Nepali Socialites, Crazy Scots, Polite Canadians

So the past few days have been kinda crazy.

I went from living in my hotel room only leaving for work, to go to Java for some internet time, or to grab a fresh roll of toilet paper, to going out to weird clubs, meeting Nepali socialites, and hanging out with some crazy Scots. There is no "short story" on this one so I am just gonna go for the long one.

Monday was the first day I started feeling better from my "Delhi Belly" as my Scottish friends call it. So I tried to haed to Bhaktipur to do some work at the Women's Center. I called Binod (Presidend of Citta Himalaya) and asked if he or Prakash would be around today. The short answer was "No." The long answer was if I left for Bhaktipur immediately I might have 20 minutes to do some work. So I asked him if Tomorrow would be good. Turns out Tuesday is the beginning of the "full swing" of Tihar, so all the offices would be closed and Binod said he would not be available. So that completely shot all my hopes of getting any work done there before Friday.

I decided to head over to Java and grab a cup of tea and read my new book, Skinny Legs and All by Tim Robbins. I was working on the internet when I was approached by an Indian guy named Maneesh. He was having some difficulty connecting to the internet and asked if I could help out. I tried, but just as we were getting somewhere the power went off. So Maneesh invited me to sit down and have some company. We started talking and I found out some interesting things about Maneesh.

1. He is originally from Winnipeg Canada
2. He is a Med Student at a teaching hospital in Pokhara
3. He was meeting some Nepali friends

He invited me to hang out with him that night. We met up with a few friends of his and went to a place called the Reggae Club. It is a rooftop Rock Bar in Thamel Kathmandu. The band was simply excellent. The lead singer was a little Nepali guy with a pony tail and he was belting out the Rolling Stones, U2, Bob Marley, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and many others perfectly. I was simply amazed.

After the club closed at 11PM (everything in Kathmandu closes at 11 due to a curfew) We exchanged numbers and Email information and decided to meet for brunch at Java.

The following day I met him and his friend Nabina at Java and we went to a really good Indian food place called Anatolia. Nabs is a very sweet, very interesting, very rich Nepali 20 something who just finished her Nursing school and is planning on moving to New York to be a nurse. She would not be out of place on Park Avenue.

After lunch we met up with a friend of Nabs named Amit and he drove us around Kathmandu. Amit is a well to do owner of an Import/Export company. We ended up at a very chic place called Ga Zebo on the Kings Way. We all sat around and talked and had a few drinks. During the course of this little get together about 10 of Nabina and Amit's friends showed up. All these people are the daughters or sons of very well to do Nepalis. I went from knowing near no one in Nepal to hanging out with the rich hipsters. It was surreal.

I got a ride back to Thamel from Amit and while walking back to my hotel I got stopped in a lot of pedestrian traffic. It was here that I ran into my new Scottish friends. The asked me if I knew anywhere good to eat, and when I responded with more than one option they insisted that I join them for dinner. So we went to the Roadhouse and had some delicious Pizza. Turns out these Scots had been traveling in India for the past month and a half. Needless to say they ravaged the pizza. After doing some club hopping with my new friends it was time to say goodnight. We agreed to meet in the morning at Pumpernickle for some breakfast.

Today (Wednesday) I hung around with the Scots and took them to most of the interesting places that Michael had showed me. We headed down to New Road to try to find an SD card for their camera, hit up the bead market to pick up some trinkets, and even tried to get some of the Samosa's that Michael had boasted to be the best in the world. Everything went fine except for the Samosa. Turns out they shut down the shop for Tihar.

Today everywhere we went was a HUGE party. People had set up speakers in the streets and were blasting Nepali Techno and dancing. The best way to describe it is about 2 steps down from a riot. At around 5pm today we decided to take a break and try to get a nap in so that we could be refreshed for tonight's festivities.

Well the nap never came for me because I headed over to the internet cafe and met up with a very nice Canadian man in his 60's named Ken. He asked me for some help because he was not sure if he was sending email properly. I agreed, but all the computers at the Cafe were occupied. He urged me to accompany him for a cup of tea.

Turns out Ken is 67 and just got back from a 14 day trek around one of the mountains near Everest. This guy was in shape. We had some polite conversation regarding what we were doing in Nepal and wht we did back home and our families. After which he again urged me to accompany him for some dinner. He asked me if I knew any good spots. All I could think was here I go again. I asked him what he was in the mood for and he replied "Pizza." So yet another trip to the Roadhouse for me!

After dinner we went back to the internet cafe and I helped him with his email issues, and that essentially has been my past few days. Michael comes back tomorrow, and I need to clean the hotel room. It got a little messy due to my convalescence. My new Nepali friends insisted that I attend a Halloween Party on Friday, so hopefully I will have time to attend that. And my Scottish friends have just walked in and we are about to head out for my 3rd fun night in a row!

Thank you to everyone who comments, its nice to hear from you guys!