First Day in Nepal

Yesterday after arriving we went for a walk, but I was too tired to go on a big trip through town! Today Jakob could use the 'company car' from his wife's NGO (she works for a Danish development organisation, MS), so we drove out of Kathmandu to the institute where I will study. There was no-one there for me to complete the booking process, but we talked to one of the monks who teaches the course and had a look through the window of the temple and saw the very big Buddha inside. The institute is on a hill-top and there is a very good view in all directions over Kathmandu valley. I think it will be an inspiring place to study.

Then we drove back through the crazy streets to fetch his oldest child from the kindergarten. Driving in Kathmandu is very simple. There seems to be only a few rules. Drive in the middle of the street, unless something is coming in the opposite direction, then drive on the left. You can overtake on the left or the right, it doesn't matter. You only have to look forwards - don't worry about what is behind you. If you are behind someone, sound your horn to let them know. In fact, sound your horn every 60 seconds anyway - everybody does this. If there is space on the road that is as wide as your car plus 2 centimetres, drive into it. If the space is not as wide as your car, sound your horn and drive into it - the other people will move to the side. If they don't move to the side, sound your horn again!

Since there are so many cars, nothing moves faster than the official speed limit, which is 20 km/h!! So accidents are not too serious. If there is an accident, there are no problems deciding whose fault it was: the largest vehicle is always guilty.

The funniest thing about the traffic: all of the taxis are little white Suzuki cars that look exactly like my little old red car I had in Germany!

I saw the Parliament buildings from the car, and we drove from one side of the city to the other, so I have a very good impression of what it is like here. We also went to the offices of the Danish development organisation and to the most luxurious supermarket, where you can buy everything, including lots of European specialities (Ritter Sport, baked beans, German sausage etc) and then we bought fruit and vegetables from small roadside sellers - a great contrast! Did you know that bananas grow in Nepal? I didn't. They are quite small and taste very good.

For lunch both days we have eaten the typical Nepalese food of rice and dhal (lentil soup/sauce), but in the evenings we have eaten European style. Today we went to an organic restaurant, and I ate burgers made from wild boar (for my German friends, Wildschweinbuletten !) I'm sure I will write a lot more about Nepalese food in future blog entries.

The Nepalese people seem very friendly. The first thing that struck me is the diversity - the people you see in the street are very very different from each other. And that is a fact about this country - there are many different cultures living in different valleys, often they have their own languages. And all of them send some people to the capital city, of course!