- Mero naam Nafisa ho, ra ma IDS Nepalmaa kaam garchhu. Impressed?
I have been taking Nepali language classes for 2 weeks, ending this Friday. So far, the locals do respond well to our sincere efforts to learn the language but, more than anything, I think they like it because it provides them a whole lot of comedic relief. - On Saturday, Fatima and I crossed our first big intersection. This is a pretty big deal because no one uses traffic lights in Nepal and the street chaos is NUTS. Other than the claw marks she imprinted onto my arm, I'd say it went pretty well!
- No one in this country seems to believe I’m from Canada; everyone says I'm brown so I must be from India. When I try to explain that though I do have Indian ancestry, I was born in Canada, they don’t believe me. Apparently you have to be white to be from Canada, and your parents must be black if they’re from East Africa. Someone needs to teach them about immigration and globalization!
On Sunday morning, Fatima and I moved into our new place and we both have nice, big rooms. Unfortunately enough, good sleep is still lacking because our neighbour is a dog breeder (11 dogs counted so far) and the barking continues into the wee hours of the morning. - The LARGE majority of Nepal’s streets are unnamed so getting directions is just about impossible. Shopkeepers will either not recognize the place you’re looking for, or they’ll point you in completely different directions. Instead, addresses are based on main points of interest; for example, someone would say they live two rights and a left from the Trendy Café, behind the blue gates.
- Saida, a fellow INDEVOUR, finally arrived to Nepal late last night. We’re very excited to finally have her here!
- Nepal has rolling blackouts that happen 2-3 times a day, up to 5 hours at a time. This can be a bit of a pain in the butt, and its best to plan your schedule around the outages. If you’re lucky enough, your house will have inverters (similar to generators), which gets you through the outage. Storing food is much more difficult because fridges require too much power and can’t stay on during the outages; you essentially need to buy what you’ll eat and cook that day or that week.
- Lucy, Cassondra, Fatima and I have been witnesses to two accidents thus far, both involving our own car. The term accident is loosely used as they were minor, but the first involved the other car being severely dented and the second was with our SUV and a motorcycle (enough said.) At this rate, we will have been involved in 32 accidents by the end of our stay!
Travel Musings as of Week #2
Interesting turn of events so far:
Thamel: Culturally Trapped and Confused?
It’s been a little less than two weeks since I arrived in Nepal and it has so far been nothing short of an interesting ride! Surprisingly enough, I haven’t dealt with as much culture shock as one would expect. My current theory attributes this wholly to me being in Thamel.
Though we have of course ventured out of the district in our time here so far, most of our stay has definitely been spent in Thamel. The Thamel district can best be described as the primary tourist hub of Nepal. The area includes everything from hotels, to bookstores, to restaurants of every cuisine, to gift shops. Within the two weeks, we’ve eaten at some restaurants serving local food, two Italian restaurants, a New Orleans-style restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, and several cafés. Each of the cafés, and most of the restaurants, have WiFi services readily available for their customers. Every restaurant menu is in English and in stores you can easily find brands you’re familiar with for things such as shampoo, chocolate, detergent, and so on. And let’s not forget, everyone from local shopkeepers to your waiter speaks English.
As you can tell, you can find just about anything you need and you don’t even need to search very far. Sounds like heaven right?
Nope. It’s borderline frustrating actually.
As great as the convenience can be, I don’t find it to be practical; and its therefore this same convenience that bothers me. As awful as it is to say, I’m in a developing country and somehow so far still living a similar life to one I would back home. Other than the complete lack of traffic signals, the obscene honking, and the rolling blackouts, there’s little to be culture shocked about in Thamel because there isn’t much that is actually different. The entire district is so wholly centered on foreigners and a western mindset that it leaves little space for anything sincerely Nepali.
The clothing sold in most shops are harem pants or patterned skirts that a local would NEVER wear. The shops that don’t sell clothing are selling some sort of bracelet, necklace, or souvenir only prized to someone living outside of the country. And while I’m well aware that we’re living in a technological era, I’m still apprehensive to the idea that this is a service that is equally used by locals and foreigners. Coffee shops that provide WiFi is a western concept and its availability in Thamel is based on tourism-related aims.
That doesn’t mean the Thamel district doesn’t serve its purposes – I am sure it is an important source of revenue and income in Nepal’s tourism sector. And don’t get me wrong, I've still had a great two weeks thus far; I've met great people, done some sightseeing, and also taken a jab at learning Nepali. There’s a lot to be excited about in Thamel – I’ve loved the various cuisines I’ve tried here, the numerous shops selling pashminas and beautiful skirts, the stands selling smoking Bhuddas and knives, and the iced mochas from the Himalayan Java café – but I refuse to believe it’s real Nepal. In fact, the district reminds me too much of a bubble that shields tourists from anything that may make Nepal too different… or too real.
Today I move into the CECI volunteer house in Baluwatar, a few districts away from Thamel. Though the house I’ll be living in is cozy, the surrounding area is nothing like Thamel. I expect it to be an interesting change, but not necessarily an easy one. I’m nevertheless looking forward to exploring the streets and having a more representative experience of Nepal.
All said and done, my stay in Thamel may have provided me with an ideal transition into what Nepal is really like, thereby limiting my culture shock. Who knows! I guess I’ll have to wait and see.
P.S. I'm not crazy. I don't want to drown in culture shock, or super struggle with it - I do however believe it's often a natural part of the experience, especially when traveling internationally. And it's for this reason I was surprised and chose to make note of it in a post.
How It All Began...
Today’s post will be a bit more like a traveling journal for those of you that have been messaging and curious as per my travels so far!
So my journey started off at none other than YYZ, i.e. Pearson Airport. I was lucky enough to have more than 20 amazing friends and family bid me farewell, which was probably one of the nicest ways I could have been seen off.
The 15h20min plane ride to Hong Kong was evidently a long and brutal one. I must say though, Cathay Pacific really knows how to spoil a woman. The couple to whom I was seated besides are a whole different story; the wife spent most of the flight sleeping on the floor and somewhat under my legs while her husband made it a point to walk over me and on my seat any time he needed to move.
Hong Kong
We landed in the big HK (funny cause its not big at all) at about 530am and our flight to Bangladesh wasn’t until 620pm that evening, so we decided to make the best of those 12 hours and go exploring (extra stamp in my passport… booyah!).
Our tour guide was this cute old man named Willie (not a name you hear too often haha), and the tour we did was designed especially for people in transit. We went to an observation deck, rode a ferry, and saw Bruce Lee’s statue, among other things. We also had some dim sum, which was deeeeeelicious. The day was overall well spent but I didn’t feel like we saw any of the really authentic HK sights; HK is one of the most highly densely populated places in the world and everywhere we visited was fairly empty. Neverthless, we made the best of our situation and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully, during our return flight/travels to Toronto in April, I’ll get to check out a local HK market… now that would be living the dream.
Arrival in Nepal
When we arrived to the airport, getting our bags wasn't a problem, but finding our ride definitely was. It was pitch black outside and pouring rain with people running in all directions, so finding the driver took forever. Once we did though, things were a lot better. He greeted us well and gave each of us a scarf to welcome us to Nepal.
After our 36+ hours of travelling, all I wanted to do was shower once we got to the hotel. As always, I do things in style and I somehow managed to break the showerhead within my first 5 minutes of arrival to the hotel. For those of you that think I’m exaggerating, think again… I literally broke off the entire showerhead causing water to spray across the entire bathroom. Every surface was completely soaked and my shower was not at all what I was expecting haha!
Tomorrow there’s a strike, referred to as bandhs, happening and no one is allowed to drive, unless they have a blue-plated vehicle (allocated mostly to Diplomats). It’s a strike organized by all student unions across the country concerning the recent fuel price hikes implemented by the government. We’ve haven’t decided yet the extent to which this will impede on our Orientation, but it’s looking a lot like the day’s events will be cancelled or postponed. I’m curious to see what the effects of the strike will look like, but I know better than to go wandering (see Mom.. I know how to be safe!).
There are two girls here with Uniterra from the UofOttawa, so that’s awesome as well! The more, the merrier, right? They’re short-term volunteers, meaning they’re here for 3 months instead of the whooping 8 we’ve signed up for.
CECI Nepal + Uniterra
CECI and Uniterra are the organizations through which we are completing this field placement, so the orientation has been organized by them. Things are overall pretty organized with orientation and I’m quite pleased. Everyone is so friendly and we’ve already learned a lot. Today’s orientation was helpful and we got to meet all the who’s-who’s of CECI. They also organized a welcome lunch where we met all CECI staff as well as several of the other volunteers working with the organization. The food was delicious and I don’t feel sick yet, so that’s a great sign!
We also made a visit to the Nepal International Clinic, where we had an info session with a doctor about safe health practices. Apparently Fatima and I missed the memo about needing Japanese Encephalitis (or syphilis according to Madiha), so we’ll be getting that shot this week. We also found out that Rabies is a super important vaccine to have in Kathmandu (you won’t believe the number of stray dogs); luckily, the vaccinations are unbelievably cheaper here in Nepal than at home… instead of $700 for the Rabies shot, it costs US$35 here.
Alright... that's more than enough for you to read about! Hope that wasn't too much!
So my journey started off at none other than YYZ, i.e. Pearson Airport. I was lucky enough to have more than 20 amazing friends and family bid me farewell, which was probably one of the nicest ways I could have been seen off.
The 15h20min plane ride to Hong Kong was evidently a long and brutal one. I must say though, Cathay Pacific really knows how to spoil a woman. The couple to whom I was seated besides are a whole different story; the wife spent most of the flight sleeping on the floor and somewhat under my legs while her husband made it a point to walk over me and on my seat any time he needed to move.
Hong Kong
Our tour guide was this cute old man named Willie (not a name you hear too often haha), and the tour we did was designed especially for people in transit. We went to an observation deck, rode a ferry, and saw Bruce Lee’s statue, among other things. We also had some dim sum, which was deeeeeelicious. The day was overall well spent but I didn’t feel like we saw any of the really authentic HK sights; HK is one of the most highly densely populated places in the world and everywhere we visited was fairly empty. Neverthless, we made the best of our situation and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully, during our return flight/travels to Toronto in April, I’ll get to check out a local HK market… now that would be living the dream.
Arrival in Nepal
After our 36+ hours of travelling, all I wanted to do was shower once we got to the hotel. As always, I do things in style and I somehow managed to break the showerhead within my first 5 minutes of arrival to the hotel. For those of you that think I’m exaggerating, think again… I literally broke off the entire showerhead causing water to spray across the entire bathroom. Every surface was completely soaked and my shower was not at all what I was expecting haha!
Tomorrow there’s a strike, referred to as bandhs, happening and no one is allowed to drive, unless they have a blue-plated vehicle (allocated mostly to Diplomats). It’s a strike organized by all student unions across the country concerning the recent fuel price hikes implemented by the government. We’ve haven’t decided yet the extent to which this will impede on our Orientation, but it’s looking a lot like the day’s events will be cancelled or postponed. I’m curious to see what the effects of the strike will look like, but I know better than to go wandering (see Mom.. I know how to be safe!).
There are two girls here with Uniterra from the UofOttawa, so that’s awesome as well! The more, the merrier, right? They’re short-term volunteers, meaning they’re here for 3 months instead of the whooping 8 we’ve signed up for.
CECI Nepal + Uniterra
CECI and Uniterra are the organizations through which we are completing this field placement, so the orientation has been organized by them. Things are overall pretty organized with orientation and I’m quite pleased. Everyone is so friendly and we’ve already learned a lot. Today’s orientation was helpful and we got to meet all the who’s-who’s of CECI. They also organized a welcome lunch where we met all CECI staff as well as several of the other volunteers working with the organization. The food was delicious and I don’t feel sick yet, so that’s a great sign!
We also made a visit to the Nepal International Clinic, where we had an info session with a doctor about safe health practices. Apparently Fatima and I missed the memo about needing Japanese Encephalitis (or syphilis according to Madiha), so we’ll be getting that shot this week. We also found out that Rabies is a super important vaccine to have in Kathmandu (you won’t believe the number of stray dogs); luckily, the vaccinations are unbelievably cheaper here in Nepal than at home… instead of $700 for the Rabies shot, it costs US$35 here.
Alright... that's more than enough for you to read about! Hope that wasn't too much!
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