Pragatinagar

I had a horrible sleep last night. I kept waking up and in the morning I was incredibly nauseous. I must have eaten something bad.. Of course I have no problems with food and digestion until the day I need to leave! I couldn't even eat my breakfast. Oh well, thankfully Advil at least took the edge off of the sickness.

First thing in the morning I started packing but was interrupted when Beda recieved a phone call from Ganesh. Something was going on with the laptop, it had reverted back to Japanese. So I went back over to Ganesh's house before breakfast to take a look. The issue was resolved quickly, just a matter of Windows needing to update (typical!). And I guess the Nepali font, Preeti, didn't get installed on the computer so I showed him how to do that as well. It was a short visit as I needed to be back for an early breakfast so we could on the road to Kathmandu. But, one last goodbye is never a bad thing :)

As I mentioned, I couldn't handle eating anything this morning so I had a glass of warm milk and a banana before finishing packing. Walking down the stairs and off the property was far more difficult that I thought it was going to be :( Hugs aren't really a part of the culture here so I waved and said bye and all that business. It was sad having Bobita, Grandma, and the neighbour watching me leave, also sad. But, Beda and I made it to town without any problems and caught the first bus to Kathmandu that we saw. Thankfully it was a deluxe tourist bus and there was plenty of legroom and space. I don't think I could have handled one of the micro buses with my stomach in the condition that it was. By some miracle I actually managed to sleep the majority of the ride and it passed fairly quickly. I managed to keep down a couple bananas and an orange on the way and drank some water that Bobita gave me before leaving. She mixed in some powder with the water which is supposed to help with stomach upset. It seems to have worked! The mixture made the water look like urine and it smelled like boiled eggs. Thankfully it tasted like nothing, else I would have lost all the contents of my stomach immediately. And on the bus that would have been very unfortunate!

We hopped on the bus at about 11 and made it to the bus park in Kathmandu at about 5:30, stopping twice along the way for food and toilet breaks. Coming back into Kathmandu I remembered my love hate relationship with the city. It's dusty and busy and chaotic. But thankfully Sudarsan's house is outside of the busy tourist and central district. The walk from the bus park to his house took about 30 minutes and was rather uneventful. I've gotten used to the staring and have been able to primarily ignore it. At least in this area there aren't tons of people trying to sell you things!

When we arrived we settled in and I took a room below the main living area. Sudarsan rents out the spare rooms to university students and guests like myself. The students were very curious, continually peeking through the door that I didn't close fully but didn't intrude. I suspect that at some point I'll talk to them and maybe make some friends. Beda and Sudarsan disappeared somewhere and I took the opportunity to have my first hot shower in a month! It was very nice :) but not as nice as I had expected it to be, the bucket showers really aren't that bad as long as it isn't cold. The hot water was very nice though..

The walk to Sudarsan's house from the bus park took about 30 minutes and was uneventful. He lives outside of the city centre in a much quieter, residential area. I already prefer it to the hustle that I remember from Thamel.

Eventually we had dinner, prepared by Sudarsan's wife Sarita. After dinner Beda, Sudarsan, and I retreated to my room and we played some cards and drank some beers. Sudarsan also owns a shop that sells primarily liquor so we had lots of options to choose from!Read more