I often count it as a blessing when I can blend in with the local population (like when I was in China and Nagaland), yet still assert my position as a tourist when I start to speak English. Earlier that day I had purposely taken to wearing shorts and thongs to make it clear I was a tourist, just to experience all the repeated offers for 'Taxi?', 'Trekking?', 'Hashish?' you get in Thamel that can drive many a foreigner insane (I do get asked if I want these sometimes - especially hash - though not to the extent that other foreigners seem to be hassled.)
However, last night as Lauren and I were walking back to the guest house, we were verbally abused in English by a crazy Nepali man. Most of the abuse was directed at me and it seemed he was most upset that I had taken a foreign wife!
Now, to set the scene, Lauren - with her less than diminutive stature, straw-coloured hair and blue eyes - was wearing her gorgeous new kurta sulwar, often a sign of a foreign woman who's gone local (not loca). And I was well, dressed in a T-shirt and pants with a sling pouch and apparently looking rather local in the semi-darkness of a dimly lit road just out of Thamel. It's not the first time we've been mistaken for 'husband and wife' - my appearance at the guest house a week ago raised many questions and I can only imagine how scandalous it must have been when I moved out of my first room (post-rodent event) to one right next to hers.
Lauren explained to me that unlike many parts of SE Asia where you often see young Asian girls hanging out with older Caucasian men, the trend in Kathmandu appears to be for young Nepali guys to be with older Caucasian woman. Just the other night I'd seen a couple at Or2K (btw, the best Israeli cafe in town) who fit this exact description (and yes, the first label I had for the middle-aged woman was 'cougar').
So I guess you can see this rather 'emasculating' reason for the crazy man's rant. He clearly has great pride in his country, and his penis.
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