Namaste!...

Kathmandu, Nepal

Hello! Namaste! Happy Diwali! We've managed three days in Kathmandu without getting sick or losing our money or getting lost. Wow. Yes, wow. That little word about describes it! Our heads are spinning, but we're happy and healthy and just ate a fantastic Nepali dinner of rice and dahl (lentils), curried vegies, naan (flatbread), curd (yogurt), fried spinach, and milk tea. Incredible. I'm at an Internet place in the heart of chaos. Very calm in here, however!

So, some random thoughts:

Kathmandu, Thamal district - Chaos, colors, crows, crazy drivers, chaos, noise, people everywhere. Ancient temples with incredible carved wood statues, decorative pillars, carvings on the buildings like something out of Lord of the Rings, old brick buildings with incredibly carved bricks (how do they do that?) in an alleyway of shops, shops, shops, and more shops. Poop and garbage and who-knows-what everywhere. The most beautiful dresses on the Nepali women, sparkling and colorful and graceful (both the women and the dresses). Smells - cooking food, burning garbage, other smells where you just have to stop breathing for a minue. Dirt, grime, masses of electrical wires going everywhere (obviously they didn't have Holden Utilities working on their lines!), narrow streets (we'd call them one-lane alleys) filled with people, cars, motorcycles, bicycle rickshaws, bicycle pedlars, all going both directions, vehicles constantly honking. Shop after shop of colorful, beautiful clothing, jewelry, Himalayan crafts. When I say shop - imagine alley, both sides constant shops and stands and sellers, going on and on in all directions, winding seemingly endlessly like a labyrinth. Chaos...but we're learning how things work.

Music, mostly Western. The first night here it was Eric Klapton on our rooftop, last night on our walk through the maze of streets, back from dinner, we heard a band (playing in a bar above the streets) playing Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry, one street over another band playing the same song, slower version. Right now I hear Bad Moon Rising (Credence Clearwater?). Today Loreena McKinnett blared (sort of surreally I must say) out of a shop - block out all other noises and you're in a whirling amazing movie of sights, colors, movement, beauty, poverty, filth, oh yeah, chaos...but with the music you can almost make it all slow down...

We've wandered the streets of Kathmandu now for three days and are feeling good - we managed to buy tickets today for the public bus we will take tomorrow to Shivalaya where we'll start trekking - takes about 11 hours and from what we can guess, it's only about 70 miles?

We arrived in Kathmandu in the midst of the country's 2nd biggest festival - Diwali - The Festival of Lights. Quite the scene (and noise), with fireworks and firecrackers blasting everywhere, incredible designs on the streets (mandalas?) made with colored sands, beans, leaves, etc., lights strung across streets and buildings - beautiful strings hanging from rooftop to ground like sparkling curtains - loud parades of motocycles, trucks full of people singing and banging drums, kids singing at shop entryways (like Christmas caroling?). It's a 5-day festival (we arrived on the 2nd day) and many businesses close early or aren't open at all (thus our delay in getting out of town on the bus).

We're staying in one of the "budget" hotels in the Thamal district in the heart of all this activity - but it's back on a little alley, so all of a sudden, the chaos drops about 100-fold, and there are plants and trees, giant bamboo screening us from the next guest house. Lots of rooftop gardens on these guesthouses - flowers and potted plants and small trees - very lovely to sit on our rooftop and have a pot of Nepali milk tea! The place has its quirks, but the room is pleasant - the bathroom - well, we won't describe it to our folks - but all in all, a good and convenient place to stay.

Hey, right now the band is playing Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Today we walked over to the Yak and Yeti Hotel (supposed to be the most famous hotel in Nepal - the name alone made me want to see it!). Very ritzy. Kind of bizarre to have this little enclave of incredible wealth amongst all this squalor. It's a palace, literally. We used their restrooms (Yes!), and wandered the grounds, there were people playing tennis (who stays there anyway? - I guess a lot of climbing groups for one). Anyway, we checked out the rates just for curiousity's sake. Cheapest room is $200 per night, up to about $625 for deluxe treatment. We're in the Shangri-La Guesthouse. Costs us $3 per person per night. And who can beat our little rooftop teashop? Hmmm...think we'll stay where we are!

Wow, now the band is playing another great hit - every move you make, every step you take... etc. What's the name of it?

So anyway. Tomorrow we head off for 7 weeks of hiking the Himalayas (our flight to Bangkok is December 11 and we'll spend another 3 or so days back in Kathmandu before that).

Our hike begins at Shivalaya (end of the road) where the early Everest climbers used to have to start. Now most people opt fly into the tiny airstrip at Lukla, which we'll walk to in about 6 days or so. Then on to Tengboche Monastery (on the trail to Everest base camp) where we're hoping to be on November 4 for a major celebration there. Everest base camp is next, with a jaunt up Pala Katar for views of Everest (since you can't actually see Mount Everest from the base camp). Then exploring to Cho Oyu base camp and some incredible lakes, Ama Dablam base camp, and various Sherpa villages along the way.

Just FYI here's some elevations:
Kathmandu - 4500 ft
Shivalaya - 5830 ft
Lukla - 9240 ft
Everest Basecamp - 17,620 ft
Kala Patar - 18,300 ft.

So it's all uphill from here! Actually it's up down up down up down up down, you get the idea.

So that's it for now. I'm not sure we're be able to download pictures tonight or not, we'll see how it goes. Otherwise, see you somewhere up in the Himalayas!

Namaste!

Back from beyond part III

Hi there! Pictures here. Text and more pictures on previous posting. I think I'm figuring this blog thing out. Or maybe it's that it's one in the morning, and I just think I've got it. Well, you can click on a picture to make it bigger, I know that much. See you later.

Back from beyond part II...

Hello again! Heading for Nepal tomorrow! But first, a few pictures and journal notes from the river...(disclaimer: remember, these are journal notes, not finished writings, and it's late, and I've still got to pack, so there will be mistakes, like misspelled words and such...but hope you enjoy it...)

Sept. 11, 2009, Day 4, Green River, Utah, Trin Alcove:

Some random thoughts whilst waiting for the spaghetti water to boil.

Word(s) of the day:

Day 1 - Evaporative cooling

Day 2 - Evaporative cooling

Day 3 - Evaporative cooling

Day 4 - Evaporative cooling...

...Let's see - weather - it's been pretty perfect. Almost no wind (one little sandy/blowing episode last evening at dinnertime). Hot - nineties? Swimming has been spectacular and frequent (averaging 3x per day, except today when we were hiking all day). Stars at night are brilliant. We've watched Jupiter (and its four moons visible in our binoculars) and the Andromeda Galaxy - there it is, that fuzzy patch just above those stars sticking out from the great square of Pegasus - two million light years away - is there someone there looking up and seeing the Milky Way Galaxy? And the Milky Way! Through binoculars it's incredible - without binoculars it's incredible - looking through the plane of our galaxy, hanging out here on one of the outer spiral arms, looking into the beautiful sparkling black skies, so many stars, so many stars...the North Star, the Little Dipper, Casseopia, Arcturus (arc to Arcturus!), Hercules, Draco...Nights have been so warm we could comfortably sit in the dark, watching the sky. Saw an incredible shooting star last night - like a comet - had a glittering tail, lasted more than the fleeting moment you usually get with shooting stars.

The bats are out, wildly gobbling the evening bugs. The crickets have been cricketing - what is it about listening to crickets, a warm night, brilliant stars, no one on our little corner of the river - it's amazing to live in such a world - and to be here, now, little specks in the universe that we are - seeing this incredible beauty. We are so lucky. Spoiled. Incredibly lucky and incredibly spoiled. We've been so used to having wide open spaces to ourselves. Everyone should be able to live like this.

So why don't they?

...Hiked up the long canyon here today - had to prowl through a lot of bush and tall grasses - thought we were in Africa on the savanna - but no lions, just lizards, and canyon wrens, and deer tracks, coyote scat. Some fragrant bush that makes me think of the tropics.

The beautiful cottonwoods. Our camp is beneath several - we lugged all our gear up the wash to the high water camp - we're a ways from the river, but a sandy camp under red cliffs with the murmur of cottonwood leaves in the wind. We've slept out every night so far, warm breeze blowing our hair, stars whirling overhead, moonrise each night a spectacular scene - an orange globe with a chunk missing rising up over dark silhouetted rock mesas and cliffs...

September 12, Day 5:

Packing and unpacking. Loading and unloading the canoe - what a job. Where did all this stuff come from anyway? Let's see - inventory - 1 cooler (not cold, just full of dry goods), 2 plastic buckets full of more dry food, 1 plastic bucket full of apples/oranges and more dry food, 1 small plastic bucket full of more dry food. Hmmm...not sure we have enough food here...Then there's the dry bags - 5 of them, containing sleeping bags, pads, tent, tarp, pillows (3!), personal gear, emergency gear, extra gear, beer (12-pack), then the cans bag (beans, tomatoes, tuna, pop, whatever), the kitchen kit (milk crate containing pots/pans etc.), the Coleman stove, the four 6 1/2 gallon water containers, the toilet (45 user days! We exchange this at resupply halfway through - yes!), plastic book bin, Raina's school bag, fire pan, fire wood (for when we hit a sandbar with no accessibility to wood), bailing pan, 3 day packs, extra paddle (National Park regulation), extra life preserver (National Park regulation), myriad odds and ends like sandals, tennis shoes, water bottles, etc., etc. Let's see, what have I forgotten?

Wow - stuff! Really, we could get along with less, but river camping is like car camping - why just bring a backpacking stove when you can have 2 burners going at once - cook noodles and vegies and have, like, two courses, instead of the typical backpacker glop!

Oh yeah, I just remembered, 3 camp stools (new this year - no more fighting over the best buckets to sit on, and which can or cannot be close to the fire). Whew.

Why can't we just be like Herc (Hercules, from the TV show)? He just heads out on a month-long adventure with only the shirt on his back and a little money in his belt purse. That's all! I want to do that! Ah well, some other time.

So anyway - this morning we had to schlep all our gear from our fantastically, incredibly beautiful camp spot up in Trin Alcove where no one in their right mind would carry all their gear when they could just camp at the mouth - anyway - that campsite is so spectacular - worth all the schlepping. Marc's the master packer, Raina and I schlep. It all gets loaded. Time for swimming. Down the river 3 1/2 miles. Leap out to check out the digs. Schlep our stuff to the prime spot. Haul the boat way up and into the bushes. Tie it so that a tornado would not budge it. Schlep some more. Time for swimming. That's pretty much it.

Now for sandbars it looks like this: Land the boat. Remove gear to sand. That's it. No schlepping. Sometimes there can be a sandstorm. Then you sit with eyes closed, hunched over with head down between your legs, and hope that it's just a passing front. But really, on a calm, warm evening, there's nothing like a sandbar - sandy, lots of sky, lots of stars, no scorpions.

Land camps, though, have the cottonwoods - the most beautiful tree in the desert.

September 18, Day 11:

So. We're back to clear and sunny after a number of days of not so clear and sunny. Days 6-9 in fact were a bit stormy. Saw some spectacular lightning shows. Tried to sleep out every night, but had to leap up at midnight one night. Woke to a downpour. The tent was set up (just for such an event) but by the time we got all 3 of us, our sleeping bags, and pads in, and the tarp stashed, we were a bit damp, and not just a little sandy (not to mention crowded in our ancient, 32 year old, small 2-person Omnipotent). But the Omnipotent (not a bad name for a mountaineering tent huh?) did the job and by morning (late) we'd dried everything out in the sun...The river came up and has turned opaque - liquid mud - you can't see your hand even 1/4 inch below the surface!

Water - water is an amazing thing - not only does it provide ice for my iced drinks (though not this month) but it carved these canyons, seeps through rock, creates hanging gardens, sustains life in what looks like desolate and uninhabitable places. And we, humans plopped into this inferno, become just a stop along the way in the water cycle. The heat of the day progresses, we become tired, lethargic, maybe even crabby! Then - into our bodies goes water, plain old H2O, and wow - transformation - we perk up, feel invigorated, energetic, happy. The water, more than food, more than sleep, more than anything at this time, refreshes and sustains us - we are water creatures - carbon and water, that's us.

September 20, Day 13:

Resupply day. Crazy. Sunday at the put-in at Mineral Bottom. Our peaceful, calm, serene, incredibly incredible river-to-ourselves is no more. Rafters, kayakers, canoers, bikers, where did they all come from?Sunday is no time to be at Mineral Bottom.

But now all's quiet on our little spot of river. The group upriver was just howling like coyotes, but now, just a few murmurs coming from there. We're camped in the mouth of Taylor Canyon - a good spot to get to late - you can't go anywhere from here - not up the wash (too muddy), not out of the wash (too brushy), not along the river (too brushy), not inland (too brushy). We're on a high sandbar at the side of the wash - if the wash ran big, we'd be in a bad way - but it won't run that big tonight, or probably anymore this season. Just don't get too close to the edge...It was a bit stressful looking for camping with all these people on the river - it was getting later and later and there just wasn't anywhere (except the sandbars with folks on them) and we're looking and looking, getting a bit CRABBY! This spot wasn't great, but it worked, and NOW it IS great - we have a huge sky (no cliffs near), the sky is CLEAR, beautiful stars, Milky Way, Jupiter, the lot. The crickets are LOUD, the air is warm, the fire is immensely pleasant, the dishes are done, the food is stashed. I just can't get over how beautiful it is...

September 23, Day 16, Beaver Bottom:

Last night, on Day 15, I had to resort to putting on LONG PANTS for the first time! Was quite chilly out...

Yesterday while hiking we saw a tarantula! First I've ever seen! We didn't get too close - even though we know they're not really dangerous - but we didn't want to bother him/her. We read that tarantulas can live 25 years. Wow. We also read about other awful things that happen in the insect world (bad for the poor tarantula) - like something out of a horror movie - YUCK - I won't relate it here - read up on tarantula hawks if you want to know.

September 28, Day 21, Turk's Head sandbar:

Evenings are such a beautiful time on these hot days - still quite warm - but not unbearably so - the light is beautiful - the canyon walls glow orange, reflect in the river, and in the west the canyons and buttes and spires are silhouettes against an incredible sky - like the ones you paint in grade school - colors fading into one another - with the silhouettes in front...

Campfires - how can you go down the river and not have campfires - EVERY NIGHT! They are incredible - warm, friendly, light, heat, heats your tea water, cooks dough on sticks, is cheerful - whatever it is, I have a campfire any time I can when I'm in the out-of-doors - small of course, environmental of course - here we use a fire pan, and use only driftwood or dead and down tamarisk (an invasive). But it makes the evening warm and pleasant - otherwise you'd go to bed at 8:30! Then you'd miss Jupiter and Andromeda, and the moonlight and all the rest.

And nothing better than a nice sandbar (with no wind) and a fire and your bare toes in the sand!

October 1, Day 24:

Sand. Sand is everywhere - we live with sand, sand blows into every crevice, even into closed containers. And really, a little sand in your eyes, face, ears, hair, clothes, food, dishes, coffee, sleeping bags, pillows (actually, there was more sand on our pillows this morning than last night when we went to bed, from all the sand falling out of our hair during the night) - we rub sand in with sunscreen - anyway, really, a little sand? We're used to it! Nothing to worry or fret about. Raina's hair is plastered with it...

...the night of sand. We slept out on a sandbar - wind was getting stronger. Marc moved the canoe to try to block the wind and sand, but we were still sand blasted. I, who have learned the fine art of sleeping with my head inside my sleeping bag, slept decently. Marc and Raina, heads out and getting sand blasted, slept less well. Then at 5 AM it starts to RAIN! Wind and sand and now rain! So yet again we rush to put up the tent (hmm...you think we'd learn from experience), trying to keep the bags and pillows dry. And to keep things from being blown away in this hurricane, I'm curled up in a ball, holding onto everything including the tarp which is flapping like a parachute...we shove everything into the tent, put other stuff under the overturned canoe - gotta keep the firewood dry! Wake up late-ish. Still wind blasting out. Eat breakfast somehow. Pack up. The waves on the river are now looking like ocean breakers. Across the way, some canoes have taken refuge and several people have fallen in trying to maneuver their boats to or off (I can't tell which) an underwater sandbar. And into all this chaos comes the Park Service Ranger, motoring along in his little raft, asking to see our river permits...

Okay, enough already. It was SPECTACULAR! Here's some more pictures.

So, okay, I'm having trouble getting my pictures to go where I want them, so I'll just post this, then do the pictures on another one.

So that's all for now. See you in Kathmandu.

Back from beyond...

Hello! Well, we've emerged from the canyons of Utah happy, healthy, and with only about 80 pounds of extra silt and sand covering every conceivable (and inconceivable) surface. We're in Ashland, Oregon for a few days, after a drive straight here from Moab, Utah, with only an 8-hour middle-of-the-night delay in the middle of Nevada (where billboards proclaim Give Big Rigs Room or You'll Get a Big Ticket) for the inevitable car problem. I woke up this morning feeling like Frodo at the end of the LOTR movies - in that big fluffy clean bed - soft, spacious, clean, oh and did I mention CLEAN?


Our month on the river was spectacular, incredible, never-a dull-moment exciting, beautiful, SHORT! We started out in summer, 90+ degrees, swimming three to four times a day to keep cool, and ended in chilly fall, finally digging out my down vest, and only jumping in the river to wash off plastered sand from a wind storm (the only downside to camping on a sandbar). We hiked, swam, canoed, and hiked some more. Saw petroglyphs, ancient ruins, desert bighorn sheep, beavers, deer, snakes, a tarantula (no scorpians this year). We even canoed upriver a few times (125 or so downriver miles, 3 upriver miles), passing a raft during one of these excursions whose oarsman helpfully said, "Uh, you're going the wrong way." We watched the moon go from full to new to full again, hanging out by Jupiter for a time. We watched the stars wheel overhead, sparkling and glittering in a black sky like a fantasy backdrop, an otherworldly and ethereal view into, what? Beauty? Love? Something beyond words and time and campfire smoke?

In a few days I'll post some pictures and journal excerpts.