Blogs from Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia - page 137

On the third day my monkey mind was playing games with me. I almost stood up from my cushion as an image danced in my head coaxing me to get up and play in a fantasy world. My eyes opened and I realized where I was. There was no image, there was only me on my cushion, surrounded by 100 other silent meditators. I did not get up and I closed my eyes again to follow the instructions given by the course leader, S.K. Goenka. "focus on your respiration between the the nose and the upper lip, let everything else fade away." We were on on our third day of a ten day meditation course. The morning wake up bell sounded at 4 am and we proceeded to meditate for ten hours each day, with short ... read more

Thursday November 3, 2006 - Today after I said good bye to my friends I got on the bus from Chitwan back to Kathmandu. I had a seat in the last row of the bus, where there are five seats together with no aisle, and the seats don't recline. Not very comfortable. So I sat in another seat as it wasn't full. A guy from the bus came over and made me sit in the back row. Nice. The good news was that I sat behind a nice Polish couple as well as an American/Brazilian couple, Michael and Andrea. We all talked for a while and then I slept or read or listened to music. It was a long ride back to town - we left at 9:30am and arrived around 3pm or so. There was ... read more

Ako je iste sirokej verejnosti zname, predvcerom vecer sa nam podarilo dorazit do Kathmandu. Prve dojmy boli vesmes pozitivne, tak sme boli vcelku zvedavi ako to vypali dalej. Prvy bod na ktory sme sa vcera vecer vrhli, bolo vybavenie treku. Bolo treba zajednat sprievodcu a poriesit vsetky povolenia na vstup do Himalaji. Kedze sme lenive potvory, zneuzili sme na to agenturu priamo v hoteli kde byvame. Mozno by sa to dalo niekde aj o par dolarov lacnejsie, ale nechceli sme stracat cas a podla nasich sofistikovanych vypoctov to nakoniec s cenou ani moc neprehnali. Asi videli, ze nam sa zrovna moc platit nechce (uz po prichode do hotela sme na nich spravili taky depresivny dojem, ze mame izbu o 5$ na noc lacnejsie..). Takze nakoniec sme vsetko uspesne poriesili a zajtra rano vyrazame do Pokhary a ... read more

After the trek (and eventually working out how to put pictures on this site) we felt that we deserved a really relaxing few days. So, we checked into a really nice guest house (we stretched to 3 pounds a night) which had ensuite bathroom, towels and even bed sheets! We ended up staying for 4 days in Pokhara just wandering around the town and trying to catch a few early morning views before the clouds rolled in. Then, after the really relaxed 4 days came what was probably the most exciting 4 days so far..... we signed up for a beginners kayaking course! We started with a day on the local lake. During in the day we were meant to learn how to paddle the kayak straight (somehting everyone but especially soph really struggled with!) and ... read more

Chilling out in Kathmandu Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamel By SteviecNovember 3rd 2006Stephen Carrollurl='/Videos/2638.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/2638.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Thamel vid Even though the district of Thamel in central Kathmandu is a noisy, dirty tourist ghetto full of western bars, restaurants, camping shops, souvenir shops, trekking agencies and tiger balm salesmen (???) it really is quite an enjoyable place to pass away days and even weeks. The tiny taxis honk, the motorbikes beep and the cycle rickshaws ring their bells as they all vie for the precious space in thi... read more