Hello Dear Ones
The first image we saw in Syauli Bazaar at dawn on Friday morning, and you can see above, was Machapuchare's handsome
"fish tail" top as she appeared at dawn, before the sun burned off
some of the clouds.
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| The sacred mountain, Machapuchare, from Syauli Bazaar 041312 |
Our lodge was right on the Modi Khola River, and
when I awoke that morning I knew that I would place the bits of my mom's ashes
that I had brought along into the river. I had originally intended
to scatter them into the wind from Poon Hill, but when the time came, that did
not seem right, but placing them in this river that flows into the Ganges under
the watchful eye of a sacred mountain and with the company of my dear friend
Donna Barnett struck me as a perfect way to honor mom.
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| The spot on the Modi Khola at Syauli Bazaar where I | placed some of my mother's ashes |
After
breakfast the porters were especially eager to take our duffel bags and be on
their way. We left a bit after they did
with Jawane and our three helpers to walk the remaining 2-3 hours along the
Modi Khola. Surprisingly, the farther we
walked downstream "away" from Machapuchare, the larger the mountain
loomed above the handsome landscape of terraced farmland.
As the
mountain presented herself ever more handsomely to us, we HAD to stop and take
more pictures. Thus the scene below was
repeated several times until we finally turned the last corner and the mountain
disappeared from our view. In the second
image, on the left Dick and Karma are taking pictures and behind them is Donna
searching for a fabulously beautiful bird she saw before breakfast and wanted
to show to the rest of us. In the center
a man carries a heavy load in a white plastic sack -- flour? cement? corn? Next
on the right is Bistal, Jawane's son who carried Dick's tripod every day and
set it up for him whenever he stopped to photograph. In the red ball cap is
Jawane who carried Karma's pack full of lenses, and finally there is Dorje with
my daypack on his chest. Thanks to his
help carrying water for Dick and me, I was able to comfortably hike AND feel
very pampered.
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| One of our many stops along the Modi Khola to photograph Machapuchare |
The trek
ended as it began following the dirt road used by trucks and taxis to transport
goods and people into areas that had until recently been accessible only on
foot or hoof. At one point we saw orange
“five-gallon" propane canisters being offloaded at the terminus of the
road from a truck onto donkeys and ponies for the trip farther into the
Annapurna Conservation Area.
It was fun
to walk through the villages at the trailhead and see the eager trekkers on
their way to the beautiful places where we had just enjoyed being.
And, well, this guy was the last of the amazing series of porters we had seen on the trails. We saw him on the last bit of the trail as it entered Naya Pul.
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| I could not resist including his picture. |
We were
driven to Pokara and picked up our left luggage, showered, and went off to
lunch followed by Illy Coffee espresso drinks and lemon meringue pie. On our way back to the hotel we joined the
crowds surging towards the New Years 2069 festivities. And no, that's not a typo. In Nepal Hindu and Buddhist calendars are used that count the years differently than our western world's Julian calendar. You know you're not at home when . . . it's New Year's Eve 2069 on April 13, 2012. :-)
It seemed so strange after days on the trail -- not
exactly in isolation, but in the quiet where a bird's song or a carpenter smoothing
a board with a hand plane could be heard -- to be surrounded by the urban celebratory cacophony
that swept us up. The sounds of the celebration mercifully ended promptly at 10 PM as if someone had
pulled the plug on the electricity . . . I checked, and Dick was still in
bed. Maybe it was Karma? maybe it was just another of Nepal's "rolling blackouts."
At dawn we
went up the precarious, littered, unfinished steps to the roof of the hotel to
greet Machapuchare and the Annapurna "sisters" as the rising sun
illuminated them gradually and the city Pokara was waking up. How truly breathtaking the scene must be on a
totally clear day!
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| Machapuchare and the Annapurna "sisters" from the roof of the Hotel Kantipur, Pokara |
By 8:10 we
were in the van with Jawane and our porters and helpers on our way to
Kathmandu. There was less traffic than
on the outward trip until we hit the intersection where the colorfully
decorated, old, battered trucks and busses coming to KTM from India join the
traffic from Pokara to SLOWLY climb the last steep hill onto a ridge above the
Kathmandu Valley. We arrived in our new
neighborhood, Lazimpat, about 1400 and checked into the Hotel Tibet that is
right down the street from a Baskin Robbins. I'm sort of missing all the monks
from our former neighborhood, but there are not as many barking-all-night dogs
here.
Sending love
from KTM,
Marian for
the traveling Chicoans (April 14, 2012)
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