I had been advised to go to the Thamel area after arrival for restaurants and shopping.i catch a taxi and after one of the longest two kilometer rides of my life, get to thamel. if anyone has been to bangkok, it is like khao san road without a kfc or mcdonalds.
i’m wandering around, soaking in the fact that i’m in NEPAL, when i hear NAMASTE! NAMASTE MADAM. so i turn around, it is a youngish guy. oh, what are you doing? walking around? would you like me to show you around? no thank you, i don’t want to take you away from your hanging out. oh no, i’m on holiday and so i’m just bored at home. so you went out lookin for random tourists to talk to? i like to show our guests around. i’m going to durbur square. i’ll take you.
okay, fine.
so we walk around thamel a bit and then to durbur. on the way we stop at many temples and he explains to me six of the important hindu gods, their methods of transportation (which also helps in identifying the gods’ temples), and other random facts. as we’re heading to durbur square, he starts mentioning other tourists he’s shown around and how when they are really happy with what he tells them, they sometimes give him a little money.
fine, okay. i wasn’t looking for a tour guide but whatever.
we go to the temple of the living goddess, the kumari. it is a little girl chosen at about eight years old to live in a temple and she only goes out in public in the square once or twice a year (i’d kind of stoppedlistening carefully at this point. it had been two hours, it was hot, and i’d just gotten off the plane earlier that day) and there’s a little window in the temple at the top floor that every day she looks out at the gathering crowd. we were there after four pm, which is a bit late for the kumari. but the priest saw the gathering people (ten of us i think) and gave a signal and the kumari came to herwindow and looked decidedly non-plussed at the folks who had gathered to see her. she kind of waved a bit then turned around to go do kumari things. she was a very pretty little girl. when she starts menstruating she’ll be sent from the temple and they have to find another kumari. but she can never marry. i thought it sounded a little lonely, but her friends can come visit and play with her so…
after that we went to a ‘tower’ which was in fact a terrace restaurant where we had a drink. then he started telling me about the other tours he could give, including a motorcycle tour. i did NOT spend my childhood watching lifetime television for women movies along the lines of the tori spelling classic ‘mother may i walk with danger?’ to get on the back of a motorcycle with a lone nepalese man and be taken off into ‘the mountains’. i make non committal noises then the subject of payment comes up.he asks if i’m happy with the tour. yes. would you like to give me a tip? i ask how much he usually gets. he’s all, whatever you think. i then say,just tell me how much, as i’m tired of the back and forth.
25 euros.
for two hours.
25 euros is i don’t even know how many rupees. it is 66 rupees to the dollar (which at that time i thought it was 40, so the price sounded even higher) and i only had a $20 (well, i had a $100 as well but i’m sure not handing that out) and then about 1500 rupees. so i say, well, i don’t have any euros and i don’t carry cash on me. i have 1500 rupees. at which point he looks extremely EXTREMELY unhappy and says, rupeesaren’t worth anything.
so i offer the 20 and a thousand rupees and say, that’s all i got.
and i’m thinking, shouldn’t you have mentioned this whole price thing before we went on the little walk??? you either should have chosen your mark better or made it clear that you are an expensive tour guide.
looking disappointed still, he pockets the cash, swallows his coke, then mentions his motorbike and that he can take me home instead of me getting a taxi.
i ask if he has another helmet. no, but backseatriders aren’t required y law to have them. ahhh. that sets my mind at ease.
after much back and forth, i ultimately decide to take the ride becuase 1)i spend too much time not doing things and 2) i felt he owed me a ride back to my hotel after the high cost of the tour.
he goes to get his bike and rocks up in this speed racer type outfit,complete with matching helmet. insane. no helmet for me (i know I KNOW I KNOW) and we ZOOOOOOM off. til we hit traffic. at which point we slow down a bit and then see a truck smack into another motorbike! and he’s all, see i’ma good driver! and says this as he takes his eyes off the road and turns to look at me! then as we’re driving he’s turning to explain things to me, all of to which i reply keep your eyes ahead! then the traffic gets realy bad, so we start driving on the sidewalk.
and i’m thinking
i never thought
i’d be riding a motorbike in kathmandu
with knight rider.
Tags: nepal
