Articles, Restaurants, and Happy New Year 2068

So the other day I was in the paper. The Kantipur Saturday edition is having a weekly article that gives an expats view of Nepal. Dinesh Wagle, who maintains a good blog over at Wagle Street Journal, interviewed me a few days before the article and translated it to me over the phone before it went to print. Since I can't read Nepali to save my life, I still have no clue how the article reads, and the only two words I can discern are harilo.com and smith-kathmandu.blogspot.com. Still I haven't received any hate mail, so it can't be too bad and I have had a couple people stop by the blog and give me a call as a result of the article.

I'm the article in the top left.

Some of the calls, and e-mails I received were about the fact that I'd like to do an American style restaurant. Apparently there are more than a few people looking for this, but the trouble with partnering is the compromises. I'm not really interested in Nepali food, as I'm not very good at making it, and there are a hundred places in this city already doing it. I'm also not interested really in a place that specifically targets tourists, as that demographic is very seasonal and largely are looking to experience "local" food, although 90% of them returning from a trek are very much craving food reminiscent of home. I've also mentioned it at the market a few times and have a few people showing me places in the Lazimpat and Baluwatar areas. Not sure where all of this is going, but it could be interesting.

Somewhat  unrelated, we celebrated four different holidays in a single week this last week. Nepal celebrates more holidays tan you can shake a stick at, but the big one for this week was Nepali New Year, celebrating the year 2068. So happy new year to everyone in Nepal, even if it's a little late. We had Losar earlier, which is celebrated by the Tibetan, and related peoples in February, and we'll have another new year celebration in the fall some time, followed finally by the western calendar which celebrates it in January. That's four times celebrating the new year, each year! The holiday schedule winds down a bit for the upcoming months until we hit August and everything picks right back up. By the time Fall rolls around we celebrate more holidays than days without holidays it seems. such is the pace of life here though, and may it be a good 2068.

Festival at Saraswati Mandir

As I've noted on numerous occasions, Nepal is a country that is never short on hollidays, festivals and celebrations. Although they have a six day work week, I think it would be difficult to find a week that did not have at least one festival in it. Between holidays, pujas, birthdays, Nepali birthdays (different calender), weddings, and every random festival the days of special celebration really seem to add up. In past years you could also add all the political strikes that shut down the city from anywhere from a day to a week or more at a time. As we move into the warmer months weddings start up again and the other morning I was awakened to the sound of a band walking down the street for a wedding procession. I'm curious as to how many people can possibly be getting married on this small dead end street of mine, but I count at least 6 processions since I've been here, it may just be to/from a relatives house, so who knows.

Festival Street Band

The following morning I was awakened to music in the streets again, but this time the music persisted through the morning and seemed to be coming from just south of us. Shortly after Kim left for work she gave me a call to let me know that the source of the music was a large festival taking place at the temple down the road from us. The temple, Saraswati Mandir, is dedicated to the Hindu goddess of Knowledge, music and the arts- Saraswati. Having not seen any festivals there I figured I'd grab my camera and go take a look.

Giving the Palace The Run Around

Now as I stated recently, I'm the only person I usually see running in the streets of Kathmandu. During a conversation with some expats while we were in Bhaktapur observing the Gaijatra festival the topic of exercise came up and someone mentioned "It's not like you can go running in Kathmandu". Well you can, I do. Kind of. It's a little more like an obstacle course, and in some ways it makes things more interesting. Some times though you just want to run and not deal with all of the traffic and people and cows or whatever might get in your way.

As I've mentioned, the only place I see people running jogging most of the time is around the palace. The house owner of my apartment also recommended it to me as a place to go running. So the other day I didn't get a chance to go out until sometime around 5PM. I really wanted to go running, but the traffic out by the ring road on the way to Boudha would be terrible during this part of the day, so I took the opportunity to try out the route around the palace. I gave it two laps plus the distance from and back to the apartment.

Map showing the route around the palace, almost exactly 1.6 miles.

The palace route has some real advantages going for it. First there are sidewalks around the whole thing, and in most places you can actually use them. In some places they are full of people, like near the east gate and over by the foreign ministry on the west side, but other than those two spots you don't have to run in the road. Because really no vehicles go in or out of the palace area for the most part, you don't spend too much time dodging cars or getting stuck in traffic. Another bonus is that the trees and bamboo that line the walls provide some decent shade from the sun. With many of the normal obstacles removed from my path I was able to keep a fairly consistent pace. Also the mile and a half loop that isn't far from home allows for a nice variable run depending on how I feel, and if I pull a muscle or something it isn't a long walk back to the apartment. 

So with all of those advantages, you'd think this would be my new route, but I think I'm gonna stick to the Boudha route. The main reason is that the air quality around the palace is terrible. Sure I cross the ring road on my way out to Boudha, but for the most part the air isn't all that terrible on my way out there. Around the palace I felt like I was constantly sucking exhaust. Narayanhiti Path and Kanti path are especially bad. The sidewalks that are concrete are fine, bu the brick ones, though even enough for walking are a bit tough when running, during these segments I usually shifted to running on the side of the road. While the trees and bamboo provide shade, they also provide homes for birds and fruit bats, and thus when running under the trees on Kanti Path especially, not only do you have to dodge poo from the sky, but you have to inhale the smell of the poo on the sidewalk. 

While the sidewalks are nice, young Nepalis seem to like to take up as much space on a sidewalk as they can. I don't think it's done on purpose, but it's common to see four people spread out perfectly to take up the entire length of the sidewalk, and thus you end up jumping off and back on to the sidewalk. The sidewalk near the foreign ministry is always full of Nepali people waiting to get a passport. The quantity of people there is always really high, and due to this the number of people already walking in the street is already high, thus you end up dodging people and oncoming traffic through this section. Also there is very little difference in elevation over this route, just a few places with some minor variation giving some gradual up hill and down hill segments. On my route out to Boudha I get a couple of really good hills in each direction, so I get some good practice on both up and down hill running.

All in all maybe not a bad place for an early morning run before the traffic gets going. I'm sure I'll use the route from time to time, but all in all not too impressed. If I want to do some distance running once in a while it might not be a bad option if I got up in the morning and did like five laps or something. Running long distances otherwise gets me too far from Kathmandu, and I'd hate to strain my calve way out by Sundarijal or something. 

It's a Cultural Difference: Running Through Traffic in Kathmandu

Now I've been better at keeping up some good habits than others. For instance I am no closer to speaking fluent Nepali now than I was three months ago. This is of course my fault, as I haven't kept up with classes and spend all my time speaking to people who speak English. Sometimes I'm really good about sitting down and writing, and sometimes not as much, but I have stuck to it and get at least three pages written or edited each day. In line with that project I have also been reading quite a bit and have been going through rather in depth books every week or two. Thank god for Kindles, because I would never ever find the books I'm reading anywhere in Kathmandu, or most US bookstores for that matter. I have also kept up my running, and continue to run to Boudha about every other day or more, and that has made for some interesting adventures.

South Asia as a whole doesn't seem to be all that interested in athletics. Sure they watch and occasionally play soccer and cricket, and in the press I see things about badminton, table tennis and judo, but serious competitive athletics are just not part of daily life for school kids apparently, not on any scale like what we do in the US anyway. As for running you occasionally see people do some fairly lazy laps around the palace wall, or a few people on cardio machines at some of the gyms, but even there it is most often expats. I have never ever in all my times I've gone running seen another person running as well. You see some Nepali's doing back breaking work, so they aren't afraid of breaking a sweat, but they seem quite averse to doing so if they don't have to. Judging from some of the puzzled looks I get as I go running and some of the conversations I have with people here, most Nepali's don't have any idea why you would put yourself through running across town.   While people back in the US might think you're still nuts they implicitly understand the health and fitness benefits that go along with running, and I'm not sure that is ingrained in the psyche of South Asia.

As I have finally gotten back to actually running and not just jogging I am starting to find that I actually can move faster than a large segment of Kathmandu traffic, which brings some benefits as well as some awkward situations. Kathmandu has an incredibly dense population, and there are people everywhere. There are no sidewalks, so people, bovines, dogs, and all manner of transportation from tractors and tuk-tuks to SUVs and school buses all fill the roads. Trash is not collected in bins or bags, but dumped in piles on the side of the road for pick up. The monsoons have eroded some parts of the streets and new sink holes have opened up in places to add to the already large array of pot holes, large puddles, open manholes that one can encounter in the streets of Kathmandu. This all makes for some tricky maneuvering when you are running, and you rarely get to keep a nice even pace as you have to switch sides of the roads, temporarily jump up onto a limited sidewalk, or slow down as you reach a traffic jam.

The strangest thing is that people do not look where they are going for the most part, and even if they do see you coming they continue on what ever path they are on, regardless of if they are on foot, on bikes, motorcycles or in a taxi. The other day I almost slammed into a woman who just stepped out in front of me without looking, luckily I just put my hands out, and kind of moved to the side so as not to fully collide with her, but had I been a motorcycle or a car, she would have been seriously hurt. Bicycles tend to go at a very lazy pace through the city, and often many of the men I pass who are on bikes feel it is some kind of personal challenge to them that I have run by them and start peddling a little faster. For a minute they will get ahead, especially if we are on a down hill, but then they go back to their lazy pace again and I pass them. I get the most puzzled looks from these guys.

The funniest thing is when I get out past the ring road I start passing a lot of the white mini-vans that transport people out toward Boudha. I'll pass them in traffic, and they will pass me on some open road,  but then I pass them again when they stop to drop people off or pick them up. Then as we inevitably hit traffic again as we close in on Boudha I often am running right next to them, and the looks I get from the boys that holler out where the van is going and collect money from passengers is priceless. Sometimes they or someone else in the van will try and say something to me in garbled in English, and sometimes they will even cheer me on. I passed a school bus the other day on a downhill where the bus had to keep stopping for speed bumps. The children on the bus had moved to the side I was passing it on and many of them were cheering me on, and as the bus hit traffic I pulled away to them all pointing and laughing.

Now navigating traffic here is on a bit of a learning curve, as many of the rules and signals from back home just don't apply. Blinkers for instance often are a signal saying that it is OK to pass on the side that blinker is flashing on. On the buses and vans that have young men hanging out the door, they kind of hit the side panel of the vehicle every once in a while, two whacks indicating that it is OK to proceed and one whack means stop (they are signalling to their driver). This is done most often when they are backing up, when people are trying to squeeze by each other in a very congested street and when passenger vehicles are letting people on and off. Horns also constantly update you on a vehicles location, if they are coming up behind you or if they are coming around a tight corner. Luckily Kathmandu traffic rarely exceeds about 25 MPH giving you plenty of time to assess your situation in relation to everything on the road, and more often then not in stop and go traffic you can actually move just as fast if not faster than they can. In fact I am averaging about +/- 17 minute runs out to Boudha right now, and there is no way in hell I could get a taxi out there that fast.

When I get to Boudha I generally do three walking laps around the stupa to kind of collect myself and take some deep breaths. Often a curious monk will start talking to me, and several have asked me why I am sweating so much. I tell them, that I ran from Lazimpat, and they just kind of look at me like I have three heads, but are then happy to move on to more traditional conversation about where I am from, if I have seen the monasteries here and some general questions about any interest in Buddhism. Taxi drivers waiting at the exit to Boudha, people normally perplexed that westerners would want to walk instead of ride in a taxi, always point and shake their heads as I go running back toward Lazimpat. Sorry guys, it's faster and it's free.

I really think that in my school days I learned as much from athletics as I did in the classroom. In school you learn math, English, critical thinking, problem solving, analysis, etc. In athletics you really develop discipline, courage, character, teamwork, and leadership. While those traits can be tested under other non-athletic conditions, it seems to come naturally and easily in that kind of environment, and is something that most youths enjoy. Track and cross country are not expensive sports, you just need a place to run, any country or community can support that. It's somewhat strange then to see a society where it is so under utilized as an educational and developmental tool. To be honest, as cool as it was to have those kids cheering me on as I passed their bus, I kind of wish it was myself and other adults cheering them on.

Water in the Streets

The other day Kim and I were working o our computers, and had decided that we were going to go to Bhat Betini to pick up some groceries. Some distant thunder and light rain started to come down just as we were going to leave, so we decided to wait a bit for it to clear. Then it really started to rain. It was pouring, the rain was coming down so hard that the water coming down off the roof near the spiral stairs was literally a waterfall. It kept up like this for at least two hours.

The KC's Garden is Flooded

The result was the worst flooding I have seen to date in Kathmandu. as I went out on to our patio and looked down at the garden down below, it was completely covered in water, at least a foot of it. The small river just down the road was apparently overflowing its banks completely and water from it was flowing down the nearby road and directly into ours. Having seen and smelled that water I resigned myself to staying indoors for the night. The flooding got so bad that it got into the first floor of our building (raised several feet above ground level) and our power was cut for the night.

A woman attempts to navigate our street, up to her waist in water.

The house owners told us that this was the first time they had seen flooding of this level since they have lived here (over a decade I believe). The water actually went back down fairly quickly, as the drainage on our street is better and a more modern design than most of the city. By late evening the water had subsided from the garden, and in the morning it was completely gone. Even the debris that had been left behind was cleaned up by 10AM. I have to give credit to the people that take care of the street I live on, they really do a nice job keeping it up. Some other parts of the city are still a bit of a mess. 

Water fills our street in Lazimpat

Monsoon Trekking: Helumbu

At the beginning of these posts I advised that these blog posts are a retelling of my experience, and should not nescisarily be used as an itinerary. When talking about the route we took through Helumbu, I really mean it; both because we took a few wrong turns and because we squeezed it all into one epic 31 mile day with my GPS unit telling me that we had near 6,500' of elevation gain and over 13,000' of elevation lost. I think some of the mistakes we made should be somewhat informative to other hikers and act as a warning to not make the same dumb mistakes.

I passed through this section of trail before back in 04', but unfortunately the more interesting villages of Melamchigaon and Tarke Ghyang were not on our itinerary. Our route took us over only half of the Helumbu Circuit, starting at Therapati and heading south to Sundarijal and on to Kathamndu.

Another Clear Morning; Hills as Seen from Therapati

Another clear morning greeted us, and for some reason that morning nothing on the menu really appealed to either one of us and we settled for just some lemon tea and decided that we could stop possibly in Khutumsang for a late breakfast or early lunch. The morning was a bit on the cool side, but again the skies were clear and it looked to be another great day for trekking. Our plan for today was to do a double days hike and make for Chisopani, a village just on the outskirts of Shivapuri National Park, and only about four hours from Sundarijal. My plan was still to walk all the way back to my front door. I figured it was just over five miles from Sundarijal to Boudha and then only two and a half miles from Boudha to my apartment. 

Fog Surrounds a Stupa just South of Khutumsang

Neighborhood Street Dogs: Tan, Cutie, Scruffy & Scardy

Napping in the Street, Speed bumps make good pillows

Coming from a place where we have no stray dogs and never have dogs loose on the street, Nepal is a bit of a throwback to what America might have been like before my time, before leash laws, and dog pounds. Having never been around street dogs really except while traveling in other countries I had always kind of assumed that they were vagabonds moving from one area to the next looking for a good meal, a place to nap out of the sun, and then moving on. This is not the case. The dogs live in a small fixed area. Sure there are no invisible fences or leashes, but most street dogs stay within 100 meters of the shop that throws them leftovers and bits of meat. Most often these are butcher shops, and each butcher shop seems to support a couple of dogs. The one around the corner from us supports four, which is quite high. I think some of the nearby shops contribute, but I'm not sure. Sometimes there are only three, as the dog we call Scardy was missing for quite some time, but recently he's shown back up. 

Lost in Translation- Part 4

So it has been a little while since I posted some pictures of signs with questionable translations. This by no means indicates that I am coming across them any less frequently. Menus, billboards, and store signs continue to be a constant source of entertainment. Unfortunately I often don't have my camera, but when I did I got the following pictures;

When talking about brains and intelligence it is best to get the sentence right. This one just doesn't do that.

Running the Bandh

So today is day five of the strike, and you are starting to notice that supplies of certain things are running low. The place where I normally get eggs, has no eggs. Vegetables and fruit are becoming more withered and in less supply. People's patience with the Maoists is starting to run low, and reports are popping up here and there of shops opening in defiance and a few Maoists actually getting beat on instead of the other way around. Tomorrow there is a peace rally in Durbar Square which seems to be organized by several groups that are sick of the strike. The Newar community in particular seems ready to tell the Maoists to get lost, and I think they will represent a large chunk of the people at the rally tomorrow (at 9AM for those interested).

There is a central tenant in stoic philosophy that says to take that which seems to be an obstacle and make it instead enhance your life. With that thought in mind I took advantage of the clear air, and streets filled only with pedestrians to go for a run. I ran from my apartment in lazimpat to Boudhanath, just over two and a half miles. There was a light rain, but it was warm, and was almost perfect running conditions. It was really a great running route, with long straight aways and gradual inclines and declines, with good sized hills on either side of the river. Almost a perfect mix of terrain. Normally I would never ever be able to run this route due to the sheer volume of people and traffic, not to mention the exhaust you would breathe in over the course of the run.

Indefinite Strike

So we are now entering day two of an indefinite strike here in Nepal called for by the Maoists. It appears the political parties have not come to an agreement and they will not be meeting the Maoists demands, at least not in the short-term. So what is it like here under the general strike?

Quite pleasant actually. First all the little food vendors I use to get food are still open, and though we have stocked up on supplies for a couple of weeks, it's nice to still be able to get the fresh veggies. The streets are devoid of motor vehicles, and as a person who never drives, except for a rare taxi, it's really nice to walk through the capital without taking in the massive amounts of fumes. Kathmandu is a city made for walking, and the lack of constant honking from passing motor bikes or taxis is quite nice.

Cibo Sandwich Bar: Lunch Done Right

So on recommendation from some from some friends we decided we'd give this small restaurant just off Lazimpat a try for lunch. I had noticed when going up toward the British Embassy, but since it was connected to the back side of the ambassador hotel I had inappropriately decided that it was probably just over priced hotel food. Lesson learned, don't judge it before you try it.

Around the Neighborhood

Today Brian gives a tour of his neighborhood in east Lazimpat/Gairidhara.

Nagarkot, A Little Dust, and Some Hiking

So last week Helen and Marc invited us to go up to Nagarkot for the weekend with them, which is something that we had been wanting to do since we got here. For those not familiar with the Kathmandu area, Nagarkot is a resort area that sits about 35 KM (roughly 20 miles) from the center of Kathmandu, at the top of the valley rim. It has become a popular destination because it has sweeping views of the Himalaya and is the closest place to Kathmandu where you can see mountains as far away in the west as the Ganesh Himal and in the east as far as the famous Mt. Everest. Normally you get great views between September and March I had read, but we were not that lucky. With only having two rain showers that I can recall in the last month, it is quite dry here at the moment, and it being the end of the dry season kind of compounds this issue. As a result there is a ton of fine dust in the air, and almost like a fog it reduces visibility all over the country.

Above is a picture showing the kind of limit we had due to the haze of dust. Despite the dust we made the best of it and had a good time. Our taxi had no idea where Nagarkot actually was and dropped us about a kilometer past the town proper, which is just a simple road junction with a few restaurants and shops. So our first goal was to find the hotel Marc & Helen had booked called Peaceful Cottage. We made our way back to the village and then half a mile down a road that followed a ridge to the hotel. The Peaceful Cottage had an interesting octagonal tower from which I'm sure you could normally get some great views. The food was typical of uninspired Nepali imitations of what they think foreign food (or Nepali food for that matter) is, and was fairly over priced. The rooms were also nothing to get excited about and where somewhat dank. That all said it did have a great location, the staff, if a a bit pushy at times, was nice enough, and the potted plants and eclectic setting where really nice. We also got some drinks and apple fritters at a restaurant in Nagarkot proper that weren't bad at all and the prices there were much more reasonable. We also walked by some very nice hotels up in the area, though I'm sure the rooms were attached to package tourist style price tags. The freash air outside of Kathmandu, watching the Eagles drift about on thermal winds and just hanging out with friends made for a good time.

On the following day we decided we would trek down to the valley floor and take a bus or taxi back to Kathmandu from there. Above is a picture of Helen, Kim and Marc as we got near the top of the ridge before heading down to the valley. We ended up being a little confused after this as we ended up being pointed down a road that went to where we were going, but not the way that we expected, and thus we were constantly looking for turns and such that just did not exist. The good news is that when ever we asked someone the direction to where we were going they pointed us down the road that we were on.

Above is a picture of Kim with some local school children, her camera as popular as ever. These kids were not quite as sweet as they looked and prior tourists had allowed for a bad habits. They blocked the road asking (demanding?) chocolate, pens or rupees. We got out of it with some photos, but not before a girl tried to grab stuff out of my pocket and they generally acted like brats. Oh well. You can also see somewhat in this picture the very fine almost silt like dust that covers the trail. This stuff has a consistency almost like water it is so light, and with every step you send a plume of it into the air, while sinking up to about an inch or two into it. Still the terraced countryside and the small villages you hike through are really attractive, and I love walking through the Nepal countryside, dust or no dust.
This picture was taken as we came into the village we thought we might end the day at. It was still decidedly rural and there were no signs of taxis and the buses we did see leaving town were so full that we would have had to ride on the roof, something none of us were to keen on doing. So we walked on to the much larger city of Banepa, just to the west of Bhaktapur.
As this photo shows the main road in Banepa was much more urban and there were several buses heading into Kathmandu here via Bhaktapur, there were however fairly few taxis. The problem with the buses again seemed to be that they were packed and the only available seats were on the roof, which we still were not that interested in. As we were all a bit tired from walking in the sun all day, and weren't having any luck finding transportation we went ahead and got some drinks and I got a snack at a local diner like establishment. Feeling a bit more refreshed we set out again looking for transport. A guy in a van offered us a ride back to Kathmandu and we got him down to 1,500 NRS for the four of us. The poor guys vehicle must have stalled half a dozen times and he clearly was uncomfortable driving in the thick Kathmandu traffic. To compound matters he had no clue where Lazimpat was, but once I knew where we were I was able to direct him and we got home safe and sound.

Big thanks to Helen and Marc for a fun weekend!

Bollywood!!

I don't know if these are Bollywood films or just Nepali made movies, I'm not that intimate with the local movie scene. All I know is that every other week a new batch of posters go up that make me chuckle. I'd never go see the movies but I'm sure glad they put these posters up. When I notice that new ones are up on a walk down Lazimpat road I always stop to admire the new ones. I never got a picture of one of my favorites which was this guy whos side kicks included a monkey and a german shepherd. That poster was awesome.

This is my favorite out of the current batch. It has all the hallmarks of a bad poster, the rampant splattering of fake blood, the cool guy with the shades on, but the woman takes the cake. I have no idea how to even interpret what she is. The trident whos two prongs bend too much to actually stab you isn't very threatening, the face she is making is classic. I love this poster.
This one I think is kind of weak. The guy with the bug eyes and the silly amount of fake blood in the lower left kind of saves it. The guy in the hat is a little hard to take seriously.
Kim likes this one. The complete averageness of the actors is kind of refreshing but the heart and butterfly graphics look straight out of two decades ago. Still this one brings a grin to my face. The hats the guys are wearing are an awesome touch.

EDIT:

This song has been playing quite a bit around here, and is terrible, and yet quite catchy at the same time. Kim and I have sadly been singing this back and forth. It's the part at 2:30 that gets us, that guys voice is just too much.

I'd give my right nut...

Now this is a saying I have commonly used in the past, and this last weekend I wish I had followed through at some point with this offer. Now most people, normal people, probably wouldn't write this entry, but I'm going to for two reasons. First that if it happens to someone else, it might come up in a Google search under "my testicle hurts" or something similar and offer practical realistic diagnosis of the problem without scaring the bejeezus out of them like most medical internet searches, and that those who know me will most likely find a good deal of comedy in my misfortune. If you are uncomfortable reading about male anatomy or you're a close relative and are uncomfortable reading about MY anatomy, this is probably a good place to stop reading.

So on returning from our trek on Wednesday night I felt fairly good. At some point on Thursday I developed a slight ache in the ol sack, and chalked it up to reduced sexual activity due to the recent running around in the woods. By Friday it was becoming more noticeable, and while chasing around Pradip trying to get a parcel at the post office, I was starting to be in full on pain. That night after a short visit to Pradip's house I spent the rest of the night in bed. I wasn't in pain as long as I wasn't standing or walking.

So Saturday morning rolls around and I wake up feeling fine. I get up, happy that the pain has passed and go sit at the kitchen table to check my e-mail and the news. Then all of a sudden I realize, not only has the pain not gone away, but my right nut feels like someone just swatted it, hard. This sent me reeling back into bed, my hand pounding against the concrete wall, as if punching the wall will somehow transfer my pain to this inanimate object. After what seems like too long, the pain subsides, and I feel fine as long as I just lay down.

Now there aren't too many things that make me nervous as far as being messed up. My eyes, most internal organs and the package down below are about the only things that are gonna make me think twice about going to see a doctor, that's the stuff I don't want messed up. Now sitting in a bed in a foreign country I have one of the above, and maybe the one that is hardest to talk about due to modesty issues, in trouble. My hope is that it's just an infection, that will pass. Kim thinks I should take some pain relievers, drink tequila and go see a doctor. I take something for the inflammation and pain, but decide to hold out on the other two suggestions. Kim just shakes her head. For all her good qualities, nurturing, sympathy and pampering the sick are not among them. Kim just sings the AC/DC song Who's got big balls? I inform her that it would be a shame if I were ever crippled as I would most likely die of neglect. She tells me to suck it up.

So Saturday comes and goes. I wake up Sunday and a short walk to the bathroom informs me that things are no better. I'm now starting to get concerned, and I am considering going to see a doctor. The problem is that Sunday is a holiday called Holi. During this holiday people add this colored dust stuff to water and throw it at each other in balloons, plastic bags or just in a hand to hand melee. I actually had fun on this holiday in 2004, but the prospect of running to a taxi while dodging water balloons and simultaneously holding my crotch, just didn't seem appealing. So I sat in bed listening to an audio book most of the day. I talk to my dad that evening, he thinks I need to get this checked out. I agree.

So now Monday rolls around, and I wake up and still there is pain. I kind of stink at this point because I have just been laying in bed for 2 days and haven't showered. With special care I get cleaned up and ready to go to the hospital. A last minute look in Lonely Planet reveals there is a travel clinic staffed by Western doctors just off of Lazimpat road, not too far from where we are staying. I plan on taking a taxi, but find that the pain is closer to what it was on Friday than the last two, and since the taxi driver we attempt to talk to doesn't understand English I walk all the way to the clinic. This was uncomfortable, but I at least don't feel the need to punish inanimate objects or kick animals.

I get a British doctor who asks a few questions and does a quick exam and confirms what I figured was the best case scenario, it's just an infection in the right testicle. Just to be cautious he wants to get a urine sample and do an ultrasound to make sure there isn't further infection or anything structurally wrong. The short of it is that everything comes back negative and I'm on antibiotics for the next week. It still hurts though, but I can stop speculating on cancer, or necrotic crotch, or twisted testicles. Now it's just a waiting game to normal again.

New Apartment in Kathmandu

Our Street

So after a couple days of running around grabbing cook tops and a refrigerator, figuring out how drinking water and gas is handled and getting our internet connection going we are for the most part moved in to our new place. We still need to get our gas canister so we can cook, and we are supposed to have our battery installed soon, so that we have some power when the electricity in our district is shut off.

The place is nice, has a single bedroom, one bath a living area and a nice kitchen. The bedroom is good sized and the living area has some good sized windows overlooking a large outdoor patio (we're on the 3rd floor by US reckoning, 2nd floor by the rest of the worlds arithmetic). Above us is the roof, from where you can see some of the snow covered peaks when its clear and many of the roofs of surrounding Kathmandu. Anyway here are some more pics.

View from the roof of our building looking toward the east. When it is clear you can see the tops of snow capped mountains.

Our kitchen has tons of cabinet space, which is uncommon here I think. We grabbed a water cooler for drinking watter and a small fridge too. The counter top is designed for Nepali Woman so it comes up to about my thigh, so I think I'm going to figure out a way to elevate my cutting board so my back won't hurt.

Our living area with the big windows looking out on a good sized terrace. Just ignore the trash from the refrigerator in the corner. This room has a good amount of natural light and even a sink to wash your hands before and after dinner.

This is the garden attached to our apartment. The house owner does a very nice job of keeping it looking nice. The back section has a few vegitables being grown.

Apartment, Trekking and Holidays

Well the first big news is that we decided on an apartment! After discussing what we really needed a bit we did decide on taking the cheaper apartment in eastern Lazimpat. The home owners seem very nice, the apartment is very sunny and it really is a good location. We signed the lease today and put the deposit in for three months yesterday. Now we just need to get a gas cylinder for the stove, internet hooked up and buy bedding and kitchen stuff. We owe a big thanks to Pradip for all his help in finding the place and helping us with the stuff we need to to get settled (not to mention putting us up in his home for the last three weeks!). I'm excited to get moved in and will post some pictures as soon as we get them. The location is just about a quarter mile east of where we had been, and though it's a bit further from Lazimpat proper, it's closer to Bhat Batani (a good sized shopping complex).

Next up is trekking. Looks like our first trek is going to be in the Langtang region, Kim and I are going to do the Tamang Herritage trail combined with a trek up the Langtang valley to Kyanjin Gompa. For those not familiar with their Nepali geography, Langtang is a region just north of Kathmandu and on the border with Tibet. When I was here last time in 04' I hiked the Helumbu region which is directly north of Kathmandu, and I made it just to the southern edge of what is considered Langtang. The Tamang people are directly descended from Tibettans who moved into this region over time. This area was the major trade route between Kathmandu and Tibet and was famous for its salt trade. The Tamang Herritage trail supposedly lacks a little in views, but is said to be much like what Langtang was like twenty years ago, and not too many tourists. That part takes us within a days walk of the Tibetan border before we head south into Langtang proper. The langtang valley should be a good first hike, ascending only to about 12,000 feet (although there is a day trip I might do that gets you up to 15K) and is a gradual ascent up the valley. At the turn around there is spectacular views of mountains and Glaciers. When we know when we are going I'll post a map and itinerary. I've read the bus ride, only 120+/- kilometers is a brutal ride that takes upwards of ten hours to get to the trail head.

Nepal has more holidays it seems than any country on earth. This Friday is Maha Shivarati, which I don't know much about but when we were here in 2002 we attended part of the event. It has something to do with Shiva, and lots of Sadhus (Hindu holly men, ascetics) travel to Pashupatinath, Kathmandu's most sacred Hindu temple. Kim and I could get close, but as non-believers we are not allowed inside. Something like a quarter million people descend on this place on Friday. Last time I saw this it was kind of interesting to see all the Sadhus in their body defying yoga poses, with their ash and paint covered bodies. I'm not sure if we will go this time though. The other upcoming holiday is Tibetan New Year (Losar) which kicks off on Sunday and goes for two weeks, We will most likely stop by Boudhanath again to see any thing going on up that way. Supposedly at night they blow horns and light thousands of butter lamps. If we go trekking soon enough up around Langtang, we may even catch something up that way as I've read the Tamang people celebrate Losar as well.

Where the hell are you?!?

For anyone that was interested in where in Kathmandu we were staying below is a shot in Google Earth. My father gave me a nice Garmin Handheld for Christmas which lets me store GPS positions fairly accurately (at least in locating buildings, trails or villages). I was able to take a shot just outside our apartment and it is recorded as "Lazimpat Apartment" on the map. You can see we are just south of the Danish Embassy. Further south of us you can see what use to be the royal palace and gardens, and south west of us is the tourist district of Thamel, with the Kathmandu Guest House at its heart and Pilgrims Guest House defining its northern border.

If anyone wants a copy of the KMZ/KML file I've put together so far just send me an e-mail. Which brings me to another question, uploading video and picutres on Blogger seems easy enough, but does anyone know how you can link file downloads such as KMZ's or other data files? Any suggestions would be great.

Arrival

Well we are here! After a small marathon of flights we arrived in Kathmandu yesterday. We were a little late getting into Delhi yesterday and due to that and the backlog of people wanting to fly due to fog over the last few days we missed our connecting flight to KTM. As usual India was a mess of paperwork and ineptness. After some forceful negotiating (mostly on Kim's part) we arranged to get on the next flight out, after initially being told we would have to wait about 24 hours in transition. yeah that would not have been cool. Our luggage unfortunately did not make the flight and is supposedly coming in today around 2pm.

Once in Kathmandu Pradip met us at the airport and after filing some things with airport about our bags we traveled to his house in Lazimpat where we will be staying. The apartment is very nice, and is just down the street from the Danish Embassy. After arriving and dropping off our stuff we stopped by his shop in Thamel and the went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Thamel House. Already tired from our 35+ hours of travel and add to that a few drinks at dinner and I had to fight hard not to fall asleep. Needless to say upon return to the apartment I slept like a rock.

We are very excited to finally be here! I'll add pictures and all that kind of stuff as soon as we have them.

17 Days and Counting

Actually it's 16 days and about 20 hours, but close enough. Things have gone remarkably well for us in preparing for the big move. We were able to find loving families for both of our dogs, and we have had someone rent our side of the apartment building. All that is left