RICK, the DUTCH YETI

The first time that I saw Rick, he was on the top floor of the small hotel where I was staying and he was behind his laptop. Typing and typing and typing again. At first I though he was a journalist. Maybe American. I guess his body reminded me of Hemingway and I decided that he was a heavy drinker who loves hunting and fishing and that, of course, he was there to write about the Dashain festival in Bhaktapur ...Of course I was wrong. But in the process of knowing that I was wrong, I found a great person. We actually hang out together for the few days that I spent in Bhaktapur. Rick is Dutch and he is a smart guy. I liked that, but that didn't impress me. And he open a restaurant in the main square of Bhaktapur. But that didn't impress me either. I saw a lot of Europeans leave everything behind and move to a third World country to find some luck. Rick in a way is different, from all those. Of course he is an explorer. That is why he ended up here. But what really made me think a lot, is the way he got here in Bhaktapur. He basically decided to leave everything behind when he suddenly saw the people he loved the most, die one after the other. His story really made me realize that we are spending most of our energes and time tryiing to get bigger houses, more assets and better salaries. But at the end what really matters in live are just the few people that we carry in our heart. All the rest can easily be left behind. Now he loves to call himself the Dutch Yeti. I loved his nickname. And if you are curious to meet him, you can go to his restaurant, "The Heart of Bhaktapur" ...