Third world countries are crowded. People live their lives on the streets and there seems little opportunity for private space.
Two recent examples:
During one of our walks through Thamel (one of the classic tourist regions of KTM), we encountered a domestic dispute. What we first heard was yelling and then we saw a man lashing out at two or three boys in a cart. We immediately detoured so as not to risk getting caught up in the fracas.
In less than a minute, a crowd gathered and people up and down the street leaned out to see and hear better.
During our city tour, we visited Pashtupati, the place along the river where the dead are cremated. There were a few going on and two just starting. The other bank of the river, where we were, was fairly crowded, all watching the dead being handled.
The onlookers and my presence as one of them, made me somewhat uncomfortable, but I guess privacy is not expected in such places.
Additionally, as we hike along the trail, we are almost walking through people's houses. Everyone's life is lived in the street, or the trail, on the front step. We walk by people cleaning corn, weaving baskets, washing at the water tap. These villages, or collections of houses, seem much as they would have been decades or centuries (?) ago.
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