I return to the streets of Nepal. It is familiar to me now. I stumble across the garden restaurant overlooked by the ghost white mannequin child in the pashmina store across the street. I order momos and soup and some chaya dudh masala (tea, milk, spice) just as I did fifteen months ago.
I am tired.
Part of it is because of the plane ride and adjusting to a new time zone. But there's more to it than that. There are things I had forgotten about travelling.
Sure, the Grand Adventure I had last year was amazing and in my journal I focused on the adventure and the excitement.
But I forgot what it's like to be alone in a strange hotel room, to wander streets slightly lost, displaced, on guard, to be constantly harassed by merchants, taxi and rickshaw drivers, dope dealers and beggars.
"Hello. Where are you from. Oh, Australia. Land of the kangaroo, emu and koala. Melbourne? Sydney? I have a cousin living in Brisbane. The capital of Australia is Canberra. The Prime Minister of Australia is Kevin Rudd. I am glad you love Nepal so much. I think we have similar hearts. Can you buy some milk for me? I need some milk. No? Well, you are a useless tourist."
The young man who calls me useless has clean clothes, styled hair and no sign of poverty about him. He tries to befriend me three times that day.
His attitude is uncommon. Most Nepalese beggars will depart showing their disappointment, but this is the first to show such resentment. I don't think he likes his job begging. He must spend a lot of hours at it.
The next morning a woman approaches me with a four year old girl in tow, clinging to her mothers dress. She shows me an empty milk bottle and begs me to buy milk for her child. I offer her some money but she refuses. She doesn't want money she needs milk. I decline and depart.
I can't think why she would refuse money except that it is not enough. I have heard that this is a common scam to sell milk at an over inflated price.
I leave to find some breakfast.
Useless tourist.
I had intended to use my old phone as an mp3 player but I left it in the car when Cameron dropped me off at the airport. I have music on some memory cards that I know I will need to boost my morale me on the hard parts of the trek. I spend the afternoon trying to find a way to transfer them to my iPod touch on the hotel computer with no iTunes and a slow internet connection. Eventually I give up and go out and buy an mp3 player for about $25 AUD.
Useless Apple.
A new morning and I wander south looking for breakfast. It's too early in the morning and nothing is open. I come across a courtyard with a large white dome stupa. I walk around it clockwise three times and study the locals. They are praying or talking or simply going about their morning business.
At the far end of the courtyard hundreds of pigeons wander the ground, patiently anticipating to be fed. People take photos of each other among the birds, beneath the prayer flags, in front of statues surrounded by burning incense and the stains of oil, wax and coloured powders of yesterday's prayers, layered over the hopes and dreams of the day before, and so on unto antiquity.
A child walks through the flock delighting in the way it responds with fluid unity. The child learns the limited control she can exert on her immediate environment. She can push the flock away buy she can't draw it closer. If she waves her arms she can raise part of the flock like a blanket but she can't hold it up in place. If she stops, the flying birds rearrange and settle back down into the blanket.
Back on the streets, people pay religious observance at small shrines nestled by the roadside. I find this reassuring. It demonstrates a people seeking a better world, peace and tolerance and choosing right over wrong. Publicly showing there devotion, including the community and inspiring others without being intrusive.
It is after 8am and shops are serving breakfast. I find a reasonable looking restaurant with English menus. I take note of my order for future reference.
Small pot of chaya masala - 65 rupee
Two fried eggs with tomato and potato 40 rupee
Two pieces of toast with butter - 20 rupee
Tibetan bread - 20 rupee
With tax it adds up to 159 rupee or about $2.40 AUD.
The Tibetan bread is a round, flat and deep fried. About the size of a small plate. It has two parallel slits in the middle spaced like button holes. This one is light and puffy and tastes like a doughnut but with less sugar. Sometimes they don't puff up and they are crispier.
Ten percent tip is standard but I round it up to $3. Not all Nepalese meals are as inexpensive as this one and I would normally expect to pay four to seven dollars. Up in the remote trekking areas a big meal might be as much as twelve dollars. Copious drinks of tea and hot chocolate can easily account for forty percent of the food budget.
