and something I now understand is known as fisherman pants. These things took me a few goes to work out how to wear without them falling off, and I'm still not convinced I'm wearing them properly. And I'm definitely not convinced they are flattering.

There is a practical element to this clothing, of course, in that it's generally fuller coverage - to minimise staring and other liberties taken by South Asian men with western women who invite that kind of behaviour by wearing skimpy outfits- and it's cheap. However for the life of me I cannot work out why someone would want to wear a heavy cotton shirt on a hot humid summer's day. And can't there just be a plain, subtle colour range for once! I hate mixing my stripes!

Tibetan Culture

Obviously Tibet is also extremely fashionable - so anything you can do to brush up on the subject puts you in good stead with the rest of the travellers.

You already know I'm a fan, of course, and think the DL is a pretty good guy. Thus, despite my (relatively) square manner & appearance, my backpacking street cred increases exponentially when asked where I was before Nepal.

Hippie: Did you fly to Kathmandu?

Sarah: Oh, no I crossed the border by land

Hippie: What, from India?

Sarah: No, I came from the North after 3 weeks in Tibet

Hippie: Wow...[pauses, momentarily speechless with dazed, dreamy look in their eye....wait that's normal]. I'd love to go to Tibet...what was it like?

Sarah: Do NOT get me started on China.

This probably makes sense - combine an eastern religion with a fashionable cause, add a geographic location that takes (a little bit of) effort to get there and you have a counterculture traveller's dream. The Beatles probably would have gone there instead of Rishikesh were it open to Western travellers back in the 60s.

So, given Nepal's proximity to Tibet and the number of Tibetan communities, Kathmandu is a perfect spot for Tibetan-o-philes to congregate.

I must say, however, there is one aspect of Tibetan culture that is incredibly pervasive on the backpacker circuit has me completely baffled - Tibetan Restaurants. Every other restaurant in Thamel and Pokhara is Tibetan and the others all sell at least momos amongst the chopsueyswissrostimexicanburritospastapizzaburgersteakdaalbhat standard menu.

WHY?? I spent 3 weeks eating Tibetan food. It is, by and large, horrible. The variety of ways they come up with to use barley, yak and potatoes is admirable, sure, and I don't mind the odd momo but I'm sure as hell not rushing out to buy one of their cookbooks (they exist! Truly!). The only explanation I can come up with for the prevalence of Tibetan restaurants in Nepal is that it must seem 'cool' and authentic to eat there.

So! Required reading, check. Clothing, check. Tibetan knowledge, check. You're well on your way to hippie status with these simple elements. Other than that - bonus points if you're carrying a sitar!