Sunday, October 31, 2010

Birthday/Halloween party in Nepal

After a fun day of spending time with friends, I went to a Halloween party for my birthday.



Here is one of the party's hosts, dressed as a Hindu monkey god.


Here is a local teacher dressed as the Hindu goddess Kali.


Here is a group I was hanging out with. (The photographer took creative liberties with the zoom).


Here is the DJ, dressed as the Hindu god Shiva.


Here are the merry people dancing.


Here is my friend Chris and I the day before, going by motorcycle to visit Chatral Rinpoche's house.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

wildlife scenes from Nepal

Red duck on Phewa Lake, Pokhara, Nepal



Woodpecker at Chitwan National Park



Water bird at Chitwan National Park



Crocodile called "marsh mugger" at Chitwan National Park



Cat at the bar at Chitwan National Park



Crane flying at Chitwan National Park



Cranes at Chitwan National Park



Wild Buffalo at Chitwan National Park



White and red-headed water birds at Chitwan National Park



Red-headed water bird at Chitwan National Park



Mother and baby elephants at Chitwan National Park



A langur monkey at Chitwan National Park



Two goat pals near the Tibetan border with Nepal



Rebecca feeding elephants at Chitwan National Park

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Adventures in Nepal

Have you ever had one of those falling dreams where you are dropping to the ground below from a high-up perch, exhilarated yet terrified? Wel, Nepal is a land where "if you can dream it, you can do it." Rebecca and I took a bus from Kathmandu to the Tibetan border to a place called The Last Resort. They feature one of Nepal's highest and longest metal suspension bridges--a perfect place for bungee jumping and an even more wild activity--"canyon swinging." This involves a seven second free fall, followed by a graceful swing above a raging river at 90 miles per hour. As my harness was fastened, my heart began to race. I stepped onto the launching plank and my rope was connected to the harness. Without delay, the instructor counted down, "3, 2, 1...jump!" I leaped off into the chasm below and yelled in frightful delight as I dropped. The rope tightened and I swung past waterfalls and back again. That was scary! Rebecca jumped several minutes later and had a blast as well.




The next day started with a mountain sport called "canyoning." It involves repelling down waterfalls with climbing ropes. We started our descent with some natural water slides, splashing into the pools below. Then came the hard part--walking down a sheer vertical cliff with water splashing in your face. You are encouraged to lean back as far as possible as if in a sitting position while you lower yourself down with a rope attached to your waist with a clip. The dramatic conclusion was canyoning down a 120-foot waterfall as it crashed on top of me.




The final day of the adventure package was the funnest--white water rafting. The deluge of Himalayan Mountain snow melt gushes down the deep gorges south through Nepal and into India. Our raft had 8 people and a guide and I served as front paddler along with a burly Englishman. We bounced and flowed and got soaking wet. On a class 3 rapid, one of my smaller raftmates was catapulted out and had to be rescued by a kayaker. We survived the class 4 rapid with the crew intact, though took on a lot of water. To celebrate, we all jumped out and swam during a calm stretch.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Kathmandu adventures

On our first full day in Kathmandu, we hiked up Kopan Hill where I taught English to monks and lived on and off from November 2009 to this past March. It was a joy to see my old friends there and we joined them for a delicious lunch. I then took Rebecca on a hike to some nearby mountainous villages and monasteries. In Nepal, it is advisable to watch where you step. Unfortunately, Rebecca learned this the hard way when she found herself ankle-deep in an open sewer that creeped near our trail! We joked that flesh-eating bacteria might munch on her foot, making her nickname "Shit Stepping Stumpy."

(protective image at monastery)

The crowded chaos of Kathmandu had been overwhelming for Rebecca, who had not previously been out of the country. To decompress from that experience, our hike culminated high above the swirling city on a serene grassy ridge with the gentle breeze providing the only sounds. That night, we would not be so lucky. The noises started around 1 a.m. A homeless man sleeping in the street below began an unprecedented series of earth-shaking snores. As that died down, a chorus of yapping street dogs filled the air. An ambulance chimed in, followed by the crashing of a gong to wake the monks. A concert emerged from the prayer hall, setting the stage for the featured attraction--a full-on marching band! Rebecca and I laughed and rose from our beds to acknowledge the concert's dramatic conclusion. I checked my watch. It was 4:58 a.m.



That afternoon, we hiked to the land of monks and holy men known as Pashupatinath (above). We hired a local guide to make sense of this most unusual place, where sites like the below are a daily occurrence. Several funerals were going on, with families cremating their loved ones in a pile of wood and scattering the ashes in the river below. Hindu holy men sat around with elaborate make-up to pay homage to their chosen god, Shiva. We toured a Mother Theresa project on the premises, a home for the disabled and elderly with several Western volunteers helping out.



The next day, we set out to climb one of the highest mountains in the valley-Nagarjun. It is home to jaguars, "barking deer", bears, and thousands of tropical birds. Hundreds of rhesus monkeys had recently been released here after an animal rights group successfully prevented an American primate researcher from taking them from his Nepal breeding center to research labs in the U.S. We saw a few of those freed monkeys joyfully swinging from tree to tree above our heads as we hiked.

We made our way to Patan, where we stayed with my friend Gautumn the Buddhist statue maker. The highlight of staying with him is flying kites with his children. It is a fierce competition, however, as kite-flying rivals try to cut the other's string with their own (which is often abrasive like sandpaper.) I am not too good at it, but it is fun to try!



Patan's residents are generally 5 feet tall or so. Therefore, doors are a maximum of 5'2" high. Needless to say, I bump my head a lot! Below, I am posing in front of a typical Patan door.



Yesterday, we went to Nagarkot to catch a glimpse of the Himalaya. We woke up at 4:30 a.m. and walked up to the viewing tour for the sunrise. It was too cloudy to see the full range (which includes Everest to the east), but we got a good luck at the nearby peaks. Tomorrow, we head to the Tibet border for some rafting, canyoning, and a death-defying 6 second free fall called the "canyon swing." Wish me luck.





















Friday, October 8, 2010

Back in Kathmandu

Arrived back in Kathmandu yesterday, this time with traveling companion Rebecca, a fellow resident of Cable, Wisconsin who I went to pre-school/grade school/high school with.



We spent a few days in Chicago first. We watched the premier of "Ice Road Truckers: World's Most Dangerous Roads" which took place in Delhi and the Himalayan roads of northern India. This gave Rebecca, who has never been outside of the U.S., a taste of what was to come. The show featured harrowing trips down Indian roads, which are quite similar in their chaotic and dangerous nature to Nepali roads. The memorable parts of the show were the non-English-speaking side kick to one of the Canadian drivers repeating the lines, "punch, punch" and "keep on trucking" in a thick Indian accent. We walked down to Navy Pier and took a picture in front of a sign that said "Delhi, 7.437 miles."



We left on the journey to O'Hare at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, October 6th and arrived in Nepal the morning of Friday the 8th.

We had an overnight layover at New Delhi airport, which is brand new and fantastic. They re-did it for the Commonwealth Games (Olympics for England and British Commonwealth countries). We met quite a few other travelers who were also going to Kathmandu and coming from Chicago.



On the flight to Kathmandu, there was a male Sikh flight attendant with "Manmeet" on his name tag. This provided much hilarity for Rebecca and I. They say that your "porn industry name" is the street you grew up on and your first pet's name. But with a name like "Manmeet" you are destined to be a star should you chose that line of work!

The taxi ride from the airport is a huge culture shock for new arrivals like Rebecca, with the streets swarming with cows, holy men, funeral processions, and a vast array of vehicles honking and trying to avoid hitting each other. We arrived at the lovely Shechen Guest House which is a quiet oasis in a monastery compound. Matthieu Ricard, Time Magazine's "Happiest Man Alive" was there and I had a nice chat with him catching up after several years. He kindly helped me to create and publish "Compassionate Action: The Teachings of Chatral Rinpoche", which Shechen published in 2005 and printed an expanded version last year. The book is now published in Russian, Hungarian, Spanish and has an international English version through Snow Lion Publications (2007).

Rebecca and I are going to Shyalpa Monastery later today to visit with friends and see a new part of Kathmandu and then on with our adventures. I'll keep you posted.