Between hate and love in Kathmandu

In general very few things have changed since I’ve started my boring PhD existence in Kathmandu, but I’ll describe the few.
1.  Bicycle or improving surviving skills on the roads of Kathmandu

Local KFC

Night traffic-no lights

Bicycle perfectly expresses my general feeling to Kathmandu-love and hate and nothing in between. I was so happy to get my own vehicle, mostly because now I can reach the shop in 7 minutes and not 15, and that significantly saves my time. In the euphoria of “I’m so independent not-a-tourist” I’ve challenged myself and have never taken a taxi ever since, so I’ve made all my travels by MYSELF! This is totally crazy and I’d never advice anyone to do that unless you have a strong belief in your faith as I do. On the roads you feel deep holes and high bumps. You sometimes get stuck by thousands vehicles on both of your sides, being deathly afraid to move by a centimeter to the right or left. You experience that the road is too small and everyone is fighting for the place, and those who are going on the opposite lane simply go on your lane and you have no escape. Your eyes envy your nose, which is under the protection of the pollution mask. You want to show your third finger to all those people who seem not knowing that the road is for transport. You even stop and close your eyes realizing that you cannot go to any other direction and the only way to survive is to accept the hit (and that actually doesn’t happen). But at the end you laugh loud seeing Nepali turning their head up to maximum to see a “bidasi” (foreigner) on the bike.

I could write poems about me and my bike, and especially about me getting lost and spending an hour for the distance of 2 kilometres. Nevertheless, I am enormously proud of myself of fighting with my fear and topographic idiotism (I hope my colleagues-geographers do not read this!)
2.  Unforgettable (!!!) festivals 

I was lucky (actually unlucky) to be in Kathmandu during the Tihar (alternative to Indian Deepawali) or the festival of lights. My Nepali teacher was very kind to invite me to her place to explore real Laxmi puja (workshipping of goddess Laxmi, the one who is bringing wealth and prosperity).

But that’s what actually happened.

Preparation for Laxmi puja-the feet are left in the corners of the house for Laxmi to find the way

Before worshipping I was taking pictures of preparations in my natural excitement and enjoying an apple. Later we went with my teacher to pick up her German friend. On the way I somehow felt weird with my stomach…. And when we reached the house of the friend, I already occupied toilet throwing out everything I could. The way back was the most horrible experience in my long and colourful life of puking. My entertainment was continuing during the whole sacred night, luckily I’ve had the separate room to enjoy…

But don’t worry about me, next morning I was fresh, thin and almost totally healthy. Lesson learned though-don’t be stupid and peel all the fruits if you can.

In the evening I went to the Tihar+ Newari New Year with my wonderful hosts. Newaris are one of the ethnicities in Nepal and they have New Year in November. Woman in red sarees, many lights and symbolic worships, traditional food…well, just look at the picture.

Newari New Year

   3. Cold or winter in my house

Another topic for me to write a lot. Yes, it is damn cold here. The temperature might rise up to 25 during the day, but in reality only during few hours it is so warm and at nights it is 2-3… Don’t laugh, dear Northern people! When you have -30, you make walks and then happily go inside the warm house, drink tea and enjoy snow from your perfectly isolated window. Here I wake up and see my breath in the room. Most of the time the temperature inside the house is much lower than outside and most of the people wear hats in the house, also when they sleep. I needed to include 2 workouts during the day, make daily shoppings and finally, to give up and to buy a gas heater. Actually soon I got too much poison in my lungs and blood and refused that improvement too… So now I am just patiently waiting for the spring and hope to survive even colder months.
 4.  The story of high morale

Research visa is something so important and annoying at the same time. Why would I need to get “no-objection” letter from Embassy of Latvia, stating that they agree that I stay in Nepal? At the end I called plenty of institutions and managed to “squize” out of Consulate of Latvia in Riga some stupid sentences like “in general we don’t object anyone to study in Nepal”.

But the story is not about that but about another lucky day of mine.

I spent another hour in the local bank creating another account and becoming very ethnocentric, thinking about the inefficiency of people working there. After that I grabbed my map, put the mask on the nose and head toward immigration office. Being situated very close (some 4 km) within one hour I was rather close to the highest peak of my hate to this unorganized and not understandable city rather to immigration office. Nevertheless, miracles happen and I reached my destination, stopping shortly to the nearby shop to make a photocopy of my passport.

!!!!

My wallet with 150 euros was gone.

…

Having faith in general honesty of Nepali I didn’t want to believe in theft, so I imagined me dropping the wallet in the bank. Without any hope my feet were slowly paddling and my emotions almost cope with getting lost on the way back again.

The wallet was actually there. Found no in the bank though, but by security guard outside the bank.

That’s the story of my lucky day. And about how my ethnocentric hate has transformed into long bow towards the sincerity, honesty and kindness.

I should be more careful with my thoughts; otherwise these lessons of life are a bit too hard.
5. Work. Work?

Learning Nepali

Only two nights more and I will reach Far East Nepal. So much looking forward.