Kata - Good Luck on your Travels

Kata - Good Luck for our Travels

Yesterday we started off on our trek of the three passes.  We have a porter with us carrying our bags, a sherpa helper (not to be confused with the last name Sherpa that most monks had at the monastery...that is their family name, but our sherpa is a helper for the kids, although I noticed he spent most of the trek with me at the back), and our guide.  When we left the monastery everyone came out to say goodbye and the head teacher, Lopan La presented all four of us with a kata, a silk scarf, with woven images of eight lucky Buddhist  symbols.  He told us it was to wish us luck on our travels.  We then had a 5 hour trek up to Namche Bazaar. It is really interesting to be on the EBC (Everest Base Camp) "highway" with loads of tourists and constant traffic jams with the yaks!  It really is important to stay on the mountain side when these guys come past! It's hilarious to see all the trekkers decked out in top notch gear, hiking boots and poles, all slowly heading up and then right beside them are porters carrying huge loads (about 100-150 lbs) in their flip flops!  The porters are built out of something else entirely.  We crossed several suspension bridges and one was very high up over the raging mountain river below.  With the high winds I kept telling myself not to look down meanwhile the boys in front of me were yelling and jumping and laughing.  Ahh!  When we got here we went to our first guest lodge.  What an improvement from the monastery!  A bathroom inside!  We splurged a bit and went to the bakery to try its famous goods.  We had 2 pizzas ( with yak cheese), macaroons, cinnamon roll, and Alex had cheesecake (Yak cheese). Then for dinner, Alex couldn't resist and had more pizza.  Well, I shared a room with him last night and let me tell you, perhaps too much yak cheese caused his stomach to "yak" all night!!!  Today Zach and Mark went for an acclimatization hike while Alex and I recovered from our interrupted sleep.  All seems well now and tomorrow we hike off to Thame and in a few days will go over our first pass - Renjo La.  We've been told we will have spectacular views of Everest and the surrounding range!  Until then...

Pema Choling - Our First Day

Pema Choling - Our First Day

We are now living with the young monks here at Pema Choling Monastery for the next ten days.  It was about an hour and a half trek to get here and two young monks walked to Ghat to guide us to the monastery and porter our bags.  When they showed up we were shocked at how young they were to be carrying our heavy bags (11 and 15).  Immediately Mark and I tried to stuff all our heavy items into our day packs.  When Mark told them he would help carry the bags he was flatly refused.  I suppose it was a matter of insult to insinuate that the boys could not do their job.  So, we followed behind a bit sheepishly and, even still, they out-hiked us on the journey up to the monastery.

Once here our treatment of being waited on continued. We were served cup after cup of milk tea as the young boys seemed to come two by two to sneak a peek at their new teachers.  After we were shown to our room - very modest but with windows looking over some spectacular mountains.  At lunch the monks were very quiet sneaking looks at us and whispering.  All the meals here are served by the monks (we are always first) and served out of these giant metal buckets.  I feel a bit like I'm in an Oliver Twist scene!  The meals have been mostly rice, dahl, curry, and potato something or other.   We can't believe how much food these young monks eat.  We can barely finish our plates and most are having seconds and thirds.

We had a short class after lunch to try to learn all the boys names.  They were so excited to show us their classroom and their notebooks.  Before we were allowed to teach they told us to stand aside as they cleaned the class.  They use a bunch of thin twigs tied together to sweep the dust.  We ended the afternoon bringing out 2 hacky sacks that Alex brought and everyone played. The monks had homemade versions of their own made from rubber bands.  Then they wanted to show Zach and Alex everything they do for play (lots of jumping, racing, marbles, "Kung fu", and tricks).  They are very fit and impressed the boys with all their games.  A few monks and Zach spent a long time perfecting the butterfly kick.  Just picture it...16 young boys all dressed in red monk robes all running and kicking and jumping off big stone walls with Zach and Alex...our boys were loving it.  

Dinner was a lot more noise as everyone was comfortable with us and asking us questions.  We had brought some maple syrup from Canada and took it out after dinner to share.  Nobody was keen to try it until one brave boy brought out a bowl and said yes.  Soon, everyone was digging in and literally licking the plates clean (including the adults and cook).  After dinner we settled into bed but could hear the boys from where they sleep all chanting and singing for quite a long time.  It was a very soothing sound to fall asleep to.  The next few days should be quite the experience.

Welcome to Beautiful Lukla!

We have finally made it to Lukla in the Everest region.  Our flight was spectacular with views of the Himalayas. The landing was adrenaline filled.  We are now off to the Pema Choling monastery which will be a 3 hour trek.  Everyone is so excited to meet the young monks we will be teaching for the next two weeks.  We have brought them notebooks, pencils, and other supplies.  It is so wonderful to be in the fresh clean air now after Kathmandu and the beautiful views of the mountains.

We are off to Lukla...hopefully

Our flight was cancelled to Lukla on Sunday, very typical we are told.  So now we have a flight booked for Tuesday.  We are very excited to get to the Everest region and begin our program with the young monks at the monastery.  Fingers crossed we fly tomorrow!

 A frenzy of wires! 

 In Thamel

At Boudhanath Temple

At the aptly named, Monkey Temple, or Swayambhu

Namaste...Welcome to Nepal

Our arrival here in Kathmandu came after 20 hours of flying and a very short layover in China.  We knew we were really on our way when we noticed the line up of those going onto Kathmandu from China was noticeably different with more backpacks, trekking poles, and North Face gear strapped to people's backs versus rolling suitcases.  Exciting!  Here comes our next adventure!  We were picked up at the airport by our program driver and safely driven through smaller and smaller streets (some just dirt and rocks) to our hostel.  Although the hostel is very simple, the people here are so friendly and welcoming.  We have a room for the four of us and a small bathroom and shower connected to it for our use only.

"Your problems will become our problems.  Your happiness will also be our happiness.  You are now part of our family here," was our welcome in the morning  by our language teacher, Prakash.  We spent our first day learning about Nepal, it's culture, and some language.  We also made a trip to the local shops.  To get there we walk up a hill to the Kalanki temple.  The street is very crowded and noisy and our senses quickly become overwhelmed with honking, dogs barking, cars and scooters and buses jammed with people everywhere and, oh yeah, the occasional cow wandering in and out of traffic (Zach says they must be power hungry as they are sacred here and can't be touched...if only we could cross the street like that)!  At the top is a temple and outside of it you will find women selling fruits and another old lady cooks corn on a small fire beside the temple by the road in the ditch.  

We all eat together on the top floor of our hostel.  We've had all kinds of traditional Nepali food, all a curry dish of one kind or other.  Our favourite so far has been the momos.   Another volunteer, Megan from Australia, started with us and is very friendly.  Lore, a volunteer from Belgium works at the monastery each day but returns here for all her meals.  There are other people constantly coming and going as well.  It is very friendly and social and I think the boys are really enjoying all the interactions. 

 On Wednesday we travelled by taxi to Thamel.  Thamel is the touristy area of Kathmandu and all the signs, guest houses, and stores are about trekking.  The boys tried to play some singing bowls and thought they were amazing.  The most adventurous part of the day by far was the taxi.  We dodged cars, motorbikes, scooters, rickshaws, people, cows and went down alleys, and even pulled up along a food vendor to buy food through the window!  I took a video because you'll never believe it unless you see it.  I'll post it later.

On Thursday we travelled by bus, and return by mini bus, to Kathmandu Darbar Square.  The most interesting part, other than the obvious dodging of cars, people, motorbikes and buses is that we shared our bus with a goat!  The mini bus looks like it should fit perhaps 8 people but when we piled out we had counted 16!  Needless to say it was cramped seating!  It's fun though and we're beginning to get the feel (a bit) for this Nepali way of life.  I hope to add pictures for you on our next post.  For now, 

Namaste!