Namaste! I have been in Nepal for the better part of a week now, and things have been interesting.
I arrived incredibly disoriented from twelve hours of flying that started way too early. And I got stuck in the middle seat on both flights next to smelly people. Wonderful experience that was. Anyways, I got into Kathmandu around 15:00, having not slept the previous night at all due to my 1:00 flight. Visa process was pretty easy, and I took a pre-paid taxi to my homestay. My first impression: this place is loud, chaotic, and somewhat dilapidated. Drivers are constantly threatening to kill each other (from my naïve perspective). The rules of the road are more like suggestions. And the cars are screaming at each other all of the time, or at least that’s what it feels like.
I arrived in the middle of an extended family meal, which was a great way to kick things off. I got treated to some Dal Baht—a Nepali staple I eat twice a day—and milk tea. Met another volunteer from Norway, Jacob, who actually just left for the Annapurna Circuit this morning. He was pretty cool. Ended up getting invited to a family party with my host Nischal’s father, Sundra, a couple hours later. Met the two other volunteers here before we left. Bryn is a younger guy from New Zealand, and Lea is a French girl a little older than all of us.
So off we went to this party which none of us knew anything about, but hey you gotta say yes to things to make them happen. I was a bit concerned to be riding with Bryn, who had never ridden a motorbike and was also concerned. And neither of us were provided helmets, which did not help to reassure me. But Bryn ended up driving just fine, and we got to this karaoke party in one piece. It admittedly was not super remarkable. Sundra sang for a long time and we got peer pressured to drink more than I thought possible. We danced a lot and taught the children the Macarena. We stayed significantly longer than any of us wanted to. It was a great bonding experience.
To speak more about the homestay aspect: the home and family are incredibly wonderful. From the minute arrived through now I have been treated excellently, and we don’t even have to work that much. Some cleaning—today Lea and I scraped clean the chicken coup—but nothing too strenuous. So us volunteers have a lot of time to hangout with each other. I’d like to say we all get along well.
One of the days following my arrival (time is a blur) we drove into Thamel, a district near the center of Kathmandu, where all of us had various errands to run. Bryn had to get a picture so he could go get the proper permit to trek Everest base camp. Lea was doing some shopping. Jacob was up to no good. I elected to go rock climbing, which is something I would have been doing at home if not for the lack of time. So I found a cute little bouldering wall and got to work. Met some Austrian girls and a Spanish guy who showed me around; climbers are usually such friendly people.
But the best encounter so far was with one of the staff named Dawa. He seemed hesitant to open up to me at first, but by asking him tons of annoying questions about what routes to climb and how to do those through the power of friendship I was able to become his acquaintance. We talked for a long time about what I should do in this city, and I got him to mark a bunch of places on my map for later. He actually ended up inviting me to go do a local hike with him next week (this week?), and I’m looking forward to that.
After this little excursion into Thamel I met up with Bryn and Lea (Jacob was up to no good) and we departed for a quest of mine. You see, us Americans had Halloween recently, and I wanted to share it with the Nepali and other foreign guests. So we hopped in a taxi to Kalimati Vegetable Market in hopes of finding pumpkins, and we were pleasantly surprised to find them.
After getting home and eating more Dal Bhat, we got to carving our pumpkins. It was a ton of fun sharing this aspect of American culture with everybody. Thanks for participating guys.
Some other day after Bryn had departed for Everest, Jacob, Lea, and I went to check out Kopan Monastery. It was pretty cool, if slightly underwhelming? I guess I am not sure what I expected. I really liked the library—they had a cool selection of books, including Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, a favorite of mine I killed in one day during my Northern California road trip. I convinced Jacob to buy a copy for himself and he heeded my advice. Maybe he’s reading that right now wherever he is.
We saw lots of foreigners at Kopan who were staying for the November course. I had no interest in doing that—I have no intention of becoming a practicing Buddhist—but I am curious what it would be like. Maybe another day.
The next day, or maybe the day before, we (Lea and I) woke up at 4:00 to witness some ritual. This is where the holy flip-flops come into play. I promise I only click baited you a little.
So we watched this crazy ritual with fire and fruit (?), and it was super interesting, if a bit too long for my attention span. We sat there watching this priest light things on fire and chant for about two hours, but we also got blessed in the process. No, really. When he was splashing some equivalent of holy water on the family to ward off bad spirits and thoughts (according to Sundra), Lea and I got some as well. And we got… uh I don’t know, some stuff on our head after. I have no idea what the significance was, but it was pretty cool!
And when the priest went inside real quick before coming back out, he wore my flip-flops!
Finally today Jacob left for the Annapurna region and Lea and I went exploring all afternoon around the city.
Our first main stop was Monkey Temple/Swayambhu Mahachaitya, but on the way we stopped briefly at the Buddha Park. There sat three massive Buddha statues plus some other smaller ones. Not much else to see here, it’s a pretty small place.
Afterwards we walked through a little market on the way to Monkey Temple. We paid 200NPR to get in and Lea ended up hiring a guide I had tried to shoo away (lol). He took us around and taught us about the Buddhist context of the place. At one point he asked if we had heard of Nirvana, and I said yeah man I love that band. He didn’t get it.
Then our guide tried to shill some salesman inside the temple area. He got Lea to try these meditation bowls under the guise of cleansing her chakras. Call me skeptical, but I feel like activating all your chakras should be a little more difficult than rubbing the inside of a bowl. She had fun at least. And the guide took us to another little shop at the end too to get us to buy stuff. This is why I shooed the guide away at first.
Speaking of, I was actually rather off put by the sheer amount of salespeople trying to get me to buy things, but I guess it’s not so different from anywhere else in the world. Gotta respect the hawkers for unashamedly desecrating the sacred Buddhist temple with materialistic/capitalistic intentions.
The temple was cool though, and it had some incredible views of the city and surrounding hills. It was finally sunny too; I got to really see the beauty of Kathmandu for the first time since being here. It was otherwise rainy and cloudy since my arrival.
After this we walked down (what was supposedly) 365 stairs to start the second half of our quest, seeing the Buddha Stupa. But first we went on a little detour to Thamel, a sort of touristy shopping district near the city center. It took us about an hour to walk there from Monkey Temple, and after some shopping we took a much needed rest at a coffee shop. We shared some tea, Momo, and cake. I bought my token Nepal shirt.
I’d like to explain at this point how exhausting just existing outside in Kathmandu is. It’s so ridiculously loud and overstimulating that even short walks drain the life out of you. Lea and I both remarked on this at multiple points. Not to mention the air quality is poor for our western lungs. It smells everywhere all of the time. I couldn’t even imagine doing India, which I’ve heard is 10x more overstimulating. There is a certain chaos factor here that is hard to explain to someone who has never been.
Anyways, after a short rejuvenation in the café, we set off for Buddha Stupa in a taxi. We originally planned to walk until realizing it was over an hour there by foot, and at this point we had already been walking for four hours or so. We did not need to discuss this decision at all.
So eventually we arrived at Buddha Stupa, and it was pretty cool. Apparently some of the Buddha is like… in there? I wonder if that is really true. But anyways we got there when a bazillion monks were walking laps around the whole thing. It was pretty interesting. We tried to accidentally walk against the current for a while until realizing we should walk the same direction everyone else is.
That was pretty much it for our adventure together. We’ve done some other stuff, but nothing too noteworthy. But stay tuned: tomorrow Lea and I leave for a three-day motorcycle tour, which should be pretty exciting. It’s also, curiously enough, a full moon tomorrow.
Also I got my Georgetown interview this morning, which was pretty sick. Hoping to hear more from schools this month, although it may be an unrealistic desire.