Life of Wry

Trip Day #21

We woke up this day on our own; nobody to serve us with a pre-dawn delivery of hot tea! It looked like a sunny, warm day. We were excited at the prospect of nothing to do and fabulous city to do it in.

First, we’d have breakfast, then spend some time in a local internet cafe, then maybe do some shopping.  We had been invited to join Hari Thapa for lunch at his home, which sounded like a wonderful opportunity.

Laura, Leslie and I decided we’d go, so after a few hours of poking around town, we met back at the hotel at 11:00 to grab a taxi. The taxi driver chatted with Hari on the hotel phone in order to get directions. They seemed complicated. The drive to Hari’s neighborhood was very convoluted; quite a knotty warren of roadways–some boulevards, some dirt–and there were cars, bikes, scooters, animals, and people every whichway. But it was fun tour of greater Kathmandu.

The taxi driver let us out at a pre-arranged corner on a fairly quiet residential street.  Hari met us there and guided us deeper and deeper into his neighborhood, past this guy pruning the vines on his front wall, past neighborhood women in conversation…

…and finally to his house. His is this 4-story, red brick house. It was nice to see what life was like in an established, middle class neighborhood on the outskirts of downtown.

He showed us around his house and introduced us to his wife. There was an older daughter and some grandkids (and perhaps a cousin or friend), as well. We sat and talked a lot about his life, work, relationship to my friend Bill (who was in the Peace Corps in Nepal in the late 60s) and his travels to visit Bill in the U.S.  He showed us a 1982 newspaper article, from the Davis Enterprise (!), that was written about his first visit to Davis. And such an amazing coincidence, that very same front page included an article about the launching of the Davis Community Cable Coop, the nation’s first urban cable company operated as a co-op, and my eventual and 23-year employer.

Hari’s wife and daughter prepared a fantastic lunch:

After lunch, we went up to the roof where the family maintains an enormous garden:

The view of all the neighborhood rooftops was wonderful. The peaceful rooftop community is a whole other fascinating side of Kathmandu that we were fortunate to see. Huge gardens and sitting areas everywhere, high above the noise of the city.

Before we left, Hari presented us with some gifts–beautiful handbags for us and some other items to take back to Davis for Bill and his family. He was an extremely kind and gracias host. We were so glad we had the time to spend an afternoon with him. We took some pictures of the family, then took a taxi back to our hotel.

We had time for a little more shopping… here is a very nice tea shop Karen and Leslie found. They offered flights of tea for tasting.

We met up with Reggy again, and hung out a little more in the garden, drinking tea, cappuccinos, wine, and eating more peanuts masala (the spicy peanuts we couldn’t get enough of). We sat under cover because it was raining, but it was warm and luscious.  A lovely time.

Our final dinner in Nepal was at an Indian restaurant down the street.. great food, especially the paneer dishes. A mellow, pleasant Kathmandu day.