Peeling Away the Outside Layer – Part 1
Kathmandu, Nepal
By Keith Hearne
After 14 hours of travel, a number of cars, buses and 3 planes later, the group I was traveling with finally touched down in Kathmandu. It was 31 of us in all, brimming with anticipation of the unexpected, unknown and what was to us, as yet uncharted. The event was a charity-organized trek to raise money for some of the more underdeveloped regions of the world.
Having left familiar sites and sounds at 5:45 am on Monday morning, we arrived, at what would have been 8:00 am Tuesday morning. However, Nepal being 5:45 hours ahead of Irish time as well as 55 years ahead on their calendar, it seems I found myself ahead. I’ve seen the future and it’s all good.
First impressions of Nepal were gathered from the bus ride from the airport to our hotel in Thamel, and it was by no means what I thought it would be. To be honest I didn’t really have any preconceptions of Nepal to start with. I tend not to get too excited about things until they are actually upon me, tangible and real. I find that preconceptions are nearly always wrong, so there’s no point. I wasn’t all that impressed by the stern clad faces that passed the dusty windows of the bus. Kathmandu seemed a very run down old place, fairly dirty with animals such as goats, monkeys, dogs and cows strewn amongst the shop fronts and ramshackle buildings and houses.
Traffic wise, Kathmandu reminded me of European countries like Turkey or Greece, but multiplied and taken to a whole other level. Sometimes traffic moved three abreast, all one way, against on coming vehicles, while at the same time trouncing around to avoid the potholes. The scary part being that these roads could barely fit 2 cars, let alone buses and trucks.
I think personally that I was just a little overcome when faced with the whole foreign environment – the dirt, poverty and some armed presence at certain points of the city. Combined with the news that 2 days previous 150 people had been killed in outbreaks between the Maoist’s and authorities, I was a bit wary. The Maoists have been fighting the authorities in Nepal for a number of years now. Nepal is suffering from the worst political crisis in its history. A constitutional democracy that was established following the 1990 People’s Movement appears to be on the verge of collapse due to continued success of Maoist guerrilla insurgency or “People’s War” that was launched in February of 1996 by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist). The government in Nepal have a ’search and destroy’ policy which they hope will contain Maoist activities. However incidents and battles between these forces have shaken the whole country and have established the fact that Maoist insurgency is a living reality, and that the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is an undeniable political force. The deaths sustained were the results of what are continued clashes between the Maoists and the authorities (5 days after we arrived home I heard on the news that 300 Maoists had been killed in more clashes). This combination of things is what I attribute to my initial lack of enthusiasm for the place. Every country has its troubles and not so nice spots and I was quickly reminded not to judge a book by its cover. You need to peel away the outside layer and you start to unwrap the Christmas present you’ve waited so long for.
As soon as we arrived at our hotel my impressions started to dwindle and reality started to take shape. We checked in and were greeted by friendly staff and a nice drink of orange TANG, (they seemed to serve it everywhere). We were paired off with our roommates, acquainted ourselves quickly enough, showered to shrug off some of the weariness and fatigue in my bones from the journey. Then we met up with some of the crowd downstairs, including Donny and Noel who I met on the air coach to the airport in Dublin. A few minutes later we were weaving our way through the small crowded streets of Thamel in Kathmandu. Thamel being your first taste of anywhere outside of Europe is like an awakening of the senses. Bombarded by questions of where we were from and would we like to buy trinkets “you give your best prices” and “I give you good price” soon became statements of the day. I was soon lost and engulfed by the awe of it all and reassured myself that my misconceptions were simply down to the fact that I had never ventured outside of Europe before, and this was certainly not Europe. We were all soon caught up in the haggling and the constant refusal of tiger balm, chessboards, singing bowls, offers of guides and even drugs on occasion.
It was pretty obvious quiet quickly that the locals and market traders, although seeming poor in social stature were not the harsh faced, crazy driving people I had thought but seemed actually to be genuine natured folk, with a great sense of humour. Anyone that can ask 50 dollars for a gorka blade and not get insulted when the answer comes back as “I’ll give ya 4 dollars for it” has to have a sense of humour, and the funny thing was we got it for 8 dollars. It’s a crazy, crazy place, cheaper then Tesco. The people didn’t seem to show malice at all and were just trying hard to make a living and on occasion really happy to entertain us western strangers in the simple but truly enigmatic ways that they could; such as the marketers haggling, the taxi mans willingness to help, and the shop owner from the monkey temple bringing us into his very humble shop for tea – with the reassurance that we did not have to buy anything. We listened to him recount the magic behind each antique piece around him while we drank a refreshing cup, which he had sent someone running off down the hill to get for us. Kathmandu and Nepal is a splendid place with breath taking scenery all around, and we haven’t even got out of Kathmandu yet. One of the most vivid memories that I’ll have of today is being accosted by about 12 people while leaving the monkey temple, all vying for our attention and money, persistent almost to the point of scariness. It was fun at the same time.
And then Neol trying to conceal the fact that he had a big blade on his lap in the taxi when the armed police were giving us strange looks in the window as they searched for signs of Maoist activity. We were kind of a bit late for briefing, great start.
Read Part 2.
