The Daily Momo...

Kathmandu... what can I say... it’s a city of good food, a melting pot of different people (who don’t seem to like to work a lot), and a cesspool... all at the same time.

I’ll start with the good... Although we’re both experiencing a bit of diarrhea currently (it was inevitably going to happen sometime along this trip), the best thing about Kathmandu... you guessed it, the MOMO!  What is a momo?  It’s basically a Nepali dumpling shaped like a Shanghai soupy dumpling (siao long pao)... chicken, vegetable, buffalo (or buff for the Nepalis), and mutton... and steamed, Tibetan style (which basically is just a gyoza shaped dumpling from what I can tell), fried, or some other style I haven’t tried yet.  My favourites are the chicken Nepali or Tibetan style ones!  And they come with a sweet orange coloured sauce too... not sure what it’s made of, but it’s yummy!

The rest of the food in this city is pretty good as well... there’s a bit of everything, but from what I can tell, the standard fare is Nepali, Indian, and Nepali Chinese cuisine.  Nepali curries tend to be a bit soupier than Indian curries and are more flavourful.  The Indian is excellent with tandoori restaurants all over serving all types of Indian food.  And Nepali Chinese, well, so far I’ve only had the noodles which seem similar to any other Chinese noodles, and “chop sueys”.  The only chop suey I’ve tried so far is American Chop Suey which is basically crunchy fried noodles topped with veggies and meats and a fried egg, then doused in a ketchup based tomato sauce... Was decent, but not sure it’ll ever be on my menu again!

As for the people... well, Nepalis are a hodge podge of people of different descents who have all procreated together.  You see Nepalis with faces from Oriental, Indian, and Central Asian/Persian descent, and mixes.  And they all wear different types of clothing from the various ethnicities, such as an Oriental Nepali wearing a sarree.

No, we're not joining the protests! They're dust masks!
And that's Nat's brother, Soichiro, on the left.

One problem though, is that a lot of Nepalis don’t seem to like to work.  Though mostly due to the upcoming deadline for the current legislative assembly to enact new constitution (which the 600(!) assembly members haven’t even been able to agree on a draft yet), there have been calls for constant bandas (general strike protests).  In the week that we’ve been here, we have already experienced 4-5 of them!  And the general protest area is only about 200 metres away from our hotel where the current legislative assembly meets! The first banda we experienced was the worst, where ALL public transportation and businesses were closed.  There was even a protest against the protests that day!  The ones since have been a little less burdensome, with most public transportation services running, and only private vehicles staying off the street.  Actually, it’s rather nice walking during these partial bandas, as the traffic is pretty much non-existent and it’s not dusty.  We’ll see what the next one is like (today, May 28) as it is the deadline day.  It may prove to be quite violent... and we’ve been staying in on the hotel’s grounds relaxing.

Now, the really bad side of Kathmandu... what makes this city a cesspool in my opinion?  Let’s just say that the city’s residents have created a lot of natural composting sites... AKA mounds of trash... everywhere.  You can’t walk a block here without having to walk around, smell, or see trash rotting away in the road, on a vacant lot, or in the river.  On top of that... mounds of sand, gravel, and bricks are all over the place near a construction site... most roads are in disrepair... many buildings look like they will crumble in the smallest earthquake (and they’re expecting a big one sometime)... and there are few traffic rules that are followed... cars, motorcycles, bicycles, animals, and pedestrians all share the road in chaos.  Cars and motorcycles weave through traffic honking at anything and everything to let you know they’re there or to simply tell you to get out of the way, pedestrians cross roads in front of oncoming vehicles, and there are no traffic lights!  If there are lights, they’re usually blinking yellow or red.  At best, there is a cop of two directing traffic at the busier intersections... but then, there are always some people who don’t listen to them... or the cops simply don’t care.  We got stuck in a round point a couple days ago, where cars came into the round point going in the same direction on BOTH sides.  As you would expect, everything came to a grinding halt, and we got out of the taxi and started walking.

And I did mention animals above... so far I’ve seen the following roaming the roads: dogs, a cat, a dead crow, a half-dead rat, chickens, a donkey, cows, monkeys, ducks, pigeons, goats, and bulls.

Outside of Kathmandu is a different story... the countryside is beautiful and full of lush green mountainous fields where the primary industry is farming.  Few machines can be found and all seems to be done manually by hand or with the help of animals.  It’s the simple life!

That’s it from Kathmandu... we’re heading to Pokhara tomorrow for a few days.  I’m told Pokhara is a much more beautiful city and the gateway to the Annapurna range of the Himalayan mountains!  Maybe we’ll do a day of hiking while there!

For photos from Kathmandu:  https://picasaweb.google.com/natsufujita/KathmanduMay2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCMjE1PWbqve7xgE&feat=directlink