Happy Holi

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Today is Holi, the festival that marks the arrival of the monsoon season, although the season isn’t supposed to start for another month or so. But to celebrate, water is thrown all over the place—using buckets, water balloons called lolas, and bottles. The kids started throwing water balloons a couple days ago, but today they are filled with water dyed blue and red. And so for whitey foreigner, it’s a dangerous day to go outside. So I’m staying in watching movies and catching up on my journal. Yesterday, as Dre and I were walking through various neighborhoods, I was hit by lolas repeatedly thrown by kids hiding in windows, doorways, and on the roofs. Dre managed to get away mostly unscathed. Perhaps people recognize me… And now Sita’s son and his friend are climbing up on my roof with a bucket of water to catch their neighbors by surprise. I keep hearing splashes of water, followed by cheering. A fun holiday for kids, a nightmare for someone like me!

Dre left for the airport about an hour ago. We had a great week in Nepal! We arrived back from Dubai late Friday morning, dropped our stuff at my flat, had lunch at Delicias, stopped at Bhat Bhateni, and went shopping with Sita for vegetables in the local market. We then went to Thamel for some shopping and dinner at Tamas, this great new restaurant that just opened a month or so ago. I had been there once before and had met the owner, so this time he gave us a round of free drinks. The place is pretty posh—seating is both inside and outside on the roof, and it is decorated with whispy white curtains, embroidered cushions on couches and lounge changes, and a little pond with a huge stone Buddha guarding it. Friday night they had a band from Russia playing called Digital Samsara that was really good. Dre and I ended up buying one of each of their 4 CDs—all for 1000 Rs.

Saturday we went to Swayumbunath (the monkey temple), which is a beautiful place with both Hindu and Buddhist temples—the only such place in Nepal. When we reached the long climb up the steps to the top and finished looking around at the temples, we stopped in an art gallery and each ended up buying some original work from the artist himself. He served us bottles of soda, and we ended up sitting there for about an hour discussing his art and looking at all of the paintings.

We then went to Lazimpat to my friends’ beauty shop so that Dre could get her eyebrows threaded for the first time. Lunch was at Royal Hana, one of the best Japanese restaurants in Kathmandu. Dinner was at Kiran’s house so that we could discuss our upcoming trek. Despite the load shedding, Kiran’s sons and nephews cooked us a delicious meal—dhal bhat, veggies, chicken, fries, veg tempura—on the floor of their little kitchen. We brought the beer—Gurkha (made in Nepal), and Tuborg. We were so stuffed when we left! I’ve learned to eat big meals when at the houses of Nepalis, but Dre was not prepared for the amount of food we would be served.

Sunday we left early in the morning for our short trek. We took a taxi to the Sundarijal region and started our journey. There was a Brahmin initiation ceremony for adolescent boys going on in the village, so there were all of these young boys running around in their underwear, getting their heads shaved (except for a patch on the back), and sitting in rows awaiting tikka.

The hike to Chisopani was hard! Either that or I am severely out of shape. But it was 6 hours of mostly ascents, and it was hot! But going through all of the little villages is what I love about trekking the Himalayas, and so I enjoyed it. A group of college-aged guys kept passing us or vice versa, and they wanted photos with us when we stopped to pay the park entrance fee and at lunch.

Chisopani is 2140 meters high—a tiny little village with just a handful of guest houses. We stayed at the Mountain View lodge. Dre and I took a room with lots of windows and 2 single beds at first for 100 Rs for the night, but then when the lodge started to fill up we moved to a room with its own bathroom (a squat toilet and cold shower) for 3 times the price—a whole 300 Rs (less than $5). We scarfed down our dinner because we were so hungry and ordered a “banana momo”, which was sort of like a pie, for dessert.

The bed was harder than the bed in my flat (which is hard to imagine), so sleeping was hardly comfortable, but we were so exhausted we both managed to sleep through the night. In the morning we caught a brief glimpse of the mountains before they went behind the clouds again.

Monday the trek was even worse—not hot and difficult, but this time really long. We trekked about 8 hours to Nagarkot, most of it downhill, but about 2 hours of it through the rain. Of course, since it is still the dry season, neither of us thought to bring rain gear. My right knee was bothering me for some reason, so the steep descents were painful. And by the fourth hour I had severe blisters on the bottoms of my feet. Thank goodness for second skin!

For about an hour of the trek this old woman walked with us. She told Kiran that she had walked to Kathmandu from her village near Chisopani to pray for the last few months (and to visit her 2 children who are going to school there). She was on her way back home when she met up with us. I guess she just wanted company, because she walked with us for quite a ways. Every once in a while she would babble away at me in Nepali (some dialect I didn’t understand very well) and motion with her hands and smile. But around 4pm she said that her village was still far away and she needed to get going, so she took off ahead of us. Apparently we were going too slow for her.

Kiran kept taking us through what he called shortcuts, but I think our trek that day ended up being a bit longer than it had to be. By the time we reached Nagarkot we were so exhausted we could hardly make it up the steps to our room in the lodge. But the room was nice, relatively speaking, and super expensive, relatively speaking. For $30 for the night we had a king sized bed and our own bathroom with a tub (not that either of us would consider taking a bath here). But we did have a hot shower, which felt incredibly nice after the cold shower the day before and being covered in layers of sweat and dirt. No electricity for a few hours, however.

We had dinner (I had spaghetti) at the lodge again and shared a Tuborg to celebrate. We also ordered a delicious banana fritter for dessert. Before and after dinner we sat by the fire while the couple of locals that were there banged on a drum and played Nepali folk songs. Although there were only a few other trekkers from Hong Kong since it’s the off season, it was still fun to hang out and get a taste for the “trekking scene” again.

The next morning we got up early, had a banana pancake and milk tea, and piled into the back of a jeep with a large container of gasoline sitting behind us. Kiran had told me that we could take a taxi back from Nagarkot, but the night before we found out that taxis are hard to come by, in which case you have to take a local bus. But since buses are overcrowded all the time (to the point where men hang out the doors or sit on the roof) and they tip over fairly often, Dre and I were not liking that idea. So a guy from the hotel offered to drive us to Bhaktapur (our next destination) for 500 Rs.

I’m not sure the jeep ride was safer than the bus, especially since the guy driving it would swerve around the corners of the mountain, talk on his cell phone while driving with one hand, or wave to numerous people the whole way down. We also stopped to pick up 2 other men, who shared the front passenger seat. But we made it to Bhaktapur with no problems. I just didn’t look out the window down the side of the mountain.

Bhaktapur is the historical city east of Kathmandu. There are temples and cobblestone streets with old Nepali architecture, tiny museums (that are disappointing), plenty of shops for tourists, and a potters’ square where you can watch people making beautiful terra cotta pots. We wandered around for a couple of hours before grabbing lunch at the Café Du Temple.

We took a taxi back to Kathmandu and crashed for a couple of hours. Then, a massage! Dre and I both got the hot stone, and it felt great since our legs and shoulders were so sore. This trek was easy since it was only 2 days of walking, but the 2 days were really difficult. I’m guessing we went at least 15 km per day, but we can’t figure it out for sure because maps of the region are so elusive. We didn’t get to see much of the mountains, but it gave Dre a good taste of what trekking the Himalayas is like, and it brought back fond memories for me of my previous 2 treks. I also like trekking because of the meditative state it puts me in. I like to fall back from the group for a while and just focus on my steps and breathing and allow my head to clear. Even though it was really tough physically, it felt good.

The last couple of days were filled with site-seeing and shopping for souvenirs. Kiran and I took Dre to Patan, Pashupati, Bhoddhanath, Dinesh and Renuka’s house for tea, Renuka’s parents house for an amazingly huge lunch, and ABC Nepal to visit Ranju. We shopped for tankha paintings and Buddha statues. Wednesday night Dre treated me to dinner at Chez Caroline—the most expensive, poshest restaurant in the city (we seriously ate at all of the nicest restaurants in Kathmandu this week—also the safest). For $50 total we each had a glass of wine, a salad (they soak their fresh veggies in iodine), an entrée, and we shared 3 (yes, 3) desserts. It felt so indulgent after all the dhal bhat and veg fried rice we ate during the several days before!

Dre left this morning for her 36 hour journey back to the U.S. via India and Paris. And now I’m sitting in my apartment sans electricity again, wondering how quickly the loneliness will come back. She was talking about missing her husband after being gone for close to 2 weeks. I miss Ken terribly after being gone for so many months. I depart for good 7 weeks from today, but I know that after her visit will be the hardest because I’ve got the final long stretch. Luckily I have lots going on for my research and a couple of new friends to spend time with. But there are still long periods of time spent alone, watching movies and reading. Dre said she thinks it’s cool that I’m here, but that she doesn’t envy me—that she would get depressed, too. I made a to-do list before she left to try to prepare myself. I just hope I don’t go through it all in the next few days!

I do have some personal research to do, though…I’m spending 3 nights in Bangkok on my way home, so I can plan my itinerary for that. I’ve also officially accepted a job at RTI International (Research Triangle Institute) in North Carolina—the 2nd largest research non-profit (behind RAND) in the country. So I have to start to research what will be my new home come August 16. Also have to start looking for a place to live…a temporary apartment until Ken arrives at the end of 2008/early 2009.

I am so excited about the position! My title is “Researcher/Public Health Analyst,” and I will be directing projects to prevent HIV among South African women, as well as writing grants to fund my own projects, including one for South African men. The woman who will be my mentor is an amazing, high energy, Jewish feminist activist who is one of the top people in the field on preventing HIV among women, particularly among sex workers and crack users (who are sometimes one and the same). She does some hard core work, and what I like about her most is that she walks the walk—she’s not one of these academics that just plans the studies and sits in her office and writes the journal articles. She goes out into the community, she does volunteer work related to her research (like provides clothes and toiletries for women and babies who need them in the communities in which she is working), and she lives her life in a way that is consistent with what she values. She is super excited that I accepted the position, and I am super excited to start working! The position fits me perfectly, it will put me back in South Africa a couple times a year for a few weeks at a time, it’s in a great area that Ken and I can explore (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area), and the salary is much nicer than I was expecting for my first post-PhD job. Plus, it will put me where I want to go in my career much quicker than a tenure-track position would (one of which I actually turned down). I can’t wait to start! I just have to finish that dissertation when I return to the U.S. But I can now finally say that all of my hard work paid off, and that I will be starting what looks like a plum job come August. Woo hoo!

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Photos

Swayumbhunath
the monkey temple

trek
a Brahmin initiation ceremony

trek
showing some village children the photo I took of them

trek
tending to my blisters

trek
a little kid we passed on the trail

Patan
a woman looking out over the streets of Patan

Pashupati
a sadhu (wandering holy man) reading the paper

road to Boddhanath
little girls we met walking to Boddhanath

Comments

[Bethany]

Congratulations!
Still enjoying your blog and wishing you a huge congrats on the position!

[Femme99]

thank you! and thanks for reading!