March 24-29
Dad and I made our way from hotel to the airport the morning of the 24th to our next destination: Kathmandu, Nepal! We were headed there to see our family friend, Jacole, who has been living there for the two years teaching in an international school--it was so awesome to see her and what she's been doing. This post may be kind of long, but I didn't want to do in an exact day by day schematic, so I'm gonna break it down by the Do's and Don'ts I experienced during my time in this eye-opening country. None of this is supposed to be negative at all, because I had an amazing trip, but it was definitely an entirely foreign world from what I think I had pictured and through this understanding I was able to truly appreciate the chaos and beauty that is Nepal.
DO: Go to the bathroom before you land. Upon arrival to KTM (a large, empty feeling, red brick building with a dark concrete interior to match) I found myself snaking my way around the side of the building to a rather smelly and clearly overused squatty potty restroom. Not what I pictured the airport facilities being like, but again, takin' it in strides.
DO: Know someone who lives there or has been there. Jacole was the most amazing guide/resource and helped us navigate our way. She was so welcoming and knew what to see, how to get there and all the ins and outs which saved us a lot of stress and a lot of time planning...plus she knew the great places to eat!
DON'T: Get into a cab before negotiating a fare. Opposite of what we do in Thailand (where the use of the meter in the taxi is the most legit), bargaining for your fare will often save you tons of rupees as Jacole told us. Drivers who use meters often have them rigged so that when they honk the horn or change the radio station, the meter jumps and the rider is left to pay a hefty sum.
DO: Take some time to appreciate the cacophony of sounds that erupt from the streets of Kathmandu. There seems to be a different horn sound for each vehicle and a different vendor peddling something on every square inch of the city. At first it was irritating to have so much noise pollution, but when a Nepali man coined it a Street Symphony you couldn't help but smile and let yourself melt into the ruckus.
DO: Brace yourself. I thought Bangkok was scary to drive in: enter KTM. It's terrifying as your miniature Suzuki taxi is drag racing through ancient alleyways, whizzing around corners hoping his self-created horn sound will be enough warning for any oncoming traffic that is hoping the same for their vehicle.
DON'T: Breathe too heavily. With a population BOOM in the last 5 years, Kathmandu is having some serious issues keeping its pollution under
control. Driving past the Bagmati river (a very holy river that flows into the Ganges in India) is almost like swimming through a backed up sewer. It barely moves as it struggles to meander through piles of plastic and trash which themselves are littered with poverty-stricken collectors searching for anything that could be reused or resold. Whatever doesn't end up in the river seems to be strewn about the streets or gathered into small piles and burned every few feet throughout the city. Don't worry though, if the pollution doesn't get you there is always the dry season dust that seems to shroud your lungs like an unwanted pashmina (although sometimes you wish you had one to breathe through to filter the air).
DO: Visit Nala Kavre (or any village away from the hustle of KTM). Ullens School, where Jacole 
teaches, sent their upper level students to 2 different sites in rural Nepal to spend a week doing service projects. We got to go along one a few hours east of the city and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've had thus far. We crawled through the dust and construction of the city and wound our way through the beautiful countryside to Kavre, a small village nestled on a terraced mountainside. Even with the haze of burning season smoke, the scenery and view from the village was unbelieveable. The students were renovating the village primary school (repainting, making learning tools for the classroom, etc.) and we were greeted by a throng of curious local children, who, after a little while, warmed right up to us.
Jacole, school Principal and Me with a bunch of the students: Nala Kavre, NepalWhile visiting a rural village: DO: Eat with your hands. You're thinking what? but it is quite the feeling to sit around inside the bottom floor of a stranger's wood, mud and straw home in the mountains of Nepal, surrounded by locals, eating the same lentils (daal), curried chicken (bones and all), rice and potatoes and smiling while you struggle to scoop it all together into a ball and not drip it all over your shirt.
DO: Visit an elder's home. I was reading Three Cups of Tea at this time and I literally had an out-of-book experience on a tour through the village. We passed by the home of an old man and he waved us over. He laid out a mat for us and brought out his whole family. Through the help of my village buddy we sort of translated a conversation and he offered us tea and water all the while beaming with a genuinely warm and proud smile that he was able to play host and that we were so interested in spending time with him. DO: Get to know the kids. I met some incredible little kids in my few hours in Kavre. My main
man was Suhnsant, a 10-yr old, who I kind of took under my wing and bummed around with (he had the best English of his friends). He and his friend Sabi took me around the village, proudly showing off their homes, the local animals, where they get water, what they eat, etc. Along with them I got to know Rosan (4), Susmita (6) and Sustika (8) who were siblings and probably some of the cutest little kids I've met. It really makes you think when you go somewhere like this where the entire school is as big as some lecture halls I had at college, they have little or no plumbing or electricity, the water isn't necessarily always clean and the families make their livings off farming the land of these steep mountains--how inspiring it is that the children (and adults) are so happy. They were so curious and welcoming and excited to show off what they did have. 
They loved having their pictures taken and the second the click was heard they sprinted and clambered over you to get a glimpse of the result. It was sort of heartbreaking when I left and Suhnsant looked at me and just goes 'Nathan, can you take me back to America with you?' I just told him that if he stayed in school and worked hard to get good grades one day he could come to America and he could call me (I wrote down my email address so that, someday if the village gets internet, he can email me.) Some students don't get to go past grade 6, because they are needed to work the fields or it is to expensive to go to a good school. These kids are so bright and have so much potential, yet driving away from their smiles and waves you wonder why they don't get the same opportunities I got.------------
DO: Go hiking in the Nagarjun
National Forest and hike all the way to the Jachmo Gumba stupa 
10 km up the spine of a vertical mountain. I thought I was going to die a couple times (mainly due to a heart attack) but the view from the very top of the stupa was unreal. You could see all of KTM spread before you and in the distance you could see a mountain range and behind that another mountain range and behind that range there was another. The stupa (sort of a religious dome with a tall tower/spire on top) was covered with multi-colored Buddhist prayer flags strung between trees, waving peacefully in the breeze.DON'T: Let the fact that your dad wasn't nearly as tired as you were when you reached the top of the mountain lower your self esteem :)
DO: Visit Boudha Stupa, a magnificent site located in Kathmandu. It is an enormous stupa
painted a vibrant white and topped with the eye of Buddha, watching your every move as you walk clockwise (the respectful direction) around its base, spinning the prayer rollers as you go. Be sure to spend some time wandering the streets of the surrounding Tibetan refugee village and bask in sounds of the Buddhist monastery bells in the heart of mostly Hindu Nepal. Take a minute to try out a singing bowl (a small metal bowl that sings a tone as you rub a wooden
pestl around its rim while holding it flat in your hand--it's sort of like when you can make a tone with a crystal wine glass) and witness the beauty of the a Thanka painting school (a traditionally intricate style of painting depicting various religious lore and motifs.) I was also blessed by a monk in the monastery and given a yellow rope necklace to wear as a sign of good luck.DON'T: Spend all of your time in Thamel. This is the area where tourists gather and, while it is loaded with hostels, restaurants and shops, it doesn't have quite the same feel as the rest of the city. It seemed that this area was better maintained in that people came and picked up trash at night and it was a bit more lively, but it's not as local of a feel. Thamel does have some great shops though and, if you're willing to do some heavy bartering, some great deals--Dad and I both walked away with some amazingly soft and beautiful yak's wool blankets. We spent our first few days in Patan, more of the ex-pat area, and got a good idea of neighborhood and day to day life. You could walk most places you wanted to go, braving the onslaught of horns as vehicles fly through the narrow backstreets, and it was altogether calmer--not the constant peddlers and restauranteurs beckoning you to 'look for free' at their merchandise.
DO: Take the Mt. Everest Flight. I wish words could describe the majesty that are
the Himalayas, but I just can't do them justice. You get on this little plane (2 seats across) at the domestic terminal and are whisked away into the clouds. You are given a diagram of the mountains that you are looking at as you pass them from a distance on your left while the flight attendant tells you their names/info. Each
person has the chance to go up to the cockpit and have a panoramic view through the windshield and as Dad and I had our turn up front the plane made its turning pass past Mt. Everest and I lost my breath. It's almost like being starstruck to see something so familiar yet seemingly so unattainable and I just stared. As the wind swept the snow from its towering peak I felt like I was floating--the Himalayas are so incredible that even above the clouds they are tall enough to be their own mountain range.DON'T: Pay too much attention to the missionaries. It was sort of disheartening to encounter missionaries in KTM, not that I necessarily am against sharing your beliefs, but in a nation so heavily rooted in its religious traditions it seemed almost selfish to me that these people were here. Nepal is mostly Hindu and because of this there is not a real definition between state and religion (a lot like Thailand and Buddhism); it's more of just a culture in and of itself- a rich one at that. The colors and the pageantry and the effort put in to their ceremonies and the respect they hold for what they believe. I don't know it just seems that trying to convert the Nepalese isn't so much changing their religious beliefs as it is tearing at an intricately and beautifully woven fabric that has grown and thrived for centuries.
DO: Visit Bhaktapur. A world heritage site, this city-dating back to before the 15th
century- is how you would have imagined KTM looking before its doors were opened to the outside world. It is reminiscent of Europe with narrow alleyways opening up to spacious squares-including the royal Durbar Square- filled with decadent architecture and carvings. People still live here and it's so awesome to watch them go about daily life: drawing water from the well, spinning wool, weaving, preparing lunch, making pottery, etc. Only a short drive from the city this is definitely worth the daytrip.DON'T: Depend on electricity. With the huge influx of people coming to Kathmandu has issues with supplying electricity to everyone. Because of this the city undergoes something called load shedding in which the city is zoned off and different zones get electricity at different times of day for a set amount of time. This can cause some issues when sometimes there are days when you only have power 6 hrs a day and that's between 1am and 7am. Many hotels and shops will run a generator to be able to stay open, but this in turn leads to gas shortages, so it's kind of a vicious cycle. Dad and I faired okay, but its strange to be in a hotel and only have 1 light for a few hours while it's dark out--imagine having to live with that everyday!
DO: Eat yourself silly. Jacole lead us to some great restaurants during our stay: Lapka's Cholo (momos), a restaurant where I ate water buffalo, another for pizza and another for traditional Tibetan cuisine. Nepalese food is really awesome and traditional food is a must: momos (dumplings), daal (lentils), flatbread, curries, rice, chicken, 
many vegetables, nuts, etc. Jacole took us to Bojan Grea, a traditional Newari (one of the castes in the caste system) restaurant located in an old ornate mansion. We were greeted with a tika (like a bindi--or a red dot on your forehead) and were entertained all evening with traditional music and dancers right by our tables--which we sat at on cushions. We were served course after course and they kept bringing the food until you finally threw yourself over your brass plate and bowl and begged them to stop :)
No comments:
Post a Comment