Travelogue: Kathmandu
4am. I’m reminded of the unhappiness of those friends gone to China for extended periods of time. It seems there is a lengthy adjustment period to this “alone in Asia” business. I’ve been battling a scourge for a year and a half, maybe more and it threatens to tear my brain a part, here, in this colorful city in the mountains, in this lovely guest house with its curious smells and dirty light switches. The days draw near to my 24th birthday. Another restless birthday.
I’m the most antisocial backpacker
* * *
Kathmandu smells like the home of a photographer with whom I’d had a brief but torrid affair. The incense, I can only imagine, has the purpose of masking the very medieval smells of a non-existent sewage system, which allows the mud to come to my knees. I’ve become an expert at dodging water buffalo and impatient motorcyclists who deem it necessary to honk their horns at you until you think you’ll go deaf or mad. I almost tossed my cookies after finding myself in a butcher’s labyrinth. These Thamel streets are as dark as they are narrow and full of unsanitary perils. My afternoon is spent in the perusal of light-weight gifts to fill up the other half of my pitiful backpacker’s backpack. So far, its mainly tea and paper lanterns. I dreadfully muddied my only pair of pants...
I’m the most antisocial backpacker
* * *
Kathmandu smells like the home of a photographer with whom I’d had a brief but torrid affair. The incense, I can only imagine, has the purpose of masking the very medieval smells of a non-existent sewage system, which allows the mud to come to my knees. I’ve become an expert at dodging water buffalo and impatient motorcyclists who deem it necessary to honk their horns at you until you think you’ll go deaf or mad. I almost tossed my cookies after finding myself in a butcher’s labyrinth. These Thamel streets are as dark as they are narrow and full of unsanitary perils. My afternoon is spent in the perusal of light-weight gifts to fill up the other half of my pitiful backpacker’s backpack. So far, its mainly tea and paper lanterns. I dreadfully muddied my only pair of pants...
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