Nepal - Day #3 - Bhaktapur/Kathmandu

Day 3 began with a bread and jam and an omlette ( a worthy representation of a western breakfast). We then continued our orientation with Bal and learned about the treatment of women in Nepal. In short it's pretty awful.



Women are often forced to sleep in cow sheds when they are menstruating and are subject to a life of 'loving servitude' to their husbands. Marriages are arranged by the parents of the couple and the women's family is expected to pay the husband's family a 'dowry'. This dowry is essentially a wish-list of items that the husband (or husband's family) desires and demands.

Dowry's are generally fairly expensive items (cars, laptops, 100,000 rupees) which means that families (wanting to avoid financial stress) often hope for male children rather than females. I couldn't help wondering about the prevalence of abortions in Nepal; Bal assured me that it was uncommon, however given the information at hand it seems likely that home-abortions would occur. Despite my pro-choice position I think the choice to abort should be a least minimally rational and the procedure conducted to be safe and professional. The dowry system is archaic, dogmatic, and encourages greed.

A worse problem still is women trafficking. This involves a Nepalise man feigning interest in a woman in order to secure the families dowry before selling the woman to a brothel (most often in India). Because menstruation is seen as an 'impurity' young girls are in particularly high demand. Women, or more accurately children, are forced to satisfy 5 to 25 clients a day; some of the children being as young as 11.

After orientation it was lunch time and I decided that I would eat it the Nepalise way. It was quite enjoyable eating with my hand even though my lack of skill proved amusing to the locals. In Nepal it is only acceptable to eat with your right hand because your left hand should be used when visiting the toilet.

In the afternoon we visited the monkey temple just outside central Kathmandu. It's a Buddhist temple atop a large mountain with a lot of monkeys. . . I guess the name gives it away a bit. I picked up a few souvenirs and took plenty of photo's.

In the evening Guy and I went back to Sam's bar in Thamel (see photo ^^), but only for a few drinks this time.

As a sidenote we discovered today that my companion Guy's name means 'cow' in Nepalise. This fact provided Bal and I with much amusement.

Nepal - Day #2 - Bhaktapur/Kathmandu

Day 2 was much better than Day 1. I met Guy, the other volunteer I'll be working with. He's really friendly, has dreadlocks, enjoys a good beer (or 12) and works as a stonemason back in Chichester in England.

The morning consisted of Daal Baht ('Daal Baht' for breakfast, 'Baht Daal' for dinner!) followed by our orientation with Bal. We learned about the caste system in Nepal (4 arbitrary classes based on blood-line), learnt some basic Nepalise, and talked about the Nepalise education system (It seems like the ability to buy an education causes the same injustices and class divides in Nepal as it does in Australia - Surprise, surprise).


In the evening things really kicked off when Guy and I decided to head into Kathmandu. After only experiencing the dusy - and rather depressing - streets of Bhaktapur seeing Kathmandu restored my hopes that Nepal could be exciting. It was. The streets of Kathmandu are narrow and crowed , filled with Nepalise locals, tourists, and drug dealers. ('hashish sir?'. .'opium?'. ..'heroin sir?')

We went first to a touristy sort of bar called 'Sam's'. At sams the walls are covered with messages written by the visitors. There are stories, quotes, tips, and pictures scribed on the walls. I added my own mark on the wall with one of the few quotes I've managed to internalise:

After a few 'Everests' (the local lager-style beer) Guy shared with me a story about a girl he'd me at a nearby bar a few weeks ago. His enthusiasm for the particular woman was revealed to me without hesitation. He gushed. It was good.

Next we went to a more traditional bar where we sat on cushions on the floor. Guy explained to me on the way there that this is where he had first met Christina (his aforementioned love interest). I think we both knew that the chances of Christina being in the same bar weeks later and the same time that we visit would have to be very slim. Yet by some miracle she turned up!

Christina is from New Zealand and undeniably attractive. She told us about a trip she took to a temple in which she meditated with monks in absolute silence and darkness for 10 hours a day for 10 days. I wondered whether I would have the willpower to do something like that. It's certainly something I'd like to attempt.


I also met a few french travelers and we all ate and drank together.(Christina is the one on the far right)

By this time of the night we'd all had quite a lot to drink and were feeling very jolly but we decided to head to more more bar before home. This last place had a small cover band that played heaps of popular western music. I bought a gin and tonic that was poured freehand to a ratio of 40% gin to 60% tonic. This cost me about $2.50AUD!

On the taxi ride home Guy gushed some more about how Christina is the perfect woman for him - I can't decide whether it was irritating, heart-warming, or amusing. Either way, drunken mumblings generally reveal a lot about a person, and to know that I'm spending the next month with a hopeless romantic means we'll probably have a lot to talk about.