37 Hours Later
I'm finally in Nepal!
I arrived yesterday at the Tribhuvan airport in Kathmandu. The airport was my first introduction to Nepal, and a striking initial comparison between this country and the others I was traveling from and through. The airport is a comparatively tiny, three-story brick building with no air conditioning and only a few people working to check and supply visas. Whereas the Chinese airports try their best to look as modern and contemporary as possible, the décor of the Kathmandu airport reminded me of my grandparents' home. After navigating through huge, cold, metal and glass structures in Los Angeles and China, the Kathmandu airport really threw me off.
I met Sunju, a young-ish Nepali girl who works with the NGO, outside and, after some minor car troubles that required us to switch vehicles, we made it to the hotel. The hotel, or “guest house”, caters to tourists and is surprisingly Americanized. My breakfast this morning was a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich from the hotel kitchen, for less than an American dollar.
Kathmandu reminds me of an older, rougher Seoul. The stacked buildings, the mad and formless rush of vehicles, the litter, and the street vendors all remind me of the Seoul of my childhood, more than 15 years ago. It makes me wonder how this place will change in 15 years. Nepal is not without traces of modernity, but they are random and contrast sharply with the rest of the environment.
If I had to describe Kathmandu in one word, it would be contrast; I don't know that the contrast in this city will ever stop surprising me. Huge, bright, and gleaming billboards sit atop drab, run-down buildings; car dealerships and technology centers, albeit small, sit between shops that look nearly, if not entirely, empty. Still more shops sell sexy, American-style clothing with no one to wear them.
Beautiful women in beautiful Nepali dresses and saris walk among or sit next to heaps of garbage, selling this and that to passerby. Nepali children with neat pressed hair and uniforms sit in “school buses” that are indistinguishable from any of the other local buses that look, sound, and smell as though they might break down at the next bump or sharp turn.
It's as though the city desperately wanted to grow and push forward, but in its rush, it picked whatever trend it could find and plopped it down wherever it would fit.
I'm off to Bharatpur tomorrow at 7am to start working in the children's home there. Both nervous and excited!
Samantha Yu, undergraduate student, Environmental Science & Management, UC Davis
I'm finally in Nepal!
I arrived yesterday at the Tribhuvan airport in Kathmandu. The airport was my first introduction to Nepal, and a striking initial comparison between this country and the others I was traveling from and through. The airport is a comparatively tiny, three-story brick building with no air conditioning and only a few people working to check and supply visas. Whereas the Chinese airports try their best to look as modern and contemporary as possible, the décor of the Kathmandu airport reminded me of my grandparents' home. After navigating through huge, cold, metal and glass structures in Los Angeles and China, the Kathmandu airport really threw me off.
I met Sunju, a young-ish Nepali girl who works with the NGO, outside and, after some minor car troubles that required us to switch vehicles, we made it to the hotel. The hotel, or “guest house”, caters to tourists and is surprisingly Americanized. My breakfast this morning was a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich from the hotel kitchen, for less than an American dollar.
Kathmandu reminds me of an older, rougher Seoul. The stacked buildings, the mad and formless rush of vehicles, the litter, and the street vendors all remind me of the Seoul of my childhood, more than 15 years ago. It makes me wonder how this place will change in 15 years. Nepal is not without traces of modernity, but they are random and contrast sharply with the rest of the environment.
If I had to describe Kathmandu in one word, it would be contrast; I don't know that the contrast in this city will ever stop surprising me. Huge, bright, and gleaming billboards sit atop drab, run-down buildings; car dealerships and technology centers, albeit small, sit between shops that look nearly, if not entirely, empty. Still more shops sell sexy, American-style clothing with no one to wear them.
Beautiful women in beautiful Nepali dresses and saris walk among or sit next to heaps of garbage, selling this and that to passerby. Nepali children with neat pressed hair and uniforms sit in “school buses” that are indistinguishable from any of the other local buses that look, sound, and smell as though they might break down at the next bump or sharp turn.
It's as though the city desperately wanted to grow and push forward, but in its rush, it picked whatever trend it could find and plopped it down wherever it would fit.
I'm off to Bharatpur tomorrow at 7am to start working in the children's home there. Both nervous and excited!
Samantha Yu, undergraduate student, Environmental Science & Management, UC Davis
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