Enroute to Kathmandu

written by Joce

Ahhh Immigration. So much fun. We were dropped off in Tibet and had to drag our luggage and baggage one flippin' mile to the border crossing of Tibet(China)/Nepal due to road construction and the change in Guides (Chinese to Nepalese). People were looking at me (Joce) a little funny as I was accused of dragging what my "gapper" team called my body bag. ( I needed it that big as I had every intention to bag me a monk - still looking). Monk-less so far I still have hopes for Nepal. Here we are all lined up like cattle at the Chinese immigration, going through individual bag searches, but we have to say, we were searched by very kind folks. We then had to walk over bridge with a big red line across it marking the distinction between China and Nepal. And what a distinction it was. Smiles, and warm faces greeted us through a very congested little main street. Here, we meet our new guide, hop on the bus and moved 3 feet in 45 minutes. Not to mention the humidity and heat. Remember we're still adapting to the altitude change and freezing temps to now +35. We finally get out of the border town, now driving on the right hand side of the road and on a road that is as wide as Austin Mini. I'll tell you, with all the winding and up and down, we're not sure if it was the gravol that worked or if it was due to the breathtaking sights of the ravine so far down and the of water falls, that made this journey so enjoyable. After a 3 hours, we stopped for lunch in a open air restaurant by the rushing river which kayakers by the way challenged their way through the fast rushing river. We stuffed our faces with Nepalese food, teaching us to replace our now well used chop sticks for our fingers. Back on the bus. The drive into Kathmandu was an eye opener. Women of all ages carried water cans and propane tanks on the back by strapping them to a particular head band to help them balance the weight. There has been no rain of late, and the dust was overwhelming. It is a very big city, and poverty stricken. The most difficult for all of us was about the children. Nothing more than rubbish to play with and puddles to wash from, and them running along our bus for food and money. Always with a smile, we would like to add. Once into Kathmandu, due to the heights of the power lines, our bus had to drop us off and here we go again, dragging our damned body bags across town. Now, you can just imagine the excitement from the locals, seeing 14 tourists dragging their goods across town. The word spread like wildfire and before we knew it we were surrounded by merchants selling everything from fiddles to singing bowls. Like, we were in the mood for singing. Typical Canadians we are, we're apologizing for not having any money, not having any kids, not having any religion - where the Blokes would tell them to "bugga off". We finally get to our Fuji hotel where Monique and Joce tipped their bell hops for bringing up the body bags 6 flights up and later finding out that they tipped them 5 cents. Oh well, we never did well in math.

After a realllllly good shower, and all of us smelling an hell of a lot better, we were entertained by our Guide's friends who own the Yellow Restaurant and Guest House. He is Swiss and she is Nepalese. A haven of fabulous foods, BBQ'd, Nepal food, (and to Melanie's ecstatic yelp - cheese - real cheese) blues music, candles, under a canopy of Nepalese textiles and fruit trees. We celebrated our last night, toasting to our extended family and sharing our trip's highlights and taking lots of pics. We all decided to head out to Rumdoodles where all the Everest climbers and Sherpas meet to tell their mountain tales. Thanks to our Guide having too many "Everests" he lost us. So there was Monique and Joce wondering the streets of Kathmandu, which by the way are not lit as the city turns off the power generators for a few hours in the night. Dogs running around in packs, and whistles coming from dark corners were our greetings while trying to find our way back. Ok, so at this point its eat or be eaten and we marched our way through the dark, miraculously finding our way back to the Restaurant. A wonderful worker there escorted us back, telling us all the way back to our hotel that its not good to walk in the night. No kidding ! What was the second wonder of the night was that upon our escorted walk back to the hotel, we meet up with Melanie and a few others were also were lost and just came out of the Tranies of the Night district. Damn, Mone and I missed that corner some how. We just got whistles and hungry dogs (the 4 legged one's). After downing copious amounts of booze to calm our nerves, we went to bed. The next morning, we said goodbye to some and we joined our German newly weds and went off to "Pumperknickles" a german bakery. Hey, we had to make up for all the rice ! And then - the shopping frenzy began. Good GOD, did we shop. We have enough to open our own store, let alone have gifts for the next 5 Christmas's and birthdays and Bar Midtzas. We had to stop and buy NorthFace mountaineering duffle bags to store all our treasures. But do you think we could find a Monk to carry - Noooo. And after stopping at the ATM 5 times, the crowds were gathering again. In particular, the Fiddler. This guy had an extremely annoying fiddle kind of a contraption that made you want to string him up every time he tried to play it. He had some affinity with Melanie and Mone ! Followed us for blocks and blocks and just when we thought we lost him, zing zing zing... he was back. This went for two days and Joce's extremely enormous capacity for patience (not) gave him the "look" and needless to say the song from his fiddle sounded much better as it was strategically placed to hum a little better when he walked - away. All kidding aside, these people depend on sales for their food. This trip has opened our eyes to the luxuries we have, the senseless complaints we stress, while these people depend on the tourism for their lively hood and their deep sense of Spirituality is their foundation of hope and prosperity which they wish upon to all of those they meet and greet.

As they have passed along to us, we pass along to you their gift of greeting, Namaste and to live a long and properous life.