I woke up early, maybe 6:30. That was a good night sleep. I was out the door by 7 and on my way for some breakfast. I had read that there are good places to get coffee here. EXCITING! Haven’t had coffee since the crap they server on continental airlines. Found a nice little place with wood slatted tables and chairs, and hanging photographs by a local artist. This is good so far. Maybe I will like this town. I had planned to stay here 4 or 5 nights thinking it was a laid back Tibetan village, but the arrival was off putting. I ordered a coffee and they even had omelets on the menu. It was the most delicious omelet I have ever had, super good! Fluffy and cheesy and filled with sautéed mix of olives, eggplant and herbs. Yummy. The temperature is pleasant. It felt like I was at a Brooklyn café, except out the door I see a valley coming down from the Himalayan foothills. They even had free wifi! I had 3 more coffees, like I was making up for the last five days.
It was very quiet, very pleasant. all i can hear is the ceiling fan spinning above and the knife meeting the cutting board as it cuts vegetables behind me. but i guess anywhere can be peaceful at 7 am.
Every time I see a calling place I want to call New York, every time I see an internet place or wifi I want to get on facebook and gmail. I just can't pull away. Here I am in this place, far from home, yet all I want to do whenever I can is to check on what I'm not participating in, whats happening at home.
By the time I finished my breakfast there were a few more people there and the streets were already active, it was barely 8am. Hmm.. I get into observation mode since I don’t have anything else to do. There are a lot of girls! I haven’t seen a single guy tourist yet. Almost everyone has a computer. Made it feel like home more than I wanted it to. This woman comes in, she must be sixty. Had purple pants a red top and a light yellow shawl. Skin wrinkled, fingers twisted at the knuckles, yea she must be sixty. Her silver hair had dreads, some with colorful threads and strings of fabric. What a hoot, she seemed younger in the way she walked and the way she handled herself. I couldn’t stop watching. She was such an extreme of a type of person that seems to come to places like this. “oh no, do they think im one of them, I mean I am wearing linen pants.”
I went for a walk after breakfast. This is not a pretty scenic place. I visited the temple, not a beautiful building. It is housed in a concrete structure that could have been a school or a parking deck. Buddhists in maroon robes sat facing the main shrine on two sides of the main room. Visitors and tourists get to walk around and even enter the shrine itself. It was a very odd experience. Seeing the Tibetan monks and nuns sitting there, some with their eyes closed and praying, others playing with their cell phones and giggling with other monks and nuns. Middle class Indian families with their kids and big cameras walk around in a space between the monks and the rest of the devotees. Interesting clash and people watching here. I sat for a moment to take in the interactions.
You can walk around this entire town in about 20 minutes. There is nothing but shop next to shop selling the same things: water, handicrafts, knickknacks, stuff. Walking is difficult because of the cars that whiz by as if we’re on an open road. “this place is so small just park your damn car and walk.” I passed by a message board, and what I saw posted on it was hilarious, this was the final straw, this is not the place I thought it would be. “hypnosis sessions,” “discover your subconscious,” “ tarot card readings.” tourists are of mainly two varieties: the Hawaiian shorts type and the “I’m a hippie, I don’t shower and I walk barefoot” type. I haven’t talked to anyone here yet and by the looks of it, I am not interested.
I thought where are people hanging out, isn’t there a bar or something where I can meet people, find a travel buddy? Well, my search was brief and I just went back to my hotel bar and ordered a beer there. “strong or light sir?” asked the server. “strong please.” Kingfisher is pretty much the only beer you get around here and it comes in two varieties. The strong one has about 8.5%. I didn’t think much of it until I felt totally out of it by the time I got to the bottom of the big bottle. I just realized that I didn’t eat since breakfast and that it was around 6pm. Good thing my room is down the hall. I went back, distracted myself from how drunk I felt by typing up a blog entry, then played a game on my ipod and before I know it I was passed out. TV on, lights on. ………………………………...................................................... I suddenly wake up and it is midnight. “what just happened?” “am I dead” “are these the visual disturbances listed on the side effects of the malaria meds?” “do I have a pulse?” I couldn’t fall back asleep. It was a long night in my room watching CNN after that.
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