kathmandu for beginners

After MUCH deliberation, we finally decided to make the trip over to Nepal. It was so close, we could almost touch it and so the risk of going at a somewhat turbulent time faded away in light of how incredible the idea of Nepal sounded. To make a long, drawn out conflict seem incredibly simple, the problem in Nepal right now is that Maoist activists have been calling state-wide strikes in order to pressure the new government into installing a Maoist leader as the head of the military. Otherwise known as a bandh, the strikes literally shut down all the stores, keep cars off the streets, and butcher any tourists hope of keeping a schedule. We booked our tickets to Nepal thinking that by the time we got there, the whole situation would have blown over - it didn't.

The day before we arrived there was a bandh that had the Youth Communist League rolling burning tires through the streets and beating up drivers and shop owners that failed to comply with their demonstration.

Well it is a good thing that the media does blow things out of proportion! We decided to go anyways and were totally blown away by how calm the vibes of Kathmandu were. What we realized pretty immediately was that strikes are just a very normal part of Nepali culture and politics. It's hard to understand that things are pretty much safe because they ask passengers to get off the bus before the burn it.

For a country that has been so fraught with violence and political turmoil, the country has a ton of tourist ghettos. The first night in Kathmandu, the taxi drivers nearly insisted that we stay in the tourist district of Thamel. Where he would be sure to get a commission and where everything is five times the price. During the low-tourist season this tourist ghetto is especially eerie because there are an overwhelming number of tour operators and curio shops, but hardly any tourists.

One of the biggest differences between my experience in Nepal and India is that while the Nepalis are absolutely welcoming and gracious - they do NOT stare at you. That must have something to do with the population difference. There are just so many people in India that the concept of privacy is very, very different. Staring or taking pictures without someone's permission is obviously not taboo in a country where people wash themselves in the street.



But there are similar tourist traps. On our first night, we were approached by a mother and her two daughters, who at first seemed like they really just wanted to practice their English. But then they started inviting us to their house. We agreed to go to their house in the morning...

So we go their house (a short walk from the city center brought us to the more outer-district of Kathmandu. Their house was incredible. It was made out of just metal sheets posted together. I can't even imagine how it stands up during the monsoon!! We had just gone to hang out, but they were all about impressing up. After the ritual cup of chai, they made sure to let us know that they had converted to Christianity and invited us to pray with them. Or sing with them really for about five minutes! It was so surreal to see these people so sincerely feeling Jesus in a land where I have really only seen Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. They explained that they converted after they left their alcoholic father and a Christian church in Kathmandu took them under their wing.

Don't get me wrong, these people were not malicious at all. We were having a great time until we started walking around town and the kids started asking us to buy them things with an urgency that made us think they had ulterior motives. We left them pretty abruptly after we started to get uncomfortable. I feel pretty bad about it, actually. Inviting us into their home was so generous of them and I really wish that we had been able to leave with the impression that people could just be that nice with no strings attached. But that is so rarely the case, even in my own world.