May 2, 2013

HELLO FROM NEPAL!
Wow! I honestly don’t know where to start. I sat next to an English coal miner’s daughter between Brisbane and Singapore (really!!!) who wanted to tell me all about her dying mother – an occupational hazard; eneryone feels a need to tell journos their life story! The flight in was extraordinary (not including the poor Nepalese woman who passed out on her way to the loo, directly in front of my seat (still waiting to make sure she had no contagious disease!). The view of the Himalayas was breathaking, amazing, awe-inspiring. I had the same reaction when I saw the Taj Mahal but this time was with a plane full of people, many of whom were experiencing the same level of awe as me.
Kathmandu is bizarre, No other word for it really. Hot, heavily populated with locals hoping to make a quick buck from “rich” tourists. My hotel room is as basic as a room can get. The shower is quite literally a hole in the wall. There is no air con which is fine as there is very often no power (up to 12 hours a day Nepal “power sheds” which means the switch is flicked and the power is out.) Thankfully my motel has a generator which works some of the time. It kept sputtering and then shutting off last night. I watched as they drained fuel from a motorcycle and fed it in to the generator which duly sputtered back into action for about 20 minutes – making the entire building shake with its noise and vibration as it did so. The toilet flushes only when there is power (truly a mystery to me!), my room clock says it is 4 at all times and there is no bin or even facilities to make tea. Yet a guy in the street yesterday told me the hotel I am staying at is kind of top notch. I seem to have one of the best rooms in the place thanks to a former colleague arranging the room through an old school friend. My room overlooks the courtyard/garden (read carpark) and the residence of the motel owner Kiran and his extended family. It is humbling to see how this family lives. I realised last night that everything I packed in my suitcase and backpack was probably more than most Nepalese own!!!
Cows have right of way on the road on the odd occasion when they do move – except when they stop in the middle of the street which is unfortunate for motorists and pedestrians alike. Strays dogs are a dime a dozen spending hours searching for food but ignoring people. I wanna feed them all.
Buffalo, it turns out, does not taste at all like chicken. More gamey and well, kind of yuck!
More to come. Hopefully some of this will start to make sense soon – or not!