What is Nepal Like? Kathmandu in 9 Minutes or Less

In April of 2015, Nepal was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. It left nearly 9,000 people dead and another 2.8 million displaced. The world was quick to respond, however, and it pledged 4.1 billion dollars in aid. The US itself gave over 130 million dollars. However, one year later, and many of the victims of the earthquake hadn't seen a cent of that aid. Stories of corruption and political turmoil started surfacing. You see, Nepal used to be a kingdom, run by a monarch. However, in 2008, they abolished that in favor of democracy, and they were just starting to draft their new constitution when the earthquake hit. In the aftermath of the earthquake, politicians decided that drafting the constitution was more important than providing relief to its people. And so because of that, the distribution of that 4.1 billion dollars was put on hold. Eventually, the government delegated officials to distribute the aid, but no regional lawmakers were in place to hold them accountable, so there was nothing to stop them from pocketing the money themselves. My flight leaves in one hour. Time to go. I wanted to visit Nepal two years after the earthquake to see if anything had changed. You always hear about these breaking disaster stories that dominate the news for a day or two, and then disappear forever. I didn't want Nepal to be like that. I didn't really have a plan once I was there. But that's not always a bad thing. Okay, so right now I'm headed up to the Kopan Monastery, and everywhere we go we're seeing protests, and he's saying that it's some sort of political... A little bit English, but it's a political protest, and they're everywhere, and they're stopping traffic, which is great. So in order to understand how the earthquake was affecting the people, I first had to better understand Nepalese culture, and to do that meant spending time meeting locals, wandering the streets, and learning a little bit about the history of Nepal. I found the motorcycle training school, which was hilarious to watch. Given how crazy they drive on the street, I just figured there was no training course, but apparently there is. The more you know. I headed over to Pasputinath, which is a sacred Hindu temple, and also a popular site for cremations. This guy was nice enough to give me a ride. According to the Hindu religion, the cremation of the body is needed in order to liberate the soul for its ascent into heaven. Fun fact, visitors are also expected to bring fruit. For some reason. I have no idea where this path leads. I'm just following the monkeys. Seems like a pretty solid plan, right? Bud, carry on. Something that's amazing about Nepal is that even though 80% of the Nepalese population is Hindu, and only 9% is Buddhist, some of the world's greatest Buddhist stupas can be found there. One of the temples, the Buddhanath stupa, supposedly houses the remains of one of the original Buddhas, something an entire religion is built on. That's pretty awesome. What I discovered were some of the toughest and most resilient people I'd ever met. There seemed to be a general sense of acceptance that they may never receive government compensation. And yet I saw communities fixing roads themselves, building new houses, and just helping each other out. In general, the Nepalese felt stronger than ever, despite all that had happened. Quick update from Nepal. It's now the seventh day in Kathmandu. I'm actually leaving today. I just wanted to let you guys know, if you notice, I'm actually wearing the exact same clothes as when I started the trip. And that's because my suitcase has actually been lost this entire time by Air India. They actually just now found it, but all seven days that I was in Kathmandu and all that time that you guys saw me going through the city, I actually only had these clothes that I had on, and my backpack, and this camera. So if you want to know what it looks like to have basically nothing in Nepal, or in Kathmandu, that's what you just saw. So yeah. But yeah, anyway, leaving Kathmandu.