Encounter in Swayambhunath

Monkey Temple locates on a hill. There is a lot of steps that you have to go up to reach to the temple from the gate in the bottom, and I saw monkeys everywhere around the steps. Walking up, I noticed that a local guy was following me. He said hello to me and seemed that he wanted to talk to me. I didn't really care about him firstly, but when I got close to the ticket counter, there were two tourists having a quarrel with the ticket seller. I could go forward, but for some reason, stepped back and took a rest at a landing. Then, the guy who was following me came up and spoke to me again. When he started talking about some stories, he finally caught my attention.

What he talked about was,

The history of the temple
About the meal Nepali people eat
Education problem in Nepal
etc.

So, at that time, I found out why the restaurant was empty. They have breakfast and dinner but lunch! Late in the daytime, they have some snacks and tea, but it's not during what we call lunch time! That's why there was no one in the restaurant when I had lunch today! (However, I still wonder why there were even no tourists...)

Hari, the local guy, told me about himself as well and it was a kind of shocking thing. He told me he has never been to school (He is around my age), even to an elementary school, because he is the 5th of the 6 children in the family. It's pretty common for general families there, that only one child (Mostly the first child) goes to school but the others because they can't afford it. He told me he learned English by himself by working for tourists from abroad. His oldest brother is the only child who went to school in the family and works for government now...it's a very honor thing. On the other hand, Hari had been working in a factory since he was a kid. Who can imagine such a thing as one of those general people who were educated normally in Japan if you haven't traveled somewhere like Nepal...I found the life of local people in there is much tougher compared to ours.

However, Hari seemed he was enjoying what he did. He likes talking to tourists, and that was exactly why he spoke to me. He asked me if I tried local booze and I told him I had Everest beer last night. He mentioned about local whiskey and asked me if I wanted to try. Why not? So, I decided to follow him to grab some drink...without forgetting swearing to myself that I would escape if I feel any danger, lol.

That's one of the things I enjoy while traveling alone...which I have to be careful about :P

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