Look here, brotha...

...Who you jivin with that cosmic debris?...

 

Pokhara was an easy place to chill out for a while, & has already taken the place in my memory of a pleasant dream. In the last couple of days I spent more obligatory lakeside time, and also got some time on the lake in a rented kayak. When I was a kid and there was a chance to ride a horse (at camp or whatever - yes I was a girl scout, no I'm not into chicks) I always somewhat dreaded it because it was consistently my luck to get the 'bad' one... the one that wanted to go wherever it wanted to go, to wander off and eat on the side of the trail, and try to squeeze up against logs or trees presumably to get that pesky person off its back. I was actually a little nervous before the elephant safari that I'd have the same luck with a much bigger animal, but elephants seem to be way mellower than horses. But what I definitely wasn't expecting was to get a naughty boat! I didn't think to look at the bottom before taking it out; if I had I would have seen that it was totally smooth and round (the shop specializes in river kayaks) so I ended up wrestling with it the whole time to keep from spinning in ridiculous circles. I stuck with it for a while in hopes of getting down a rhythm, but it would build up its own momentum somehow so that even as I was paddling the opposite direction, it was still spinning the way it wanted to. I thought for a while there was a gigantic compass needle built in, because a few times when I just let it go it stopped facing the mountains. Back at the shop afterward the French guy in charge said, 'Oh, you've used sea kayaks, those are totally different!' Then told me that these boats are really easy once you get used to them, after 2 or 3 times. Though the only pointer he could give me was, 'Just keep your balance.' Now I know for next time anyway! Either way, was nice to get out on the water after way too long.

 

One day at lunch I was up on an outdoor balcony when some buffaloes wandered down the street. This wasn't so unusual in itself, except that they were lowing or whatever you'd call it, and the sound was so deep and rumbly that it actually sounded like they were playing motorbike as they went down the middle of the road. Cracked me up.

 

More and more aware that my time to Nepal was coming to an end, I started to try and enjoy all the things unique to this place, like the friendly people around every corner (where else in the world are there attractive men hanging out of every shop front just waiting to talk to me... maybe I'm in Neverland!). And all the beautiful Tibetan ladies wandering the streets or sitting on blankets in out-of-the-way corners trying to sell their trinkets and beads. They have this way of saying, 'Just come looook!' that's impossible to walk past, not only because you know they're living in exile from their own home, but perhaps they're also kindred spirits in a way (I've considered making & selling beaded stuff many a time), and to top it off they're just such nice people. Fortunately I had to pick up a few presents, so I didn't have to turn down every pitch. Good for them, good for me!

 

...Now what kind of a gu-RU are you anyway?...

 

I think it would take about 2 weeks to feel like a local here, it's so easy to meet people. I wandered into a bookstore one day and met a shaman. We talked in the back of the store for a while, & he showed me volumes of perfectly hand-written materials that he's planning to turn into a book. He said he talks to animals, and can heal people telepathically from thousands of miles away. There was a section in the book about the configuration of the moles on your face and what it means for your character/destiny. Funny stuff, but kind of interesting guy if for no other reason than being so into what he's into. The best part is that at a glance he could have come from So Cal - Puma sweatshirt, long shorts, stripey Adidas skater shoes, chunky metal jewellery, long black pony tail and something between a beard / long goatee. Somehow it just wasn't surprising in this town.

 

My last lakeside lunch went late into the afternoon as the sun cooled and the sparkles on the water turned to isolated patches and the occasional wake behind a rowboat. There was music playing from a neighboring restaurant, tablas that sound like deep water, high strings carrying the melody (sarangi perhaps?), and a view to perfect the sound. In the distance there was a lady piling her 4 little kids into a rowboat, and then they pushed off as other people were launching/returning, all their tiny movements happening silently from my perspective as if giving animation to the music. And then there was an egret at the water's edge, deftly placing one foot in after the other practically in unison with the drums, its head darting under after something, then continuing to search. Finally out of nowhere the snake charmer that hangs out by the shortline started playing his reedy instrument again.

 

...Is that a real poncho or a Sears poncho?...

 

In my spare time I started reading 'A Brief History of Time' by the one & only Stephen Hawking. Smart guy (duh), good sense of humor. Some of the stuff is really glossed over, since it's just a Brief history, but then there are things in there that totally blow me away. Even moreso, how come there's basic science in this 1980s book that never made it into any classroom that I visited? Why didn't I hear about things like quarks being smaller than protons & neutrons, since they apparently discovered them before I was even born? Was everything we learned totally outdated? Who knows, maybe they already debunked that silly Theory of Evolution and we just didn't hear about it. Honestly, I can see small adaptations, but some stuff seems like it would have had to know the direction it was headed in order to develop. Never mind the human eye, that one's been overused (and is painfully obvious in my opinion). How about those moths whose wings look like owl faces? Did one happen to have a symmetrical birthmark, and then other ones that didn't have the symmetrical birthmark got eaten and somehow the shape of the mark was passed onto its descendants, and then as the descendants grew up the ones that somehow accidentally looked more & more like eyeballs were less likely to get eaten, despite any other characteristics they may have had to help them escape predators? Or how about this butterfly I saw a while ago with a fake head & antennae on the back? Was it a random deformity that somehow magically got passed down till it took the shape of something reasonable? It had to start somewhere. How about those fish with luminescent lures hanging on their faces? Where did the lure come from in the first place, and why on earth would luminescent qualities develop in any animal to which the property was totally foreign before? Just some thoughts... Maybe if I stir the pot enough some scientifically inclined person out there will give me a good argument!  ;-D

 

Sidetracks aside, me and my random thoughts were soon saying so-long to Pokhara and getting back on the tourist bus to Kathmandu. This bus was different though, a tourist bus actually full of tourists. They told us where we were stopping and how long we had for breaks. I wasn't stuck in the back corner, and wasn't bumped & jostled the whole way. The seatbacks stayed in place, and no seat bottoms fell off during the journey. When we arrived I wasn't jarred, jolted, guts in termoil and covered in dusty grime. Kind of feel like I missed out.

 

Any time I return to a big city it seems to be twice as busy as I remember it, and with the weather warming up and more tourists arriving by the day, Kathmandu was no exception. I wandered out to a non-tourist area and found myself in classic city chaos, stinky cars everywhere, vehicles crowding into narrow streets and honking till enough room was made for them to pass...

 

Last night I had dinner with the owner of the company where I booked all of my pre-arranged stuff for this part of the trip. One final detail that made me totally impressed with the whole operation. Apparently he works 7 days a week organizing trips & schedules for 20 guides on staff (not to mention porters), plus runs a guesthouse, and still has time to take clients out to dinner. He was a wealth of information on the current situation in Nepal, having a dad who's a former teacher and current politician of some sort. But I liked most was how he kept referring to past clients as friends, and taking the effort to leave a positive image about the country even though there was realistically nothing left to sell to me at this point. Classic friendly Nepalese, good business and a great last impression.

 

So how about some royal scandal? Some time ago a bunch of the royal family was killed, & the prevailing opinion seems to be that the current king (the then crown prince, their son/brother) is the one who killed them. Part of the election coming up will be to determine if Nepal actually needs a king or not. One opinion shared is that the king is actually behind a lot of the bombings & other termoil, maybe to get the election delayed so he doesn't get ousted. There's so much happening right now, it'll be interesting to see what happens to the country in the near future.

 

Well it's probably time to say hasta for now. Hope this one wasn't too rambling, I'm really not in the mood to write right now, but I wanted to get this done before forgetting everything, and somehow suddenly the page is full of words. I've got less than 2 hours till I have to catch a taxi to the airport, on to Doha (3rd time just seeing the airport, maybe one of these days I'll actually get to stay & see some of Qatar!)... & the next morning to Dar es Salaam.

 

I'm reluctant to leave Nepal, a magical place in so many ways, but I have great hopes of coming back to spend more time in the future. And then there's this new place on the horizon that I'm totally stoked to visit...Lord willing, the next time you hear from me I'll be in Africa!!

 

Namaste for now...

 

[P.S. Extra credit if you're singing Zappa right now.]