Nepal - December 1997
Kathmandu, at that time, had always been a dream of mine to see. My first impression was of awe going over the Himilayas. Upon arrival a the airport, I found a quite small place. Leaving the airport was quite a shock. I was surround by close to 50-60 locals all screaming to take me to their individual hotels. I immedinately turned around, went back into the hotel, selected a place from my guide book and went back out among them. Everyone was still yelling their hotel names, and I began to yell the one I wanted to go too. One guy said his hotel is right there, I can go with him and if I don't like it, I can go elsewhere. I went with him. Once I got to the hotel, I found that most of the hotels were congested in that area, so I guess it wouldn't have mattered where I'd stayed.
My first few says in Kathmandu was quite a rush. I felt I was on a personal high just strolling through this magical city. I explored every niche of the city, and couldn't seem to get enough of it. One of my first experiences was an Indian-looking like lady holding a baby asking me for money. She was dressed really nicely, but since she was begging and had a baby, I gave her whatever little I could. However once I did this, two other very similar women followed me around for the rest of the day. One local Nepali guy said they come up from India, get a little money from tourists, and then they have enough money to live for weeks or months afterward.
At one point I decided I'd go to a Nepali Refugee Camp with a few other backpackers. One of our group was a British guy who brought some techno music. He had a copy and decided he'd give it to the refugees as a way to surprise them with what we were listening too in the West. Once we got to the camp, we met a few young adults hanging out who spoke some good English. They invited us into their homes as well - very friendly. My friend gave them the tape, and they said they already had it on CD. In fact, these refugees had alot of Western TVs, radios, stereos, etc. They said it was because many had families in the West who gave them money and gifts.
Another experience I had in Kathmandu was a tailor who saw a whole in my shoe and wanted to fix it for me. I agreed it was a good idea, so I let him do it. He basically had thread and needle to do the job, so obviously it didn't work well, but I gave him the money anyhow since I figured he could use it. The next day he saw me again and invited me to eat dinner with his family. I was quite happy about this because I'd finally met a local friend. The next day he brought me to his mother's house and began once again to repair my shoes and his mom cooked me rice. The rice was unedible and I didn't trust the water so I declined. After he once again fixed my shoes, he brought out his mom and showed me her eye. Apparently she needed an eye operation. Because of this he asked me if I could give him $25 for fixing my shoes. I didn't need my shoes fixed, and he didn't have anything to really fix them. I think I felt guilty about his mom, plus I didn't know where I was, so I offered him maybe half of that. Afterwards he asked for another $5 for the rice his mom made for me for dinner. I can't remember if I paid that or not, I was pretty disappointed that I was only at ATM machine though. So then I had to get back to familar territory, so I asked him how to find the Monkey Temple. He agreed to lead me, and along the way he dropped by random places to buy coke with me paying for him. I didn't like his friendship at all quite obviously. Eventually at the Monkey Temple, I lost him permantly, told him everything was okay. This was the first time I learned that in poor countries you really can't trust anyone to do anything without expecting money in return from you.
The Monkey Temple was quite cool and overlooked the Kathmandu Valley. The only bad thing about it was it was lined with beggars, and everyone you could imagine at the top of the Temple put their hands out expecting me to fill it with coins and dollars. I couldn't get any peace in Kathmandu.
Once I finally made it back down to the hotels and such, I noticed this constantly. Everyone who'd seen me the last few days had remembered me, and they all wanted to sell me things or bring me places or sell things to me. The odd thing was I met alot of other travelers who came up from India and said how nice and relaxing it was in Nepal, and how no one bothered them here. I was going to go to India after Nepal, but when I heard everyone say this to me, I quickly decided I had no desire whatsoever to go to India.
One morning as I was eating breakfast, the restaurant owner approached me. He told me that since I'm a foreigner I could carry gems and jewelry to whichever city I'm going to go next. He said that immigration would never ask me, so I'd be safe, and if I did this, he'd give me few thousand dollars. He said many travelers funded their travels just by doing that for him. I tried to ignore him the entire time. He pleaded for me to come to his factory so I'd see it was legit, and it wouldn't do any harm. Finally I just agreed to do this with him. We went to his factory and his partner gave me a hardtime because I told him I wasn't really interested I just felt obligated to go because of this guy. His partner asked me if I was scared or something was wrong with me for not wanting to do that. I told him off and walked away. Later, well, years later, I often wondered if that was a scam and they had someone at Immigration who would bust me and bribe me for big money or go to jail. Anyhow, I'll never have any clue. But I am sure it was a scam.
I also found myself yelling at one guy in the street. Just groups of people were always trying to sell things. I got so upset at one guy trying to sell a chess set. Everyone was just too in my face all the time. Eventually I decided that I needed to get out of Kathmandu.
From kathmandu, I took a bus to Pokhara. During this bus right, the Himilayas were kind of cool, but the bus ride was like 15 hours or so. I decided to read a book for awhile. A local Nepali guy started telling me I should be looking out the window because Nepal is such a beautiful place. I said 'okay' and started reading my book again. Actually I had been looking out the window alot, I just got tired of it, so I started reading again. Anyhow, the local guy was drunk and wouldn't stop saying that. Once we got to Pokhara, the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere about a mile outside of town, and local taxi drivers waited for us, and charged nearly as much as the bus ride across country just so we could get into the town.
Pokhara I had alot of the same things. I had a few Nepali women who followed me around trying to sell bags filled of stuff. Nepal was the most capitalistic place I'd ever been. Everyone was trying to sell me stuff. I was getting sick of it. Fortunately in Pokhara, I could do a famous Himilaya hike into Annapurna Base Camp. The trip would be 5-7 days. Whew! Finally I could get away from the locals.
The hiking was the best part of Nepal. This is the only thing I would do again. I would not linger around any of the cities again. Well, I'm glad I did this time, but if I were to go Nepal again someday, I'd spend the entire time in the mountains. I hired my own personal guide for about $4/day as well. He was a young guy with a Chicago Bulls baseball cap which was the envy of all the tour guides. He told me he'd only had a 13-year-education, but since he spoke fluent English, he was able to get a good job. He said he had a nice house, tv, stereo, everything actually. His dream was to go to live in the United States. I was thinking about his life and how he has everything he could possibly want, why would he want to go to the United States? He was asking me how much apartments and jobs and everything else. I was trying to be honest with him and told him a guy without a high school education is going to have a really bad job, live in a really horrible part of the city, and you'll hardly have enough money to pay your rent. I don't think he believed me. He had the impression that if he could just get to the States, he'd have cars, houses, girls (i guess), everything that he thought all Americans had. I thought that he already had a nice house with all kinds of cool stuff, why would you want to go to the USA without a high school education and struggle to get all the same things there? Anyhow, I don't think he ever bought my argument, he just wanted to go there. Okay, fare enough.
The Annapurna Base Camp basically was a few days hike one-way to a base camp where many people slowly hiked to the top of one of the world's largest mountains in the Himilayas. The trek itself was great. Oddly there were inns and hotels everywhere!! Also, along the trails, there were tons of little restaurants where you could buy western foods (not very well made), soft drinks, and snickers candy bars. Sherpas actually carried these items up the mountains to the individual hotels. I actually saw Sherpa Nepalis carrying a couple cases of cokes on their backs for days to get it to some hotel up near the top.
The coolest part of the trek was meeting all the other trekkes. We kind of had a community as we'd agree to meet at certain small towns along the trails. We also planned to stay the night in certain places as well. So often we'd be walking at a certain pace, and either you would overcome one person, or they'd overtake you, and you'd just start talking and walking for a few hours. At one point, one of you decided to resume your previous pace, so you'd suggest you'd meet up later at the next small town along the trail. There was a great community of travelers doing this. Some people were so slow you wouldn't see them again. In general, i was one of the quickest trekkers, probably all those months and months and months in Yellowstone and Grand Canyon. (Over a year constantly trekking during those days). Anyhow, the cool thing is once you made it to the top, you'd start your way down and meet all the same people again! Very fun experience.
After the trek, I went back to Kathmandu. I was anxious to leave Nepal at this point, and decided I'd go out late. Unfortunately everything in Nepal closes at 9pm with just a few places staying open until 10pm. But around 9pm everything just about completely closes down and its kind of eerie. Oddly though, I was able to find a 24-hour casino that was only for foreigners. It was filled with Indians and Israelis. I was the only non-Israli western kind of guy. I brought home a few casino chips that are marked 'Kathmandu'. It was the greastest souvineer I've ever had because it summed up quite well the reality of Kathmandu. I had always thought Nepal would be this non-consumeristic place where no one cares about money, and instead I found the most capitalistic money-hungry people I've ever seen in my life. But apparently I'd never been to India, so apparently I hadn't seen the worst of that.
When I had my bags and all ready to go to the airport, I had the unfortunately experience of obviously looking like I was going to the airport. I had asked my hotel staff what price I should expect, but no one would take me there for anything less than about twice what the price should be. I was carrying everything I had, and trying to find a taxi, and the one guy kept telling everybody what rate he was going to charge me, and not to charge any less. I was pretty powerless to do anything about it, so finally just chose another guy so at least that original guy wouldn't get my money.
Leaving Nepal was a relief. I flew into Hong Kong next, spent a few days readjusting, and then the next day I'd be heading back to Portland Oregon to resume the life I had left behind, or at least that was the plan, right?
Brief Stay in Portland, Oregon
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