Boys will be boys
Women do much of the hard work in Nepal, especially in the rural areas. They work the fields, cook meals, raise the children, clean, and are often responsible for making the money. The men spend their days visiting with each other, playing cards, etc. They set aside money for smokes and drinking. In many places, a wife has to walk behind her husband in the street, and husband and wife don't talk to each other out of the home.
In the city it is much more liberal, but women don't ride bicycles, and few drive. Women don't conduct or drive the local buses (conductors stand in the doorway and call out the route of the bus and collect money from riders). It's rare to see a group of women together, if not in the market or around home. This became obvious to me the other night: in Kathmandu, there is a wide range of cuisine, but it can be bit difficult to find local food, unless you leave the beaten tourist track. On a recommendation from our hotel owner, a friend and I wandered out to a local Newari restaurant just north of Thamel called Harathi. At first glance it looked like a typical local place, but there were no women, at all. No families, just men. The owner is a marathon runner, and apparently quite wealthy as he travels around the world for running, without sponsors. The food was good – flavors similar to Indian food but more subtle, and different ingredients. There is a famous dish a bit like a pizza, that I don't know how to describe because I don't know anything that was in it. It wasn't clear to me whether women can't go there, or whether they just prefer not to. According to our hotel owner, women stay home and cook nice food there, get together with friends, and relax, while the men go out. He said, "The women, they don't want to be there, the men are drinking, smoking cigarettes, telling bad jokes, they see another woman and say if my wife were like here it would be better... all these things."
On a lighter note, I've been amused to find that driving here is almost more crazy than India. The streets are very narrow, and people don't really get taught how to drive, so it can be an adventure just getting around without getting hit. And backing up, there's a complicated code sent from the person directing the driver (which could be a friend or just someone who happens to be near the car) whether to back up, stop, cut the wheel, etc, that involves a series of bangs on the car. One for go, two for stop, or something like that. On buses without a conductor, it's similar - if you want it to stop, you just hit the roof and the driver pulls over.
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Tomorrow we head to Tibet... warmest wishes from Kathmandu!
