Voluntarily stuck in Kathmandu

I’ve been in Nepal's capital for almost two weeks, which has flown by at an incredible rate. A lot of long-term travelers talk about the importance of taking a vacation from your vacation, and Kathmandu has definitely served as mine.

Due to the ongoing political situation with the Maoist Rebels, few people come to Nepal for safety reasons, and the tourist industry in the Thamel district (the regional tourist Mecca) has been hit really hard over the last ten years as a result. Fortunately, in the last six months the situation has calmed down quite a bit because the Maoists have been recognized as a legitimate political party in the country. The Maoists still cause some serious trouble in villages on the far east and west sides of Nepal, but aren’t a threat in major cities and tourist areas. Walking around the city, I've accidentally stumbled upon some non-violent Maoist demonstrations a couple of times, from which I've stayed well away. Although all reports I've read say that the Maoists — especially those in big cities — aren't using violence as a part of their demonstrations, it's best to just steer clear whenever possible.

Despite the situation being the most stable it has been in ten years, the Maoist revolt is still labeled as a civil war, and has kept many travelers from coming to Nepal. This has been great for everyone that is here: the place is basically paradise, and is super-cheap because they're desperate for business. The city has a remarkably established tourist infrastructure, mostly brought about in the 60s, which has been a fantastic change of pace from Tibet. Where Lhasa had a handful of tourist hotels and a few restaurants catering to the tastes of Westerners, Kathmandu has hundreds upon hundreds within a ten block area.

I'm living like a king here. I sleep as late as I want each morning then watch a little bit of CNN on my room's satellite TV before heading downstairs to grab a glass of fresh squeezed juice at a stand ten feet from my hotel. After some city exploring and a hearty lunch, I come back to the Thamel for some time on the Internet. Then I meet up with my friends Rob and Lauren (from the Mt. Everest trip) every night for a great dinner and beers. The service standards are really high here as well — waiters are often as good as they are in the US, and the guys at my hotel treat me like I'm staying at the Ritz (okay, maybe more like the Holiday Inn). The best part is that I'm only spending around $15 per day for all of this — a seriously pleasant way to spend a couple of weeks.



The Thamel area may be a delight for tourists, but it does have a dark side. When we arrived we met Sushil, a 16-year-old kid who moved to Kathmandu six months ago from a small rural town in order to attend acting school. When he's not in class, he works in the Thamel trying to earn commissions by bringing tourists into trekking shops and tour operators. He's a remarkably smart kid (he's picked up English in less than six months without a teacher), and Lauren has taken it upon herself to take him under her wing. By getting to know Sushil, we've quickly realized that life in the Thamel for locals is a whole different world than it is for tourists. I was walking with him the other day and he got dragged into an alley by an older guy and was threatened for money. Last night at dinner, Lauren forced him to come clean about the bruises which recently appeared around his neck. Apparently, the man who had allowed him to temporarily sleep on the floor until he found a place came home drunk and on drugs and strangled Sushil with his own necklace. The guy wanted money because he saw Sushil walking around with us foreigners so much during the day, and the man knew we had to have given him some money. Luckily, Sushil got out of there alive and was able to move into a new apartment yesterday in a different area. Despite all he's been through, Sushil is remarkably positive about his life and talks about how the drugged-out guys have no future and no hope, and as long as he keeps learning and shooting for his acting goals, he'll be successful. Here he is with Lauren eating the traditional Nepali spread, which you eat with your hands:



Although I've done a ton of hanging out and relaxing, I've also done my fair share of cultural stuff too. First off, you can't walk two minutes in the city without tripping over a 500-year-old temple — it's really incredible. I did seek out some culture as well: one of my favorites was a visit to the Buddhist temple which everybody calls the "Monkey Temple" because of its large number of primate inhabitants. These aren't the cute monkeys that swing around at the zoo either — they're the creepy monkeys that freak everybody out.



Lack of cuteness aside, it was fun to see a bunch of crazy monkeys jumping and running around, often scurrying from the locals who get great joy out of throwing stuff at them. The temple itself was really cool and felt much different than the Tibetan monasteries that I visited previously on the trip.



A few days ago the city celebrated Indra Jatra, one of Nepal's many festivals. The several-day event revolves around the Kumari, a young girl considered to be a living goddess. In reality, she is selected in a process similar to that of the Dalai Lama — based largely on physical similarities to the previous Kumari and whether or not the little girl recognizes her predecessor's personal possessions. The final candidates get placed inside a dark room full of men in frightening masks and see which girl gets scared the least, who becomes honored as the Kumari, a living goddess.

The festival itself kicks off in Kathmandu's Durbar Square, the cultural center of the city. Thousands of people turned up and waited for the Kumari to come out of her house, where she climbs into a big chariot and gets carried toward the parliament building, where the king greets her before she goes on a whirlwind tour through the city. The initial ceremony was a little bit dry — standing and waiting for three hours to see a little girl get carried around is not terribly exciting. I did have fun seeing huge masses of women dressed in colorful saris all over the square along with a couple of super-stoned dreadlocked dudes (I forgot their proper name, so I’m going with "dudes"):



For me, the best part was seeing the procession weave through the city streets, which I stumbled upon by accident the night after the opening ceremony. The drumming, chanting, and festivities were exponentially more intense than the formal ceremony the day prior. Here's a video of the elephant Ganesh on his way through the street a few minutes before the Kumari came by in her chariot.

(video coming eventually...)

Other than hanging out and going to the festival, I've spent a fair amount of time at the Indian Embassy trying to get a visa to get into the country. The process is remarkably difficult and has taken me a total of five trips to the embassy, which luckily is only a 20 minute walk from the Thamel. The waiting area at the visa office is a bit like cantina from Star Wars (photo here in case you’re not a nerd). One guy was talking to himself and occasionally yelled at everybody else in line about "how much they love to see everyone suffer." There is also some unspoken rule that if you're planning to go to India, you must have given up on bathing sometime back in the last century. I'm not known for my hygiene, but I looked pristinely clean compared to everyone else. I finally got my visa a few minutes ago, which set me back a whopping $70, seven days of trying, and about 15 hours of waiting in an elaborate series of poorly-organized lines.

Considering how difficult it is to get into either of the two countries that border Nepal — China-occupied Tibet to the north and India to the south — I'm amazed anybody actually leaves the country. In that regard, Nepal is kind of like a room that has doors that only open to the inside; easy to get in, hard to leave. Considering the current tourist industry struggles, I doubt that'll change any time soon.

I'm planning to convince myself to leave the easy-going luxury of Kathmandu soon and keep on trucking. I have all the necessary trekking permits for the Annapurna Conservation Area where I'll spend a week trekking and a few days whitewater rafting before I head off to India through Nepal's Chitwan National Park on the border.