Well I arrived in Kathmandu Nepal last night. Nepal is very different than Thailand, I am in a very touristy area filled with backpackers, the Thamal area of the city. Things are more expensive here than Thailand, the room I rented is more expensive ($33 CAD) than the room I had in Bangkok and had no hot water, dirty sheets, a smelly interior, a shitty little TV that did not work and a heater/air conditioner that sort of worked but not really.
So far I love the Nepalese people even in the touristy areas they are decent folks that like to joke a lot. I have found the Nepalese people extremely friendly and helpful, they go of their way to help you. There is also more desperation, more poverty here than in Thailand, more begging and more aggressive sales pitches on the streets, people quite often call out to you or follow you, trying to sell you stuff.
The buildings here are tall, Kathmandu is built into a valley so space is at a premium, its like San Francisco in that way, many talk 4 or 5 story buildings with lots of narrow stairways. The other thing I noticed was candles in the rooms, I believe power failures are quite common so the candles are an emergency lighting system. There is also a large police presence, the streets especially at night have many police check points and armed soldiers and police walking around with shotguns and the like. There were contested national elections here a few days ago so that's probably the reason for all the police.
I have limited computer time today but will write as much as I can, some of the older titled blogs might need to be written back in Canada where I will have much more time for such things.
So far I love the Nepalese people even in the touristy areas they are decent folks that like to joke a lot. I have found the Nepalese people extremely friendly and helpful, they go of their way to help you. There is also more desperation, more poverty here than in Thailand, more begging and more aggressive sales pitches on the streets, people quite often call out to you or follow you, trying to sell you stuff.
The buildings here are tall, Kathmandu is built into a valley so space is at a premium, its like San Francisco in that way, many talk 4 or 5 story buildings with lots of narrow stairways. The other thing I noticed was candles in the rooms, I believe power failures are quite common so the candles are an emergency lighting system. There is also a large police presence, the streets especially at night have many police check points and armed soldiers and police walking around with shotguns and the like. There were contested national elections here a few days ago so that's probably the reason for all the police.
I have limited computer time today but will write as much as I can, some of the older titled blogs might need to be written back in Canada where I will have much more time for such things.
