What counts as visited?

It's a question that I always ask myself. What actually counts as visited?

I remember travelling on the night bus from Kathmandu to Jhapa. While I myself being half asleep, having my head against the window, watching district names pass on signboards which I could barely read in the darkness. Should any of those places count? I think about it and honestly, probably not.

You can feel when you have truly been somewhere. It is not about the hours spent or the distance covered. It can be that one morning on the way to Goshainkunda, you are taking a sip of a tea and thought, I want to come back here. A trail that has left your legs sore for three days. A restaurant where dal bhat was so good you still bring it up in conversations. A roadside where you just wanted to sit, light a cigarette, and admired the view. Those surely count.

There is no checklist for it. You can just ask yourself honestly: have I truly been here? and you will know.

Nepal Waits

My brother and I have this habit. Sometimes on one of those walks we go on for no reason, we ask to each other: where have we actually been? Then we start listing districts, towns, and roads we remember we have been to. We argue about whether passing through counts.

We mark on a pretty big printed map stuck on the wall. There is something about a physical map that just works. It is there, you can point at it, you can see the blank spaces and feel them. I still think everyone should try it at least once. Maybe for the love of the country or just because it looks good on a wall.

A few months ago I thought, what if this could travel with you too. What if you could share it with your bros, friends, family, your oomf, in two seconds. Look at where a friend has been and add it straight to your own wishlist. That shareability was what I felt missing.

So as one of my resolutions for 2083, I built Nepal Waits.

Some things feel better when shared. And I hope this can be one of them.