Sundance, April 30: The weekend before last, some friends convinced me to go to the Sundance Music Festival up in the hills outside Kathmandu at a place called Last Resort. It is known for having the second highest bungy jump in the world, but it also has a restaurant and a collection of large tents for people who come to take part in the various outdoor activities that they have.
Once a year, they organize a two-day music festival and bus people in from KTM for an evening. They set up about 150 tents (the ones that are permanent are fancy safari-like tents, but they set up backpacking type tents) all over the hillside and number them. You get assigned to a tent, and then you have all meals included and a stage set up with a variety of music including folk, traditional, rock, and a late night DJ.
The day started out raining so hard, I had to take a rickshaw from my hotel to get to the bus stop because there was a foot of water flooding the road. I was skeptical about the journey, as I wasn’t keen to spend an evening in a soaking wet tent listening to mediocre music.
But I rallied, only because I’d already paid for my non refundable ticket. However, the journey started off well. I was with a large group of friends of friends, one of who managed to get us a private van to take to Last Resort because we ‘couldn’t all fit on the buses.’ Then, once we arrived, it turned out that the rain that was slamming the KTM valley all weekend didn’t even reach us. The resort was beautiful with a little plunge pool, a nice bathroom J, and a lovely restaurant area with tasty eats. And, the weekend was full of lovely music (none of it spectacular, but definitely entertaining and a nice variety). But the best thing was the atmosphere. It was a small group of people, and no one really knew more than a few people, so everyone was incredibly friendly. I even lost my camera, and everyone thought someone had taken it, but I was sure the crowd was too chill (and too rich – admittedly there were mostly expats) to steal it. And it’s true! I was sitting on the bus ready to go home at the end of the weekend, and one of the staff members brought me my camera – it had been lying in the grass…oops. Besides my favorite German in the world coming, I didn’t know anyone at the start of the weekend, but I actually managed to make a few friends who have already made Kathmandu feel much more like home.
So thank you, Last Resort!
