Pestered for Money turns Mute

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Traveling days are always fun today I got up really early to catch a bus to the airport - which was a convenient 25 kuai with 10 kuai taxi as opposed to the 125 kuai taxi it would have taken to get to the airport from my hotel. Now as I sit in the airport I'm once again surrounded by people from all different countries speaking all different languages. I just called and unfortunately woke Cam up but it's the last time I'll talk to him before I come back so at least that was nice.

I've just succeeded in having some of the worst hours ever. Nepalese is a crazy language - I can officially read again which feels nice and I can understand a lot but I can't really write or speak. It's the worst thing ever! Admittedly I can't write only because I'd be writing the English into Devangari and not the Nepalese but the not being able to speak thing is awful! I would rather be able to speak or listen then not any day. I don't care how illiterate it makes me. I was just on a bus and decided to ask the money collector if he could tell me when we got to Thamel - the area I'm staying in. I asked him in Hindi and he looked at me as if I'd lost some marbles and told the whole bus which decided to send the one who spoke English after me. He convinced me to get off and take a taxi - preferrably his. Not to mention the fact that people here just won't leave you alone! I tried the silent treatment today - wakling faster, not looking at them and not saying anything. But even then I still got a guy following me around for an hour trying to speak English to me and calling me horribly things (mainly in Nepalese) but telling me I was making his family starve and asking me in English if I spoke Nepalese (I though that was kind of comical). I've decided my resort for tomorrow is to speak Chinese and tell them I don't understand what they're saying (in Chinese of course). I've seen some people here who can speak Spanish so I decided that I would try the Chinese first as it's (knock on wood) pretty unlikely that they understand that. The only thing they want from you is money after all and sometimes even if you give them that they are not happy. All I want is to be left alone sometimes. I remember this was exactly what it was like down on the main ghats of Benares. But then I had 3 safe havens - one I could tell them, in Hindi, that I wasn't interested. Secondly I had bookstores - no matter where it was or even if you'd never been there owners seemed to understand to leave you alone. And finally was my neighborhood where everyone'd seen me so many times they let me be. Here only the bookstores holds true. I just noticed they leave Asian looking people alone and don't bother them, maybe the Chinese will do the trick. I just have to teach myself not to do it in Hindi (as that's what I feel like responding in here).

So what did I do today? I tried to find Durbar Square for the majority of the afternoon after lunch but I ended up finding almost everything but. I got some more books - insanely cheap and ones that would be impossible to find in China - Tar Baby by Toni Morrison, Dialogues of Plato and Freedom in Exile by teh Dalai Lama. After the bookstore I walked 3/4ths of a huge circle on Tridevi Marg to Durbar Marg through Jamal to a bridge over the road where I could see the Queen's Pond and then down into Asan Tole. Asan Tole is the beginning of a crazy little maze of gullies (Indian or in this case Nepalese alleys) that are chock full of little tiny shops and vehicles trying to get in and out. The gullies aren't very big so there's a lot of hecticness. After crossing thorugh Indra Chowk I finally got to Durbar where I was bribed into getting a guide who then insisted on more money then he originally said and I had to try to lose him in the Square for him to leave me be. It was kind of neat there was a man reading stories from the Bhagavad Gita and a bunch of people sitting around and listening for a long while. I spent some time there and then walked up to Chettrapati. On the way I saw a beautiful Tibetan temple where no one was bothering me and there were a bunch of couples and people my age along with some cute little kids and an old man feeding a huge stew of pigeons. After that I waked through Dhalko and over the bridge to Bijeshwari. I figured since I was so close to Swayambhunath I'd go see it even though it was late in the day. That's where I became the guided mute and in the end got into a bus where I tried to ask them to tell me when we got to Thamel and they thought I was a mad woman.

I took a taxi back to Thamel and had dinner at La Dolce Vita a great little Italian place with waiters extremely thrilled that I wanted to learn some Nepali (how to write Thamel and say waiter).

Finally I made it back here - it's a cheap place wtih a really nice little courtyard that's actually fairly quiet. I did some internet and talked with an Australian for a while and now will read and go to bed (I'm exhausted).

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