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.
