Nepal: From Kathmandu to Pokhara

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Namaste from Pokhara, in the western part of Nepal, at the foot of the Himalayas! Ah, Pokhara, what can I say about this wonderful place that hasn't already been said. Situated on the beautiful Phewa Lake and at the foot of some of the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world, it is truly a blessed spot to spend some time. If you plan to do any trekking in the Annapurna/Jomson area of Nepal, you will undoubtedly pass through Pokhara. It should be said, though that apart from the lakeshore area, where Western tourists are almost as plentiful as shops selling fake The North Face wares, the rest of the city resembles any other developing country's sprawl. Like Kathmandu, however, it just has a vibe and character that make its ramshackle appearance a true pleasure to explore. I spent about a day or so in Pokhara itself before heading about 10 KM north to the village of Pandeli, where I began my volunteer work project (teaching English at the local school). I just started, so I don't have too much to say yet about the teaching experience, but my first impressions were that I must have landed in some Bizarro Twilight Zone: Here, school is 6 days per week (full class day on Sunday), the students are always in class and seated well before the class begins, and will not let the teacher finish class without assigning homework! I had forgotten to do this one day when I told the students that they were dismissed, and they nearly attacked me with their books, "Homework! You forgot to give homework!" I'll never make that mistake again. A lot different from most schools int he US, many of which the teacher counts his blessings if at the end of each day he hasn't been stabbed.

I am staying with a lovely family here in Pandeli: Am, his wife Bindra, and their two young sons immediately took me in and made me feel well at home. They have proven to be most generous and graceful hosts. As I suspected, theirs was a very traditional, Nepali home, meaning not a shred of toilet paper was to be found in the house. Luckily, I anticipated this and came "loaded for bear" with my own stock of TP that began to escalate in value (to me if not anyone else) as my supply diminished. Enough said about that. I must say, however, that I was somewhat suprised to see that they had cable TV on a 25" screen. They have BBC and CNN news, as well as HBO and Cinemax. I didn't watch too much of it since most of my days are spent out of the house, and at night, there was often no power, but it did cause me to wonder, cable tv but no toilet paper - ???

Going from Pokhara to Pandeli last Tuesday, I took the local bus, which went pretty much according to script for all Nepali local buses: At 4 pm, the bus, which had been sitting idle for about 6 hours, left the bus park packed to the gills and festooned with every form of beast and humanity in, hanging from, and riding on top of it, and amidst a fanfare of shouting, horn honking, weeping, singing, and prayers. With this sensational yet very customary send of (perhaps more akin to the launch of a space shuttle) the bus rumbled out of the bus park and proceeded 400 yards where it summarily stopped for another 10 minutes at a filling station to fill up. Nevertheless, by 5 pm I had arrived in Pandeli where I met Am and Bindra for the first time. Pandeli is an extremely scenic, hillside village overlooking the lake withthe Himalayas on the other side of the hill in neighboring Sarongkot. In a word, it is a breathtaking place where every house and every family has a millon dollar view, by western standards. I enjoyed my first of many meals of dahl bhat (rice and lentils) and chutney... very tasty indeed, although I had a little difficulty eating in the traditional Nepali style, sans utensils. Let me just say that it's not as easy as it may seem, and I think I more resembled some kind of gagging farm animal as heaps of food either spilled down my front or just fell out of my mouth. Bindra, mercifully, began issuing me a spoon to eat with, although I thik she was partly motivated by not wanting to see another horrific episode like the one I demonstrated at our first breaking of bread.

DUring my first night in the village, away from any industrial sounds, some men were high up in a tree with a kerosene torch burning out a wasp nest. Apparently, the wasps here are particularly big and ferocious, and had recently killed a couple of people in a nearby village. Am was telling me tht only 12 or so stings can kill a man. As such some of the men waited until dark to burn this nest out and eradicate the danger. The next day, however, most of the nest still remained in the tree and I asked Am about the danger that this presented. I also asked him about other wildlife (i.e. poisonous snakes) that I should be mindful of. He told me that, yes, the bees were still a danger, that there were snakes, some poisonous, some tigers as well as... wait a second. back up! Did I hear tigers?! Are you kidding me?!? As it turns out, there are some tigers as well as leopards that inhabit the forest around them. In Pandeli, the last fatal tiger attack was nearly 20 years ago but dogs and goats do get attacked and killed more frequently. In fact, Am's own dog - who was also named Tiger, ironically - was attacked by a tiger or leopard. The dog didn't die immediately but did so several days later due to its very sevre wounds. Still, people go about their daily lives which includes working in the rice paddies, walking through the forest to school, home, etc. Meanwhile I don't go more than 10 paces from the front door without a few good size rocks in my hand, thinking (ridiculously) that I might be able to fend off a 500-pound cat with a couple of well placed rocks hurled at its snout. Hmm, yes, I will add tigers to my list of concerns that the volunteer placement agency didn't seem to mention when they were listing risks inherent to living in remote areas. Suddenly the bees didn't seem to matter too much to me.

Okay, I attended school the following day (Wednesday) and attended a volleyball tournament on Thursday where teachers from 25 different schools competed against each other in this "championship" event. Up for grabs to the winning school/team was a goat, or the monetary equivalent, that the winning team would bring back to its village. Am's team was pretty good and wound up in second place (i.e. no goat). The games convened at about 11 am, and began with the invocation ceremonies. Apparently, no occasion is too small for a grandiose peech... or speeches. The first hour or so evaporated under a series of consecutive speeches by mid-level school administrators, each one convinced of the sublime beauty and power of his own voice and - despite all visible evidence to the contrary - the audience's sincere gratitud for the privilege to hear them speak. One teacher explained as he rolled his eyes that nothing happens in Nepal without a big, showy display such as this. Each speaker pontificated with vague reference to the actual volleyball tournament, drawing allusions to gods and royalty, citing rules of play while also, curiously, invoking the spirits or deceased ancestors. Well, at least that's what it looked like. It shold be noted that due to the acoustics of the open field with traffic noise of Pokhara in the back ground, and the audience's general antipathy towards the opening remarks, no one could hear a word of what was said. Finally, mercifully, the tournament started, and even us spectators, it was a lot of fun. The competing teams were pretty serious and determined, and the play was pretty intense, but afterwards, almost immediately at the end of eachmatch, all competitors congratulated each other warmly as model sportsmen. I think that is one of the general character traits of Nepal: The overwhelming warmness and congeniality of its people. It's one thing that I really have enjoyed in my short time here and one thing that I wish was in greater supply in my own country.

At the event were many schools whose teachers were mostly female. They also had a concurrent female volleyball tournament but I don't think there was any prize up for grabs. It was there, from seeing how many of the women were dresses, that I remembered learning that in Nepali culture, married women traditionally wear red (as Bindra does) and widows where white (somewhat ironically from a Western stand point, I suppose). I also learned that, regardless of age, that widows do not remarry as this is taboo in Nepali culture. This cultural more does not hold true for widowers who often remarry. Anyways, I saw many women in red and a few in white and I couldn't help noticing that the women in white sarongs, etc., seemed to be a lot more jovial and care free than their red donning counterparts. During tyhe tournament which lasted most of the day and included a pretty nice late lunch of goat (not the one to be awarded to the winners) I talked to a lot of folks, many of whom were intereted in talking ot me about hwo I ended up in Pandeli, since everyone else comng from there was Nepali. I was happy to talk to everyone and tried to practice my abysmal Nepali which is still pretty bad. I ended up talking with one guy who I think was a teacher in one of the schools nearer to Pokhara, he asked me what difficulties I had encountered in my volunteering thus far. I explained to him that I felt that volunteers that do ot speak much or any Nepali really shouldn't be working with the younger kids due to the insurmountable language barriers, that there could perhaps be some improvements to organization and structure that wouldn't cost anything. I wanted to mention tigers, but somehow, I just sort of knew that tigrs were outside the scope of his question.

Well, gotta get back to the village. First gotta drop off a motorbike that I rented for the past 3 days (total price: $15 plus gas), then have to hoof it to the bus station. Thanks for checking in on me.

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Photos

Phewa Lake
Pokhara on the lakeshore with Himalayas poking through in the background

Front Door View
The view from the front of Am and Bindra's house where I stayed in Pandeli.

View from the Roadside
On a Saturday morning mototbike ride north of Pokhara.

Western Hills of Nepal
Taken at dusk from the front steps of Am and Bindra's house. Note the small white temple (stupa) on the nearest hill on the right side of the photo. The International Peace Temple. This part of Nepal saw no fighting from the years-long Maoist uprising, mercifully. that ended this past spring.

Street Cow
A typical Nepali scene. Cows are pretty much left alone to wander the streets. Some have owners but many don't. The only time anyone molests them is when one tries to filch a free meal from any one of the dozens of fruit vendors that line the streets.

My Rented Motorbike
180 cubic centimeters of screaming power! Actually, this bike was a lot of fun to ride, especially in with scenery like this all around. The Annapurna Range in the background with nearly isoscoles Macchu Puchare dominating the horizon.

Tiger Temple
Following the last fatal tiger attack, about 20 years ago, the village erected this temple to appeal to the gods to ward off further tiger attacks. As for its effectiveness, well, I'll just say that Pandeli hasn't had a fatlity by tiger since.

Am and Son with Bike
Am with his son (with cap) filling the tire of his bike before we headed to Pokhara for the volleyball tournament.

Volleyball Tournament
The Pandeli team did pretty well, finishing second overall. Here Am (white shirt) had a pretty good spike. At only 5'7", he gets some pretty good air.

Nepali BBQ
This goat was later served as lunch. I don't need to tell you what happened moments after this photo was taken.

Comments

[David]

Yea
Um, yea, so freaking jealous Ken. You know what i did yesterday???? I leak tested my new CCG issued dry suit for boarding vessels out at sea. So, i floated around in Boston Harbour for 15 minutes in 49 degree water! YEAH!!!!!!

[Rich]

Keep writing...snapping pictures
Ken- I'm taking a week off of work only to spend more time at home; as luck would have it, my son became sick during my leave so we can't really go anywhere. As I sit here in my Rio Bayamon dwelling, I'm glad I can get away to Nepal just by reading your blog! Keep the entries coming! Namaste, Rich