J o u r n e y s: April 2018

One night in Nepal, we tried to think of movies set in Nepal. There aren't many. There's a few Everest films, and then a few films with scenes in Nepal, like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Monsters, Inc, but not much to give us a good visual of Nepal. Which meant my time in the country was full of surprises. I'd expected high mountains everywhere. Instead, I sweated through 100͒ jungles and brushed dust off of my shoes from desert-like environments. Nepal was never what I'd expected.

Crossing the border was an adventure. We had to get stamped out of India, at a shack on the side of the road, then load all of our bags into rickshaws that were carted along the road of stores and restaurants. We walked across the border and then had to get our visas stamped into Nepal at another small roadside building. It was quite different than than high tech retinal scans at the airport!

Our first night was stayed near Lumbini. The hotel was downright swanky compared to where we'd been staying. We had a feast of a dinner and our first taste of momos, Nepalese dumblings. My favorite was kofti style, or steamed and then pan fried. In the morning, it was crepe style pancakes with chocolate and banana, and then on the road again. On the way to Buddha's birthplace, we saw sarus cranes in the field. They are the tallest flying bird on Earth! They have fun red heads.

The birthplace of Buddha was quite the attraction. A building with boardwalks has been set up over the ruins of where he is believed to have been born. While certainly the ruins of a great building, I'm skeptical. However, it sounds like the stone walls we see are over an older timber structure dating from the right time period. So who knows! My favorite part was the gardens in the back. There was a beautiful pond with turtles and a sacred Bodhi tree. From the tree stretched dozens of prayer flags, flapping colorfully in the trees. I could have sat there for hours. If that wasn't actually the birthplace of Buddha, they have created a perfect tribute to his legacy there.

Back on the bus, we headed to the second most exciting part of the trip after Taj Mahal. We stayed two nights just outside Chitwan National Park, in a community homestay with the Tharu people. It was wonderful. We had cabins with private bathrooms and mosquito nets over the beds. There was a common dining room where we had meals. Strangely, this place had the best hot water and wifi of the entire trip! We were greeted with clapping and red smears on the forehead. After settling in, we went for a bike ride through the village to the river. There were elephants! Elephants taking a bath in the river! It was probably the greatest thing ever. They were domesticated, but roamed freely. Such a cool thing to witness at dusk. Back at the village, we got to see a presentation of native dances and then share a delicious meal.

Day 2 dawned with breakfast and a walk through the village. I loved seeing the school and learning about education. Each village had a primary school but they shared high schools between every 2-3 villages. Kids went to school from 10-4, with a break for lunch, and wore uniforms. We also got to see a biofuel machine (produces cooking gas from animal waste), a grist mill, and lots of rice paddies.

That afternoon, we climbed into a big open-air truck and headed into the park. We rode for hours! We saw lots of birds, some deer, and 3 Indian rhinos. One we came upon fairly early. He was in the brush near the road, but not overly visable. The others, though. As we were leave the truck slammed to a stop. Right beside the road was a mother and baby rhino. The walked past us and the crossed the road in front of us. These were real, wild animals, and it made the entire trip!

The next day we left Chitwan and drove the long, bumpy road to Pokhara. It was under construction, which means was completely ripped up. At one point we stopped to use a bathroom on the side of the road, and one of the two stalls was full of chickens. I'm not kidding. Just totally full of chickens. We got to Pokhara mid-afternoon, and rested a bit before reconvening to walk through the town. We saw the busy tourist street and then wandered down to the lake. It was beautiful with lots of multi colored boats. Everyone was sort of craving Western food that night, so we headed to one of the international restaurants. I had pizza. It was delicious.

In the morning, we left reeeeeaaaalllllyyy early to see the sunrise over the Anapurnas. I wasn't thrilled about this one, honestly. Too many early mornings were getting to me. But alas, I trudged up to the overlook and watched the world light up. It was pretty. Then it was naptime. I struck off on my own for lunch later in the day, as many people went paragliding. It was a little out of my budget. But I did get to go see the World Peace Pagoda up on the mountain, and a really gross cave that was supposed to have cool rock formations and really only had scaffolding. Alas. We all gathered for dinner at a restaurant by the hotel, and spent the night laughing and drinking together. It was truly a special evening with new friends.

The last day we went to Kathmandu. We stopped at a temple high on the mountain, a combination Buddhist/Hindu shrine to the Buddha. It had more monkeys, and more colorful flags. I could have spent hours just people watching. We checked into a great little hotel. My room was on the top floor and had so many windows. I loved it. But I wasn't there long. We did a short orientation tour and then I took off alone to find Durbar Square. It was the one thing that I wanted to see in Kathmandu. It was the historic center of the city, and it was also the site of significant damage from the 2015 earthquake. I though it was fascinating to see what stood and what fell, and how the community continued to use the space even after such destruction. I wish I could have seen it before- I hope that someday when the repairs are done I can go back and see it again.

My tour group was such a great group of people, and we finished off the trip with dinner and then brunch the next morning. I couldn't have asked for better company. I left for the airport after noon, and it was quite the experience. I felt like I waited forever for my flight, and then we were held on the runway because of a thunderstorm. But we finally got off, and I arrived in Qatar at about 8 PM. I was able to get a hotel through Qatar Airways' great layover program, so after a quick ride I got dinner, a shower, and bed at the Movenpick hotel, then back to the airport for a flight home.

Back to Boston, for a few weeks. Then on the road again.