Kathmandu, forty-second day

I spent the last day of my twenties open to the outside world, with Karen. Just like Pashupatinath, Baktapur is one of her favorite places. The city is a little museum, ravaged by the earthquake of 1934; it has since the seventies, gradually been restored by westerners. While Kathmandu and Patan distinct themselves by their profusion of temples, Baktapur is very smooth and airy. The streets, pedestrian only, have all been recently re-paved with bricks and give a very relaxing soft pink color to the feeling of peace engendered by the extraordinary silence, for a city of this region. The fact of the mostly German initiative for the restoration of the city must have influenced the cleanliness and quietness that this city contrasts with. The German community is also much better represented here than elsewhere in Nepal. The German prestige seems everywhere present (each bakery having prices twice as high is automatically a "German Bakerei", where actually only the sale of "Apfel Strudel" could justify this name. There is no "French restaurant" or "British guest house”, but there is a “German terrace " and also a " Deutsches Haus). The persistent presence of the swastika -although it has a religious significance which is very different from ours is however printed on t-shirts sold to the tourists - ads to the discomfort that it is easy to feel. There was even a Nepali telling me in German his eight years with his Bavarian wife in Stuttgart and from whom he had been separated since.
Several times Karen and I were asked if we were mother and son and I think that we were not really surprised but flattered. We avoided the subject, but there've been a lot thinking latter, I guess. Of course, the nature of our filial confrontational relations (Karen was even pleased of the divorce of his own son which hopefully would bring the return of the "prodigal son"), had nothing to do with the pleasure of staying together.
Karen concluded the day by showing me her good will, she accompanied me "at Didi", which she did not subsequently criticized (although the lack of compliments could have been its equivalent).