Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Pokhara
The town of Pokhara is much smaller than Kathmandu and has about 90% less hustle and bustle going on. It is possible to walk around without fearing you will lose a toe. It's alot quieter and more peaceful and is set on a beautiful lake called Phewa Tal. After I settled into my guest house yesterday I explored around the lake a little bit and rented a small wooden paddle boat for a few hours. All the men milling about the paddle boat rental thought it was quite amusing that a female was by herself and renting a paddle boat without a driver (someone you can hire to paddle you around the lake.) Anyway I paddled around the lake and it was gorgeous! In Pokhara you can actually see some amazing mountain peaks including the Annapurna Range, Machhapuchhare, and Dhaulagiri. Seeing the scale of these mountains is breathtaking! I wouldn't even call them mountains, they are bigger than mountains! Anyway, I paddled around explored some jungle on the other side of the lake and just sat and looked at the sights while bobbing up and down on my green and yellow paddle boat. After a while it started to thunder and lightning so I headed back to shore. Just in time! The monsoon rain started to come! It was TORRENTIAL! The heaviest rain I have ever seen. So I went for a nap and woke up when the rain had stopped. The calm after the storm was quite nice. It left the air feeling clean and crisp and cool. So I strolled around enjoying the cool breeze and stopped for some dal bhaat. At the restaurant I was in I met a Professor from the University of Minnesota. He lives here in the summer and started an orphanage here which he invited me to visit. He said the kids especially like to have visitors after school, so I think I will go to the orphanage tomrrow or the next day. I also want to visit the Leprosy Hospital and the Tibetan settlement that is nearby. And explore the beautiful hills to find some mountain villages.
Sharing A Room
When I say sharing a room, I don't mean with my new well travelled friends from around the world. I mean with the cockroaches. As the weather warms everyday they start to emerge in heightened numbers. The first few days in Nepal I did not see any, now I say quite a few, including in my rooms. It's quite a shock to get up in the night to go to the bathroom to find a few shiny brown friends scuttering about on the walls. But I've started to adapt to their presence and am not too bothered by them. I know they are harmless these cockroaches are giant, and unnerving because of their size and they spindly antennae and how fast they move. But I suppose I am not better than a cockroach or any bug so I should not complain and should share my room with them happily.
Bus Ride To Pokhara
Hello!
I arrived in Pokhara yesterday afternoon after a 7 hour bus ride through the countryside. It was nice to take the bus because now I fully understand (well maybe not fully) how hilly Nepal really is. Outside the Kathmandu valley is alot different than I expected. There is absolutely no flat parts and people have their cottages and huts scattered throughout the hills. The road is windey and in some parts bumpy. The road was paved pretty recently by the Chinese, but this road has been in existence for hundreds (maybe thousands) or years as a trade route between India and The Valley. I can NOT even imagine what this road would be like unpaved. Tretcherous for sure. I took a tourist bus which was about 5 USD. The other option is to take the local buses which are about half the price and take twice the time. Also along the way, a few of these local buses were tipped over on their sides, probably due to erratic driving.
For the first 3 or 4 hours I sat by a man from Switzerland. He walked with a walking stick and had some kind of leg cripple. He said people here view him differently than they do in the West. They don't view his handicap as something weird. He is a self proclaimed "nomad" and does not have a home anywhere but just goes all over the world. I could not tell his age, could be anywhere from 40 - 60. He had a very interesting view on Nepal. He thought the foreign aid and money were completely useless. He said people here have become so used to people doing things for them that they won't do anything for themselves. He thinks the situation is completely hopeless from the attitudes of the people to the government corruption and there is not any point in helping. A morbid view I guess, but in someways I can see what he means. I guess it's the idea that nothing we do in our life will really matter in the long run so why try?
This man's name was Frederiqe and he left to walk the hills about halfway through the ride. Then another guy sat by me who was Nepali but had been living in the UK. He had just gone through a divorce and decided to cut out everything from his old life and start fresh. He has 2 sons 15 and 16 and he doesn't talk to them anymore. After I heard this I was annoyed with him and just tryed to look out the window.
There was a strike yesterday in Pokhara so getting into town was a bit difficult becasue they had stopped traffic. Finally we arrived at the bus park and once I left the bus I was attacked by touts trying to sell me their hotel. Literally attacked. It was quite annoying having 20 guys in your face trying to sell you a hotel.
I hitched a ride into town with the owner of Blue Heaven Guest House which is where I am staying now, paying 150 rupees per night.
I arrived in Pokhara yesterday afternoon after a 7 hour bus ride through the countryside. It was nice to take the bus because now I fully understand (well maybe not fully) how hilly Nepal really is. Outside the Kathmandu valley is alot different than I expected. There is absolutely no flat parts and people have their cottages and huts scattered throughout the hills. The road is windey and in some parts bumpy. The road was paved pretty recently by the Chinese, but this road has been in existence for hundreds (maybe thousands) or years as a trade route between India and The Valley. I can NOT even imagine what this road would be like unpaved. Tretcherous for sure. I took a tourist bus which was about 5 USD. The other option is to take the local buses which are about half the price and take twice the time. Also along the way, a few of these local buses were tipped over on their sides, probably due to erratic driving.
For the first 3 or 4 hours I sat by a man from Switzerland. He walked with a walking stick and had some kind of leg cripple. He said people here view him differently than they do in the West. They don't view his handicap as something weird. He is a self proclaimed "nomad" and does not have a home anywhere but just goes all over the world. I could not tell his age, could be anywhere from 40 - 60. He had a very interesting view on Nepal. He thought the foreign aid and money were completely useless. He said people here have become so used to people doing things for them that they won't do anything for themselves. He thinks the situation is completely hopeless from the attitudes of the people to the government corruption and there is not any point in helping. A morbid view I guess, but in someways I can see what he means. I guess it's the idea that nothing we do in our life will really matter in the long run so why try?
This man's name was Frederiqe and he left to walk the hills about halfway through the ride. Then another guy sat by me who was Nepali but had been living in the UK. He had just gone through a divorce and decided to cut out everything from his old life and start fresh. He has 2 sons 15 and 16 and he doesn't talk to them anymore. After I heard this I was annoyed with him and just tryed to look out the window.
There was a strike yesterday in Pokhara so getting into town was a bit difficult becasue they had stopped traffic. Finally we arrived at the bus park and once I left the bus I was attacked by touts trying to sell me their hotel. Literally attacked. It was quite annoying having 20 guys in your face trying to sell you a hotel.
I hitched a ride into town with the owner of Blue Heaven Guest House which is where I am staying now, paying 150 rupees per night.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Kathmandu!
Namaste!
I finally have figured out my blog and I figure this will be easier than mass emails for everyone to check in on what I am doing, so you all dont have to worry about piles of emails from me.
Ok, so I have been in Kathmandu for a little less than a week and am finally starting to get into the flow of the city and understand it a little bit more. I still see new things every day that are shocking, exciting, sad, joyful, and I doubt that this will change throughout the trip. So I am going to start with giving a general rundown on all the things I have observed/think are interesting/different, etc... Also I have already taken masses of pictures but have not found a good way that doesn't take at least 15 hours to get my pictures on the internet. So, until I figure this out, my descriptions of Nepal will have to suffice.
TRAFFIC: The only rule of the roads is that there are no rules. Rickety rickshaws, crazy taxis, fruit and vegtable peddlers on bikes, scattered personal cars, dingy microbuses with hoardes of peole hanging on the outside and the roof, police trucks, huge water trucks, masses of people, hundreds of stray dogs. I like to think of the streets as the veins of the city and all the traffic going through the streets as the blood. There are no sidewalks and most of the streets are not paved and consist of an incredible number of potholes and huge rocks. Supposedly people drive on the right side of the street, but as far as I have seen this is just a rumor. Vehicles and people go wherever there is an open space, zigzaging within inches of obstacles in front of them. The traffic is absolute madness to say the very least. Walking through the streets is an adventure in itself. You must not let your guard down for ever 3 seconds or you will collide head on with a wild motorcycle or rickshaw. Walking through traffic is like a video game: you constantly need to dodge obstacles, jump over pot holes, watch your toes in the face of a maniac taxi, step over the vegetable pedllers sitting on the road, watch for rabid dogs who may want a chunk of your leg, and watch for dead rats (which deliver a rather delicious sqelching sound when stepped on, which i found out through personal experience yesterday when I stepped on about 2 freshly dead and rather large rats.)
ON BEING A FOREIGNER: Most people are extremely excited to meet foreigners. One of the first question asked is "Where are you from?" I reply "US", and then the questioner becomes very excited and says something like "OH! Very big building!" or "OH! Very nice country!" I then ask if they have been and the answer is alway no. The two places the locals know best are Washington DC and California. So, I always explain that Oregon is directly above California.
BEGGARS: I was told many times before coming here about the poverty. And yes, the poverty is blatant and in your face wherever you go. The beggars around town have an array or injuries and methods of getting money. There are quite a few beggars with various degrees of amputation: either no hands, no arms, no feet, no legs, and a few with stumps in the place of all limbs. Also there are a fair amount of lepers whose fingers and toes look like they have melted off. Another common sight is the mother and child beggar team. The other day I walked by a women holding one sleepign child on the ground on a sheet. In front of her was another of her children sleeping with a horrible leg amputation being exhibited to the public. A few coins scattered infront of the child with the amputated leg. One of the worst I have seen so far was a man laying in the middle of a busy street corner on a scrap of cloth. His pant legs were rolled up to reveal incredibly dirty feet and legs. On one of his legs was a humongous open and festering wound which looked immensely painful. The wound was about the length of his leg, open, pussy, shiney, with scraps of cotton stuck to the dripping wound. These beggars really do pull at the heart strings, but if you were to give each one money you would be out of money in a week. I remember that I am here to work in the hospital and hopefully help with my services rather than my money.
CHILDREN: I have met dozens of Nepali children already. They are the most interested in foreigers, especially people with light skin. I walked with a friend to the Monkey Temple a few days ago. Once we had finally reached the top of the 365 stairs we had an army of about 8 children following us ALL DAY. I guess they really dont have anything else to do. I showed them my backpack. They were very interested in the individual small packages of tissues I had. So I gave them each a tissue (also because most of them had blood or snot running down their faces from their noses.) But they did not use the tissue to wipe their noses, they instead became a very interesting toy. Some of the children have ideas that Westerners are walking ATMS. They come up and say "Hello! Give me money!" (How charming.)
STREET CHILDREN: A main component of the homeless are very small children. If you walk around at night in many corners are piles upon piles of dirty and ragedy children sleeping on top of each other. Arms, legs, feet, hands, all tangled with one another so it's hard to tell how many are actually there. They seem to mesh into one mass. This is a very sad sight. Some of these street children work at night begging. They are incredibly persistant. They have followed me for 20 minute intervals after I constantly say "No!" They put their hand up to their mouth over and over saying "Miss, Miss, buiscuit, buiscuit." I have been going to the bakery across my hotel which give a 50% discount on pastries after 8 PM. I get a few scones and buiscuits, and eat a little then give a little to the kids. I figure food is better than money anyway.
One of the most disturbing things I actually just saw today. I was roaming the streets at about noon and saw a gang of about 8 to 10 street kids. Each held a small crumpled paper bag in their hands. Their faces smeared with dirt and their hair matted. Every few seconds they brought the paper bags up to their mouths and intensely huffed glue for a minute or so. After huffing glue they swaggered around the streets like drunks. Shooting sling shots at birds, and harrassing stray dogs, twisting their tales around and around until the dogs yelped in pain. The people standing by just laughed at these boys as they huffed more glue and were on thier way to find another dog to torment. This sight was very shocking, especially how open these kids were about sniffing glue. By their sizes I would say they were all 7 to 9 years of age. (Although, here size can be deceiving. Sometimes I ask kids their age, and when I would guess 7 or 8 they are 13 or 14. I think this has something to do with malnutrition.)
THE THIRD WORLD: There is something very magical about the third world. I still can't really figure out what it is. This place is full of poverty, begging, dirt, pollution, but it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I am still trying to fully figure out the underbelly of Kathmandu, what really makes it work.
STRIKE!: Yesterday all the government organizations and taxis were on strike. This meant the streets were surprisingly easy to walk around! Also the usual chorus of the music the streets produced was much quieter. The teachers were also on strike for about a week (I'm not sure if they still are) so there was an abundance of kids around, out of school. The strike was because of lack of facilities like water, electricity, etc... I walked around yesterday out of Thamel (my neighborhood) and saw a few demonstrations and quickly turned around and walked the other way. The taxis are off their strike today so the regular chaos has returned to the streets.
INTO THE HILLS: Two days ago I trekked up in Shivapuri jungle with a few friends I met in Kathmandu. This was a refreshing change from the chaos of the city. Gorgeous, lush jungle, clean air, the sound of exotic animals deep in the forest. It was very calming. At the end of our trek into the hills we came upon a monastery. This was the most majestic place I have seen. Tucked into the fog of the high hills lays this little monastery village. Thousands of prayer flags are strung through trees and whip in the clean and crisp wind. A friend and I went into the monastery where they were chanting and doing some sort of ritual. families that had made a pilgrimage up to this monastery handing the monks and nuns bills of rupees and handfuls of rice. We took a seet on the ground next to some elderly Tibetan women, beautifully dressed and adorned with gorgeous jewelry. The chanting was amazing! The most deep resonating sound I have ever heard. We listened in awe for about an hour and the monks were so kind to us. They gave us cup after cup of sweet Nepalese tea. The old Tibetan woman next to us let us try a hand at her prayer wheel which was the biggest and most ornate on I have ever seen. We both tried a few times before really getting the metal ball spinning around. The women around us got a good friendly chuckle at our undeveloped skills at the prayer wheel. It's all in the wrist I found from observing the other swinging wheels around us. We then went out to observe the view. Amazingly beautiful. Rolling hills spotted with tiny farming villages, and the valley down below. A smog cloud hangs over Kathmandu which is visible from the hills. We watched some monks clean butter lamps and lounge in the grass. We watched cows lazily munch the grass around the monastery. Visitors and monks doing prostrations (sp?) in front of the monastery. We met a young man named Sunam (about 15 years old) who was amonk in training. He had been fasting for a while and was starting to get a little loopy from lack of food and water. He invited us to have private tea with him in the nun's kitch. We went in to their tiny kitchen hut with piles of tomatoes, beans, and potatoes lying around on the ground. We sad on a mat and shared some yak butter tea (very interesting taste) with him, while the young nuns giggled at our most hilarious hiking boots, backpacks, and cameras. How silly we looked to them! Anyways, it was getting dark, so we left sunam who invited us to stay with him in his village!
I hope these stories give everyone a good feeling of the city without pictures. I have decided to leave Kathmandu for Pokhara tomorrow morning to start getting the feel of the rest of Nepal. So, I'm not sure if I will be able to post for a while.
Nepal is the most amazing place! I really adore this country and especially the people who are incredibly kind, generous, and hospitable. They are what make this country what it is.
I finally have figured out my blog and I figure this will be easier than mass emails for everyone to check in on what I am doing, so you all dont have to worry about piles of emails from me.
Ok, so I have been in Kathmandu for a little less than a week and am finally starting to get into the flow of the city and understand it a little bit more. I still see new things every day that are shocking, exciting, sad, joyful, and I doubt that this will change throughout the trip. So I am going to start with giving a general rundown on all the things I have observed/think are interesting/different, etc... Also I have already taken masses of pictures but have not found a good way that doesn't take at least 15 hours to get my pictures on the internet. So, until I figure this out, my descriptions of Nepal will have to suffice.
TRAFFIC: The only rule of the roads is that there are no rules. Rickety rickshaws, crazy taxis, fruit and vegtable peddlers on bikes, scattered personal cars, dingy microbuses with hoardes of peole hanging on the outside and the roof, police trucks, huge water trucks, masses of people, hundreds of stray dogs. I like to think of the streets as the veins of the city and all the traffic going through the streets as the blood. There are no sidewalks and most of the streets are not paved and consist of an incredible number of potholes and huge rocks. Supposedly people drive on the right side of the street, but as far as I have seen this is just a rumor. Vehicles and people go wherever there is an open space, zigzaging within inches of obstacles in front of them. The traffic is absolute madness to say the very least. Walking through the streets is an adventure in itself. You must not let your guard down for ever 3 seconds or you will collide head on with a wild motorcycle or rickshaw. Walking through traffic is like a video game: you constantly need to dodge obstacles, jump over pot holes, watch your toes in the face of a maniac taxi, step over the vegetable pedllers sitting on the road, watch for rabid dogs who may want a chunk of your leg, and watch for dead rats (which deliver a rather delicious sqelching sound when stepped on, which i found out through personal experience yesterday when I stepped on about 2 freshly dead and rather large rats.)
ON BEING A FOREIGNER: Most people are extremely excited to meet foreigners. One of the first question asked is "Where are you from?" I reply "US", and then the questioner becomes very excited and says something like "OH! Very big building!" or "OH! Very nice country!" I then ask if they have been and the answer is alway no. The two places the locals know best are Washington DC and California. So, I always explain that Oregon is directly above California.
BEGGARS: I was told many times before coming here about the poverty. And yes, the poverty is blatant and in your face wherever you go. The beggars around town have an array or injuries and methods of getting money. There are quite a few beggars with various degrees of amputation: either no hands, no arms, no feet, no legs, and a few with stumps in the place of all limbs. Also there are a fair amount of lepers whose fingers and toes look like they have melted off. Another common sight is the mother and child beggar team. The other day I walked by a women holding one sleepign child on the ground on a sheet. In front of her was another of her children sleeping with a horrible leg amputation being exhibited to the public. A few coins scattered infront of the child with the amputated leg. One of the worst I have seen so far was a man laying in the middle of a busy street corner on a scrap of cloth. His pant legs were rolled up to reveal incredibly dirty feet and legs. On one of his legs was a humongous open and festering wound which looked immensely painful. The wound was about the length of his leg, open, pussy, shiney, with scraps of cotton stuck to the dripping wound. These beggars really do pull at the heart strings, but if you were to give each one money you would be out of money in a week. I remember that I am here to work in the hospital and hopefully help with my services rather than my money.
CHILDREN: I have met dozens of Nepali children already. They are the most interested in foreigers, especially people with light skin. I walked with a friend to the Monkey Temple a few days ago. Once we had finally reached the top of the 365 stairs we had an army of about 8 children following us ALL DAY. I guess they really dont have anything else to do. I showed them my backpack. They were very interested in the individual small packages of tissues I had. So I gave them each a tissue (also because most of them had blood or snot running down their faces from their noses.) But they did not use the tissue to wipe their noses, they instead became a very interesting toy. Some of the children have ideas that Westerners are walking ATMS. They come up and say "Hello! Give me money!" (How charming.)
STREET CHILDREN: A main component of the homeless are very small children. If you walk around at night in many corners are piles upon piles of dirty and ragedy children sleeping on top of each other. Arms, legs, feet, hands, all tangled with one another so it's hard to tell how many are actually there. They seem to mesh into one mass. This is a very sad sight. Some of these street children work at night begging. They are incredibly persistant. They have followed me for 20 minute intervals after I constantly say "No!" They put their hand up to their mouth over and over saying "Miss, Miss, buiscuit, buiscuit." I have been going to the bakery across my hotel which give a 50% discount on pastries after 8 PM. I get a few scones and buiscuits, and eat a little then give a little to the kids. I figure food is better than money anyway.
One of the most disturbing things I actually just saw today. I was roaming the streets at about noon and saw a gang of about 8 to 10 street kids. Each held a small crumpled paper bag in their hands. Their faces smeared with dirt and their hair matted. Every few seconds they brought the paper bags up to their mouths and intensely huffed glue for a minute or so. After huffing glue they swaggered around the streets like drunks. Shooting sling shots at birds, and harrassing stray dogs, twisting their tales around and around until the dogs yelped in pain. The people standing by just laughed at these boys as they huffed more glue and were on thier way to find another dog to torment. This sight was very shocking, especially how open these kids were about sniffing glue. By their sizes I would say they were all 7 to 9 years of age. (Although, here size can be deceiving. Sometimes I ask kids their age, and when I would guess 7 or 8 they are 13 or 14. I think this has something to do with malnutrition.)
THE THIRD WORLD: There is something very magical about the third world. I still can't really figure out what it is. This place is full of poverty, begging, dirt, pollution, but it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I am still trying to fully figure out the underbelly of Kathmandu, what really makes it work.
STRIKE!: Yesterday all the government organizations and taxis were on strike. This meant the streets were surprisingly easy to walk around! Also the usual chorus of the music the streets produced was much quieter. The teachers were also on strike for about a week (I'm not sure if they still are) so there was an abundance of kids around, out of school. The strike was because of lack of facilities like water, electricity, etc... I walked around yesterday out of Thamel (my neighborhood) and saw a few demonstrations and quickly turned around and walked the other way. The taxis are off their strike today so the regular chaos has returned to the streets.
INTO THE HILLS: Two days ago I trekked up in Shivapuri jungle with a few friends I met in Kathmandu. This was a refreshing change from the chaos of the city. Gorgeous, lush jungle, clean air, the sound of exotic animals deep in the forest. It was very calming. At the end of our trek into the hills we came upon a monastery. This was the most majestic place I have seen. Tucked into the fog of the high hills lays this little monastery village. Thousands of prayer flags are strung through trees and whip in the clean and crisp wind. A friend and I went into the monastery where they were chanting and doing some sort of ritual. families that had made a pilgrimage up to this monastery handing the monks and nuns bills of rupees and handfuls of rice. We took a seet on the ground next to some elderly Tibetan women, beautifully dressed and adorned with gorgeous jewelry. The chanting was amazing! The most deep resonating sound I have ever heard. We listened in awe for about an hour and the monks were so kind to us. They gave us cup after cup of sweet Nepalese tea. The old Tibetan woman next to us let us try a hand at her prayer wheel which was the biggest and most ornate on I have ever seen. We both tried a few times before really getting the metal ball spinning around. The women around us got a good friendly chuckle at our undeveloped skills at the prayer wheel. It's all in the wrist I found from observing the other swinging wheels around us. We then went out to observe the view. Amazingly beautiful. Rolling hills spotted with tiny farming villages, and the valley down below. A smog cloud hangs over Kathmandu which is visible from the hills. We watched some monks clean butter lamps and lounge in the grass. We watched cows lazily munch the grass around the monastery. Visitors and monks doing prostrations (sp?) in front of the monastery. We met a young man named Sunam (about 15 years old) who was amonk in training. He had been fasting for a while and was starting to get a little loopy from lack of food and water. He invited us to have private tea with him in the nun's kitch. We went in to their tiny kitchen hut with piles of tomatoes, beans, and potatoes lying around on the ground. We sad on a mat and shared some yak butter tea (very interesting taste) with him, while the young nuns giggled at our most hilarious hiking boots, backpacks, and cameras. How silly we looked to them! Anyways, it was getting dark, so we left sunam who invited us to stay with him in his village!
I hope these stories give everyone a good feeling of the city without pictures. I have decided to leave Kathmandu for Pokhara tomorrow morning to start getting the feel of the rest of Nepal. So, I'm not sure if I will be able to post for a while.
Nepal is the most amazing place! I really adore this country and especially the people who are incredibly kind, generous, and hospitable. They are what make this country what it is.
Friday, May 4, 2007
10 Days and Counting
I am currently counting down the days until departure. (Well, I've been counting down for the last hundred or so days.) Actually I am not counting down the hours - about 240 hours to go. On the subject of preparedness: how do you prepare for a trip like this? I'm getting ahead of myself - first I should describe what I will be embarking on in 10 days:
On May 14th I am leaving the US for Asia for an extended trip.
more to come...
On May 14th I am leaving the US for Asia for an extended trip.
more to come...
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