In My Element

Again my apologies folks for my lack of blog entries, but the time is absolutely flying by here! I can’t believe I’ll be home in 2 weeks. Six weeks is barely enough to really start feeling comfortable and immersed the culture of a foreign city. Man, do individuals make an impact?! As much as I am appreciating the incredible landscape, stupas, food, and wildlife, it’s the individual interactions that have defined my experience here.

Last week, I was lucky enough to connect with some good family friends of the rocking Furbush family who were passing through Kathmandu after a long, successful season of guiding treks. The couple welcomed me into their home, as if they’d known me for years. We watched the sunset over one of the largest stupas in Kathmandu, the eyes of Buddha glimmering, visible from all corners of the city. I sat down for the largest, most delicious meal of my whole trip. At a restaurant, I’ll order momos, like chicken dumplings, and get 6, well aside from the mound of dal bhat (rice and lentils), and vegetable curry, I was given 10 momos!! Every few bites I took, my plate was refilled. Eight momos, what seemed like a few pounds of rice and vegetables, and 3 glasses of Mountain Dew later, it was time for dessert! This is just a demonstration of the kind of hospitality I have been offered during my stay. I am so grateful for yet another, incredible connection!

This past weekend we took a little vacation within our vacation and headed to Chitwan National Park, where a birder can fine 566 of the country’s 867 species of birds! Let’s just say, aside from being a bit overwhelmed by the sensory overload or new sounds, colors, and names, I was in heaven! After an 8 hour bus ride over the hills of the countryside, we were greeted by our rockin’ tour guides of the weekend, Krishna (my bird friend) and Arpan (the stud). We all took an evening stroll through the rainforest to a riverside hang out to watch the sunset. I was holding up the rear of the group, working on my Nepali with our guide Krishna, when he began pointing out the birds flying by. I practically froze in excitement and pulled out my binoculars and bird book as a sign of my approval! I’d met my match! This guy’s obsession with the birds of Nepal gave my interest a run for it’s money. He knew every call, every nest structure and the number of birds of each species to be found in Chitwan. Ya…we were buds for the whole weekend. While we struggled to communicate in everyday speech, ornithology was our common language.

Our guides: Arpan (left) and Krishna (right)

That night we attended a local dance performance, and boy were they amazing! Watching these boys interact with each other, feeding off one another’s energy and just having a blast made me miss being on stage. Lucky for me, they invited members of the audience to stage with them for the last piece. I felt completely at home, and in my element dancing around this circle of live musicians, surrounded by strangers who share a common passion for the art!

The next morning we all mounted elephants for a jungle safari, where we walked aside rhinos weighing up to 4000 lbs. and sloshed through crocodile infested rivers! Man, is that a way to see the jungle!! After our walkabout, we headed to the river to help bathe the elephants…and by “help bathe” they meant bath WITH the elephants! We rode the beasts into the river and then they were told to get down on their knees and rock side to side until we all fell off. Once all competitors were in clear view, the water fight was on! No Super Soaker will ever compare with the force of the trunk of an elephant blasting from 3 feet away!!!

During our 4 hour break some friends rented a few motorcycles to cruise around the city. Ya…ok so I don’t have the best sense of direction, and neither did my driver, because we ended up about 25 minutes down the road and realized it was time to turn around before reaching the Indian border. Not 2 minutes later our tire blew out….ya you should have seen the stall of traffic as every passing tractor, bike, bus, and taxi felt the need to slow down and take a good long laugh at the beet red Americans pushing a motorcycle down the side of the highway. I’m sure we provided a great story for that evening’s dinner table! We ended up finding a gas station, who didn’t have any gas or way to fix our tire but helped us to call 5 different hotels with names one word off from ours. They then walked us to the nearest tire repair station, where a 12 year old boy, who spoke impeccable English, helped us find our bearings and get things squared away. It’s always an adventure!


A sight to see...

We survived!!

That night, we all walked back from a local restaurant and were headed to bed when we were intercepted by our awesome guides and hotel workers sitting around a table, just chatting and rocking out to music. “Oh my goooood (God) it’s my bird frend! Come sit down!”  What was meant to be a 10 minute conversation about birds turned into a 3 hour music exchange and dance party in the courtyard of our hotel with 6 Americans and 4 Nepalis! These are the evenings I love the most, the unexpected, low key plans that turn into some of the most fun, laughter filled nights!

We received our wake up knock on the door at 6 am the next morning for our bird walk, which was so kindly arranged around my passion for birds. This may be one of my favorite mornings so far: sun rising over the river where the elephants prepared for their day, Kingfishers swarming the river bank, flashes of blues, golds and whites identifying their presence, binoculars gripped in hand, ready for any action ahead, and my bird friend, Krishna, giddy at the spotting of any species that I’d never seen (even though he sees them every morning), violently flipping through his bird guide to read my the species in English. Only in Nepal.

Well I’m off to my second to last day with Ishwor. I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown but I’ll try to post again soon before heading off on our week long trek!

So much love to you all,

Al