Last Days in Nepal: What a beautiful trip!

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 ;)

weenie, no weenie?

-Mother's Day: 

-Pashupatinath Temple:

-Boudhanath Stupa:

-38th Bday with Razu and Nabim:

Buses are not made for tall people ;)

in Kitipur

From what they told me it was only Nepali tabacco ;)
Still I didn't have the style those guys had.

 

-Wedding day: All over the city

-The Necklace: Nabim's friend worked for 2 and half straight for the neckless to be ready

I really blew the one day- one picture theme. I like it better this way :)

04-21-2012: Kathmandu

I have been in Kathmandu 2 days no. I miscalculated my time here. I have too much time. So I take it slow. I could go somewhere else for a couple of days but I am lazy ;)
It's been nice so far tho. I bumped into Dasha yesterday. I saw Nabim again, and this morning I had breakfast with Cristina and Jordi, the Spanish couple from Chitwan. They are also staying at Tibet Peace Guesthouse.

To fill my day I walk through the streets of the city and observe life around me. The days start very slowly here. Shops open late. There is a lot less traffic which is nice. Less noise from the constant honking and also less dust in the air, not  like at 5pm when it is complete chaos with cars, people, motorbike and cows fighting they way around.
Because Nepal is very poor, the roads are in a bad state, half broken and filled with potholes.
Kathmandu is a lot closer to India than the rest of the country. Outside of Thamel, the tourist area which is fairly clean with pavement, poverty is visible in all corners. Some streets are very dirty. Yesterday, as I was coming back from a visit to the Monkey temple ( I stopped by a very nice Buddhist monastery on the way where the monks were chanting: beautiful and so peaceful), I decided to start taking pisctures of the ugly side of the country. Crossing a bridge I took pictures of the river bank covered with plastic bag. The water is so polluted no fish can live and the smell is very strong. Yuk!
This morning I passed by a very skinny and dirty woman sleeping on the road by a temple. This is not what the whole country is but it is there and I want to show the true version of this trip. It is fantastic, but it is not all pretty.
Still we don't reach the levels of dirtiness you can find in a lot more places in India.
Since I am in a more descriptive mode today, I should mention certain facts that I learned from the Nepalese people I met.
Again people are poor here and they often have to go work abroad for a few years and send money back home to support their families. This is the case for the 2 guides I had in Chitwan and the great waiter of the guesthouse there.. They worked in India and Malaysia for a while. The waiter explained to me that in Malaysia he had to leave for 5 years and was only allowed to return to Nepal once during that time.. On the other end he was able to visit Bangkok for pleasure.
It is interesting that even with the hardship, they mostly talk about the positive side of things. It seems to be the way people look at life in Nepal. Always positive. Most of the people involved in tourism seem to really enjoy it. They love meeting foreigners. Twice I heard them saying "It's OK if we can not travel the world, because the world comes to us". I like this line :)
I learned also ( that only applies to Hindus) that most people's first name are not their "official" names. 15 days after they are born (I think), the Lama (priest) comes to give them a name which will be their registered names for birth certificates, passport, etc.. But the name that every body uses to call them is given by the community they live in. It is a more simple one and most of the time nobodies knows your "registered" name.
Another thing I learned is that in case of the death of one parent, the first son becomes responsible for the whole family, the education of their siblings, etc.. So they have to start working and earn money for the rest of the family. This is the case for Nabim, the waiter and the manager of Chitwan Gaida Lodge. This is also why they often have to go work abroad. This is a very big responsibility they have and accept as part of the rule of their culture.
One last thing. Like in India, when 2 people get married, the wife moves in with the husband family (parents and sibling all under one roof).
There is also a cast system in Nepal, but it is rapidly changing because of modern ideas , but also because the government majority is Maoist and they do not recognize the cast system instated by the monarchy before: Nepal was a monarchy until 4 years ago in constant conflict with the Maoist the decade before.
Nabim is from a lower cast than his wife, and they had to run away to get married. For 2 years after, his family in law didn't want anything to do with them anymore. But it changed with the birth of their daughter. She is 14 now and they also have a 9 years old boy. Nabim is 35 and his wife younger.
OK, that's it for today, I have to go meet Nabim for dinner and see him play with his band later.

This the making of momos, some sort of ravioli stuffed with veggies, meat or cheese. Then there are stimmed or fried.