Fromage au Nepal : one day - one picture: May 2012

Well, I am way over due for this last entry. I left Nepal 3 weeks ago already!

On April 24th, the day after my Bday, I left Nepal, Nabim, his family, and all the beautiful people I met there. This was the end of a great trip, which was everything I wanted and more. When I was planning it, I was undecided between Nepal, Madagascar and China. My first choice was actually Burma, but April was the hottest month of the year and I didn't feel like frying for a month. Anyway I am glad I chose to go to Nepal. It would have been great anywhere, but what I really liked with Nepal was the 2 distinct trips I did while I was there. The trek for the first part, then moving from place to place every few days the way we used to do it during our trip around the world. I had never done a trek that long before, so on top of visiting a different country I was also visiting it a way I never did before. I think trekking in Nepal is a must do, as a big part of the country is not connected by roads yet but only trails.

Even if Nepal is a very small country it has a lot of variety in Landscape, people and religion. Nepalese seem to live happily together. Religion doesn't seem to be a source of conflict. And from what I gathered from some locals, even if someone is from one religion, this person might believe in another one also, or often take them all as one (Induhism, Buddhism, Christianity and musulman). If I am not wrong about that, they are the example so many should follow. Especially in the times we live now where somehow, despite the technological advance, man seem to regress to religious war times...

My last few days in Kathmandu ended up being great. I was afraid of being bored being there 5 days. Instead it allowed me to take it easy, shop, visit temples (while having fun taking public transportation made for people 2 3rd my size) and spend more time with Nabim and his family. I was invited twice to have dinner to Nabim's family in law. Once for Mother's day, the second on my Birthday for Dhalbat home made style. Yum,yum ;) Earlier that day Nabim and his brother in Law Razu brought me to a friend's house by a lake and to Kitipur another old medieval town where we stopped at a traditional Newari "restaurant" for some rice wine and some local food as my Birthday Cake, a candle and Happy Birthday song ;) Thank you very much Nabim and Razu for a great day.

The ritual of Mother's Day was very interesting. After waiting for mother in law to finish preparing dinner, we all left the deck to go to the dinning room. Everybody had brought little presents, so before starting eating each mother (Nabim's mother in law first then Nabim's wife) sat very seriously on a chair. Then each kid took one present from the table and gave it to the mother. All that is done with a lot of respect and seems to be taken very seriously. Without a smile the mother accept the present, look at the camera for a picture and put the present back on the table. Each mother's kid does it one after the other, but not the husband nor the son in law. And then we started eating, drinking and talking ;)

I filled my days with morning shopping for family and friends, and temple visits in the late afternoon after relaxing for a couple hours in the guesthouse's garden, away from the noise and dirt of the streets. After the Monkey Temple and the Buddhist monastery I visited Pashupatinath, Nepal's most sacred Hindu temple. There, on one side of the river deceased where publicly cremated while on the other side dozens of little monkeys were playing like kids in the water running out and jumping in non stop. This place reminded me of Varanassi in India where families from all over India come to cremate their dead and drop the ashes in the Ganga river. In Nepal also Hindus come from all over come to Pashupatinath to do the same. Then I went on to visit Boudhanath stupa, another popular Buddhist tourist site like Swayambhunath, the Monkey temple. I liked this place a lot better than the Monkey temple. It doesn't have the panoramic view but it is not over crowded with tourist gift stands. It is surrounded by tourist shops but they are not standing in the stupa area. It also feels more open and peaceful.

In Kathmandu I also kept bumping into familiar faces. People I had briefly met in guesthouses like this Swiss couple. People who had taken the same bus. Exactly like it was wherever we had travel before. All tourists follow the same path. This is actually fun. It allowed me to see Dasha, Cristina and Jordi one last time before we all left Nepal for different countries. Dasha back to Russia, Jordi and cristina to Laos and I to France. Tais left for India last week. Here is her travel blog: http://taisoriol.blogspot.com/2012/05/3-sisters-of-holy-cross.html

Then my last day came. I went back to "Exotic" travel agency through whom I hiring Nima, the porter.(if you want to trek in Nepal and need an agency or porters and guides. They are great. Shankar the owner is a great person, gentle, friendly and has really good rates). I said goodbye to them and Nima.

Then I did some more last minute shopping. My bag ended up 2 third full with presents! Tee shirts, hats , bag, scarfs,...and a necklace made especially for me by a friend of Nabim. I had ordered it 3 days earlier. It is made of purple and green stones and pure silver. When I went to Nabim's shop to pick it up a few hours before going to the airport, it wasn't ready. I was a little concern but when I saw that Nabim's friend was also making each link of the chain I could only respect the guy, the dedication and his hard work. It took him 2 and a half day to make the whole neckless from scratch!!! Merci, merci , merci!

So 3 hours waiting at Nabim's shop drinking Nepali tea and listening to him and his friends jamming, the necklace was finished.

Now it was time to say goodbye to Nabim. My eyes got a little wet ;) Nabim and is family were so welcoming, gentle and friendly. They made me discover reel Nepal. Because the best part of traveling is actually meeting the people and their culture. I hope we'll be able to keep in touch. We will try. And thank you, thank you Tais for being you and making me meet Nabim.

By the way on that day there were wedding processions all over the city, making the already messy traffic even crazier. Each procession had a marching band followed by a few guest dancing. Following them was a white car (always white) covered with flowers, and behind it more family members walking. This was really fun to witness. And the music was great.

So that was it. On Tuesday April 24th 2012 at 6pm I went to Kathmandu messy airport (you really have to show up 3hours before if you don't want to miss your plane!) and left for France.

A new adventure is starting soon. A new life chapter is about to open. Package delivery due on August 30th ;)