Cars and Kathmandu

We have arrived safely in Kathmandu, Nepal! Before I recap the day’s events from Kathmandu, a couple of notes I took during transit...

The flight from Seoul to Kathmandu was nowhere near as comfortable as the flight from Seattle to Seoul, but it was decent enough. There was less leg room and personal space, no personal screens, I still couldn’t sleep, and it was still too hot. Pah.

Also, I...think...there was a woman who spent several hours in the bathroom. I remembered her entering the bathroom, and then the next time I saw her coming out was quite a bit later. I did notice that her hair was styled differently on the way out than on the way in. I therefore came to the conclusion that she might be a superhero, although a lousy one at best, considering it took her several hours to complete the transformation from mild-mannered woman to mild-mannered woman with a slightly different hairdo.

It also occurred to me when we were flying over the more rural areas of Kathmandu that when I was traveling in Europe, I was never too terribly concerned with getting lost, and that it was part of the fun. Here, I have to admit the prospect of getting lost is a bit more terrifying.

Korea - Kathmandu Photos

Since arriving:

To describe the Nepali people in one word, that word would be ‘aggressive.’ They are aggressive in approaching you to start up conversations / ask for money, and are most aggressive as drivers.

The Nepali people are avid followers of a style of driving known as “nose-in” driving. This basically means that whichever direction you want to go, you just slowly nudge your nose into the...pedestrians, bicycles, oncoming traffic, or what-have-you...and then when you pass through wherever you’re trying to nose your way through, you go about your business. It’s fairly frightening. And it seems that no matter what you do, another person in another vehicle will never hit you. Ever. These people have more and greater knowledge concerning the size of their vehicle than I can ever hope to have about anything.

The electricity is on, but that is only a recent occurrence. Of course, I barely noticed until the sun began to set, and even then, it was fairly relaxing. Our hosts, RR and Chandra Pandey, have some sort of inverter-device that provides us with up to three hours of electricity when the city power is off. Unfortunately, the city power is off for twelve to fourteen hours every day.

Our hosts have a lovely home, and everyone has so far been extremely friendly. The food has been good and plentiful, and I have to say, despite my wretched fatigue, I’m having a wonderful time. I’ll leave you with a slogan I saw on an ad for Kia motors:

“The wait for the most awaited car is over.” Excellent.

I’ve also snagged a LOT of pictures. Please excuse the quality of some, as I took quite a few out the window of our truck when we were stuck in traffic. I’ll just put up two slideshows.

-Carey

First Day in Nepal

p.s. interestingly enough, despite the excellent download times on this internet connection, the upload times aren't as impressive, so it's taking a while to upload photographs. As such, I'll be using a lower quality file when I upload, and unfortunately, it shows. Oh well. You get the gist.