The Trinational Adventure: Part 6 - Kathmandu (II)

- April 29-30, 2011, Friday-Saturday.

- Before I write anything regarding this album, I would just like to say that I am still deeply upset for accidentally deleting all the photos that can be seen in this album until the end during a file transfer mishap. I nearly burst into tears, until I realized that file recovery softwares exist. I asked help from really good friends, and I was able to retrieve most pictures, and thankfully, the really important pictures. Some nice or semi-important pictures might not have been retrievable, but the highlights, at least, were retrieved. Anyway, I won't say further because I might just be more depressed.

- We arrived at Kathmandu via Buddha Air, and we were immediately ushered to our hotel, so we could rest until dinner time. I had been waiting for that day's dinner because it was going to be in a local restaurant where we'd be enjoying local food, with a short cultural show. Our other two companions decided to just stay in the hotel because they were really tired from their morning activities in Pokhara. My mom and I, however, wanted to go, since we both like looking at cultures and performances of other nations.

In our hotel.

Trying out Bieber's hair.

- At around 7pm, the driver fetched us at the hotel, and drove around Kathmandu until we reached the restaurant. The restaurant, Kathmandu Kitchen, was located at the higher-end area of Kathmandu. We had never seen the high-end area of Kathmandu, until that day. All that time, we thought that Kathmandu was still "stuck in the past," until we saw Van Heusen, United Colors of Benetton, and such. Not that we were belittling Kathmandu, or Nepal in general, but it's just that most of the places where our car passed by were small stores that barely had electricity (the government regulates electricity, especially in Pokhara, aside from the lakeside area.) residential areas that looked like regular flats, or pagods and stupas.

- At the restaurant, we were served momos (dumplings,) rice, lentils, lamb, chicken, and vegetables. We were also given Nepalese rice wine, and my mom was scared that if I drank a lot, I'd be drunk; I don't drink, and the rice wine might have been too alcoholic for me. Still, I was able to enjoy a courtship dance, marriage dance, local countryside dance, a peacock dance, and the shaman dance. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel to rest, in preparation to our flight to Thailand the following day.

The host.

Courtship dance.

A festival dance.

My favorite peacock dance.

I can't believe a person can fit inside that costume. The dancer must feel uncomfortable.

The peacock pecking my mom's head.

Shaman chanting and dance.

- Plenty of things happened in the morning before finally leaving Nepal. We were able to ride a Buddha Air plane to see the snow-capped Himalayan mountains. There, we saw all the highest peaks in the world, including Mt. Everest. I am also upset that I wasn't able to take a picture of Mt. Everest, because I was looking at the WRONG MOUNTAIN the whole time. All 18 passengers were given a detailed map/drawing of the maountains that we'd be seeing, and sadly, the one I was looking at (the 5th tallest peak) looked a lot like the Everest picture in my map. I was finall able to see Everest, but only for a short while, because I saw it from the other side of the plane, and that I didn't know it was Everest because the peak was covered by really thick clouds. I was able to take a picture of the base of the Everest, but it was one of the "semi-important" pictures that I wasn't able to retrieve after I accidentally deleted the pictures. Also, I think Buddha Air should clean their windows, especially the airplanes taking people to the mountains, when looking out the window is a must. It might not have mattered when the windows were a bit blurry in our Pokhata-Kathmandu plane, but it really irritated me during our mountain ride. Still, I found out that we were lucky enough to be able to fly to the mountains, because rain started to pour violently after the plane landed. All succeeding flights of Buddha Air to the mountains were cancelled due to the heavy rain; it would have been dangerous to travel, and even if it were, mountains could not have been seen clearly.

Snow-capped mountains.

Our pilots.

Wow.

I love how the light just barely touches my face.

- Our last stops were supposed to be the Tibetan Refugee Camp in Kathmandu (the one we went to was in Pokhara,) and the thanka painting school. Since it was a Saturday, the refugee camp was closed. It was OK, since we've been to the larger one in Pokhara, but it was a must - at least for me - to see the thanka painting school.

- We soon realized that the thanka painting school was located inside the Boudhanath complex, which made us more irritated at our Kathmandu guide during our first two days in Nepal. Our guide should have told us about the thanka painting school when we visited the Boudhanath complex on our first day. (The one who accompanied us and served as our tour guide for that morning was the representative from the travel agency.) Because it was a Saturday, we weren't able to see students painting the intricate, elaborate, and highly-detailed religious paintings. However, the students left their brushes, paint bottles, and canvasses of unfinished works, so we were still able to see the earlier steps of making thanka paintings. In the end, we were led to a room full of thanka paintings made by their beginner, intermediate, and professional students. Of course, their works were being sold, and the prices would vary according to the level of the painter.

I wanted to get all of them.

I like how the geometric patterns are met with religious and spiritual meanings.

This one's quite expensive. The gold kind of gives it away.

Thanka in the works.

- After leaving the Boudhanath, we headed towards airport and "Bye Bye Nepal!!" according to the travel agency representative. I am missing Nepal right now despite the car accident and the irritating tour guide, but I would have loved to stay more and go to other parts of Nepal, such as Lumbini (Siddhartha Gautama's birthplace,) Janapkpur (the ancient city of Mithala, where Rama and Sita got married,) and Nagarkot (where the snow-capped mountains could be seen on land, as well as other fantastic sceneries.)

The Trinational Adventure: Part 5 - Pokhara

- April 28-29, 2011, Thursday-Friday.

- After 1.5 days in Kathmandu, we were set on a LONG car ride to Pokhara. Along the way, I felt like I was having a long car ride from Manila to our province in Ilocos, not because of the travel time, but because of the mountains that looked so much like the ones in the Philippines. I also saw a lot of rice terraces, similar to the ones in Banawe, which made me feel like I was in the country.

- At one point, we all decided to take a plane from Pokhara to Kathmandu on the way back, since we'd be arriving in Pokhara that afternoon, and go back to Kathmandu early in the morning the following day. A plane trip would indeed cost money, but we'd be able to save a lot of travel time, and have a longer stay in Pokhara.

- Just ten minutes to our destination, a bus carelessly hit our van, although thankfully, no on got hurt. our ten minutes travel time turned into an hour of waiting for the police to clear things up, and the travel agency plus our tour guide to save us. Instead of calling up a taxi, which was difficult when being in the middle of nowhere, a new van was provided for us by the agency, and we proceeded to our hotel to have a late lunch (uhh....late as in 4 in the afternoon.) The buffet at the Shangri-La Villa (a resort-hotel, unlike the Shangri-La Hotels we know of) already ended, but the agency representative sorted things out with the hotel, so we had an a la carte meal. We also requested to have a plane ride back to Kathmandu the following day, not because of the accident, but because of our original reason: to save travel time.

Rice terraces.

More mountain rice fields.

BAM!!

- While waiting for our meals, the rain started to pour. At first we thought that it would be a light drizzle, but soon, the harsh winds were blowing plastic chairs around at the open area. We thought we'd just stay at the hotel the rest of the day, thinking that the weather was hopeless. We talked to the tour guide after lunch, but he insisted on having a sightseeing trip the rest of the afternoon. He promised that the rain would stop, since rains come and go in a snap in the mountains. What d'you know? He was right.

- We first visited the Tibetan Refugee Camp, where many Tibetans engage in handicrafts for a living. The refugee camp had a monastery, a school, and small rooms for doing handicrafts, and stores that happened to be closed because of the big rain earlier.

Handwoven carpet.

- The Tibetans and our guide soon led us to the exhibit room, where we saw the finished products made by the Tibetans. The carpets and other embroidered items they sold had really unique designs, drawing inspiration from geometric designs, animals, and of course, religious icons.The prices of the smaller items (bags, wallets) were a few rupees pricier than the ones sold outside, but still very inexpensive. During my short trip there, our Nepali guide, and the Tibetans were surprised to know that I knew a little Nepali, Tibetan (uhh, super little,) and Hindi. Also, I saw a pile of seemingly unwated books and pamphlets in Tibetan, and wondered if there were free, or if I could get even just a pamphlet. The kind Tibetan lady allowed me to get one small pamphlet, and the guide told the lady that I was going to use it to try to practice my Tibetan (although I don't think our guide knew that I knew a thing of two about the Tibetan alphabet.)

Fascinating exhibit room.

I really wanted to get this.

My mom and some giant carpets.

With our Tibetan guide.

- After saying goodbye to the nice Tibetans in the camp, we headed to two bodies of water: Devi's (Davis') Falls, and the Seti River Gorge. Devi's or more appropriately Davis' Falls wasn't in our itinerary, but we dropped by to see the great waterfalls. The waterfalls that fell to the bottomless pit of the mountain had a rather sad story behind it. A Swiss couple, Mr. and Mrs. Davis, were taking a bath in the river above the waterfalls, when the nearby Phewa (also spelled Fewa) caused a sudden flood. Mrs. Davis was unfortunately washed away by the flood, and down to the waterfalls. Her body was soon found years after the accident, and now the falls was named after Mrs. Davis.

Ganesh.

- The Seti Gorge on the other hand was another famous body of water in Nepal. Seti, meaning white, gives the color of the water that flows through the river. The mountain where the water originated from is rich in limestone, giving the water a milky white color.

Really white!!

- As for the spiritual side of our tour, we soon visited a Hindu temple complex on top of a hill named Bindhyabasini Temple. I went inside a Kali/Durga shrine, and talked to the high priest. The high priest also offered to give me a tilak, blessed a few flowers, and also gave them to me.

Snowy mountains.

King and Queen.

Kali/Durga Temple with the high priest.

This ain't a bloodbath.

With Nandi, Shiva's bull.

- Just before going back to the hotel, our guide gave us some free time at the lakeside to shop. The "lakeside" area was a long street of shopping stalls catered to tourists, but prices were very much wallet-friendly and bargain-able. Many restaurants, bars, and small inns and hotels can also be found there. Unlike most parts of Nepal, where most shops "strictly" close at around 6 to 6:30 in the evening, nightlife at the lakeside was pretty much alive and well-lit.

- On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by another hotel, where the Nepalese travel agency's office was, so we could arrange our activities for the following day, as well as finalizations of details of our flight back to Kathmandu. Throughout the afternoon, we had been getting calls from the travel agency in India, Nepal, as well as in the Philippines to check if we were OK, or if we decided to take a plane instead because of the accident. Again, we wanted to take the plane back so we could spend more time in Pokhara, and spend less time sitting in the car for 7 hours.

At our hotel. This is Ganesha.

Trying on my new cap and the hotel robe.

- The next day, we all engaged in independent activities. Our other two companions took the ultralight airplane, and soon paraglided, while my mom and I took a short trek up a hill to see the World Peace Pagoda. Our car took us up in the mountain, so my mom, the tour guide, and I, would only trek for around 10 minutes. However, we had to take the long way down.

More cute Nepalese school children.

White vulture - a holy bird in the Tibetan belief associated with death (they're the ones responsible for eating the corpses based on Tibetan death rituals.)

View from the top.

Pokhara from the mountain.

Oh look an airplane!!

World Peace Pagoda.

Close up.

- The World Peace Pagoda was a Nepalese-Japanese project that featured 4 different kinds of Buddha statues. the main Buddha a Japanese one, to the East and West were Nepalese and Thai, and the South side was a Sri Lankan one. All four Buddhas depict the life of Siddhartha Gautama, from birth/proclamation, enlightenment, and death. The pagoda seemed small in the pictures, but going there would let people realize otherwise.

Japanese side: Buddha's holiness.

Nepalese side: Buddha's childhood.

Sri Lankan side: Buddha's enlightenment.

Thai side: Buddha's death and attainment of Nirvana.

Black bull.

- After a round at the pagoda and hiking for around 45 minutes down, we had a relaxing boat ride at the Phewa lake. Soon, we waited for our companions in a nearby restaurant, where we had lunch. We paid for our lunches first, but the company reimbursed our money, so it was OK. Also, I had a chance to do some last minute shopping there, before going back to the hotel, and catching our flight back to Kathmandu. (THE FLIGHT ONLY TOOK 20 MINUTES GOODNESS.)

Phewa Lake.

World Peace Pagoda from the boat.

The water calls to me.

Tal Barahi Temple.

Sunken boat by the shore.

Boat makers.

The strangest and the most horrifying bathroom sign I've encountered.