Nepali Please

I landed yesterday in Kathmandu, Nepal. This place is probably one of the craziest cities I've ever been in. It's ridiculously huge and packed, with with the streets so narrow they look more like alleys. It's by far much poorer than Bangkok, and there's certain things that I take for granted that are an issue here. Hot water is a luxury, as is a working toilet. I feel fairly confident eating off of street carts in Vietnam and Thailand, but here is anther story. Apparently the fruit and vegetables here has to be washed in iodine for tourists since almost all the farms in Nepal have sewage run-off that goes into the soil. Of course, your average Joe Nepali has to eat shit-stained produce, but guess they've gotten some kind of immunity from it.

The city is actually kinda cool. It's extremely picturesque, and I've been taking more photos here than in one day than I did in three days in Bangkok. I'm staying at hostel/hotel called the Kathmandu Guest House, which is pretty nice; eight bucks a night for a room the size of a walk-closet with a shared bathroom. At least it's clean, has hot water, a working toilet, and soap to wash you hands at the sink (another rare find) I'm hanging out with my friend Katie Jorgensen, who is staying with her friend who has an apartment. It's always good to have a someone to meet up with when you tavel some place, especially one has already lived there a while. She's got some crazy horror stories about life in Nepal, there's so many things that can kill you here it's ridiculous. Besides having to deal with massive food poisoning and roaches the size of small mammls, travel here is extremely dangerous, since the roads are chaotic and people here drive crazier than Armenians. Motorcycles are the main mode of transport, and they're not those dinky scooters they got in Vietnam. These motherfuckers got some serious horsepower, and it's kinda scarry watching them go about 50 down a crowded narrow street. No one wears helmets here, and I guess traffic fatalities are so common that no one gets too upset when they happen.

Today I'm feeling pretty good, but unfortuantely yesterday I had my first case of food poisoning. Right before I got to the airport in Bangkok, I decided to grab some breakfast from a street cart selling these small chicken skewers. I immediately knew this was a bad idea, and started getting sick when I got to the airport. Luckily, it wasn't too major; I got much worse food poisoning from the Big Brother kitchen than I did eating random food off the streets of Bangkok., but it did kick my ass yesterday. Today I feel much better now, although am a little more reserved about eating true local food. I wanted to get these kinda crepe looking things off of a street cart here this morning, but decided to try it tomorrow. Katie assures me that this is a horrible idea, since the Nepalese never refrigerate their food, so I'm guranteed to get sick again if I try something. Interesting enough, we had some bomb-ass pizza at a joint near my hotel. Hopefully I can find at least some local food that won't kill me. My friend Larkin gave me the number of a Nepalese friend of his who lives in Kathmandu, and he invited me to have dinner with him and his family at his house. Can't wait!