Day 237: How Not to Recover

Kathmandu Valley is full of temples and stupas, and it would have taken me a lot longer than the two real days I had to see everything, even if I was at full health. Unfortunately I wasn't even at full health, or anywhere near it, and my priority was really to rest and gain back energy, so I didn't get to do all that much sightseeing.

My first full day in the city I didn't venture too far from the hostel. I wandered around the surrounding streets of Thamel, which is where a lot of the backpackers stay and so full of touristy shops and restaurants. I walked as far as the historic Kathmandu Durbar Square and down to the Bishnumati River. The streets were really run down here, and the river was choked with garbage, so I didn't feel too keen on exploring deeper in.

The evening began with rambling conversations involving such characters as an English drug dealer, a French space engineer and an Australian hippie and led to us going to a bar with a live band that was performing an entertaining mix of everything from Pink Floyd to Radiohead to traditional Nepalese music. Deeper into the night we ended up at a Nepalese club, which was a fascinating experience. In western culture, dancìng in clubs is largely female, and the males tend to just all do the same boring stuff and try not to make a fool of themselves (at least this is my personal observation). In Nepal, people go for it. There seems to be a lot of Indian/Bollywood influence, but people (guys especially) are just there to be active and have a good time. The hilarious part was the discovery that because we're white, we apparently are assumed to know what we are doing. This meant that no matter how wildly/terribly we danced, they would subtely copy us, absorbing our stylish western dances. Fun night out, but long nights of drinking and shishas is probably not the best way to recover from severe illness.