Indra Jatra: part 1

This week coincided with a massive eight day Newari festival, known as Indra Jatra. While I had read about this festival in advance and discussed it with friends, nothing can compare to actually experiencing the festival activities in person and becoming lost in the enormous crowd of spectators.  I went to Durbar Square this Saturday, on the third day of the festival, when the living goddess Kumari is placed in a chariot and paraded throughout the city. But Lonely planet didn't really make me understand how many different elements of this festival would take place in one day....

Below is the living goddess Kumari, who only comes outside three days per year and sits on this chariot (along with a number of other men apparently) and is pulled throughout the streets of Kathmandu.

Demon children stood nearby watching the goddess.

While an approx 50 member band played the National song...

After some ceremony and music in front of the President, tons of young men grabbed the ropes attached to the 4 wheeled chariots and pulled the Kumari along the streets. It was unbelievable. My two Nepali friends had me run with them ahead of the chariot so that we could turn and see her coming behind us. At times it was so crowded and we were being pushed at all sides.

Further ahead of the chariot, these men in white marched and played music to announce the Kumari's arrival.

 

Throughout the day and into the evening, there were many dancers (or Lakhes) that moved through the crowd and danced.

The dancing went late into the evening throughout Durbar Square, including this dance which happened after beer flooded out of the mouth of a God/Temple. I am attaching a short video below that I took with my blackberry  - the quality is not great but it will give you a sense of the music.

 

I saw Kumari the Living Goddess, Lord Ganesh and Bhairab, the competitive nature of pulling the three chariots throughout the streets of Kathmandu, the dancers and Lakhes who push their way through the crowd to perform, candles paraded down the streets, beer from the mouth of the temple which people fight for a chance to drink, the procession of people wearing white to mourn their deceased, etc. I won't even attempt to explain everything in this post, but for more information about Indra Jatra check this travel link.

In my next post, 'Indra Jatra: Part 2', I plan to share photos of the spectators - everyone from families, women, young children and exuberant young men.

Saree time

This weekend I was invited to a formal Conservation Day event, which led to my first experience of wearing a Saree (also spelled Sari). It felt like wearing a formal floor length gown, but with a twist...and with your stomach a bit exposed. A friend from work was very generous in loaning me one of her sarees for the occassion and she even had to dress me on the morning of the event. It is incredibly difficult to wrap a sari correctly without some help at first!

A saree is a very long piece of cloth that is wrapped around the waist and shoulders. The cloth can be from 5 to 9 meters long. Below is a photo of me with some fabric wrapped around my waist - but there is still a lot of fabric around me that I didn't know how to wrap and pleat.

It was a lot of fun to be dressed so nicely and I didn't have any issues of it falling off or unraveling. It probably helped that my friend used a few strategically placed safety pins for security.

Now that I've successfully worn one, I've decided that I better go shopping for my own saree.

Big foot

Twice now I've attempted to go shoe shopping and each time has led to the exact same problem: they don't sell my shoe size. In fact, the store doesn't sell women's shoes above a size 7 US!! (that's 4.5 UK or a 37) I thought that I had a relatively normal sized foot (size 9 US) but I need to remember that I am 5 ft 8 inches tall in a country where the average height for men/women is 5 ft 3 inches.

Before I went rafting, I needed to buy a cheap sneaker that I could wear in the water. After digging through piles of shoes without any luck, someone in the store came to help. When I explained what size shoe I needed, I got a shocked expression and a shake of the head.

Feeling a bit exasperated, I asked if I could try the Men's shoes - which caused some confusion, until they realized I was serious. One store clerk ran off and came back looking very proud of himself. He then passed me a completely massive man's sneaker (clown shoe basically). It was the opposite extreme. I said "great!", but tried to convey that I needed a size in between the tiny and humungous shoes.

In the end, the best shoe I could find were Men's size 9.5 US black Converse shoes. While they are actually too big for me, I can't complain much because I only paid about $12 US for them and they were perfect for rafting.

Last week I needed to buy some flip-flops and also had to settle for a large men's flip-flop. But the second time, the size dilemma was less surprising.

Red for Teej

This evening I visited Pashupatinath Temple, which is one of the most popular locations that women visit to celebrate Teej, a festival for women. It was a wonderful evening with ladies dressed beautifully in red saris as they lined up to the temple.

On the first day of Teej, women celebrate with their families by singing, dancing and feasting, but then the next day (today) they must fast. Married women fast for the well-being of their husbands and marriage, and unmarried women will sometimes fast for their future husbands. While fasting, they also keep themselves busy by dancing and visiting the temple of Lord Shiva.

My friends and I had a very special evening wandering around the temple and watching the women line up to pay respects to Lord Shiva. We only saw a two other tourists the entire night. Later there was some sort of ceremony with three gurus who raised candelabras and said prayers. The music picked up and then women began to dancing again, as other clapped along.

Secret samosa stand

Since arriving in Nepal, I've learned to be more careful about what I eat and drink, compared to other places I've travelled. I've had a few sick days since arriving - luckily nothing too serious - it's just part of life and something one needs to consider when choosing what to eat! Since I'm trying to work and have done some long road trips and field visits, I generally avoid street food and try to eat food that is fully cooked.

Now that said, a friend showed me a somewhat secret (yet very popular) street stand to buy some really tasty samosas. The samosa place is tucked away in a little courtyard off a street that is perpendicular to New Road. I think it is the second street to the left if you walk from the direction of Durbar Square...Keep walking until you see a sign with an arrow into a little courtyard which says 'Tip Top Tailors'.

People push themselves forward to the front of the stand to buy their samosa and then either take them to go or find a spot in the courtyard to enjoy immediately (what I did).

My friend treated me so I'm not exactly sure of the price, but I think he said it was 74 NRs ($0.85 USD) to buy 4 vegetable samosas.

Monsoon rafting on Trisuli River

This weekend I did a two day white water rafting and camping trip down the Trisuli River, which originates from Mt Langtang. The water is a lot higher and with stronger currents at this time of year due to the Monsoon, but it ended up being one of the most fantastic trips I've done.

It was beautiful seeing the hilly and mountainous landscape along the river, I had fun friends in my boat, our guide Santosh was sooooo nice, and it was brilliant camping outside on a beach under the stars.

The rafting trip was organized by Initiative Outdoor which is located in Patan/Lalitpur and it also was our starting point at 7am on Saturday morning.  From there, we took an approx 1.5 hour bus ride to our take-off point, at Bairani, where we organized our boat groups and learned some safety tips, etc.

We were a great group (Team Ramro!) and about half the time in the boat we were laughing about something and trying to responded well to Santosh's enthusiastic commands as we crossed big rapids, such as: 'Show me your POWER!' 'Be the tiger!' 'Faaaaaster!!!'.

The first day we rafted about 30-35 kilometers down the river, with a short lunch break, until we reached our beach campsite. My friends and I set up our tents (rain precaution) right near the water and then lay our mats in front of the tents, so that we could sleep outside. The sky was beautiful - filled with stars  - and we spent most of the evening chatting and playing guitar with some candles lit around us.

The next morning we woke up early to a great breakfast of coffee, eggs, toast, chunky potato/hash browns, etc and then set off for another 20 kilometers of rafting. This section had a lot bigger rapids and I actually had a bit of a scare while passing through one of the most dangerous spots, with at least 4 level rapids. Our boat almost tipped over and I was thrown out of the raft...While in the water and being pulled under by the strong current, it really made me realize how dangerous this river is and I just kept hoping I would rise to the surface soon. When I did come up, a rescue kayaker was able to race forward to catch me and then drag me back to my boat. So glad to have the safety kayaks on hand!

We finished our rafting journey at Panch Kilo, which is very close to Pokhara and Chitwan National Park. After a lunch, we grabbed our bus back to Kathmandu which normally takes 4 hours, but due to traffic accidents it took at least 5 hours. I mostly slept the whole way back and was completely exhausted when I went to bed that night.

Unfortunately I don't have a waterproof camera and have no photos from the raft itself, but I'm trying to track down some others that took pictures and then I'll update this post!

Lumbini field visit

This week from Tuesday to Thursday I went on a short field trip to Lumbini, which gave me a glimpse Terai Arc Landscape in Nepal and a fascinating view of life in Lumbini. Due to the nature of my visit (work/volunteering) I was lucky enough to meet tons of people from all different sectors of society in Lumbini, I enjoyed a meal with locals and was taken to the historic site of Buddha's birth during evening hours....

Tuesday morning began with a seven hour car journey which cut through major hills surrounding Kathmandu Valley and into the lowland Terai and the foothills. The roads were very narrow, with deep potholes and winding turns along a gorgeous landscape, which made the drive a very unique experience in itself.

For sections of the drive we were up in the clouds and the scenery looked tropical, with waterfalls and forests.

On these roads there are few (if any) rules and even though the roads are relatively dangerous, built along winding cliffs and with cars trying to pass each other, I often saw people hanging out of a filled bus or a truck, etc. This is just one example of a truck on the road!

We stopped for a local Daal Bhaat lunch at a spot along the road and then arrived in Lumbini just in time for an afternoon meeting. The meeting included 15 representatives from each sector of the local community – including rickshaw drivers, hotel managers and Buddhist monks. 

After sunset we had free time to visit Lumbini's holy site, which is located in an area called the Master Plan. It was after-hours and very dark outside, but two officials brought us to visit the Maya Devi Temple (7th-12th century), which was built on Siddhartha's place of birth. Siddhartha, the Lord Buddha, was born in 623 BC. We then sat at the sacred Bodhi tree and ancient Pond where Siddhartha was first bathed. It was very moving and incredibly peaceful to sit at this historical site all by ourselves. There were very few lights in the area, which left the sky completely clear and full of stars. It was one of the clearest skies I’ve seen in years.

The next morning we returned to the Master Plan by 8am and took a boat ride down the 1 kilometer canal. It offered a beautiful view of the Peace Pagoda and it was a fun activity (almost reminding me of living in venice!). 

The boat trip was successful, but it was funny getting into the boat at first because it was filled with water up to our ankles! We used plastic bottle to scoop out much of the water eventually and, most importantly, we didn't sink :) 

It was good we started the day early because it is very hot and humid in Lumbini with a peak heat of 105°F / 41°C. Luckily we had some more community meetings throughout the day in a hotel which kept us cool.

Later in the afternoon we visited two local schools that we're collaborating with... (Photo credit for the school photos: Yashaswi Shrestha).

This was just a quick visit to Lumbini, but I believe I should be returning next month.