Or what about the weekend?

After Sara left, the first weekends have been difficult for me. There is my heart that feels like every second beat is hers, and also my social network here is not that big yet, so the weekends were often just sitting around in my hotel room thinking about the future, watching movies or taking a walk, just for the walk. Most of the time, spending that time alone. I still love being on my own a lot of times, but when being on my own turns into being alone, the fun is out of it. To me being on my own is a chosen action, where being alone is an action that occurs due to the lack of another option.

I’ve never been that super social dude. Sometimes I might seem like it, but actually that’s not when I’m really me. At least that’s how it feels to me, but on the other hand… it seems like not being me is a part of being me. Or how we can make things complicated.

The last two weeks things are slightly changing. First of all I joined a football team here in Kathmandu. A team consisting of a mixture of, mostly foreign, players from different countries based in Nepal for professional or educational reasons. The team (which name is an abbreviation I still don’t exactly know) “management”, is planning on joining the regular Nepali football competition next year. All just for fun, but one never knows…

Next to the physical and mental benefits I get through the endorphins while doing sports, being part of a social event like this brings you in contact with new people, and gives something to do during weekends. Something different than going to a bar and have local beers. Local beers that actually don’t taste bad at all. Or has it been too long since I was in Belgium?

Another memorable weekend activity I had last week, together with Theo. A Dutch guy, whom I met here in Kathmandu, who’s also member of the football team, and whom I just happened to cross paths with several times before. Theo is a tourism student, back in Holland, but without the education, I think I make a good tourist myself.

Anyway, last week was Visa extension time. Since Theo’s visa expired already a few days when we were talking about it on Saturday, we decided to take immediate action and made our way to the immigration office on Sunday. Filling in the necessary forms, paying the bill, and then it’s waiting for a few hours before you get your passport back, a nice new visa sticker included. What to do during these few hours?

Theo, as well as me, saw already before there was a funfair in Kathmandu. A funfair advertising with “The Flying Dragon”. With an attraction called “The Flying Dragon”, we couldn’t resist going there. When we entered it turned out we were almost the only customers there. The majority of the people in the park were working there. You can’t compare the park with any other that I’ve been to already, and I might say I’ve seen some of them.

The park has all the things a funfair needs to offer, going from a bingo, over magicians, a ghost house, boating, to a park tour train, a giant wheel and coasters. All this in a local way, which might seem hilarious at first, but after a while, the beauty of it shines of.

When entering the ghost house, the ticket seller also enters, though in a different door. All the dead bodies that are moving, coffins that are opening, sounds that are played are hand driven by this one man. As you make your way through the horror house, you see him standing behind the attributes, holding the ropes. In itself it might sound ridiculous, but we actually admired the simple way, how they make it work. And what’s most important in a funfair to me, we had a great time making our way through the ghost house. Since the magicians seemed to have made themselves disappear, the next stop was the giant wheel. Where I’m not a big hero and therefore not have a big knowledge on giant wheels, I thought to remember that they were supposed to go smoothly and slow. Not here. The giant wheel was actually the most thrill ride, with something that came close to a coaster belly feeling. Also the way it was driven was at least remarkable to me. When we bought the ticket, a man followed us to the wheel, and ones we were sitting he asked us for the tickets. The tickets that we just bought from him, 25 seconds before. Being the only ones there, they still kept to the procedure of selling the ticket and collecting it half a minute later. Then he went to sit behind the engine, started it up and of we went. The engine looked a lot like a tractor engine or the engine of a big lawn mower. Ok, I admit, it would have been a really big lawn mower, but still…

For over five minutes we made circles at “ludicrous” speed and then it was over. The wheel being stopped by just turning of the engine and the additional breaks were handeld by a pedal manipulated by the conductor’s foot. A little strange when you’ve never seen it before. Or how used one can be to automation.

Theo took another ride on a coaster, flying around in circles, so we suspect that this was the Flying Dragon. It must have been, because we never found anything else that could have been the flying dragon. The operating procedure was the same as with the giant wheel, as was the ticket-buying-going-to-the-attraction-and-giving-the-ticket-back-to-the-same-man-being-the-only-one-there procedure. The man operating the engine was also the same man as before. It was like we had our private engine man. But then it was also as if we had our private funfair.

For the giant wheel, the Flying Dragon and the park train, they always started up the attraction just for us. Or how much more VIP can you be?

This whole two hours of fun has cost us all together €1,50 each. Including entrance ticket, ring throwing, ghost house, a drink, the giant wheel, Theo’s Flying Dragon experience, and the park train.

We surely want to go back one day (at least ones) to see the magicians, and play bingo, That day, we shouldn’t forget to take a camera.

Overall, when you’re in Kathmandu, I really advice you to visit the funfair, as it is another different way of getting in touch with Nepali culture, and on the other side it shows to me that the way of handling things might be different, but needs are often the same. Everyone wants to have some stress relieving, relaxing and fun time every now and then, I think, whether you’re from Europe, America, Asia… Some basic needs seem the same everywhere. And where there’s demand, people will always try to find a way to answer this demand, seeking their benefit in providing services to others demands. And where it can be a financial benefit the service provider is looking for, still often there’s also the peace of mind benefit that makes many people answering to the needs of others. Again, I don’t choose sides, I just write how I see things happening around me. Or how things appear in my perception!