Post from Tim:
Namche Bazaar: We had just arrived back from our trek to Namche Bazar, the nearest place to what one could call civilization. (That is, if one defines civilization by the number of bakeries with real pizza ovens, stores selling Snickers, electric lights in the outhouses, and telephones - it is still a six-day walk to the nearest road.)
We headed straight down to one of the bakeries, ordered pizzas and beers, and prepared to lounge away the later afternoon in the bakery's comfortable sun room, which had an atmosphere somewhere between a ski lodge and a Starbucks.
A bar out front cranked Bob Marley tunes that seemed harsh to my ear. Bob Marley playing disturbing music? Bob Marley, a man whose tunes provide the ambient noise in almost every guesthouse restaurant in the entire world, annoying me?
It took me a while, but then it hit me. For over two weeks I've been listening only to natural sounds - the sounds of yaks being called and the ring of the bells around their necks, my own footsteps and breathing, wind through the mountains flapping Buddhist prayer flags, birds singing, avalanches crashing in the distance, soft conversation. It has been a quiet two weeks without cars, auto rickshaws, radios, yelling, and other noises of the city.
We headed straight down to one of the bakeries, ordered pizzas and beers, and prepared to lounge away the later afternoon in the bakery's comfortable sun room, which had an atmosphere somewhere between a ski lodge and a Starbucks.
A bar out front cranked Bob Marley tunes that seemed harsh to my ear. Bob Marley playing disturbing music? Bob Marley, a man whose tunes provide the ambient noise in almost every guesthouse restaurant in the entire world, annoying me?
It took me a while, but then it hit me. For over two weeks I've been listening only to natural sounds - the sounds of yaks being called and the ring of the bells around their necks, my own footsteps and breathing, wind through the mountains flapping Buddhist prayer flags, birds singing, avalanches crashing in the distance, soft conversation. It has been a quiet two weeks without cars, auto rickshaws, radios, yelling, and other noises of the city.