Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2000 07:52:08 -0800 (PST)
From: Jay Schneider
Subject: TAIMINGU! (Timing)
タイミング!
It’s time to talk about time. First of all, Nepal is 5 hours and FIFTEEN minutes off of GMT, so let’s just get that out of the way. S, I’ve been hangin’ out in Kathmandu for over a week now and passing the time, rather well, I must say. But I admit the last day or two, I’ve started to get a little restless, and a little antsy, and apart from reading books, writing in my journal, and reading what the people next to me are typing in their e-mails (see, it’s Japanese, so I figure I’m just doing my duty to keep up my proficiency), I’ve had a lot of time to think and reflect.
I’ve told you about my luck and good timing (festivals, living goddesses, and goat sacrificing), but there’s a flip side to that, the bad-timing (arriving in Kathmandu after the India visa office closed on Friday, having to wait until Monday to begin the process).
I missed the Olympics. Completely. My volunteer project was the same two weeks as the Olympics.
I went into the mountains for 3 weeks, and when I came back, Milosevic was out, and that Mideast Peace process which was just about all settled and done, had totally blown up (unfortunately, quite literally). And now, it looks as though from the moment the polls open in the States until the votes are tallied and a winner declared, I’ll be sitting on a bus to India.
But these little bits don’t bother me. Heck, I can read about them after the fact, it really doesn’t make too much difference. (Upon returning to the States, it’ll be easy enough to ask, “Say, who’s president these days?”) The poor timing comes into play regarding my trip to India.
I was sitting in front of a computer with nothing to do (the Japanese person next to me had left), I started “surfing,” as the kids call it these days, and discovered that the entrance fees for all of India’s major and world heritage sites had gone up. Now, I don’t mean just a slight nudge. Admission fees which were previously anywhere from $1-$6 have all gone up to (brace yourselves) $21. And they also got rid of the ‘Free for Foreigner Fridays’ (perhaps because it’s so hard to say. Go ahead, try saying it 3 times real fast.) As steep as that may sound, one could argue seeing the Taj Mahal could be worth ten times that. But India is more than the Taj Mahal. And apparently more than my budget.
So, perhaps my trip will by-pass the world-heritage sites and wonders of the world, and turn into the infinitely cheaper finding-myself/spiritual journey. Maybe I’ll check out the Hare Krishna’s. After all, I already got the haircut.
Well, I gotta go reset my watch. India is 5 hours and THIRTY minutes off GMT.
Jay “the times, they are a changin'” Schneider