So, I went on an epic journey across the Arabian Sea to the land of everlasting beauty and peace: Nepal! For some reason, ever since Mr. Campbell's 7th grade geography class, I've wanted to see the place where Mount Everest lives.
Unfortunately, for my friend Charlotte and I, Mount Everest resides in the far northeast of Nepal, and the places where we wanted to go were in the southwest. Nepal is actually much bigger than expected. So, Mount Everest wasn't seen, but we saw plenty of other snow-capped mountains.
This past year, I've sort of gotten into the genre of yoga, healthy eating, inner peace, and loving yourself before you can love the world, etc. It sounds wayyy hokey, but I've found a lot of truth in it. This is my more current reason for wanting to go to Nepal. I needed a break from the UAE lifestyle, and I sought peace. I wanted to go to a meditation retreat for most of the time, but then life got in the way, as usual.
My friend Charlotte decided to join me, so I decided we'll do a little sightseeing first, and then we'll do a shorter med retreat, which included yoga, healthy eating, and meditation of course. Our first stop was Kathmandu, only place where you can fly into. Cramped, dirty, smelly, was the title of our airplane journey. I sat next to a Nepalese man who was bald with a moustache and wore fake underarmour tattoo sleeves. He smelled like a headache, and he showed me pictures from his scrapbook. Fabulous. Three and a half hours later, we arrived and the airport was our first introduction to Nepal life. Armed with our rupees, we went to the desk to buy a visa, only finding out we actually needed US dollars to pay for it. So much for loving your own country, Nepal. But, living in this area of the world, you're used to hiccups. Many of them. Perhaps happening more than once in a day, or once in an hour. We came to the hotel and proceeded to spend two days in Kathmandu, hanging out and going out. Our hotel loved us so much, that the restaurant used to call us in the evening to come up for dinner. That's when we had to give it to them straight and say, "Sorry guys, but we've got super cool plans." Kathmandu on a night out is interesting. Charlotte and I just looked up some good places in trip advisor and headed out to the very narrow and busy streets of Thamel, the cool/hip area of Kathmandu. There were loads of westerners: mostly lots of older people and young couples. So, unfortunately, the most we mingled was with awkward Nepalese men who did not possess the understanding of personal space or being "good times". I hate introducing myself as an American and then having non-Westerners tell me, "Oh, I've been there." Trying to impress the American. Come on, many people have. It's a huge place. It makes me feel guilty because I've never been to Las Vegas, or San Francisco, or the Grand Canyon, and they gasp in shock. "I live with the Amish people, folks. It's way cooler." In Nepal, they sell some local beer. Choices are Tuborg, Ghata, and Everest. I have tried all three and have come to the conclusion that Tuborg was my favorite. Unfortunately, all of these beers come in mega bottles. So there's no, let's have a quick drink at this bar and then move on. You're stuck there, sucking down your 650 mil beer. Makes your eyes go crossed after about two at that altitude. Nepal lesson one--learned. In Kathmandu, there were a few cool sites, such as one of the holiest, or maybe the holiest Hindu temple, which we weren't allowed to fully enter, but we could see a religious dance going on, and we sort of came upon corpses burning down by the river. It was a little bit scarring, especially since other people were just milling about, seeing it as a normal occurrence. We also went to a place called the Dream Garden. It's in this inner courtyard, with coy ponds, green landscape, beautiful trees and flowers and stone steps. We sat in silence and enjoyed it, and then had an amazing lunch within the garden because we didn't want to leave.
After Kathmandu, we headed to our safari in Chitwan, 8 HOURS AWAY IN A SWEATY BUMPY BUS. I kept thinking, "Wow, my mother would hateeee this." Nepal is mountainous, so as you're driving, you're on the edge of cliff, going around big turns and looking downwards at your potential doom. It was gorgeous though, really. Green and huge and the sunlight hitting all of the edges and corners was just a sight for sore eyes after miles of dust and the color tan I see in Sharjah everyday. The safari turned out to be my favorite part. We were put in a group with four other people, and we stayed in this nice safari-like hotel within a little village. It was out in the middle of nowhere. We went on a walking tour of the village where locals were living in huts, working on the rice fields, or riding in a wagon pulled by cattle. It was amazing and earthy and real. We really clicked with our safari group, and hung out with them in the evenings. The hotel provided us with each meal and even had a mini bar for those late nights. During our stay in Chitwan, we had a peaceful smooth canoe ride, a jungle walk, a visit to the elephant breeding center, and an elephant safari, It was brilliant. The canoe ride was my favorite because we went at about 6:30 in the morning, and the water was so smooth. The canoe (made out of a hollowed out tree trunk) just glided through easily, bringing us past the edge of the verdure of the jungle, and all we heard was the rippling of water and the singing of exotic birds. On our last evening, we went to a cultural dance of the Tharu people, who are the native people to Chitwan. Every moment was enjoyed, and I was happy we made the choice to come there. Some of our safari friends were heading to our next destination too, and we actually rode on the NEXT 8 hour bus with them to Pokhara, the land of the lake :).
Pokhara was a little more lively and beautiful in a different way. While Chitwan was a bit more rustic and down in the dirt, Pokhara had more of a nightlife scene, with a lot of young adventurers/hippies living there long term. Charlotte and I arrived, and this was where we'd planned to head to the meditation center. But again, life got in the way. Apparently, some strikes were going on in Nepal, and they'd shut down public transportation. Our tourist bus had to be clearly marked TOURISTS, so that rioters didn't throw stones at us. (I think I need to stop traveling in South Asia). So, thank God for wifi and iphones. I was able to quickly book a hotel on the bus before we got out, because the only drivers available were hotel cars come to pick up their guests. Our safari friends headed to their place, and their driver came back for us. We stayed in a lovely hotel where we could walk to everything, and we had an amazing time. Not quite the meditation retreat, but it worked out possibly even better than expected. Charlotte and I walked along the lake, went out for dinner, and met up with our safari friends for drinks. The next day we took a canoe across the lake and went on a beautiful uphill hike to a peace pagoda. It was perfect weather, and it was a long hike but worth it for the view. A lake surrounded by green mountains with snow-capped ones in the background--geez, it was like a magazine. Pictures can never capture what you feel in the moment of seeing something like this. I sought peace, and nature brings me that peace. What a warm, beautiful feeling you get from such an awe-inspiring view. That's why I love traveling. I take mental pictures, and then I can flip through them whenever I like. What an unfading gem to possess. After that, it was pretty much all DOWNHILL from there (get it?) Oh, I am my father's daughter.
In the evening, Charlotte was feeling ill, so she went home, and I drank a lovely tea on the balcony of a restaurant with live music and read my $1.50 German book. There were loadsss of German people there, so I had my chance to practice up a bit. There were also great book shops, so finding a German book wasn't too difficult. And of course, I bought a few spiritual type books as well.
On our last day in Pokhara, Charlotte didn't feel well, so I went on my own and dropped into a cheap yoga and meditation class. It was lovely. 75 minutes of relaxing yoga with a great instructor, and at the end we had a 5 minute meditation session. This is what I needed; this is what I had come for. I wanted to connect with myself from within and bring myself back to peace and enjoy the solace I so craved. The yoga teacher brought up something interesting. She played music during the session because she said, "We don't live in a quiet world, so why should we create an artificial environment. We need to learn to have peace amidst the chaos." Later, I bumped into one of our safari friends, and their friend was sick too, so we hung out together for the rest of the day and had dinner. I got to see the lights against the lake at night, and that was the perfect farewell evening to breathtaking Pokhara. I didn't get to ride on the back of a moped, but that's ok.
Our final 8 hour bus trip=death. We headed back to Kathmandu. The public bathroom situation in Nepal is not a good one. So, be thankful every time you get to go to the bathroom in a place that doesn't have piles of "emissions" and flies surrounding the area. Out here, I've seen too many places where you just know a disease is lurking in the shadows looking at you. As a hypochondriac, I can't deal. Back to Kathmandu for us. We went back to the same hotel and were still called up for dinner at the hotel restaurant. This time, we went. We ran into their open arms, happy to be out of a sweaty dirty bus that rumbled excessively over the stones and got stuck in traffic. It made us want to end our lives and be done with it.
Our last night in Nepal was spent like two old folks, reading our purchased books in bed and going to sleep early. Another sweaty, smelly plane for us the next day! Yum...
So, Nepal didn't turn out as I'd hoped, but I think it was a little bit better. I enjoyed my time, I saw tons of amazing things, and despite everything...peace? Found loads. :)
Namaste
