The Further Adventures of Ms. E: Nepal week 2

A shrine. There are lots of religions and lots of shrines in Nepal.

So this week was significantly less eventful, at least s regards big adventures. There was some rain, some protests, and some Jacob having to do work things to get ready for our trip to Thailand. Also I've had stomach cramps on and off since about Tuesday- so I've spent a lot of time chilling at the apartment, having a "staycation" over a "docation". It's still been nice- aside from stomch pains, I've been enjoying the bootlegged dvds and books and lolling around.

However, we did go to Thamel- the touristy part of town for a fun jaunt. Highlights include:

picking out fantasy novels for Jacob's education in the genre,In return for me picking out some fantasy novels for Jacob, he introduced me to Tungba. Tungba is a big container (on the left) of fermented millet, which you pour hot water (in the pink thermos on the right) over in order to make a hot mildy alcholic drink. Jacob thinks it's delicious. I think it tastes like if you mixed hot apple cider and milk together. I also think a good English name for Tungba would be "Tea Beer".

disparaging the overall dorkiness of all tourists who tend to dress for all contingencies of weather while in the middle of the downtown (hats with neck flaps? Hiking sticks? Rugged sandals and those pants which zip into shorts? Come on! Its so embarassing.)

Here is a interestingly worded sign, a typical storefront in Thamel and some dirty dirty hippy backpacker type. It ecapsulates the neighborhood quite nicely.

Getting an overload of rainbow colored hippy goods on sale to tourists. Its a little like being in Santee Alley- the stores just repeat in a confusing blur along circular streets- you quickly loose any sense of direction you were pretending to have. Mask store, felt store, jewlery store, rug store, patchwork skirt store, singing bowl store and then, yes! Back to mask store again- but is it the same one, or new one?

Buying a Kashmiri silk rug from Jacob's buddy's brother. It's gorgeous.

My rug, sneak preview.

Also fun this week we went to the North Korean state-owned restaurant- one of five rumored outposts maintained by the goverment where all the waitresses are supposedly groomed at elite North Korean hospitality colleges. After our kimchi, dumplings and BBQ pork we were treated to the surreal "show" which included deafening performances by singers, accordian players, drummers, keyboards, dance routines, costume changes and all accompanied by a huge karaoke machine. We assume the songs were paens of praise to the dear leader. All the performers were also the waitresses. And there were sequins galore. Totally bizarre and Jacob is correct in pointing out that it is not to be missed if you are KTM. I hear rumors that there is another branch in Cambodia.

And that's about it for now.

Traffic in KTM is crazy. I took a picture of this intersection because they had stoplights and sidewalks here neither of which are usually part of the equation.