Eating in Kathmandu

Well up until now all our meals have been at restaurants – The Big Belly in Thamel, Mikes breakfast across the street, a little Chilean place near the apartment, Chinese food on the main drag, etc. Last night we got groceries at a modern kind of shopping center. It looked so familiar to me that it seemed I had been there before. Groceries on the bottom, escalator going to the next level, and then escalators to a third level as well. The upper levels had gifts and clothes I think. There were two things that struck me about the grocery store. First – what an extensive supply of chocolate they had. Second - how many different kinds of lentils there really are. The groceries were not particularly cheap. I suppose most of them had to be imported. We got some fruit and veggies and lentils and juice and milk and some meat. The veggies will have to be soaked in a solution to get rid of nasty little intestinal bugs. But this morning I had oatmeal and juice for breakfast – a little different from the 2 egg breakfasts I have been eating since arrival.

Those Buddhist kids next door must have slept in this morning. I did not hear the chanting till 6 a.m. Lazy little devils.

Kathmandu is really dusty. Not all the time though. In the rainy season it is really muddy. The nice lady that brings me tea has a first-thing-in-the-morning job to wipe off all the desks.

The people I work with are particularly nice. RK is the office administrator. He looks after arranging meetings, fixing computer problems, printing docs etc. He is early 20’s, and as nice and kind a person as I’ve ever met. There are a couple of consultants who are equally pleasant, and helpful. You have to develop an ear for the way they speak English, but they go out of their way to make you feel welcome and important.

We had a meeting today at the offices of the Asia Development Bank person in charge of this contract. He is a particularly accommodating guy, smart, pleasant, and as efficient as one can be given that you are working in a big bureaucracy.

Since we were near the Annapurna Hotel, we went to have a look at some jewellery stores there, and what did we come upon but Yasmine’s. The last time we were here I had had some clothes made by this store and I really loved them. So we went in and I was getting measured for a nice vest thing, when we realized that Yasmine is also our landlady. Yasmine and her husband own the huge apartment building we are in.

We cooked supper at the apartment tonite. Rice, dahl (every Nepali meal should include dahl) and chicken. Very satisfying.