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Published: March 22nd 2008
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it was hard leaving the orphan kids, on my last day i finallly got them to understand british bulldog - the banned game of tag involving opposite walls as 'home' and a lot of rough stuff. a couple of rucks broke out but they all loved it. When i often bought cookies they lined up for them for a bit, but then it would literally turn into a fight and scrum for them, these kids where hungry and many in need of medicine for scabies. But all where alert, bright, happy, caring and sharing.
i gave so much of my energy i felt zapped when leaving.
We left at 4am to get a rickshaw to the train, the kids would wake up to no foreigners at the ashram, god knows who would wash them and stuff, i dont want to begin to imagine their faces when they find out we had gone.
anyway, the massive buddha temple overshadowing the ashram stands for non-attachment amongst other things so time to move on with a smile.
kim and i went back to Varranasi at 3am, i needed to book a bus to a different border at nepal as a few
ppl were getting killed at the other border.
On the way from varanasi train st. to the guesthouse the rickshaw driver was insane but very good, it was a blur of bikes, busses, cows, cycle rickshaws and 500 near misses - but the driver was calm and chatting to a mate. this was the most memorable rickshaw journey ever.
that night in varanasi kim and i parted after a nearly 3 weeks of travelling together. kim and i have a good understanding, we are both hardened travellers and know how it goes, we are both technically homeless and we where top travel compannions and friends. we shared some amazing experiences neither of us will forget. When indians ask me "which country i belong to" i always answer "i dont belong to any country" and this starts off an amusing conversation with the indian being very confused, so kim brought me a small glass globe to remind me that neither of us 'belong' to any country and we are from the world ..aawww.
next up, 2 days of bus rides to nepal. up at 6am.
the trip thro nepal was amazing scenery, tho the bus was nuts
and overcrowded so the roof was used.
I found a place in Pokhara with hot water, electricity, a soft bed and a carpet, i was so happy, it was unreal. also the nepalise are not constantly after your money and there is no pollution and no horns. ahh breeeaaath. I am staying in nepal for a month at least i think.
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the nepalise and tibetan ppl are the warmest ppl i have ever met, it is all so enchanting. Oscar, a new friend from madrid and i spent all day with some tibetan refugees (there are 3 camps nearby) and nepalise street sellers, they where so much fun and so nice. all the rich central european trekkers (who look like they had a fight with a millets warehouse and lost) looked down on the street sellers but we had a great day and laughed lots. The nepalese love the english and there is a gurka museum here. After We saw some nepalese dancing and music, Oscar and I bought some amazing stuff and cleaned out 2 street sellers, some stuff we got will sell for much more in europe :-)
I brushed up on my spanish with
oscar too :-) he is very funny and i have always got on with ppl from madrid, there is something relaxed, humerous and right about them.
i went across the lake to a nepalese village to stay for a week to chill and write, when i got to this place i could not beleive it. I had a great room with panoramic view of the north and west and a balcony too, all for £1.20 a night, unreal. No one else is here as no one hears about this place, and after the crazyness of india this was perfect. I woke up to the view of some of the largest mountains in the world, it is quite something. it is like my private vipassana with food delivered to my room, it is so quiet you could here a pin drop, not even the eagles flying past make a noise and the lake is as calm as velvet and rarely is there a ripple. wow. shanti shanti. This place is amazing.
5 days of writing and completely relaxing was amazing and just what i wanted, a small group of chinese and tibetans turned up and they where all nice,
they did a healing treatment on me where a glass full of fire is stuck to ones back - ouch!! I then went back to pokhara to take in shiva's birthday festival. i met some other really good pply from england and a few of us hung out for a few days.
i went to the other side of the lake and met a french buddhist actress and we hung out and hired a fat motorbike to go up to sangrokot 1800m above sea level, the views where amazing. by the end of the day i was zipping round the blind mountainous bends :-) i learned more about buddhism as Julie had done about 5 vipassanas - really interesting stuff. we parted after a few days as she had a plane to catch.
a few days later my nepali mate Krishna guided me up to his family house in Dital - a remote village in the mountains with no shops or foreigners about. After 3 buses we did a 2 hour hike which was very tough....and high and steep! The place was wonderful - chickens, goats, buffalo, kids, fire in each room and the mother cooks for everyone
over a fire in a small cubby hole of a 'room'. The views where spectacular and mountain dogs, leapords and tigers roam this area too and tigers have been known many times to munch on the odd person.
These ppl live off the land I ate rice, cabbage and corn and drank water from the mountain. there are no roads or towns for miles and only a few hours electricity. There is something pure and human about it all, the family all stick together and look after each other and they actually sit around and ...talk. The kids learn english at an early age and most ppl can speak some english.
The men in the mountains have to marry someone b4 they get busy and the culture is to harvest and work the land and enjoy the family. When there is a festival they kill a buffalo at a small temple and eat it for good luck and long life.
I went on a days trek with one of the brothers, and it was amazing. you see old women carrying massive baskets up the cobble stones and kids come out to play. i watched some lads in
a village play volleyball and when the ball goes a mile down the hill someone just runs down and gets it as though it is nothing - unreal. They where so good at it even though i think half of them had been smoking some local grown nepalese ganja. Villages play against other villages in grudge matches.
the climate here is awesome, its hot then a massive powerful storm then hot again. This is why everything grows so well. The other night i saw the whole of a storm go over the mountains and the lightning was amazing, it must of been 30 miles square.
The main mountain, Fishtail mountain has only had an attempted climb once and all 20 climbers died and ithe locals believe Shiva the hindu god lives there.
There are puppies, flowers and butterflies skipping about everywhere, its like a dreamland and the nepalese are all so beautiful too. £1 a night including food is what i will donate to the family and this will be alot to them.
got too many stories to share but this is getting long.
on the way back to Pokhara i saw my mate jim
coming the opposite way on a motorbike acting like a loon, he didnt see me but was a good coincidence. i might take a motorbike adventure with my mate from Dital and then may go back to Dital as the family have said their house is mine :-) chill for a few days.
i took loadsa photos n can only put a few here as upload is sloooow.
hope all are well :-)
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