This is a list of things an alien -or merely a foreigner like myself- would notice after a week in Kathmandu. Call them second impressions, if you will, or the most conspicuous elements of Nepali life so far.
1. The Hills
Surrounding the city like giants encircling a gnome, the term mountains seems more appropriate here. With Kathmandu sitting at an altitude of 4,400 feet (or 1,350 meters), we are probably talking about mountains of at least 3,000 meters, or 10,000 feet. Not too shabby. Sometimes you will be walking down the street at then just peer out at the clouds on their pilgrimage past the summits. It’s a welcome sight in a city where poverty is as rampant as, say...
2. Pollution
Especially in the morning, my lungs feel like a kid emptied his marbles in them. Breathing is particularly difficult, at least until lunchtime or so. I have also finally felt the dust between my teeth this morning. I have never seen a city where people wear so many protective masks. Since my wife and I have gotten here, the stock of Schering Plough (makers of Claritin) must have risen a percentage point. Compared to Kathmandu, perennial smog magnets in the USA like L.A. or Houston seem like hygienic Turkish steam baths. Of course the piles of trash unloaded by the roadsides don’t help either. If there is such a thing as a sanitary service in Kathmandu, then they are either on strike 300 days a year or got tired of pulling carcasses out of the river.
3. Dogs
Oddly enough, I have yet to find a single cat. I have always considered cats among the foremost and ultimate surviving species, but I suppose that theory needs to be reassessed here. You will find cows here and there, but most of all it’s dogs - stray dogs, some loners, some in pairs, others in packs. Sometimes they will sleep in the middle of the road and dare the driver to run over them. I have already seen so many close calls, it feels like Groundhog Day. Fido is always one unlucky swerve away from becoming a road frisbee. Many times I have already mourned the death of a stray dog on the sidewalk (‘sandwalk’ is the more appropriate term here) or the street, only to be startled when the dog would pop up and carry himself to a more comfortable dirtpile. They are tame for the most part, and if they bark, I do what I have learned from the Moroccans - throw an imaginary stone at them. I hope that doesn’t backfire on me. Imagine receiving a very real bite from a rabid dog in response to an imaginary stone chucked.
4. The Colors
At the risk of sounding redundant here, I can’t point this out enough. No two garments seem to be the same. The royal houses here in the days of yore used to try and one-up each other by building bigger and better temples with each generation. If that was their private war, then the ladies of Kathmandu seem to have one of their own. Regardless of the colors or motives, the garments the ladies wear here are simply fantastic. And I haven’t even seen any of the temples around here yet. Wonder what they will have in store there.
5. People
I have already mentioned that there is not a typical Nepali to be found around here, but race is a topic best preserved for another entry. It’s also not their size I will comment on. All right, maybe a little. These are the smallest people I have seen in my life. The raison d’etre of this point has nothing to do with their looks or shape or size, but with their courtesy. People are polite here to a fault, and it doesn’t even take the clasped hands and bow of the head with the namaste greeting to figure that one out. If every person were so polite, they could all be polka-dotted, teal haired and in the shape of teletubbies or oil tankers, for all I care.
6. Blackouts
You may be on a treadmill, writing emails, reading a book under your bedside lamp and… poof! Kathmandu pulls an Enron on you. Nothing to fear - at least if you have a generator, which is as frequent as having the runs in the first week in Nepal if you are a westerner and as rare as a yeti sighting if you are part of the majority, i.e. the indigenous population around here. With the generator, there will be a fizz and a pop, and voila…we are back to doing what we do best as westerners, which is threaten to make a few more animal species extinct with our enormous appetite for energy.
Very soon, these impressions will be as common to me as the USA Today or Donald Trump’s animal on his head. For now, I will consider them novelties and run with them.
1. The Hills
Surrounding the city like giants encircling a gnome, the term mountains seems more appropriate here. With Kathmandu sitting at an altitude of 4,400 feet (or 1,350 meters), we are probably talking about mountains of at least 3,000 meters, or 10,000 feet. Not too shabby. Sometimes you will be walking down the street at then just peer out at the clouds on their pilgrimage past the summits. It’s a welcome sight in a city where poverty is as rampant as, say...
2. Pollution
Especially in the morning, my lungs feel like a kid emptied his marbles in them. Breathing is particularly difficult, at least until lunchtime or so. I have also finally felt the dust between my teeth this morning. I have never seen a city where people wear so many protective masks. Since my wife and I have gotten here, the stock of Schering Plough (makers of Claritin) must have risen a percentage point. Compared to Kathmandu, perennial smog magnets in the USA like L.A. or Houston seem like hygienic Turkish steam baths. Of course the piles of trash unloaded by the roadsides don’t help either. If there is such a thing as a sanitary service in Kathmandu, then they are either on strike 300 days a year or got tired of pulling carcasses out of the river.
3. Dogs
Oddly enough, I have yet to find a single cat. I have always considered cats among the foremost and ultimate surviving species, but I suppose that theory needs to be reassessed here. You will find cows here and there, but most of all it’s dogs - stray dogs, some loners, some in pairs, others in packs. Sometimes they will sleep in the middle of the road and dare the driver to run over them. I have already seen so many close calls, it feels like Groundhog Day. Fido is always one unlucky swerve away from becoming a road frisbee. Many times I have already mourned the death of a stray dog on the sidewalk (‘sandwalk’ is the more appropriate term here) or the street, only to be startled when the dog would pop up and carry himself to a more comfortable dirtpile. They are tame for the most part, and if they bark, I do what I have learned from the Moroccans - throw an imaginary stone at them. I hope that doesn’t backfire on me. Imagine receiving a very real bite from a rabid dog in response to an imaginary stone chucked.
4. The Colors
At the risk of sounding redundant here, I can’t point this out enough. No two garments seem to be the same. The royal houses here in the days of yore used to try and one-up each other by building bigger and better temples with each generation. If that was their private war, then the ladies of Kathmandu seem to have one of their own. Regardless of the colors or motives, the garments the ladies wear here are simply fantastic. And I haven’t even seen any of the temples around here yet. Wonder what they will have in store there.
5. People
I have already mentioned that there is not a typical Nepali to be found around here, but race is a topic best preserved for another entry. It’s also not their size I will comment on. All right, maybe a little. These are the smallest people I have seen in my life. The raison d’etre of this point has nothing to do with their looks or shape or size, but with their courtesy. People are polite here to a fault, and it doesn’t even take the clasped hands and bow of the head with the namaste greeting to figure that one out. If every person were so polite, they could all be polka-dotted, teal haired and in the shape of teletubbies or oil tankers, for all I care.
6. Blackouts
You may be on a treadmill, writing emails, reading a book under your bedside lamp and… poof! Kathmandu pulls an Enron on you. Nothing to fear - at least if you have a generator, which is as frequent as having the runs in the first week in Nepal if you are a westerner and as rare as a yeti sighting if you are part of the majority, i.e. the indigenous population around here. With the generator, there will be a fizz and a pop, and voila…we are back to doing what we do best as westerners, which is threaten to make a few more animal species extinct with our enormous appetite for energy.
Very soon, these impressions will be as common to me as the USA Today or Donald Trump’s animal on his head. For now, I will consider them novelties and run with them.
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