Nepal Redux

Well what to say about Nepal, Part II? It was quite the experience:-) I went to the Nepal English Language Teachers' Association (NELTA) conference which was held in Kathmandu. On the way to Administrative Staff College, the venue, on the first day, I got a taxi driver who didn't speak too much En glish. I asked to go to the Administrative Staff College, in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, Patan ... which is what I had on my information sheet. Who knew there was an area adjacent called something almost the same but in a totally different direction. After going down numerous wrong roads and chowks and talking t many many people, we finally came across two retired men who could read my writing and discerned JAWALAKHEL ... which is really what I thought I had said. At any rate the driver cheerfully told me I sorry, you sorry, and we had a good laugh over our shared blame. I still got there in plenty of time.

The conference was plenty amazing ... 700 people showed up instead of the 400 they were expecting. My session, which was on teaching portfolios had 125 attendees instead of 30. I was in the big lecture hall and so people came and went and I had a tiny little flip chart ... oy! it will not go down in the annals of great presentations. But many people came to say they appreciated it and so ... I hope it was useful.

I got to see Thaman and go for a ride on his motorbike. it was lovely ... and I was able to see so many more things than if I had been in a car. Thank you Thaman!! And I dropped in on the kids at the orphanage a couple of times and meet a couple of Sonrisa's current volunteers, Anna from Sweden and Francesca, from Italy. Thaman and his friend Bill took us to the Hindu temple, Pashupati, for the celebration of Shivaratri. It was very exciting ... lots of people (like 200,000)and there were supposed to be a lot of sadhus, or babas, there to celebrate Shiva's birthday. I guess a lot of them didn't come, as their allowances had been reduced or something. It would be hard to tell how many there were because there were so many people. The babas seem to smoke a lot of gaza (pot/hashish) and sell it to people. I question their holiness ... but then again who am I to do that??? Ms Judgemental ... that's who:-)

After the conference was over, I went to Pokhara. I went by car and it was so reminiscent of Oaxaca ... minus the valleys of agave. Instead there were so many lovely terraced valleys of farmland ... but they badly need rainfall. Climate change has really affected Nepal and they are getting far less sno and rain than in the past. Very serious situation, that.

Pokhara was quite different than I expected. It is so much bigger than I had realized and is a little Kathmandu in many ways ... minus the temples and historical buildings. The Lakeside area, where most tourists stay, is like many resort places, with the hotels and vendors. But some of the vendors were fun to talk to ... most of them were Indian, Kashmiri or Tibetan. The Kashmiri guys were very charming and fun to talk to. Even if I didn't buy anything they were still very friendly. The last night I was in Pokhara, I spent about an hour talking and laughing with a Kashmiri shopkeeper and a Japanese tourist and we had so much fun. The Japanese guy, Kotoro, couldn't speak much English and he had diarreah; every time he said diarreah, he would point to his bum. Shahi, the shopkeeper was so much fun ... It was a very nice way to end my time in Pokhara ... just laughing and being silly. And the children! So beautiful!!!

I quite liked my hotel and I think the owner, Rajandra, was really nice. He was very helpful. The visibility was a bit of a problem and we could only see the mountains (Annapurna Range) on a couple of occasions. We went up to Sarangkot one day (an Australian woman and a guy from the UK and I with Rajanadra) to see the sunrise and it was quite lovely ... lots of clouds, but it was very soft and mystical to see the mountains glowing and the valley with terraces below. Rajandra is from Sarangkot and we went on a little ledge below a hundred Japanese tourists with their tripods and fliters and fancy SLR cameras ... his friend brought us Nepali tea and we had just the most amazing view. Another day we went up to the top of a hill to see the World Peace Pagoda .I guess we climbed about 3 km up and then went down maybe 4 km to the lake and crossed back to Pokhara in the boat. My legs are still sore! I went with a guide from my hotel and Buddhi, the cousin-brother of one of the security guards at my university. He is also a lecturer at a university in Pokhara and teaches at a school called the Fishtail Academy in Pokhara. I went on his motorbike as well when we went to buy some magazines and books for Bhojraj, Rajesh, Danraj, and Prem back in Qatar. I also went to the Gurkha Museum and saw lots of Gurungs, Rais and Lumbis as well as Thapas, which is Thaman's surname.

Another highlight was a trip to Begnas and Rupa lakes. It is really nice that none of these lakes allow powered boats ... much better to preserve the calm and quiet setting. We saw quite a few birds on that little trek and I saw a rodent that looked like a weasel. In the late afternoon it was lovely to sit on the balcony of my hotel and watch large flocks of white egrets fly over the lake.
I took a plane from Pokhara to Kathmandu and had wonderful views of the Himalayas on the way. I had started to come down with a cold and spent the time before my flight to Doha spreading my germs ... OMG .... so many sneezes.

So I am now back in Doha and had midterms and am immersed in marking. It was very nice to see my students again and sort of nice to get back into a semblance of a routine. I was not so fond of finding cockroach carcasses littering several rooms of my downstairs. Yucko-bucko.

Now I am looking forward to feeling better so I can go swimming. I think it is almost warm enough. For those in forever-winter Canada, I am not rubbing it in ... truly. I hope you have a respite soon and daffodils before you know it!