Arrived in Nepal yesterday afternoon.. had a bit of a freak out when i collected my bag as i could not find anyone from projects abroad to pick me up. so i walk outside and across the street is this huge crowd of people waving all sorts of signs. was totally bewildered and then a couple of men were like "taxi taxi" and i said no "projects abroad" so then they went round yelling it out and next thing there is a man from the hotel i am staying at bustling me into a run down van. we went "sight-seeing" his excuse for going to the main traffic depot to pick up his drivers licence. Comforting thought. He looked too cool with his imitation Ray Bans.
I arrive by plane, step down the long stairway and hop on a crowded airport bus and driven 40 metres to the terminal (Ktm airport's only form of safety, really...customs doesn't really exist-in comparison to bangkok at least)
Today myself and Eri (a girl from Japan with minimal english) caught a rickshaw into the depths of Ktm from the main tourist circuit Thamel. The aim was to buy a watch, and Eri wanted to see a little bit more of Ktm. "Namaste, I want to buy a watch," "400 rupees" "ohh no" i found everything was too expensive-the student in me could not shake the fact that 400 rupees did not mean $400. And so the journey continued. Further and further we bumped, and biked, getting stuck in potholes, near-colliding with taxis, and once stopping to fuss over the fact we were almost biking over a lazy dog's tail. We were soon in an area where no tourist seemed to venture, and our faith was placed in the rickshaw driver (misguided faith as he scammed us out of 150 rupees, with smiles and "no problems"). He became quite tricky with his bartering methods, undertaking all his sneaky capabilities to get a good deal for me and my fantasy watch. This being, we stopped on the side of a busy road and he whispered "stay there", sneaking over to a stall with glittering watches and running back "oh no! too expensive!"...perhaps if the stall holder did not see us he would charge less? Not the case it seemed. Down another street, around people cooking, piles of spice, peeled mandarins, dogs, children sniffing glue and a crazy amount of different smells, and we come across another stall. For this, we did not even get out of the rickshaw, instead lean out and point at the cheapest-looking watch possible. I said 90 rupees, the man said "no", i said 95 rupees? "NO". 100 rupees? "Yes ok" and now my terribly cheap plastic watch tells me the time. I think Eri enjoyed the ride, she couldn't really put her feelings into words!
People like the sound of English words. In the hotel restaurant, I told the man serving my lunch it was "delicious" as he walked away, I heard him repeating the word "delicious, deliciouss, delicioussss" until a whispered hissing marked his leaving the room.
The rickshaw man caught on to my repetition of the word "yes" and he soon biked about, dodging taxis, pumping the air with his fist and shouting "yes! YYyyes! yyyeesss!".
Final notes and Initial impressions:
the hotel i am staying at is nice, the food is safe and yummy. i spent all yesterday arvo sleeping, and slept all last night-i went to sleep to the sound of blaring hindi music. was SO exhausted. spent the night at bangkok airport ok. curled up on a couch all night and managed to sleep fitfully. had fun buying food/ drink with thai baht.
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