Rice Eating Party

Friday 29th March 2013

My day began with meeting Rupak to buy “Dawa Surwal” (tiny nepali suits) for my little nephews in the Basantapur temple area of Kathmandu. I managed to find some lovely red velvet ones, they are going to look soooo cute :D Next stop was the (locally) famous tiny vegetarian restaurant “TipTop” where I grabbed some samosas and Indian sweets to share with Rupak in the taxi on the way over to the Women’s Skills’ Centre. After a final fitting and obligatory cup of tea I headed back to Thamel for some more meetings with suppliers dropping off fabulous new designs and wedding-related stuff.

My friends in the reggae band Land Lock Roots were playing a gig at a local bar so I got dressed up and headed there…only to immediately receive a phone call from my bahini (sister) Rita, a lovely girl I’ve known for 15 years as she sells bags on the streets of Thamel, to remind me I was late for her son’s “rice eating party”, the celebration of when a child reaches six months old and eats their first rice. I had a great couple of hours having a delicious dal bhat, meeting Rita’s family and party guests, and, of course, holding the baby :D 

With Rita's son at the rice eating party

I then headed back to watch the end of the Land Lock Roots gig, then shot over to see another reggae band – Joint Family – with my dutch friends Stu and Jaco at the House of Music bar near my hotel. Joint Family are a nine piece ensemble with a full brass section so it was a lot of fun to hear them play and have a dance.

Having fun at a reggae gig with Stu and Jaco

Owing to the curfew, by the time the gig had finished we didn’t have much option except to head back into Thamel where we met a group of Lebenese and Tunisian travellers and headed to Tom and Jerry’s for a final beer. As everything was closed by then, it was time to head to my hotel to open the “elebar” (i.e. drink on the terrace of the hotel!). Six of us had a couple of drinks, it was quite strange to sit on a dark terrace on a Friday night simply trying to enjoy the weekend, but we had a good time :D