We decided to go to Pokhara altogether. We made plans for the weekend. We decided to go on Friday after Shreeram and
Sarita from school. So I took the Lonely
Planet Nepal book from the book shelf and started working. I took notes, when I found something
interesting I went to Macarena and told her we drank coffee and discussed our
trip. So we made a plan staying 1 more
night after Shreeram and his family left and see the whole city. This is the
best part of the trip, planning.
Friday morning I sent word to my students telling
them I had 2 off days, we would continue on Monday. We took a taxi to Narayangarth, then a
microbus to Pokhara. The 7 hour trip turned out to be pretty exciting and
interesting. We looked around, the roads
were very small roads along the mountains, where ever we stopped we ate
something from peddlers, check over the book, listen to music, took photos, and
talked.
When we reached Pokhara, we went near the lake
Phewa.
First we wanted to take a boat and go to the
temple on a small island in the middle of the lake. Then we decided to go find a hotel first
settle in and eat something. So we took
a taxi to a street where all the hotels are.
We stood in between two hotels, negotiating the lowest price and chose
Hong Kong Hotel instead of Singapore Hotel.
Went up and settled in.
While the kids were resting Shreeram, I and
Macarena, we went out to walk around.
Bought some souvenirs and then sat in a restaurant and ordered
beer. Drinking our Everest beer I had a
dream of moving to this little town, maybe open a restaurant or buy a
hotel. We talked how we could go to the
lake fishing and sit under the sun when we had free time. Just dreaming..
We went back to the hotel, got Sarita and the
kids, looking for a restaurant to eat.
Of all choices we chose a restaurant that served classic Nepali
dishes. Shreeram and Sarita told us they
would never feel full unless they eat their dal, bat and tharkari. When I saw the hamburger on the menu we said
ok. I ordere a hamburger, French fries
and a beer. The meat was buffalo meat,
the bread was falling apart, it was nothing like the burgers we were used
to. But it was the best burger I had
ever eaten in my whole life.
Sarita had never had alcohol in her life. Not
because it was forbidden in her religion but because she believed it was bad
for you, which is true. Macarena and I
convinced her to spike her
Fanta with a drop of beer. She drank it as if it was poison. Placebo
affect she was almost tipsy; butterfly effect I got very tipsy.
We walked around the town, looked around, all the
places were closing at 22:00. So we went
back to the hotel, we had a TV, opened it and found some foreign channels and
watched the news, and fall asleep after a while.
We woke up very early in the morning. We had breakfast; omelet and tea! We went to
the lake and took a boat to the little island in the middle with the temple on
it. We said prayer in the temple and
gave an offering, coconut and rice, to the gods in the middle of the lake. Took a lot of photos, took the boat back to
shore. The water was covered with
mayflies, spiders, lotus flowers, sun was shining and we were surrounded by
endless mountains...
We told them we wanted to stay another night so
they accepted and left for the bus. We took a taxi after a long bargain and travelled
this little town to see the sights.
First we went to Davi’s Fall. This was a very weird shaped waterfall very
deep and hardly in our sight when we hang down the fence that protected us from
falling in. Back in the time a tourist
named David fall down this waterfall and was never found so they named it
Davi’s Fall.
We walked around the waterfall, it was so hard to
find and see the actual waterfall it was very interesting. The harder it is to find something the worthier
it becomes to us.
As if we are surrounded with endless beauty we
pick more mysteries ones and pretend the others are worthless.
After walking back and forth and finally sticking
our necks through fences we saw the waterfall. It was mostly a big hole with
water running into it, but it was so odd I was amazed. Then I took some
photos. At some moments I love taking
pictures but sometimes the view is so beautiful that wasting time for pictures
seems insane. Instead of trying to fit the beauty into a small screen I rather
stand there and watch it trying to put it in my head. Because most of the time
the camera cannot catch the beauty my eyes can, inhale the smell and hear the
voices. So I can keep in my head a
beauty that could be triggered by all kinds of things when I want to
remember. Sometimes the picture taking
seems a worthless effort to remember some scene. As if it is not enough to
live, smell, taste and enjoy the moment and even forget it forever afterwards.
That is exactly why we miss the real beauty in it in sake of keeping it
forever. I wish we were like cats,
running after a ball with joy and wonder but the moment we see something else
just forget the one before and focus on the new wonder.
But we cannot do that. We talk about another food
while we are eating, remember another movie while watching one, tell about
another place while visiting one, wish for a bloody marry while drinking a
vodka tonic. So we just mess up the moment we are in by talking about
another... So all of a sudden we realize
the great sunset is gone, vodka tonic is warm, dinner is cold while we were
wishing for something else...
NOW: AHILE
(in nepali) There is nothing else...
After Devi’s fall we went to another place which
was a hundreds of steps down and deep under the same waterfall. A thin line of light shining into the cave
onto the millions of drops of water in the air.
The light shining through was as confused as we were, we weren’t sure if
it was cold or hot, if we were sweating or not. The light was just fighting to
open a space for itself through the cave...
When our lungs felt like full of water we took off
and got in the cab, next destination; the bat cave. Macarena said she was scared of bats
and I told her that I have never seen bats, so wonder came over fear and we
went in. They rented us a flash light at
the door, telling us it was very dark, and then a guide came to us and told us
it was very hard to get back out and there were huge bats in there so we needed
her to guide us, so we also said ok to her.
She took our flash light, gave us a candle, shining the flash light to
her own feet started walking down the cave.
We kept telling her to shine the light on us but no use... There were no
bats in the cave, she told us they left their babies there and went to get
food. So we passed through a silent, dark cave feeling a little disappointed,
but the exit was worth the whole cave.
It was a small hole in the ground that after coming out we couldn’t
imagine how we actually crawled out of it.
Of course we were covered in mud and sweat. It was fun, we washed our faces and took off
for Sarangoth.
Pokhara is
the 3rd biggest city in Nepal.
It is almost right in the middle of Nepal, west of Kathmandu. Population
about 200.000. The city is founded
around the Lake Phewa and among the mountains that surround it. Anapurna, the 3rd highest peak in
the world is very close by.
We took the
taxi to 1590m high peak Sarangoth. At some point soldiers stopped us and asked
for passing tax. This used to be
something the Maoist rebels did when Nepal was still a monarchy. Now they keep
taking the tax although they in power now.
We left the taxi at about 700m and hired a guide to take us to the top.
This is the light walk for trackers but since we don’t track this was a long
walk for us. But whenever we stopped to catch a breath we stood breathless
again but because of the view this time.
The sun
touch everywhere on the earth, the high peaks surrounded with clouds, the clear
blue sky slowly rocking... Small village house on the way, beautiful nature,
trees, rocks, green fields nothing else.
Standing on the top the world looked much more beautiful than it really
is. The silence was incredible and
godly. We just stood there and smoked a cigarette without talking or thinking.
Just enjoying the wonderful view.
The nature
was standing right across us making us feel small, worthless and meaningless in
a way but also making us welcome and feel like a part of it. But don’t get too excited, you are so
small... You are just a dot. You are a small dot that is trying to survive,
trying to enjoy but depending on my air, on me...
The comfort
and safety of being a part of something this incredible is better than any kind
of freedom.
If this is
what you feel at 1500 m I really wonder what you could feel at 8000 m. If it wasn’t so expensive and so hard to do
it I would try to climb the Everest just for this feeling.
We slowly
started walking back down. Walking down is not just physically more difficult
but also mentally. On the top it is hard
to let go of the top, once you have seen how far you can go, you never want to
go back.
After the
heavenly Sarangoth we went to the Mountaineer museum. People who have climbed the highest peaks for
the first time, the people who lived in the mountains, the Sherpa most of all,
who could climb the highest peaks without oxygen tanks were very interesting to
learn about. They guide the mountaineers
to the top, carry their camping equipment, put their tents up and pack. The Sherpa has adopted into the mountains
while climbing up and down with big baskets on their backs since they were
little.
After the
museum all we could think of was go back to the town and drink something
cold. So we sat in a café and I ordered
a latte, Macarena asked for an icetea. We talked about what we would to the
next day while drinking and smoking our cigarettes. We planned to get up early, have our
breakfast and go back to Patalahara. I had a class on Sunday. We went to the hotel and bought some pants on
the way because we were covered with mud.
Rested a little, changed our clothes and cleaned up, and went out for a
walk. When we were hungry we found a
restaurant called Tea Time Bamboostan.
This was in the lonely planet book. There were a lot of tourists and
they were drinking beer and eating pizza.
I ordered
spaghetti and beer, Macarena wanted a coke and a pizza.
The waiter
asked us where we are from. So he
wondered what someone from Turkey and someone from Chile was doing in Nepal. We
told him we were volunteering and now travelling. So we talked and ate.
Afterwards we went to a internet café and Macarena called someone, I didn’t
call anyone. We fall asleep right away
when we went back to the hotel.
When we
woke up in the morning we packed and went down to the reception to pay. They
told us there was a strike and no busses or taxis were working. Students were
striking and they didn’t let anybody pass. We said great, now we couldn’t go
back even if we wanted to. Settled back in the room and went out to enjoy the
beauty of nothing.
We had a
breakfast, walked through the great bookshops where I found some good books,
sat by the lake reading... Later we went to the Tea Time Bamboostan to enjoy
the happy hour.
We asked
for screwdrivers and the waiter welcomed us saying our countries names. Hello
Chile hello Turkey! We got something that looked like a screw driver but tasted
like tang. Macarena scooped out the ice
from her drink saying that ice will make us sick here. So I showed her the picture
I took of her the day before in the café drinking a huge glass of icetea full
of ice. The waiters assured us that the ice was from good water but she
insisted on getting rid of it. They were somehow insulted. If we had a bug in
our food they would just take it out and forget about it, but the ice was just
rude...
Next 4
days, we stopped packing and accepted that we were trapped in a great little
town and enjoyed it.
We got lost
and found. Drank and sang, ate and
walked. Just took advantage of being
trapped. Sat down in the internet café for hours and wrote emails to everyone.
Decided to go to Kathmandu when I was leaving 5 days prior to my
journey and stay there see the city.
They have incredible book stores here in Nepal, you can find any book
you want. The traveler give their books
to the shops in return of other books. So there are books from all over the
world, which travelled and seen a lot.
They all smell amazing. I always
smell the book before I buy it. To me every book has a unique smell and no not
because of the paper or the print, only because of the ingredient and places it
has been. After smelling some books and checking out music cds, and checking in
in Tea Time Bamboostan we would go back to the hotel and wait for the next day
to reveal itself.
Finally on
Wednesday strike was over. We took the
bus for 7 hours and after bargaining with a cab in Narayangarth we reached home
in time for my class. When I went to school all the children and women
surrounded me asking where I have been. “You said you will be away for 2 days but
it has been 5 days!”
I tried to
explain them we couldn’t find a bus. After they forgave me we had our class. I
told them about our trip and Pokhara. So I was back to normal. But that night I realized I had so little
time left. I went to bed and cried. I
wished I could stay. I loved them so
much and they loved me so much that it made me feel not lonely at all. Being loved is the most beautiful feeling in
the world. It softens your heart, to
beloved, to be missed and cared for.
That is all we do anyways isn’t it? We spend our lives trying to be
loved, by friends, family, lovers, and people who we don’t even know.
Be loved...
