Is this a dream (again)?

---

If I had closed my eyes and imagine a perfect city in which to live, I would have imagined a city with friendly people, outdoorsy travellers, lots of outdoors stores and of course many book stores, specialized in mountaineering books, good novels, traveling books, philosophy, etc. A place with good restaurants even, a few bakeries, many cafes. The climate would but hot at times and cool at times.

Well, this morning, I opened my eyes and found myself in heaven! Waw! I honnestly have to refrain from laughing out loud. I can't believe what I see!

I suppose I should do this in chronological order though, as many many things happened in the last 4-5 days, and I have to write all about it because... well, I just like to write! This will be a long blog...

Part 1: Indian "summer-y" (Indian summer, summary... Ok, OK...)
Last time I wrote, I was about to leave Rishikesh. My last day in Rishikesh was very nice, very laid back, I spent most of my time sitting and eating and drinking chai, and looking around knowing I was leaving INdia very soon and it was great, not that I was leaving but great to think about all the excitement of the past few weeks/months. I walked back up my hotel to pick up my bags the last day and saw all the now familiar faces of the sadhus, said good bye to some shop keepers, neighbours, and mentally to the cows and dogs that I saw every day for the last 2 weeks. I walked past the kids who were playing with a dead mouse, chasing each other with it and I thought how wonderful it is that these kids who have nothing are so happy generally and seem content with very little... I guess when people have very little material possessions, they put more importance on friendship and family. I said "namaste" to all the beautiful ladies and smily kids, and went to the taxi stand to get a ride to Haridwar. I knew the locals were paying around 25 Rs but I expected to fight for it and not succeed... The first guy said 100Rs, I said no, 25 and he said OK, 30! I laughed thinking this was unlike the regular argument and climbed in with, well... many other locals!

I was sitting with my back turned to the road, so I couldn't see how close we came from other vehicles, which is totally the norm here, and again laughed thinking it is a lot less stressful this way! Better not to know, especially since I couldn't do anything about it... I guess I am learning some INdian philosophy! I looked at the signs along the road, and too bad I have such a bad memory becasue some of the signs are hilarious. The spelling is phonetic and some words have to be read out loud to know what they are. There was some really good ones but I can only remember a easy one: "natchurol". I swore to myslef that next time I go to india I will carry a small book and a pen to write down these funny things because I can't possibily remember even half of them.

So I got to the train station a bit early, but i didn't mind as it is always fun to watch what people do and smile at the differences. I walked a bit on the plateform, and I came accross what I would call an explosion of colors. About 30 women that must have been at a wedding or something, they were so colorful it was amazing. Uttaranchal women don't seem to dress as colorfully as Goan or Rajasthani women, so seeing the colors again was really pleasant. Unfortunately I don't like taking pictures of people, feeling like I invade their privacy, or that it is somewhat disrespectful especially without asking... ANyhow.

Then I sat on the plateform, like hundreds of others, the only Westerner around, so of course many people were curously looking at me, and some kids came to say hello, but the funniest part was when an older man came to talk to me:
-your name please? (this is how they politely ask what's your name)
-Catherine.
-Which country do you belong?
-Canada.
-You look like INdian. You look very fine. Respect. Are you married?
-No, not married.
-I think you are indian. You look very fine indian.
Then we talked a bit more. It ended this way:
-what is your phone number? Within a year or two, I find you a good husband.

Was I supposed to say thank you? I think I did.

Then I relaxed thinking for once I knew exactly which plateform, which train to take and it said "on time". 5 minutes before 'on time", suddenly hundreds of people got up and started jumping down on the rails and back up on the other plateform, in a rush. I thought "god, I hope it is not my train that arrived somewhere else?". I looked on the signs, it still said plateform 1, so I tried to relax... But then i thought, hum... better ask. Of course, they switched the train to Plateform 4! So I had to rush too and jump to the other plateform thinking I had no time to go on the over pass.... I got there, and quickly people started coming to talk to me. At least I found out I was at the right place...

The train was still supposed to be on time... A weird Indian started telling me about his job as an acumassage therapist. Then a more "upper class" INdian talked to me as well. The first guy was coming very close to me but at first I didn't think much of it as it is quite normal in INdia... But then he started giving his same speech to the other INdian about acumassage... Like something has memorized. The second guy translated an annoucement telling people not to accept food form strangers as they recently has cases of people trying to drug foreigners to take their belongings. I could see policemen walking around. Then a few policemen came and started searching the acumassage guy... They opened his bag, and out came all kinds of pills and powders.... Within a minute, there was about 10-12 policemen and a hundred INdians around me and that guy, all wanting to see what was happening. Indians are very curious and not shy of showing their curiosity. I back off a bit, feeling a bit too surrounded... The acumassage guy didn't show any resistance to the police, one of the policeman asked me a few questions, if I knew the guy, etc... Then they took off with him and I thought waw! I wonder if that guy was a bad guy or just a weird one! I wonder if anything would have happened to me if the police hadn't showed up.... MAybe there was nothing to it but anyhow, it was my first potentially bad experience in India after all that time and I thought it was odd that it happened on my last day! But all was well after that and I started talking with another young well educated Indian who was there to take his sister back to her village.
We talked about work, about India, about Canada. Not always easy to communicate...
-What are the reverse of Canada?
-Reverse? You mean the bad things about Canada?
-No, reverse.
-heu....
-Reverse, reverse, you know, vater?
-VAter? Oh! Water! Rivers! Ah! Saint-LAwrence, MAcKenzie, Fraser...
-You know English Litterature?
-Hum, yeah, well, not really...
-Shakespeare?
-Yes, Shakespeare!
-(then he named another one)
-well, no. (I felt silly, no knowing anything else about English litterature...) You know my first language is French so I know little about English litterature! (cheap excuse!).
-Harry Potter?
-Ah yes, yes, Harry Potter! (does that count??? Oh, why not...)

And after about an hour the train arrived....

I found my car, jumped in. I had seat no 6. I got there and found that, already, well... about 5 people were sitting there. And at least as many on the other side. Plus some kids. A Nepalese-looking family. They looked at me, I looked and smiled, and then one guy finally moved a bit and I put my bag on the floor and sat on the edge of the seat. In theory, only 3 people sit on these seats, 3 more on the one facing this seat and 2 on the seat on the other side of the alley. For a total of 8. Once seated, I counted 22 of us. As many as the number of earrings on the older woman's ears. I thought for sure there was a mistake and the ticket guy would come and all would be sorted out, but he came and looked at the tickets and all was fine. I still don't understand... Then I hoped that they would get off at a station not too far but knowing how locals usually travel light, I realize that these guys were on a long journey... They had many bags. And so it was, they were going to Nepal, just like me.

So I sat there, and sweated in the train that was still not moving. It took over an hour before we got going again. My butt was sore, I was tired and wondered how I would get some sleep, not being able to go to my berth with all the luggage stored up there. I was complaining in my head for a moment and then I looked at all these people: three elderly people, about 3 business men, and the family with maybe 5 kids of all ages from diaper age to maybe 5 or 6. Nobody complained, even if they were all pilled up on each other, even in the heat, and the delay. I thought heck, I chose to be here. For these guys, it is their regular life. And I want to complain? THEY are the ones who should complain and wonder why I would leave the comfort of my lucky life to come and see what their life is like. I thought OK, I can do this. Just sit there and think about something else! It is just one very long night. At one point the woma next to me got up to go to the bathroom and she told me: "don't let anybody sit here". I think she meant it...

So we were slowly moving, and I was trying to sleep sitting. But luckily, a couple hours later, the family rearrange te seats and I got my berth and felt really bad that they had to sleep 2 or 3 on one berth and I was sharing mine with my backpack... It seemed very unfair but they didn't say anything and the next day, since we were 5 hours late by then, they even shared their delicious food with me, until I was ready to burst, and thank God I knew they were getting off at the same station as I was because from the top berth I couldn't see anything outside and could have easily missed my station! I was very relieved to get off the train and then had to find the bus station.

Can anybody explain to me why in every train there is some men dressed with saris that walk up and down the alleys, clap their hands and people give them money?

The bus station wasn't far but i didn't know in which direction to go. The first rickshaw driver told me "the road was broken so I couldn't go with the bus"... i had to go with him! I laughed and walked to another guy. He said a price and I said, no, I know it is close by, I want to walk but I don't know where to go! He said "give me any money". So he took me there, for 3 Rs! And fo that price he also told me which bus to take and shook my hand with a warm "happy journey". Not all rickshaw drivers are bad!

SO I was in the local bus for 3 hours to Sunauli. My butt wasn't feeling better, I was soaked in sweat but happy to be getting closer to a nice shower! Local buses are interesting too, with locals burping and snorting and getting excited about things that I don't understand and having locals talking to me so fast that it sounds like someone making bubbles in front of me... Then I say "hindi nahi". No hindi... ANd they look very sorry. They also look a my feet and try to understand how come I have only one toe ring... Maried women have at least one on each foot... They look and look and point at my feet and talk to each other...


Part 2: Into Nepal!
I got off the bus at the border, then got stamped out of INdia and forgot to claim my good pen back after the friendly immigration office borrowed it, and then I walked to Nepal! It is weird to WALK to a different country but that's how it goes, and within minutes I had my Nepal visa, and some Nepal rupies, and waw... I was back in Nepal after ..12 years!

From there, more buses to eventually get to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. I got there as it got dark and was offered a "ride to my family guest house" by a nice man, and I jumped on the back of his motor bike and he took me to a decent room with a cold shower. I ate my first Nepalese dal bhat in many many years and an Indian woman who was also a guest at the hotel tried to asked me why I was alone... She could not understand... And I could not explain it to her...

The next day I rented a bicycle to visit the secret gardens. It was very beautiful and very peaceful. Not too busy neither. I enjoyed biking, even in the heat. The bike rental guy said "bike in good condition". I thought it was good he mentioned it, otherwise I could have not noticed...

So I visited the site and many many temples, and after 5 hours I was done and decided to go to Bahirawa to be closer to the bus to Kathmandu for the next day. I stayed in a hotel there, and had a lot of company in my room: mosquitoes, by the dozen. I woke up with many red dots on my face, hands and feet, I looked like I had some disease...

The next morning I took the bus to Kathmandu... 8 hours, they say. I knew what that meant... More like 10 or 12. I left at 7:15 am. In the bus was only one other tourist, a guy from Morroco that apparently saw me in Rishikesh! What a small world. The bus was very comfortable.. for the first 20 minutes! Then my butt started hurting again. It was going to be a long day! A nice young Nepalese guy sat next to me and he talked to me for a few hours. I only understood about a third of the conversation but was warmly invited to stay with his family anytime! Peope got mad in the bus as we were stopping and stopping all the time. The scenery was beautiful though and I was enjoying it. I even forgot about my sore butt for a while as the road got very scary at some point and we had one very close call.

About half way it was obvious we were not going to be in Kathmand before 5 pm. That meant 10 hours by bus. Which still wasn't all that bad. It was very cool to be back on a road were I travelled so many years before... I even recognized some areas. Just 20 km short of Kathmandu, we stopped again for a tea break... I thought, well, we are almost there... How wrong I was!

Then we got into it: the biggest traffic jam I ever experienced in my life! And I lived in Montreal and I travelled through L.A. Bu tthis was a genuine first class Kathamandu traffic jam. Oh! And it started pouring rain! And the power went out and it got dark. And we were in the bus for another 3.5 hours and probably moved about 1 km or 2 during that time. It was fun though to watch the locals sitting in their shop with candles, one guy was getting a hair cut and had to wait because it was too dark to risk finishing the job... The Maroccan in the bus made friends with many local kids, it was cute and funny. I was amazed how people were patient though, sitting fo that long in the bus... I thought about how people would have reacted in the West.... And i laughed at all the cell phones... People calling their family to be picked-up by motorbike.

Then finally the bus driver had enough and pretty well told us to grab our bags and get out. It wasn't raining hard anymore but the ground was just slippery mud! So this was it, I was almost in Kathmandu, in the dark, in the rain, in the mud, in my sandals, with really no idea which way to go... Lots of people in the dark streets, all walking, and so did I, with my Maroccan friend, tired but laughing, with our headlamps, thinking this is one of those unforgettable moments! After some walking, we finally got out of the traffic jam and managed to get a ride with a taxi to my hotel... I had reservations made at a hotel by the local contact (from the trekking company). I was in the area but couldn't see the hotel. SOme said it was closed... After a couple months in India I thought this is yet another scam , like "the road is broken", but I called and found out it truly was now under a different name, and so I was shown my room, in the candle light...


Part 3: This is like heaven
And this was it: when I entered heaven... The room was... well... I can't even describe it. Felt like a 5 star hotel. And I was expecting a cold shower because of the power outage, but no, I had a hot shower, with a lot of pessure, and there was towels and toilet paper and soap and a super nice bed and a balcony (I only realized that this morning) and... well, you get the idea. Oh! And a phone and room service. And no, I didn't pay 100$! I went for supper, met a guy from Haiti who has been living in Kathmandu for a year, he put some music on (he had a lap top) and I spoke with him, in French, for a while until I finally went back to my room and fell alseep smiling...

And this morning I wasn't just smiling, I even laughed, this is so much luxury and a much more easy-going place... And I walked out in the streets of Kathmandu. And this is when I realize how much it changed in 12 years, and how great it is still, with all the stores and people and then I of course walked into a few book stores and could not believe that they have everthing here. And I mean everything. Books on all subjects and all languages. I even played this little game of "let's see if I can find this book". And every time, I found the book. They are expensive, but they are there!

So what else can I ask for for now? I had a great honey banana pancake this morning, with candle light (still no power), the same breakfast I had in 1996 on my first day. Many cups of tea, and then the power came back and I am here... Sharing this lengthy story with you guys, the only people that are missing in this heaven!!! Yeah, I still think about friends and family, but heck, I have to see, I am soooooo happy! HAving a blast. And soon I will be back in the mountains, the Himalayas...

And I still wonder if I will wake up eventually or if this is real!!!!!!!

Namaste!

---