I've been in Kathmandu for a couple days, which has been fun because I've been hanging out with some people I met on the trek, but also not fun because I am sick again. Same flu-type thing I had last month in Paraguay. Weird. At least I didn't have it while I was trekking. People here spit with great elan and hawk luggies very very loudly, and even though I am sick it still grosses me out. Almost every day this is the sound I wake up to. This morning the guy in the bathroom next to mine was spitting for at least 5 minutes. Loudly. Ugh.
Yesterday I went to the Indra Jatrah festival, the living goddess festival, which I was pretty excited about but it turned out that we sat (at least we were able to sit down) for 2 hours with people pushing, constantly, to see Kumari come out for 5 seconds. I actually saw the president for longer, he stood around quite awhile waving to people. I was kind of surprised that in a place with a history of unrest he wasn't behind a bullet proof shield-thingy, but then half of the military and a bunch of police were there, so it probably wouldn't be a great place for an assassination attempt if you wanted to live. Then all night people were loud and drunk and it was hard to sleep. Not a great festival. But I did think it was interesting that all the high-up officials drove economy cars, like a Toyota Corolla. You know your country is poor when members of congress can't even afford a Camry. The president was driving a Mercedes, but I have a feeling that was not his car.
Going back home today. Getting excited about going to a place where people don't spit loudly and Tylenol is legal (yes, Tylenol is illegal here. What do they use to break fevers around here?)
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