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Published: September 8th 2008
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Before heading out of Kathamandu on Wednesday I cruised over the bridge and into the neighboring city of Patan to check out it's famous Durbar square and temples. I ran into a couple of young nepali kids who work as tour guides, and was able to work out a nice deal where they showed me their city in exchange for a round of beers. We played some street ping pong, and talked about Nepali dreams of coming to the states. I wish all business deals were this easy.
Thursday I headed to the city of Pokhara which is 200 km west of Kathmandu on an amazing winding road that follows a brisk river as it cuts its path through the hills. I say hills and not mountains because I learned what they mean here by the latter once I got there. Before the bus left I thought I had a great seat to my self in the front until a smelly Nepali lady sat next to me. Wow, she really smelled. I mean bad. After sitting on the bus for 30 mins without moving at the bus station I was growing edgy. There were many empty seats elsewhere but I
stupa-endous
my fav stupa shot from patan didn't know how much longer I could last in this war of attrition. Eventually I moved to the back of the bus... but it smelled terrible there too? Two hours later at a rest stop I discovered I had a good smattering of yak poop on my sneaker when I got off the bus. She was probably thinking the same thing I was, except that she was right. (This story brings to mind a similar incident ten years ago aboard a plane returning from Israel when I kept smelling the most vile smell repeatedly for hours. Shortly thereafter I discovered I was lactose intolerant and this smell may have been explained by the 3 pieces of olive pizza I had just before boarding. oops again. Poor people sitting next to me).
Anyhow, I digress. The ride from Pokhara was amazing. It is quite different here from Kathmandu- the air in clean, it is very quiet, and super relaxed. I found a nice guesthouse for and have stayed there for the past 5 days. My days here have been uber relaxed. I considered going on a short trek, but instead have been taking it super easy. This is vacation, right?
tour guide
one of the duo of alcoholic tour guides I met in Patan I've been hanging out with a lot of the backpackers in town, reading, planning the rest of my trip, swimmming in the lake, and eating well. Speaking of swimming- I discovered another thing Nepali's don't really do- exercise. Two days ago I decided to swim across the lake and back, when I returned a small group of people had gathered on the shore and told me they were suprised to see that I didn't drown.
Things are different here in Nepal. Something I've heard several times from the Nepali's here is that people want what they don't have. For them that is fancy cars, big houses. VERY few of the nepali ever participate in the biggest tourist gig here- trekking. To them, the mountains are there and always will be.
Saturday I rented a motorcycle for a couple days and set out for the country. Seeing as I've never really ridden before, I did get a short 2 min lesson from a Nepali with poor english, so it was all good (ha). Over 2 days I cruised all over this region on my 140 cc Yamaha enticer and was blown away by the beautiful scenery. Yesterday at sunrise
ping pong
I finally got to try street ping pong. I lost. I drove to a nearby hilltop to see the mountains. The views of the mountain were pretty amazing. I wandered around the different vistas on the hill to take it all in and had my first encounter with a new critter- the leech. I didn't realize this until much later that day when my sock was very pink and I thought I must have hit a weird flower or something. (Fortunately, beyond making you bleed a lot by secreting anti-coagulants they don't hurt or carry any diseases)
With a little encouragement form the locals, I then went down a 12 km gravel/stone path along the hills from town to town. This was the most incredible ride i've ever been on. I passed a number of tourists on foot and decided this was a MUCH better way to go. The road had everything- mud, water, cows, streams, waterfalls, temples and tons of locals. 100 miles later I decided that cruising the country on a motorcycle had to be one of the most enjoyable ways to see any country.
Saying "Namaste" (the nepali version of hello) never gets old when you're in small towns. People always return the greeting and
yay
on my Yamaha Enticer smile. At one point I passed a private school on my bike and literally dozens of small kids came running down the hill as I stopped screaming "Namaste, Namaste" "Give me something you have America" "Hello". In about 10 seconds I had 15 kids around me in white shirts and blue ties yelling, and a couple hopped on the back of the bike. Unfortunately I didn't even have time to get my camera out... and feeling oddly scared by dozens of tiny kids I dropped it in gear and cruised on.
Tomorrow I'm headed back to Kathmandu and will stay the night with the Sherpa family again. The next day I will be departing for an "eye camp" organized by the eye hospital I'm volunteering with. This is where they perform outreach in poor villages that do not have access to eye care. We'll be performing eye exams and cataract surgeries. I'm quite excited for this, but really have no idea what to expect. All I know is that we're going north on a bus, then walking 10 km by foot into an isolated village. I won't likely blog until I get back.
Namaste.
P.S. for some
reason several pictures get stretched weird when I flip them, so they need to be clicked on to view them in the correct aspect ratio.
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