I said my goodbyes to the Canadian volunteers last night over a hot chocolate and cake with ice cream at a local jazz restaurant. The rest of the night was spent packing my newly acquired “stuff” that seems to build up over time back into my bags before I retired around 1:30 am. I needed to set an alarm, but I lost my watch at Everest, so I had to download an alarm program for my computer.

Up early the next morning, I showered until the hot water woke me up, then threw the last of my things in to my 45 liter bag, trying to sort through what was clean and dirty as if it mattered. The bag, which used to be a white and green Sierra Highland Bag, is now a semi brown / gray semblance of something once in much better shape when I bought it from REI clearance in 2005. The internal frame, which started off as a curved, ergonomically correct, flat metal support beam, is now a wooden dowel. The outer clips which hold ski or hiking poles are ripped off. The internal backing is coming undone, and the padding is all gone from the straps.

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I know I have been brief the past week, but it is because I have been spending time just hanging out with this incredible group of people in the Basecamp Nepal Volunteer house. There were six of them to start off with, then we – being David the Couchsurfer from South Africa, Brandon from California, Grant from Colorado/Hawaii, and myself – showed up. Ronnie, the one guy in the house, was definitely happy to have us around, and he was fun as well. The girls were great, and Jesi came with us to do the bungee jump even though she has already done it twice – it gets cheaper as you go.

On Saturday when Grant and Brandon flew back to Bangkok, the rest of the group went across town to paint a room and a playground, but I stayed around the house to work on some web stuff while I had an open internet connection.

On Saturday night David, a Polish Couchsurfer whose name I failed to remember, and myself took Arjun and his family out to dinner. His two cousins, who are both about 22 and pretty cute, came with us. One of the girls is studying English in school, but didn’t let on how much she could understand until halfway through dinner. We had told them to choose any restaurant they wanted, as long as we did not have dal baht. They choose Indian food, so we went to Zaickas which has been my default restaurant of choice since Tommy and Chris introduced me to it. It is cheap, good, and fast. We ordered a tableful of food. So much that we didn’t room for all the plates and dishes and bowls of curry and naan. We gorged ourselves for the better part of two hours. Seven people with momo appetizers, tandori chicken, keema nan –which are like really good soft tacos that you dip in cheesy curry – spring rolls, fried rice, and sodas. Total bill: about $18 USD.

I said farewell to Arjun’s family, knowing I would see him again when I went back to work on his site the next day.

The next day turned out to be one of the best in Kathmandu. We had eight or nine of the kids from one of the volunteer homes over to have them make prayer flags. These children had a blast, and so did we. Sadly, I have to admit that my drawing skills are miserable. On a computer, great, fine, I can do what I want to. On construction paper with markers and Crayola knockoffs, I pale in comparison to even a seven-year-old. They stayed for a few hours then left, and we went into Thamel, the tourist section, to get some shopping done. I needed some gear and Jesi needed a water bottle. We had dinner at the house, and I left to help Arjun for the last time in person. I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped, but I will be able to upload everything from Bangkok with a good Internet connection.

We finally got off our lazy bums and took the 5:30am wake up call to go bungee jumping. We walked to the bus, got on and fell asleep. Three hours later we were at “The Last Resort,” an adventure resort with bungee jumping, canyon swinging, rafting, repelling, and many other adventure touristy things.

After some initial confusion about payment, we were sat down and given a small presentation on how if we did anything wrong we would either become unable to reproduce, or we would face mortal peril. All five of us ended up in the same weight category (70kg to 100kg – I weigh in at just over 75kg, which I never knew) so we were all on the bridge together. This means no photos from jump one. I did the bungee jump, which was a lot of fun, and an incredible rush.

They asked us if we wanted to do a second jump for much cheaper, and we said sure, so three of us signed up to do the canyon swing. This is a 160 meter drop followed by a 180 km/h swing for a few seconds. I talked the guy into letting me hook in at the back so I could swing like super man. This was essentially a base jump with a cord instead of a parachute. When I jumped off, the cord hit my leg, and I freaked out in mid air, flailing around like a spasmatic animal. We got video of that, so check it out when I am finally able to upload it. The bungee was form perfect, and looked graceful, but they wanted $35 for the video of it, which isn’t cool.

After I got back from the bike ride, I stopped off at Arjun’s, and met up with David, a guy from south Africa who has just spent the last year teaching English in Korea. He moved out of Arjun’s and we ended up sharing a room for a night. While we were walking around looking for something to do, we ran into Grant, a guy I met in Laos, and who shared the plane ride here with me. We ended up following him to a friends house that is very near Arjun. The house is part of Volunteer Abroad , a long term volunteer program. We are now staying here with the people who are volunteering, and I am paying $8 a day for a nice room, hot water, and three meals provided. Incredible. It is a house share, so we all take turns doing the dishes, cleaning the house, etc…

The house has wi-fi and is truly amazing. Five floors, two hang out rooms and a kitchen, a two level roof balcony, and a ton of books and movies.  I am in heaven. I have been spending my days helping Arjun with his site and getting some stuff taken care of online.

My last post left me off in Pokara, which was like a beautiful resort town on the side of a lake. I spent a day there driving around to see the sights, and ended up meeting an Australian who had rented a motorbike for the day. We met up at the Gurka museum on the outskirts of town. Gurkas are Nepali’s who have joined the British Gurkah army, and they are extreme soldiers. The still carry these large curved knives around, and if they get selected, they get paid around 1000 English pounds a month, plus citizenship in England and a pension program. I met one man who had retired from the Gurkahs, but had supported almost his entire extended family through his pay check.

We left the museum and found our way to some caves that were in the area. The first one had a power strip with lights running down the middle of it, but they were all broken and we used our flashlights. At the entrance, we were met by a gang of five children whose hands began to find their way into our pockets when we left the light outside and entered the darkness. The Australian quite forcefully lifted one of them into the wall with his elbow, and they stopped trying to pick pocket us, but they still begged for money. I eventually gave them a total of five rupees to get them to piss off, but they still followed us around.
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I had a longer post that I was going to put up before I left, but my computer just hates me and I couldn’t get it to transfer to my USB drive.I left Kathmandu on a chopper style bike, which puts my feet out in front of me and I sit in a reclining position. The motorcycles I normally ride (my brother’s which I had my senior year at Elon, and my dad’s sometimes at home) are much more aggressively positioned, leaning me forward not back. I find that I really like the style of riding that this bike has. I am able to sit back, relax and enjoy the view.

I took the Privati Highway from Kathmandu to Pokara, which is 225 km. I split the trip up and went to a town called Gorka, the home of the last first Shah, and rode up to the temple there. When I got to the top, they took my camera and wanted my shoes because they have (may) leather on them, and this was a Hindu holy site. The ground was covered in the feathers and blood stains from the animals they sacrifice there, so I showed them my shoes and convinced them that the leather was fake. I have no idea if it is real suede or not.

I spent the night there, goofing off with the 11-year-old who worked in the guest house and the guy who runs it. The 11-year-old went through all my stuff, enthralled with everything, and even offered me his life savings, about 400 rupees (USD $7) for my iPod. I said no, and he was upset, but he settled for a ride around town on the back of my motorcycle, yelling to all his friends he saw. The owner and I spent the night playing chess and discussing Nepali politics. Nepali politics are screwed to say the least. As I understand it the elections that are coming up on April 11th are the deciding factor on the stability of the country. He has four sons; two of them joined the army, and two joined the Maoists. They are now fighting each other.

This morning, I woke up early, had a mediocre breakfast at the guest house, and headed out. I stopped in a historic town called Bandipur, which I had heard was beautiful, but when I realized that the main thing to do in this area is to walk in the hills I decided to beg off it. My left knee still lets me know it has not forgiven me for taking it along to Everest. The town reminded me of Laung Prabong, which was the historic city in Laos, in that it had many overweight, older package tourists. I had a chocolate milkshake, walked the main bazaar, and headed out. On the upside, the road there was devoid of traffic, narrow, curvy and steep. Lots of fun both up and down.

Tommy and Chris, the German’s, had told me about the guest house they stayed at in Pokara, and I found it soon after I arrived. They were here with about 15 other German’s in the medical program, and about 10 of them are still here. I showed up and was told by Harry, they guy who owns it, that it was full. I asked him if he knew Chris and Tommy, and he immediately gave me a room he had been holding for a guy from India. I spent the afternoon hanging out in the garden, reading my book and listening to conversations I could not understand because they were in German.

As soon as I can upload some photos I will. I will stay here for tonight and tomorrow night, and then head off to Chitwan Park to see some rhinos and elephants on a safari.

-Ben

Kathmandu has been a unique experience, simply because I had no plans after Everest. While I was in South East Asia, I decided to head to Everest, but failed to think about what I would do for the weeks I had in Nepal afterwards. I have spent the past week hanging out with the German guys, or working online for some clients here. I have built a webpage for the hotel I am staying in, and have gleaned myself free accommodation. I am also working on a web page for Arjun, the guy from Couch Surfing who helped me set up my plane flight to Luklah. Unfortunately, internet here is unreliable, and slow at best.

Yesterday was different. Yesterday was Holi, the Festival of Color. I awoke to the sounds of screaming and laughter in the streets and from the rooftops. The day was a national holiday, so very few places were open, and everyone was running around the streets, throwing colored powder, water, and paint around. Some people had painted themselves completely silver or gold. If you remember the Pre-game parties that go on before college football games, you have some idea of the atmosphere.

I had known that this event was coming up, and the children had been leading up to the big day all week by throwing water balloons around at unsuspecting women. On this day, it turned to all out warfare. Buckets of water were getting dumped off the roofs onto people below, balloons full of colored water and paint found their way across alleyways and crowds of people to hit their mark. The main target was blond, foreign women. Several times I saw them get mobbed with people, and come up completely covered in red or purple paint. Other times I saw their boyfriends or significant other  fighting the Nepali guys off. I talked to one woman who said she almost started a fight because she was getting groped so badly, and she had decided to spent the rest of the day inside.

I ventured out to get some food, and ended up covered in red paint, throwing balloons around and getting completely soaked. I had originally brought my camera out, but that proved to be a bad idea, so I only have a few photos  of the day (which I cannot get to load onto  my computer because it is a piece of crap). I saw some people who had wrapped their cameras in full plastic protection, and were attempting to keep them from becoming useless hunks of waterlogged electronics. The girls who run my guest house were really getting into it, and we had a huge water fight on the roof of the hotel, punctuated by dropping water bombs off the roof onto the people five stories below.

I bought enough food so that I wouldn’t have to go back out, and spent the rest of the day hanging around the guesthouse, eating pastries and watching the chaos outside. 

Tomorrow the plan is to rent a motorcycle and head out to some different areas of the country. Should be interesting.