What does it even mean? Well, we hurry up to explain, or actually no, we do not hurry up, we just explain 😉 Nepali time is not just time, it’s more like a perception of time. It’s an expression describing the lifestyle, the way you are and work and the most important thing about it is not to hurry and not to worry too much. Whatever happen, well it must have been that way. If not now, then later. You’re late for a bus? Don’t worry, there will be another one. You missed a meeting? Slow down, they will wait; you still have the whole day to get there. We also noticed that it is quite a challange to get a clear and precise answer, especially in all kinds of offices. The best way to deal with it, is to get there in person and ideally ask 2 or 3 people the same question to make sure you receive the right answer. If a shop assistant on duty needs a nap, he just takes it. If a Nepali is asked about something he does not know, he will say he does and ine the meantime call his friends or family in order to get the missing information. The “student quarter” known in Poland as a maximal acceptable delay in arriving to appointments here extends to one or even two hours! For example if you invite guests to dinner at 8pm and at 10pm there is still noone and nobody called, it does not surprise anyone. Just wait patiently and do what you have to do and your guests will arrive, at some point.

We spent in Nepal almost two months. Our initial plan was to stay there for one month only but I guess we fully switched to Nepali time 😉 Or maybe the first weeks of our travel were so charged experiences and emotions that we simply needed to slow down and breathe for a while? I guess those who know us personally can easily imagine that it wasn’t easy for us, always well organised, to adapt to this completely new perception of time, schedules and duties. But with time we got used to it and started planning things differently and giving them more time to get done. If by any chance we managed to acomplish something faster that we thought we were extremely proud of ourselves 🙂

To sum up: if going to Nepal you should definitely switch to “Slow down and chill out” mode, otherwise – you will go insane! 🙂