“They Call me Chow……..Chowmein”

October 23, 2008 at 2:19 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Hello!!!!!!

Some children in one of the villages I was trekking through in the far west of Nepal, on the way to Yagya’s home, were calling me chowmein b/c of my curly long hair……….hence chowmein!!!!!!!

Brian, I will totally post some pucker factor for you when I jump……..I have not yet but will, after this next trek of mine I am going to do it.  I have taken around 1500 pictures already and would love to post them but when I tried it took sooooo long I gave up but when I have a completely free day I will get you some action shots Cuz!!!!  Thank you all for your comments!!!!!  It means a lot to know that you are interested and keeping track of me.  I miss you all!!!!!

I am closing in on another month here in Nepal.  It is going sooooo fast.  I really love being here and am very happy.  I am thinking right now about maybe staying longer to teach English and work at an Orphanage (all volunteer of course).  It is all lined up I just need to decide if I want to travel on on stay? We will see.

In the last month I have been at Yagya’s home in a very rural village way out in Western Nepal……..Oh may God, it was soooooo great to get off of the tourist beaten track to witness and experience how real nepalese people in Nepal live.  Kathmandu is definetly not Nepal…….the country side is where it is at.  Especially the west because everything is done exactly like it was 100’s and 100’s of years ago………it’s crazy.  The first people to ever settle in Nepal started it all around this area and district (Ascham).  The thing is they just never changed the old tradition and ways as others kept developing toward eastern of Nepal.  It is like that today.  The East is far more developed now and old tradition are no longer practiced.  There are no roads to his and surrounding villages so everything must be packed in that cannot be grown in the field or gotten from the animals.

The first bus I took was supposed to take 12 hours.  It took20.  It was also supposed to seat 32 passengers.  It seated 60 including the people riding on top of the bus.  We stayed the night in his Uncles home and took a bus the next day that took 17 hours.  This is the closest we could get and then trekked in for 10 hours.  The same thing happened on the way back but the 20 hour bus ride went down to 15 and I had my own seat.  On the way up I was crammed in the back of the bus b/c of not enough seating between six people and 2 kids sleeping, sweating and drooling all over me……….oh yeah we were real close……….I have made many many friends this way……that and just by being the only white guy around???  Everyone is my best friend forever.  We could not be there before dusk because of a tradition or superstition or something……always some sort of tradition or wierd superstitious rule.  I went there for the reason of Dasain……a 15 day long festival.  I will have to show pictures for sure but I went through may different ceremonies of Tika at many different homes over the span of 3 days! Tika is a ceremony where an elder chants and sits on a special carpet with red dyed rice that he places and sticks on your fore head for prosperity, health, good ,luck etc. etc. (and for the God being worshipped for this 15 days) puts mala (rice grown on day one a pick on day 10, it is also used as a kind of necklace) in a traditional hat called the Topi (most elders where this all the time).  Then after the elder has done this for everyone younger then him the next one down the line does this for everyone in age under himself and on and on………  Everyone is related there somehow but not necessarily all by blood.  Everyone is considered to have originally come from 1 of 7 saints.  So b/c blood lines are followed from these saints down to today the relationships between these people and families gets very confusing and very large.  I have video and pictures of the ceremonies in action and participated in every single one so after day three I was completely Tika’d out!!!!!!! 

There are people that have never ever left that village (Mongalsen).  Some are very innocent and naive even in older age 40’s and 50’s…….like little kids in how they think and act sometimes……  It is sooooo amazing and interesting.  It was soooo quiet and a much need rest for me to get out into the country………I did not want to leave but had to keep moving for this next trek before it gets too cold or I would not be able to do it.  I did get bored and began to work in the fields plowing with a neighbor boy and also helping other family workers harvest rice……..that was the very best part for me because I got to work.  The plowing was with 2 bulls dragging along a like medieval giant wooden angled how looking thing with a piece of steel sticking out of the end.  A big spade is also used by one man to get spots missed.  Yeah I missed a lot of spots trying to control those bulls so I was spading quite a bit but got better and learned.  The 12 year old kid I was helping found this quite amusing……….he could control these animals with ease and my goofy gangly ass was all over the place……..I have video i will have to show you.  The action of work, even though it was totally new work was the only thing that kind of felt familiar and something I could relate to in this village.  No one spoke english and every time I attempted to talk anything even a phrase or a couple of words they really, really appreciated it, got very excited and I helped us be connected even if only for a little while. 

Before we hiked back out we stopped in a village directly on a hill top across the valley from Mongalsen.  It took about 8-10 hours trekking down into the valley and back up again with a swim in the valley bottom.  We found a really, really huge swimming hole in the river.  I jumped off some cliffs and just barely hit bottom so it may have been even 10 feet deep.  Afterwards we had lunch at a relatives home in the valley and headed on.  It was the last day of festival and thousands of people hiked in from towns and villages everywhere in the area.  When the sun was behind the hills Buffalo were let loose one by one, ran down by hundreds of people and sacrificed to the God….I know it is very brutal but also just different.  They give all of there well being to the buffalo, that if was not around these people would not be able to survive.  It is used for everything.  Also many, many goats were sacrifed in a temple at Yagya’s home.  I do not mention this to gross people out or to feel sorry for these animals I just wanted to share to share.  I have to do everything so I also ran after the buffalo but only to get video not to actually sacrifice……….I do not like this and is very sad but I just wanted proof to show someone this crazy old barbaric way of life that is still somehow practiced today.  These sacrificial things are only done in this part of the country and no where else east onward from there toward the capital city.  His town was also a dry town so no drinking.  Damn it.  although people still got hammered!!!!!  When I say hill I mean mountain.  These huge green hills are big or bigger then a lot of our mountains.  Above them are 20 plus thousand feet peaks…………it really is beautiful.  We waited about 5-6 hours for our bus out so I body floated the river with some kids and actually bathed in it………..probably not the best thing but I had not showered for awhile and one of the kids had some soap…………..I felt so much better after the long hike and relaxed on a warm rock in the sun until the bus came………..it was much needed as I was pretty over loaded and exhausted at that time.  Yagya and his family were soooooo great to me.  Thank you Yagya……….for everything.   

One more thing in Yagya’s uncles town he let me drive his old probably 1992 yamaha motorcycle around the town and country………that is the way to see the country side………it was fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have to end this for I am leaving tommorrow morning to hike from the bottom of the Everest trail up to the base camp at 17 plus thousand feet.  Most people do not do the whole thing only b/c of time issues.  It is quicker to fly into an air port (Lukla) and then hike up to the base camp but that costs 110 dollars one way and I have nothing but time!!!!  Also this hike is supposed to acclimatize people better b/c of a more gradual descent instead of flying straight to 13,000 feet and getting AMS.  

I apologize for mispelling and grammar etc but I gotta role………….I should be a english teacher for my own benefit huh!!!?  I will write another one of these when I get back from Everest………..until then!!!!!

I love you family and friends

Namaste

Camen

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Nepal

October 2, 2008 at 8:25 am · Filed under Uncategorized

O.K. so I finally have a chance to sit down and make an initial entry.  It is hard b/c the electricity keeps going off plus it’s hard to find a decent connection.  I will try my best to get you updated.  I arrived in Nepal at Kathmandu on September 4th with a one way ticket in my pocket.  I met up with a couple of Israeli guys and we got a room for the night.  The hard thing is the pollution in Kathmandu and traffic…….supposedly it is compared to Mexico City but either way I got super plugged up.  There are no traffic rules here and tons of motorcycles.  Now that I think of there are no rules for anything.   I contacted my friend Rajendra Acharya and he picked me up the next day.  He is the Head Director of Nepalese Television.  That afternoon he took me to his office building and not even locals can go to this complex……..this is the same place that the Prime Minister is located.  It was in good shape.  He introduced me to all of his co-workers including editors, reporters etc. etc.  I got a chance watch a live news cast and it was pretty neat……it helped that the News anchor was very beautiful!!!!

I met up with Yagya a couple days later (we got seperated but I will have to tell that story in person)  and he stayed with me at Raj’s home.  They have Saturdays off in Nepal so myself, Raj, his daughter Sanskriti (Nanu), his wife Salena (De De) and Yagya went Boca (goat) hunting!!!  I will also have to tell this story in person but Raj is one crazy man and also very hilarious.  We went from small farm to small farm and everywhere in between bartering and getting kicked out of homes for trying to get a Boca for absolutely next to nothing……These locals would get very angry and run us off of their property!!!! ha ha ha it was funny!!  So we finally found one at the Temple we were traveling too deep down in the jungle outside of town with a river running underneath.  It is for the God Cali.  Everyone was worshipping and we had the goat sacrificed by a priest…..very interesting experience.  I of course watched b/c I want the whole experience right?!!!  We had it completely cleaned out and skinned.  We ate every part of that goat including the Capaar (the skull) over about a week in half.  I mean everything…..  This is including him giving a lot of it away to neighbours and others living in his flat.  I helped Selena in the kitchen prepare and cook Momo ( a type of chicken and vegetables rapped in home ade doe and steam…..like pot sticker….very difficult to wrap but I managed.  I love his family very much and they have been sooooo hospitable and friendly……I am trying to learn as much Nepalese as possible to communicate with them.  I also went to a school festival of Sanskriti’s with dancing and food.  Salena works there as a teacher.

Sooooo the days following I went to many great Temples all over the valley and hung out with Yagya and met all his friends.  They are all very very interesting, very old and beautiful.  I’ll post pictures here or maybe on web shots or something.

After that Yagya I and another American Luke headed out on a trekking trip around the Annapurna Circuit!!!!  The mountains were soooo huge.  It was more beautiful then I could have imagined.  It rained so hard the first couple of days that some pretty intense landslides had come down and we had to navigate around them so it took longer then expected!!  I also had about a 30 pound pack………don’t ask me why and it got very, very heavy!!!  What the hell was I doing caring books?!!!!! I mean books?!!!  come on!!!  I also got sick on this hike but the view and experience through all the little Nepalese towns and villages were all worth it!!  We trekked from an elevation of about 1-2,000 feet all the way up to 17,000 feet so saw everything from rice paddies to jungle to Tundra and then just huge mountain peaks!!!!  We Trekked for about 12 days   I came down out of the Himalayas and stayed in Pohkara again for 2 more nights.  This town is sooo layed back and just a very neat place.  At the base of the mountains with a awesome view and a huge lake for canoeing a boating…..very relaxing place.  I have been meeting many other Trekkers.  I have only ran into 2 Americans since I have been here.  I have met French, Dutch, Spanish, Israeli, Chinese, etc. etc. but just not many Americans in this part of the world.  So after that (let me remind you I am probably missing a lot but this will give you a good idea)  I met up with 2 very pretty girls from Holland that were travelling to a National Park in Chitwan.  They were both medical students that have an internship in Eastern Nepal.  They were very great!! I had a really good time if you are reading this!!!  There I rode an elephant and saw rhinos, crocodiles, monkeys etc.  Went on a jungle walk.  Oh yeah I have fought 100’s and 100’s of Leeches in different hikes into the jungle….freaks me out!!!!  Also went to an Elephant breeding ground and took in a culutural show where I actually danced with the locals as they pulled me on stage!!!!  I got moves……. After that we went to Lumbini (Buddhas birthplace) travelling all day and even abandoning our bus to hike into another town b/c of a protest in the middle of the road blocking both sides of traffic……………protests and strikes happen all the time and everything stops…its frustrating but you just have to laugh and be patient.   We rented bicycles in Lumbini and visited the birthplace of Buddha, the tree his mother held on to to give birth and the exact spot and rock of his birth among many other historical things including the Pagoda Peace Temple (impressive) etc.  I travelled all day yesterday from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. b/c of a strike on the end of Kathmandu b/c of a child that got ran over and then accident.  In this country if that happens the driver must run for his life or be lynched and killed by the family and friends of the child.  We were stuck in traffic for like 4-6 hours.  should have only been about 6 hours of travel.  Now I am back in Kathmandu and am going to Yagys’ village Atcham in a very, very remote and rural village in Western Nepal.  It will be the most cultural experience of my life.  I will be there for about a month……….maybe I’ll teach english?!!!!  I may need to brush up on it anyway.  Also when we are there we are going to some more national parks, random hikes in the mountains and planning a trip down to the Taj Mahal and maybe to Dehli if I can talk him into………..should be really great.

O.k. so I know I missed a lot b/c that is almost a month of stuff in a couple of paragraphs but here it is my peeeeeeeps!!!

Love you and hope all is well in your life!!!

p.s. After that the plan right now is to hike to Mt. Everest and after that to India again………..we will see just planning it by year…………day by day.  Oh yeah and bungee jumping!! I will travel until I am tired, have it out of my system or go broke!!!  ha ha don’t worry Dad I am fine.

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