kathmandu – bodymovin.net

After Everest, I returned to Kathmandu and stayed for about 2 months. I met a lot of wonderful people. I feel like whatever I put down here wouldn’t do justice to the time spent and the special interactions I had with my fellow travelers. I’m so grateful for my time with them.

Udaya, my travel companion to Everest base camp, invited me back to his home village, in Phalelung Tanglepa, southeast Nepal. That was a unique experience and truly inspiring to witness how he was received by his family and community upon his return from his Everest summit. He was the first person from his district to do this.
On arrival to his home town, we were greeted by a parade of dancers, musicians, and village folk. His cousin hoisted him onto his shoulders, where we then marched back to his home to receive tikka and celebrate. It was really heart touching to see this reunion with his mother, it was after all, a dangerous trip. I met one guy on Udaya’s expedition who died, along with his sherpa, and another man who got frostbite on all his fingers and toes, which led to amputations. In his home, we received tikka, blessings from his family and community, which consisted of placing numerous fabrics (katas) and flowers around our necks and smearing colored powder on our foreheads and cheeks. We were sat behind a table which had three cakes. Each person came up individually to offer blessings. It seemed that each person who did so, managed to lean over one of the cakes, while offering tikka, smearing the cake a bit. I witnessed this one older man who managed to neatly get some frosting on the inside of his suit coat, without noticing, during his offering. After about 45 minutes of this, my face and clothes were saturated with pink powder. I had countless articles of fabrics and flowers around my neck. The cakes were only partially ruined.

Most of my two months after Everest were spent going to the local rock climbing gym. I had, for the past several years, since I was last in southeast Asia, wanting to spend some period of my life where climbing was my priority. This was that time and it was good! I thoroughly enjoyed the sport and the daily routine. The staff at the gym were affable.

This guy was an amazing climber. Just as he was scaling the hardest route in the gym, the most appropriate music came on. It’s beautiful, boisterous, and magical when the phenomenal world puts together the auspicious coincidences to demonstrate the spectacle of some merit.

While in Kathmandu, I searched for the answer to some lifestyle questions that had been plaguing me for several months. They were on the topics of meat consumption and of the consumption of materials that are environmentally unsustainable. I went to a monastery near Buddha stupa (the white monastery) to find a Llama (a high teacher) to answer my questions. Unfortunately at the time I went, the Llamas were traveling.
Although I didn’t find what I was looking for there, I was glad to be in the Buddha stupa vicinity. This is one of my favorite spots in Kathmandu. The vibe was peaceful. I visited several times during these two months. On two occasions I saw special events happening. One was a three day world peace gathering. I really resonated with this event. I feel like if you are going to dedicate your energy to something, dedicate it to something positively constructive rather than trying to deconstruct something that is viewed as negative, although I do think this is sometimes necessary. I think this is a more effective way of accomplishing something beneficial.

I’m so grateful for my visit to Nepal. It’s been almost 8 months (minus the time spent in India). I feel like I received so much more than I anticipated coming here.

The past few weeks have been pretty eventful, as all other weeks. The construction of the dome has winded down, although bits of work were done and are still left to do.
The camps construction crew’s attention has turned to the building of new outdoor showers. The design is like a sigma E. The main structure went up relatively fast. We received new volunteers to help with the project. At one point, we hired contract masons to plaster the showers. It was good to work with them and see their techniques.
I also got an intro to plumbing thanks to Haribol, the construction crew’s lead!

The dome had its floor installed, made up of leveled gravel then cement. We would have done an earthen floor, but there was a deadline to meet.
Parts of the wall kept falling off. A cow dung mixture was applied to those parts and the entire inside was treated with cow dung wash to smooth out the cracks. After drying, we applied 2 coats of lime wash.
The door and window frames were fit into place and secured with metal rods that were hammered into the walls then bolted to the frames.

The food at camp continues to be amazing.

I continue to enjoy the strong sense of community that is intrinsic to Conscious Impact. They host meetings and workshops frequently. Its incredible to see the impact the organization has on the community perpetually unraveling before my eyes.

I took a bus to down to Kathmandu to meet my friend Carol, who would come to visit for 2 weeks. On the way down, the bus got a flat tire. Fortunately, all my luggage was on my lap. I walked out of the bus, crossed the street, and flagged down the next bus passing by. It’s liberating being able to travel light and easily. While in city, awaiting Carol’s arrival, I checked out the Saturday Sherpa Farmer’s Market. It was pretty sweet, a kind of loungy/ pedestrianized/ expat hangout scene with lots of novel artisan crafted goods.
I also met a fun girl from my hostel, Sophie.

Carol arrived and we hit the tourist sites in Kathmandu: Monkey temple, Boudhanath, and Durbar Square. We also went to the cremation grounds and saw an Aarti, a worship ritual dance using fire and incense.
There’s much to be said about about my time with Carol, but I’ll highlight the most memorable.
The time at the cremation grounds was powerful. I felt the heartbreak of the deceased family members as my own. Carol and I got into a heated discussion the next day primarily concerned with how differently people perceive their experience of reality/ life.
Also powerful, was the meditation time we had in a temple behind Boudhanath stupa. At one point I gazed right into the eye of a statue of Padmasambava … penetrating.
Before we left Kathmandu, we stopped by Sami Croissant. The owner is a food scientist who makes croissants out of bamboo cells. I had a “ham and cheese” croissant that was entirely vegan, pretty interesting place.

After Kathmandu, we took a 10 hour tempestuous bus ride to Pokhara. Pokhara was just lovely. There are numerous cafes on the lake side with cozy venues and awesome menus. Up on the mountain tops, you can see a giant Shiva statue and a peace pagoda.
The peace pagoda was pretty special. I felt a deep calm, the kind I achieve only after a concentrated one hour meditation, achieved in less than 10 minutes.
One evening, Carol and I stumbled upon a full moon ritual. I thought that was quite auspicious.
Before we left, I witness what was perhaps the fattest dog I’ve ever seen. I pointed it out to Carol, who commented that I was hurting its feelings.

We returned to Kathmandu for a day to transit over to the Conscious Impact camp. While in Kathmandu, I caught up with friends in the area.

It was great to have Carol experience the magic that is the CI camp. Below are pics from a community dinner we had at one of the staff’s (mama’s) home. “Mama” is Nepali for “uncle”.

I returned to Kathmandu to see Carol off and to fly out myself. My visa expired and so I left to India, but I’ll be back soon to continue working on more natural building projects.

The trip was nice. It is like being in some kind of time warp these past 3 weeks, transitioning from place to place. It calls to mind a quote on groundlessness from Chogyam Trungpa, “The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is, there’s no ground.”

Life is dream-like, everything is due to its causes. ♡