DAY 371: I thought perhaps since Nepal wasn't a Christian nation, a Sunday would be an ordinary day, with things open. However, things in the Thamel district were even more dead than before. When I finally lugged out my laundry to "the cheapest laundry service in town" (a whole big load for about three bucks, washed/dried/folded), I had to wait for it to be done the following day because the laundry guy had the day off.

That's not to say the entire city was shut down. Being the touristy Thamel district, more than enough stores were still open -- despite the weird extra added army cops stationed around (picture above) as if they knew something we didn't -- to cater to the few tourists wandering around wearing either hippie attire or mountain gear. After energizing with a lovely steak and eggs breakfast, I went wondering, yet again, in the continual effort to gradually come back to normal, day by day, after The Incident on The Everest Trail that almost took my life. Each day I was getting better, and each day I was blending in more and more like a Nepali again.

One familiar place I found was one of the several branches of Baskin Robbins in town, the only Western franchise that I'd seen make it out to Kathmandu (although I could be wrong). No McDonald's, no Subway, not even a KFC -- which surprised me because KFC from what I've seen is the most worldwide American fast food restaurant, miles ahead of the Golden Arches. Anyway, I stopped in for one of the 31 flavors -- they only had 13 -- and then continued to mill about town.

I sort of went on a shopping spree with bootleg CDs, buying ones I always meant to buy (i.e. Stevie Wonder's greatest hits) and even some that I already owned but missed listening to (Oh, how I've missed my Prodigy!). It didn't matter, each was between one and two bucks, as cheap as the big load of laundry I sent out that morning.

The Nepali woman at the counter of the CD store saw me come in and immediately greeted me in Nepali.

"Sorry, I don't understand," I said in confusion.

"Oh, you're not Nepali? I thought you were Nepali!"

With that said, I was finally 100% again with my "super power" of blending in as a local. I was finally back in business. Now if I just had some clean clothes...

If this is your first taste of this Blog, please forgive me for how lame this entry is; I didn't have much going on as I was recuperating from an almost-fatal incident on the trail to Mount Everest, which you can read about here.