Pokhara and Bandipur

This past week we visited the Annapurna region. I finally got to really see the Himals from closer up. Bandipur was awesome. It is a small Newari town on the old Tibetan trade route. There are no cars in the town and it's beautiful. I stayed with a family who owned a hotel. I had 2 sisters and a brother there. I mostly talked to my brother who was 16 but had an old soul. When he was 11 he was in a terrible bike accident and almost lost his arm. He has a gnarly scar on it. He taught me some songs in Nepali and told me that concentrating on one thing and letting everything else fade can always make your headache go away. He also said that to improve my eyesight I should plant a plant in my room and stare at it without blinking. :) I saw an amazing sunrise from the Tudikhel in Bandipur. The himals lit up pink and orange. It was gorgeous. In the evenings there was this one tree silhouetted on a ridge. It called to me so I decided to hike to it on my afternoon off while everyone else went to the cave. I went over a huge hill to get to it and saw some girls worshiping at the temple on top of the hill. Then I saw a woman herding goat on the side of a nearly vertical slope. I also saw some grasshoppers the size of sparrows (not an exaggeration). When I got to the tree a feeling of deep peace came over me and I realized the holiness of the moment. I did the same kind of worshiping as I saw the girls do at the temple. I walked clockwise around it touching my forehead to the base of it once each time. Then I sat under it meditating on the way the himals looked like they were floating and understood how the Buddha could have just decided to sit under a tree one day and wait for Truth. It was amazing. Then I climbed up in the tree and prayed. I came back the next morning and did it again. Just as the words "let your love rain down on me" went through my head a drop of condensed moisture from the thick mist that was rushing up the hill fell from a leaf onto my forehead. It was such a blessing. I still carry the sense of peace I felt from that experience with me. I decided that I have to go back there. My plan is to go with mom December 10-13. It is a very special place for me.
After Bandipur, we went to Pokhara. I visited a town of the Musician caste and interview a young man about his life there. It was fascinating and all the music was beautiful. He asked me to sing him a song and I sang Blackbird. As I tried to explain what it meant in Nepali I was struck by the significance it held for Soorjay's life. The Ghandarbha are very low caste. They used to spread news from one village to the next in song 50 years ago, but now they have been reduced to frantically selling their instruments to foreigners in Thamel. Take these broken wings and learn to fly... it was really interesting. The people seemed very happy though, despite their poverty and I really enjoyed seeing it. Oh, and Dad, I went to the little temple on the island in the lake and they were shooting a fight scene for a Nepali movie on it! We talked to some actors! It was cool.
Tomorrow, I am going trekking in Langtang National Park. It is going to be AWESOME! I can hardly wait. There is a monastary, yaks, and a cheese factory in the area!!!!!!!!! I'll write again afterwards! Love Hailey

Chitwan! Elephants and more

Hello! I spent the past week in the Chitwan sweating and it was sooo worth it.

The bus ride down there last Sunday was long and windy. It was beautiful though outside and I saw a lot of country side. The hills here are so dramatic. They stick up out of the ground so suddenly that you can really tell that they are still growing unlike our hills which have weathered so much. It's gorgeous although it makes for terrifying cliffs and hairpin turns on a washed out road in a ramshackle bus.

In the Chitwan, we did tons of things, but 3 stick out especially. Bathing the elephants, eating with the Tharus, and the canoe rides.

When I found out we would be bathing the elephants, I thought that meant watching them play in the water. WRONG. We rode the elephant (haatti, pronounced hottie)s down to the river and then proceeded to enter it. Our haatti sprayed us with it's trunk sat down in the croc infested river and dumped us in and flipped us over it's head with the use of her trunk! It was soooo fun.

The Tharu dinner was also amazing. The Tharus, for those who don't know are the natives of the Jungle. They are the only people in the world who are born immune to malaria. The night started with a wild pony drawn cart ride. Our driver whipped the pony into a frenzy and our 2 wheeled cart flew down the road. The driver joked that he had fed the pony "rakshi" which is Nepali for alcohol, I'm not completely sure he was joking though. Our cart started in last place and finished first. After that exhilarating experience, we got off and sat down in the midst of a beautiful village. We ceremonially washed our feet and brushed our teeth with pieces of bamboo (which had been iodized, thanks Pitzer!). Then our hosts passed out flowers which we decorated our heads with and then started passing around the rakshi. They also had special food for us which was sculpted into all kinds of animal shapes but we didnt eat that. Then we watched the women dance and ended up joining them. The dance was not terribly complicated but it was syncopated with the claps and steps. I finally figured it out though and had a great time. After about an hour we went inside to eat dinner. We had tradtional tharu foods including snails and sticky rice. Everything was spicy. I ate a bunch of little snails they were delish. I had one big one too, but that one was not so good. It was strange to have so much spicy food and nothing to wash it down with but hard alcohol. After dinner we danced with the villagers. A couple of our teachers danced too and I met a bunch of the villagers. Apparently rhinos come into the village from time to time, especially in the winter to eat their aloo (potatoes)! That was an awesome night. To top it all off I went swimming in the hotel pool in my petticoat that night and rinsed off all the sweat! It was amazing.

After that story, a canoe ride doesn't seem nearly as cool. It was fun though! I saw a bunch of gohi (crocs) and on the jungle elephant ride I saw a mama and a baby gaidaa (rhino). It was really gorgeous. I will try to put pictures up soon.

Well that covers the highlights of the Chitwan. Next week I am going to Bandipur and Pokhara and then trekking for a week. I will update there!

Love, Hailey

Tij!

Yesterday, dear reader, was the women's festival, Tij. During this festival women fast in order to ensure a long and successfull life for their husbands, and therefore themselves. During the fast, pious women will not even drink water, saying that "A drop of water is like drinking your husband's blood." The night before they stuff themselves with sweets and other "nutritious foods" such as khir, a delicious Nepali rice pudding. Sometimes they eat all night! My family ate alot, but not all night :) . In the morning they do puja to Shiva. First they dress up to the nines. Nepali women get an excuse to wear their wedding dress every year! How fun is that! Most women wear red, the color of joy. I like blue though so I bought a blue sari for the occasion. My older sisters (which I didn't know I had!) came home to their mother's house for Tij and did my makeup. They had makeup kits like little American girls, but treated them very seriously. They wore sunscreen as foundation! Cultural differences... When we were all dressed, we went to the temple. There was a tent set up and many women in red gathered under it. There was a band singing devotional songs and women dancing. I was gently forced into the middle, the stage if you will, and asked to dance. I copied what other people were doing to the audience's immense pleasure. They made me dance for a long time. I was afraid my sari would fall off! It was a blast. That night we broke the fast eating bhaat (rice) and vegetables.

It was fun. I put pictures on facebook if you want to see them! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30660639&id=48102325

Hailey