Day One

This morning I arrived in Singapore and took the four-hour flight to Kathmandu. I stayed awake and spent the entire time studying Nepali, which came in handy when I got the to airport ("Batrum kahah cha?!"). Somehow when I went back to the phrasebook after a break, the language seemed more accessible. Maybe it's because I was half-dreaming during the whole flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, though I can't remember much of anything I dreamed. Aside from studying, I also got a spectacular view of the Himalayas for about 45 minutes as we came in for landing. Under the sky was a distant, endless horizon of snowcapped mountains above a long line of blue and purple peaks, and finally dark green hills with dirt plateaus and rippling stairs of sand just under the plane. The camera couldn't capture it through the window, so I just took in the view as an ephemeral experience.

Unexpectedly, it was about 70 degrees when we landed. I took a taxi into Kathmandu (only about 20 minutes) and to the Passage House, where Vidhea and Yanik live. We chatted a little about the electricity situation--though Nepal has the second-highest potential for hydropower in the world, the governmental nonsense and corruption has put the country in a position where the electricity is sold to India and then sold back to the Nepalese at a higher price. Unfortunately, that means that electricity here is not only unsteady, it's steadily unsteady! They cut electric power for six hours, six days of the week. How inconvenient. I guess it results in a lot of power piracy.

After lunch Yanik and I went out walking around the city, which was exhausting. I was quite energetic when I arrived, but our tour of Thamel--the tourist area--totally wiped me out. The place is insane! It really is another world. The traffic is crazy and crowded--no directions, no lanes, lots of speed. Honking is like a paralanguage here. On top of the vehicle traffic, the pedestrian traffic is unbelievable; people are packed together like sardines, moving in schools and barging their way through crowds at random. It's madness, and there are colors everywhere, competing smells and sights...a full-on assault on the senses.

I'm craving a nap now, but it's already almost 6, so it's better to stay up so I can wake up at 5:30 or 6 AM tomorrow (both because of my yoga classes and because, as Yanik says, Kathmandu is a "morning town"). One last note before signing off for today--the air pollution here is horrific, and I plan on wearing a mask SARS-style to protect my delicate lungs. It's far worse than NYC--apparently one of the top three cities in the world for air pollution, which is certainly not a statistic to advertise. To balance that, however, Bhaktapur, which is only about 40 minutes away (one of the three kingdom cities), is one of the cleanest cities in the world. Maybe the cleanest, actually, given its size and such. Interesting, no?

Tomorrow I meet my host family and teachers. Shubaratri (goodnight)!