Each place I have traveled, I have learned a few words. Namaste is hello and goodbye in Nepali. I traveled from Madrid to Kathmandu where once again, I am immersed in a third world country.  Just like with Ethiopia, it is a country with a soul.  The people are friendly, the country is magical and the feeling I get is like breathing in time itself.  It is a spiritual place.  And it is also a place where the old and traditional is mixed with the new.

Incense burners

I met my friends Matt and Amanda in Kathmandu, where Amanda was getting ready to fly back to the US.  We had time to go to one of the oldest spiritual sites in Nepal, Swayambhu. Matt’s guidebook says that the ancient stupa dates back to the 5th century.

Prayer wheels

It is said that an act of worship here carries thirteen billion times more merit than anywhere else.  It is definitely a spiritual place.  There are incense burners that are covered with hundreds of years of drippings of the prayers of pilgrims.

Prayer flags

After climbing the 365 stairs to the main temple, Buddhist pilgrims make clockwise circumambulations to spin the prayer wheels on the outside.  From the viewpoint at the top of the stairs you can see the whole of Kathmandu.  The prayer flags snap in the wind above your head as you look down from the dizzying height of the staircase you just ascended.

Matt the Monkey Whisperer

Tourists call the site “The Monkey Temple” because of the wild monkeys that live there. To me, that seems disrespectful once you have experienced the spiritual culture of the place.  But there are monkeys, lots of them.  They swing from the trees and the babies will swing from the prayer flags. They are pretty amusing.  Amanda said that it felt like being in the zoo with no cages.

After dinner and saying goodbye to Amanda, I went back to my hotel room.  Clean, economical hotels can be found for about $20 a night. For around $5 a night (my friend Matt’s price point), you can get budget accommodations. I am not sure what the $200 a night accommodations are like. I am pretty happy with my clean, $20 a night, terraced hotel room with its own bath with has a lake view here in Pokhara.

The next morning Matt and I met at 6:30 for our eight hour bus ride to Pokhara.  Matt looked like hell when he got to my hotel.  Come to find out, he had food poisoning the night before and spent the entire night vomiting.  I know it was a long bus ride for him.

Village child

Riding on the bus, traveling along the Prithvi Highway, which is the main truck route between Kathmandu and India, is a harrowing experience. The bus travels out of the Kathmandu valley up through the notch in the rim at Thankot and the experience gives the rider sweeping views of the villages, endless hills, rice terraces, and sugar cane, at least what you can see out of a moving bus window. It seems like an endless road of switchbacks, sheer drops and mountains everywhere and crazy traffic.

Prickly cucumbers??

Grows wild on the side of the road

The bus stopped at a couple of places where you could purchase breakfast and lunch from roadside vendors that are mainly there to provide daal bhaat (traditional Nepalese dish) or rice to bus travelers and long distance drivers.  The guide book also says these stands provide prostitutes to the long haul drivers also, but I was too worried about Matt to be that aware of my surroundings.  I did however find several items that vendors had that I didn’t recognize and one that I did that was growing wild on the side of the road.

After arriving in Pokhara at about 3 pm yesterday, Matt dropped me off at my hotel where I have a lovely view of the Phewa Tal. Dinner was Indian food on an open patio looking out over the lake, the mountains and the temple at the top of a nearby hill.  Breakfast was muesli with banana curd. I am waiting for Matt to get well to join me for my first taste of daal bhaat which he says he could eat every day and never get tired of it.  I am not sure what I am going to do today, maybe just walk around a lot and buy some flip flops and clothes for warmer weather. I packed for Spain not Nepal. I missed yoga this morning because I was a slug-a-bed. I might rent a bike and ride around a bit or a boat and paddle out on the lake.

Right now, I am happy with a book, sitting on the terrace with my milk tea watching the paragliders and the haze try to clear and just being still.  Namaste.

Note:  After writing this I got a call from my friend who, after sleeping for 14 hours is better this morning and going to fly. Yay!  I am glad he is well and hopefully we will get to taste some daal bhaat soon.