On the Road Again. I just can't wait to get back on the road again.

  2013. It sounds strange, a present that seems to exist in the future. I was sick on New Year’s Eve,  eventually sleeping  16 hours before getting up in time to see the clock strike twelve, then sleeping some more. There seemed to be quite a few people celebrating around Pepsi Cola. I guess the Nepalese enjoy a good excuse to party!  We’re getting ready to leave Kathmandu early on the 16^th. Su started packing three days ago, not wanting to leave it to the last minute…We have our Indian visas, bus tickets to Chitwan, and an account with the India Rail online booking website. This really has been a home away from home. Our host family has been so gracious, helpful and friendly, and the house itself is warm and spacious. It would be nice to have a more reliable hot shower, but otherwise, I have absolutely no complaints. Pepsi Cola is a beautiful, quiet suburb, full of the contrasts that new development brings. Huge four and five story houses mixed in with little shacks and small fields of assorted produce. When we first got here, the rice crop was just being harvested, then there was cabbage and cauliflower, assorted greens, and now carrots are the main crop. Even though it is frosty every night, there are still tomatoes growing, and people are starting to plant new crops all the time. There are also many colorful flowers continuing to bloom, the dazzling red poinsettia trees are huge, and there are big green papayas on the trees. It seems to be badminton season, too. The main soccer field is still busy most of the time, but badminton nets have been set up in the other fields. People have always played in the streets, without nets, just rallying back and forth, casually dodging the cows, dogs, pedestrians and traffic. All the kids from the school know us well now, and greet us whenever they see us, calling out from across vacant lots, from rooftop balconies, or just running up for a handshake. The only thing I’m not going to miss is the barking dogs! The round of puppies born while we’ve been here are still young, but the females have gone into heat again. There are roaming bitches pursued by packs of competing males, fighting and yelping all night long.

  There is something immensely satisfying about learning to navigate through the chaos of Kathmandu, either walking or using public transit. Like the city itself, the transit system is old and battered, crowded and dirty, but somehow it manages to work. We’ve made many trips around town lately, getting and extending visas, sending a box of singing bowls and souvenirs home, and finally picking up our mail. We’ve even walked around the airport to Boudnath, about five kms each way. It’s so much fun to walk through neighbourhoods that would rarely, if ever, see tourists.

   Raven and I played some mini-golf in the Civil Center Mall while Su made her first trip to the post office. Highly recommended, if you happen to be in Kathmandu and feel the need to putt 18 holes. There is also a coffee shop that makes a delicious café latte. Mmmmm. Coffee.  As our time started growing short, we decided to explore a few more sights around the valley. Last weekend, despite my reservations, we went to the zoo. It costs five times as much to get in if you’re a foreigner, 1500 rupees for the three of us, which is nearly $20 US. It’s hard to argue, as it’s obvious that they need every penny they can get. We started looking at the collection of colorful and exotic birds before a wandering elephant caught our attention. The handler was presenting the old girl for people to ‘donate’ small bills in return for touching their forehead to the elephant’s trunk. This seems like a novel idea, but unless you’ve ever stood next to one of these creatures, you don’t know how immense they really are, and how cautious you instinctually become. An elephant can, and wild ones often do, crush a human with little effort, so rubbing your head on its’ trunk is much more intimidating than it sounds. Su got in line first, before Raven, buoyed by her mother’s successful return, also joined in. The relatively small elephant was scratching up against a tree, rubbing its’ tusks and ears on both sides of the tree before starting to ram it gently with its’ forehead. The entire tree shook, leaves falling all around, and then she started looking for fallen fruit, the vacuum cleaner nozzle/hand searching the ground with amazing dexterity, eventually grabbing some branches off the closest hedge.  Such powerful creatures, no wonder they have been domesticated and turned into heavy machinery.

 After touring the assortment of wild cats, large and small, including a gorgeous cheetah, and then the sloth bears (think small black bears), we came to the primate section. The langurs we’d seen while trekking to ABC were in a pitifully small cage, but the chimps, their more famous relatives, had a large enclosure filled with ropes and platforms to frolic on. Still, even knowing that they were born in captivity and had never experienced ‘freedom’,   it was pretty sad. ‘The Life of Pi’ provides a great perspective on the life of zoo animals, and I tried to keep that in mind as we made our way past the lone hippo, to the grand finale, the Royal Bengal Tiger enclosure. The biggest reason that I didn’t want to go to the zoo, was that I would much rather take my chances trying to see these amazing creatures in the wild on our upcoming trip to Chitwan Park, along with their endangered companions, the One-Horned Rhinoceros. There were two tigers in separate enclosures, neither of them putting on much of a show for the gathered crowds, the more ignorant of whom were shouting and whistling, trying to stir the tigers out of their afternoon slumber. Sigh. With that, we made a hasty departure to the bakery we’d passed on the walk from the bus park, where we indulged in some pizza and amazing chocolate cake, but the bad taste in my mouth lingered on.

On a lighter note, Su made me a fabulous  birthday dinner of fettuccini alfredo and buff sausages, washed down with two of the giant sized bottles of San Miguel beer, before breaking out the birthday cake she had brought home on her lap, while riding on the back of a scooter! School is out again, this time for winter break, but VSN had arranged a ’winter camp’, where I was finally scheduled to teach yoga classes. I was a little fuzzy after my birthday dinner, but excited to continue teaching three classes a day. The first group in the morning was always the grade six class, who are just great. Focused and attentive, they are a real joy to teach. The next group was the grade seven class, who are normally even better. The problem, I soon realized, was that Su was playing games in the field next to the school, and by the time I took over, even the older kids were totally jacked up on adrenaline and freedom from the discipline that they are so used to. The only place large enough for me to teach 30 kids is the courtyard behind the school, which is dusty, noisy, and currently under construction.

The boys and the girls automatically cluster together in separate groups, like oil and water, chatting and giggling. It took a great deal of patience and persistence to get them to be quiet and listen to their breath, before we even started moving mindfully through the sequence of postures I had planned out. Since we have no mats, and the courtyard is so dusty, the entire yoga class has to consist of standing poses, which makes it even more difficult to regain a semblance of calm after Su’s frolic-fest. Eventually, I broke the spell by asking them to close their eyes, breathe, and consider the following:  You have a house, but you are not your house. You have a school, but you are not your school. You have friends and family, but you are not your friends and family. You have clothes, but you are not your clothes. You have a body, but you are not your body. You have thoughts and emotions, but are not your thoughts and emotions. What are you? Ahhhh. Finally, silence.

   All too soon, it was on to the grades fives. These guys are a handful, and I was soon reminded how diverse a class of twelve year olds can be. Some were eager and disciplined, while others were completely uninterested and unresponsive. I had to give up any expectations I had, and remember what I put my teachers through at that age. I let the ones who obviously had no plans of participating go play and gossip, and focused on those who were still ‘present’.  After that first day, Su and I had a little talk, and she promised to bring it down a few notches at the end of her session, so I might have more of a chance to get the entire class to connect with their breath, at least for a few minutes. I kept the same sequence of poses, hoping they would be able to focus on the breath more and more as they became familiar and fluid. Most of the kids showed amazing improvement, while some just stopped showing up, just like any group, I suppose. I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to share the gift of yoga with anyone interested, and for the opportunity to challenge myself as a teacher. Adults who have paid to attend yoga classes are much more focused and attentive, but patience and discipline are valuable tools for any teacher.

  All too quickly, our time in Kathmandu was coming to an end. On our last Saturday, Su and I went back to Patan, leaving Raven to enjoy her freedom and continue to focus on her schoolwork. I had hoped that she would be slightly ahead of schedule by the time we left Nepal, as it’s much harder to stay focused on a daily routine while travelling. The fact that she is able to complete grade 7 as we travel around the world, and not be overwhelmed by the contrasts, experiences and challenges we face along the way, leaves me even more amazed, inspired and proud. I am one lucky Daddy! Patan used to be one of three separate and competing kingdoms in the Kathmandu valley, but has been swallowed up by the sprawl to become a mere suburb. Never the less, it is home to some of the most impressive architecture in all of Nepal.

Between the 14^th and 17^th centuries, Patan produced intricate wooden temples that are unparalleled. We wandered circuitously around the ancient city, passed temple after temple, stupa after stupa,  some built of stone, others of wood, some showing Indian influence, others more Tibetan.  Many of the Hindu temples have erotic carvings (think Karma Sutra), while others depict battle and torture scenes, depending on the deity honored and the fancy of the king who commissioned the building. We ended up in magnificent Durbar Square, and immense collection of superb temples, pillars and palaces. Before long, a uniformed guard asked to see our tickets. Tickets? We’d come in through an obscure alleyway in the back corner, where there is no gate.  Tourism is the number one resource for Nepal, but the entry fees to the major sights are skyrocketing. Since we’d seen enough temples for one day, and have devoted considerable time and money to the country already, we just made our way back to the same bakery we’d eaten at after the zoo, salivating at the thought of more chocolate cake…

  Raven isn’t too happy that we have to leave Nepal, but I’m excited to get back on the road again. I do love Nepal, but it will be great to get out of the city, see some wildlife in the wild, enjoy warm sand between my toes, and be swept up in the magic and chaos of India.  Stay tuned, there are many more adventures in store in the coming months!