Nepal, part 3

After lunch at Flavor's we packed our screaming kiddos into the car for the long drive out of Kathmandu and up a mountain to Nagarkot. I say it was a long drive, but it's actually pretty incredible that you can get from a place as crowded and lively as Kathmandu to a place as quiet and peaceful as Nagarkot in less than 2 hours.

Kathmandu is one of three city-states that competed for power during the medieval flourishing of the trade route between India and Tibet, and it obviously came out on top. One of the other two cities is Bhaktapur, which we drove through on our way to Nagarkot. We had planned to stop and see some of the city, but by the time we got there Evie was snoozing and Samuel was screaming so we decided to continue on up the mountain. What we saw as we drove through town was pretty interesting, though. Bhaktapur is city-size but quite rural. There was a lot of farmland right in among the houses.

Roads in Bhaktapur are narrow and bumpy, and one of them winds its way out of the city and right up a mountain to Nagarkot. We navigated switchbacks for quite a while that were so narrow that when a car or bus came in the opposite direction, we had to stop and inch our way around each other so that nobody fell over the side of the mountain. Outside of Kathmandu, Nepal is mostly rural, with farmland terraced right up the mountains. Unfortunately, it was a misty day and we couldn't get good pictures of the beautiful views of terraced land and homes perched on the steep inclines. We did get a great glimpse of village life, though.

The main reason people go to Nagarkot is to see magnificent views of the Himalayas like this one taken from The Fort Resort, where we stayed. We were unlucky as far as weather goes, so the views we saw were more like this:

View from our room's window

Panoramic it is not, but it does have a certain beauty. We were literally walking in the clouds the whole time we stayed. We checked into the hotel and then found a trail and did some exploring.

I was surprised at the mixture of tropical and mountainous plant life in Nepal. Because of its altitude, it's easy to forget that Kathmandu is only 27 degrees north of the equator, less than 4 degrees out of the tropics.

Samuel was still insisting on being carried, and Evie was showing clearer signs of fever, so after a while I took the younger kids back up to the terraces of the hotel while John and Johnny continued to explore. There was no sign of yeti, but Johnny was keeping a good watch. Nagarkot is only at 2,000 meters above sea level (Everest hits 8,484 meters -- we think ... there's actually a debate), so we decided that maybe the yeti keeps to higher elevations. Good thing, because by the time I had climbed back up the mountain with Samuel on my hip I was yeti bait for sure. Luckily, there were plenty of chairs on the terraces that were surrounded by a good cover of potted flowers, and the kids and I recovered from the climb in safety.

Check out the size of these flowers!

That night we ate at the hotel's little restaurant, which normally has panoramic views of the mountains but instead had a lovely view of a lot of fog. I'm not really complaining, because it was a beautiful place no matter how you look at it. Well, maybe I'm complaining a little, because I had really been looking forward to the views. Oh, well. Another time. Ha! When will I be back in Nepal? Maybe never and maybe next year.

This is where Evie's little body called it quits. That sounds like she died. She did not die, but she did fall asleep before dinner and stayed asleep (except for a brief arousal for toilet and Tylenol) well into the next morning. I have to say that Evie is such a trooper. She plays, sings, dances and in this case climbs up and down mountains right through illness so that half the time I don't know she's sick until she suddenly throws up on my feet. Luckily, no throwing up this time (well ... there was the drive down the mountain, but we won't go there). She had a pretty good fever going and was really tired. John and I took turns going to dinner so someone would be in the room with her, and we just let her sleep it off. She wasn't 100 percent the next day, but she went chugging right along anyway.

Meanwhile, I got almost no sleep because of Samuel's need to lie down right on my chest. This is a 25-pound 2-year-old, folks, not some feather-light newborn. So the next morning John and the boys did some more exploring while Evie and I slept. Here's what they saw from the hotel's lookout tower.

And here are my adventurous boys.

Here's a shot that shows how the buildings seem to be clinging to the side of the mountain.

We left Nagarkot in the late morning and saw incredible views of village and mountain farm life on the way back down into the valley. None of our photos came out well, though, so you'll have to trust us.

My mom told me once that one thing she loves about travel is trying to imagine what it must be like to live in places as diverse as a farm in nowhere Iowa or a company house in industrial St. Louis or a village in the remote Andes. On the way down from Nagarkot we passed a small home perched on the side of the mountain and surrounded by tiny terraced fields. There was a woman standing on one of the steep paths observing her two cows, and I found myself wondering what her life is like. Does she find it difficult or lonely? Does she mind the hard labor? Does she have a family that loves and cares for her? What must it be like to wake up to those mountain views every morning of your life? It's so far from my own life, but I feel like I caught just a glimpse.

So I'm glad we made that drive up and down the mountain, even though I didn't get to see Everest.

Coming soon: Johnny sees the top of the world!

Nepal, part 2

After a day of recovery, we figured we could handle a stop at Boudha before heading up into the mountains for a night at Nagarkot. I'm so glad we braved the rain, because it was a fascinating place.

Stuck in traffic on the way to Boudha, John took a photo of this bus. Many cars and buses in both Nepal and India are decorated with images of dieties or colorful designs or inspirational or funny quotations. This one is more pessimistic than most, but pretty funny. You can read it more clearly if you click on the photo.

Boudha is a center of Tibetan Buddhism and is surrounded by gompas, or monasteries, and by what amounts to a Tibetan village in the middle of Kathmandu. It's been around for centuries and has several stories regarding its foundation (in the 5th or 6th century), but it's well documented that it has been an important stop for traders traveling between Nepal and Tibet since the 15th century or earlier.

Since the late 1950s, a large Tibetan refugee population has settled in the area, so it's considered to be one of the only truly accessible centers of Tibetan culture. We spoke (briefly) with several Tibetans at Boudha (they were drawn to Evie and Samuel). I also got to chat with a group at Swayambhunath that was on its way to India to see the Dalai Lama. The women wear a distinctive costume that I never captured in a good photo (the weather had people pretty covered up), but you can see a bit of it on the woman in the bottom right of this photo. She's wearing a striped apron over her dress.

There's a good photo of Tibetan women (it looks like they might even be at Boudha) on this blog written by former foreign service officers who now own a handicrafts store.

You might think from the photo that Boudha and Swayambhunath were similar, but aside from the obvious similarity of the huge Buddhist stupa, they were really very different. The Hindu influence at Swayambhunath was striking, but Boudha seemed purely Buddhist. It's hard to explain, but I thought the feeling was just very different there.

Here's a photo of John and kids on our clockwise tour around the stupa. Walking around a Buddhist shrine in a counterclockwise direction is considered disrespectful. This Buddhist blog has a pretty good explanation as to why moving clockwise, or following the path of the sun, is important. At least I think it's a good explanation ... I'm not even close to being an expert!

You can see from the photo that Samuel was still insisting on being carried around. We know he was feeling better, though, because he kept shrieking "Namaste!" at everyone who so much as glanced his way. The locals were highly amused. Evie (that's nothing worse than a lollipop hanging from her lips), though, was developing a fever. Being the fabulous mom that I am, I didn't notice this until MUCH later in the day. At Boudha she just seemed a bit mellow.

The main stupa at Boudha is surrounded by shops, restaurants, hostels, and the monasteries called gompas. We did a little exploring at Tsamchen Gompa, which faces the western entrance to the stupa.

This enormous prayer wheel was just inside the entrance, and the entire building (at least the part open for exploration) was covered in gorgeous murals.

View of the stupa from the monastery's second floor.

Johnny and Evie among flower offerings on the monastery's balcony

Murals in the gompa

Doors leading to a meditation hall

The Boudha stupa is ringed with prayer wheels, just as at Swayambhunath. Here's Samuel turning one of the wheels.

At Boudha you can climb up to the plinth and view the plaza from the stupa, walking around it clockwise, of course. We found statues of a man and a woman on elephantback (is that how you say that?) on the plinth (unfortunately, I can't remember who they are), and we were able to see devotees making offerings and prostrating before the image of the Buddha.

Probably someone important

Prayer flags were, of course, abundant.

Here's one last look at Boudha before we move on. If you ever get to Kathmandu, don't leave without a stop here.

Before making the two-hour drive to Nagarkot, we stopped for lunch at one of the many restaurants surrounding the stupa at Boudha. Flavor's Cafe was the Lonely Planet guide's pick for the area, and we have yet to go wrong with Lonely Planet (love it!). It was a fun place that (oddly) had more than a hint of New Orleans flair.

Sadly, Samuel chose this time to have a major meltdown, so we drove several backpacker types from the terrace. Oh, well. I was able to keep him pretty quiet when we checked out this view of motorcycles (always fascinating).

And here's Johnny, who did really well until Samuel started crying. Johnny just has no patience for it at all and starts yelping "Stop it, Samuel!" as if it will do us any good. So. Flavor's Cafe had a nice ambience and good food, but we sure spoiled it for a few people! Ahh, Third World travel with kids. You know you want this experience ... you know you do.

I'll end this post with a couple of shots of a procession we passed on the way out of Kathmandu. The Patches' driver, Manik, wasn't quite sure what this was all about but guessed it might have been something political. That might be true, but I've seen similar processions here in India of people headed to a temple for a special puja. Once (in Chennai) we saw one with an ascetic who was wearing a metal dome that had sharp points pricking his skin all over. He was followed by drummers and a group carrying an idol on a litter. These photos were taken out the car windows and through a crowd, so they aren't great.

Still to come: Driving the switchbacks up to Nagarkot! Everest flight! Durbar Square! Stay tuned.

Nepal, part 1

It was the best of trips. It was the worst of trips.

These are the times that try parents' souls.

OK. Enough of that. The point is that we recently returned from a fantastic week in Nepal. The wonderful parts: reconnecting with good friends, exploring the fascinating culture and sites of Kathmandu, mountain air, Mount Everest, pinching myself and repeating over and over that I couldn't believe I was in NEPAL. The horrible parts: Samuel's overnight stay in a clinic (and the IV), Samuel being traumatized by the experience and refusing to sleep for the rest of the trip, Evie's fever, people on airplanes who see us coming and can't be bothered to hide their opinion that children should not be on airplanes, Evie spilling a bottle of water into the lap of one such person. On second thought, that last one might be a highlight. No! Not really!

One of the great things about being in the foreign service is that we know really cool people in really cool places. We met the Patch family at FSI, and they generously allowed us to stay with them in Kathmandu. They also let us use their car and driver (wonderful!) and spent some time showing us around and sharing their insights into Nepali culture and religion. In return, we gave Gretel and Christopher an Indian tablecloth and their kids whatever dread disease my kids brought with them. So now you know the benefits and risks of hosting our family.

As we flew into Kathmandu, the view out our airplane windows was just spectacular. Snowcapped mountains, green valleys, little dots of settlement. It was beautiful! Johnny kept asking me why I was crying. I couldn't help it! I never thought I'd see the Himalayas.

Getting out of the airport took forever -- it may rank as the most annoying airport I've ever been through, and that's saying something -- and then we spent the ride to the house comparing Kathmandu with our experience in India. Kathmandu was much drier and much cooler (thank goodness), and with almost no level ground. Chennai is sprawling and flat. Kathmandu is smashed into a valley, where there's nowhere to build but up. Kathmandu's streets are narrower and in worse shape. Its people seem similarly friendly. We saw much more Western wear in the clothing, though we spotted some saris, quite a few salwar kameez, and lots of Nepal's signature woolen shawls.

We spent our first evening in Kathmandu relaxing with our friends and letting the kids get reacquainted, and the next day we went to Swayambhunath, or the Monkey Temple, which I've wanted to see ever since I learned of its existence (admittedly not long ago).

This is why it's called the Monkey Temple.

There are monkeys everywhere. They're fun to watch, but they can be bold and pretty aggressive. Luckily, my kids are pretty well versed in monkey etiquette. Johnny kept reminding us not to look them in the eye, and for heaven's sake don't show your teeth or get out any food or you're asking for trouble.

Swayambhunath is at the top of a hill that overlooks the Kathmandu valley. According to myth, the entire valley was once a lake, and this hill rose up out of the water. People have been worshipping here for centuries, both Buddhists and Hindus. Here's a view of the city from the top of the hill.

A fascinating thing about Swayambhunath is its combination of Buddhist and Hindu imagery. Nepal is strongly influenced by Tibet to the north and India to the south, and that influence is very apparent in spirituality. Nepali Buddhists and Hindus often worship at the same sites, and there's a mingling of thought and tradition. In this picture you can see Hindu dieties carved into the wooden roof supports in the foreground, and the Buddhist stupa with the eyes of the Buddha in the rear.

We saw strings of prayer flags everywhere we went in Nepal. The idea is that the wind catches the prayer (written on the flag) and carries its good will toward heaven. Prayer wheels serve a similar function, and we saw them at the base of nearly every temple or stupa. The mantra "om mani padme hum" is written on the wheel, and worshippers walk around the stupa in a clockwise direction, turning the prayer wheels as they go. Here's Johnny turning wheels at the base of one of the shrines.

Here we are in front of the main stupa. At the top of the stupa are the eyes of the Buddha, the third eye (which represents insight), and a Nepali symbol that means unity. The 13 tiers at the top represent the journey to nirvana. Just so you know, we have not acquired a fourth child. The cute blonde (the one that isn't our cute blonde) is Addie Patch.

Pilgrims who come to worship at the stupa come up these centuries-old stone stairs. We took a short cut.

View of the main stupa from the top of the pilgrim stairs.

Prayer wheels and butter lamps around the base of the main stupa.

These chaityas are in a courtyard behind the main stupa and show a strong Hindu influence. Evie and Addie had a good time exploring this area.

This one is called the black chaitya, and is famous for combining Hindu and Buddhist symbols.

Evie and Addie had plenty of time to explore the shrines, because John and Johnny were in search of the perfect singing bowl. That's a percussion instrument shaped like a bowl (obviously) that is played by striking it with a mallet and then dragging the mallet around the rim of the bowl. If you know John at all, you'll understand why this took ages. In the end, they found two bowls that sound great on their own and also happen to be a good match. Here's an example of the wares for sale. Lots of metalwork.

We saw this statue of the Buddha on our way down the hill. (There are a couple of monkeys on the bamboo scaffolding.) It was kind of disappointing to see that they had to post a sign reminding people that it's disrespectful to take a photo of yourself sitting in the Buddha's lap.

On the way out of Swayambhunath we stopped and let the kids get bracelets with their name on them. We were mobbed by families of monkeys and, strangely, a huge group of tourists from Argentina.

I thought this monkey looked like it was worshipping at a small stupa near the base of the hill.

You'll notice in this photo that Samuel's not looking too well. He spent most of our time at the Monkey Temple on my shoulder or John's, and he only occasionally raised his head to say something like, "That monkey's eating a banana."

He seemed to get worse as the day went on, so after lunch at the American Club (I'm totally jealous that they have an American Club. There is no such place in Chennai.), we decided to take him to a clinic to see if he had an ear infection or something. Samuel had been sick before we left Chennai, but we thought he was pretty much over his bug. He wouldn't eat or drink on our travel day, though, and he just got more and more listless as time went on. We thought we'd be at the clinic for half an hour or so and that some antibiotics would pep him up. Not so, as evidenced by this photo.

Poor Samuel! He was really dehydrated, and the doctor thought there were also signs of infection in his stool (sorry if that's too much information). So, feeling like the worst mother in the universe, I stayed with Samuel in the clinic overnight. It took until 5 a.m. to get a sufficiently wet diaper to lose the IV, and then we had to give him antibiotics for the next few days.

The next day we had planned to go to church with the Patches, which I really wanted to do because the area president was in town. Plus, I was interested to see their branch. Instead, Johnny and Evie went to church with them (and got to sing with the Primary in Sacrament meeting!) while John and I got Samuel checked out of the clinic and then tried to recover from the sleepless night. The good news is that Samuel is fully recovered. The bad news is that the night with the IV so traumatized him that he would not sleep for the rest of our trip unless he was in my lap. This meant almost no sleep for me, so we had to scale down some of our plans to let me catch an hour or two of sleep during the day. It was exhausting.

What a way to end a post! Don't worry. More good stuff to come.

Rugby

Johnny chose to take rugby as an after-school activity this quarter, which shocked me. He generally chooses cooking or art classes and really enjoys them. I love that he's learning something new. Here's a really awful photo that I took with my mobile a few days ago. Johnny's the one in the teal "Agent P" shirt.

The honour of our presence is required...

... at the wedding of the year. Have I mentioned that Ashok's daughter is getting married? The Great Event will take place next week, and we have officially been invited. In India, it isn't proper to send a wedding invitation through the mail. It must be hand delivered by the parents of the bride or groom, with compliments and a gift.

The invitation is six pages (including printed covers) and is in English and Tamil. They're delivering 1,000 of them. Is that even possible?

How's the weather?

Wet. Here are some shots of my drive to parent/teacher conferences last week.