Nepal .. The Final Days 1

Now that we've arranged new flights to Canada, we have only a few more days left to see some of the sights in this part of the old city of Kathmandu.

Even a walk down any street outside of Thamel (the insane district of shops, lodges and restaurants most tourists see) has sights startling to western eyes.

For instance, yesterday, as we walked the couple of km to the airline office, we passed a man with leprosy begging on the street.  He had stumps for hands, most toes were missing or bandaged and his face was disfigured.  And there he sat as literally hundreds of people walked around him.

A little further on was a woman begging with a young child.  Not a young child as we are accustomed to, one with energy to burn, active, but one lying on the sidewalk under a thin rag.

Another child with disfigured legs also begging.

Only feet away a stream of cars and motorcycles race along, horns honking, their acrid exhaust fouling the air.

A row of little taxis wait along the street.  Nearly every driver offers to drive you somewhere.  Similarly a row of rickshaw drivers.  Even as you walk down the street, taxi drivers will slow down as they pass by and solicit your business.

Then there are, literally, the tiger balm hawkers.  Salesmen carrying flutes for sale.  Men with small handmade fiddles, trying to convince you to buy.  Shopkeepers trying to entice you into their shops.  Offers to shine my dusty hiking boots, cut my hair, give me a shave, a massage, anything.  "No buy, just look".  And managing to look hurt and offended when you shake your head and walk on.  The life of a third world entrepreneur.

The contrast couldn't be more stark as, later in the evening, the roar of wide-bodied jets washes over this part of the city bringing First World voyeurs to Kathmandu and whisking them away again, as it will us in 4 days.