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2003-09-21 - Pokhara (Day 159)

Up and at 'um, I'm doing math quizzes at 8:00am. It has to be one of the weirdest things to wake up with the first thought being, "Oh BOY! Let's do more quizzes on the volume of a cylinder!" at least for someone 35 years old, in the foothills of the Himalayas on vacation. I heard the quote, "Maturity is continuing to persevere through hardship for a worthwhile goal" just yesterday which seems to describe the situation - I want a better GMAT score and this is the fun it takes!

As I walk over to my restaurant a taxi next to me starts blaring his horn, then another parked behind him does the same and then the one behind him and the one across the street. I am already surprised but this is followed by a shopkeeper running out onto the street with a bell in his hand ringing away, a boy on a bicycle passing me flicking his bell and the distant sounds of horns in every direction being blown. Its total cacophony and I enter the restaurant asking what is going on?!? It seems the government's response to the "clogging of the wheels" was to ask that the citizens show their position by celebrating the end of the strike with 5 minuets of noise be it bells, horns, what have you. In thinking about it, I really liked this response in its gracefulness and efficiency. For these shopkeepers and restaurateurs as well as all of the other businesses in Nepal, the strike was simply three more days with no income but which wages must be paid in an already disastrous year. At least these five minutes made their opinion well known in the blast of sown that could be heard all over the city while allowing them to still get back to work and make as much of the day as was possible.

The carrots have gone limp and the potatoes grown mold on the lion moving game the waiters and cook are still playing. I want to join them but am disgusted by the pieces so I head downstairs to the Kashmiri shop which sells carved wooden sets from India. The waiters tell me I ended up paying double what I should have for the game but still are very happy I am going to let them pay with a real set. They are not as happy after I win the first three games. Must be beginner's luck.

I find myself becoming aware that time is passing faster as happens when things become routine. Of course, Pokhara is a special situation as I have already been here for a week but have almost no memories or experiences of the place. I have only known the hotel and the cafe and only have three notebooks filled with algebra problems from the GMAT exams to show for my time here. However, it is more then that, the traveling itself is becoming routine and thus the details of the day are starting to blur together. When one starts traveling there are so many experiences as you are hypersensitive to all that is going on around you, as it is all new and different. Now however, I am getting used to the traveling itself and thus the whole process is starting to blend. I think this is about the same feeling in longing for youth and the innocence and discovery that youth itself entails. I have a sense of loss at realizing that even travel is losing its novelty.

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