A Wanderer-1

Chronologically speaking I am supposed to write about my visit to Kathmandu's Durbar Square now because this was what I did on my second day in Kathmandu. A lot of thoughts, however, have been on my mind this morning, so I decided to post a relatively random post here, which I shall name the first of the "A Wanderer" series.

In retrospect Nepal is a very tourist-friendly country. Even if the air pollution is quite serious, the streets can be a little overwhelming, boiled tap water can still be doubtful to drink for some people, and the power may not be on when one needs it the most, for the most part, however, Nepal has tried its best to accommodate the needs of foreign travelers, and this effort is most apparent in its capital Kathmandu and the second most touristy city, Pokhara. Kathmandu is a rather sizable city, but interestingly, instead of seeing hotels spreading all over the city, a very touristy district called Thamel was created for foreign tourists, completely catering to all the tourists' needs. Thamel is tiny in geographic terms but as a foreigner it is the easiest place to live. In Thamel you can find all kinds of stores and services: numerous trekking/rafting/canyoning/kayaking companies, restaurants selling quite authentic western food, Internet cafes, second day laundry service at 50 rupees per kilogram, bars, bookstores, too many cashmere shops, CD stores, souvenir shops, and the list could go on. Many tourists find it too easy to just stay in Kathmandu forever because you only need to walk a radius of less than 100 meters and all your needs can be satisfied. As a tourist, I of course found this considerate setup to be fantastic because to be honest we as tourists do have a lot of needs that are different from the locals, for instance buying toilet paper, having to use the Internet and having to eat western food, etc. I did find Thamel to be a blessing. But at the same time I really detested Thamel because the idea of building a district just for tourists seemed completely ridiculous. If one only confined her/himself in Thamel and went everywhere by taxi, how would s/he be able to see what the real Kathmandu is like? Or is Thamel part of the real Kathmandu already? Honestly I still have no answer for myself. During my time in Kathmandu I tried to take local transportation whenever I could, which means I had to walk out of Thamel to catch a bus or a safa, and I did see the rest of Kathmandu being quite different than Thamel. It was not in a bad way at all. I actually saw a city, a city with tons of busy people and traffic, and big roads with car lanes, not the only few tiny streets in Thamel. But still I felt so remoted from the city and I felt myself so stupid to have to wipe my ass using toilet paper for example. It is after all a lot cleaner and environmentally-friendly to just wash my butt using my hand. I guess I did try to do what the locals would do whenever I could, but I felt like just staying in Thamel confined myself to a ridiculously small comfort zone which I would never be able to escape from. I did appreciate Thamel but at the same time I had a lot of sentiments towards this touristy design and I still don't feel very comfortable with this touristy idea.

I don't know. This is a very complex feeling.