Random thoughts in a restless night

Tomorrow I’m taking the bus to Lumbini, the birth place of Siddharta Gautama de Buddha. The Buddha. It’s a city all the way south of Nepal and after checking it all the way out, I’ll make my way across the border, to India.

Yes, my visa got approved. Instead of what I was hoping for, to have taken the bus towards Lumbini yesterday morning after receiving my visa, I had to turn my passport in, to come get it with visa and stamps the next day, today, at 5pm… So 2 extra Kathmandu days. I’ve been walking around in town, eating peanutbutter and banana bread slices, an unbelievably amazing combination, and also supermarket stuff instead of restaurant stuff, my wallet’s gracefulness was unseen.

I had also asked for a multiple entry 6 month visa, what I read online to be the most commonly asked for. Instead, me and apparently everyone getting the visa from Nepal, got a single entry 3 month visa.
Life has a tendency to throw all expectations right back in the face!

Aah, the Lumbini bus leaves at the unfortunately early 7 ‘o clock mark. Which means I’m getting up at 5.30 for a nice and fresh morning walk!
Of course that’s when sleeplessness strikes.
But as I try to just listen to the body, I will not fight the sleeplessness and will just enjoy being awake. Yes, even if the light from my mobile phone attracts all the insects and living crawlers in the vicinity…

I’ve been wondering a bit, how to live the life and what things to strive for. I think the travel like this has always been a deep longing from within, and so I’m really glad I’m following that. On a side note, I think I’d recommend this to anyone. At least, diving into the unknown in some way, it’s great! Yes, very scary, but great. And so educating, straight from yourself, conclusions, deductions, insights and more.

Hmm… I think in whatever situation one is thrown, he’ll find an answer, work with the things one can. And therefor worries need not to be made, as long as one stays truthful to one’s deepest longings and strives towards them.
It’s weird to see how, in a crisis situation, your whole mind, body and system works perfectly together to find a solution. All the right info pops up in the berserking mind, at the right moment, body’s reflexes are sharper than ever seen, suddenly there are just more reflexes, emotions force the wanted state to resolve a goal fixated upon.
It’s weird to see, but nonetheless very nice. And I think we can trust in that system. The more of an emergency the situation is, the sharper and more coherent the human system becomes.
Now all there is to do is to make every waking moment an emergency situation!

Well, these contemplations came after considering some futures. I’m not sure if I belong to the ‘traveler’ category already, but I’ve seen some interesting ones, with interesting life ideas and -styles.
Some just go for years, as in, 5 or more years. Some just do it permanently. Some go for many months or a few years and they will go back home for a while -but where is home anyway?-. Some go back and forth between home and not home, job and traveling.
I wonder what type I’ll turn out to be..

Aah, a slightly longer time than 6 hours before waking time.
The monsoon might have washed away a road or 2, we’ll have to see about that.
And the tourist season should be at the lowest in India. Here, I barely see Western people now. Well, I still see quite a few, but not 80% of the people I see are non-Nepalese. So I wonder how this will correlate with the craziness in India… Probably not much!
I wonder what I’m looking for over there, and what I’ll find.

The next day. I’m currently on the bus as the only passenger, kind of exhausted by lying awake for several more hours, and waking up around 4 ‘o clock at night for no reason at all.
I bought some kind of candy, and definitely got what I asked for when I asked ‘do you have a bit spicy?’. It’s some substance drained in spices. You could just as well lick the spices from a piece of paper, same effect. Only the ‘paper’/candy is edible. It tastes quite allright though, I like it, even though I’m doubting if the ashes of my once burning mouth can still taste anything.

The bus should get going in about 5 minutes, as I hope I’ll be able to stay awake to catch some scenery of the part of Nepal I haven’t seen yet. A nice and hopefully easy 7 to 8 hour bus ride.

It feels kind of nice to have a bus as taxi. It’s pretty big. The bus boy told me though that more will join on the way. Fortunately, as I think it would be a waste to drive 7 hours with a bus with one passenger. And a cancelled bus would be awful, I’ve stayed in this area for more than enough.
I’m really glad that I have the bread and peanutbutter banana fest with me, the food on the way to Pokhara, in the few places where the bus stops, was ridiculously expensive. I’m talking 4000m high up in the mountains rate. Sigh, tourist prices…

A local has been talking to me about how it’s becoming a real problem, where the tourists don’t care how much they pay for stuff lile fruits and vegetables, calculating with home currency, and therefor the fruit and vegetable prices, as well as groceries and clothing, start going up, mercilessly indifferent to the locals!
Vendors sell at twice the rates of the maximum retail price, as locals have a hard time paying this amount, therefor they have to sell higher prices themselves et voila, a spiral.

Now, after just 25 minutes of Kathmandu cruising, the bus is taking a 30 min break, to find more people. Yeah, they probably won’t go if I’m the only passenger.
What’s funny about these buses, is if you get on them from the start, there’s no doubt about where you’re going. The ticket checker or general bus driver boy, hangs out the sometimes existant front door, and shouts the bus destination into every single passenger’s face. ‘Bhairawa Lumbini! Bhairawa Bhairawa, Lumbini Lumbini! Bhairawa! Lumbini!
Any doubts of being on the wrong bus immediately evaporate. It’s a nice way of getting more passengers, and they are on the bus anyway. Works like a charm.

Looks like some people at least are getting on this bus, nice.
I wonder how I’ll do Lumbini, since people told me the many temples there can be multiple kilometers apart. Maybe I’ll try to rent a bicycle.
Content is shortening, fatigue is hitting… I think I’ll conclude this writing that was once a sleeplessness midnight activity.

Yes, I still need to write about my second month, and I will, at some point…
For now, dear Reader, bear with what is soon to be an inchronologicality, but still currently follows the timeline correctly. Prepare yourselves.

New chapters are about to unfold, as is always and for everyone the case.

Ps: the bus got filled all the way, me being the sole non-Nepalese person, awesome.

Posted from my phone, apologies for typing mistakes – Happy reading!

The first Couchsurf

Still on the anecdote side of things. I find myself sitting in the Indian embassy again, 6 days after my latest writing. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up my visa when the counter/ticket system decides it’s my turn, as I’ve read the stories on the internet where peoples visa got denied for no reason whatsoever. After paying the 50 dollars on the first visit, of course. We’ll see.

So 6 days ago, one of the friends I’ve met on the Panchase trek, let me know she found a couchsurf in Kathmandu, where I arrived a day earlier than her. She was experienced with surfing the couch, and therefor organised and selected, and let me know.

So I arrived at this big house, in an almost Western neighbourhood, 3 floors and a rooftop, solar power, marmer floors and table.. all very fancy.
The people were incredibly nice, pointed me to the room and gave me lunch. For the next 5 days I would eat with them, sleep there and get to know them, just like that! I was amazed by the existance of these people and this friendliness.

So, their story. The lady of the house and her husband used to have a successful business, an undefined while ago, and with their personal money, they created an orphanage institution. Amazing, is it not?
They now rent a place, feed the children, provide shelter, beds, and allow them to go to (private) schools.
They were building a new house for the children in Chitwan, but that’s when misfortune stroke and their business didn’t run so well anymore. They thus now have an unfinished building and still are paying rent, and search for people with ideas or ways to support the orphanage.

For me, it was a bit weird..
I hadn’t expected this lifestyle and luxury anywhere in Nepal, to be honest..
Their house was very fancy and Western, although they did live in it with about 15 people, and the guests. They were really nice and friendly, welcoming anyone just like that, serving them all the food they’d have on a regular day. But still the life standards were pretty high. It just felt a bit weird I guess, the fact that the children had a nice mobile phone and/or laptop, how some of them were even a bit chubby.. The only chubby Nepalese people I’d seen before were taxi drivers and businessman.

But still I made very good friends with my collegial couch surfers, and everyone in the house and orphanage.
We made pancakes, and with that I mean ‘my Canadian friend taught me how to make pancakes’, once for breakfast for the people in the house, and once again the same thing, only we made way more and served the rest to the children in the orphanage, their single bite consumption technique made us assume they liked it.

I also weeded their garden, a job that took a couple of days and one I actually enjoyed by a great amount. Just sitting in and smelling the grass, feeling it with the soil, was really relaxing and meditative. I loved to work on it on my own, not thinking about the time or day, just weeding that garden. They were quite happy I did it.

Playing football with these kids was also particulary entertaining, some of them were ridiculously good at it! It appears to be a pretty popular sport here, not so different from back home. It’s kind of funny how the Nepalese inform me how my country is doing and when they play, as I personally couldn’t care less.

So after being in this rich neighbourhood, I felt a bit weird and torn to multiple sides.
It’s nice though, how they can share their wealth and do good things with it. And I also was just lucky, fortunate, to have grown up with comfort and enough money.. Am I to blame? I don’t know. I think we should enjoy the things we have, and try to not take them for granted. Although it’s easier to fixate on things one does not have, or sees somewhere else, we’re always alive whenever we can ponder, and looking at that fact, and bringing the things we have and have accomplished to the front of our minds, contributes way more to happiness, a restful mind, and a peaceful being in general.

It’s funny and touching if you see the broad and deep smiles of people living in a ‘house’, three walls made of stone with a metal plate being roof, that in contrast to the 3 story house with Ferrari, computers, smartphones, cleaning personnel, air conditioning, king worthy bathrooms, and all that stuff we know and want house owners, with depressed faces, sadness and agression, because their bank account is increasing less than the week before.

Life’s revealing itself in many ways, and I’ve had a hard time swallowing this reality as it is for a few times.. But I stand powerless on this, can only learn and let my presence inevitably have its impact, only to move on to the next spot. It takes some energy, and can be unpleasant at times, to not be in the comfortable, all around shut cocoon you can hide and live in at home. But I think I’m feeling a strange kind of knowing and understanding starting to stretch deep inside. It’s valuable.. All we can do is learn and see about the miracle that is the experience of being alive, and accept that gift with both hands, to live it as fully and intensely as possible, with all that it implies. Not running, but facing. Not sheltering, but jumping in the rainfall to see how it feels, to see it doesn’t come separate from the sun and is indifferently valuable.
So far this contemplation on a rich experience that was my first couch surf.

Posted from my phone, apologies for typing mistakes – Happy reading!

An inbetween unchronologicality

This occurs after the 2 months traveling. The attempt of attaining an Indian visa.

After filling in the online application form in Pokhara and thereafter doing the Panchase trek, being back in town I got up in the early morning, first intention to walk to the tourist bus station. It was far, and just over halfway I did decide to hop on a local bus for 20rs. Beats the 30 proposals I received from lazy taxi drivers. ‘Only 300 sir’.

The lovely and bumpy 7 hour bus ride towards Kathmandu was thrilling once again.
This time more prepared, I had some nice music with me, not exclusively but surely containing some hard metal. Next time, I’m taking a big pair of headphones. It’s quite an experience to have growling death metal vocals being overruled in volume by high pitch Nepalese love songs.
For the rest the prices on the 2 stops were the same as 5000 meters above sea level, in the middle of the mountains, and the views were gorgeous as always.
This time though, the bus was 3/4 empty and we had all the space in the world.

Upon exiting the bus and ignoring numerous taxi driver and hotel owner shouts, I checked out a very nice guest house, that, as I discovered in retrospect was very nice and well rated, and usually double the price I payed.

This place was also really close by but not in the middle of the busy and tourist oriented Thamel.
I got surprisingly good prices in the same street as my guest house, for food and internet service.

So I started walking in the morning to what should be the half an hour away Indian embassy, of course, as the things just roll in Nepal, every 5 minutes of walking and asking how much further, 10 minutes magically got added to the walking time every time I asked!
So I started asking rikshaw drivers, expecting them to be cheaper than taxi’s, after all, it’s the price of a 3-wheeled bike vs a car and no gasoline is to be payed. Nope, ‘300rs sir good price, local price’. It’s not high season and I’m here for more than an hour, sorry buddy.

Then suddenly a weird, excited, smiling man on the older side appeared, proposing me a nice price if I would drive the rikshaw myself! The silliest bargaining begun, and after I smilingly walked on, he came driving next to me and accepted my deal.
My first rikshaw ride, and what an amazing one!

We were on the big road, surrounded by cars, motorcycles, minibuses,… the only non motorized vehicle in the vicinity. I think he barely understood the English he tried to speak himself, as he just didn’t care and counterbalanced his mostly nonsensical rambling with enthousiasm and laughter!
The most understandable of his utterances was ‘Money is toiletpaper! Money is toiletpaper!’ It’s the repetition that made me remember, he seemed to value that philosophy pretty badly… Not so much at the moment of payment though, but I held firm, and had an amazing time on that rikshaw ride. Learning not facts, but ununderstandable vowels and syllabiles about a few random buildings. Just amazing!

After waiting with a ticket queue in the embassy for half an hour or more, it was my turn and I could spend one minute with the lady telling me I had to turn back because my photo was not good and something on the application form as well. Now I’m happy not to be a part of all these angry and frustrated people at the embassy, as all was fine when I came back a while later. Also, the queue was gone. She said I have to come back in 6 days. Got some time to kill now…

This short adventure happened today, now I hope to continue the story of the 2nd month of my travel!

Posted from my phone, apologies for typing mistakes – Happy reading!