Kathmandu (April 2009)

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I apologize, this blog is 3 years late in entry.
In Kathmandu, I stayed with a couchsurfing host who lived very close to Thamel which is a street for tourists and backpackers. Thamel has all the guest houses and shops catered to foreigners. There are guesthouses/restaurants/shops (GRS) for Koreans, for Chinese and for people from Isreal or Jews. There are probably GRS’s for other nationalities but I didn’t notice them. The GRS for Koreans charge 110 NRS per night for a dorm bed. I also went to Freak Street close to Basantapur Square where the living goddess (Kumari Devi) is found. That was a really nice area and slightly cheaper than Thamel but also caters specifically to foreigners. We asked around and you can find a room for 2 for 250 NRS per night. There were also internet places for 15 NRS/hr but connection was really slow. Internet places in Thamel can be up to 100 NRS/hr. I came to Nepal to get another Indian visa so I had to get photos and my passport photocopied which weren’t easy tasks. I went to several places before I found one open and working. Electricity gets shut off frequently so when that happens, stores are either closed or “not working”. It was quite the experience living with a local as I got to see how they live life with constant power-outs and water shut-offs. Not having water was the hardest as it impedes cooking and the flushing of toilets. When I was there (April 2009), power got shut off 4 hours per day, sometimes 8, and the schedule kept changing. Water shut-offs were not everyday but for longer periods. Drinking water came from a different tap and that was on for 1 hour only twice a week at 4-5am. My host told me that in her village, drinking water is on for 1 hour twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. But here in the city, you have to fill enough drinking water for several days when the tap is running. Sometimes when the power is off, there’s no water because the water pump uses electricity. Once we found the water to be trickling when it was supposed to be on, only to discover that her landlady wanted to restrict her water usage. I wonder if we had regular water and power cuts in Toronto, would we remain as civilized?

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