TODAY WE WORK

Boy did we work! It is fair to say that we really didn’t know what we were getting into generally, but it was in spades on this day. The building was looking like a wreck when we arrived. Local skilled carpenters (paid) worked on the roof structure, while we were assigned to prep the floor. So, what is this you ask? First, we leveled the mud that had been scraped off the inside walls or been dug out to make adobe for the wall height raising. Next we stood rocks on end on top of the mud to take up about 6” of space between the mud level and eventual floor level. This was a butt-kicker, because rocks had to be brought from all parts of the school compound in quantity, broken into the right size pieces, and stood vertically on the mud to provide under-floor drainage. Seemingly endless, heavy lift-and-carry that left us exhausted. The one thing that kept us going was the 100 pound local guy that was busting up a concrete pile and large river rocks with a sledge hammer. Miraculously, we finished the floor prep in both rooms with local peoples’ help.

Notable also this day were the numerous opinions that came from local people on how to position the rocks properly. We were eager to please, so we did, then redid the work as various and sundry kibitzers passed through.

Carpenters worked all day but make little visible progress. We are all anxious to see the roof go up and expect to be involved in its construction.

Stickers are a hit with the kids, foretelling more interaction in the future with us.

SABHUNG, FINALLY

We laid on a bus for 11, which became 1, then 1:30 as we were to connect with Namlo folks coming from Kathmandu and their bus was delayed. We are now Nepali, so we went with the flow and got some ice cream.

We met as rescheduled in Bhimad, looking forward with trepidation to the off-highway trip from there. From the bus, we loaded most of our stuff onto two ancient jeeps with bald tires. Thinking we were fully loaded, we set out for Sabhung. Apparently not as loaded as we thought, 8 local people hopped on to the roof for a lift along the way. Good news – the road was not nearly as bad as we were expecting! Smoother and shorter than the trip to Ang’s village, so that trek retained the title of “Nastiest of the trip”.

As we approached the village, we needed to get up a side road to the school. Our jeeps couldn’t make it. This was the first time we had seen one of these drivers get stopped. He backed up part way, then the local kids (with gusto) and our group hauled luggage and equipment the last 100m.

After setting up camp on a point overlooking verdant valleys and the Annapurna Range (if the mist had lifted so we could see it), we made our way to the school yard for a big welcome. Little kids were clapping enthusiastically, and we each got tikas and flower garlands. Aruna’s were larger than ours – what’s with that?Next we had a meeting with the village project leader and school faculty. The headmaster laid out the schedule for the week, which was followed fully for the first hour of work the next day! Again, we went with the flow but did get a benefit of no more planning meetings.

Sarouj came up with dinner on short notice, and we retired at about 9PM.

FUN IN THE SUN

Today we extended our circle of experience in this region. Ang and I arose at 5:30 to see sunrise at the top of the local high point. There was a crowd there at 6, but most of the haze had not yet come in. Other than the 8000m peaks famous around the world, Fishtail is probably the Pokhara signature mountain and reminded me of the Matterhorn. Low clouds filled the drainages, looking like a white inland sea. We walked back to town, a 2000’ descent on thankfully dry rock and no slippery clay. On the way back to town, our path along the lake took us past the “fish market”, a group of ladies with small baskets of local fish, called silver carp. They appear to be more like perch than carp. Tasty – I had some for dinner.

Later in the day, Josh, Dan, and Tom went up the same hill to paraglide (buckled in with instructors) for an hour. They raved about it, and the scene from the valley floor was spectacular. The 30-40 multicolored parasails against blue sky and snow-capped mountains was fantastic! According to the flyers, it was even better in the air. They quickly rose several hundred meters above the top of Sarangkot on the constant the ridge wave. Josh and Dan took off about the same time and wheeled and soared around each other. It was the closest thing any of them had ever been to flying like a bird despite the fact that all three have pilots’ licenses. In fact there were several eagles soaring with them between the low laying clouds atop the ridges. Dan and Tom were so fired up they were talking about getting certified when they get back to Colorado.

Meanwhile, I went for a walk in the local neighborhoods. Kids are out of school, milking Dashain for yet another day off! Several groups of them wanted to talk to me, something we hadn’t seen much of before. Maybe they are more comfortable on their own turf. High fives all around and a walk through the nearby rice field finished that excursion. I did notice lots of language misspellings and malapropisms on storefront signs outside the main tourist area. I guess English is an approximation here, like so many other places.

Dinner precipitated a raging geopolitical discussion of the mid-east, with much gesturing and emphatic point-making. We had avoided politics for the trip until now, but when the dam broke it flooded. Good time had by all.

AROUND THE TOWN

After a quick breakfast, Ang arranged a boat ride across the lake and a hike to the Peace Pagoda on the top of the hill there. Built by Japanese Buddhists, the pagoda overlooks lake, town, Dhaulagiri, and Annapurnas. As our first hike, it was a lesson on how slick wet rock and clay could be. We would learn this more painfully later – but I’m getting ahead of the story. There were some Germans hiking up ahead of us, so when they came in view (of course) we picked up the pace to show them what we were made of. USA! USA! This behavior continued for the boat ride back, as Ang and Josh took over rowing from the boat people and more or less raced the two boats back to town. Remarkably, no one got wet or had to finish the trip swimming, but the boat people looked nervous!
NOTE: we are now at about 800m elevation, down from the last cycling pass at 5200m. That is a drop of about 14,500’. Pokhara is similar to Hawaii, with flowering trees, high humidity, and very comfortable nights. Tshirts, shorts, and sandals are the local tourist mode, rather than fleece, down sleeping bags, and getting no air when we “breathe”.
We spent the afternoon shopping, swimming, and making sure that the beer we found in Kathmandu was available here and not degraded by the trip.

ON TO POKHARA!

We imposed on Ang to allow us some extra sleep time in Kathmandu after our nighttime forced march. All the ride shirts we had made were completed (embroidered, no less), so we bade farewell to the city at about 11AM in a bus packed with all of our luggage, camp equipment, and a “staff” of 8 Nepalis. Oh, and I do mean PACKED! Nepalis included Ang, his cousin and camp manager Lakpa, camp helper Phurba, cook Sarouj, his daughter Joyti, Namlo staff Aruna and Sarada, and her sister Sumona.( The spellings of all these names are totally suspect!) Turns out that we had possibly the ideal KTM visit during the Dashain Festival – low traffic and pollution, with relatively uncrowded tour sites and restaurants. The bus ride to Pokhara was uneventful, except for the 7 hour duration. Upon arrival, those not already flying back to Kathmandu immediately changed their plans to do so. One note on bus travel – after two weeks’ cycling in Tibet, it felt really disconnected to be in a bus and unable to interact with people along the way. Didn’t like it …
Our Pokhara hotel was great; A/C, pool, good location, quiet, beer and food poolside. It was a slice of heaven, especially when we knew things would get quite a bit more ”basic” in a couple of days. As a result, most of us changed our plans so we could spend our last couple of nights in Pokhara rather than going back to Kathmandu before flying out of the country.

New Posts

I discovered some old draft posts for the blog and Gene just added one about our earlier adventures in Tibet. I couldn't figure out how to put them in sequence so here they are out of order. Have also added some photos to earlier posts if you're interested.

Today we head to Sahbung to start doing some real work, but will not have internet coverage (not to mention hotel, electricity or water) while there so the blog will be down for about a week. We'll try to update it when we get back to civilization.

Hope you are all well and have enjoyed our musings about the adventure.

Tom

Getting to Beijing

The trip to Beijing was uneventful. While the 6 AM departure from Denver
necessitated an early wakeup, I didn't sleep until the Japan Air flight from
Tokyo to Beijing.

The flight attendants on that flight bowed as I came aboard and called
me "Dr. Dan". By this point, I was tired enough to sleep for a couple of
hours.

The new Beijing airport is beautiful and was virtually deserted when we
arrived at around 8PM. After using an ATM, I caught a cab to the hotel;
paying twice what I should have.

Tom and Josh were just getting ready for bed when I arrived. I crashed
but woke up frequently.

9/18 - We all gave up bed at around 5 AM. Josh went for a run, Tom and I
for a walk. We were in search of Tai Chi but only found joggers.

We returned and after a quick breakfast, met out guide for the
day, "Selene". She is an outgoing 35 year old with a 5 year old son. She
majored in Chinese literature and had a good grasp of Chinese history
and culture and spoke English reasonably well. Selene seemed relatively
open and professed to being a Christian. She also said that this was not
the issue that it had been several years ago. We didn't see any churches in
our wanderings around Beijing; although I may not have recognized them.

Beijing itself was cleaner than I remembered - except for the fact that no
one cleans up after the dogs. The highways are in good shape but very
crowded with aggressive drivers. Given the drivers, there are surprisingly
few cars with damage. The number of higher end cars, Porsche,
Mercedes, Audi, etc) is surprising.

We visited two sites, the summer palace and the Temple of Heaven. In
the temple of Heaven, Selena explained that the round structures are
related to heaven while the square ones are related to earth. The summer
palace is on a very large artificial lake that has been dredged out by hand
over more than two thousand years. It was a warm, blue sky day which
made for a pleasant visit in spite of the large crowds.
Because this was a government subsidized tour, we were obliged to visit
a silk store and a pearl store. They showed how they take the cocoon and
make thread and comforter filling from it. The dead silk worms can be fried
up and eaten and theirs turds used for tea - yummy!

We had Selene drop us at a lake surrounded by restaurants and
shops. We gave her a 20% tip. Upon seeing this she snorted and tried
unsuccessfully to hide her disappointment. We wound up giving her
around 200 yuan to split with the driver- about $35 total.
We had a couple of beers and people watched while we waited for Peter
to return from his tour. We fortunately found him in the crowds and ate at
a BBQ that had no resemblance to BBQ'd food in the US. Very good food,
but different. The large meal cost around $12 each.

9/19 - We woke up early (not a problem due to jet lag) to catch our cabs
at 6AM. The traffic was light enough that the driver was shaving while he
drove. When we got to the airport, they could not find a record of my ticket.
The ticket agent and several others were most unhelpful. The United ticket
counter and office were closed. Finally, I called United in the states and
got the correct ticket number. I went to the sales agent who said everything
was in order but the ticket still couldn't get it done. Another trip to the sales
agent was required before we achieved success. This normally wouldn't
have been a big deal except Josh and I were on the same Tibetan travel
permit. Without it, they won't let you on the plane.
After getting through Chongqing with only a minor repeat of the Beijing
ticket issue, we were on our way. The plane arrived over Lhasa only to
divert to Chengdu.
Announcements were made but only in Chinese so Josh and I followed
the crowd. We were put up in a small hotel by giving the hotel desk our
boarding pass and a slip of paper that had been handed to us stating that
the flight was cancelled.
Josh and I then walked around until we found a restaurant. We ordered
by pointing to some plates of food on another table in this very small
establishment. The food was great. We had four or five plates and two
beers and the bill came to $12 total.