Currently I’m so hungover that I’m worried that my brain might dissolve into soup and leak out my ears.
The last two days in Thailand were uneventful save for a great burger, a game of pool at a pinkie-in-the-air bar, and watching helplessly as a large toad got squashed by a passing truck.
Oftentimes in restaurants TV’s play music videos of covers of Top 40 songs from the US. It appears that Thai artists copy the songs identically, re-tool the production, and sing over the new instrumentation as a cover. They then produce high budget music videos to accompany these strange musical knock offs.
We got a final goofy massage as we waited for our bus to Bangkok and following a large plate of street pad thai we metro’d to the airport and bunked down on a bench until our 7 am flight to Nepal through Kuala Lampur.
Ojash greeted us warmly at the airport and we shuffled into his chauffeured SUV. After dropping off our bags at Ojash’s office we walked to a restaurant nearby to eat Momos; Nepali dumplings filled with veggies or buffalo and drizzled in a spicy, tangy sauce. We talked briefly about what we plan to do volunteering-wise… I’m still very unclear on the the logistics of what we’re doing and what our objective is. We have a meeting on Sunday to clarify. As I understand now, we need to outline the curriculum and action plan for a kindergarten opening in Dhading in April 2018. We are also trying to lock in costs for the project and identify how we can fund the school for two years.
We picked up a slew of booze and returned to the house. After a quick nap we showered and joined the BBQ kicking off on the porch outside. The party was half Ojash’s cousins and half his employees. Combined, Ojash’s parents boast 22 siblings… thus, there are a lot of cousins to go around. We drank and shot the shit before piling in the SUV to Thamel.
The night that ensued was defined by greasy doormen and Ojash’s Kathmandu connections. Half the bars we got in with no issues due to family connections, while we entered the other half with palm greasing. We went to…
Purple Haze – rock venue with a cover band playing Led Zeppelin
Club OMG – I think it was shitty? Memory is spotty
? – underground feeling spot – Trance DJ accompanied by a dude shredding the bongos. Excellent but ended within 10 minutes of our arrival.
? – narrow, multilevel bar playing trance. Fun
Deja Vu – Arena esque space with large screen and an interesting layout. Did a flaming shot and I fell asleep in a chair.
Side note: Just realized Deja Vu translates to “Already Seen” in french. The more you know.
We drunkenly stopped back at the house to try to rouse Louise to come to a monkey temple for the sunrise but she nixed it and I was drunk and now maybe I’m in the doghouse?
Anyways we got to the temple at 5 am and rounded the exterior, spinning wooden spools while rotating clockwise around the monkey infested and prayer flag enshrined temple. People rang bells and chanted an Om related mantra as they circled. The sunrise was deadened by clouds and we dragged ass to a diner for small bread pancakes dipped in lentils, Chai tea, and the sweet somewhat popcorn-y orange treat we sampled earlier in the trip in India.
I learned last night that Nepali has many forms of “you” that signify different levels of respect. Ojash was called Ojashdai all night, as he was the oldest and the BMOC.
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