Kathmandu, the forty-seventh day

The Nepalese drive on the left side. This feature is not so special, Indians and English, which is perhaps not an accident, act similarly. Walking the streets of these countries is a bit disturbing, far from clear that the cars come from the opposite side, the novice generally does not know on which side the cars could come, and shakes his head in all directions, seeking to which may arise the danger. Provided that there are one-way streets, and confusion reached its height. It seems that once some basic rules, the flow direction in this case, have been contradicted, it is very difficult to replace them by others and accepting their consequences, because subconsciously we are still struggling for the justification of our beliefs. Thus, if we are shown that cars can drive on the left, we continue to walk right simply because we drive right; it is difficult to accept that people would walk to the left just because they drive to the left! It is very easy to recognize the newcomers, in these countries moving to the left, in their stubborn fight against the current in a crowd, when on the other side of the too narrow street, everybody move in the same direction as them. The most intelligent will understand that by walking left, they can advance at least to same speed as the mass, and the others will go even slower. Once you discovered these subtleties you will be less irritated against this sea of people populating the streets that seemed permanently against you. The spirit, however, is still struggling, and to cross this morning in the stairwell of the hotel one of these children responsible for all the dirty work, required at least two minutes. Realizing that the way was too narrow for both of us together, I went right (!) to let him pass as he, himself put away to his left! We were stuck in front of one another! Only gestures indicating the way each of us had to go could help us (when the force of instinct usually takes care of these details,…, between persons of the same instincts.)

There are some days when we must spend money and nothing can really oppose to it. So, not content with squandering in tickets to Pokhara, the ordering of two silver rings set with coral brought the day complete. However, I had the satisfaction of feeling creative by having made the replica jewelry that I could not offer me in Europe ,because too expensive - which of course was one of the reasons of my desire - for a ridiculous amount!