say it ain't so...

So Nepal is sandwiched between india and china (and depending whether you have a good conscious or not, tibet at well). They have a wealth of culture and religion...in fact, most people's days (the hindus and buddhists) are spent in some sort of religious fashion - visiting a temple, getting blessed, bathing in a holy river, etc. This is how I pictured it and to my delight...this is how it is!

But like any other 4th world country, I guess there must be a not so secret underbelly - people scrambling and doing anything to crawl out of poverty. My brother told me before coming here that, "India is the cruelest place I've ever been.", and Nepal seems that in many ways...

Last night me and buddhist family member (his name is Tashi, I should have written that eons ago), and another 4th year med student who stayed with us for a couple of days en route to his homeland, India (he's going into a medicine/psychiatry double residency) decided to go out in a district called Thamel around 9pm. This is the main tourist area, and has most the city's nightlife...I've spent many an afternoon shopping here, and figured we'd get a drink and chill.

Taxi driver drops us off and the place has a eerie mystique at night - no streetlights, you can only see your feet from the bars/stripclub lights that are open at this hour. The occasional internet cafe is still doing business, but for the most part, its a bunch of riff-raff...street skanks, if you will. The kind of place we all wanted to be in our early 20's. Nepali and indian locals are just standing on the thin sidewalks as cabs and motorcycles whiz by..I see them harass the occasional tourist in some fashion...

We walk not a few paces and a group of 3 boys not more than 14 years old crowd me (only me) and get close enough to whisper, "hassaj, hassaj?" Hmm...must be the rampant hash dealers that the area is known for...my instinct is to say no, and I just keep walking. This is how the conversation went with my companions:

Med student: "what he say?"
Me: "I dunno, hassaj I think...prolly selling hash"
Med student: "well I kinda wanna get some, lets go back..."
Me (don't fret ma and pa, I'm a good boy): "Nah, this is the last place I'd wanna get arrested"
Tashi: "what are you two talking about?"
Me: "oh those kids were offering us hash...hassaj, yes?"
Tashi: *laughs out loud*
Me: "Huh?"
Tashi: "doesn't mean hash...it means massage"

I think for a second, and look around...I realize the locals standing around are mostly prostitutes, mostly little boys and girls. I want to ask Tashi if the boys meant you know, a nice Swedish massage or something...but stopped myself from sounding naive. As I was worrying my 19 straight days of no-runs ending on the spot from crapping myself in disgust, a beautiful girl wearing a sari (traditional indian garb) in her teens walks by us quickly and slyly whispers, "s*ck, f*ck, very good follow me..."

The night went on like this, and we eventually found a nice rooftop bar (Canan, Nev and Sohto, you would be proud!) and had a drink. I mean, you can read about this stuff in the Economist, or watch a filtered "Dateline" episode on young kids forced (either by family members or their own poverty) into prostitution...but until a pre-pubescent boy offers you a special massage, it kinda hits you hard. I feel so unbelievably horrified for these kids who probably don't have many other options, and completely repulsed at the same time.

Its been 19 days since I've been in Nepal and haven't had the runs.