The Ramblings of Sharon

Here I am in beautiful Pokhara. As previously mentioned the first day was spent 'recovering' .. and not from a hangover.

I started to move around on the second day, but still wasn't up to going too far. I gave Ann a call, this was the person who I had been emailing about trekking and she had been so helpful and kind. Ann popped over to the hotel and we had a great chat and decided that I would go for a 3 day Royal Trek on the Thursday with her brother in law Prakash. (The whole family relationship thing gets a tad more complicated here, but brother in law will suffice for here).

In the meantime, she invited me over to their house and I got to meet the family and see the computer centre they have setup (more about that later). Of course, just because I was coming, there was a minor crisis and their main computer decided it couldn't find windows on the morning I came in, so I also got to repair that whilst I was having a look. One of Devi's friends turned up, so we all headed into Lakeside for dinner and had a great night.

I arranged to go out with Prakash the next day to see if I could still ride a motorbike. First up we went to a big sort of oval type place and suprisingly I was fine. A bit rusty on the gear changes, but really not too bad. Poor Prakash, he was so brave, we next headed out on the road. He rode pillion up one of the close mountains and we made it in one piece to a fantastic lookout. The one thing I have to remember to do here is to beep the horn all the time. Because the rules are no rules its an early warning system that you are there or coming, but because its not something that we do I find it hard to remember.

After the lookout we went for a nice lunch and then met up with Ann and Devi and her sister in law Sarita and husband Mukta. On three bikes we went out to another mountain and had a wonderful afternoon. Prakash and I had ordered so much for lunch there was a heap of left overs so this made a great 'tiffin'. At festival time they make these huge swings of bamboo and its a real artform in how to swing them, but you just have to have a go. I was killing myself laughing and damn it seems so high as you get older. (You swing standing up by the way).

Prakash and I left everyone and I got the tour of one of the local Tibetan Refugee camps along with a Buddhist temple. The next stop was the biggest local Hindu temple and then back to Lakeside. Seeing as I was heading off early the next morning I went and grabbed a few things, packed and had an early night.

Off to trekking we go. Prakash came and picked me up and we headed back to the house. Amah gave us a blessing and tika and we headed off to the bus stop. We got a bus to Patan Bessi and then it was foot. I find it hard to describe the whole trip, but the scenery and the countryside was just magnificent. The Royal Trek is through the villages and mountains all around, but relatively speaking you don't go that high ( meaning high enough for snow ). You get to see and meet villagers, see life that hasn't changed much in years, so much fresh air, rice paddies carved into the hillsides, the flowers, ferns, plants and trees just magnificent and the Annapurna range often in view. We stayed in the local tea houses who serve up Dal Bhat (the traditional rice, vegetables & pickle with a lentil soup) and the accommodation is basic to say the least. No showers, no mirrors, no makeup but of course theres always the raksi. Actually the mountain raksi is freshly made and served warm and tastes very mild compared to the city version. I slept really badly both nights as I really was still recovering and by the 3rd day of up hill and down dale we were nearing the end and Prakash pointed to this huge flight of stone steps and I just looked and him and said .. nope ... its the bus. Now I'm not sure which would have been worse, but the bus trip was a whole experience on its own. As usual the amount of people they can cram into a bus is incredible. It was already packed by the time it got to us and I didn't think it could fit anymore, but sure enough, every stop they managed to fit more in. There are no roads to speak of, just tracks with huge rocks and bumps perched on the edge of cliffs. The bus swings and sways and bumps and at some stages you are on a 45 degree angle peering over the edge of a thousand foot drop whilst hanging on to a metal rail, jostling with people and trying to keep your balance. Finally finally we made it and after a short walk we stopped at Begnas Lake for a while. We sat around and while I contemplated falling asleep on the stone steps I thought I better head back to the hotel. This bus ride was a lot better. Made it in to Mahendra Pool and then taxied back to Lakeside. The first thing I did was have a nice hot shower and then hit the bed again.

The next morning it was time to find a new bed. Hotel Lake Palace is relatively speaking pretty expensive (US$10 a night), so with help from the wonderful Sapkota family I got a cheaper room in Lakeside and settled in. For the next 2 days I really didn't do a great lot, mostly read, wandered around and had a rest. I'm not sure if I mentioned that Ann is American and married to Devi, well the day of the election I was over their place and Ann being a Kerry supporter was getting more depressed as the day went on. Once it looked like there was really no hope we compounded the situation by heading into Lakeside and setting ourselves up one of the restaurant tv rooms with some good food, a bottle of vodka and Farenheight 911. That was it, we were mad, drunk, bawling, laughing and talked so much. Somehow we made it down the road to meet Devi and one of his friends, so more food, drink , talking and laughing.

The hotel I was at is run by 2 brothers and there was a couple of moments where they both tried to get 'amourous' and funny as it was, when I told Ann, that was it, seeing as Prakash was off on another trek I had to pack my bags and come to their place. I can't tell you how wonderful this family is. I now have my Pokhara Nepali family who have adopted me and are just so beautiful. There is Amah (Mum), Haaji (Grandmother), Devi's older brother, wife and 2 absolutely adorable childer affectionately known as Babu and Nanu (who now sleeps with me every night), Ann & Devi, another 3 sisters and little babu, Prakash and of course any other family members who come and go. Ann has her own website which has lots of interesting stuff about Nepal and some older photo's of the family, so here is the link http://thevoyagers.com.

I have just got so much to tell, but seeing as I have put a lot up today, I will try and spread it out over the next week or two.

OK, catch up time ...I left off just before Dasain. It already feels like months ago, even though it was only about 3 weeks. Dasain is a huge festival here and involves all the family, extended and immediate. It goes for 10 days and there is lots of visiting, drinking, eating, dancing, card playing and blessings.

For those unfortunate souls who work, Monday & Tuesday where work days and as there was another fund raising event on the Tuesday, I put in an appearance and helped out.

Wednesday started with the house a hive of activity, but there is not a lot I could do (cooking is still not my forte), so I took myself off shopping.

Dinner that night was really the start of Dasain for the family. What a fantastic start it was too. Talk about cultural exchange, I burned a CD of all my favourite aussie music, JBT, Epicure, The Beautiful Girls, Missy Higgins, Powderfinger, etc ... so it was a huge Nepali meal with my new Nepali family, aussie music and I opened the bottle of Lenton Brae that I have been hanging on to. Would you believe everyone loved the wine and the music ... especially me !!!

After dinner it was down to some serious card playing. We went till 5am and as usual I lost a heap, but it was great fun. I will have some new games to teach when I get back.

After a few hours sleep, I dragged myself off to the shops to stock up on wine for the rest of the festival. Not long after I got back, Moni, Suzeel and Nichole where heading off shopping, so what the heck, might as well go along. We went off to Bhat Batteni, my new home, and then to New Road. Suzeel decided that my immune system needs some good old fashioned germs, so he dragged us off to this famous streetside vendor for these Indian type snacks. They are like huge puffed balls of rice, about 5 or 6cm in diameter with lord knows what inside and placed in a small bowl of COLD salty water. You are meant to just pop the whole thing in the mouth in one go and quicker than you can get it down another one is placed in the bowl. I managed to get a few down and prayed that I wouldn't get another bout of you know what ... On the way home Suzeel got a call from some friends about meeting at a bar, so it was fly inside for a quick change and put the face on. Nichole was very excited and wanted me to wear the purple silk skirt suit (the reason for this bit of trivia will become apparent), so it was all gussied up and off for the night.

We went to a bar, would you beleive not very far from where I lived in Jawalakhel, didnt even know it was there. In honour of Dasain, they were serving Newar food ( one of the sub cultures here) and raksi ... I think I already told you, this is the local firewater and personally I think it would make excellent racing fuel. Along with the food there was a classical Nepali band playing. We met up with Moni & Suzeels friends, partook of the food and raksi .. and more raksi and after a while people started to get up to dance. Next thing one of the guys comes over and drags me up to the floor so lucky me was one of the first people up dancing. This was traditional Nepali folk dancing and I had no idea what I was doing, but theres lots of arm movements so I was pretty OK, I think my feet need a bit of work, but it was so much fun with lots of laughter and really it was just about enjoying yourself. This guy just kept coming over all night and they were giving me heaps and saying 'how romantic', I suppose you just had to be there, but by the end of the night fun was had by all.

After the drinking and dancing, we decided to head back home and one of Suzeels friends was coming over as well for some more cards. We had to stop at his place to pick up his bike so he could get home. Well, you know how I love bikes, so I wanted to go the rest of the way on the bike. I refuse to ride side saddle as I'm sure I would fall off, so here I was in a skirt and high heels astride on the back of the bike. LUckily it was late, so not too many people where around to see this mad woman. The nights and mornings here are very chilly now, I had no jacket so it more than woke me up after all that raksi. I jumped off in the laneway before we totally pulled up, Mum would have been horrified to see me. We managed an earlier night and only played cards till about 3am and yes .. I still lost. Suzeel had bought a bottle of Hinwa, which is a local wine made from mountain berries, so we also managed to polish that off as well. It really wasn't too bad, it smelt like raksi, but luckily it didn't taste like raksi.

Friday dawned bright and early and I am so out of practice that all I managed was to drag myself off to the video shop and get a couple of movies. It was a pretty vegging out day. Another big dinner, the two bottles of wine I bought the other day, more friends over for cards and about midnight we cranked the music up and turned the lounge room into a club. Everyone was up dancing to trance and disco and we had a ball. It was a pretty early night, about oneish, as Saturday is the BIG day. This is the day you visit all the close family and the eldest give tika (the red dot) , blessings and money to their youngers. This works its way down through the family and can be quite a long process. Grand parents to the parents and their kids, parents to their kids, elder siblings to their younger siblings and on it goes.

So off to bed and about 4 in the morning I woke up with the most excrutiating pain in the gut, yep the last few days had caught up with me. All week was geared towards Saturday and I was not doing too well. Everyone was coming in with different remedies for me but to no avail. I did manage to get into the shower and get my sari on for the immediate family ceremony. After a short rest we were off to Moni's mums house. We stopped at the shop on the way which is right next to my old hotel and I had to rush in and borrow the ammenities, I was so thankful we went to that shop. I managed to hold it together at Moni's place and on the way home we stopped at a pharmacy (not to be confused with any pharmacy that you would be familiar with) and got the heavy duty stuff. I downed the first load of tablets with instructions to only take the other 3 every six hours if needed. It was now off to Mum's mum's place. It was about 3ish by now and I was pretty whacked, I received more tika's and blessings and they bundled me into grandma's bed. After I woke up, Suzeel took me home, I crashed and they finished off the rest of the family visits.

I was tossing up what to do, I was meant to fly to Pokhara tomorrow and I wasn't doing too well. I had to take the second tablet as it was sort of working, but I was still pretty bad. I decided to just sleep and see what happened in the morning.

Sunday morning and getting slightly better, onto the 3rd pill by now. I packed and Dad dropped me off at the airport. I wasn't that well, but I just didn't want to delay my flight again. Even though it is only a half hour flight, with all the waiting, checking in, etc a few hours passed before I got to Pokhara. By the time I got off the flight I was wilting pretty badly, so I hopped into an airport taxi (which is really expensive) and went straight to Hotel Lake Palace where I stayed before. Onto the fourth tablet now, but I managed to sleep all night and felt a tad more stable by the next morning.

So all in all, a very enjoyable Dasain, shame about the stomach, but thats life in Nepal for a westerner. I am so happy to be back in Pokhara, this place is just gorgeous and it really resonates with me. It so feels like home. Of course, I now have to tell you all about my Pokhara adventures Part 2 and don't forget, its time to get ready for Tihar, the next big festival.