NEPAL 080312: Nepal in My Heart, a Reflection

OK folks.

Here it is August 2, and I am still trying to finish an email for you that I started on June 4^th.  It’s about why our trip to Nepal was so meaningful for me.  At this point I have been home for 3.5 months.

Marian, dear, what is going on? Where is your final email for us about Nepal?

Well, some of those 100 or so days since we returned I used to get over jet lag and the trek cold, re-write the lost trek emails, take a class on Chekov’s SEAGULL, go on a 5-night meditation retreat, throw parties for Dick’s mom on Mother’s Day and her Birthday, attend grandson Patrick Pham’s high school graduation in Kent, WA, show Paula van Deventer, her daughter Titia and grandsons Herman and Dirk around the northern Sacramento valley, celebrate my 68^th birthday 8 times, and “host” friends for theater in Ashland.

But still, one must ask, “Why are you still thinking and writing about Nepal?

NEPAL 050212: A Simple Question About Our Trek – How long was it?

Hi Patient Email Readers

Well.

 Here I sit at my desk two and a half weeks after our return from Nepal, and I‘ve still not written anything to all of you about our actual trek – beyond the description of trekking vs. backpacking and its addendum about “pony caravans.”  Oh my.  

I sit and muse,

“Is it jet lag?”

“Is it getting over the trip cold?” 

. . . spring allergies in Chico?

. . . that end-of-April weekend in Ashland?

. . . a lack of good editorial help?” (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1:  The bewildered author at work with her editorial assistant.

NEPAL 042112 Cats, Coughs, and Chaos

Dear Everyone

Greetings from 25 Oak Drive, Chico, CA :-)

We have been home in Chico since noon on Thursday 041912.  

We began our trip home Tuesday April 17 with breakfast with Maisie and Sky at the hotel followed by efficient transport to the airport in KTM with Jawane in a luxurious Toyota Corolla taxi.  Placing ourselves into the competent hands of Thai airlines, we arrived at LAX Tuesday at 7:30 PM PDT for an overnight of happy cuddling and snoozing in a QUEEN SIZE BED for four hours before being whisked to SFO by United, then bussed to Napa into the welcoming hugs of Dean Donaldson, his son Matt, and Matt's husband Steve Kyriakis.  They took us to the Bouchon Bakery in Yountville for coffee and French macaroons before delivering us to the Donaldson's home in Calistoga. [left to right below are Dean, Dick, moi, Steve, and Matt]

NEPAL 0415&1612: Last Days in Kathmandu

Dear Friends

Our last two days in Kathmandu were, I guess predictably, filled with somewhat domestic activity.  

Sunday April 15 after moving to the Hotel Manaslu, we went shopping with Donna and Karma in Thamel, the tourist district in old town KTM.  I was looking for a women's cut trekking shirt, but was unsuccessful even with Donna's enthusiastic encouragement.  We must have gone into half a dozen "trekking gear" shops to find women's shirts in only the most hideous colors, and that I am, at size 14, "too big." Then it was "would you like to look at a men's small size, madam?"  No, actually :-)

Our other shopping task was a return trip to the New Tibet Bookstore, a treasure house of books about things Buddhist and everything you might want to know about Nepal.  Karma had suggested that I might enjoy BORN IN TIBET, the autobiography of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a member of the Kagyupa School of Buddhism in Tibet who was the teacher of one of my favorite western Buddhist teachers, the American nun, Pema Chodron.  Donna went in search of the name of a bird she had seen at our last trekking lodge, but the bird books were all wrapped in protective plastic.

NEPAL 041512 Dinner at Jawane’s

Dear Friends,

This evening our guide, Jawane Tamang, invited us all -- Karma, Donna, Maisie, Sky, Dick, and me -- to his home for dinner.  His home is a 15-minute walk from our hotel in the Lazimpat district of Kathmandu.  We were looking forward to meeting his wife and to see his son Bishal and daughter Benita again. Both speak English well and attend private schools, listen to Metallica, and are Facebook devotees.  

We walked out of the hotel compound and turned right, away from downtown, on busy Lazimpat Road, and then right again into their neighborhood.  The closer we got to the 4-story building where his family occupies the 3rd floor, the narrower and more potholed the dirt roads became.  It reminded me of the bumpy, dusty drive to our safari guide Chris Samuel's home in Arusha, Tanzania -- but there the roads were wider and the dirt was red and there were fewer shops = a more suburban environment.  

NEPAL 041512: Trekking is not backpacking – it’s better

Dear Friends,

Now  we are back in Kathmandu and the trek is over, I found myself thinking about the contrasts between backpacking and our "tea house" trek . . . 

My experience with hikes of many days duration has been from backpacking mainly California and Oregon.  These trips taught me to love the mountains, its broad vistas, snow and glaciers, lakes and streams, plant and animal life, but it did not prepare me for the things I came to appreciate on our short trek.  I'll explain.

First is being with the Nepali people -- meeting and greeting them on the trail with a "Namaste," staying lodges run by families, being cared for by our guide and porters and helpers, and living in and wandering about their long-established mountain villages.

This woman was the accountant and maybe a manager at the Grand View Lodge in Tadapani.  

NEPAL 0413 & 1412 Treks Days #8 & #9: Two Dawns with a Sacred Mountain

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.  

The sacred mountain, Machapuchare, from Syauli Bazaar 041312