Everest, Moving, Cooking

So I got back from my trip to Everest Base Camp a few days ago but haven't had a chance to post on here. While I was gone we moved to a new apartment a couple blocks away from where we had been and the internet isn't quite hooked up yet. We have been using these nifty USB connection things put out by Ncell, but they get used up by the amount of data you download, so I've been rather sparing with it. Should have our internet connection back up and working today though, I think.

So the trip up to Everest went really well and I'll have photos and some more detailed posts soon. We walked from Jiri to Lukla in four days, had some pizza at Khumbu lodge, and then made our way to base camp after a rest day in Namche and a few shorter acclimatization days on the way up the track. The upside of this trip was crystal clear skies, the clearest weather I've had up that way. The downside was that it was quite cold, and on the day we planned on heading toward the Cho La we got hit with a decent snow storm that kept us from crossing the pass and even made the high trail to Phortse questionable so instead we just headed back to Kathmandu. Still, I got some of my best photos of Ama Dablam, Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and others that I've ever been able to get. Donnie even got to drink his Everest Beer at Everest Base Camp.

While we were gone, as I mentioned, Kim got us moved into a new apartment. This ones a two bed, two bath, with a full living room dining room and a nice kitchen with a pantry. In an attempt to move to something that comes closer to resembling the first world we even bought a washing machine, so no more laundry by hand. This place is on another dead end street so it's still quiet for Kathmandu, which is a big bonus. Marble floors, moldings on the ceiling, and a bedroom almost as big as our last apartment has me feeling like we moved into a palace, but the electricity black outs sure enough remind you that we are indeed still in Kathmandu. Still we've been able to run the projector off the inverter and have been watching the first few seasons of Dexter at night while munching on whatever food I've been experimenting with. Hellfire wings a couple nights ago, various pasta sauces the night before and a blue cheese based yogurt dressing with a huge salad last night.

Which brings me to the final part of this update, new food and cooking. I'm planning on expanding what I sell at the market by a significant amount. The plan is to include the south west style pulled chicken, pulled pork, at least two different pasta sauces and a marinara sauce if I can get my hands on any red bell pepper, along with a hot sauce, some Greek style yogurt dip, and maybe a few other items. I'll also expand to pesto, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and possibly a Buffalo pulled chicken with blue cheese once I get some supplies from the states. The aim of all of this is to not only produce a bit more income, but to gage interest in a few items as I possibly start working toward putting a restaurant together. The big question mark is of course the up front financial investment, let alone figuring out how to get fresh beef in a Hindu country, how to keep prep refrigerated in a country that is without power more often than it has power, where to get things like fryolators, fountain drink machines and the gas that goes with them as well as syrup, and how you could motivate a staff of south Asians to run an American style restaurant. Starting the process of looking into all of it anyway, and in the meantime putting together some new recipes. 

Mr Smith Goes to Kathmandu- One Year On

So today this blog turns one year old! I had no idea what I would be writing about when I originally put this together, and looking over the posts from the last year it's interesting to me to see how it all shaped up. All in all I've had a great experience over the last year, from the final preparations to come here in December to now when I'm planning to leave Nepal for the first extended period since coming here (I'm heading to Thailand/Cambodia for a short time). While any experience has its ups and downs, this one has been mostly ups and a great experience over all that I'm glad has been a part of my life. Not everything goes as expected, but that is in an ironic way that's something we expect.

So before I left I wrote a post on Why would you want to move to Nepal, and now that it's been a year I thought it would be interesting to revisit some of those thoughts and see what I have done, what I haven't done,how reality matched up with expectations, what I'd still like to accomplish and what was just naive thinking. I'll use Italics to quote the original text.

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.

Othello, Apartments, Yoga & Maybe Some Trekking

So all kinds of things to talk about in this post. First I guess I'll talk about the play we saw on Saturday night, Othello: The Sen of Nepal. I wasn't sure what the hell a sen was, and at first kind of assumed it was a typo. Clearly it was supposed to be the line that replaces the Moor of Venice, so I thought maybe it was an ethnic group, but I had never heard of Sen people and I'm somewhat familiar with the Nepali ethnic groups, even though there are like 20. A Google search revealed it's a popular Bengali last name...so I guess it means the dude is Bengali, which would fit the play. Anyway the play was put on by a new stage company called Nepali Shakes, with the founder having studied and preformed in London and New York. The actors all appeared to be of college age, and it was held at a college in Patan, just south of Kathmandu. Now understanding people who speak with a Nepali or Indian accent can be tough to follow, when they are speaking in Shakespearian English it can be  almost impossible. The guy playing Iago talked a little fast and the guy playing Rodrigo was a little tough to understand, so the opening scene was brutal, with maybe 10% comprehended. After my ears warmed up to their speech patterns I was much better off and all of the female characters spoke very clearly and were easily understood. The sets were good, the acting very decent. Over all it was an enjoyable experience and if they did another play that looked interesting I think I'd go.
Next up is the apartment search. We looked at a whole bunch of places on Saturday, and though I liked one of them, Kim thought it lacked privacy due to a common area going through the area that connected all the rooms. I can't blame her for not being wild about that. So today we looked at another four places and liked a couple of them. One is just down the street from where we are, it's on the top floor, so when the sky is clear it will have mountain views, and best of all it is dirt cheap, merely $135/MO. The drawback is that it is a little smaller than the other places we've looked at having just a Kitchen, bath, living area and one bedroom. Another place we looked at is in a nice part of town with a good sized garden on the ground level and again sits up on the top floor with decent views. This place has a tiled bath with a tub, good sized sunny rooms and is just around the corner from the largest shopping center in Kathmandu. At just over $200/mo it's a good deal too. Finally there is the very large fully furnished apartment that is right next to the Prime Ministers house. This one has ample space, 3 bathrooms (one though is an Asian squat toilet), 2 bedrooms, overlooks the prime ministers grounds and comes with a localized hot water heater, TV, stove, refrigerator, and is fully stocked with plates and utensils in the Kitchen. This would be like getting a place next to the white house in the US, it's kind of weird. The real estate agent joked that there is 24 hour security because of the armed guards at the Prime Ministers place. Looking out the east facing window no more then 50' away is a tower with an army dude in it and a machine gun. Kim of coarse thought this was the best and at just under $350/month it really is a nice deal. The cheapskate in me is kind of trying to convince me that I want the place that is $135/mo. Kim may win this one though.
  lastly it looks like we may take some Yoga classes. Kim is the one pulling for this, but if she can go trekking, I can put in an honest effort at Yoga. Besides I could use some additional flexibility. As for hiking I'm thinking of going as soon as we get this apartment thing worked out. Tibetan New Year starts on the 14th, and they celebrate for like two weeks. I'm thinking any area with Sherpa or other Tibetan people would be the place to go. I'm inclined to try and do the Everest Trek again, as getting up to Namche Bazar to see any celebration could be a lot of fun. I am going to look into Langtang as well, but I have never been up that way so I have no idea what it's like or what ethnicity inhabits that valley.

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.

Nearing Departure

A lot of things go in to getting ready to go to a foreign country for an extended period of time, especially when you have a fairly limited time period to prepare yourself. The last few weeks have included a fairly signifigant amount of running around making sure to tie up loose ends on this side of the world, and taking care of things that are harder to get done over there. A short list includes;

Rent out the duplex

Move out of the duplex

Give tenants bank deposit slips for rent

Sell the cars (haven't quite done this yet)

Find homes for the dogs

Give notice at work (and try like hell to stay focussed before leaving)

Move all billing to paperless

Change of Address

Get new glasses and a new prescription

Get all dental work up to date

Make sure Laptops are properly stocked with software

Get electrical adapters for all chargers

Get additional memory/batteries for cameras

Decide what is getting packed and what goes into storage

Actually pack stuff and put stuff in storage

Sell, throw out, or donate the rest of the stuff

Cancel Utilities/cell phones etc.

Set up contact information and software for people for communication

Notify Banks/Credit Cards of travel plans

Sell other assets and link online financial accounts

Buy cell phones that can be used on arrival

Arrange plane tickets

Try to figure out where one might be staying on arrival

Try to figure out how one might make money after arrival

Try to figure out how one might get a visa after the tourist visa expires

See everyone before you leave

Go out to dinner with half of these people before you leave

In some ways it doesn't look like much, but it has really kept us busy over the last two months. Now with only a few days left everything has for the most part fallen into place. The things that are up to us have been dealt with as best as we can, the rest you just have to roll with as it happens.

A lot of people ask if we are nervous about being close to going. The short answer is absolutely not. All I can say is that with so much out of the way, it will be a real relief to finally be over there.

Going Away Party

Thank you to everyone who came to our going away party on Saturday, Kim and I had a great time and it was nice to be able to see everyone in one place before we leave. Special thanks to Kim's mom for hosting the event and getting everything organized! I didn't get too many pictures but I've attached a few that I took at the event. I think we had somewhere around a hundred people or so show up to see us off.

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

Why would you want to move to Nepal?

So I always am asked, "Why would you want to move to Nepal?" Here are just a few of the reasons I have for the move;

1) Experience. This one kind of goes without saying and is what many assume is the only reason. I Have always wanted to stay for an extended period in one country as opposed to moving quickly from one to the next. This gives the opportunity to form some real friendships, learn something about local customs and language, as well as expose oneself to a different way of living.

2) Climate. This is not a tropical paradise by any means, but Kathmandu sits at about the same latitude as Tampa Florida, though the elevation makes the temperatures swing a bit more. That said it is much warmer than Maine, and the average lows in the coldest months are still above freezing, much better than the frequent sub-zero temps we endure. The drastic elevation changes in Nepal allows for some variation at any time of the year as well.

3) Time. America is a busy culture, we are obsessed with doing things constantly and we make very productive use of our time. That can be a great quality, but as it spills over into your personal life and you begin to shut out what you actually love in life for more productive time to make money there is a balance that has been abandoned. Nepal takes life at a slower pace, and a little extra time to talk over tea is what I'm looking for at the moment.

4) Hiking. I love hiking and Nepal offers trekking that is unlike any other place on the planet. Not only does the terrain consist of the highest mountains on earth, some jungle and Tibetan plateau, it also has the cultural experience of the tea-houses and villages that you stay in over the course of the hike. Some of my most fond memories in life are on Nepali hiking trails.

5) Simpler Life. Maybe this is in part a combination of point number 1 and number 3, but it is just the desire to get away from ...how do I say this without sounding like a dirty hippy...a cluttered consumer culture. As I become an increasingly bigger fan of a fairly Spartan lifestyle I find that I would rather work less and just have a cheap lifestyle, and few places are cheaper than Nepal.

6) Volunteer. I would love to take some of my time while I'm over there and try to volunteer in some capacity to help out people that are truly disadvantaged. I will very likely look into some kind of teaching or coaching opportunity while I am there.

Then there is always things like what an amazing city Kathmandu is, how unique a place it is, and how friendly the Nepali people are. There is the natural beauty of the country, its proximity to other places I want to visit China, parts of central Asia and Bhutan, and that certain satisfaction one can take from finding something a little crazy that they have wanted to do and having the courage to go through with it. Even if my move there is a dismal failure and I come home poor and jobless, it far better than to remain comfortable but always have wondered what might have been.

Kathmandu Bound

My wife Kim and I will be heading to Nepal in about a month or so. For now I don't have much to say, so I'll let Bob Seger say it for me;