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| I am endlessly blown away by the loads people carry. |
I think I'm going to Katmandu, That's really, really where I'm going to. If i ever get out of here, That's what I'm gonna do. K-k-k-k-k-Katmandu, I think that's where I'm going to. If i ever get out of here, I'm going to Katmandu. -Bob Seger
In the early 1970s Kathmandu was the destination for hippies, celebrated in songs by Cat Stevens and Bob Seger and probably several others. Back then it was an almost traffic-free city with seemingly unlimited supplies of hashish or marijuana. Cannabis is said to be Shiva's favorite herb and it grows wild all over Nepal. It is used by sadhus as part of their normal religious practice. Kathmandu was a veritable Shangri-la for the hippies. Drug-seeking foreigners created a thriving trade here. Even today one can hear the whispered offers of all types of drugs when they walk down the streets. When I took my dad, who was in his late 60's, he kept asking me, "What did they say?" It was a little embarrassing to have to constantly tell my dad, "Just keep walking, you don't want any."
Freak Streat near Kathmandu Durbar Square used to be the center of the hippie drug culture. Today, I see more Hindu and Buddhist religious paraphernalia for sale here than anything else, but the cheap hotels are still plentiful in this area. On my first visit to Kathmandu I found a nice clean hotel for $15 a night in Thamel. One of my traveling companions was not satisfied with this rate and found a cheaper $3 a night bed in a room on Freak Street. He woke up covered in bed bug bites. I guess you get what you pay for.
It's really called Freak Street? How funny. The loads these people care carrying would crush me.
ReplyDeleteIt is really Jhocchen Tole, but everyone refers to it as Freak Street.
ReplyDeleteNot satisfied with $15 for the night? Greed takes many forms.
ReplyDeleteYeah Ellen, pretty ugly really. It becomes a kind of game for world traveler back packers. How far can they go on almost no money? I've seen some very angry arguments between travelers and locals fighting over a couple dollars a night. What does a dollar mean to me versus someone making less than $5 a day?
ReplyDeleteew. bed bugs=shudder.
ReplyDeleteIs it still legal and is there still a drug culture there?
Yes, there is a drug culture. Drugs are easily available but they are not legal. However, no one really cares much about marijuana and tourists and locals smoke it regularly. I can often smell it coming from hotel rooms. If one did get caught by a policeman, he would be more interested in your 'fine payable immediately,' than taking you to jail. Certainly, if you tried to smuggle any of it you could be looking at serious jail time or big fines. But if you used it in your own home or on your farm, no one would raise an eyebrow. It is smoked by young and old and Holy Saddhus. It grows thick in fields and gutters. I really can't tell you much about it though because I have never tried marijuana in Nepal. Pot makes me anxious and I don't think its fun. I do know that I have never been offered any in a respectable person's home.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand people who haggle over a few dollars - the bed bugs look like karma to me!
ReplyDeleteWhy would a laid back hippie want to travel all the way to Kathmandu? Well, now I get the song. For some reason I didn't make the connection between hashish and Nepal.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad when travelers try to escape things like crowds and pollution and only suceed in spreading the problem.
I was also amazed (while traveling and making myself part of the problem of pollution and crowds) how people can find ways to carry huge loads over long distance and up and down hills. Keeps a body fit.
How nice to steer your Dad clear of trouble! What a time that was..and Cat Stevens..who can forget??
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw people carrying huge loads of stuff in India, or those little wiry guys with the bicycle rickshaws, dragging families of 6 or 8 around, what struck me is how weak we have become. We are capable of so much more than we know. Wow.
ReplyDeletemy dad had something of the same experience as your dad. curiousity then bemusement when he figured out for himself what (among other offers) was being offered to him. he loved kathmandu but not flying in or out. steven
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