My dear father-in-law visited us in March.  As the kids were in school and Prakash was at work, we got to spend a lot of time together.  He kept praising our family blog and I encouraged him to be our first GUEST WRITER – I was thrilled when he enthusiastically accepted my offer!  He is a special person… pedestalized by many, generous beyond measure, saintly…  Here is a glimpse of his experiences, thoughts and observations of his first visit to Kathmandu…

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March 19 – My Jet Airways plane flew from Mumbai to Kathmandu. “We are approaching Kathmandu” the message I was waiting for. I looked out and boy, there were mountains after mountains! “Is there any flat land for this plane to land?” was the question in my mind as I saw the great white peaks of the Himalayas welcoming me. So, it was true what my friends in Belgaum were saying, “You are going to Himalayas, not Nepal!” The plane started descending and I was happy to read the name of the airport “Tribhuvan International Airport”. Indeed, all three bhuvans – heaven, earth and hell – are present in Himalayas. Prakash came to the airport and introduced me to their taxi-driver Dhankumar, a friendly person. Everyone here is friendly and acts as an extended family member said Prakash. Dhankumar was the first one I met in Prakash’s extended family. After coming home, I met two other extended family members – Tikaram (called as Tika Dai; Dai means older brother in Nepali) and Sonu Didi. I and Charu had heard about them. Nita was having some stomach problem. Tika Dai was giving her a tablet and a glass of water. The way the offering was done with care and love, it moved me to tears. What wonderful people Prakash’s family is living with! I thanked God for all this in my night prayer!

March 20 – Nita wanted to see the doctor. Her friend, Bahar Kumar, gave her ride to the doctor. I accompanied them. While Nita was with the doctor I and Bahar were waiting in the lounge. Within minutes, we established a wonderful father-and-daughter relationship. We talked about our families. She lost her father a year ago. She felt very good talking to me about her family. She told about her son’s trekking experience at school, although he is not very strong for the exercise. The time passed and I also got close to one more member of their extended family.

March 21 – On Ugadi day (Indian New Year’s Day), I happened to go to Pashupatinath Temple, the most prominent Lord Shiva Temple in Nepal. It was Saturday, so we went early to avoid the rush. Shanthi and her parents, friends that were visiting that weekend, accompanied myself and Prakash. We met a nice priest (God sent), who performed Rudrabhishek with 5 Brahmins. The entire pooja was performed very calmly, and the priests did not rush. One person came to help us for darshan. We saw the God from all 4 doors. The statue has 5 heads as the name of Shiva says “panchanan”.

March 22 – One of Nita’s friends told her that we could attend the chanting of Buddhist monks in their monastery, Seto Gumba. This monastery is different from the famous Stupas of Boudha and Swayambhunath. In Seto Gumba, there was a big hall with a huge golden Buddha statue. Around 150 monks in their maroon robes sat and chanted for an hour. I did not understand a single word (Tibetan language); other than occasionally some sound similar to Aum / Om. After the chanting, the monks disappeared in minutes. Nita’s friend walked us near the statue and we got a closer look. This was the first time in my life I attended such a function. It was a unique experience.

March 23, 2015, Prakash and his 4 colleagues were going around the city in ICIMOD’s van. I accompanied them. The project was to find some emission producing spots where the company can setup their equipment and measure the emissions. We had to select the spots on the roads for vehicle emissions and trash burning around houses. The roadside criteria were funny. One was number of vehicles, another was slope. They had to select both up and down slopes and some flat spots. The background noise meant some other source of emission should not be there. Because of the background a spot in the neighborhood of some car painting shops were rejected. The wind would take away the emission so we had to seek non-windy spots. Most of all the safety for their equipment and operators was a key factor. We went to several spots and using the criteria selected some spots. Then we went to some house holders who would not object measuring the emissions from trash burning. One small industry had a generator which was used in case of power outage. The measurements should be done when the power goes off. All these criteria were fun to consider. A good experience for me and the gang!

March 24 – Kids and Nita went to school. Prakash was going to work by bus. I accompanied him to the bus stop. On the way back, I tried to remember the roads. While coming home I got lost. I did not know the address of Prakash’s home, nor did I have any mobile number or diary which had phone numbers of Prakash or Nita. Only thing I remembered was ICIMOD and The British School. I asked people the directions for The British School. Everybody was helpful. My Hindi jived with their Nepali and I made it to the school! The security guard at the gate knew English. I told him that my grandkids go to this school and I am lost. He let me in. After hearing that I am lost, the receptionist with a chuckle offered the school desk phone. I said I do not remember the phone number. She found Nita’s phone number and called her. Nita came to rescue me. Thank you Lord that I remembered the School Name and it was not closed!
Later that day, Nita and I went to a see a cycle factory. The owner is Caleb Spear from Colorado, USA. His wife is also from Colorado and their 2 kids are the same age as Sajjan and Janani. After seeing the use of bike by Nepalis, Caleb came with an idea of extending the middle bar and carrier of the bike so that 3 or 4 people can sit on it comfortably. It can carry a lot more load than an ordinary bike. Everything is done in Caleb’s shop of Caleb. He is the inventor of this modified bike. And all of this is from the view of helping poor people in Nepal. He takes nominal profit to keep his family running. All workers in his shop are local Nepali people. Everything from cutting rods, bending pipes and soldering is done here. They extend the chain for the length of the cycle. The bicycle can also be used as a motor to run a washing machine or a corn kernel remover. I was so impressed with their work. While talking about local workers, Caleb mentioned that new employees often get training in the shop itself and after a couple of months they will either go find a job elsewhere or abroad. Some do stay in the same shop. When new employees finish training, their salary increases, they get a provident fund and health coverage! Another great man created by God to take care of His people!!

March 25 – Today I went to Prakash’s workplace, ICIMOD. ICIMOD’s emblem says “For people and mountains” – what a wonderful environment to work. There were breathtaking pictures of Himalayan regions taken by various employees in their photography competitions. While leaving the office I told Prakash’s colleagues that “I envy my son”. I was under the impression that ICIMOD is working on emission control and global warming control. When Prakash showed me the pamphlets on over a dozen or so projects I was zapped. One of the projects was as follows: Many Nepali men go to Middle East to earn money. This leaves the woman of the house in charge of cooking, children’s education and the work on the farm. The project is to help this woman on farming by providing better tools to use and growing various different crops to get more yield, for example strawberries. This was started by foreigners and their governments with no intentions of any rewards in return; only to help the people and mountains in Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH). Again the world is held together because the God has created such caring people!!

After ICIMOD, I went to The British School. There was the first of four performances of a drama called Scheherazade, Tale of the 1001 Arabian Nights. The hall was full of parents and non-participant students. There were over one hundred students participating in the drama including Sajjan and Janani. The idea of making a cave formed by a pyramid of students wearing black clothes was fascinating. When Janani sang her solo song, “Please Tell Me a Story” the entire theatre was stunned! Her beautiful voice kept ringing in our ears even after the song was over. The other girl who sang with her was also great. How much co-ordination efforts the teachers put to make it successful. It went flawlessly! Great!!

March 26 – Today Sumanth became 6 years old. In Belgaum, Charu and I made a special greeting card for him. It took us quite a long time to make it work! First day we spent time up to 11 o clock at night making various corrections and on the second day by noon the card was ready. After seeing the special card, both Janani and Sajjan were curious to make one like that and WALLA!!! Janani made one in just a few hours. In the evening Nita and Prakash went to see Sajjan and Janani’s 4th and last play leaving myself alone with Sumanth. We had a ball! I told him various stories, and he played with the candies he was given.

My overall impression about Nepal and Nepali people is that it is a very nice country to live in. There is excellent scenery to see as soon as you get up over the country in the plane before even landing. And, the very friendly people join you as if they are family members. Many foreigners who come and work hard to improve the lifestyle of locals is an excellent example to follow.

Ravi Bhave, Prakash’s father’s younger brother (#11 out of 13 brothers and sisters) lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and daughter. He visited us this week for a short 3-day trip on his way to India. We had a fabulous time together!

A go-with-the-flow, happy-go-lucky personality and ease on a bicycle in the developing world – two prerequisites to a wonderful visit in Nepal (okay, you can get by with taxi and on foot, but bicycle is so much better!).  Ravi Kaka had both criteria down solid (Kaka = father’s brother or close uncle).  On Day #1, we covered the top sights within the Kathmandu Valley: Swayambhunath Temple – also known as the Monkey Temple because of the hundreds of monkeys that live on the Swayambhu hill, it is a famous temple for Buddhist and Hindu devotees ; Pashupathinath Temple – the most famous temple in Kathmandu, a major pilgrimage destination for Hindu devotees of Lord Shiva ; Boudhanath Temple – the largest Buddhist stupa in all of Asia! We both enjoyed Boudhanath best… and it all boiled down to cleanliness. Offerings of rice, flowers and sindur (red powder) aren’t adequately cleaned up and therefore litter the floor along with the standard dust that plagues all cities within developing nations. Within Boundhanath, offerings are limited to oil lamps and incense thus the stupa and surrounding areas are clean and emanate peace.

Later in the afternoon, we drove to Nagarkot, a small village on the outskirts of the KTM valley where spectacular mountain views are potentially visible. The dense cloud and pollution mixture covered much of the view, but the snow-covered mountain peaks were partially visible. Given that a trek into the Himalayas is out of the question on a 3-day trip, views from Nagarkot are a great substitute. It is said that even Mount Everest is visible from Nagarkot, although just as a small dot on a crystal clear horizon. A yummy pizza dinner at Roadhouse Restaurant was the end to a very long but very nice day.

On Day #2 we set off on bicycle to Patan Darbar Square, the main community center that is centuries old. A familiar face approached and offered to give us a tour (Raj gave me a tour several months ago). He shared several tidbits of information, knowledge and stories about the history of the Square. Much was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1930s but has been successfully rebuilt. We also toured a Thanka Art Studio, healing bowl shop and Pashmina shawl shop – all very famous to Patan. In the end, we visited the famous Patan Museum that houses stone and metal sculptures from Hindu and Buddhist religions dating several centuries ago.

We also managed to squeeze in badminton and football (soccer) in our backyard, a trip to the local bakery and a sample of the famous local cuisine – momos! All in all, an enjoyable, relaxing and fun first visit of Ravi Kaka to Kathmandu! Next visit… trekking :-).

Less than 2 days later, Ashwin Honkan and Chitra Lele visited us. Ashwin Kaka knew Prakash’s family back in California when Prakash was as little as Sumanth! Back then, he was the “cool, young, fun Uncle” and frequently played games, attended school functions and hiked with Prakash’s family . Now, they live in Pune and came up to visit Nepal for one week. Initially, they visited Chitwan National Park and Pokhara before coming to our place. Luckily their trip overlapped with the weekend, so Prakash and the kids could also join in the fun…

On Day #1, we went to Bhaktapur, one of the 3 kingdoms that used to exist in the Kathmandu Valley (Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur). It is a quaint village made of bricks, cement and wood, full of temples, shops and homes all intermixed together. Their specialty is juju-dhau or sweet yogurt and we all sampled this very rich, tasty treat! Bhaktapur, along with many other areas in the Kathmandu Valley are receiving a quick makeover in time for the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit which will take place here later this month. Replacing temple decorations, resurfacing roadways, painting medians, cleaning rivers and roadways – SO much work is currently in progress. We got to witness some of this in Bhaktapur; I challenged the kids to imagine how they changed the shiny, red cloth from the edges of the pagoda tiers in the temples! The lower tiers are imaginable, with a tall ladder, but how do they work on the top tiers?!?

We made a quick stop in Boudda to see Asia’s largest stupa then headed to the Garden of Dreams in Thamel. The Lonely Planet describes it as a 2-minute walk from Thamel but worlds away… It is an incredibly well-maintained, ornate garden full of flowers, manicured shrubs, gazebos, ponds, sculptures, and fine coffee shops. It reminds me of the CalTech campus where Prakash did his graduate work. Again, this long but very fun day was rounded out with a yummy pizza dinner at Fire and Ice – a popular family-friendly restaurant (that evening, we ran into 5 families we knew!).

Day #2 was a bit adventurous! We hired a one-way taxi to take us near to Changu Narayan Temple on the eastern edge of the Kathmandu Valley. Ashwin Kaka’s former employee, Rabi Shreshta, also lives in Kathmandu and he and his family joined us for the day. They hadn’t met in over 12 years, but it wasn’t too difficult to spot Rabi, Charu, and their 10-year old son, Rijul, at the intersection we decided to meet at. They jumped on board the large SUV and we headed east. Rabi is an avid cycler and has familiarity with the “trails” in the Valley. Trails in Nepal, however, are more like what we would consider rural dirt roads in the USA, not like marked trails within county, state and national parks.

After only 15 minutes of hiking, we reached Changu Narayan Temple – complete with a multi-tier pagoda temple, old stone sculptures, and a well-made museum showing various cultures from all regions of Nepal. We continued hiking for another few hours, often asking locals along the way which is the correct path to Telkot, our destination, when we’d encounter a fork in the road. After reaching Telkot, we fortunately came upon an empty, parked bus that was headed towards Kathmandu in minutes! We all climbed aboard and claimed our seats – only 40 Nepali rupees (equivalent to ~ $0.40 USD) per person. This was our first try on the public buses and it was a great success. Key is that we got on first and had seats for the hour long journey; after the third or so stop, the seats filled up and many were left standing.

The main highlight of this day was meeting the Shreshta family – atypical for the average Nepali family, they are into outdoor activities and traveling the world! They’ve completed three treks in Nepal including the one we did last month (Poon Hill), the Annapurna Base Camp trek and the Langtang Valley trek. They’ve also vacationed is several countries including France, Switzerland, Belgium, Thailand, Mauritius, UAE and Australia. Rijul has his heart set on vacationing in the USA next!  Charu and Sumanth became good friends quickly — she was a whiz at interacting with little ones…

Chitra Kaki and Ashwin Kaka spent the rest of the day thoroughly enjoying the kids – watching silly videos, telling jokes and riddles and singing songs. All in all, their visit was really enjoyable…

Note to Readers: thinking of vacationing in Nepal – DO COME! YOU WILL ENJOY!!

Another excellent visit from an old friend of mine from UCSD! His visit can be summarized in three parts — historic tourist sites, relaxed family time, and meeting new friends. First, I’ll tell you a bit about him…

Dinesh and I met over 15 years ago while I was an undergraduate at UCSD and he was working in San Diego after completing his Bachelors at UC Berkeley. We had the same group of friends back then and routinely frequented the same restaurants, beach spots, and friends’ living rooms. Over the years, we kept in touch and meet every few years in NC or California. He has been working in Asia for the past 4 years and made an extended weekend trip to Kathmandu before shifting his career back to California. He is insightful, entrepreneurial, kind and genuine.

We visited 3 main sites of historical and cultural significance. Patan Darbar Square was the religious, cultural and political center of Patan centuries ago. Now it is the main tourist site in southern Kathmandu (Patan) and has numerous temples in a variety of styles – Newari, Pagoda, and the South Indian style too. Our guide shared tidbits of current and historical information such as: Patan is known for its metal works; 108 animals are sacrificed within the temple grounds during the Dussera / Dashain festival in October; the profile of the 2-tiered Pagoda style temple resembles the shape of the current Nepali flag ; the healing bowl is made of 7 metals and can be used for massage, relaxation and therapy.

We also toured the Narayanhiti Palace in Kathmandu. The 2001 Royal Massacre occurred in this palace. Shortly after the monarchy fell as a result of the revolution, the King was asked to leave the palace and Nepal was declared a republic. A few years later, the Palace was converted into a museum. Inside, lavish interiors including furniture, paintings, animal skins / heads, wall paper and fine china can be found within the numerous rooms — bedrooms, lounges, libraries, banquet halls, entertainment halls, and tea rooms. Outside, expansive gardens cover acres and acres of land within the massive plot outlined by a tall cement wall. Previously it was grand and well manicured, yet currently it is poorly maintained… Photography is strictly prohibited (they collected all belongings and frisked us before we could enter!) so no photos.

Last element of historical significance from this weekend was a visit to a popular tourist destination just east of Kathmandu. Bhaktapur is a small village with narrow alleys, several temples, large community squares and billions of bricks! All surfaces seemed to be made of bricks – houses, temples and all roadways too! Our guide showed us a paper making factory, wood carving workshop, and the tallest temple in Nepal. The kids were troopers on the ~3 mile walking tour throughout Bhaktapur. We ended the tour with a sampling of juju dhau, sweet yogurt, a specialty of the village.

A unique element of friends visiting us in Kathmandu is the quantity and quality of time we get together! Traveling the long way to this corner of the globe necessitates staying for longer than a weekend (4 days for Dinesh). And we are the only family that our guests know in the area, so we get their undivided time and attention! This is a HUGE difference from the typical visits with long-distance friends back home — catching a quick lunch while rushing through Southern California, attempting to visit half a dozen other friends before the weekend is over! Quality time with the family and Dinesh was very relaxing and enjoyable… Tossing the Frisbee around in the courtyard, playing board games after school, helping Janani complete her WW2 term project, chatting up on the terrace, exposing the kids to laser tag in the local mall and going through old photos from our previous visits together.

The last significant element of Dinesh’s visit was two unique, entertaining gatherings with new friends! Our five-some plus Dinesh joined two other families for the Germany-USA World Cup match. Caleb, Emily and their boys (family who builds the Portal long-tail bicycles) and another couple, Geoff and Momo, who works with the American Embassy in KTM rounded out our group. At 9:45pm (yes, crazy late for the kids!), we went to a local restaurant to show support for our home team – we were hugely outnumbered! Even though we lost, watching a sports event televised from South America with dozens of Europeans and North Americans in the middle of Asia was awesome!

Prakash’s boss hosted a potluck for their work group that our five-some plus Dinesh also attended. What an enjoyable evening — a variety of delicious menu items, children bubbling around sharing their colorful personalities, beautiful foothill views from the garden, picture-perfect picnic weather, instrumental and vocal musical entertainment, and even a small volleyball game!

All in all, an incredibly fun, relaxing and enjoyable visit :-). Imagining your visit to Kathmandu?!? I hope so…

By the way, MOVING DAY is tomorrow! We will shift from the apartment to our new house!

What an awesome week – a visit from our first out-of-town guest, Krishneil Maharaj.  We studied together at UCSD over 15 years ago, had the same group of friends, participated in the same campus activities (Hindu Students Council) and had long philosophical chats on library walk enjoying the sunny So Cal weather.  We kept in touch here and there, but hadn’t met in over a decade.  As we all know how the saying goes — ” Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold…”

Krishneil arrived early enough on Monday to join me for my Nepali language classes!  He was a great sport and joined in when the teacher prompted him – so grateful that Nepali is similar to Hindi / Marathi…  The kids were SO excited to have a guest at home.  After picking them up from school, they felt at ease with him right away.  Sumi read his daily book to Krishneil, then we all went down for basketball practice /drills from Coach K – the kids had a ball!

We joined the Tuesday British School riding group for a grueling but very enjoyable 12 mile mountain bike ride!  Any walking, hiking or biking in the valley (or in most of Nepal) involves LOTS of hills.  We climbed a total of 1425 feet, and clocked the highest speed at 30 mph.  Advantage of climbing up the hills is the enjoyable (and fast!) coast coming back down!  We both wished we had taken the GoPro camera and connected it to our helmet.  Maybe on the next ride, I’ll set it up (Jay, SO sorry for the long delay in this)…

On Wednesday, we joined the Cultural Studies Group Nepal (the same group who hosted the Thanka Art Studio Visit that I wrote about last week), for a hike from Dulikhel to Panauti.  We left KTM early to avoid being in the midday sun (it was still SO hot!) and took a 1-hour bus ride to Dulikhel.  A guide met our group at the bus stand and we started walking – what an interesting variety of paths!  We went through town roads, village alley ways, dirt trails and across several agricultural fields (I’d never seen that many potatoes!).  Even though Krishneil and I were huffing and puffing to get up the hillside trails, being in the company of folks well over twice our age was inspirational…  Betty, the oldest one on our group hike, is 83 years old and was often at the head of the pack.  When someone commented, “we all hope to be like Betty when we are 83.” Krishneil followed up with, “I hope I can be like that at 43!”  A picnic lunch on a shady hillside, temple visit at Panauti, and refreshing cokes at the end of the hike rounded out the afternoon.

At this point, we debated going for a swim to make it a complete week-long triathlon (swim, bike, hike / run).  But decided against 😉

After dropping the kids to school on Thursday, we went for a yoga class here in Patan.  Great to see the same faces –  Roger from the Tuesday bike ride and Eliane from the Wednesday hike were also there!  KTM is relatively small – very easy to bump into folks you know – I love that about this town…  The yoga teacher gave detailed, precise instructions, but class was tough!  Pigeon, warrior 2, cow face, high lunge, low lunge, and several more.  When she said, “now you can rest in downward dog pose for 5 breaths” I knew I was totally out of my league!  I much prefer RESTING in childs pose…

We then hopped on the bikes and cycled over to ICIMOD (Krishneil had a go on the “minivan” of bikes — Caleb Spear’s creation!).  Prakash, his colleague – Bhupesh, Krishneil and I all had lunch at the ICIMOD cafeteria.  Prakash gave us a quick tour of the office – for a developing country, the office is very impressive.  Nothing too fancy, but amazing life-size photographs displaying their vision “men, women, and children of the Hindu Kush Himalayas enjoy improved well-being in a healthy mountain environment” and mission “to enable sustainable and resilient mountain development for improved and equitable livelihoods through knowledge and regional cooperation” cover the walls and corridors of the building.

We got some groceries on the way home then started preparing for our evening!  What a coincidence – our brand new neighbors spent several years in Fiji, the same country where Krishneil was born and raised until age 9.  Marilyn and Gordon joined us for dinner and they exchanged several island stories.  We got to see some beautiful images of the remote island where Marilyn did her PhD research in education, the same island that Krishneil recently visited.

A big cockroach, friendly spider and empty water tanks (ie, bathe with whatever is remaining in the bucket ; can’t wash the dirty dishes ; how many bottles of drinking water are left in the fridge?!?) rounded out the week of adventures!  A few of the numerous workers where we stay befriended Krishneil during our afternoon basketball sessions.  The sendoff this morning was just like those in India – everyone gathers to say good-bye 🙂