My life in Nepal - First day

My life in Nepal
I arrived Kathmandu safe and sound on Monday noon. As the plane was descending to the Kathmandu airport, I could see the mountains, and yes, Himalaya, up close and personal. I was anxious about my trip a week before as there was mass protest in Kathmandu from Maoist movement. But on Friday, Nepali Prime Minister announced to resign sometime soon to avert the political crisis. I am not very much worried about the political situation. The political situation in Nepal and Thailand are both a mess now.

I stay at a cheap guest house in downtown Kathmandu. It costs me only 10 dollars per night and the fee reflects the conditions of the room. There is no air-conditioner (the one with air con is more than 40 dollars that I cannot afford). My mom was right. She told me not to trust anyone’s bed sheet and pillow covers. So, I brought my own bed sheet, pillow covers and many other basic stuff such as water boiler, towel and canned food from Bangkok.

I was greeted by blackouts in Kathmandu yesterday. People told me that the power would be out a few times a day, each for two or three hours. I asked very stupid question like “why?”. They told me the government does not have enough electricity so they have to shut down the power from time to time. Yesterday, I was staying in the dark from 5 to almost 8 PM. And after midnight, I woke up in the middle of the night because the electric fan stopped because of the blackout.

Otherwise, people were generally friendly. I walked along the alleyways in Thamel yesterday evening. It was a beautiful neighbourhood with small shops selling crafts and fabrics. People told me how to greet and say “thank you” in Nepali. While I could not pronounce it properly, one of them took a liberty of taking my arm and wrote down the correct pronunciation on my arm so I would be able to remember the correct pronunciation. I have been travelling a lot in my life and I believe I have an intuition about the place that I have visited. And based on my first day and super shallow observation, I feel that the city is generally safe and I feel comfortable walking around on my own.