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Kristina's
Journal:
December 22, 1998
The Swiss Bus...
Today we took the Swiss Bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu.
Thus, we learned the benifit of trusting your guide when he recommends
a different bus company. But, alas, we booked this bus ourselves, from
the guesthouse, after Hiran left. There is nothing "Swiss" about the Swiss
bus; it is not nice and clean, and it does not run on time. Actually, it
wasn't all that bad and the driver did a fairly good job not running us
off the road as we saw with another bus that had a head on collision with
a truck.
Back in Kathmandu and back to the lovely Kathmandu
Guest House. One of the best features of the hotel is the Communications
Center which offers internet terminals, faxing, and international phone
calls. They also allowed us to use their fax line late at night to call
our iPass and upload to the web page. We are still amazed that from Nepal
we can log on!
December 23, 1998 Cremation Ghats and Pashupatinath
This morning we met up with Hiran
and Tikka and paid them the rest of their wages for the trek. We wound
up giving them a little extra because we felt that they were well
worth it. Hiran gave us a book he keeps for his "clients" to write in,
giving recommendations, if they want. We wrote three pages full of praise,
and again, highly suggest that anyone considering trekking in Nepal contact
him.
Hiran and Tikka went with us to see Pashupathinath
Temple and the creamation Ghats along the river. Along with the Hindu temple
which is thousands of years old and an important pilgramage site and the
ghats are another series of smaller temples higher up on the hill.
In front of many of these 
temples
sit Sadhus and Indian snake charmers. The sadhus are supposedly ordinary
men who have given up all of their worldly possessions to embark on a long
journey or pilgrimage. They usually let their hair grow into long dredlocks,
paint their faces with symbolic colors and stripes, and depend on the "kindness
of strangers" for their support. They also tend to smoke the "holy" marajuana.
Nowadays, they usually pose for photos for money from tourists.
There is one well known Sadhu in Kathmandu we'll
call Penis Man. Penis Man is known for being able to lift a large rock
off the ground with a string attached to his penis. We were offered the
chance to see this miracle, for a fee, along with "photos ok" and we politely
declined. To be fair, Dave wanted to do it but, I didn't really feel that
this was something I needed to witness in order to fulfill my journey to
Nepal. We also saw a few "snake charmers" complete with the requisite flute,
basket, and cobra. I took a photo from a distance and kept on walking.
The snake charmer's flute playing became erratic as he tried to get our
attention so that we would give him some money.
The cremation itself was not as macabre or grusome
as I anticipated. Given, we saw no actual dead bodies. What we did see
was essentialy a 3 hour funeral on the edge of the river and a large fire
burning from an earlier cremation. We were told that the location of the
cremation depends on the caste of the deceased. Weathy families hold theirs
on the upper side of the river bridge, lower castes, downriver. The ghat
highest upriver is reserved solely for the Royal family.
Surprisingly, there were many local onlookers, not
just camera toting tourists. I asked Hiran why the locals outnumbered the
tourists 10 to 1 and he replied, "many people out of work, nothing
to do". Also, because the deceased was from a wealthy family, so the spectacle
proved interesting even for them. It seemed that the ritual went on forever.
The family arrived bearing a casket, the first sign of wealth, besides
being upriver. The mourners came in their everyday clothes, not black,
not white and had to wait for other creamation to finish burning. While
waiting, there was an endless stream of mourners coming to bring
flowers and gifts to the casket. We watched as they shaved the heads of
close male family members. At first I was surprised that there were no
tears, thinking that maybe sentimentality was not part of the culture.
Then, the the wailing began, by some of the women surrounding the casket.
Particularly by one women, who was probably the young man's mother/sister/or
wife. I was so moved by her grief I couldn't help crying myself. We waited
for the first pyre to burn itself down, watched as they washed off the
ghat, blessed it, and set up the logs for the next cremation. At this point,
they went to get more logs and we couldn't stay to watch the finish. Apparently,
the lower caste cremations are not as elaborate nor as long.
That night we had dinner with Hiran and Tikka at
the New Orleans Restaurant. We went there because Hiran is a vegetarian,
something we learned about him while trekking. He told us he was born Hindu
but converted to buddhism because he was vegitarian and Hindus practice
live animal sacrifice.
December 24, 1998
Christmas in Kathmandu
Today
we left for packing and shopping. We bought some new clothes, down booties,
handmade paper goods, coloring books and a cool "wizard hat" for David
to use in his classroom. I also bought a 250 million year old rock/fossil
of a sea shell for David's little xmas present. These fossils abound in
the Kaligandaki riverbed valley up north of Jomsom where we trekked. The
man who I bought it from asked me why I didn't find my own when I was there
and I replied that I had been to tired just walking to look for fossils.
Christmas dinner at Alice's restaurant. They tried.
'Nuf said.
The Kathmandu Guesthouse held an expensive buffet
dinner and cultural show which we did not attend. However, at the front
desk, in all the guest's key cubbyholes, were our Christmas presents from
the hotel; traditional Nepali hats in black with the guesthouse logo on
them. Very cool.
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