Total panic and meditative calm

14th of September

This is so different from Stockholm.

After just some minor problems at the airport of Kathmandu, I was out, finally here, and there where people everywhere wanting to take me somewhere. After losing about 20 pounds to people who seemed to be my friends I found my dispatched driver. He kept telling me how sorry he was about this but I didn't knew what to respond. 20 pounds isn't the biggest deal, but I didn't know how much it was here, and I didn't want to come out as a complete spoiled western showoff.

The road was crowded with people all the way from the airport. Many seems to work just on the street, which was in so bad condition it had that massaging feeling, almost like riding a boat in heavy wind. I'd spent the last 24 hours of traveling, beside the actual inconvenience of travel, telling myself to let go of all expectations, emptying my mind and arriving with an empty cup. With so much new input I found it hard to process it all.

The first thing I noticed was the surrounding mountains, nothing of the sort I've seen before. Most surrounding mountains I found big and proud, distant but really trying to look bigger then they actual where. These had an other, more humble attitude, still reaching above the clouds. They just were there, covered in trees and full of life. I can, and will later, make a more in depth analysis of the mountains.

Then you notice the people, they're everywhere. It's a much more living city then any European city I've been to, everything seems to be made right in front of you on a bench next to the street. It's a weird combination of old traditions where bricks are carried in big bags in the head, next to a businessman in a suit talking on his cellphone. Everybody at the same place, no one treats anyone different.

The two kind gentlemen who picked me up I would guess to be Saroj and Rajesh. It was just too much when I met them at the airport, so many people telling me they knew me. Anyway, these real friends took me in to town and bought me lunch. I didn't care so much for the food, but I guess it was alright. They seem very friendly, just that the first encounter with the Nepalese people was 10 men trying to take my money, this cause a little bit of awareness. Then again, who else should I trust? I'm not gonna make this on my own. After lunch they took me to an office and asked me to sign some papers. No problem. Then they asked me if I either had the money to pay them, or if I could go and collect them from an ATM. I still wasn't sure what was their name and since they kept asking me all these questions I already had answered by mail I got more and more suspicious. But what else was there to do? I took out half of the money and told them I could take out the other half first tomorrow due to my card.

They drove me to my current location after a short guide through the tourist area. There really is people everywhere, and even dogs, cows, monkeys and even chickens running around on the streets. Now it's past 19:00 and the crickets have take over the hectic street life. It doesn't seem to quite down anytime at all. I'm at least here now, at the cloud covered but not so lonely mountains of Nepal.