Kathmandu, January 2006

I feel like the white rabbit – I’m late, I’m late! Always looking at his watch and running around. Or the serpent who is eating his own tail – what mythology is that? I forgot. Anyway, we are having too many adventures these days and not enough time to catch up on the writing about them. I’m afraid this will be a continuous theme throughout my time here. Too much fun and not time to talk about it! So it is now Friday the 27^th and we have been in Katmandu since Monday afternoon. 4 ½ days and there is so much to tell.

Let’s skip briefly over the 30+ hours of traveling we endured just to get here and just say it was the longest span of continuous traveling I’ve ever experienced. The long lines, the stuffy planes, the terrible airport/airplane food and the ever present and stressful connection times – all make one exhausted. And that’s what we were when we landed in KTM: bone tired. Not only that but our worst nightmare had occurred – we had arrived, but our luggage had not. Yes, that’s right, all 4 precious pieces of our baggage; our lives for the next 1+ years; untold amounts of money in equipment, clothing, gear, documents, etc; all of it was completely missing, somewhere between SF and KTM and neither China Air nor Royal Nepal Air could locate it! It was a disaster of highest magnitude. Amazingly, in all my travels all over the world, I had never lost any luggage. Not once on all those terrible airlines I’ve flown like Pakistan International Air or Indonesia Air or Delta, had my baggage been misplaced. Yet on the one journey that I had literally all my ducks in one basket, that basket goes missing. Ouch. Leigh and I had only what we could carry on the plane which was as we both realized the most important things we owned anyway. For me my camera equipment, laptop and money were all in hand. Same for Leigh. So the utter despair was lessened somewhat knowing our physical bodies and our totally irreplaceable things were safe and accounted for. Nevertheless, can you imagine packing up your lives into 4 relatively small bags and then losing them? It’s not a pleasant feeling and we were not happy campers. Anxious thoughts of insurance claims, replacing irreplaceables, the loss of so many sentimental attachments, the loss of necessary camping gear and computer equipment…..it was the most hollow feeling in pit of my stomach…..and one of the worst things about it was there was little we could do about it. It was virtually out of our control which made it even more infuriating. So with our barest of possessions with us and after filling out the necessary (yet seemingly futile) paperwork, Leigh and I left our prayers with the baggage gods and entered KTM.

Since Leigh has been here on more than one occasion and since she speaks Tibetan (which many people here speak), I have deferred to her in almost everything – where to stay, where to eat, where to visit. It has been a really nice exercise of letting go and made the last few days much more enjoyable as well.

We are staying in the Boudha area of KTM, whish is in the east, slightly outside the main city area. It is mostly Tibetan in population. There are at least 5 major monasteries in the immediate vicinity. It is very quiet (except for the really obnoxious barking dogs right next door!). It feels a little touristy, but not nearly as much as the tourist center of KTM: Thamel. There is still some very definite charm here that hasn’t been swept away by the tourist machine or the civil conflict that has been simmering in Nepal now for over 10 years. The feature attraction here is the Boudha Stupa, which if any of you have seen the movie ‘Baraka’ (and if you haven’t, you should), it is the very large, very beautiful stupa with the large eyes painted on all four sides of the golden pillar (which symbolize the stages toward enlightenment) sitting atop the large rounded white base. Built in the 5^th or 6^th century, it has an aura that transcends time and is one of the most revered sacred places in all of Nepal for Tibetan Buddhists. And built up around the stupa are many buildings in traditional architecture. Many of these are filled with vendors selling malas (similar to a rosary and made of polished stones or sandalwood mostly), turquoise and coral (both revered by Tibetans), thangka paintings, various incense, bus tickets to Delhi or Lhasa, a many, many restaurants to serve not only the Western tourist (of which there are few currently) but the Indian, Nepali or Tibetan pilgrim. At any one time there are hundreds of people doing kora around the stupa. Kora means circumambulating a holy place – monastery, stupa, mountain, etc – in a clockwise manner and in doing so gaining merit.

During the taxi ride out from the airport, I did not get to see the stupa because of traffic, my weariness, and the darkness of night. But once Leigh maneuvered the taxi to the Lotus Guest House where we are staying, a simple yet comfortable place run by a local monastery, we put our stuff down and walked down the narrow alleys back to the stupa. After walking down the narrow winding alleys for 5 minutes and then coming abruptly to the square where the stupa is situated and the view opening up and there towering before you is this gorgeous work of architectural art with all these people walking in the same direction around it….it really stopped me in my tracks and I was really taken back by how truly impressive it is. And this was at night with garish fluorescent lights shining on it. When we came back the next morning and saw it in the beautiful golden morning light (it is the dry season currently - the weather is cold at night and warm in the sun during the day), it literally took my breath away. Simply stunning. Just seeing this sight with the golden cap gleaming, hundreds of birds sitting on the white shoulders, pilgrims from various parts of the world enjoying a communal moment of spiritual unity and the all seeing eyes gazing out serenely, just this moment lifted my spirits and I felt a genuine smile creep onto my face for the first time since the baggage disaster. After doing kora ourselves we settled down for a nice breakfast of banana porridge, milk tea and fried eggs at the Double Dorje (infamous within Leigh’s circle of friends). What a welcome to Katmandu!

Like most places in the real world, the senses are totally stimulated. So much color in the dress and skin tones, so many different types of people which means so many different languages to hear – Hindi, Nepali, Tibetan – so many sidewalk markets selling vegetables and fruit, thick smoke from the juniper and cedar incense burning from every shop doorway or window, the calming meditative chorus of early morning puja (prayers) coming from the nearby monasteries, the thick choking smog of exhaust or burning garbage, the cacophony of various bird voices mixing in with the other sounds of the city, the sound of the colorful prayer flags snapping in the stiff breeze, children’s laughter (a beautiful universal sound), Bollywood pop music blasting and in competition with the soft melodic chants of kirtan (spiritual chanting) music….this is the kind of stimulation I want from a city!

We had hoped to be in KTM for only a week or slightly more, but after hearing from our people in Lhasa who are working on our visa for us, that has now been extended for at least another week or more. First there is Chinese New Year’s which started today and the offices there will be closed for at least a week. Bad timing, eh? Next, it seems that my background as a photographer has raised some red flags there. And now our paperwork has to be sent to yet another office that deals with media/photographers type of thing specifically. This is not good news and we have tried to reassure anyone there that will listen that my background is in photography, not journalism and there is a big difference. Our quoted chances have not gone from 90-95% down to 80-90%. And yet hear again, a major turning point in our lives is out of our hands. We have virtually little control on how they will handle this new development and it could mean the difference between getting our visas and not. I can tell already that this bureaucratic process will cause me more trouble in the future as well. If they are wary of me now, before I’ve even gotten into the country, how are they going to feel when I need to leave and come back several times over the next year? How can I expect them not to keep tabs on me since I’ve now raised a red flag? This will only compromise my freedoms there….to the point where I feel it isn’t even worth it to be there anymore? We shall see. So now we must wait until after the Chinese New Year holiday and then hope that they will approve our visas in a somewhat timely manner. Ultimately, our goal is to be there by the end of February, so we still have some time to pray.

Let’s recap shall we? NO BAGGAGE and NO VISAS. Oh, and a week later, I’m still sick. Sounds fun doesn’t it? This concern over our baggage continues thru Monday, Tuesday and into Wednesday. For 2 ½ days we do not know if we will ever see our bags again.

Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, our luggage arrives in KTM!!! It had been flown from Bangkok, not to KTM where it should have gone, but Brisbane, Australia! From Brisbane it was flown to Singapore then back to Bangkok and finally to KTM. When we found our bags on the luggage carousel, all 4 of them no doubt, I literally fell to my knees, hugged them all and gave all the thanks and praises a hoarse man with a sore throat and nasty cough can give! And now that our luggage is safely in our hands, we both feel 1000% better about our situation. Yes, hearing that our visas have come thru will be the icing on the cake, but for now, we are content and happy to explore KTM together.