Hiking Frenzy

Mere and I are still obsessed with hiking the entire Kathmandu Valley. However, day treks in Kathmandu have their ups and downs (wah wahh). Here’s a list that I’ve compiled:

Good Things About Hiking in KTM Valley

1. You end up getting to see beautiful, remote stupas and temples
2. There are less tourists in the hills and the temples
3. I get to/have to practice my Nepali
4. You get above the pollution that blankets the city
5. You get to see the cycle of the Nepali crops and their various beauteous versions
6. If you hike in the north part of the valley you can end up in Boudha Nath which is THE best way to end a six hour trek
7. You get to try really good traditional Nepali food, like Dal Bhaat (lentils and rice)
8. Taxis are relatively inexpensive for foreigners so you can take them to the hiking starting points

Not Great Things About Hiking in KTM Valley

1. If you ask for directions you usually are directed to paved roads instead of dirt roads – and if you’re trying to hike, then you’re not really hiking anymore or you are but it’s more of an “Urban Hike”
2. There are maybe two directional signs in the entirety of the Valley
3. If you’re a foreigner, locals like to look at you – a lot
4. You might not get above the pollution that blankets the city
5. Buses take a while to get to the starting points

Recently, Mere and I decided to hike around Dakshinkali and Pharping, which is southwest of the city. We took two buses, which ended up taking about two hours to get to the famous Dakshinkali temple. A taxi would’ve been around 700 rupees ($9) but we are trying to be thrifty.

The Dakshinkali temple is situated at the bottom of a hill and has animal sacrifices on Tuesdays and Saturdays. We happened to be there on a Tuesday - Mer was psyched and I got a stomach ache. Goats and chickens met their doom inside the temple where only Hindus can go. However, the temple isn’t entirely enclosed so tourists can view the majority of the ceremonies and headchops. Here’s a picture of the pools that lead to the temple and people waiting in line to go inside:



I watched people get their tika right outside the temple and noticed one man getting his incredibly awesome tattoo of Shiva tika-ed as well. I went to go admire his arm and as I tried to initiate a conversation in Nepali it turns out (of course) that he lives in Texas and is just visiting his parents here.



According to our hiking map there was a little uphill hike from the Dakshinkali parking lot to Pharping, which is a little town with a “Pilgrimage Route” through various Buddhist and Hindu temples. The 45 minute “hike” consisted of a short dirt path straight up hill and then the main road the buses go on. On the main road we came across Sekh Narayan, which consisted of little pools and temples:



After walking a little further down the paved road and trying to weave through the various villages to make things more interesting, we came upon some women dealing with their rice harvests. Mere took a great picture of the rice on the woven mats:



Finally, we came to Pharping and the “Pilgramage Route” route. My favorite part was this strange monument of Padmasambhava in a glassed box:



Neither Lonely Plant nor my our hiking map was specific enough to get us to the “true” hikes of the Pharping area so at 3:00pm we started making our way home. Although we were unsuccessful in terms of hiking the hills of nature, we managed to see nearly 10 different temples and stupas and get pretty tired.

Tika Galore

This is a brief interlude from my fathers blogs.

Right after my dad left, Nepal got ready to celebrate Tihar. This is the festival that everyone describes as "my favorite festival." Now I understand why: there are pretty lights everywhere. It's basically a combination of Christmas and Fourth of July.

Anyhow, Tihar is five days long and the following things are worshiped on each succeeding day:

1. Crows
2. Dogs
3. Laxmi the Goddess of Wealth
4. Oxes
5. Brothers

I had question about the crows: Don't crows eat crops, and since I know that's true, why would you spend a day worshiping them? I got a good answer, but still I feel this is a valid question that shouldn't go unasked.

The best part was day two when every mangy dog in Kathmandu had a tika on their forehead and a garland of marigolds around their neck. Like this pretty pup:



Even Changba, the horrendous dog at my apartment, had one. Which was awesome because his attempt to be fearsome was thwarted by the ridiculousness of the red mark on his forehead and the flowers around his neck.

On the Laxmi day, Nepalis took really pretty vermilion colors and made pathways to lead the goddess of wealth to their abodes. Here's Prajjwel, our landlords son doing just that:



At night on Laxmi day everyone lights candles to brighten their vermilion pathways and sets of fireworks because they're fun. Groups of singers and dancers go around to houses to perform for rupees. Everything is lit, everyone is awake until late.

On brothers day (which is really brothers AND sisters day but only called brothers day - yes this is indicative of Nepali culture) siblings give each other the most extensive tika in life. Seven colors of vermilion are applied to each others foreheads and garlands of flowers placed around their necks. They also exchange money, clothes, and other presents. Below is Prajjwel and his nephew who have both been adorned with their tikas by their respective sisters:



I'm jealous there's no U.S. holiday to celebrate the bond between sibling. Right??

Dad Blog #4: Ashes to Ashes

Today we hit a few 3000 year old Buddhist and Hindu temples including Pashupatinath (pronounced,posh-potty-not). It's the holy of the holies for Hindu followers of Shiva (she-vah). Shiva isn't a she, she's a he and no one to mess with: God of Destruction. I learned from our guide that Hindus have literally millions of gods and are coming up with new ones almost daily. I'm okay with that because there's a holiday or festival associated with most of them. Nepalis don't get a lot of work done but they're incredible partiers. Posh Potty is an amazing enclave of temples, shrines, half naked sadhus (wise men - most of them extremely colorful, hash baked con men beckoning to be photographed for a few rupees). According to legend Shiva supposedly discovered the transcendental powers of ganja (marijuana) which grows wild in Nepal. With each hit the sadhus chant "I am Shiva".

Advertisement for one of the most famous Sadhus: Milk Baba.



Then there are the cremation ghats. These are concrete platforms next to the river. After they burn the body down to ash someone sweeps whats left into the river. The sight and smell of public cremation is pretty raw. If its a dead parent the process begins with the oldest child placing a burning stick into the mouth of the deceased. (My mother died less than a year ago making all of this a bit overwhelming.) Then the man in charge gets the pyre going like a huge backyard bar-b-que. (At this point I made one of my many broken vows to become a vegetarian.) Adding to the atmosphere are wild monkeys just hanging out and grooming each other. We were warned to keep a safe distance from them. They reminded me of the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. I wanted to click my heels and go back to Kansas but had to settle for a wonderful balcony dinner with Lauren and Meredith at sunset overlooking the city as it quieted down for the night.

Pashupatinath:

Dad blog #3: Playing Ping Pong with the Yeti

That's right. The abominable snow man loves table tennis...but as usual I'm getting ahead of myself.

We got up at 600AM the next morning to catch a one hour flight to Mt. Everest on Yeti Airlines. Sure, you can spend a minimum of 3 months and $100,000 trekking to Everest but for $150 do the whole deal in 60 minutes. Either way you get a certificate of having done the mighty Chomolungma ("Mother Goddess of the Universe") as its known to the sherpas.








I had recently proven my manhood by enduring the 24 hour flight from LAX to Kathmandu not to mention having finished Peter Matthiessen's "The Snow Leopard" on the plane. Matthiessen's detailed account of what its like to spend the night in a rain soaked sleeping bag in the Himalayas (as he pondered the koan given to him by his Zen Master: "All the peaks are covered with snow---why is this one bare?") is the Eastern counterpart to Proust's 50 page description of a Madeleine cookie.

Back on the ground we faced a danger more frightening than doing Everest without oxygen: the taxi ride back into Kathmandu. There is no other way to do it. We'd been invited for breakfast at the three star hotel managed by two of Lauren's Nepalese friends. I won't give their names or the hotel because then I couldn't say how much I envied their life of managing the hotel by smoking the best Nepalese grass and playing ping pong all day on the viewing deck on top of the hotel. We had a delicious Nepali breakfast and then got out the paddles.



I was expecting to be easily beaten by anyone who plays hours of daily table tennis but I hadn't factored in the world's most powerful majijuana. I could have beat them with my eyes closed. I probably had some kind of contact high because I began to see my worthy opponent as a yeti with gold jewelry. Then he morphed into cookie monster. We went back to Lauren and Mer's apartment and took a three hour nap. I was beginning to see the attraction of this place.

Dad Blog #2: Held Hostage for 75 Cents

Day 2 started off innocently enough. We were invited to the rice harvest at a farm about 2 hours South of Kathmandu owned by the son of Lauren and Mer's landlord, Projjwal Khadka. I was looking forward to getting out into the pristine countryside after less than a day in Kathmandu. After being on an cramped airplane for 24 hours and then in Kathmandu (which I swear means "Klaustrophoia" in Nepali) I was ready for the wide open spaces of the green terraced hillside farmland I'd see in travel guides.



So after some embarrassing bargaining with a taxi driver (I felt like the fare we bargained for would probably mean one of his children would starve to death that night) we were off. It was a delightful day. Projjwall is a Che Guevera tee shirt wearing, four gold earring humanitarian farmer (and Kathmandu DJ). Here's Lauren and Proj inside Proj's families house where they're storing and drying the corn they harvested before the rice:



He is trying to introduce organic farming back into his region of Nepal. Through a combination of successful results and his low key charisma he is succeeding is changing decades of destructive farming practices by his fellow Nepalis. We watched the rice harvest where they used centuries old methods for gathering the rice, threshing it using a pedal driven device, and then seeing women carrying 100 pounds of rice up the hill for eventual transport to the mill. Hopefully this blog entry will be accompanied by at least one photo of this backbreaking task (which never seems to break their back and for which they are richly compensated, about $1.50 per day).

Threshing:


Carrying:


We had lunch with the rice field workers that was as good as any Indian (Nepali food and Indian food are indistinguishable for me) restaurant meal I've had. I was completely inspired by our day which felt like an Asian combination of Walden Pond, Johnny Appleseed and a Winslow Homer watercolor painting. I felt all warm-and-fuzzy and very "clean" as we got into the same taxi for our ride back to Klaustrophia.

After about an hour of bumping down pot hole ridden roads a young man suddenly stepped into the road in front of our taxi. I caught the look on the taxi drivers face which gave me a bad feeling, I didn't think the young fellow in the road needed a ride into town. No, he was a Maoist guerilla and he was demanding money. He didn't ask for our wallets, he didn't make us get out of the vehicle. He was extorting us for about 75 cents. I guess his mother taught him not to be greedy, but come on. . . what kind of self-respecting terrorist asks for 75 cents? And then he wrote us out a receipt which would allow us to get back any other Maoists we might encounter on the way home. I think I'll check the receipt for the guys address, I'd like to send him some more money. Feel free to send me any contributions you feel moved to donate. However, it occurred to me that maybe the taxi driver and the "Maoist" were in cahoots and they've developed a small business (shake down the tourist) with a microbanking loan courtesy of Muhammed Yunus ("Banker to the Poor").

Dad Post: Day 1

Below is my father's account of his arrival in Nepal:

I loved every minute of my stay in Nepal, but couldn't wait to leave. But I'm getting ahead of myself so back to getting off the plane in Kathmandu after a 25 hour plane flight from LA. I knew I was in a Third World country when they unloaded the 300 passenger jet onto the runway and we walked the final 100 yards to the terminal (which had the feel of a Midwest high school auditorium in desperate need of repair (and fumigation). All my initial doubt and skepticism vanished however when I saw Lauren's wry smile among the crowd of Nepalese locals waiting at the gate. I knew from that smile that the fun was about to begin. We found a taxi (slightly larger than a MiniCooper but with more of a Neo-Tijuana look and a driver who couldn't have been more than 16) and Lauren started bargaining on the fare. Later I would find out that she was going toe-to-toe with the guy over 50 cents. Would we pay 250 rupees ($3.75) or 300 rupees ($4.25) for a 40 minute drive half way across town? I'd never seen Lauren bargain before but she seemed to know what she was doing. Turns out this was nothing compared to the near sadistic glee Meredith would later show as she trims rupee after rupee off the slave wages fare where most cabis start the bidding. I had a lot to learn and would probably need these negotiating skills given the way the US economy is going. Forty minutes and a harrowing taxi ride later we arrived at Lauren and Mer's apartment in the nicer part of town. When I say harrowing I mean bumper cars with no bumpers, I mean the only thing saving everyone from head on collisions was that there was so much traffic everyone was forced to drive under 35mph. If not there would certainly have been massive pile ups and loss of life. Once in Lauren's apartment everything was calm and quiet. We had some tea in her living room which had a front row window seat to the back of the North Korean Embassy. The Axis of Evil in our back yard! I suddenly felt very Republican. Its not a good feeling. The next thing I know I'm being introduced to Projjwal, the son of Lauren's landlord. He's wearing a Che Guevera tee-shirt, 4 gold earrings (in one ear), and spoke with a British/Southern drawl. I'm told he's a DJ,a businessman, rice farm owner and. . .I forgot the rest. He invited us to participate the next day in the rice harvest at his farm about 2 hours South of Kathmandu. We accepted not knowing we would be stopped by a Maoist guerrilla and shaken down for 75 cents as we returned to Kathmandu from the rice harvest. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Peace Corps is Homophobic

Lauren,

Thanks for the email and your interest in serving in the Peace Corps. Since the Peace Corps is a federal agency we are required to use the Federal standard/definition of marriage and would not be able to place you and your partner as a married couple.

Michael Salazar

Kazakhstan 2001-2003

Recruitment Coordinator

Peace Corps Los Angeles Regional Office

2361 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 155

El Segundo, CA 90245

Telephone: 310-356-1110

Fax: 310-356-1125