quick update before I fly oer the mountains

Good morning!

Last day in Nepal. I fly out at 4pm.
Wanted to send a quick note to alleviate any concerns about my safety.
I may have overreacted in what I wrote last time about the political situation. After speaking at length with a young university student yesterday, I would like to revise my comments. I think I may have made it sound more dangerous than it is.
It is not the political situation that is unstable per se, it is that the Maoist group that was recently elected into government has not been upholding any of the promises that they made BEFORE the election in order to get elected. Doesn't sound like anything different from what happens in politics in the west, does it?

Instead of spending the money to fix problems, the government is keeping the money. Apparently. But it does not bode well for the future of Nepal and the people are very worried about their future. But its not like the situation is unstable in the sense that there are to be violent overthrowings of government and people taking power and things of that ilk. Although I will be keepig a very close eye on the developments here in the future as I have drawn very close to the people in only 10 days. I feel some sort of special kinship for some reason. They have such a beautiful spirit, as a people.

Well, yesterday was a real doozy of a day. I just was having run in after run in with the victims of poverty in the streets. And trying to weigh how best to reach out and help them, to do something that truly is a help, without getting totally ripped off in the process. There are lots of "games" going on out there. You don't know if the mother begging for money for milk for her baby is going to turn around and buy heroine with it or what. Street kids sniffing glue. This whole situation is absolutely heart wrenching. Big cities in poor countries. It makes you want to seek out some organization or START some organization that really gets to the root of these problems and helps on a ground level.

I don't really want to talk about that part of yesterday right now. Its a new day.

Lets talk about something else.
Yesterday I spent the night at Hotel Discovery Inn. Didn't discover much except maybe that the street below stays noisy til around 4 in the morning. So I moved back to my old hotel, the one I stayed in last time I was here. "Hotel Magnificent View" which is more pricey but I got a great night's sleep last night. I'm getting old. I can't go too many nights without a good night's sleep anymore. haha.
My room last time had a magnificet view of a brick wall but it was a brick wall over a quiet alley, rather than a noisy one, so I guess if you are measuring a magnificet view by sound, then it IS a magnificent view, indeed. This time when I came back there was a different person behind the counter and she was quoting me 25 and 12$ a night! i said "i am sorry miss, but last time i only paid 8 and that is as much as i CAN pay". .... so after some conferance, she acquiesced. My room was smaller but my view included sky this time, and the brick wall was on the other side of a large empty lot. So i was happy.
I did make a true discovery though, of a coffee house named "JAVA", a good and proper coffee bar replete with baristas and jazz, couches and cheesecake. It seems like my spiritual pilgrimmage has recently turned into a hedonistic romp in an urban jungle, a "cakes and steaks" tour of Nepal. (cakes and steaks are the words used by the travel book writers to describe the neighborhoods of THamel and Pokhara where i have been. That means that you can get anything here. Far from being restricted to rice and dahl, here you are never far from an apple pie or espresso, admittedly, a nice break from roughing it, but ultimately, if a traveller wants steaks and cakes, apple pies and espresso, they can just stay home in Canada or America or Europe or wherever they came from). But my mission I came here for is accomplished: new visa and old passport tightly in hand, I head back to the holy land.
Laxmi, my agent, sure gave me a scare, showing up a little late to meet me the other day.
To be frank this whole visa process was a little hair raising.... that it would be ready in time, that they would agree to give me the requested months (there have been so many declined visas lately), that my agent wouldn't run off with my passport, disappear off the face of the earth. To my credit, i didn't pay her until i had my passport back in my hot little hand. But it is a little unnerving travelling around a country without the security of knowing your passport is tightly pressed against your flesh. (You relinquish your passport to the India embassy while they process your visa, then they affix the visa right into your passport.) Man, sweating bullets. I hugged Laxmi when she gave it to me, but i wanted to kiss her.
Power Cut Update:
Nepal continues to do it's part to save the environment by going without electricity 16 hours a day.
There was a t.v. in my room again. This time it was already plugged in but it was all snow. I've had phones in rooms with no dial tones too. I'm not sure what the point of having tvs and phones in rooms that don't work anyhow. I guess it just looks nice.
See you all back in the motherland.