Friday 25 May 2007

Kathmandon't

The joys of an Indian summer. Baking in the morning, even more baking in the afternoon and a huge downpour in the evening.

Storm moving in

My recovery is well underway. Kat is at 300m above sea level, so the red blood cells are much more comfortable.

As I had suspected Kat is actually pretty nice. Even with the weather it's pretty easy to relax here. My days are spent getting up late, drifting between the hotel garden, the hotel restaurant and my room to catch up on BBC News.

After two days of this Lizzie (a doctor who I bumped into travelling across Tibet) catches up with me. She spends a long time showing me all the great photo's of Everest she has taken and regaling me with stories of how simply life changing the whole experience of getting to base camp was. If I'd bothered to get her address she'd be off my christmas card list. I assume the positive, optimistic persona that suits me so well, smile and congratulate her for making it.

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In an effort to avoid her vitriolic good nature I spend saturday at a temple watching hindu's sacrifice goats, chickens and buffalos to Kali. Kali is a wrathful god who happens to require a sacrifice every saturday. Coincidentally there is a nice park right by the temple perfect for a barbeque. They're pragmatic these hindus. I can't see what Kali gets out of it if they end up eating all the animals. I'm sure someone could explain it to me, but it smells bad, so I leave before anyone gets a chance.

Stop off in Patin on the way back to Kat. The only thing there worth mentioning is the pizza that gives me severe food poisoning. So the next day I put on my best "I'm really pleased for you" face and search out Lizzie (or more accurately her drugs). Being lonely she looks after me and takes me to a pharmacy to buy some antibiotics. A cocktail of Metronidazole and Cipro. No prescription needed here and the pills are a fraction of the price I would have paid in the UK. Obviously they are cut with Ajax and won't help at all, but at that price I'd be stupid NOT to take them.

A monkey temple and a monastery later and I'm ready for Thailand. It's a simple little 4 hour hop down to bangkok, but the weather is hotter, more humid and less rainy. There are plenty of westerners, but most of them are just out of school and don't seem to realise how dangerous the sun is - they all walk around with no protection on. I check into the only hotel with a SAGA sign.

Bangkok is just a layover to get stuff sorted for Burma. Sending winter stuff home, getting enough money together and figuring out where it's legal to visit in Burma. I'm back here in a few weeks sadly, so I don't feel the need to see it all. Call in on the Grand Palace though - the one thing you do have to see. Apparently shorts are innapropriate so some lovely thai chap lends me his heavy polyester trousers. I think he may have a fetish for western perspiration since he doesn't seem to mind when I give them back soaking wet.

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Apart from the palace I see a few Wats. But substitute Wat for monastery / temple in my previous post and you'll get an impression of how enthusiastically I tour those. Also had a walk through Patpong. Supposedly the centre of the Bangkok go-go bar district, but I think all the ladies are tucked away inside the buildings. The only woman I saw was a 70 year old street cleaner (at least I think she was a street cleaner).

Burma tomorrow and I can't wait.

Photos of Kat:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinsouthgate/sets/72157600263950964/

Photos of Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinsouthgate/sets/72157600263758295/

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