Nepal

Nepal 15: Yanti

Daniel 15 Comments

I am awoken at 5:30 a.m. by the sound of jackhammering outside.

I groan, and go back to sleep.

The jackhammer people aren’t concerned. They wake me up at 6:30, 7:30, and 8:30, until, finally, I accept that I just won’t be sleeping any more.

It’s day 2 in Kathmandu, and my room is still just as lonely. The first thing I see when I open my eyes is the second twin bed, empty. According to the reservation I put in online, today should be my last day at the Annapurna Guesthouse. Seeing as the front desk staff hasn’t even asked about money yet, I don’t think they’ll mind if I stay a little longer. After all, I’ve been in Thamel for a day, and I already realize the rate I am paying is absurdly high. That could be part of why I seem to be the only guest here.

I should move to a hostel today, I think to myself as I take a shower. The water heater is working today, thankfully. I spend a long time in the shower, trying to quiet my thoughts and figure out a plan for the day.

I don’t plan anything, and eventually just get dressed and walk out the door.

Momentum is the only thing keeping me going right now.

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Nepal 13: Earthquake Aftermath

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Nepal after earthquake

As I walked around Thamel, I noticed there was a lot of rubble lying in the streets. In places, large sections of the city seemed to be missing. The flow of people adapted to these oddities by simply detouring elsewhere.

The rubble was the result of the 2015 earthquake, which had devastated Nepal a little under a year ago.

From the U.S., I remembered a flood of news coverage and charitable donation campaigns. The way I remembered it, hundreds of millions of dollars had been donated for disaster relief, as well as innumerable hours and personas from many international NGOs. And yet, here I was, a year later, in the capital city of Nepal, and people were still living in tents.

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Nepal 12: The Drug Dealers of Thamel

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Kathmandu Nepal Street Photogrpahy

I told the agent thanks, and I’d think on it. I folded up the piece of paper with his budget calculations on it, and stuffed it in the back pocket of my slacks. We shook hands and he must have committed my face to memory, because for the next week, every time I passed his office, he would call out to me and ask about my plans.

But today, we simply said goodbye. I left his office, and headed for the main streets of Thamel.

The sensory overload was immediate, and total.

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Nepal 11: Fixations

Daniel 16 Comments
Mount Everest Base Camp Trek

As I entered the lobby of the Annapurna Guesthouse, the owner greeted me warmly. He asked about my travel and how I liked my room.

“Load shedding right now,” he said, pointing at the lights. “No power.”

I nodded, dumbly. That explained the cold shower and nonfunctional TV.

“We have generator though,” he said. “No interruption.”

I could have asked him why the power was down if his generator ensured no interruption, but I really didn’t care. A few months ago, when I was working midnight shifts for my company back in the U.S., reliable power and wifi would have been my paramount priority. Now, I had a different job, one I could work on any schedule I chose. But to be honest, I didn’t much feel like working at all in Nepal.

Why should I care if the power went out, now and then?

Isn’t that why I was here, halfway across the world: to disconnect, to see something new?

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