An Unexpected Friend in Kathmandu, Nepal

One of our least favorite things about traveling is “touts.” These are the people that are constantly bothering you for tours, souvenirs or whatever else they think you might buy. Touts are everywhere when you travel internationally so you have to be ready for them. While we were in Kathmandu Nepal we would go down to Durbar Square daily to simply sit on the pagoda temple steps and people watch across the square (along with thousands of other people doing the same thing). Our first night doing this there was a young man (probably 18 or so) that just kept talking to us and asking questions. I honestly can’t remember if he was selling something or not but I think he was at least offering a “trekking guide” which is very popular. We did our best to ignore him but he just kept asking questions and his sweet/funny personality eventually won me and Lindsay over. He quickly realized we were not going to purchase a trek so the conversation turned friendly. We learned that he was from the countryside of Nepal and had come into the city (Kathmandu) to try and make ends meet. He was literally “living on the streets” but said most of the time friends would give him a place to stay. Although this sounds horrible he loved his life. He kept saying how kind people are and how everything always just seems to “work out.” (i.e. he ends up with a place to sleep for the night, food to eat, etc). His English was great and he said he learned it just by talking with tourists which we thought was incredible. He was also very impressed with Lindsay (of course) and kept commenting about her beautiful teeth. After a long conversation with him on the steps of a temple in Durbar Square we eventually learned that his name was “Ratch”, “Rat” or something like that. It was about dinner time so we asked him if he wanted to go for a snack and he jumped at the opportunity. He had a friend whose family owned a little restaurant near the square and we went there for french fries and Coke in a bottle. The restaurant was small, dark and damp but we were having a blast with our new friend “Ratch.” We were just eating french fries, drinking Cokes and laughing at all of the funny things Ratch was saying. His friend that worked at the restaurant was also hilarious. He said he just LOVED the movie Titanic and kept bringing this up and singing the theme song “near…far…wherever you are.” :) Eventually our evening with Ratch came to an end and we went our separate ways. During the next few days we were hoping to catch up with him again but we never did. We did run into his friend from the restaurant who gave us a big smile and “hello.” These chance encounters/friendships with locals are truly one of the things that make traveling so special. We will never forget our friend “Ratch” and the evening we spent with him in beautiful Kathmandu, Nepal.