Wednesday, 4 July 2007
Wo die Touristen sind - Where the tourists go
Monday, 2 July 2007
Top 10 Nepalesische Verkaufsstrategien - Top 10 Nepali selling Tactics
Street vendours are the curse of Thamel. They can be fun sometimes, however. Here are my favourite slogans, overheard in Kathmandus tourist quarter:
10. "Riksha Madam?"
9. "One Taxi?"
8. (wispering) "Hash?"
7. "More inside..."
6. "Wanna smoke?" "No" "Want me?" "erm, thanks, but no, thanks..."
5. "Selling!" (oh, really I though it was just for decoration....)
4. "Something?"
3. "Yes, we have it!" (we never learned, what exactly but I suppose he must have been psychic...)
2. "Sehr teuer!" (very expensive, I think some German speaking tourist was fed up with this one...)
1. The all-time classic: "Yeeeeeees!"
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Die Blutrünstige – The Bloodthirsty One
Wir versuchen, jedes Wochenende neue Orte im Kathmandu Tal zu besuchen. Manche sind überraschend touristisch (will heißen, es gibt Schilder auf Englisch und Menschen, die uns Sachen verkaufen wollen) während andere uns das gerade-entdeckt-Gefühl geben, das Entdecker in früheren Zeiten gehabt haben müssen, wenn sie neue Orte fanden. Der Tempel von Dakshinkali ist einer der letzteren Art. Erinnerungen an Indiana Jones Filme kommen auf, als wir den Tempel am Sonnabend besuchen. Sonnabend ist mit Sicherheit nicht der geeignete Tag für Zartbesaitete. Es ist der heiligste Tag der Hinduwoche und der Tag and dem der Göttin des Todes und Zorns, aber auch der Erneuerung, Kali, blutige Opfer dargebracht werden.
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Der Allerheiligste - The holiest
Neben den bunten und geschäftstüchtigen Sadhus gibt es im Tempel auch noch echte heilige Männer, vor allem Einsiedler mit ihren Anhängern, die in von Menschenhand gebauten Höhlen am oberen Ende des Flusses leben. Sie heißen meistens Baba, Vater, und leben wie Kali Baba in Changu Narayan von nur einem Lebensmittel ihrer Wahl und Cannabis Rauch. Wir lernen ein gruseliges Detail über Kali Baba und die anderen Kali geweihten: sie brechen ihr strenges Essensreglement einmal im Jahr für ein besonderes Mahl: Menschenfleisch!!! Sie nehmen es von einem Toten vom Scheiterhaufen. Ich bin nur froh, dass wir nichts davon wussten, als wir bei Kali Baba waren. Im Tempel gibt es einen Baba mit einer anderen interessanten Wahl als Lebenmittel: Der Milk Baba (keine Punkte wenn ihr erratet, wovon der lebt). Leider ist er zur Zeit auf Promotiontour in den USA und so mussten wir uns damit zufrieden geben, seine Anhänger und die großzügigen Mengen Hasch zu betrachten, die sie rauchen.
Pashupati, the lord of the beasts, is one of millions of manifestations of the Hindu god Shiva. His temple in Kathmandu, Pashupatinath, is the largest and one of the most important places of worship for people from all over the world. Non-Hindus, at least the ones that can be identified from their appearance, are only allowed in certain areas and can not visit the most important temple. They are allowed on the precinct, however, and can take pictures from the other bank of the Bagmati, that flows through the grounds. On the gate we meet an Italian, waiting for his Indian wife. She disappeared into the temple more than half an hour ago and never came back. His hope grows when he finds her shoes still in front of the temple. After a while we meet both, blissfully reunited, inside the complex.
After the funeral, the ashes get thrown into the river, along with some offerings. The water gets cleared just before it flows through here so it is not as smelly as on other parts of the river. The East bank is used by people remembering their dead. Whole families give offerings and throw them into the river. As usual with Hindu temples there is a lot of action. Every visitor seems to do something different and still everyone seems to know his or her place and how to behave. There is very little organisation around and the glimpses across into the holiest temple suggest that it is not much different in there.
Apart from the colourful and enterprising Sadhus, there are also real holy men, mostly hermits and their following, that live in man-made caves on the upper end of the river. They are usually called baba, father, and just as Kali baba in Changu Narayan, live mainly of one food of their choice, and cannabis smoke. We learn one more gruesome detail about Kali baba and some others devoted to Kali as well. They break their strict food choice once a year for a special meal: human flesh!!! They take it from a dead person on the funeral pyre. I’m happy we didn’t hear about it when we were there… The temple has a baba with another strange choice of food: the milk baba (no points for guessing what he eats…). Unfortunately, he was on promotion tour in the States so we were left looking at his devotees and the copious amounts of hash they were smoking.
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Home Sweet Home
Natürlich lebe ich nicht in so einem Palast, aber sogar unser Haus am Rand der Gegend ist recht geräumig und umgeben von einem schönen Garten.
Das Zentrum der Umgebung ist Sanepa Chowk, wo sich die Nachbarschaft trifft. Es gibt eine Reihe von Läden, eine Poilizeistation (damit uns auch niemand klaut), unseren Stammsupermarkt (nur komplett mit indischen Soaps im Fernsehen) und dem Fast Food Restaurant, in das wir oft zum Abendessen gehen. Hier gibts nepali und indische Spezialitäten zu fast lächerlich niedrigen Preisen. Der Platz gibt auch der Gegend seinen Namen, hier in Nepal gibt es nämlich keine Straßennamen, aber die Plätze haben einen Namen und so teilen sich alle Häuser der Umgebung eine Adresse.
The area I live in here in Nepal is called Sanepa. It is is Patan, just across the Bagmati. Many foreigners live here and many NGOs are settled in the area. Even the UN is not far away. The neighbourhood is pretty wealthy, there are little shielded backstreets with tiny temples, a lot of green (unusual in Kathmandu) and generously built gardens with spacious houses inside.
Of course, I don't live in such a mansion but even our house in the outskirts is pretty and spacious surrounded by a nice garden.
The centre of the area is Sanepa chowk, where most of the life concentrates. There are a number of shops, a police station (so we don't get stolen), our regular supermarket (only complete with Indian soaps on the telly) and the fast food restaurant we like to go for dinner, serving Nepali and Indian favourites at almost ridiculously low prices. The chowk also gives the name to the area - here in Nepal there are no street addresses but the courts have names and all the houses in the area have the same adresses.
Thursday, 31 May 2007
Die Leibgarde des Königs - The King's Guard
About three weeks ago a bunch of Maoists and Maoist-affiliated people sew off a number of statues of past kings that can be seen all over the country. They dragged them through the dust of the streets, demanding the republic. Now the remaining statues are heavily guarded by the armed police force, like this one that we see on our way to work every day.
Friday, 25 May 2007
Transport und Verkehr - Traffic and Transportation
In Nepal kann man den Status eines Autos am Nummernschild erkennen. Es gibt sechs verschiedene Farben: Rot für normale Autos, schwarz für Taxis und Busse, blau für Diplomaten, weiß für die Regierung, gelb für Regierungsassoziierte und grün für Tourismusunternehmen. Ungefähr die Hälfte aller Fahrzeuge sind Taxis und die haben auch die schlimmsten Fahrer. Die meisten Nepalis fahren Motorrad und auch die sind eine Katastrophe. Nummernschilder müssen nicht angebracht werden, oft sind sie nur aufgemalt und die Buchstaben müssen auch nicht gedruckt sein. Tatsächlich hat sogar die Maoistenpartei sich eigene Nummernschilder gemacht um ihre, oft gestohlenen Wagen auf die Straße zu bringen.
Im Moment wird der Verkehr durch eine schlimme Benzinkrise erschwert. Die Ölfirma hat ungefähr 6 Milliarden Nepalesische Rupien eine Zahl, die sich über die Jahre angesammelt hat, weil die Regierung die Ölfirma gezwungen hat, das Benzin unter dem Einkaufspreis zu verkaufen! Benzinpreise werden von der Regierung festgelegt und die Firma darf sie nicht selbst anheben. Aus Angst vor Streiks und Blockaden sind sie daher über Jahre gleich geblieben. Die indische Firma, die das Benzin liefert hat nun beschlossen, kein Benzin mehr zu liefern, bis nicht wenigstens einige der Rechnungen beglichen sind. Was die nepalesische Firma nicht kann. Was zu riesigen Schlangen an den Tankstellen führt, die Benzin bekommen (jeden Tag andere). Eine Verbesserung ist nicht in Sicht und so laufen wir jeden Tag ein Stück zur Arbeit. Einen Vorteil gibt es allerdings auch: Es ist kein Problem mehr, die Straßen zu überqueren!
Transportation in Kathmandu is chaotic enough to deserve its own chapter. There are very few roads in the city that deserve to be called so. Most roads are dirt roads with patches of tar in-between and even the bigger and better roads have pot-holes everywhere so that travelling always turns out to be an adventure. The number of vehicles on the roads has risen dramatically over the past years so that most of them are constantly jammed. There are plans to build new roads along the Bagmati but they are just that - plans. So far nothing much has happened and so we dig our way through roads packed with motorbikes, taxis, buses, tuk tuks, cars, cows, bikes, udos (unidentified driving objects), rikshas and people, every day to get to work.
Crossing a (real) road is a dangerous thing to do. The first time I tried it took me about 10 minutes. I was waiting patiently on ring road for my traffic lights to turn green. When they did so I prepared to walk...but nothing changed! All the cars just continued to speed along and there was not much of a chance to get across. When I saw a Nepali trying to cross next to me I hoped for my chance. It got me halfway across, only to leave me stranded. I somehow managed not to have my toes broken by cars driving over it, but my adrenaline levels must have reached the level of your average bungee jumper. By now I'm used to all this. I learned not to be confused by people almost knocking me over, I don’t react on anyone honking the horn (otherwise I would just be jumping around the whole time) and I can cross any road in less than a minute.
In
At the moment, transport is made difficult by a serious petrol crisis. The oil company is in debt with around 6 Billion Nepalese Rupees, a number collected over the years and reached because the government forced them to sell the petrol cheaper than they got it! Petrol prizes are made by the government and the company is not allowed to raise them themselves. Because the government was scared of strikes and blockades, the prizes stayed the same for years. Now the Indian company that provides the petrol decided not to supply any more petrol unless the Nepalese company pays some of their bills. Which they can’t. Which results in huge queues at the few petrol stations that get delivered petrol (different ones every day…). There is no improvement in sight and so we are now walking a lot more. It gives one advantage, though: now there is no problem crossing the roads anymore!
Thursday, 17 May 2007
Umweltschutz in Nepal - Environmental Protection in Nepal
"Ascol Students for greener protests
Kathmandu, April 25: Protestors venting anger and frustration by burning tires has become common practice in the country. However, students at Amrit Science College (Ascol) have decided to call it a day with tire burning as a mode of protest. Ashok Nepal, secretary of Federation of Student's Union at Ascol, said paper and logs would now be chosen as an alternative to tires during protests. Students of the college commited to the media on Wednesday that they would prohibit tire burning around their college and then gradually widen the scope of green protests."