Well, it's our last day in Kathmandu, at least until we return from our Annapurna trek in a few weeks. As with all of our recent temporary homes, this city is starting to feel so familiar just as we're leaving. But I have to admit I'm pretty eager to trade some of the smog, congestion and touts for some mountains and open space.
We seemed to have arrived at possibly one of the most critical moments in Nepal's recent political history, only two days after their elections. Talking to a few of the locals at our hotel and some shops, it seems that the people really are quite divided over what they feel is best for the country's future. The Maoists continue to hold an overwhelming lead as the election results still trickle in, and the rebel support is certainly obvious here, between the prevalent red flags and the rallies marching through the city center. However, it's hard to interpret this, when it's contrasted with the fear and frustration of those who see a future under Maoist control as complete economic and social collapse.
On that note ... the next few weeks up in the mountains should be interesting to say the least, although right now I'm equally nervous as excited. Our trek is is supposedly one of the uber-touristy ones, lined with comforts like your occasional lodge and tea shop, but rumor has it that it can get pretty freakin chilly ... like negative, negative degrees F. And considering that we haven't done much exercise besides lift the occasional cup of Nepali Masala tea, I have little faith that my O2-deprived muscles can carry both my body and pack up a 17,000 ft mountain.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
blogger rant, catching up
My blog having been frozen for over 3 weeks now, it's time for a brief rant about Blogger's spam filtering functionality. Apparently, my writing resembles spam so they locked my account and required that I request a "review" three times before confirming that I am in fact, a human being. After finally giving up hope, I created a new blog at Wordpress just moments ago, only to discover that Blogger's promise to unlock my blog was not empty. Fantastic, but in the meantime, I've lost weeks of precious posts to my early AD. Grr.
In the coming posts I will attempt to access some of the spared memories while they're still relatively fresh, but they may trickle in slowly. My last post places us in that magical land of Japan, which already feels like years ago. In the past few weeks we've trekked westward to Hiroshima, then through China from Beijing to Hong Kong and Chengdu, and finally arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal yesterday. Since China isn't fond of the concept of free speech and blogger.com was inaccessible anyway, I suppose my posts may have been limited even without the spam tag.
The contrast between Nepal and China is stronger than I expected, while that between India and Nepal is negligible. It seems that the further west we go, the more chaotic and well - dirty - the lands become. However, there's something comforting in the familiarity of the incessant honks and bells, roaming cows and aromas of spice and tea. Although our itinerary isn't exactly working out as planned, I don't think we could have chosen a more exciting time to visit this part of the world. With China pulling the reins on Tibet, they have closed the region off to visitors with the (unlikely) promise to reopen borders May 1. So while we've been unsuccessful sneaking into the country, our flight from Chengdu to Kathmandu yesterday plopped us right into the Lhasa airport for an eerie layover. The only flight at the abandoned airport, we were fortunate enough to sneak a peak at the surrounding mountains and breath a couple breaths of Tibetan air. I must admit that my anger towards China grew exponentially every minute in that airport. And Nepal is no less politically "vibrant" right now ...
Hmm ... apparently we've OD-ed on this internet cafe for the day, so more to come soon on "free" Nepalese elections and tracing our recent footsteps through Asia.
In the coming posts I will attempt to access some of the spared memories while they're still relatively fresh, but they may trickle in slowly. My last post places us in that magical land of Japan, which already feels like years ago. In the past few weeks we've trekked westward to Hiroshima, then through China from Beijing to Hong Kong and Chengdu, and finally arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal yesterday. Since China isn't fond of the concept of free speech and blogger.com was inaccessible anyway, I suppose my posts may have been limited even without the spam tag.
The contrast between Nepal and China is stronger than I expected, while that between India and Nepal is negligible. It seems that the further west we go, the more chaotic and well - dirty - the lands become. However, there's something comforting in the familiarity of the incessant honks and bells, roaming cows and aromas of spice and tea. Although our itinerary isn't exactly working out as planned, I don't think we could have chosen a more exciting time to visit this part of the world. With China pulling the reins on Tibet, they have closed the region off to visitors with the (unlikely) promise to reopen borders May 1. So while we've been unsuccessful sneaking into the country, our flight from Chengdu to Kathmandu yesterday plopped us right into the Lhasa airport for an eerie layover. The only flight at the abandoned airport, we were fortunate enough to sneak a peak at the surrounding mountains and breath a couple breaths of Tibetan air. I must admit that my anger towards China grew exponentially every minute in that airport. And Nepal is no less politically "vibrant" right now ...
Hmm ... apparently we've OD-ed on this internet cafe for the day, so more to come soon on "free" Nepalese elections and tracing our recent footsteps through Asia.
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