First few days in Israel.... I mean Nepal

monkey!!

Landing in the airport in Kathmandu is a very funny and interesting experience. After discovering that everyone on my flight was from Israel (a theme that will be brought up many times in this entry), I made a few friends as we waited for an hour and a half to get our visas. Once i got my bags and waded through huge crowds trying to get a taxi, i found my free ride provided by the hostel. let me tell you, if you think that New Yorkers are crazy drivers, you need to go to Nepal. there are absolutely NO rules here. no traffic lights, traffic signs, lanes, anything! i was laughing the entire ride as we passed cows walking down the streets, monkeys hanging from wires, and cars coming straight at us. I didn't actually fear for my life because I thought that it was just too funny.

Later that afternoon, I followed a guy in a kippah to the Chabad of Nepal (yes Chabad is everywhere). I wandered into the kitchen and asked in very broken Hebrew for some food. I sat down outside and despite the fact that I hate talking to strangers, I introduced myself to a few people at the table. Of course three of them are on Tevel with me. I realized that they had never heard me speak Hebrew before so I could try out my fake Israeli accent- seems to be working well!

Little did I know that instead of coming to Chabad in Nepal I actually had arrived at a shul in Israel. There were over 200 people at Kol Nidre (I was the only American). It was absolutely amazing, The next morning a girl from my program, Sophie, joined me at the hostel and after playing an intense game of Jewography, we went back to Chabad. They finished Neilah about 40 minutes early because they're Israeli and daven really fast so we sang Shabbas and YK songs until the fast ended. It was a really incredible experience.

Today 6 of us from the program met up and decided to explore. Kathmandu is a huge city in the middle of a valley. The part we are in right now is called the Thamel. It is very touristy and kind of reminds me of Machane Yehudah. We wandered out of the Thamel to a place called Durbar Square. Its an area with about 5 temples built as early as 1500 and as late as the 1800s. It was really cool because we got to see "authentic" Kathmandu Nepalese. The prices were a lot cheaper (not that they are expensive anywhere) and the conditions were much worse in this area. The homeless people here are very different then those in NYC- they aren't ignored and they are everywhere. They ask you to pay if you take a picture of them, shove jewelry and games in your face and follow you until you can outrun them. The social problems and poverty of Nepal isn't something that I have come to understand or appreciate yet- this area is too touristy and it is hard to get a good understanding of the society. 

A section of Durbar Sq.

After walking around for about 4 hours, we went to an Israeli restaurant in the Thamel. When I say Israeli I mean falafel, hummus, malawach, jachanun- hard core. Just to give you an idea about prices- the total bill for 6 of us was 1600 NPR (rupees). That's about $20 for a TON of food. You can buy a bottle of water here for 20 cents. 

The past few days have been really great- I got to be a real tourist before the program starts tomorrow. The fact that so much of this area is based on the Israeli tourists makes it seem like I'm not in Nepal. It's weird because even though we need to be careful about what we buy there is really a ton of food to eat and its very easy to get purified water. That will change once we move into the villages but for now I'm just enjoying it while I can!

The Israeli vegetarian restaurant- we all took of our shoes (a nepali custom) and sat on the floor