March 27th: Nepal while Alison is in Goa

Yesterday Alison flew back to Goa’s beaches while I started another 2 week Intrepid tour in Nepal. This tour will combine Nepalese culture, religion, and village visits with rafting, trekking, and road travel by various transports.
The first day was a tour of Kathmandu including Swayambhunath (the monkey temple); Durbar Square with the palace and many temples; Boudhanath stupa (the largest in Nepal); and finishing at the burning ghat.

The way to and up the 365+ steps to the monkey temple are lined with flower vendors, candle sellers, monkeys, Buddha statues, small stupas, and end at the temple with a great view of Kathmandu.
 
 
 
The palace in Durbar Square is where the living Goddess, the present Kumari Devi, lives.
She is chosen at age 5 or 6 and reigns until puberty makes her impure, at which time the next Goddess is chosen.
Various pagoda looking temples, shrines to gods, and personal or family stupas line the square while vendors

try to sell whatever they can from jewelry to ducklings.

Common sights are babies and young children with kohl lines around their eyes to scare off the evil eye from possessing them.

The Boudhanath stupa is HUGH, especially when viewed from a roof top café.

The eyes of Buddha follow you everywhere and there are prayer wheels of all size, from as tall as a person to coffee can size.

The burning ghat was relatively quiet when we visited and the row of Shiva lingas appeared to go on eternally.

Many other interesting sights were happening around us as we walked through Katmandu’s streets. The daily chores of getting drinking water, moving produce via bike, making banana leaf bowls (very eco friendly containers!), repairing the street, and sharpening knives by the mobile street vendor.

Three of us ended the evening by going to a Nepalese bar with live music and dancing.
 
The singing was lead/response style about broken hearts and loosing lovers when translated by our tour leader. The music was a combination of country and disco with a Nepalese flair. 

Himalayan Mountains Flight

When we returned to Kathmandu, most of our tour group signed up for a scenic flight to see the Himalayan Mountains from the air.  The flight was with Yeti Airlines which we felt was a very appropriate name. 

The 11 from our tour were most of the passengers for the flight.  Before we took off, the safety talk included handing out a picture of the mountains we were going to see with their names printed on it.

 

After we were in the air it took quite awhile to climb out of the urban murk in Kathmandu Valley

But what a view!  Just think of the Rockies on steroids. Everest and many of the surrounding mountains are twice as high as Pike’s Peak.  The cirques, cornices, and glaciers reminded me of Alaska. 

  

 

Mt. Everest in the back ground



After the flight we received our Everest Express certificate and were glad for the clear skies and smooth air during our flight.

Tick Offed in Goa

Well, you’ll never guess what NOW. Yesterday I was complaining to Dean about a little tender place on the front of my neck as we had breakfast together on our last morning in Kathmandu. Well by evening when I got to my hotel in Goa, and he was still in Kathmandu, the tiny sore on my neck was really surprisingly painful to touch, but all that I could see by the dim fluorescent light in the bathroom was a little blob which appeared dark in color. I decided that I must have traumatized a tiny skin tag while I was scratching my itchy neck over the past few days. Yes, I’ve been itchy from heat rash.

However, when I got up this morning it was even tenderer, larger, and in the brighter light of day, with my bifocal specs and my hand mirror, I suddenly realized what it was. There on my neck was a halo of pallor around the now 3-4mm blob, and then a rim of red around that, the whole thing the size of a dime. It was a tick, the size of half a pea, which was sitting there sucking my blood and anti-coagulating me! Well, when I realized this, I was pretty shaken, since it most likely was acquired initially in Chitwan National Park in Nepal, and thus had probably been latched onto me for three or four days, gradually gaining in size.

Various diseases passed by ticks, such as Lyme disease or encephalitis, are more likely to be transmitted the longer the tick is engaged especially beyond 24 hours, so I was pretty keen to get it off me ASAP.

However, I couldn’t really see to do it myself, and anyway, I didn’t want to grab the tick’s body and have it regurgitate its stomach contents (my blood plus who knows what else) into me, so I went to the reception desk to ask about a local doctor. It turned out that a doctor was on his way to see someone else at the hotel and so he would come and see me too.

He knocked at my door within 15 minutes. When I explained what I thought, he had a quick look and then reached up, grabbed the tick with his fingers, and pulled it out. Ouch! It stung sharply like a cluster of tiny thorns coming reluctantly out of my skin. He had to pull quite firmly. So much for my worry about regurge of the stomach contents. Who knows whether any mouth parts are still in my skin. Anyway, the doctor dropped the tick onto the ground, at which point it started to slowly wander across the tiles, so I stomped on it. It’s a bit nerve-wracking, knowing what I know. However, despite all the things that can be transmitted by ticks, most tick bites are innocuous, so I imagine that all will be fine.

Doctor’s instruction: wash it well. Doctor’s fee: Rs 500, or about $12. Pretty good for a doctor’s house call and treatment!

KathmanDo’s and Don’ts

Five more hours on a bus through the countryside the next day got us to Kathmandu and our hotel (Kathmandu Guest House).





















It is located in the heart of the old city, within walking distance of all sorts of stuff.

We checked in, ditched our stuff, and
reassembled for a walk through the streets to Dhurba Square. In this part of town the buildings are very influenced by the Mughul style and the feeling is more like Tibet or China than pure India.

It is an interesting mix. The “square” is really a collection of 2-300 year old buildings with tiered pagoda-like rooftops, originally built as temples and palaces, and variously used now. It was the centre of activity in the hippie days of the 1960s. We got there and were turned loose just as light was falling, so we did not see it as much as we would have liked. We wandered through the streets on our own for a bit, then re-united with the others at 8PM for a drink at a bar, and then dinner at another restaurant.

Our hotel was smack in the middle of small streets lined with fabulous shops featuring clothing, trekking gear, trinkets, jewelry, and all other manner of things.
Because it was my last day with Dean before his next 2-week trek, and he will have the same Kathmandu temples tour the next day, we decided just to hang out, get our laundry done, and re-pack, rather than go on the tour of three temples. I had my hair cut about 3”.
It was a good day for us, but apparently the tour was good too, so I will have to go back to Kathmandu at some point, and maybe get some dentures or false teeth or wool?  
I really liked it.

Again, we all assembled at 7 pm for our final dinner together, and went to a “pub”. Goodbyes were said; we decorated our foot; Dean and I left our mark on the Canadian flag in the pub. 

We all agreed that the group had been quite congenial and one Swiss man, Marcel, is going on to the same next tour as Dean and they likely will room/tent together for the next 2 weeks in Nepal.

Next day, I left the hotel after farewells to Dean and to our Australian friends, Gloria and Peter, and headed to the airport for the travel to Goa. This is where I will spend the time (melting) while Dean is toiling up and down the hills of Nepal. So far I have spent my time here simply writing blog juice! Oh, and one more thing, which will be in my next missive.