Well, apart from few minor incidents, the Pokhara street festival was a success. The few minor incidents are : a girl getting killed by a girl-gang (a gang of three ladies!) and a Korean tourist (probably high on kimchee) stabbing a Nepali guy and an old man was nearly stoned to death by a bunch of hooligans.
And the US Embassy has been telling all the Amrikans not to visit Pokhara because of rising crime and power cuts.
"Public transportation, such as microbuses and tuk tuks, should be avoided because they are often overfilled, driven unsafely, and mechanically unsound. American citizens should use taxis with meters or negotiate a price with the taxi driver before starting a trip."
Overfilled? Well, the Amrikans can get to know Nepalese better, up close and personal. Yes, ride a micro-bus and get touchy touchy with the Nepalese. Tuk Tuks are fun and the speed is like 0.5 miles per hour. I don't know how you can drive unsafely @ that speed.
Mechanically unsound? What does this mean? This is the only country where your vehicle can be fixed with a little bit of hammering and welding and super-glue pasting. At least , give credit to our ingenious mechanics!
Majority of the tourists in Thamel and those hanging around Pokhara right now are Bhooka(hungry) tourists. They are on a quest to break a world record or something. And we must really be proud of them because they are doing what even the ordinary Nepalese can't do. What's that? Trying to survive in Nepal on less than a dollar a day.
Our President and the PM had their tea time with the Nepali jungle men, the 'Rautes' [ row as in 'cow' tays as in 'Taser' ]. The Rautes were dressed in blankets and gave a nice wooden bowl-hat gift to Mr. Prachu Dada!
The PM asked them to stay back in KTM and get ziggy wiggy with government jobs but the Rautey Chief declined the offer. He said, "We don't need no education, we don't need no jobs, we just want the jungle so we can cut them trees and make more wooden bowl caps and hats."
These Jungle Warriors like to roam around the forests like modern day Robin Hoods (without the stealing!) and live their life their own way. See... not all Nepalese want to move to KTM, get a government job and make a killing!
Even the PM was shocked. Ten years of Jungle war and the end result is : Drive around KTM in fancy cars! But the Rautes just want to go back to the jungle! They don't give a rat's arse about Nepali citizenship. These are the real indigenous people!
I hope Dr. Babu doesn't give them a hard time by making them pay taxes on this new Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS). They may have to pay 10% on each of the wooden bowls they make!
I hope DFID and other INGOs will shower them with dollars and maybe help them cut down some trees or maybe give them trees from the UK or the US to produce wooden bowls. Then, they can sell them bowls to the participants @ the World Economic Forum. Maybe, Bono can buy a dozen!
BTW, Dr. BRB has his own website now. Please go to www.baburambhattarai.com!
Now, somebody must tell his PA that it's better if your domain name is short and sweet. But of course, we can't expect BRB to change his persona overnight! It's like telling the Rautes to stop wearing blankets and cutting down trees. We can't tell BRB to stop his economic revolution.
After all he is a brainy guy. You know... a Phd-Wallah! Okay, it was in urban planning or something but (in Nepal) a doctor is a doctor is a doctor. And I hope Laloo Prasad Yadav gets his PhD in Railyway studies from our country's Open University thing!
And the US Embassy has been telling all the Amrikans not to visit Pokhara because of rising crime and power cuts.
"Public transportation, such as microbuses and tuk tuks, should be avoided because they are often overfilled, driven unsafely, and mechanically unsound. American citizens should use taxis with meters or negotiate a price with the taxi driver before starting a trip."
Overfilled? Well, the Amrikans can get to know Nepalese better, up close and personal. Yes, ride a micro-bus and get touchy touchy with the Nepalese. Tuk Tuks are fun and the speed is like 0.5 miles per hour. I don't know how you can drive unsafely @ that speed.
Mechanically unsound? What does this mean? This is the only country where your vehicle can be fixed with a little bit of hammering and welding and super-glue pasting. At least , give credit to our ingenious mechanics!
Majority of the tourists in Thamel and those hanging around Pokhara right now are Bhooka(hungry) tourists. They are on a quest to break a world record or something. And we must really be proud of them because they are doing what even the ordinary Nepalese can't do. What's that? Trying to survive in Nepal on less than a dollar a day.
Our President and the PM had their tea time with the Nepali jungle men, the 'Rautes' [ row as in 'cow' tays as in 'Taser' ]. The Rautes were dressed in blankets and gave a nice wooden bowl-hat gift to Mr. Prachu Dada!
The PM asked them to stay back in KTM and get ziggy wiggy with government jobs but the Rautey Chief declined the offer. He said, "We don't need no education, we don't need no jobs, we just want the jungle so we can cut them trees and make more wooden bowl caps and hats."
These Jungle Warriors like to roam around the forests like modern day Robin Hoods (without the stealing!) and live their life their own way. See... not all Nepalese want to move to KTM, get a government job and make a killing!
Even the PM was shocked. Ten years of Jungle war and the end result is : Drive around KTM in fancy cars! But the Rautes just want to go back to the jungle! They don't give a rat's arse about Nepali citizenship. These are the real indigenous people!
I hope Dr. Babu doesn't give them a hard time by making them pay taxes on this new Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS). They may have to pay 10% on each of the wooden bowls they make!
I hope DFID and other INGOs will shower them with dollars and maybe help them cut down some trees or maybe give them trees from the UK or the US to produce wooden bowls. Then, they can sell them bowls to the participants @ the World Economic Forum. Maybe, Bono can buy a dozen!
BTW, Dr. BRB has his own website now. Please go to www.baburambhattarai.com!
Now, somebody must tell his PA that it's better if your domain name is short and sweet. But of course, we can't expect BRB to change his persona overnight! It's like telling the Rautes to stop wearing blankets and cutting down trees. We can't tell BRB to stop his economic revolution.
After all he is a brainy guy. You know... a Phd-Wallah! Okay, it was in urban planning or something but (in Nepal) a doctor is a doctor is a doctor. And I hope Laloo Prasad Yadav gets his PhD in Railyway studies from our country's Open University thing!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009
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