Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote:


If cities were hookers Kathmandu would be "short time" girl for me. Being here is like going on a date with a wild and fun young woman who goes a hundred miles an hour but just doesn't know when to stop - her immaturity starts to bug you, and after a few hours the incessant noise and erratic behavior starts to drive you insane. I love Kathmandu and the history I have with it, but I feel we're growing apart - it might just be an age thing and maybe I need more tranquil ports to harbor at from here. Or at least ones where the internet doesn't go off every hour for thirty minutes, and the electricity daily. And the guy who I eat breakfast with is giving me the shits.





My routine finds me having breakfast in the same little hole-in-the-wall cafe at the same time as another traveler in the morning and he reminds why I avoid the jaded, pessimistic, negative, know-it-all types who have "seen it all" and can't entertain a simple polite conversation without "enlightening" you on, well, everything. Other than making one feel better about one's own positive (mostly) outlook or perspective on life, it baffles me why these people insist on retaining an attitude that can only serve them negatively, offering themselves an existence that distances themselves from others, and surely, perpetuates a life of antagonism, despair and possibly loneliness. Other than having the misfortune of some type of diagnosed mental illness, why would an individual consciously choose sustained gloominess or bleakness as a default position or attitude toward life? The alternative has to be a better and far more rewarding option. *Cough*The irony is not lost on me that I am myself in fact, now, engaged in the same behavior I'm complaining about . Pfft!



I'm just waiting to pick up an ATM card from the bank which won't be more than a week then it's onto Pokhara to catch up with with my best friend who married a Nepali woman. I was considering taking the bus but it's currently taking 12 hours instead of 6 because of landslides closing parts of the road, so I'll cough up the $US100 for the thirty minute flight. Last flight to Pokhara was pretty spectacular as the weather was perfect so we had a great view of the Himalaya and particularly the Annapurna Massif.


May you be as happy as a dog with two tails.

Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote:

stevenjb wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 11:20 pm
What were your expenses in Nepal, housing, food, transportation -- looks like an interesting place.

You can get a reasonably good budget room for $US6-$US10 (see photos and price I'm paying at beginning of blog), breakfast of omelette, toast and coffee for $US2, 8 momo lunch for $US1...food is cheap if you eat local outside the tourist ghetto of Thamel. Transportation consists of walking in Kathmandu for me - a taxi at local prices will cost $US3-ish for 5km, comfortable bus to Pokhara 6-12 hours $US15-$20.

Did you have children following you begging for handouts?

I've seen one small group of three children begging in the ten days I've been here and completely ignoring them caused them to leave me alone almost immediately - it's nothing like India in that regard.

Kung-fu Hillbilly wrote:
The average person burns 450 calories pulling a rickshaw, that's about 8 momos. So you could say we were traveling at 8 momos per hour this morning.

The bank account is operational with having now tested moving money around a bit. I went into the bank today to give a Nepalese phone number so as to have access to online banking, and had to sign my name to four individual documents - four signed pages of documents to add a phone number. Then I withdrew some money manually which meant going to one counter to apply, waiting there for fifteen minutes to receive a check, then go take a number and wait twenty minutes to be seen by a teller to cash the check. Then sign the check four times and write my phone number on it. Can’t wait until the ATM card arrives.