My Times and Time Differences

Lumbini was.. peaceful. There is no other way to properly describe it. Maybe if you added sun and took out the piles of garbage and perpetual construction, it could be beautiful. Maybe if town had more than one restaurant and three meters of main street, it could be exciting.
But the way that it is now, the huge expansive lake, mysterious birds lazily flapping their wings, spread out monasteries with vague labels, it was very peaceful.
I can't say I would wish for a sunnier Lumbini experience, because the fog gave it a mythical air that hinted at something ancient, poorly understood, and somewhat removed from the everyday sphere of the typical tourist's experience.

What I CAN say is that I would never wish for a Lumbini experience without Judith. When you arrive somewhere at 4 starving and are finished dinner by 5, there is absolutely nowhere to go, it is freezing, empty, and getting dark, what can you possibly do except get drunk off Chai and whiskey, consume ridiculous amounts of desserts, do Sudoku and  Dutch word searches, and get in "ha ha moods" to tell jokes?
And how quickly can a peaceful isolated bike ride around a sleepy lake turn into a creepy empty journey if you are not with a friend?

Anyway, I can't complain about my Lumbini experience. I met up with an older couple from Oregon there, and we ended up splurging $33 each to take a private cab, not a public bus, back to Pokhara. The seven hour drive was much more pleasant without people trying to put crates of eggs in your lap, without fear of being puked on, and with unlimited stops for photo ops and bathroom breaks (and you know what an expert I am on road trip bathroom breaks.) So that was a fabulous Christmas present!

My transportation options for heading back to Kathmandu is a 20 dollar or 400 rupee tourist bus. Apparently both are nicer than the 600 rupee tourist bus we took to Lumbini (by "tourist" read: free cultural experience thrown in), but I am slightly skeptical. In any case, I am not flying.

This morning I got up at 4:40 to call a professor about potential for grad school research. Oh, excuse me, I got up at 4:40 yesterday morning and was staring at his number at 5:15 with the phone in my hand, JUST about to dial the digits, when I had a funny feeling. So I called my mother instead and asked her what day it was. YEAH, fun fact for you - when it's 5:15 AM on Thursday in Nepal, it is 4:30 PM on WEDNESDAY in Colorado in America. If you're still unclear about the definition of a time difference, waking up at 4:40 AM two days in a row will really help you understand it.

You know me and my masochistic love for mornings, so I am only a tiny bit better. How many hours there are in the day to read, stretch, meditate, and go for a walk while everyone else is asleep, the stars are bright, and the sky is fresh!

But now that is done and knock on air, wood, and your helmet, it went well. I briefly considered doing the Annapurna 50K on New Year's Day (yes, that K stands for kilometer.) The thing that will stop me is paying 150 Euros to do a run in shitty shoes without my Camelbak backpack and favorite technical clothes. If I am going to break the bank to do something miserable, at least I want to be well prepared in terms of gear etc. for it. And maybe train? A little? A tiny bit?
So.. next year? New Year's in Nepal with me anyway? The street festival and parades are really quite lovely!
I am even trying to get my mom to come out here for Christmas. As usual, there is something about leaving here that will break my heart, so I have to come back. And since I am never spending another Christmas without my family, my mother has to come. Just wait until I show her the photos of the handmade Tibetan rugs, and I think it's a done deal.
Happy 8AM here on Friday morning, enjoy your Thursday, silly time-different West people!

My Climbing Firsts

Oh yeah, in between cutting grass and poking at rocks with sticks this week I sort of had a first ascent? Harry had gone up the line using jumars earlier, but I was the first to lead this freshly bolted climb. Woo hoo!

Then today, I got to glue in a screw and attach a bolt to it after Harry had drilled the holes. Yes, at some point I will get a picture up here of myself pointing to the bolt I installed in the rock (with lots of instruction and hand-holding, of course) with some kind of touristy grin.

Tonight Laura and I are eating with Harry since he is leaving on Friday, and tomorrow I am off to Lumbini (Boombini? Bamboo? Lumbuni?!) with Judith, Harry's niece. Lumbini is where Buddha was born - look it up!

There is a chance this did not make much sense to anybody whose name I explicitly mentioned, but I've been told that I have a habit of using names out of context, so this is not out of character for me.

SUPARATRI!

Pokhara

I spent a good part of today and yesterday (welcome to Nepal, home of the 6 day volunteer work week) cutting grass and poking at sand and loose plants in the rock with a stick. I'm sure this is exactly what my father intended when he helped me pay for my Ivy League education.

Do you sense a hint of bitterness? Nooooo, I'm having a grand time being in the outdoors. In between helping Harry and Laura this afternoon, I had a good two hours hanging out at the top of a climb, watching the sun set over the lake, observing how much easier it is becoming for me to clear my mind after a whole 19 days of more-or-less pathetic attempts to meditate for 15 minutes every morning. And you know what? It's paying off a whole lot.

I could feel it in yoga class, when for once I could focus on my breathing at least briefly before my mind was somewhere else. I can feel it when it becomes so much more natural for my brain to enter the focused, relaxed, detached stage when I am looking at a gorgeous view. Watching the sunset today, I tried to think about it, but I had no words (thoughts), so I just <i>observed</i>. And I COULD just observe!

Matthiessen struggles with relinquishing the "I" throughout The Snow Leopard.  I cannot say that I felt like there was no I, but the ever-present I felt much more at peace and happy just.. observing, being somewhere, revolving in a world of beauty and sounds and trees and sunsets, than I am used to experiencing.

So there, I am learning a lot. And this* is all part of the learning. If you want to know the side note on the asterisk, you'll just have to email me.

Suparatri!

ABC

So Greg and I had made plans to do the Ghorepani-Gandruk loop which takes about 5 days and gives you STUNNING views of Annapurna, Maccapuchare (yikes I am butchering these spellings) and lots more peaks on the ridge. Imagine moving your chair around at lunch so you can have the optimal view of the television show, except you're moving your chair to gawk at ANNAPURNA while drooling and spilling your soup in your lap instead of following something-or-other's love escapades in NYC. Yes, swoon.

Anyway, at one point (Gandruk or Chumrung, as if ANYBODY is going to google that) you can split off and head up to Annapurna Base Camp (~4200 feet) for another 5-6 day adventure or head down. Greg was itching to go to base camp because well, duh, when else are you going to be so close? and almost convinced me to come, but the whole time I had this nagging feeling like I had to be next to a computer or telephone to receive some kind of news. I was worried that it was bad news, maybe something from home. But a phone call to my  mother (while staring at Annapurna out the window, that's right) turned up that I would pretty much miss the climbing training that Harry was giving if I went up, which would make me entirely useless as a climbing instructor volunteer.

Note on climbing instruction: not everybody in the rest of the world has access to an unlimited supply of ATC's and ATC guides if you need a self-braking device, etc. Sounds logical, right? Somehow in my vain planning this simple concept completely eluded me. Here I thought I would be teaching people to belay left and right, and I am still struggling to master the art of belaying with a munter hitch. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the munter is now a half sailor knot and clove hitch is a full sailor knot. So am I doing more learning than teaching? You bet, but I plan on taking a toothbrush or weeder and going to town on cleaning up parts of the rock where weeds are getting in the way of climbing. So yes, usefulness after all!

Anyway, Greg is somewhere in the mountains, with his birthday, my water pump, and a 200 rupee map of the area. My intuition tells me he is just fine, and I'm psyched for the pictures.

I've been having a great time hanging out with the girls and Laura and Harry. All the climbers are so incredibly badass and it's great to continue being part of this great climbing culture that transcends continents. Laura is a volunteer from Germany staying here for a year. The German government is fronting the $$ for her to live here, that is after finding the organization and housing for her, because they want students to take a gap year to volunteer in between high school and college. Does the American government do this?? Where was I when this was going on ?!

The sporadic power outages which sort of follow a schedule but also occur on their own are keeping things interesting. Reading by headlamp is nothing I'm not used to; it's mainly the water situation since Greg has my pump - there is a water filter in the dining hall but it is out when the power is out. Yay more boiled water!

I am skipping my 20 minute jog around the lake this morning to catch up on some correspondence and hopefully have time to stretch. I was supposed to join Laura for a 8 AM yoga class, but woke up about 20 minutes too late to eat, get ready, and then head up. Who knew I had to set an alarm for a 8 AM yoga class when I was in bed falling asleep by 8:50 PM? Blame the jet lag. The 15 minute time difference between India and Nepal is really killing me.

Until next time!

Annapurna is my TV...

...or the story of how I ALMOST went to basecamp.

Now that you have something to look forward to, let me say that I am settled in at the 3 Sisters Lodge for the next month, starting to teach climbing with Harry tomorrow, and have a perfect opportunity to have a phone date with anybody who wants to. So get at me!

Hope everyone is happy, healthy, and well!

Backlog!

Yikes, wrote this up yesterday then the power went out so I saved it on the desktop. Luckily the place opened on time so I can update real quick before we have to leave for our flight in an hour!

I am quite a bit behind so I will try to summarize. Liz, Jessie, and I parted ways in Delhi and I began my travels with Greg. On the 4 AM taxi ride to the IGI Airport, the taxi driver asked me if I "have marriage" or a girlfriend, then told me I was very handsome.

Our taxi driver in Calcutta, on the other hand, got lost at least 17 times on the way to the center of the touristy section of town, demanded a tip, and wouldn't take our 20 rupee bill because it had a small rip in the edge. (We did not figure out until two days later that people in Calcutta don't fancy taking ripped money bills from you.)


The Sudder Street area of Calcutta perhaps involved even more people hassling you to buy something or visit their shop than Pahar Ganj. Nobody told me I had nice hair, though.

The highlight of the area was a small shack with a green tarp roof where an old man and a young boy worked diligently preparing food all day. After my pathetic attempts to order food in Hindi (when the main language of the region is actually Bengali) they served up a delicious plate of food for only 10 rupees - how sweet of them not even to try to rip me off. They could have quadrupled the price and I would have thought it was reasonable.



The five day quest to try all the exotic looking street food (sodas, fruit salads, weird ass protein milkshake) surprisingly did not harm my stomach, and it was not until pristine Ramnagar when I got what I termed dysentery. (In reality, it was simply a 24-hour lack of any kind of digestion, coupled with a lack of any kind of pain.) A course of ciphro cleared it right up but I do feel bad for anyone who happened to ask me how I was feeling those three days.

Yes, I did jinx myself, saying that I know I can trek with a stomach virus - I definitely had some eventful rest stops on the first day of our small trek through beautiful Kumaon.

December 1st saw the start of my Month of Meditation (to be followed by other months of meditation.) It's been 6 days now of trying to clear my brain for 15 minutes every morning. I can't say I've become any more focused, but I have been much less frustrated at the moderate lack of focus that I encounter.

Seeing old friends in Ramnagar and making new friends was.. nurturing, spiritual, incredible, beginning of a beautiful lifelong thing!

Now we are in Kathmandu, leaving for Pokhara tomorrow. The process of obtaining my Thai visa will cut into a week of my teaching time in Pokhara, since I will have to go back to KTM. Darn processing times.

A celebration beer is waiting for me due to the fact that I GOT MY FIRST GRAD SCHOOL ACCEPTANCE so more on Nepal later.

Pearl of wisdom for anybody who's made it this far:

You see others as you are, not as they are, more than you think. So set the intention to be at your very best and you will be surprised how good people are to you.

Good night!