I started my day with a little Nepalese bureaucracy when I tried to confirm my flight to Bhutan as instructed by my tour operator. I was told the only way I could confirm would be in person. After emailing my Bhutanese tour organizer in the states he wrote back that the Nepalese were a bit fishy and said not to worry about it, he’d take care of it. This afternoon I received an email from our tour operator in Bhutan who said he’d confirm the flights from Bhutan after adding a few more descriptors on the Nepalese way of doing things.

Since I was feeling better today I was able to take advantage of the fact that the bandh was called off and head to Patan for some shooting & shopping. My main reason for going was to shop for Buddha statues since that is where they’re made. As a bonus, the town has a high concentration of old temples. Both pictures in this post were taken at the Golden Temple a few blocks outside of Patan’s Durbar Square. It was a major haggling day as I went into at least 20 shops. After about the 3rd one I had a local follow me for the rest of the day and he actually helped me out alot. He called the bank when my ATM card was eaten by the machine (yes, well apparently you only have about 5 seconds to grab it or the machine sucks it back in and keeps it), he translated with the shop owners who spoke no english, and he kibitzed with me about the quality and prices of the statues. I can’t impress upon you how absolutely far fetched it is that I met a Nepali outside Durbar Square who I would let tag along with me. It’s the context that makes it so as the only people there are tourists and tourist hunters. As a westerner, everywhere you turn, every step you take you are asked where you’re from, what guesthouse you’re staying in, if this is your first visit to nepal, do you need a … rickshaw, pashmina, guide, guesthouse, tigerbalm - the list is endless. Even conversations that start out seeming like innocent attempts to practice english end in invitations to purchase *something* which is why it was so wild to have this guy spend the afternoon with me and never ask for a thing. If he ended up getting a commission for the statues I bought I would have no problem with it - he made the whole process more fun. After he put me in a metered taxi for Thamel I gave him one of my gilded stickers and he seemed genuinely thrilled. In the end, I bought three statues from the guy who made them: one Buddha and two Green Taras. I haven’t decided If I’ll cart ‘em home of ship them but it will probably depend on what else I buy while I’m here.

As I sat writing today’s post, basking in the fact that I was able to eat, take a taxi, and shop today, I overheard that another bandh has been called for Sunday. AGGGG! How can this be?!?! Geez, this is a frustrating place to be right now. It wouldn’t be such a big deal but for the fact I need to return to Patan on Sunday to retrieve my eaten ATM card. I think I have enough $ to hold out until Monday as long as I don’t shop which is a total pisser. I have about 5 days left here before heading to Bhutan and my plan had been to shop during the day and shoot in the late afternoon sun. Since shopping will have to wait I should probably take advantage of my freedom to move about tomorrow and head to Bhaktapur. It’s an expensive trip (in budget travel land) - about $4 each way for a taxi and $10 for a ticket into the pedestrian-only city. I’ll see how I feel in the morning. In the meantime, I’ll try and get independent confirmation on the new bandh.
Sue Borchardt in Kathmandu on Friday February 10, 2006 at 5:32 p.m. where it’s raining bandhs.

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