Onward to Nepal

We had spent the last 2 1/2 months in Kashmir and Ladakh and it felt like to venture back to North India. Given it was only September, It was still monsoon in most of India, so it would be wise to go back to the hills. We flew back to New Delhi, met up with some old friends who lived near the area of Humayoon's tomb. Jim was an American expatriate who lived and worked in Delhi who married Faroza, a beautiful strong willed yet gracious Muslim Indian woman. They had a small child who was cute as a button with a demeanor to match his contagious smile. They lived in a modest rooftop apartment and greeted us with warm hospitality. There was another couple staying with them who had migrated from Afghanistan. The woman had a small infant which was probably only a few moths old. I remember seeing her swathe the baby tightly in cloth almost making him look like a mummy. The baby seemed to like it as it was secure and warm. Apparently this is a traditional ways of baby care but something I had never seen. It made lots of sense to me. I have heard that it has caught on here in the USA. (20 years later)

Our new plan was to head to Nepal, stay until mid October so we could return to India post monsoon. We would make a base in Kathmandu, look up some mutual friends who lived there and take a small trek near the Annapurna circuit. sounded good to me, although I was a bit weary about the trek.

Kathmandu was just how I imagined. Bustling village like city with Asian/Indian style architecture. Darbar Square stood out with it's stone streets and pagoda like towers. The bazaars were brilliantly colored with merchants selling all sorts of fabrics to bootleg western tape cassettes. There were numerous pie shops and it didn't take me long to make the munchie connection. Kathmandu had become a hippie haven in the 1970's. Many people stayed. Steve, his brother and another friend had traveled to India and Nepal in 1969 driving overland in a VW bus through Iran and Afganistan. Yes, it was a classic hippy thing to do and somehow he not only survived it but has numerous tales to tell. Perhaps someday he will write about it....
Anyhow, on his journey in Nepal he helped plant apple trees along the trails to the high Mountain village of Jomson which is the gateway to many treks. The altitude is high and the terrain sparse much like Ladakh. The people are Buddhists. It made sense for us to go there. However this time we had a different kind of plan. We would take a bus to Pokhara about 130 miles, and then take a small prop plane to Pokhara. We would then walk back down to Pokhara a 4-5 day trek and in the tea house along the way. This certainly was going to be EASY compared to the Ladakh adventure. OK I said. Why not?

The plane ride was AMAZING! It was a small plane that sat about 12 people and there were only a few others besides us. As we took off and started gaining altitude, the magnitude of the Himalayas became obvious. We were now flying in between these glorious 20,000 ft. master pieces. I was in awe. Besides being some of the highest mountains, they are also considered the most sacred in the world...At 26, I felt honored to see them.

The trip was short and we landed on some random flat patch in the rustic village of Jomsen. It looked so much like Ladakh. We found a tea house to stay in and gathered our thoughts. sure enough there were Apple trees. The small saplings Steve had helped planted nearly 20 years befrehand had survived and were bearing fruit. He was elated.

We set off the next day. This was night and day from my last trek. There were hundreds of people along the trail and each village had many tea houses restaurants and definitley catered to tourists. I can't imagine what it must be like today (21 years later)...It was a zoo. The tea house had extensive and hilarious menus offering things such as Takoes and Swiss Rosties. The spellings were as humerus as the offerings. Now you know anything ordered was to be some sort of rendition of dal and rice but it was worth the entertainment to see what would come. Takoes?somehow Mexico and Nepal are soooooo far away. :)

With the amount of tourists, the trails and guesthouses (especially outhouses) were not so clean. Oh how I longed for the remote boulders of Ladakh. We proceeded on. As we descended in altitude the terrain became lusher, green and downright tropical. We found our way back to Pokhara. It was quite a letdown compared to the rugged adventure and solitude of Ladakh but it was certainly interesting and wonderful to see the apple trees of Jomson.

We spent a few more days in Pokhara, then headed back via bus to Kathmandu. We were to stay another month.
Since we were to stay that long we negotiated a monthly rate at a Nepali/American hotel that was located a bit out of the city. It was built in the traditional Nepali style. The owners decided to make it into a type of Buddhist retreat with Tibetan artwork/tonkas as well as an extensive library of Buddhist literature. The restaurant served wonderfully clean fare as well. This was the place for us. We had brought our instruments so it seemd like a great place to practice our music. Every day in the afternoon, the rains came down hard. It was like clockwork.

Steve had a friend who lived across the river toward the Swaybunath temple. We called him and visited him regularly. He was also an expatriate American who played Indian music who decided to relocate in Kathmandu. He had an American wife and child who were content living that lifestyle. His life was easy, expenses were low and that worked for them. Through them we met some other crazy musicians who all shared this crazy mentality. One man in particular, Henry stood out. He was a gregarious dark haired German man who had a passion for drumming. He happened to be very close friends with Steve's first cousin which was another one of those 5 degrees of separation. All I know is that the chemistry was good, we all enjoyed playing music, sharing stories and laughing. ah yes, life was easy. There were a lot of crazy expatriates, some who felt a religious inclination to love there. One fellow in particular (I believe he was referred to as FirePit Harry) did his 9-5 thing doing religious pujas and rituals. Go figure!?
To each his own.

One day I decided to venture the walk to Swayambunath. I wanted to climb the steps of the temple and observe the rituals. At the base there are loads of monkeys. I was warned beforehand to be careful as the monkeys are notorious for stealing things (especially food) from unsuspecting tourists. I kept my eyes opened wide. sure enough I saw some monkeys. However it was the tourists provoking them! I thought "hey that's not right" especially here in a religious environment. I proceeded on. As I climbed up towards the shrine, I saw a group of monks playing dice games gambling for money on the premises. "Wait a minute" I'm thinking...Isn't this a holy shrine? where the h*&l an I? I became confused and let down. I t was time to get out of there. As I started to leave the skies became dark and rain was imminent. I had to hurry back to avoid getting soaked. I made but somehow was bit let down by my experience. Oh well, I guess it shows the flaws of being human. I soaked it all in.

It would be some time before we could go back to India.