Kathmandu is a crazy city. If you can see past the streetside rubbish, diesel fuel, and the begging it is vibrant and fun - but that is a big ask! The streets are crawling in motorbikes, 3 wheel tuk tuks, rickshaws, 4WD buses, and little Suzuki taxis which all use the one lane, and their horn more often than not. Whether its to say hello; " beep beep", or as a warning; "beeeeeep", or in impatience; "hoooornk" it is annoying, and the old diesel keeps you hacking away along with everyone else.
The garbos come early in the morning but don’t seem to pick up anything, so the dogs, yaks and cows wonder through searching for bits of this and bits of that in the piles and piles of shit.
Begging is rampant; and so are the selling scams. You ask for 4 bananas, but as soon as you open your wallet, then the vendors want to sell you 7 plus 2 mandarins, one flute, one necklace, one pashmina and one trek. And after Nic gave one beggar his old shoes he sat next to them all night, didn’t put them on, and begged us for money the next day.
The electricity turns on when it wants, just like the hot water, so a shower is a luxury along with light. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this place. When we were trekking, and far from civilisation I could have killed for a shower - any shower, a fresh banana from a streetside seller, and a rickshaw to save my legs. But after a day here the endless horns and sitar whining, rubbish and dirt is sickening. Cough cough… enough of the Du.
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