The Novice Traveler

To the goats reading this: in October try to avoid holiday in Nepal. Seriously, visit Europe. Bring the kids.

By the time you read this, he's soup

Daisan is a 14 day festival every October honoring Kali. It’s the biggest holiday in all of Nepal. It’s like Thanksgiving stretched over two weeks with the occasional blood sacrifice. There are hundreds, if not thousands of temples to Kali littered throughout Nepal, but one of the most important is Patan. People come from all around to pay homage in Patan; in addition to the temple for Kali, the living goddess resides there. In Kot Square near Durbar Square, sacrifices are made in a small inner courtyard. Blood is taken from the sacrifice and spread on the temple wall. The walls are literally stained with blood.

Day 3 of Daisan, 2 Buffalo and 108 goats come by to celebrate

After the blood sacrifice, the ex-goat is taken home and the family feasts. Very Thanksgivingy.

Kali, note the extra reddish hue on the wall behind.

If you can’t go to Patan or one of the other temples, sacrifice begins at home. On our drive to Chitwan we witnessed every step of the process. From a few slightly nervous goats to goat head soup (From what I can tell, the recipe involves taking goat head, hair and all, placing it in boiling water, and adding a leek.)

Patan, from above

Tags: No Comments.

Experienced the Great Firewall of China firsthand.  Actually blocked out of our own site, but back now.  the plan had been to update while acclimating, but we were unable to connect to make any updates.  Still, notes were taken, so updates will be coming soon.  Guess it explains why readership was down by 1 billion, but I have to say it’s kind of impressive someone somewhere thinks this site is so inflammatory it could bring down a country .  Anyway, back in unblocked Nepal, with a ton of updates and pictures coming.

S

Tags: No Comments.

Hi All….

Matthew here.  Stephen instant messaged me this morning at 530 to say 1) they’re having a great time and 2) if I would post some links on his behalf.

Stephen, we miss you but hope you’re having an amazing trip!

So here go the links:

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephen.goewey/KathmanduAndChitwan#

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephen.goewey/ChitwanToPokhara#

Tags: 3 Comments

got word tonight our visa applications were accepted and we are heading to tibet tomorrow! everest base camp on october 21. stephen’s uploading some pictures from the last week to the gallery right now. we’re sitting at a cafe in kathmandu. beep beep.

Tags: 1 Comment

The horn is a language all to itself.  I’ve been able to translate some although the dialect varies somewhat by region:

• Beep. Hello.  I am over here.  I just wanted you to be aware of that.  Thank you.  Have  a nice day.
• Beep-beep. Hello.  Me again.  I had a little favor.  I was wondering if you could move a little to your left for me?  Thank you.  Have a nice day.
• Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.  Hello.  I can’t really see around this blind corner, so I’m not sure if anyone’s there.   Listen, I know technically I’m supposed to be on the left side of the road,  but I’m hopping over to the right hand side for just a second or two.  I apologize for this and will return to the left side of the road in just a second.  In the meantime, would you mind slowing ever so slightly?  Thank you.
• Beeeeeeeeeep. You will need to move, otherwise the two of us will be colliding.

Also, the the turn signal takes on new meaning.  In the countryside, the blinker tells the driver behind you when it is safe (relative term) to pass.

So, on a windy mountain road as you approach a  truck full of yaks, you’ll hear:

beep
beep-beep
click-click-click
beep-beep-beep-beep-beep

Completely chaotic, yet very organized.  The trucks in the mountains actually have “honk please” painted across their back.

Tags: No Comments.

Wow.

I have never seen a place like this.  Granted the name of the site is Novice Traveler, but I imagine even seasonedtraveler.com would be taken by the sights.  Blade Runner without the flying cars (or robots).  Kathmandu is living contrast.  There’s chaos, yet within that chaos there is order.  It’s filthy, yet clean.  They revere nature, but at the same time desecrate it. The people are wonderfully nice, yet everyone is trying to make a buck.

We arrived in Kathmandu without a hitch, and our hotel in Thamel, the Samsara, is another study in contrast- the W and Motel six at the same time.  From the window of the hotel, we could see the rooftops of Kathmandu.  Using a compass and a couple of waypoints, I was able to pinpoint where we were in Thamel.  My Boy scout orienteering skills might not get us to Everest, but I was able to find my new favorite watering hole, Rum Doodle.

Rum Doodle has been around forever.  Hillary drank here both before and after he summited Everest.  In fact, if you do summit Everest, you eat here free for life.  As a result, this has become a popular watering hole for trekkers, both before and after their journey.  Over a couple of beers (Gorkha and Carlsberg), we met up with two other groups of trekkers.  Most of them were trekking to basecamp tomorrow, (though the Nepal side, we’re going to the Tibet side), and one woman who is going to Chitwan, though after we are.   They swapped stories and advice.  A true crossroads for trekkers.  Can’t wait to return after our trek.

Battery light’s blinking.  More later.

Tags: No Comments.

Internet cafe’s everywhere.  The Internet however is a bit more elusive.  Ton’s of updates as soon as we find wifi.  Itin changed a bit, not heading to Tibet for a few more days.

Great time to be in Nepal, unless you’re a goat.

Tags: 1 Comment

In the past 24 hours we’ve visited more countries than Sarah Palin

Tags: 5 Comments

Between the 13 hour flight, the three hour layover, the time zones, and the 6 hour flight I have no idea what time it actually is.  I looked at my world clock and it said it was 12 noon tomorrow.

Tags: No Comments.

Movies Watched so far:

• Vantage Point
• The Incredible Hulk
• Hancock
• Run Fat Boy Run
• Baby Mama
• 88 minutes
• Meet Dave
• and 20 Minutes of Baby Mama in Japanese.

Tags: No Comments.