Journal excerpt: sun 17 feb

Journal excerpt:

sun 17 feb

I am doing some business in Kathmandu for my friend
susan, so today i
learned Nepali business. I drank about 18 cups of
tea, sitting in
this shop or that, chatting about this and that,
waiting, and
sitting, living on Nepali time. Nepali time is like
this: you say
"i'll meet you at 3" then you show up at 5 or 7 or
tomorrow. My
sherpa guide, kamal, says there is tourist time, and
then nepali
time. Tourist time, 3 is 3. Nepali time, see above.
today went like
this:

11 Sit with kedar and Laxmi, have a cup of tea, do
some business.
12 Sit with Hari, have cup of tea, wait for Rishi.
1 Sit at Yak Wool house, have cup of tea, wait, then
do business.
2 Sit at Ganesh Music with Didi Nanda, have cup of
tea.
2:30 Sit with Hari, chat, have cup of tea, wait for
Rishi
3 Sit with Didi Nanda, have cup of tea, do business
4 Sit with Didi, have another cup of tea, chat.
5 Sit with Didi, have another cup of tea.
6 Sit and wait for Kedar, have cup of tea.
end of business today.


Mon 18 feb

Today Kamal and i rode up to Nagarkot, a mountain
overlooking the
Kathmandu Vally, on Rishi's motorcycle (don't tell
mom). Little
winding roads, with thatched roof huts alongside the
road, families
eating outside, staring at the American riding by. On
the way down,
we saw a film crew shooting a movie, so we stopped to
watch, and i
became the spectacle, a white skinned bearded american
in a wide-brim
leather hat, and the crew wanted me to be in the
movie.
TUnfortunately, the sun was going down, and they
didn't have time for
another shot, so i guess i won't be a nepali film
star. Oh well.

Kamal and i have eaten every night at a little Tibetan
joint in
Chetrapatti. They have the most amazing food in this
neighborhood.
Little places that you stoop down into, you might not
know it is a
restaurant except for the smell of the wonderful spice
wafting out of
the door. Not the cleanest place, but amazing food!
We sit upstairs
at this tibetan place, in the room where the family
sleeps. We sit
on the floor, people packed in elbow to elbow and knee
to knee,
speaking nepali and english, eating mo-mos and veg
fried rice off two
little tables, drinking thomba, some sort of hot
millet beer, "real
nepali style" says Kamal.


That's the news from Kathmandu, i'll write more
tommorrow. "Bhole
beto-lai!" See you tomorrow!

love,

mark.