angusmccoll

Still feeling unwell with stomach cramps and diarrhea. So I spend time in bed but learn of some drugs that will help. It’s easy to buy all sorts of formal drugs over the counter here, even antibiotics. No doctors prescription required. But this is only useful if you know what you want. I don’t think the people behind the counter have much pharmaceutical expertise. And they don’t speak English! Fortunately I know what I want.

Late afternoon I meet with Dipak over coffee to discuss his research and talk about plans for a research trip to far western Nepal. He’s looking at native bees over there. They are similar to our Australian native bees. This is exciting for me, both talking insects and traveling to the far reaches of Nepal.

Its museum day today. There are some museums over near the Monkey Temple within a long walking distance from the hotel. It’s hot now in Kathmandu and I follow google maps, which turns out to be wrong! It takes me more effort than intended. On one side of the road is an archaeology museum and on the other is a military museum. The archaeology museum is full of pieces representing Hindu and Buddhist cultures. There are many gods represented and my poor knowledge makes it difficult for me to understand. 

The military museum paints a glorious view of Nepals fighting past but sadly excludes the parts that interest me. There is no mention of ‘the people’s war’ when the country was recently divided by the communist Maoists. This was a time when the leader was talking about fairness and equality for all, while accumulating wealth for himself – do as I say and not as I do. An army of people got caught up in his rhetoric that had Nepalese fighting against each other. The fighting stopped in about 2009 when the Maoist gained political representation and the leader became prime minister. But sadly his time was largely ineffective in progressing the lives of Nepalese. 

Another 6am start. Dipak has invited me along to a community meeting in a village up in the mountains not far from Kathmandu. We catch a mini bus to the bus park, then a city bus to the edge of Kathmandu and the entrance to a national park. From here we walk. There is a small group of us now including a Thai bee specialist and a man that will be visiting the community meeting to promote a product he has invented. It’s a simple but clever invention that is designed to make cooking fires burn more efficiently. This means less fuel required, whether it be wood, dung or fire brickettes, and more importantly, less smoke and pollution. The Nepal I have seen is mostly covered in a haze of smoke and dust and the humble cooking fire contributes to this significantly. I think this is a great idea and hope it gets accepted by the villagers. He was a Maoist in his younger days and learnt the art of making metal casts from making bombs. He will come to your home and apply his invention to your cooking stove. It includes a cast metal disc he puts at the base of the fire pit and a suitable chimney, all designed to maximize air flow and improve efficiency. He’s walking with us with bits so he can build a demonstration cooking stove onsite.

The hills we are walking through are beautiful. We follow a river and the hill slopes are covered in bio diverse forests. It’s hot but as we get higher up, the breeze is cool. Also with us is a man who will talk to the community about organic farming. This is clearly a progressive thinking community. Like many of these mountain villagers, some of the terraced paddocks are left unattended as the young leave home for a different life in the cities. Breakfast and lunch is provided by the organizers and I feel like a user. So when they ask me what I do, I think to justify my visit by saying I have worked with agriculture and integrated pest management (IPM)  in the past. They are excited by this and ask me to talk briefly on organic farming! Ouch! Dipak translates for me. Fortunately I only had to speak for a few minutes and it had to be simple. Great, I know simple. The audience is all women. It is a women’s group who have organized this gathering. This reall is a progressive community. Also talking was a representative from the Development Bank. Dipak also spoke. I was given special status, which I hate but foreigners are seen differently by these communities. There are so many foreigners doing charity things in Nepal and Dipak explains  that they see all foreigners as a possibility of some advantage. So I get special treatment.

Also there, but not speaking, was a man from an NGO that is working a social project here in this village and in the Kathmandu Valley. It’s all about the community being a family. Everyone works together as equals despite religious and caste differences. It sounds great to me but I can imagine it will take time and effort to over ride age-old traditions.

Dipak and I leave early to get back in time for the bus. We try a different way to save timeEdit and get a bit lost. Fortunately we get back on track and to the bus on time. The walk is through beautiful country. The river we follow is dammed and supplies drinking water for Kathmandu. It’s a favorited spot for young locals to take their friends and have fun.

I walk back to the hotel from the bus park. I’m tired. The heat of the day and walking and standing around has taken its toll.

I had planned to catch the us back to Kathmandu today but woke up hungover and couldn’t be bothered. Another day here will be fine. I decide to walk the entire distance from Buddha’s birthplace to the World Peace Pagoda and track it on my phone. It’s hot today and I’m still tired from walking around yesterday. The complete circuit is just over seven kilometers.

I rest and cool off in the Thai building and catch up with Pillu and his friends. He shows me the text he sent to his latest love and has completely ignored my advice from last night, a plan we hatched with many beers. Instead of playing it cool, he spilled his heart out in the text. Her reply was short but polite. 

We lunch and he pays. He’s embarrassingly generous for some one who earns little each day. He loves to talk, especially to the young women that come by his humble stall. He likes his job. ‘It’s easy work’ he says. I don’t think so.

My bus leaves at 6am so I’m up at 5.30am. There is a night bus but I prefer traveling in daylight so I can see the scenery. It’s another long day. We avoid the 3-hour wait at the road block this time, I guess because of good timing. But still there is a lot of stopping and it takes 11 hours to get to Kathmandu. I walk the 30 minutes from the bus park to Hotel Lily, getting there around 5.30pm. I’m buggered.

It’s stinking hot today and there is as usual a haze to ashen the sky. I plan to visit more of the monasteries in the afternoon but as I start preparing to go, I thunderstorm rumbles in the distance. It’s impossible to see because of the haze but the sound is unmistakable. Do I go and risk getting wet, or stay? It hits the town and there is wind, rain and plenty of thunder and lightening. By 4.30pm it has passed, plenty of time for a bit of a walk. I walk the length of the long canal and continue along the brick paving, which has become a series of ponds at this point. I’m wanting to get to the World Peace Stupa that I can see in the distance. This is one of two of these stupas in Nepal, and one of 80 located around the world. A Japanese Buddhist sect started building these after WW2 and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The brick ponds don’t make walking easy here and certainly not negotiable by cycle. I continue on by tins that my way is blocked by a road. I can’t get to the Stupa. I walk back to my hotel.

Today I plan to visit the remaining monasteries. As explained previously, land has been allocated  to different countries east and west of the water canal that links Buddha’s birthplace with the World Peace Stuppa. One side is for monasteries that follow one stream of Buddhism while the other side is for followers of the other form of Buddhism. I’m told by other foreigners that Australia is represented here, which surprised me. Maybe we donated a toilet! But I discover that Austria have a Monastry here and assume that’s what they meant. France, Germany, China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, India and of course Nepal have monasteries built or are building them. The completed ones are open for the public to enter and look around. Some offer meditation and one even offers board. Raju explained that I could stay at the Korean monastery if I wanted but they aske you to join them in meditation at 6am and no alcohol allowed! Too difficult for me. 

There is a constant stream of people from all parts of the world wandering around. To go anywhere here requires a lot of walking or you can rent cycles, or hire a rickshaw. I choose to walk. It’s hot but a great place to sit for a while is a Thailand construction that is a conference Centre and probably an administration site. It’s open and cool. Also taking advantage of the cool are some stall owners. There is a long line of table stalls satisfying visitor thirst for Buddha things. Pillu has a stall and comes to me for advice. He said hello to me some days ago and remembers me. Without even knowing me he explains that he is in love and wants some advice, thinking my age qualifies me as an expert in these things. How wrong he is. He’s 24 and has fallen in love 20 times already, but his new love is the one he is certain. She visited Lumbini recently and after many beers and weed he spent the night with her. She’s now in Kathmandu but his heart bleeds for her though texts every day. Anyway we chat and he offers to take me around on his motorbike. That night we catch up for beers, many beers, and he tells me about life here and in Nepal. Things here are far more complex than I imagined and what he tells me is very interesting. He explains that the border strike between nepal and India is not India’s doing but Nepals. He is of the Terai people and they are protesting to the Nepalese government by blocking the border and stopping essential fuels, gas and medicines getting into nepal. Recent changes to the constitution is not fair to the terai people. The terais are lowland people and the constitution discriminates against them. The government also under represents them compared to the mountain cultures and they are angry. The constitution and the government doesn’t see them as real Nepalese but imports from India, dispite them being citizens that have been part of Nepal for many generations. This seems to be a common theme amongst under developed countries. The borders are open now but he thinks things will erupt again soon. We also discuss his love life again over too many beers. He’s a character.

UNFINISHED

Lumbini is located in central southern Nepal, quite near to the border with India. It’s flat (yes Nepal has some flat parts) and hot, hotter than Kathmandu. It has a long history but is most famous for being the birth place of Buddha. Pilgrims come from all over to visit his birthplace. To mark the significance of this place, a master plan was devised by professor Tange in 1978. This plan has Buddha’s birthplace anchoring one end and a giant World Piece Stuppa built by a Japanese order, anchoring the other end. In between is about three kilometers of brick paving and a water canal. Either side is space for the world to contribute by building monasteries in their own cultural style. Many monasteries are here now but there are many to come, some under constructions. These are grand structures. A village with hotels is also planned as the demand for these facilities grows. It’s a magnificent concept and will look even more spectacular on completition.

I start by visiting Buddha’s birthplace and museum. The Lumbini gardens are beautiful and peaceful. Meditation classes are in progress and the many prayer flags are playing in the breeze. It’s hot and walking around is difficult. 

Maya Devi, Queen of King Suddhodana of Kapilavastu, came by the Lumbini gardens on her way to her maternal hometown. She bathed in a pool there and within moments of getting out, 25 steps to be exact, labour pains came on and she gave birth while leaning against a tree. A stone pillar now marks the spot. The year was 623 BC. Scriptures explain that within moments of his birth, the baby walked five paces and uttered a message to the suffering humanity in the gardens. He then spent the first 27 years of his life in privilege in the royal palace situated west of here. And from that privileged perfect life, he ventured out against the wishes of his parents to see the struggles of real life. From this were born his philosophies.

I visit some of the older monasteries then walk back to my hotel via a small restaraunt where I meet a group of three Lebanese. They were great company and on their way to India. A young couple came here after a huge bus trip to cross the border into India, only to be told they need to return to Kathmandu to get a visa. They go back tonight.

After the heat of the day has passed I hire a push bike and go back to the monasteries. I ride the distance to the end of the canal and get some photos in the setting sun. Tomorrow I will come back and visit some more monasteries.

Bizarre day today. I met Ullma today. He’s Nepalese and is a rafting guide. He has his own rafting business here but also spends six months of the year being a rafting guide in Japan. He leaves for Japan at the end of April. Right now he is looking after their little shop in the village selling stings and lollies that he and his wife have just started 10 days ago. He’s English is good and he even knows some Australian speak. How did I meet him? My bus has been stopped at a road block for three hours in front of his shop. A landslide has blocked part of the road so they are working to clear it and to do stabilizing work. The Nepalise way of managing the traffic is to block half the traffic for three hours at a time. And they shut our side of the road just as our bus arrives. This is a crazy way to do things and we are very unlucky. Five minutes earlier and we would have got through.

I’m on my way to Lumbini and I left Kathmandu at 7.00am. This trip started with a huge traffic jam on the mountains just outside of Kathmandu so we have already had plenty of waiting. It normally takes about seven hours to get to Lumbini but not today. 

There are about eight foreigners on the bus and we are told that if we plead with the guards operating the road gate, they might let us through. There is a lot of discussion but they don’t concede. I’m very angry and argue the point but Ullma is there explaining the situation to me. The police are here too. We eventually give in and dissolve into the town to eat and have a look around. I spend time at Ullma’s little shop. He’s doing good business with the local school kids and other kids from trucks caught in the road block. He’s friendly character also attracts other foreigners from the bus.

Ullma is a Christian, which is a minority religion in Nepal. His family converted from Hindu about 15 years ago when missionaries came through to spread the word. He’s an enthusiastic follower of the faith and likes talking about it to me, assuming that I’m a Christian. They have a small church here in the village.

We eventually arrive in Lumbini around 8.30pm. That’s a 13.5 hour trip! Fortunately the bus stop is an easy walk to the hotels. There are many hotels here but I aim for the Lumbini Guest House, recommended to me by Raju. Dinner and bed.

Spent the day organising my trip to Lumbini. Raju helped me organise my bus ticket. It’s about an 8-hour journey.

Went for a coffee at a place on the edge of Thamel and while walking there, a strong wind came up out of nowhere. The dust was blinding and shop owners scurried to get their displays and advertising boards inside. Then there was some rain. I find out latter that this wind did a lot of damage around the city. Trees were uprooted and people injured. And the poor people living in tents and tin sheds suffered badly too.  What a bizarre thing. Rachit lives in one of these tin shacks with his brother and 11-year old nephew. Rachit is studying dentistry and is doing well. His mother died 10 years ago and his father spends most of his time back in the village. The boys fend for themselves somehow. The storm blew their little place apart, wetting everything. Only the young nephew was home at the time and he was highly distressed. His currently doing end-of -year exams so doesn’t need this distraction. Life is so tough here.