“Never let your schoolwork get in the way of your education”

I’ve made a few short references to the fact that weekend adventures are easy to come by and so much better than sitting around Kathmandu. And after a week of having Nepali classes kick our butts and experiencing extreme exhaustion from city/Nepali life, it’s good to get “away”.

So last weekend, a few of us decided to meet up with our friend Amrit who lives here in Kathmandu. He took us to Nagarjun, a national park a short taxi ride outside of Thamel. Of course (in typical Nepali style) we came across a couple stumbling blocks and things didn’t go quite as planned, but after some negotiating we were able to get in and we began a hike up the “hill”. Nearly the entire trek was up a set of rather steep stairs (a strange concept… switchbacks of stairs leading all the way up a mountain). And we even passed by several Nepalis adding to the stair construction.

Up, up, and up we went, and eventually we made it to the top – on what turned out to be arguably the clearest day since our arrival to Kathmandu. With the Himalayas lining the horizon to the left and the entire Kathmandu valley scattered to the right, the view was gorgeous. There was a Buddhist temple at the top, hundreds of prayer flags strung all around the haven that made us feel miles outside the city. After an impromptu nap in the grass, we were back on our way and after a quick stop in Thamel, Jack, Nikki and I (again, as an impromptu decision) decided to hop in a cab to meet up with several other students in Nagarkot in the hills on the edge of the valley.

We arrived just as the sun was setting, and wandered a bit til we found the guest house where the rest of our group had checked in. A meal of Tibetan Thukpa (noodle soup) and some delicious crepes later, we met up with everyone and listened to a bit of a guitar and drum concert (by candle light, thank you loadshedding) by the men who owned the hotel decided to put on for us – an impressive performance (American songs and all).

We got up early the next morning to find that we were locked inside the guesthouse (the metal garage-type door was pulled down and everyone else was still asleep). So we proceeded to find a back door and do a bit of fence hopping so we could hike up the road to another guesthouse overlooking the Himalayas. We sat down for some Nepali chiyaa (tea) and waited in awe as the sun slowly came up over the snow-capped peaks. Pretty surreal. (And, as a side note, my first glimpse of Everest was also a momentous occasion.)

We hopped on a couple busses and after getting to Kathmandu, we decided to head to Bhouda, the Tibetian district with our new favorite café. It overlooks the Bhouda stupa, a beautiful white dome completely encircled by restaurants and shops selling countless beads, jewelry, scarves, and trinkets. Weekend? Success.

So on Monday, it’s off to Annapurna. Two weeks of trekking, a rural village homestay, and more Nepali lessons as we head to the mountainous region and travel through the deepest gorge in the world. Excited? YES!

nagarjun; view from the top

sunrise over the Himalayas

Bhouda stupa, view from the cafe

nepali lessons & elephant rides

I cannot believe how fast time flies! Catching up on the past couple of weeks is a task that’s beyond daunting, but now that I’ve come to think of it, there are some pretty basic lessons I’ve learned in Nepal but haven’t shared, so before anything else I think its time I get a few things out in the open:

Lessons of Nepal

(To Be Continued)

1. Kathmandu is great, don’t get me wrong, but getting out of Kathmandu for a weekend of adventure that is way to easy to access?

Way better.

2. Elephants are cooler in person than you’d imagine.

And harrier.

3. Regardless of the seemingly endless supplies of energy/water from the Himalayas, Nepal receives virtually none of its own resources.

Translation: “load shedding”, or power outages are up to sixteen hours a day, every day, in the city and hot showers are a treat.

4. People spit in Nepal.

Now I’m not talking a little “ptew” off to the side when nobody’s looking. No, I’m talking about everyone, yes even old women, hacking up crap left and right,and often times planting it inches from your feet as you play human “frogger” trying to cross the street while keeping all limbs intact.

5. Nepal = dhaal baat.

I know this means repeating myself, but its pretty incredible to live in a placewith one staple food item. Rice and lentils anyone?

6. Chaarpi (bathroom) in Nepal is an interesting term.

On really exciting/rare occasions, you’ll come across a western toilet with toilet paper. If this is the case: celebrate! Though more often than not, you’ll befortunate enough to experience a squat toilet (which require some getting used to, but really aren’t that bad), or if you’re really lucky – a tarp on the side of the road! That’s right, three sides mostly blocking a little ravine from the sight of cars driving by, and the third opened up to the Nepali hills in the distance. At least there’s a view, yeah?

7. It’s wedding season.

Don’t be alarmed if there’s a full-blown band on the street in front of your house at five in the morning.

8. Enjoy the music as described in point “7”. It should be recognized as a welcome relief to the dog fights and roosters crowing.

Not too far back, our group of SIT students headed out of the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu for a week in Chitwan, a national park in the terai. It’s pretty incredible what kind of drastic differences Nepal’s geography includes. The terai is a flat, almost desert-like region, completely different from the mountainous Himals most would match up with their beautiful mental image of this tiny haven between India and Tibet.

We spent each morning similarly to any other back in Kathmandu – with two and a half hours of Nepali lessons. The language has consistently been a challenge, and it is constantly overwhelming to keep up with what we’re learning without falling too far behind. But at this point we were all stoked to be finished with our first test. In the afternoons, we hopped on some classic Nepali bikes (i.e. no gears/super oldschool/ rusty and rickety) and road down one of the dirt roads to visit an NGO (Non-Government Organization), community forest, or microfinance group. It was pretty awesome to finally get to go and visit people and essentially interview them (practicing our research techniques) instead of just reading out of a book, “learning” about development.

With SIT, our last month will be spent researching a topic of our choice for an Independent Study Project, so the last few weeks have involved plenty of scrambling for sources and topics for our first couple drafts of our ISP Proposal that we’ve turned in. So the field work and visiting/interviewing was definitely informative – but even more exciting was when we got dropped off between a couple of villages, left in groups of two or three students with instructions to find out about some part of these people’s lives (whether it be agriculture, water useage, etc.) Minor detail, few of them speak a word of English. So we were off to attempt our bad Nepali skills and ask as many questions as possible. Of course, with Nepali hospitality, many were more than happy to offer us a seat and answer our questions (even though we didn’t have a clue of what they were saying most of the time), and we got our first feel for jumping into the field.

Our last day of Chitwan brought along the real touristy-side of things. After an early morning of canoeing along the river dotted with alligators, we hopped on elephants for a safari through the jungle. (Pretty awesome, right?!) Unfortunately, elephants aren’t quite as comfortable as they may appear when you’re sharing the space with four other people, but the whole thing was pretty surreal regardless.

Before we knew it, we were back in the bus and on the windy road to Kathmandu.