Sometimes, I just need to walk Kathmandu—not as a tourist, not as a consumer. I need to walk simply to feel the city.

And yet, there’s this constant pull—a voice offering a taxi, a hand waving me into a shop, someone trying to sell me what I don’t need. I understand it. It’s survival, it’s how people make their living here. But sometimes it feels like no one sees the person who just wants to be.

I want to walk without explanation, to not have to say no, thank you a hundred times, to not feel like my presence must equal a transaction.

August 2025