Monday, October 15 - Saturday, October 20 - Since it’s our last week in Nepal, we decided to leave the noise and dust of Kathmandu for Chitwan and Pokhara. Besides, its the start of Dasain Festival, which is just a crazy time in the city -- way too noisy and too many people drinking too much and running through the streets, too hectic. So we took a tourist bus from Kathmandu to Chitwan where we stayed for a couple days. It’s one of the oldest National Parks in Nepal. The bus trip was pleasant enough and we had a wonderful time at the Gaida Lodge. We went for a day-long jeep ride in the jungle and were lucky enough to see a number of Rhinos; no Tigers, but numerous spotted deer, birds, crocodiles, wild boar and wild chickens. One day we just went to the river and watched the elephants get washed. It’s a big tourist attraction. For a few dollars you can get on the elephant while its in the river and the elephant sprays you with its trunk. We did not get a bath with the elephants, but watched a bunch of older German tourist get soaked. From Chitwan we came to Pokhara. It’s a nice little town on Phewa Tal (Phewa Lake). Very much like any beach resort you might imagine. Many restaurants, numerous trinket shops (selling the same jewelry, hats, scarfs, shirts, clown pants etc as sold everywhere), parasailing, bungie jumping, and a nice Pagoda on the mountain side. Here we just relaxed and watched the locals wash their cloths, fish, bath and fly kites etc along the lake front. Good inexpensive curries.
Tomorrow, Saturday, October 20 we’ll head back to Kathmandu for a few days before we head to Thailand on Wednesday, October 24.
Take care everyone and know we’re thinking about you guys. I’ll do another posting after we hit Bangkok.
Wednesday, Oct 3 - Friday, Oct 12
Been a while since I’ve written, but there is a reason for that; I spent 10 days at Kopan Monastery outside of Kathmandu. I was there from Wednesday, October 3 to Friday, October 12. I was suppose to be there until Saturday, the 13th, but Mike was going to play Friday night with Desmond at a local restaurant and I wanted to hear them. I’m glad I did because they sounded terrific and I really enjoyed the songs, particularly the original pieces written by Desmond.
Anyway, my experience at the Monastery was well worth the time. I basically went to learn more about the Buddhist philosophy and possibly how to meditate. I wasn’t very good at the visualization method, but got the breathing down pretty well. The Monastery is located on a hillside about one hour from the center of Kathmandu and it’s so quiet, except the many dogs that barked all through the night and of course the chanting that the Monks started at 5:00 AM each morning, but I got used to that and earplugs work.
My day started at 6:00 AM with tea and then a meditation session from 6:30 to 7:30, then breakfast; a teaching session from 9:30 to 11:45 then lunch; free time till 2:00 and then one hour discussion groups (talking about the readings or teachings from the morning) back to the gopa for another teaching from 3:30 to 5:00, followed by tea until 6:00 and then another meditation session to 7:45 and then dinner. So they were pretty long days.
For those of you who know me well, you may find the following hard to believe, but I was able to keep all of the rules for the time that I was there: no killing (not even the pesky bugs), no alcohol, no smoking, no anger and most of all - the practice of silence. We had silent time from 9:00 PM to noon each day and then the last two days it was completely silent for 48 hours. I found it very easy. You can really get into your mind when you don’t talk, and it gives you an opportunity to just look around and really see things. I spent the quiet time reading the meditation book we each got as well as another book on lectures given by one of the monks; watching butterflies dance, watching the stars; watching the people and watching the clouds change shapes. I met some really terrific people from all over the world and had interesting discussions on attachment, love, reincarnation etc. But enough of that.
While I was practicing being quiet and looking into myself questioning how I could/can be a better person, Mike was in Kathmandu helping his friend Desmond get his recording studio up and running again so he can get his business visa.
