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.