Namaste Nepal

As the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end." And so today I say Namaste to the beautiful country of Nepal and their amazing people. I've included a few pictures from my last walk around Kathmandu this morning.



Long ago, I had planned to give a further definition of the word Namaste, so it's only fitting that I include it as I depart.

Namaste is kind of like a praise to the person or people receiving the namaste. The word's meaning is “I bow to the divine in you" or "the spirit within me salutes the spirit within you." Namaste is a traditional Indian/Nepali greeting of respect and thank you, with spiritual and symbolic meaning. Namaste is usually spoken with a slight bow and hands pressed together, palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close to the chest. It is used for both salutations (greetings) and valedictions (farewells).

I will miss all the people who have made me feel so welcomed here.  I will miss trekking through the mighty himalayas, which I recently learned means "the land of snow".  I will miss the Dal bhat, even though I have had it for lunch and dinner almost everyday since I've been here!

Thank you, Nepal.  I promise to come back again someday.



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Location:Jyatha,Kathmandu,Nepal

Last Days in Kathmandu

After completing my trekking, I've had a couple of days to spend wandering around Kathmandu and checking out some of the historic sites that I had not yet had time to venture to previously.

On Monday I went to Durbar Square. Here again, I've dipped into Lonely Planet to share some background on this historic site (the pictures are mine however and clearly show that many of the historic buildings were damaged in the earthquake and have temporary support structures to hold them up during repairs):




Kathmandu’s Durbar Square was where the city’s kings were once crowned and legitimised, and from where they ruled (‘durbar’ means palace). As such, the square remains the traditional heart of the old town and Kathmandu’s most spectacular legacy of traditional architecture.

It’s easy to spend hours wandering around the square and watching the world go by from the terraced platforms of the towering Maju Deval; it’s a wonderful way to get a feel for the city. Although most of the square dates from the 17th and 18th centuries (many of the original buildings are much older), a great deal of rebuilding happened after the great earthquake of 1934. The entire square was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1979.

The Durbar Sq area is actually made up of three loosely linked squares. To the south is the open Basantapur Sq area, a former royal elephant stables that now houses souvenir stalls and off which runs Freak St. The main Durbar Sq area, with its popular watch-the-world-go-by temples, is to the west. Running northeast is a second part of Durbar Sq, which contains the entrance to the Hanuman Dhoka and an assortment of temples. From this open area Makhan Tole, at one time the main road in Kathmandu and still the most interesting street to walk down, continues northeast.



A good place to start an exploration of the square is with what may well be the oldest building in the valley, the unprepossessing Kasthamandap.

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/nepal/kathmandu/sights/historic/durbar-square#ixzz3sTB3mpFA

Yesterday, I went to Swayambhunath, also known as the Monkey Temple. Per Lonely Planet:


A journey up to the Buddhist temple and Unesco World Heritage Site of Swayambhunath is one of the definitive experiences of Kathmandu. Mobbed by monkeys and soaring above the city on a lofty hilltop, the ‘Monkey Temple’ is centred on a gleaming white stupa, topped by a gilded spire painted with the eyes of the Buddha. Depictions of these eyes appear all over the Kathmandu Valley.

Coming to Swayambhunath is an intoxicating experience, with ancient carvings jammed into every spare inch of space and the smell of incense and butter lamps hanging heavy in the air. The mystical atmosphere is heightened in the morning and evening by local devotees who make a ritual circumnavigation of the stupa, spinning the prayer wheels set into its base. It is a great place to watch the sun set over Kathmandu.



Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/nepal/around-the-kathmandu-valley/swayambhunath/sights/religious/swayambhunath-temple#ixzz3sTDAUxDY

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Location:Jyatha,Kathmandu,Nepal

Trekking Sagarmatha National Park (Day 7-8)

On the seventh day, there was at last a hot shower after a long day of trekking (thankfully most of it downhill). The hike back to Namche covered the most ground of any up until this point, 12.2 miles, and still included one big ascent so that my iPhone registered another 129 flights for the day. It felt good to get down to a more breathable altitude of just 11,286' and to finally enjoy the luxury of a warm shower to wash away all that dirt and sweat.



After the shower, it was off the the bakery to treat myself to a chocolate croissant and some free wifi as I had not been connected for the past three days.



The next day was my final day of trekking on this trip as we returned from Namche back to Lukla. The total trek was 13.6 miles and added another 188 flights as we hiked down to 2610m before ascending back up to Lukla at 2840m.


For the 8 day trek, here are the total distance and flights climbed:

-66.8 miles (avg 8.3 miles per day)
-1127 flights (avg 142 per day)

It was a great eight days of trekking that I will never forget!

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Trekking Sagarmatha National Park (Day 5-6)

On the fifth day, my guide and porter and myself trekked to Dingboche. The hike would see us climb another 600m in altitude to reach 4410m/14468'. The oxygen level at this altitude is almost half of what it is at sea level (12% vs about 20.9%). We are now fully above the tree line and if it were not for the dry shrubs dotting the landscape it would feel like we were on another planet. The one nice thing about today's ascent is that even though we climbed the equivalent of another 114 flights over 7 miles is that is was mostly a nice gradual incline rather that steep ups and downs like the prior day's hike.



On the way up this morning, we spotted our first mountain goats (we would see more on the way down also). I should say my guide spotted the goats. I would have likely missed them without his keen eyes and ears. One of the challenges of trekking is you really have to always be looking where you are going and paying attention to the many hazards along the path. Those hazards can be as benign but unpleasant as stepping in fresh yak dung, to more serious risks like slipping on loose gravel on the steep inclines or descents, to twisting your ankle on the rocky and uneven trails, or the very real chance of stepping right off the edge of the trail to possibly dire consequences.


I was impressed by our lodge in Dingboche and especially liked the eco friendly way they used solar energy to boil their water.



Up until this point I'd been doing really well with little to no side effects from the high altitude beyond the insomnia (which as discussed was due to a number of factors). However, on this night I would experience the worst headache of my life. Fortunately, by morning, it had mostly subsided but by this point, I'd gone 5 nights with two hours or less of sleep and I couldn't see continuing that trend while risking more serious altitude sickness in an effort to reach Everest Base Camp at 5365m or just over 17,600'. My guide did convince me to try the acclimation climb up to Chhukung at 4730m/15518' which I was glad I did even though I felt a bit of nausea when we got there.



Afterwards we agreed to begin our descent down to Sangboche which was just under 4000m/13000' rather than spend another night in Dingboche and fortunately my headache largely did not return beyond a minor ache. While there is a small part of me that was disappointed not to have been able to continue on to Everest Base Camp, I feel like I made the right choice for my health and well being and truth be told, I was apprehensive about this trek from the time I signed up for it (due both to the extreme altitude as well as the duration of 11 days) and probably should have chosen a less intense trek from the beginning. None the less, I've truly enjoyed coming as far as I have, and seeing this amazing landscape even with the miserable nights.
Speaking of nights, I was actually able to get more sleep in Sangboche, that is until I was awoken at about 3:00 am by what at first sounded like someone walking on a gravel path outside my window. However, as I focused in more on the sound, I realized it was coming from within my room! It sounded like someone was going through my stuff, but it was pitch black and I couldn't see a thing. I tried to reach for my flashlight but couldn't find it (the thought occurred to me at this point that maybe my intruders had moved it), so I had no choice but to largely get out of bed and hit the light switch. Once the light was on I quickly scanned the room and saw no one. However, a moment later I heard some movement coming from one of my bags. I wasn't sure which one and then the rustling sound stopped for a moment. When the sound returned, I could finally tell it was coming from my backpack. Of course, I knew it was some sort of animal at this point, but the only way to find out for sure was to carefully open up my bag just enough to shine my flashlight inside and hope whatever it was didn't jump out at me. I opened the flap just enough to see a couple of mice trying to get into a half eaten pack of coconut crisps (cookies) that my guide had purchased for the three of us at Chhukung. This is a type of processed food I normally don't eat, so when my guide gave them to me I just had a few and then put them in my backpack. Leaving open packs of food in my pack is also something I normally don't do for obvious reasons. At any rate, I now had to figure out how to get rid of my uninvited guest. I grabbed my pack toward the bottom and turned it over and the mice and the coconut crisp package came tumbling out. The mice scurried away, but even after I put the crisp in a sealed ziplock bag, the mice kept coming back, so I left the light on for the rest of the night. I thought about just putting the crisps outside my door and letting the mice have at it, but decided I shouldn't feed or encourage them. So much for a good nights sleep.


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Trekking Sagarmatha National Park (Day 3-4)

On the third day of my trek, my guide, Bishnu and I did an acclimation climb in which we ascended a couple hundred meters and then descended back to where we started (in this case, back to Namche Bazar). We hiked to the Everest View Hotel which is at 3880m/12729'. As the name implies, we were able to get a glimpse of Mount Everest from here. However, due to the distance and size of other nearby mountains, Everest does not appear to be the tallest from this vantage point. In the picture below, Everest is taller of the two smaller more rounded peaks that are completely covered in snow.



The hike up involved climbing the equivalent of 100 flights of stairs and round trip we hiked just under 5 miles. On the steep descent back to Namche, I took this photo from above the village.



Up until this point, I've only talked about the trekking. Since most days only require 5-6 hours of hiking, that leaves plenty of time that needs to be filled. Most of the time I was able to find other Trekkers to talk to. Besides the Trekkers that I already mentioned, I met wonderful people from France, Sweden, Ireland, and South Africa among others. Also, when you are in Namche and some of the other larger villages, there are plenty of shops, bakeries and bars to hang out in, many of the later two offering free wifi so you can stay connected in this very remote and hard to access part of the world. All the lodges also contain a large dinning hall in which to eat or hang out in and read. One thing you don't do is spend time in your room which is often just a small box shaped space with a single bed or two that had no bathroom and is normally extremely cold due to the lack of any heating source and the drafty windows.



This brings me to what has been the most challenging part of this adventure.... nighttime. I knew from prior experience that sleeping in high altitude environments can cause insomnia, however, this was the first time that I've dealt with what I will call the quadruple whammy of high altitude, extreme cold (below zero), crappy thin foam mattresses (when they were new that might have been four inches, but after who knows how many months or years of use, they are more like 1-2 inches in the middle where it counts), and a super constrictive mummy style sleeping bag. For me, all these elements resulted in my getting 1-2 hours of sleep per night and lying awake rather uncomfortable the rest of the time. Now I should add that there are some factors that added to my discomfort that would not apply to others. One key factor is that I can't sleep on my back, so I sleep on my side. If you sleep on your back, you will likely fare much better than I did because your weight is more evenly distributed thus decreasing the need for a thicker mattress and the mummy style sleeping bags are best suited to sleep in this position. Also, because I was sleeping on my side most of my weight was born on my hip and shoulder. Thus, I needed to turn over frequently onto my other side once my shoulder or hip became sore due to the hard surface. This was very difficult to do in the mummy style sleeping bag. It's like trying to maneuver in a straight jacket. I literally would get short of breath just trying to turn over in the thin air. For all of these reasons I was dreading going to bed each night.



On the fourth day of trekking, we hiked to Debuche. We had actually planned to hike to Tengboche which has a large monastery but the lodges were all full, so we continued on for another 30 minutes. It was another beautiful day for trekking with clear blue skies and plenty of sunshine. We covered about 7.5 miles and climbed the equivalent of 186 flights during this up and down day of hiking (we probably descended at least 140 flights).

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Trekking Sagarmatha National Park (Day 1-2)

To begin my trek, I flew with my guide, Bishnu, from Kathmandu to Lukla, Nepal. Just like flying to Pokhara, the flight was very short, only 25 minutes long, and provided a great view of the Himalayas. Lukla's airport is said to be the most dangerous airport in the world, and you can see why as it is tucked into the mountains at 2840m/9317' and the runway is not only very short but ends very abruptly against the side of the mountain (which has a nice Welcome to Lukla sign on it). It kind of feels like landing on an aircraft carrier that's perched at about a 35 degree tilt on the edge of the mountain. Below is the view as we approached the landing strip.


After landing safely, we gathered our gear and Bishnu hired a porter and we headed to a lodge called the Nest for some breakfast. Here I met some other Trekkers from Canada and England and we talked about our upcoming adventure.





Afterwards, we began our trek with a moderate hike that brought us to the village of Phakding (elevation 2610m/8562'). Along the way, we passed through several small villages, many of which had Buddhist stupas, prayer wheels and prayer flags. We passed by many porters and yaks carrying tremendous loads on their backs as much of the food, drink and even building supplies are carried up. We covered roughly 7 miles and even though it was mostly downhill, there was plenty of up and down, so I still managed to hike up the equivalent of 60 flights of stairs. At lunch, I met a father and son from Australia who were on their way down from Everest Base Camp. They told me they had prepared for the thin air by working out on treadmills at a facility in Sydney that simulated the decreased oxygen levels at high altitude. These facilities are often used by professional athletes to enable them to build up more red blood cells. I'm guessing it wasn't cheap, but certainly a good idea if you have access to such a facility.
After spending the night in Phakding, we began our second day of trekking to the village of Namche Bazar, which would be much more challenging, as we would ascend from 2610m to 3440m/11286'. The hike was about 8 miles long, but involved going up the equivalent of 260 flights of steps (and crossing numerous suspension bridges like the one in the photo below). While not quite as many flights as my trek to Kokona two weeks ago, this trek was at a much higher altitude and proved to be a very challenging climb. I was pretty physically spent by the time we checked into our lodge for lunch after the 5 hour trek. This picture shows the beginning of our big ascent.



Namche is the gateway for all Trekkers in Sagarmatha National Park, regardless of whether they are going to Everest Base Camp, Gokyo Lake or doing some other circuit. It's also the gateway for climbers looking to ascend Everest or any of the other 8000m+ peaks in the park. Currently there are no climbers heading to Everest because the month of May is the only time of year that the weather is suitable to attempt the summit.
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Farewell Chanaute!

In the blink of an eye, my two months of volunteering in Chanaute has come to an end. I'll never forget the people and the experience of living in this remote village of Nepal. From the bewildered looks on the faces of Mina and Bina, the clinic midwives, on that cloudy afternoon in September when I arrived with two giant suitcases in tow and not speaking barely a word of Nepali (beyond Namaste!), to the fond farewells that have taken place over the past few days, it's been a wonderful experience.



I will miss Mina, Bina and Copola who run this clinic seven days a week and without whom I could never have treated all the patients who have come for acupuncture. I will miss the warm smiles and friendly "Namastes" of the people who I have treated over these past two months as well as the invitations to join them for tea or dinner in their homes.



I will also miss the hikes along the endless trails through the serene mountains and the natural beauty of this village tucked along the Melamchi River. I will miss the sheer enthusiasm that comes beaming forth nearly every time I say "Nameste" as I meet or pass by the children of Chanaute and the nearby villages. And finally, I will miss the young friends I have made and who I have posted about several times before: Saugut, Rakesh, Suman and Karki.

A few days prior to the day I was to depart, everyone agreed that it would be best if I left on the 6:15 am bus to ensure I was able to get a seat for the four hour return trip to Kathmandu (especially because it was during the holidays and many people would be trying to go visit relatives). I assumed that any good byes would take place the day prior since I'd be leaving so early. At least, that is what we would normally do in America. So I was very surprised to awake at 5:30 am and discover over a dozen people came out to give me a warm send off with tika, maalais (flower garlands) and khadas (ceremonial scarves) and then walk with me to the bus stop. It's just another example of the loving kindness of the people of Chanaute that I will never forget.







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Location:Nepal

Little Did I Know...

Little did I know that shortly after taking this picture of a giant haystack in the fields above Chanaute that a short time later I would be helping to build one, but that is exactly what happened.



I'd already had the opportunity to help with threshing the week before, which is where you grab a bunch of rice stalks that have been tied together and allowed to dry out over several days and then whack the stalks 3-4 times against the ground to loosen the rice grains. After threshing a few hundred bunches you end up with a large pile of rice that is then collected in 40 kg bags (roughly 80-90 lbs) which are then hauled away on the backs of the workers to be processed.
Needless to say, I didn't do any of the heavy lifting, but the threshing alone is hard work after you have done it for the hundredth time (they let me off the hook after about 10 bunches, probably because I wasn't very good at it).
After clinic ended today, I was invited to Copola's home for tea. When I arrived, her husband and another relative were building a haystack and they asked if I wanted to lend a hand. Below are some pictures of me in action!








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Tahir Festival

As my time in Chanaute comes to a close, I'm departing during another festival in Nepal. Much like our two biggest holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, come in quick succession, the same holds true for Nepalis of Hindu descent.

Here is a summary of the 5 day Tahir Festival that begins on Wednesday from the website "We All Nepali". The pictures in this post are taken from the web to give a little context. If I have the opportunity to take my own I will add them later.
http://www.weallnepali.com/nepali-festivals/tihar

Tihar is the five days celebration in Yama Panchak.

Tihar is the most celebrated festival after Dashain in Nepal. It is a five-day festival celebrated in late autumn. It has its unique ways of celebration.


The Five days of Tihar


Kaag Tihar - Crow Pooja

Kukur Tihar - Dog Pooja

Gai Tihar or Laxmi Pooja – Cow or Goddess of Wealth Pooja

Goru Tihar, Govardhan Pooja, Maha Puja, (Aatma pooja) – Ox Pooja

Bhai Tika, Bhai Dooj - Bother and Sister Pooja

Story behind Tihar

There are various stories about the celebration of Tihar. One of the famous stories behind the celebration of tihar is related to Yama the god of death and his sister Yamuna. Yama had been staying away from his sister for a long time. His sister wanted to meet him so she asked various sources to visit him and ask him to give her a visit. She sent crow, dog, and cow and at the end she went herself to see her brother. She worshipped him with tika and flowers, she put him five colored tika. Yamuna made a circle with mustard oil, Dubo Grass (Cynodon Dactylon) and put Makhmali Mala (Globe Amaranth) and asked Yamaraj not to go till the oil, Dubo Grass and the flower gets dry. Therefore, every sister worships her brother keeping him in the circle of mustard oil, putting mala (garland) of Makhmali flower and Dubo grass.

How is Tihar Celebrated

First day - Kag Tihar (Crow Puja)

On the first day of Tihar, crows are worshiped and fed early in the morning. People leave different food items outside for crows to eat. Crow is considered to be the messenger of death. People believe the crow gets the messages to the house in the morning. People worship it to bring good luck themselves.

Second day - Kukur Tihar

The second day of tihar is dedicated to the most loyal friend of mankind. Kukur, the dog, Puja is done by putting a red tika on dog’s forehead and flower garland around the neck offering him foods and sel roti. Generally male dogs are worshiped. It is said dogs can see endangers and the death coming.



Third day – Gai (cow) Puja and Laxmi Puja

On the third day of tihar Cows are worshipped in the morning. Cows are worshipped with sesame oil light, garland of flower and red color (abir). Wheat flour, sel roti, rice and dal are feed to cows. Disciples try to pass in-between four legs of the cow. Cow is regarded as mother in Hindu religion, as we grow up drinking her milk. Some consider cows as Goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity.

In the afternoon we clean our houses, paint floors with Red Mud (Rato Mato) and cow dung (gobar). Small circle are made in front of the main gate and decorated with colorful designs. Some people call it rangoli.

Small designs of footsteps are painted from the main entrance to the puja kotha. These footsteps are believed to be the footsteps of goddess Lakshmi. Candles or pala are lit all over the house making it bright and beautiful.

There is a long tradition of going house to house in the evening singing songs to ask for money and foods. Generally girls and kids go out to neighbors and sing traditional songs. The tradition is called “Bhailo” and songs are called Bhailini songs.

The song starts with “Bhailini aain agana gunyo cholo magna, hey ausi ko din gai tiharo bhailo”. Badali kudali rakheko, laxmi pooja gareko, hey ajako dina gaitiharo bhailo…” Meaning Bahilini are at your door to ask for a gunyo cholo (Nepali traditional dress), today is no moon day and Cow pooja and Bhailo day, the house is clean and you have done Lakshmi puja, today is cow pooja day and Bhailo”

Fire crackers are blown up on this day. People play cards in Laxmi puja to welcome goddess Laxmi in the night. People believe, laxmi comes to the house which is clean and bright.

In the evening the goddess of wealth Lakshmi is worshiped by lighting numerous lights and lightening works. It is believed that by worshiping Laxmi and pleasing her in return she gives us wealth. People worship wealth and food store this day.

Fourth day – Goru Tihar (Govardhan parbat ko puja) and Mah (aatma or self) Puja

On Govardhan puja Goru Tihar, three different Kinds of puja are performed. We perform Goru Puja, or worship Oxen. We also perform Govardhan Puja, which is done by making a hill of govardhan parbat using Cow dung. Cow dung has big importance in Hindu culture. In the old days it was used for everything from light at night (Methane) to polish mud floors of traditional houses. Still now no Puja is complete without cow dung in Nepali Hindu culture.



In this night Newar community perform Maha Puja also known as self-puja. It is done to purify our body. In this puja a Mandap decorated with Saipatri (marigold flower), sweets and fruits and a special Mala (garland) which is made of thread is kept. Each member of the family has one Mandap. A female member of the family offers the person sitting on the Mandap a Sagun with her hands crossed. Shagun usually consist of fried eggs, fruits, sweets, meat, fish, lentil and pastries. In the left hand with egg and fish and in the right hand Rakshi (homemade alcohol). This day is also the beginning of Nepal Sambat, Newari New year.

In the evening many Nepali children and young men go house to house singing Deusi song (Aahai bhana mera bhai ho deusi re bhana na bhana deusere). Deusi is very similar to Bhailo. Bhailo is primarily for female and Deusi for male. However, now a days there is such distinction. People go in group with males and females members to celebrate Bhailo and deusi both.

Fifth Day: Bhai Tika or Bhai Duj

The fifth and last day of Tihar is Bhai Tika. This day sisters put “Tika of five colours” Paanch Rangi Tika - Yellow, green, red, blue and white on forehead of her brothers, to ensure long life and pray to Yamraja for her brother’s long life and prosperity. Sister offers brothers Shaguns of dry fruits and nuts, especially walnut, hazelnut (Katus), fruits and sweets and in return the brothers give their sisters gifts and money. The brothers also put Pancha Rangi Tika to sister and bow her on her feet and assure her to protect her till the end of life.

On this day, Rani Pokhari Temple (located at central Kathmandu) is opened for those who do not have any brother or sister. This is the only time in a year the temple is open to general public.

Story and legends behind Bhai Tika

A legend has it that while performing ‘brother worship’ the messenger of Yama Raj came to collect the soul of the man going through ‘brother worship’, as the lifetime of the man has expired in the human world. However, a sister performing ‘brother worship’ has requested the messenger to wait until she completes the ‘brother worship’.

The smart sister invited the messenger to sit along with the brother and get the honor of ‘brother worship’. The sister did ‘brother worship’ so well to the messenger that he became very pleased with her and asked her anything she wished to have as a gift. The wise sister asked the messenger for a long life of her brother. Thus, she saved the life of her brother.

Another story about how the ‘brother worship’ has started is that Yama Raj has five days off, as Lord Vishnu gave the boon of ruling the three worlds for five days to Bali Raja. Lord Vishnu has tricked Bali Raja to go to a lonely dark world for his meritorious act that has shacked the heavenly kingdom of Lord Indra. So, Lord Vishnu has granted him to rule all three Hindu worlds for five days in addition to agreeing on guarding Bali Raja for four months. Yamaraj’s world is one of the three worlds. So, he went to visit his sister, as he has not visited her for a long time.

Seeing her brother, Yama Raj, sister Yamuna became so happy, she did not know how to welcome the brother who has visited after such a long time. So, she did every possible thing to keep her brother Yama Raj happy for five days. On the last day, before going back to his world, Yama Raj made the presentation of a unique gift to his sister in return for her hospitality. We believe that she has set the tradition of ‘brother worship.’

So, we call the five days of ‘Tihar’ as ‘Yama Pancak’ means the five days of Yama Raj. On these five days we do everything possible for keeping Yama Raj happy, as Yama Raj is going to judge our vices and virtues after our death, and treats our souls accordingly.

Happy Deepawali to All !!!


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Burrrrr!

The weather here in Chanaute is beautiful this time of year. Most days are sunny to mostly sunny with temperatures in the high 60's as you can see from this weather app forecast of a nearby town:



The challenge of living here is that I live in a steel box that is always open to the great outdoors. At night, the temperature is now dropping into the high forties. This morning, my little thermometer registered a brisk 8 degrees C/46 degree F. While I'm plenty warm in my sleeping bag with the extra blanket that Bina provided me, getting out of bed definitely wakes you up!



The real challenge for me since it's gotten colder has been the evenings. Once the sun goes down and the temperature drops into the 50's, it's quite cold and since there is not much to do in the evenings other than read, listen to music or an audiobook, it's quite chilly sitting on my bed even though I've got multiple layers on. There is no fire or heater in my little room or anywhere in the temporary clinic. There is a butane stove for cooking in the kitchen but all the heat quickly goes out the gap between the walls and the corrugated steel roof.
Of course, it's hard to complain as Bina lives with these conditions year round (as do many of people of Chanaute) and I'm sure it will be much colder a month or two from now. Needless to say I think they are all thicker skinned than I am. While I've got two pair of wool socks on at night, Bina is wearing sandals with her bare feet exposed.
While I'm going to miss Chanaute when I leave next week, it will be nice to get back to Jerry's and my warm cozy condo!

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Natural Born Trekker

No, I'm not talking about myself. I love to trek and have been fortunate to trek/hike throughout many of the U.S. states, Canada, New Zealand and now Nepal. But my love of hiking didn't begin until I was an adult.



Karki, my 13 year old guide is the one who I think is was born to trek (whether he does it professionally as a guide or more likely just recreationally is up to him). In one of my prior posts I referred to him as part mountain goat, part jack rabbit, because of the way he easily treks up the steep trails we have ventured up. We have now done three hikes over the past four weeks, with each hike going further and higher than the last. Today we hiked straight up the ridge of the mountain east of Chanaute to Kakani and then down past Palchok and then back to Chanaute. The trail map below shows our return route, but not the steep direct route we took to Kakani.


It's been fun watching Karki's interest in trekking grow each week as we have sought ever more challenging treks from our initial 3 hour trek with Suman, followed by our longer steeper 4.5 hour trek the following week, to our all day 7 hour trek today with a stop for lunch in Kakani. Today's trek even surpassed my treks in Pokhara as we hiked up 283 flights (almost all of those on the way to Kakani), took over 25,000 steps and covered 11.4 miles. At the start of today's trek, Karki showed up wearing his new hiking shoes (he had been using flip flops on our first two hikes), which I thought was awesome because it shows his interest has grown and I know he will use them to continue trekking long after I return home.



While I've been talking about Karki, I want to add that Suman joined us just as we were departing for today's hike (I think his parents pressed him to join us because he didn't jump up to join us right away when first invited, but rather ran after us after we got a hundred yards down the road). Twelve year old Suman, like myself, does not have the jack rabbit gene. In fact at this stage of his life he's a little pudgy and enjoys sweets way too much. When we stopped for lunch, he only ate half of his Dahl baht (lentils, vegetables and rice) but added about 5 teaspoons of sugar to his tea and then after lunch had room for a Red Bull and a snack that looked similar to Cheetos. I paid for his lunch, but he bought the latter snacks on his own (afterwards I tried to help him understand that too much sugar is bad for your health). None the less, for only 12 years old, he did a remarkable job of making it to Kakani and back and I suspect he will outgrow his pudginess once he hits his growth spurt and hopefully continues to go trekking and cut down on his sugar.



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