What to do in Kathmandu

There are many things to be done in Kathmandu. So far I visited many temples, many monasteries, many stupas. There are a few places where monkeys just wander around, playing in the trees, stealing visitors lunches. I went to see the Swayambhunath stupa and want to take a pictere of one monkey, however he had a real bad attitude as I got closer he kind took this attack position, showing his teeth, ready to jump on me... and so I got bullied by a monkey, I didn't even take my picture... I know, I'm such a wuss. I also went to see Karma, a friend I met at the frontier. Karma is actually completing his final year to teach tibetan buddhism at his monasterym, I went to visit him at his monastery in Kathmandu, he taught me some basics about buddhism, I really enjoyed. I'm waiting for some people I met to go trekking, so I basicly waste my time bargaining around in Thamel and read. I can't wait to go trekking in the Himalayas!

Finally in Nepal

After leaving Carlos and Julien, I left on my own to Nepal. I planned to have just enough cash to get to Kathmandu by bus and to my surprise, the Maoists go back on strike! They had signed a peace treathy but I guess that when one of your leaders gets killed, it doesn't matter anymore. So as political pressure, blocked THE ONLY road leading to Kathmandu in the eastern Terai, they even burned down one tourist bus. So basicly, I was stuck at the frontier, I had just paid a single entry visa, so I didn't feel like going back to India. I had no choice, I was running out of cash so I dealt my way to get on a small plane, it cost a lot more than I planned but I guess that goes in the "Oh shit!" budget. I have to say I was pretty happy to get to Kathmandu as I had to take a 3 hour cycle rickshaw to get to the airport.

The Kathmandu valley is quite nice, it's the start point for every adventure getaway. I had to do my business report, so I took some days off to do this. To change my mind, I had some fun bargaining for mountain apparels or jewellery without even buying. I also took time to read, I found so many good books, so far I've been through Life of Pi, It happened in India (biography of Kishore Biyani, a retail business man), Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner, The Leader in You by Dale Carnegie and to come The World is Flat by Friedman, Word of My Best Teacher by Patnil Rinpuche. I've just been devoring books, so I know ther is more to come. I love those gems sellers, one actually tried to scam me as he did for so many people. Here's the scam : he tells you that he imports gems to your country but has an export limit, so he wants you to ship to your home to your name and then his contact in your country would contact you when you get there. The value is roughly 5000$ but he would get 10000$ in your country, so being so generous he gives you the extra 5000$. Sounds good no? Barely. You go with him at the post office and he ships the gems (probably fakes) right in front of you, although they never arrive in your country... And all you need to do is give a photocopy of your passeport and your credit card as he fills out a sales order of 5000$ that he swears he can't deposit before you receive the shipment. How dumb did he think I was? I actually played along, although I was laughing at him the whole way as he was showing me the passport of thoses who got fooled, I had fun though it was sad to see that he succeded many times.

10 reasons to stay in India

Again the same thing, although theses are the good things:

1. White is king. Being a white man, you get many breaks as the rich and famous. Example: going to the Taj Mahal hotel is Mumbai in a wifebeater and no one asks a single question.

2. KingFisher. They do all the good things, definately the King of Good Times, especially when it comes to the selection of his air hostesses.

3. Big pipes totally works. Indians are so skinny that as soon as you have somewhat big arms, your an idol.

4. Bollywood. I just can't get enough, I'm hooked to those choreagraphies in the movies that come out of nowhere, every actor is a born dancer.

5. The food. Although is comes spicy, there is such a variety in the distinct tastes, it's always a party in your mouth. And the breads, nothing beats a good poratha!

6. The sweets. French pasteries are good, manjar in Chile was good also, but here, it's just mouth watering good.

7. The fruits. Still in the food category but hey, I'd go on a mango-banana-pineapple-coconut diet any day!

8. The beauty queens. In a population of 1.1 billions, you're bound to meet many gorgeous women with their almond eyes, dark skin and shy smile. Enough to fall in love over and over.

9. Entrepreneurship dreamland. For any business, any entrepreneur, it will happen in India!

10. People are friendly. Although everyone has their own agenda and many try to screw, you actually meet many genuinively nice people. It's also quite nice to see all the differences between every provinces, they tend to hate each other but they all love you, and if in doubt, blame it on Bihar!

10 reasons not to stay in India

Just for the fun of it, Carlos, Julien and I bitched about India. Here's what came up :

1. Too many people. With a population of 1.1 billions, it's hard to get free space. It gets annoying to always be in a crowd.

2. Too much heat or to much rain. You're all wet either because you're too sweaty or because it's poaring down rain. Try to be efficient with 42 degres celcius, no wonder they take 10 people for 10 months to do a month job...

3. Too much garbage and too many dogs. It spoils everything especially visual wise, who wants to spend their vacation on a dirty beach infested with errant dogs?

4. Too many bad smells. More than 70% of the smells here are rotten, either from the garbage, cow poop, urine, etc. No wonder they use so much incens.

5. Air pollution. No need for explaination.

6. Traffic. The traffic here is just terrible. The roads are shit and people drive like dumbasses. It takes over an hour and a half for a usual 15 minutes drive.

7. Head shaking/nodding. It's never clear, they mean yes when they shake their head sideways, barely distinct from no. To us, this would mean maybe, so it's always confusing.

8. Hand holding. It's ok to show your friendship, but this is simply over the line. I will never get used to these men handholding in the streets, no wonder they're the worst seducers.

9. It takes too long to date a chick. Interactions between men a women aren't as common as in other countries. The way to go is through sms apparently, after a week of text messaging you're good for a date. Sorry I'm the text message type.

10. White screwers, fake tourist guides. I would never believe anyone here, it such a individualistic culture, everyone tries to screw you, especially if you're white and don't speak hindi, and they many time succeed. My bargining skills are a lot better now.

11. The fully filled water bottles. What is the point of that, it's just obvious that when you will open the bottle there's gonna be water everywhere.

12. Train reservation. Endless lines, it's always complicated to fill out the form and no one is helpful.

13. Too many beggers, too many deformations. Where's the pride? They really try to suck the pity out of you and they really try hard, they'll follow you for miles and they'll poke you to death. On top of that, they show off their half dead baby or their missing foot, second thumb or whatever deformaty they have, and believe me, I've seen many. The ones that stay on the ground aren't too bad because you walk by but I am now pretty rude with the pokers as I slap any hand close to touching me and look straight and say "You don't touch me", it actually works most of the time.

14. Cricket. It's just not a good sport, it's even worst than curling or baseball and it's just everywhere.

15. The sissy lifeguards. They just don't let anyone in the water so they don't have to rescue anyone. Ignoring them kind of works useless you're annoyed with wisthling.

16. I am so over 10 reasons, I think i I prooved my point.