Nov 10
Walking the crowded, narrow streets of Thamel in Kathmandu, with its chalkboard menus shouting momos and banana pancakes, trekking and whitewater rafting companies crammed into the alleys, and shops stuffed with knock-off trekking gear, pashmina scarfs, rugs, Tibetan thankas, and idols of Buddha and Ganesh, you could almost lose yourself, tele-transporting from this to any other backpacker enclave in the developing world
Namaste! (pronounced Nam-ah-stay, with much-varied elongation and stress on the last syllable), is the traditional greeting in Nepal, whether between Nepalese or passing villagers or trekkers of all nationalities on the steep and rocky trails. I've now said it hundreds of times in a handful of different ways: mostly with a smile, sometimes with a grimace, often very quietly in an effort to conserve energy, with a loss of breath.
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