Nepal #2
Today wasn’t any less marvelous than yesterday, just different. In the morning we had an early breakfast again and ventured off to Petan and Bakthapur. Petan was awesome. We walked around the square for a while and ventured out into the rest of the city. I stopped at a hemp store and walked up to their organic products. We spoke to the Japanese woman who was running the store; her Nepalese husband walked in and swiftly began talking to us, telling us about his stories in San Francisco, how he met his wife, and what was going on in the store. They’re making it into a bed and breakfast or hotel. I got to see the construction of the upper floors. It will look amazing. They have a great business and great products. My mom and I got a few things. He then showed us a bed and breakfast, already established, down the block that is owned by a friend of his. It was beautiful. I’ll ask my mom for the card, I totally would advocate and say that people should stay there. We walked around to see several Buddhist and Hindu temples. They were gorgeous. The second half of the day was in Bakthapur, which both my parents and I were much less impressed with. It was much, much, much more geared towards tourism; which is pretty hard to do because this whole area is geared like that. However, people ran after you and tried to cajole you into taking them as your guide or to buy their products. Even the kids were more direct than in other areas. They wanted pictures, they wanted it now and were very demanding. A tour guide followed us for quite some time. Everything was shops and marketing. It didn’t have charm. It did allow my parents and I to sit down and enjoy family time in another way. It was awesome beautiful family time.
After we got back, Manoj and I went back, and got lost getting to our new friends. We made up the story that we invented them in our heads last night; they weren’t there, even after we went to get a snack and went back to their store.
Ways Kathmandu (Nepal) is different than Pune/Bombay (India) that I’ve noticed: The dogs are healthier and fluffier; the people look healthier (they have a much more meat based diet); the kids are cheekier (one little kid hit me in the butt while I was standing outside getting a chocolate); there’s less trash in the city but just as much if not more in the river, people are much, much nicer; everyone says Namaste as you walk by (this is in Pokhara, not Kathmandu), it’s more polluted, the driving is a little calmer but the roads are very similar; like India, there is no Nepali face – people can look Nepali but there doesn’t seem to be just one typical face.
The trip to Pokhara was a lot longer than we wanted it to be. After a nice breakfast we took off in a little Toyota. The traffic is better but our driver was the most defensive driver ever; jerking off to the side of the road and slowing down as approaching cars sped towards us. Manoj and I both thought that he would get eaten alive in India. After reaching we went on a long walk and had typical Newari food. It was super yummy. We kept thinking along the way that the pollution would clear – it did and didn’t at the same time. It’s not polluted but there is still no visibility. Unfortunately, we won’t see the Himalaya’s. It’s not the full reason we came, but it’s one of them. This morning, following a later breakfast we took a long short hike. My parents are amazing. I’m not trying to say they’re old, because they don’t look it and they don’t act it, but I’d like to see anyone else their age do the walking they did. They’re taking a whole different atmosphere in really well in fact. I can’t wait to show them India. They did 3 days in Delhi, but I wasn’t with them. I’m worried about the heat. It’s been so nice to walk around, to feel cool at night, and not feel like the hot breeze is going to knock you off your feet. Tomorrow, back to Kathmandu, after, maybe, paragliding!
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