KBK

I'm back in Washington, DC, in time for the spectacular cherry blossoms! My first thought this morning -- I can get a good cup of hot coffee! I don't have to drink bottle water any more! India is SO different from any other country I've ever been to and nothing at all like China. My head is swirling with thoughts and memories of India and Nepal that will take me weeks, if not months, to process. But for now, I'm just going to try to readjust to the time zone change, wash my clothes, unpack my bags, and slowly get back into the swing of my usual life. ... read more

Visiting the old section of Pokhara, Nepal, after watching the sun rise over the Himalayan mountains, we got to vendors selling spices and shoes on the sidewalk. We also watched some of the local Hindu people at a small shrine in the middle of the intersection of somne streets performing their daily pujas (prayers) and decorating statues of a Hindu deity. It occurred to me that the flowers and fruits and oils and candles that are offered to statues of Hindu deities are very similar to the flower garlands and oil that we received as guests arriving in the better hotels in India. The older buildings in the old part of Pohkara are gradually being torn down and replaced with newer, sort of unimaginative Soviet-style buildings. Our guide said it's very difficult to get the ... read more

If you're in Nepal, you really want to feel that you've been to the top of a mountain. We never got to see the Himalayan Mountains the way they look in postcards -- snowcapped mountains with clear, blue skies -- because we were visiting at the wrong time of year and it was too cloudy. Still we did get to see the sun rise over the Annapurna range and the Pokhara valley from a hillside town above Pokhara called Sarangot. Sarangkot has a viewing station which looks over the Pokhara. Sarangkot has a viewing station which looks over the Pokhara valley on one side, and the entire Annapurna range on the other. To get to Sarangot, we left our hotel at 5:30 a.m. and drove for quite a while. After parking, we made a steep ... read more

A bus ride from Chitwan through several small towns brought us to our hotel near Pokhara, the Fulbari Resort & Spa Hotel. A copy of the Baghavad Vita, sort of like the Gideon's Bible, was in the drawer of the bedside table in our hotel room. The Fulbari Resort is right next to the enormous Seti River Gorge. As usual, our hotel is a striking contrast to the work that lies beyond. The grounds are quite lovely, with grass, flowers, and fish swimming under a little stone bridge and putting their mouths up for food, just like the carps in China. The hotel also has an "infinity" swimming pool, where the water seems to drop off over the edge on the horizon. Spa services include Ayurvedic massages. A few of us got foot massages, quite ... read more

In addition to looking at wildlife, we got to do a little anthropological study near Chitwan National Wildlife Park. One small Tharu village near Chitwan lets tourists come visit in hopes that they will buy something or contribute to their children's education fund. Our visit to this Tharu village in early April was my first visit to an agricultural village in the Third World. The Tharus make their living by subsistence agriculture, growing wheat, corn, rice, cabbage and other crops. All around Chitwan we saw colorfully dressed women planting rice, men using water buffalo to plow the fields, women carrying thatch from the forest in gigantic baskets on their backs, and children fishing or swimming in the river. Within the little village, we saw tidy homes constructed of mud with open doorways and thatched roofs. ... read more