Nepali Style

Spring has come and the days are hovering in the late 70s, early 80s. It's wonderful! The spiders have come out as well. I told Tom about a week ago that it was getting warmer and the spiders would be coming. I have sort of an issue with spiders so I have to keep my eyes open or I will be dreadfully surprised. So far, we've only had one major spider come in. I told Tom to get him in such a way as to send a message to all the other spiders out there looking to come get me. I don't know that Tom really got what I wanted, but he did kill the spider for me. :) We also bought some pretty heavy duty bug killer as well.

Another recent purchase was a really ugly used bicycle. It's yellow, pretty beat up looking, the pedal and chain keep falling off and best of all the brand seems to be called a "lemon." Yes, "lemon" is printed right on the bike seat. Tom uses the bicycle mostly as he is forever wandering around and getting restless, making friends, etc. However, sometimes we ride the bicycle together "Nepali-style." I don't enjoy this very much as it means that I sit sideways on a metal grate over the back tire and trust Tom not to turn us over or a car to hit us. We get A LOT of double-takes from locals when we ride this way. I try to smile back, but I'm usually a little bit too stressed to be friendly. I will admit that we make faster progress when we both ride the bicycle, but I think soon it will be time for a 2nd one.

When not riding the bicycle, the most common way we get around is by Tuk Tuk (also called a Tempo). This a three-wheeled sort of van that runs along routes. We have yet to find a route map of any sort, but are starting to make our own. A Tuk Tuk holds about 8 people comfortably, but will often pack as many people as possible. I've been in one that has had 14 adults and 3 children. That time we were coming back from visiting a new friend up in Kathmandu proper near Durbar Square. There were a numbers of friends with us (all women with children). As more women were getting on, Tom would be the gentleman and offer his seat to them. Finally there were truly no seats left to offer and Tom ended up riding outside the Tuk Tuk hanging onto the roof. There was a collective gasp from all the riders when this big white man started riding the Tuk Tuk "Nepali-style." He was able to hang on just fine as we were only going about 20 miles an hour anyway, but it sure was funny looking.