Durbar Square Squad

Today I'm writing in English so my friends from the Durbar Guest House can read it too. Actually this blog is more of a 'thank you for the good times together' and something for me to remember than a blog for the people at home, but hé, you can of course read it.

The DGH is managed by Om (pronounce it as Ohm) and i have to say i have never encountered such a nice hospital and personal host during my traveling before. Actually, i think to us he is not someone who we pay rent to and who makes sure we have a clean room with toilet paper. He is more of a friend and fellow inhabitant of the guesthouse who comes and sit together with the rest of us, has a nice chat and drink. We are welcome to the birthday party of his daughter, train with him at karate, see the NGO he raised for street children (http://www.savelivesfoundation.org/), go out together, etc. etc.
But maybe he also reprepresents this part of the culture we have lost quite a lot in europe: having a open door (physically and mentally) for everyone, known or unknown.

The night I arrived there were four people sitting in the entrance room: a small Italian who uses 'fucking this and that' a lot (and no, he does not have Gill de la Tourette), a Canadian who fluently speaks Japanese, Om of course (who can also speak Japanese) and Thomas, a dutch guy almost 2 meters high (he doesn't speak Japanese).

I have to say that I couldn't have started this journey at a better place. These guys are fantastic: we share the same kind of humor, they all do something to help to develop the country ( very interesting stuff), interesting and diverse backgrounds.
And yes, they will be staying for at least 3 months at this hostel, so no travellers but inhabitants.

The Italian, called Andrea (like in Andrea Bochelli),educates locals about why not to use wood for making fire (trees are getting extinxted in Nepal and will become rare if they fucking burn it all).
He has been travelling around the fucking world (that is of cours full of bullshit) doing a lot of different social projects. And knows a lot of developmental issues and seen it in practice.
He is also very direct about everything and to anyone.... very nice.
Of course we talked a lot about preparing food, because that is what real men do, especially in Itally (or France or Spain). If i just prepared a meal he is always in for a smell....notting in a professional way saying: thies ies good Ruud, what did you use.

The Japanese/French/English talking Canadian is Jean-François. He does an interimship for the UN and is studying east-asian countries and had lived previously one year in Japan.
I heard Canadians can be very sober, be he is absolutely not. It's difficult to discribe him as a person so I will not, but great guy.

Thomas has just started his interimship and arrived the day before me. He does research within a company that gives kwality certificets to wood processing companies in a way that for example max havelaar does for coffee. I admire the way he created his diverse educational background and he is a nice guy to be around with.
We both went to the monkey tempel, saw the bbq at patisahar, got diaria from the indian restaurant, talked a lot about it (of course... you both feel fucking sick... as Andrea would say it.), cooked sometimes lunch together.

And sometimes our Bangladesh friend peeps around the corner and sits with us. He is going to study for two years in Nepal and is a bit confused about the fucking Italian....but is little by little picking up his bad fucking habbits.... I'm talking about the bullshit he is saying a lot you know.

But most of the time we are with the four or five of us staying up till one or two at night talking about politics, developmental stuff, the nepalese culture, europe, canada, bulshit....and that means it is good.... otherwise it would have been limited to a few times.

Thank you guys, i will miss you and the talks, but we will once again meet each other in december.

For the people at home: tomorrow morning at 7 I'm taking the bus in the direction of pokhara and get out at dumre, around half way. I will stay in a small town below there (bandipur I think) and after that i will go straightly north. It will probably take a long while before I write something again so don't worry: I could either have been lost, killed by a bus accident, broken a few legs, been eaten by a yak, shot down by the mustang border patrol, .... so many things can happen if you are not carefull like me.
But always think: at least we still have these last pictures of him.