Back to Kathmandu

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Alan Stock

A colourful food market nestled amongst the shrines of Kathmandu’s backstreets

Days 100 > 104 – Location: Kathmandu, Nepal

10/12/12 > 14/12/12

On my last morning in Karmidanda I got up early and said my goodbyes. Jhabraj and his family had been such great hosts and I was sorry to be leaving, but after two and a half weeks I was feeling restless and my health had returned, I was ready to move on. I caught a bus from the track near the house. People piled on, nearly all of them looked of Tibetan origin. Over the next few hours we bumped our way down the valley, some hairpins were so sharp the bus had to reverse to get an attainable angle to take them. We passed through villages similar to Karmidanda and eventually reached the tarmac roads, climbing the opposite valley and stopping at a town for lunch. There were lots of stalls selling big gourd vegetables, must be the season for them. I listened to “To Kill a Mocking Bird” on my iPod to pass the time. We wound our way around the hills and arrived in Kathmandu at 1pm, by which point my bum was completely numb! I took a taxi into Thamel and checked into Hotel Potala which I’d stayed in before.

I chilled out for the rest of the day enjoying some western delights, pizza and coffee! You start to crave that stuff when you’ve not had it for months!

Statue in Kathmandu temple

That night I heard back from the Hong Kong passport processing centre, who were dealing with my passport replacement. They needed a written note declaring why I couldn’t get a countersignature for my passport application, so I sent them a photo which did the job.

Camille, the Belgian girl I’d hung out with a month or so back, was back from a meditation course, so I met her in the evening. She took me to dinner with a big group of people she’d done the meditation course with. They were a mix of all nationalities. The 10 day meditation course at a temple near Kathmandu had been pretty hardcore. They weren’t allowed to talk to each other at all for the whole duration, they slept in dorms, had big meals and cold showers. For an hour in the morning and the evening the teacher gave them lessons about meditation. They got up at 4am every morning and after breakfast sat down for 12 hours of silent meditation with a break for lunch.

A nice courtyard restaurant me and Sophie went to breakfast daily to catch the sun

Camille found it hard to begin with, but after a few days she focused her thoughts and finished with less doubts about life and more of a life plan. Rather than try to eliminate thoughts, you are supposed to just let them come and go. She did get bored after a week though. The reactions of the others in her group were mixed, some like Camille were really happy with the course. Others never got into it and spent it feeling bored and frustrated. Some said there wasn’t enough direction or that it was too hardcore – but they did treat it as a learning experience.

Rani Pokhari, Kathmandu

After dinner we parted ways and she said we’d meet the next day to go trekking with some of the group. However the next morning she didn’t turn up so I assumed she’d gone without me.

I spent the next three days bumming around, working on the blog now I had wi-fi again, sorting out photos, and reading – popping in and out of restaurants and bars. My laptop charger broke (add it to the big list of things that have broken down!) but I managed to find a replacement on the same night in the techhy area of Kathmandu. I took a few walks around central Kathmandu to get some exercise. I was bored but stuck without my passport, I couldn’t go too far from Kathmandu and I’d already exhausted the tourist options in the area. I knew Sophie would be coming to Kathmandu soon to do some travelling in her school holidays.

Traditional potter at work at the street festival

Day 105

15/12/12

Sophie and Jhabraj were arriving in Kathmandu today, both in school holidays. In the morning I ran into Camille. She apologized for standing me up the other day – she’d forgotten where my hotel was! She didn’t go trekking and had been hanging out with some Chinese friends she met at the meditation course. We arranged to meet up later to visit a casino.

I popped into a nearby shopping street where they were holding a street festival. There was live Nepali music and dancing on stage, local food and handicrafts, a small zipline over the street promoting an adventure sports company, and an abseil down the side of the buildings. I watched a bike stunt display for a while as they pulled some impressive moves for the crowd.

Ziplining above the street festival

Bike stunts at the street festival

In the afternoon I met Sophie at a café and Jhabraj joined us briefly. She was staying with Jhabraj and his daughters in their flat in Kathmandu. There had been yet more drama in the village! A girl had committed suicide after failing her exams. She’d supposedly hung herself and left a note. However it was a bit suspicious as no one had examined her body until the police intervened when the funeral was taking place down at the river. We didn’t hear the verdict.

A girl spots us from a temple balcony near Durbar Square

After dinner Sophie had some stuff to do so I met Camille, who was with her Chinese friends. We took a taxi to a casino on the outskirts of town. It was a pretty cheap establishment, though it did have free drinks, free cigarettes and a free buffet which was the reason they were visiting! They got promotional free casino chips from their hotel so they could just turn up, play some games and then tuck into the buffet. The clientele were mostly middle-aged Indian men and a few westerners. Nepalese aren’t allowed in most casinos, except the really rich ones. Aside from tucking into the buffet I bought a few pounds worth of chips and played some roulette. The only games they had were roulette and two card games I had never seen before. I ended up with about the same amount of chips as I started. Some players were on big money in comparison, putting bets of over 100 pounds onto the table. One of Camille’s Chinese friends had a system for winning one of the card games, he went to the casino almost every night and made money using his free guest house chips as the starting bid! He eats for free at the casino and pays for his accommodation with the winnings! Amazingly they haven’t kicked him out yet! Back in town I met Sophie again and we had drink before calling it a night.

Traditional song and dance at the street festival

Days 106 > 111

16/12/12 > 21/12/12

Me and Sophie spent the next few days hanging out in Kathmandu. She had shopping to do for Christmas presents so we toured the streets, ate breakfast and lunch in the sunshine and chilled out in the evenings. I took her to the Garden of Dreams and a tour around the Durbar Square area. Jhabraj met us for coffee one day before he went back to the village. Some of the tourist places in Kathmandu had Christmas decorations and trees by this point, but the atmosphere was very unchristmassy with glaringly bright days of sunshine. It was very cold out of the sun though, but no rain or snow appeared. I Skyped with my parents back in Scotland, they showed me the decorations at home on the webcam, though they didn’t have snow there either.

Me and Sophie in our necessary puffer jackets, next to one of Kathmandu’s few christmas trees!

Finally I got word from the British embassy in Kathmandu that my new passport had arrived. I went there and picked it up. I overheard the guy in front of me in the queue asking for help – he’d had a nightmare, he is living in Kathmandu with his family, and a local guy he’d met, for no reason had invaded their house, beat him unconscious and beat up his wife, his children witness to the whole thing! He’d been in court and the psycho had been sentenced to prison. My passport woes seemed a drop in the ocean compared to what this poor guy had been through.

Abseiling at the street festival

Devices for thinning cotton, used when making blankets

I went to the Kathmandu visa office as they’d instructed me to when my passport arrived. They ended up charging me 180 pounds in fees for the overstay on my visa whilst my passport was gone, which I argued with them was unfair as they hadn’t let me extend the visa without my passport anyway! But as they’d let me stay in the country without a visa or passport anyway, I didn’t want to push my luck and paid up when it was clear they wouldn’t back down. I extended the new visa to allow me some time travelling with Sophie, aiming to leave Nepal in mid-January. I spent all day there waiting for them to sort it out, unfortunately they had to contact the Pokhara office where I’d extended the visa originally to get proof that I had done it, and Pokhara in classic Nepali fashion had no electricity that day! As a result they didn’t get the final stamp of approval but said I could sort it out in Pokhara. Me and Sophie booked a bus to Pokhara for the next day.

More bike stunts at the street festival

Rickshaws waiting for customers

Kumari mask in Kumari’s restaurant, Freak Street

Village Life

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Alan Stock

An old lady sits on the sidelines of the wedding

Day 93 – Location: Karmidanda Village, Langtang Region; Nepal

03/12/12

I managed to get some much-needed sleep despite the grumbling tummy. Downstairs Jhabraj was shelling rice. Because a baby had been born the other week, they’d had to delay a festival ceremony for the occasion until today. He made a mixture of rice, millet and some other stuff to feed the goats, even the animals get to celebrate! The family had also mixed up a milky concoction for us containing milk, grated coconut, bananas, cinnamon, cloves and pepper. I managed to eat a little bit of plain rice with salt, my first food for a day, and tried a bit of Sophie’s milk mix – it was quite good though a bit too peppery for my tastes.

Jhabraj was off in the morning to visit Januka’s father about 40 minutes away who was very ill. He’d caught Typhoid and another condition. Although he had the right medicines he was very weak and hadn’t eaten for a week.

A friendly village chap

Feeling a little more human today, but still suffering from dioreaah and a midly churny stomach, I did some chores and managed a bowl of noodles. In the afternoon me and Sophie went up the hill to a nice spot in the sun with a good view, and relaxed up there in the peace and quiet. In the evening Jhabraj returned. He thought Januka’s father would be ok but he was still very weak. I wasn’t feeling too bad now. Just before we went to bed, the drunken teacher appeared again in his usual state!

Village houses painted in the traditional colours

Day 94

04/12/12

Another very cold night. Januka had left to Kathmandu to visit her daughters. I was feeling stronger but not 100% and managed some curry. When the others left for school I was in the company of Ama, Jhabraj’s. Unfortunately she doesn’t speak a word of English and speaks to you like you should understand what she’s saying, without using any sign language. This makes communication with her pretty much impossible!

I worked on my diary and helped with some house chores. Ama surprised me by appearing with a big pile of fresh cow poo in her hands and dropped it on the yard! Then she brought a bowl and a bucket of water with a cloth. I then understood what she was up to. She was adding a new layer of dung onto the yard floor, as it was getting patchy. When it’s dry you can’t even tell it’s poo, being light grey and dusty. All traditional Nepali houses use this method for painting their floors and walls. She set to work with a bowl of water and poo, smearing it over the yard floor. I swept ahead of her to get rubbish out of the way. It smelt pretty bad, but to her I guess it’s just another chore that she’s done her whole life. She didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Half-way through an old man, blind in one eye, came round and chatted to her, and tried to speak to me. Of course I couldn’t understand a word he said so could only nod, shrug and smile at him. It’s a bit awkward when you’re being spoken to by people that you simply can’t understand. All you can do is react with exaggerated confusion, laugh or smile but who knows what they’re saying to you? For all I knew they could be telling you a heart-wrenching story, or maybe just giving you a good telling off!

Ama gets down and dirty!

Sophie arrived to give me a welcome respite from Ama’s one-sided chats. The flies were driving us crazy today, swarming loud enough to hear. I carried on updating the diary. We chilled the rest of the afternoon. In the evening Jhabraj got some bad news. Januka had been to the dentist in Kathmandu about her toothache, and they said she had to get half of her teeth removed as they were rotten! Although she brushes every day, it’s a genetic disease which her father also had. And it would cost a lot, another blow to the family’s finances.

Sophie and Januka in the local town

Days 95-99

05/12/12 > 9/12/12

I spent the next four days relaxing and recovering from the stomach bug. Ama continued to chat to me whilst I was home alone, and I spent a good deal of my time watching Dexter and playing games on my laptop. When the others were around we’d chat or I’d go for walks with Sophie. The nights continued to be bitterly cold. With all of his family’s financial problems, Jhabraj decided to sell one of the milking cows and its calf. He found a buyer when he visited the local town. On the day he sold it, a bunch of his friends came round with the buyer to help move the animals. The cow and calf were not happy to be moved but were led and dragged along the path towards the buyer’s village. For the calf it was the first time it had left the house so it was understandably nervous! Jhabraj was feeling a bit down afterwards, after all, the cows are almost like family to him; he looks after them and they provide for him. His new plan was to to save up enough to buy a more expensive cow from Indian bull sperm, which would produce over double the amount of milk his old cow made per day. With only one cow remaining the days of limitless curd and milk every day were over, to Sophie’s dismay!

Village boy

Sophie had finished her term at school, with the kids going into exams. She admitted she’d grown fond of them, even the troublemakers. Jhabraj agreed that the school in general has problems with discipline and non-attendance; Sophie had been facing the same challenge as the other teachers. She’d been partly successful in getting their attention; English children’s songs were a favourite of the younger class. A girl had vanished from Sophie’s class – it turned out she’d been pulled out for another arranged marriage. Apparently she was quite intelligent but there is nothing the teachers can do to stop it.

Awijit and his teammates were entered in a karate contest in the nearby town to earn their next belt grade. He did pretty well and earned it by drawing in a fight – all that training paid off.

Another nice sunset over Karmidana

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Would you like to stay in Karmidanda village with the Neupane family? Read on…

Cheeky little villager Jeneet

If you are thinking of visiting Nepal and would like to do a homestay with Jhabraj’s family and see his village, or you need an experienced trekking or private tour guide, Jhabraj is very happy to accommodate you. He can do tours anywhere around Nepal and for trekking, he is very experienced and a safe, responsible guide, having guided on all the major Nepali treks multiple times as a guide (including the popular Everest, Annapurna and Langtang treks). It is also possible to do some spectacular trekking in the Langtang area from his village area so you could always combine a homestay with a trek. Jhabraj charges very reasonable prices, he speaks good English, and you couldn’t meet a friendlier, more interesting and hospitable guy! Your enjoyment, satisfaction and safety are his primary concerns. Money that Jhabraj earns from visitors and clients goes towards the higher education of his children, which is extremely expensive for a village family. If you want to hear more, please contact me via this website and I will put you in touch with him. Highly recommended!

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Would you like to help Jhabraj’s village community of Karmidanda? Read on…

Onlookers at the wedding we went to

Like many outlying villages in Nepal, the village Karmidanda is extremely poor and the community has many serious problems as a result. Almost all the families here are in a lot of debt, living on the breadline on the meagre earnings they can eke out – most are farmers. Other avenues of work are simply not available up here and most families cannot afford to put their children into higher education to improve the cycle. Public welfare does not really exist in Nepal and the area only has one health clinic staffed by volunteers and supplied by charity. If a villager requires hospitisation the villagers have to pool together to get enough money to pay for an ambulance to take the patient 5 hours to Kathmandu and also pay the expensive hospital treatment fees, if they can afford it. The village school was built thanks to charitable efforts but staff wages are low, equipment and resources are always scarce and there are not enough teachers for the number of students. These are just some of the problems that the community has – yet despite the difficulties the community spirit is amazing here, people help each other, they have a smile on their face and they are welcoming and friendly. If you think that you can help with donations, volunteering (including English teaching at the school) or charitable projects, please get in touch. Jhabraj has many contacts and can direct you to the right people so you know your money or resources are going directly to the local community and no share is going into anyone elses’ pocket. Some charitable efforts have also been started by foreign visitors who have visited Jhabraj and decided to help the community of Karmidanda – please check out the following websites: (links coming soon!)

A Nepali Wedding

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Alan Stock

An old lady gives the bride a tika

Day 89 – Location: Karmidanda Village, Langtang Region; Nepal

29/11/12

In the morning we made some more butter. Later, Jhabraj called from school and asked me if I could go to today’s wedding in the village to take photos for the family. Happy for the invitation, I went along with Januka. The house turned out to be the one I’d visited on the first day in the village, where the woman had been recovering from being hit by a tree. At the end of the path leading to the house were two flower pots on either side with a piece of string between them creating a barrier. No-one would step over this, instead inching around the flower pots.

The girls guarding the entrance to the house!

A man I knew who has the look of a Nepali-Italian Mafioso greeted me and thanked me for coming. Bizarrely there was a double bed sitting out in the yard, with a collection of food, jugs and tika dyes. Soon the guests began to arrive. An oil lamp was placed below the string barrier and then it was broken as the first arrival, the groom’s father passed through it, greeted by a host of girls in traditional ornate dress. Guests filed into the yard, some receiving tikas at the flower pot gate. The groom, a mild faced man around 30 years old received a tika from the bride’s father.

Not quite what I was expecting to see in the yard!

The queue of guests stretches out to infinity!

The groom receives his tika from the bride’s father

A row of girls in the yard had lined up to offer wrapped presents to the brides father, who gave them all tikas. The whole wedding turned out to be a tika frenzy! The groom stood looking nervous and barely managed a smile for my photos.

Pretty nervous I think!

He was led to a chair in front of the assembled food and tika ingredients. The bride came out of the house, although she’s only 19 she looked about 25 and was wearing a red and golden dress with a red veil. She fixed a second garland of grass around the groom’s neck, bashing him accidently in her haste much to the amusement of the packed yard. Then the groom put a grass gardland on her, put a ring on her finger and then fastened a flashy gold watch to her wrist. They gave each other tikas.

A grass garland is affixed around the bride’s neck

The groom sat down and the bride’s father gave him another tika (see what I mean about tika frenzy), then stood and said a prayer under instruction from the priest. You wouldn’t know he was a priest by looking at him, a young chap wearing a puffy Adidas jacket and the traditional Nepali hat. He carried a prayer book and read out lines for the groom’s father to repeat. After more tikas a coconut was produced, blessed and given to the groom. Then milk and holy water was poured into his hand. The bride’s mother repeated this.

The priest on the left conducts the ceremony with the help of his prayer book

Now the bride, her sister, the groom and his father sat on the double bed and members of the family, friends and neighbours came forward one by one to give the bride and groom tikas and blessed their feet, which involved putting dye on them and pressing their head against the foot. The first was the bride’s grandmother, cursed with the common Nepali affliction of being permanently bent double.

The grandmother receives water for the blessing

During this someone waved from the crowd, Sophie had been let off school early to come and watch the wedding. Januka amused us by attaching a branch of leaves to her head to keep off the sun! There were more tika givings by the bride and groom to the relatives and then presents were brought forward to the couple, from the shape many seemed to be jugs and urns. Jhabraj arrived from school to watch.

Januka and her branch hat! Me and Sophie couldn’t stop laughing!

When I returned with a fresh camera battery the bride and groom separated to receive tikas and money from the rest of the congregation. Meanwhile the food started to appear. Leaf plates were handed out to the family not taking part in the ceremony and pots full of curries, rice, beans, vegetables and more were brought out to serve the guests. Me and Sophie had politely declined an offer for food but in typical Nepali fashion ten minutes later we were handed full plates and expected to eat! It was pretty good, especially the salted soya beans and pumpkin curry. We stuffed ourselves to bursting as another round of guests began to eat. Insistent women bearing pots of food forced top-ups upon us until we had to mime our stomachs exploding!

I can feel my health levels increasing just looking at it!

People started to leave and Jhabraj and Januka had vanished so we assumed the ceremony was over. We headed back to the house and chilled for the rest of the afternoon. Januka and Jhabraj arrived later and told us that the celebration wasn’t over and was still continuing over there. We could hear music pumping out over big speakers from the wedding house. Jhabraj told us about the background of the bride and groom. It was an arranged marriage. The groom was from a nearby village but now lives in Kathmandu. He is 30 years old and was looking for a virgin wife from his local area. His family knew the bride’s family in Karmidanda and they offered their daughter in marriage. For the bride’s family it’s a great deal (if you ignore the morals of arranged marriage) – the groom is rich, earning a great salary as he is a bodyguard for high-end clients. Normally the bride’s family would have to pay a dowry (marriage payment), but with the deal they didn’t need to pay anything. Even the marriage had been completely subsidized by the groom’s employers. The double bed in the yard was a gift to the couple from the bride’s family. They’d hired a truck which would ferry the couple, the bed and the other gifts back to Kathmandu that evening. Sophie asked what would happen to the bride now. At only 19 she was still in school but Jhabraj expected that would stop and become a housewife. Gone would be any dreams for a career or her own pursuits but she would be safe for money for the rest of

Onlookers at the ceremony

her life assuming her new husband kept in work, plus they could easily support a family. In the evening I played cards with Awijit.

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