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.