Fake Elton and Thamel...

Thamel, the touristy area of Kathmandu, is a crazy place. A place filled with tourists and shops and restaurants and trekking places and anything else anyone could possibly ever need in a lifetime. The streets are chaotic, a horrible mess of people and rickshaws and taxis and motorbikes all competing for space on streets no wider than small allies. It is loud all night, music coming from all corners and people out at all hours.

It is crazy, but I can't help but love it. It is annoying, but I can't help but grin at the irony of it all, a place where you only have to walk two feet to find a hotel, or a restaurant, or a bookstore. There are white tourists everywhere, but mixed in with it all are the locals, and the beggars, and the street hawkers, and although it's all pretty exhausting, the energy sinks into your skin whether you want it to or not.

I arrived yesterday, after leaving the orphanage at around 5pm. My last day there was filled with packing and saying goodbye to the children that I have come to love over the last month. The older ones wrote me cards and some drew me pictures (things like: My dear sister, how are you? You like flower? I am happy all day today but I am sad). None of the cards made much sense, but it was super sweet, and I know they were sad to see me go. They kept asking me to stay longer, and although the goodbye was hard, I know it was the right time to leave. I got a ton of pictures of the kids yesterday, and even a couple good group shots. I will miss them horribly, and I am so grateful for the experience of living with them and joining in on their daily life, even if it did get tedious and annoying at times.

I checked into a hotel last night that I found from some recommendations online, but I ended up moving to another one down the street this morning. The first one was a bit overpriced for what it included (about $5/night), and the one I'm in now is much better and costs $4. Haha....traveling and living in Asia for 8 months has made my idea of cheap and expensive drastically different than what it used to be. It is going to be hard when I get back to America (especially NYC!), because everything is going to be so expensive to me. The "reverse culture shock" is going to hit me hard...I can feel it already.

Last night was spent with an awesome American guy I met in a bookstore (the bookstores here are great!), and after getting a wonderful dinner, we wandered into a reggae bar with live music. The place was really fun, and the music was pretty good, and at about 10pm a man who looked a lot like Elton John walked into the bar.He had a security man with him, and it was a very odd encounter. He was wearing weird clothes and a piano key tie and suspenders. Somebody told us that he was a "fake" Elton John, whatever that means. He stayed for about an hour, and even now, I have no idea why a fake Elton John with a fake security man would be wandering the streets of Kathmandu at night, faking out unknowing tourists. So, if anyone hears in the news that Elton John was recently spotted on vacation in Nepal, let me know!!

Today I have been wandering around by myself, checking out the surrounding areas of Thamel. I was intent on taking a bus trip to another city called Pokhara, but now that the time has come to make a decision, I don't feel like it. It costs more money than I care to spend, and the 6 hour one way bus ride on the horrible streets of Nepal doesn't sound very appealing right now. I am just going to relax and eat good food for the next 5 days in Thamel, and then on September 1st I will be heading to the airport for my flight to India!

My month in Nepal has been wonderful, and although I have not been a very good tourist (I always suck at being a tourist, I always miss the temples and museums, they just don't appeal to me as much as the local culture), I am going to miss this wonderfully crazy city and the people who live here.

I will try to upload some pictures of my last week in Nepal soon, but I am on a terribly slow wireless internet connection right now, and will do it as soon as I can. I hope everyone is doing well back home, and I miss you all! Much love.