Mystery Place

Now that I’m done traveling for a bit, I’ve been able to settle down into a somewhat “normal” routine. I hate myself for using quotes, but it’s hard to consider anything I’m doing normal because it doesn’t involve a job/making money. I wish I could enjoy this (oh so) temporary life of leisure and exploration but without a next clear step, I’m finding it difficult. So, beyond looking for a job in either Nepal or South Korea or the US or Mystery Place, this is what I’ve been doing.

Studying!
Guess what sucks? Having people talk shit about you in a language you don’t understand but you still know they’re talking shit about you because they’re pointing/laughing/staring. I want to be able to have a good Nepali retort besides “hajur” – which is the formal way to say “how can I help you?” Anyhow, Saroj has been teaching Mer and me Nepali. He comes about three times a week for a lesson that lasts as long as Mer and I can concentrate (usually about ten minutes). Here’s Mer studying hard:



Wandering!
I’ve pretty much exhausted most of the Lonely Planet tourist suggestions about what to do in Kathmandu. This means I have started wandering the streets and it has been extremely difficult to do because I despise not having a plan or a goal. But it’s good for me to get out of that regimented mode or something. Plus, I end up seeing cool stuff that I wasn’t expecting. Like, boys bathing in pretty pools with water that may or may contain giardia:



I went to the Nepal Tourism Council to check out their brochures (aka I had nothing else to do) and I came across, possibly, the scariest market on earth. I decided to call it Hades because I’m snobby, but really it’s pretty accurate because you descend under these blue tarps and enter an eternal clothing/fabric/shoes/cosmetics bazaar.



Quoting People!
As Mer so brilliantly said: “You can’t go a day without seeing someone carrying something giant and heavy.” The best thing that I've seen so far, in this vein, was a little man carrying a huge refrigerator. This yellow thing is pretty exciting though:



Festivals!
I decided that I really had to see the current festival called Indra Jatra. Mer had no interest and even Shusila who has been taking me to all the festivals didn’t care about Indra Jatra. I forced them both to come with me anyways. Apparently, it wasn’t even really happening the day I said we should go (though someone told me it was!). Luckily, Meredith is trying to buy a human skull for a friend so that spiced up the evening with a little black market fun. Here’s Mer sitting among some Nepali's, the human-skull dealer, and the human-skull dealer's bodyguard. There’s a $500 human skull in that black plastic bag:



All we saw concerning Indra Jatra were some chariots (for the next day), a sculpture that’s usually hidden, people getting tikas, and candles that made for an awesome picture:



The End!
I’d like to conclude this post with my least favorite part of Nepal. Unfortunately and sadly, there’s a lot of people begging and a lot of people aggressively and overwhelming hocking their goods at you. I came across this shirt that so succinctly summed everything up:



If you can't read it, it says: No Rickshaw, No Hashish, No Tiger Balm, No Change Money, No One Rupee, No Problem.