Bandits

Up about 9:00, showered, went out for breakfast, then read in the courtyard for a couple of hours.

About 1:00, headed out in search of a barber. Wayne had told me I had to get a shave in Nepal, it was quite an experience. For all the barber shops in Pokhara all trying to get you to come in for a shave and haircut, you'd think there would be hundreds in Thamel. There isn't. I expanded my search outside of Thamel, and finally found a spot. I asked for the price of a shave and a haircut, he said 150 rupees (less than $3 CDN). So off he started with the haircut first, which was pretty normal, except they use a razor to trim the hair on the neck...no electric shavers here for trimming.

The shave was an experience. He sprayed water all over my face, then a moisturizing cream, then he rubbed it in to face (quite hard), then a powder (talcum or baby or something), then rubbed that it in. Then he put a dab of shaving cream on my face and grabbed a brush and lathered the cream all over my face, just like in those Western cowboy movies. He would stop every once in a while and wipe away the lather on my lips. After I was all lathered up, he gave me the closest shave I'd ever had. Once he was finished, he grabbed the brush again, lathered me up all over again and shaved me again. Once that was done, he sprayed more water on my face, then rubbed some sort of stone all over my face, which caused it to burn and sting. Then more water, then he rubbed an aftershave all over, causing it to burn and sting even more.

But wait, there's more!

Then he trimmed my nose hairs with his scissors, then he gave me a full head and upper body massage. It wasn't very pleasant, lots of pinching, punching, slapping and cracking of joints. The massage took quite a while. Still not done, he trimmed the rest of my face (eyebrows, forehead and under the eyes) using a piece of thread, the same way those ladies on the beach in Vietnam did. I don't know how, but it grabs and pulls even the tiniest of hairs out.

The whole charade lasted an hour or more.

When he was finally done, I gave him 150 rupees, but he said 500 rupees (he eyed the 500 rupee bill that came out of my pocket with the smaller bills). I told him no. He pleaded, saying the massage and the eyebrows was extra, and I told him I would give him 200 rupees, because I didn't ask for all the extra stuff, he just did it. He went down to 300 rupees, begging, I said no, and chided him for taking advantage of me, he kept at 300. I put 250 rupees in his hand, thanked him and left. The massage is supposed to be part of the shaving package (it was for Wayne). Even then, it was quite an experience. The kicker was, the guy who did my shave and haircut, he wasn't even old enough to shave himself! Just a kid. He did a good job, though.

After that, went to the internet, while I was using it, it started raining. At a slight break in the rain, headed back to my room and wrote in journal.

It continued to rain most of the afternoon and into the evening, a light rain.

Just as I wsa getting ready to go out and find some grub, my phone rang. It was Sabine. Her and Mike were going to the casino at the Hyatt Regency (http://kathmandu.regency.hyatt.com/)and meeting up with a couple of Indian friends of hers (that she works with). She told me we get free drinks and food there, so I joined them. They picked me up in a taxi about 8:30, and it was a 30 minute ride to the casino/hotel. The hotel entrance had a security checkpost, where guards will check the vehicles, shining flashlights inside. Then it was perhaps another half a kilometre along a tree-lined driveway to the hotel lobby and casino (Casino Tara).

Very cool casino, not that big, but nice. The gaming hall was perhaps a little smaller than Casino Moose Jaw's gaming hall, in the middle were all the regular casino tables (Blackjack, Roulette, etc.), and along one wall were 20 or 30 slots.

There was a bar on the other side of the room, and a bunch of tables and chairs, like a cafeteria, beside and behind the bar. At the far end of the gaming hall, a small set of stairs led down to the buffet, dining room and entertainment stage.

There are a handful of casino's in Kathmandu, at least five, but it is illegal for Nepalese to gamble, so I'm told. The casino's are aimed at Indian tourists, as there are no casino's in India at all. You play with Indian rupees (or American dollars), so when you cash in Nepalese rupees, you get Indian rupee chips to play with.

I traded in 1000 Nepalese rupees (abot $20 CDN) and got 600 Indian rupees in chips. Mike did 2000.

We headed to a blackjack table, and Mike and I started playing.

While gambling, everything is free. Free alcohol (and other drinks), free snacks. At 9:15, the buffet opened up, all you can eat Indian food, free, and ta 9:30, the entertainment started. And, you get a free ride back your hotel after you're done losing all your money. :-)

Only women work the tables here, no men. And there's no shortage of women pushing around alcohol carts and snack carts, offering drinks and snacks to the patrons. And children are allowed in the casino. A number of families were milling about.

I was doing well on blackjack, got up to 1000 or 1100 Indian rupees, then the deck was reshuffled and a new dealer came in, and things went downhill. I went back down to 600 rupees, and stopped. I headed to the slots and ended up losing 500 rupees to the darn things. One armed bandits.

Just as I finished losing my money, Sabine came along and we headed down to the dining hall and filled our faces with excellent (but spicy!) Indian food, then the entertainment started.

The first performance was traditional Nepalese dance, after that, the performance turned racy, by Nepalese/Indian standards anyway, I suppose. Women dancers, in very short skirts, and small, tight tops, showing plenty of skin, lip-synching and dancing to various Indian movie songs.

It was all very good, actually.

We left about 11:00, and got our free ride back to our hotels, courtesy of the casino.

Got to bed about 11:30.

BTW, I mentioned the State of Emergency being lifted. You can tell it's been lifted, as locals are crawling over the streets late at night now (mostly teenagers), and cell phone service has been restored. I had wondered why I never saw any cell phones in Nepal, but I'm seeing them now.