Bridging Worlds Volunteer Journals

Sharon Leisk Online Journal
Sharon Leisk Australia Tewa - Kathmandu, Nepal

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Kathmandu - Day 4

Starting to get the hang of this. Didnt wake up till 6 today. Lolled around till 8 and decided to try the place directly across the road for brekky. Was sitting there looking around and would you believe I notice that the providers for broadband wireless access are right next to me. Shows how much there is to take in, I've been right next to them and didnt even see it. Theres dozens of dishes up on the roof .. Doh .. guess who I'm going to see on Monday ?? In the meantime, I finished brekky and thought I would go for a bit of a wander around the corner. 2 hours later I have done this huge circle and found all sorts of interesting things. ( A rough calculation from my map worked out at about 6k's .. Shock, horror, if I keep this up I might end up fit ! ) Ended up in Patan Durbar Square which is thousands of years old (17th & 18th century). There where too many tourists there today and I didnt have any water or much money with me, so had a quick glance around and will come back another day for a better look. On the way back, stopped at another net cafe and finally found one that will let me plug my laptop in. I knew if I found one with a younger person at the counter they would understand, hence the sudden huge update ...

Kathmandu - Day 3

This going to bed early is just not for me. Woke up at 4am and only had 5 ½ hours to kill before I got picked up for work. The working day for Tewa is 10am to 5pm, so the bus picks me up at 9.30. Did a bit of reading, vegged around, had a shower and went across the road for some toast and coffee. I'm still severely hanging out for a decent cuppa ... Tewa is located on what would appear to be the outskirts of Kathmandu. Its a beautiful location and they are in the process of building a new main building. They are currently in the smaller type buildings located on the roadside, which will eventually be rented out as shops. I will have to put some photo's up, but I have been so busy just taking in the sights, sounds, smells and atmosphere that I havent even bothered to take out the camera yet. I was very warmly welcomed and very nicely got in trouble for trying to work on my first day. Just relax and chat I was told. So, it was out with the photo's, did the proud Mum thing and answered lots of questions about life in Australia. One of the girls, Moni is going to pick me up on Sunday and take me for out for the day. It appears that Saturday is the day most of the shops are closed here and Sunday its business as usual. I also found out the story to the tea, tea in Nepal is made with normal tea, but they put sugar and spices in it .. this is the 'weird' taste. Yeeha, one of the girls made me a 'normal' tea, black, but at least it was drinkable. Will get my own cup and some UHT and come Monday I am going to totally savour and enjoy a decent cuppa. Lunch is made and eaten in the small kitchen they have off to the side, So far this has been the best meal I have had here. It was a traditional simple Nepali meal of rice, lentils and curried vegetables. I thouroughly enjoyed the meal and everyone was using lunch time to start teaching me Nepalese. I'm fairly lucky in that all of the people at Tewa speak English, but when they are conversing with each other its Nepalese. It is so strange not understanding a word that is being said. It sounds so fast and I doubt that I will learn to understand much in three months, but like so many things here already in three days it certainly gives me a much greater appreciation of what we have in Australia and I will now be able to empathise with people who are in the same situation back home. Nepal is something like the 3rd poorest country in the world and I have already seen so many things that we just wouldnt accept. The safety standards or lack thereof, the health standards. Across the road from Tewa is a butcher. This is another on of those stall type things and the meat is just chucked on the bench whole, be it a chicken or cow and hacked up on the spot. The one today was chopping up bits of a chook as people asked for it and then throws the pieces on some bits of brick and then proceeds to blow torch it with an oxy gun. I have no idea why, but I'm sure I'll find out. There doesnt appear to be any fridges, no netting or shelves, its absolutely amazing. So, after a hard days work chatting ( and no smart comments, I can hear them from here) its back to the hotel for another early night. I figure I could do with a few, and the liver appreciates it no end after the last month or two, well maybe three, but give me a week or two and I'm sure to find some form of nightlife around here. I could go to the 5 star hotels, but I might as well have stayed at home if I do that.

Kathmandu - Day 2

Woke up early after a pretty good nights sleep and decided to head off to Thamel. This is meant to be the most popular area for trekkers and backpackers to stay. Its in the taxi for some more obstacle course work, it should be scary, but I think because the speed is relatively slow, 20 - 40 k's it's a blast. Just lean on that horn and push your way through. I think everyone here is in a permanent state of carbon monoxide poisoning, you just wouldnt believe the smog. Lots of people walk around wearing those little medical mask things. Back to Thamel .. again dozens and dozens of alleys, all not quite one car wide, shops (stalls) everywhere. Pashminas, Tshirts, jewellery, camping gear, trekking gear, food, lots of exotic and interesting looking food, drinks, saris, fabrics, clothes, cyber shops, map shops, so much to take in. Alleys off alleys, its just mind blowing. Being so unconspicuous, I got picked up about a dozen times by 'guides'. All beautiful young men who 'dont want money'. You can see why so many women come back with husbands from here. Thank God I'm not in the market for one. I also had my first taste of begging. A woman kept following me with her baby asking for milk for the baby. Ohhhhhhh it was so hard to say no. I found a place for coffee which unlike the tea here, bears a close resemblance to the coffee that I know and a little boy stood 2 feet away from me the whole time just saying 'please' in this sad sad voice. They must be able to spot me from 100 paces. I am going to have to learn how to deal with it, as I know that giving is not going to help, but in the mean time I feel like some western cliched tourist who doesnt give a shit. As Thamel is really the main tourist spot, and this has been the only place I have encountered the begging and picking up thing, I assume its our behaviour (ie tourists ) that encourages and enforces this way of earning a living. Its quite a sad and sobering thought. After doing my usual thing of wandering around without any idea where I am for a couple of hours, (did I also mention going around in circles due to my excellent sense of direction) its taxi time again and off to New Rd, which is apparently a more upmarket shopping area. This means the stalls are bigger and not as dusty. Toni, you would just drool over the fabric here. There are dozens and dozens of sari and pashmina shops and the fabric is absolutely beautiful. Its also the electrical centre and hopefully I can pick up a converter as my battery power on the mac is getting a tad low, and worst of all .. the iPod is flat. My never ending ability to hone in on shops also found me wandering down a laneway and I found myself at obviously a very privileged and upmarket mall. There were actaully gaurds at the entrance with hand held scanners and all. At least I now know where to go when I need some Yve St Laurent gear .. Yay, the mac is going and the iPod is charging, its time for a rest. I hate to admit this but the adapter I bought was only 5 amps and didnt work. It turned out the hotel power board is multi adaptive and I didnt look closely enough to see the extra notches cut out for our Aussie plugs. You know its absolutely amazing how I find it so hard to just sit around and do nothing. I feel like I should be moving but I would really like to rest. There is nowhere I have to be, nothing I have to do .. yet another thing I have to learn .. How to do nothing .. Here goes .. PS I have organised to start my work with TEWA tomorrow. How well am I doing at doing nothing ...

The Flight and the beginning

Day 1 Wow, what a day. Left Melbourne midnight last night, who knows how long ago that was as I have completely lost track of the time / time zones. The flight to Bangkok was very uneventful and managed to slip in a couple of hours sleep. Bangkok airport was quite an eye opener, definitely tourist orientated, but shoppers paradise it is. Luckily I wasn't in the market for shopping (oh it is a sad thing to say :-( )... so I exchanged the $40 australian that I had for baht and managed to slip in the most wonderful massage. 600 baht and they have you sitting on those contorntionist type chairs, plug some oxygen in to your nose and for half and hour you just drift off. Heaven .. I highly recommend it to anyone stuck at the Bangkok airport. By sheer luck this left me with exactly enough baht to buy a cup of coffee and a carton of smokes. No baht left, no aussie dollars left .. perfect. 4 hours later, its time to board the flight for Kathmandu. Still Thai Airways, but there are many subtle differences between the international and local flights. Had a nice prawn curry for lunch which was one of the first differences, this was not a westernised curry and best of all you had a full set of non plastic implements to eat with. The roll came with real butter and the tea came with 'Coffee Mate" ... ugh .. this is one thing that is going to take me a bit to get used to. You know how I love my tea and Coffee Mate just doesnt do it .. might have to develop a taste for black tea. Kathmandu OK .. the very first thing. Who said it was going to be cold ? .. I know, I could have read the stuff I have, but you know me. Its the monsoon season ! Here is me in a jumper and tshirt and the weather is a lot closer to Broome. After doing the standing around in long lines thing, got through the gates and before I know it, people are coming at me from left, right and centre. Hotels, taxi's , kids trying to grab your bags .. I managed to find my name amongst the sea of placards and before I could blink my bags where whisked away off to the 'taxi'. Bags in the car, I'm told we have to wait for one more passenger and the kids are milling around looking at me .. tip Mrs .. doh .. I've got no local money yet but find $3 australian in my pocket. It fell out of my pocket as I went to hand it over and one kid grabs and runs. The other one then spent the next ten minutes trying to get a tip out of me. Finally our other passenger turns up and off to the 'Aloha Inn' we go. Its hard to try and record my first impressions of Kathmandu, it is in a valley surrounded by small mountains, the sensory overload is amazing, people, cars, dogs, traffic ... beeping horns, barking dogs. All the buildings seem to be at least 3 or 4 story and none of them are what we would call finished. Bits of rio bar sticking out everywhere, half a wall here and there. There are no sidewalks, just dirt and mud. The traffic is amazing .. the road rules are simple, the person who honks the most and is the most daring wins. There are two sides to the roads, but it really doesnt matter, bikes, cars, trucks, pedestrians all just mingle, beep and go on their way. Its just one huge obstacle course. There are shops everywhere, not shops in the australian sense but more like stalls, lean to type shacks in huge rows, no spaces, no lawns, no window dressing, mechanics, next to food, next to dresses, all spilling over each other. Roadside vendors, people selling nut mixes, limes, garlic, vegetables, phone covers, calculators, notepads, you name it. My room is neat and clean, and I HAVE A SHOWER .. ok .. the water sprays every which way but its hot and wet. I also have an air conditioner, and TV, but be buggered if I can get the air con to work. Its not really that bad anyway, the temperature is probably in the mid to high 20's, but its the humidity that makes it feel worse. After a bit of a rest and the spreading of my junk around the room, I wanted to go for a walk. I have to say, it was a bit scary plunging myself into the throng as there are so many roads and lanes that twist and turn and I wasnt sure if I would find my way back. The inn is located on this huge roundabout type thing, so I just used that as my base point and went off in each direction. This was the start of my dream and it didnt disappoint. Spot the foreigner and I was 'it'. I had no local money and asked at the desk if they cashed travellers cheques. Normally they do but they only had 4000 rupee at the moment, so they just gave it to me and put in on my tab. Would love to see that happen in Australia. There is a tea shop across the road and I flew across there. I'm just dying for a cuppa. After some pointing at the menu it was determined that I wanted tea with milk. I knew I shouldnt have ... I dont know what they do or use, but even though I'm out for new tastes and experiences, I really really need my cuppa. I'm thinking I need to buy a kettle and get all you lovely (suck, crawl) people from home to send me some nice little UHT Milk's. There is no such thing as a fridge in your room, so it needs to be those 1 serve jobs. I might find some here, but so far all I have found are the large UHT milks. On the bright side, the chocolate is Cadbury's and Lindt. At least I wont starve .... I'm still a bit wary as to what I can eat and cant eat, so until I have someone to guide me its trail mix and choccie.