When I told people I was headed to Kathmandu in Nepal, people often have strange reactions. Unwittingly, they heave a soft sigh, their eyes go all misty, and I had to physically stop others from getting down into a Lotus pose and Om-ing away. Thoughts of serenity, pristine greenery, a place where one can forget the world and find one’s inner soul are all associations that the western world has been wrongfully inculcated with when it comes to Nepal.
And here I was. In Kathmandu, land of the mystical, where Mt Everest’s might weighs her enormity onto the shadows of Kathmandu Valley, where tibetan buddihism meets hinduism and animism lives strong. Excited? Filled with trepidation?? I think this entry will read like a Brandt guidebook rather than the usual Insight guide.
Nothing prepared me for the suffocating smell of diesel oil, black fumes billowing into your face; the squalor and filth present in every nook and cranny. Rubbish lines the streets and the air is a mixture of smoky incense, dried sweat, fried sweets and desperation. While there are many developing countries that are poor, there is often a sense of hope. Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia are all examples.
Overcrowded Thamel: the tourist district…this is as good as it gets
People, traffic and cars, all as one. Not quite zen.
Nepal is desperately poor, with more than 50% of its population living on less than a dollar a day. Cramped houses line the streets, the architecture of the city is random, ugly and bricked up. Corbusier would have been happy, since the height of architecture here is the massive rectangular building - i doubt the proportions are golden in nature and the open-faced red brick is hardly what i call attractive. Hanging power cables that writh their way across any open window and rooftopare not aesthetically pleasing but ah well…
Religion is the backdoor to life here. Messy buildings while stupas reside in whatever random corner.
With the recent political strife and drop in tourist dollars, the city has not had the money to reinvest in better roads, nicer buildings and street cleaning is something that nobody has heard of certainly. Electricity cutoffs were common, cellphone coverage spotty and I even spotted a couple of 56K internet offerings. International aid agencies abound. The U.N, WHO, Unifem and dozens of other aid agencies had flashy white vans that delivered aid, medication, books and what-have-you-nots to the people. So much aid, and yet, so much poverty.
Protests were held daily all across Nepal by differing factions.
Driving on the streets of Kathmandu requires a certain skill. Dodging oncoming vehicles in a broken one-lane street sucks, but dodging motorcyles, rickshaws, bicyles, humans and the occasional roaming cow makes navigation all the harder. The most common sight, the 800cc Suzuki car is a preferred mode of transport just given its ability to squeeze into pedestrain-only streets. Within minutes of arrival, i had grown to hate the consistent and indiscrimminate honking of vehicles. This is how it goes: One guy will get impatient and honks his vehicle, others behind him will wonder what is holding up the queue and if someone is honking, they will get queasy if their finger was not on the honk too. And so…the whole street honks, but by which time, whatever obstruction had already gone away anyways. Honking is also used for other purposes, such as saying Hello, sexy ladies, or Move out of the way you Mofo cos i am speeding down this ped-only street! After a while, I wasn’t quite sure what the honking met but i recommend earplugs, because honking starts at 7am, and doesnt stop till 10pm or so. It is definitely worst than roosters crowing.
Talk about gridlocked. Man, rickshaw vs suzukis and motorcycles.
So, what do I make of it all? Kathmandu has awaken a feeling that I wasn’t expecting on this trip. One of confusion. I don’t know if I like this place at all. I am not sure if I like the people, whom in their sadness and deprived state have grown dependent on interntional aid dollars and thus feel entitled or that the ugliness of the city is about the best thing that covers up the darkness of its inhabitants souls.
Oh Kathmandu. Elusive you are not, pretty you certainly aren’t. But quite an experience nonetheless.
