Nepal, Kathmandu 4 (Rascals, Sex and Sightseeing)

November 10, 2010

Having recovered from yesterday’s shock, I got to see a sad side of Kathmandu from the hotel roof over breakfast:

Street children in the truest sense of the word. Huddled together among rubbish and stray dogs, they lay at the edge of the pavement, wrapped in rags to keep out the cold.

Apart from glue sniffing, their other pastime was delousing each other – a truly sad sight.

Once I’d digested that sight, I threw myself into another adventure, and a long-running one at that. After finding the embassy closed yesterday, today was the first big day of a drama that would drag on for months, starring incompetence in its purest form: Indian bureaucracy. During the wait of more than four hours I met a few new people and heard the first horror stories about the bureaucratic jungle. In the end I managed to submit my application for an Indian “multiple entry visa” and, of course, to pay up front, just in case – that’s the most important part, after all. I was to come back in six days to hand in my passport. Why so long?, I asked. Well, first they had to fax an enquiry to Germany and wait for the answer as to whether I was a bad boy. Fine, so I’d just have to wait, like it or not.

Back in Kathmandu-Thamel, I had a bit of a browse in the shops. Just like in China, it was hard to get hold of “genuine goods” here. In fact, you could pretty safely assume that everything here was fake.

From clothes to neatly and stylishly packaged films, TV series and music…

…all the way to antique singing bowls hundreds of years old. The photo above shows a small corner of the back room of an antiques shop. Curious as I am, I had a good look around and kept venturing further into the shop until I reached the hidden rooms at the back. I could hardly believe my eyes. Stored there were hundreds of brand-new singing bowls and other “antique” items. I could only sneak one small photo, because more than half a dozen workers were sitting among all the new stock. What are workers and new stock doing in an antiques shop? Making antiques! With professional skill, the new singing bowls were taken through several steps: thoroughly dirtied, hammered, soaked in solutions, dirtied again, hammered again, individually damaged and then given a quick, superficial clean. And hey presto: a genuine antique singing bowl with a long history from times gone by… Other items got the same treatment. Rascals? Definitely!

In the afternoon Thijs and I set off on another round of sightseeing. In front of Basantapur Durbar Square proper, we marvelled at a big market with endless kitsch. Antique fakes (see above) and “Made in China” guaranteed.

Surrounded by all these rascals, we automatically turned into rascals ourselves. You see, visiting Basantapur Durbar Square cost 200 NPR admission – exclusively for Western tourists. Paying to enter a completely public market square, and only tourists at that? Nah, I’m not okay with that. Besides, I seriously doubted the money would go towards preserving the square… We marched straight along the wide road, right past the little ticket booth. Of course one of the henchmen came running after us and told us to buy a ticket. With true Nepalese honesty, I explained to him why we didn’t need a ticket, and so we were spared the rip-off.

The first part of the market/temple square was packed with tour groups.

Wherever lots of tourists gather, more rascals in the form of pickpockets are never far away – and there were plenty of warnings about it.

The second part of the site was a bit quieter, and the buildings were genuinely impressive.

The hand-carved figures along the roofs in particular were remarkably detailed.

At first I only noticed the big pieces, but after a while the smaller carvings beneath the large figures caught my eye too. The photo above shows only the most harmless of the sex acts. Impressive how creatively, variedly and openly sex was depicted here, Kamasutra-style.

While we were watching all the bustle…

… and the people, my haggling skills were put to the test once again. I really wasn’t in the mood for any “business relationships”. People constantly try to flog you kitsch. “Original” this, “original” that. Friendly as ever, I politely declined. At some point, though, it got so bad that I stopped answering altogether. One saleswoman turned out to be surprisingly persistent. I was sitting on a stone wall, briefly sized up her selection of chest bags and finally shook my head without a word. For another ten minutes she kept on at me: “one hundred, cheap, cheap, original Nepal work, cheap, cheap.” I just sat there, playing deaf and mute. Even though Thijs explained to her that I could neither speak nor hear – and so couldn’t understand her – she wouldn’t let up. We walked on, and the woman followed (or rather, stalked) us, still determined to make a sale. My shrugs left her unfazed. She was dead set on selling me a chest bag. Over the next ten minutes she gradually lowered her price. 90, 80 and finally 70 – her absolute limit, because that’s what it cost her to make, as she never tired of telling me. The whole thing got more and more amusing. I didn’t say a single word to her, just shrugged and smiled at her. Another ten minutes later she was down to 50, and I could barely keep a straight face. Who’d have thought you could beat the price down without saying a word… Finally I spoke up and thanked her for the entertaining last half hour and her impressive persistence. She burst out laughing too and almost wanted to give me the bag for free. As a thank-you, I gave her 100 NPR for the chest bag and asked her for…

…a photo of the two of us as a souvenir. Haggling without words – another first. ;)

Next we watched innocent children…

and holy men – so-called Sadhus.

Would I make a good Sadhu? The look isn’t all that different, is it? ;)

Then again, if you compare my sceptical look with the poster in the background, I’d probably make a better action hero – armed, though, with a camera that documents everything. ;)

Afterwards we also scouted the computer shops on New Road, looking for an external DVD burner (with my ever-growing flood of data and all the backup DVDs I post home, it works out cheaper in the long run) and an external hard drive. Electronics in Nepal cost about 30% more than in Germany – unbelievable but true. And these were the local computer shops, not tourist rip-off joints. The things you do to keep a safe record of your travels…

In the evening we finally met up with two people I’d got to know at the Indian embassy, Asuka and Michael, plus three other travellers, and had a fun get-together over pizza and drinks before hitting the sack after a very varied day.

Further reading:

1. Street children – Young, on the fringes of society and with no prospects
2. Inhalants – Dangerous (!) drug substitute
3. Head louse – Parasites of the human scalp that also spread disease
4. Durbar Square – Temple complexes with striking architecture
5. NPR – Nepalese rupee
6. Kamasutra – A practical guide to erotic love and more
7. Sadhus – Ascetic monks with all sorts of vows
8. Asceticism – Renouncing all sorts of worldly things
9. Facial expression – A fundamental part of non-verbal body language