Ekdam Thik Nepali Weekend

This is one of those posts where I'll let the pictures (and links) do much of the speaking for me.
Last weekend I visited two of Kathmandu's spiritual treasures. First, on Friday evening I went to Pashupatinath, one of the most holy sites in Hinduism. Honoring Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of creation and destruction, Hindu pilgrims come from around the world to worship at the Pashupati Temple and surrounding complex. It sits on banks of the holy Bagmati and is the site of many cremations on the complex's riverside "ghats."




The night I went was unique as it preceded by only two days Shivaratri, an extremely important Hindu festival honoring Lord Shiva. So there was a certain energy in the air...as well as a lot of marijuana smoke thanks to the sadhus. These colorful (literally and figuratively) Hindu ascetics flock to Pashupatinath from far and wide to honor Shiva, seek enlightenment, and smoke weed. The environment was truly exotic as I wandered through the ancient temple complex while bodies smoldered on the ghats and monkeys wandered through the crowd. One of several UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley, this is definitely a spot to visit again.

Namobuddha to Dulikhel hike
The next day I went on a day hike with most of the Consular section to Namobuddha. Namobuddha is a Tibetan Buddhist stupa and monastery. It's actually a grand complex of multiple buildings, incredible architecture, and panoramic views.

Sitting on a hilltop with amazing vistas of the Himalayas, the site supposedly marks the location where a past Buddha came upon a starving tigress. Unable to feed her cubs, the Buddha allowed her to consume him, an act of compassion that transported him to the higher realms of existence. After the hike to the top, I was also quite peckish. So I ate a Cliff Bar. I remain in the same realm of existence, but I got some enlightening pictures.

Due to the vagaries of Nepal's weather, clear views of the Himalayas are never guaranteed. However, on this day we were extremely fortunate.

Not bad photos for a BlackBerry cell phone.

No!

So here's my first pregnancy blog entry. I hope, for everyone's sake, that there won't be too many more on this topic. You, as a reader, I'm sure could find a better blog than this one, if you were interested in reading about a woman's perspective on pregnancy. And me, at 37+ weeks, hopefully won't be pregnant too much longer. Not that it's been a horrible experience, but I haven't "loved every second," as some women seem to claim.

Ted Stevens summed up pregnancy pretty well in this clip. There are so many things that people tell you are "no nos" during pregnancy. For example, the seemingly obvious things like smoking and drinking alcohol, but also undercooked eggs, smoked fish, ibuprofen, cleaning cat litter, etc. After my midwife appointment last week, I'll add rock climbing to the list.

The problem is, not many of these things that are off-limits are backed by science or knowledge. For medication safety, this is for good reason. What mom-to-be is going to volunteer her body and possibly the health of her unborn child to participate in large, well-controlled trials that would provide this much needed data. So all we have are out-dated, happenstance-type case studies. For certain foods, the risks are real, but infections are so rare from ingesting something harboring Listeria, for example, that you wonder how careful you need to be. For rock climbing and other physical activities, the "experts" giving the advice often don't know enough about the activity to give a well-informed opinion. That doesn't stop them from spewing the negativity, though. In the case of my midwife last week, after she stopped staring at me like I had 3 heads when I told her about how great it felt to rock climb at 36 wks, I asked her why she didn't approve. She made up something about the thinness of the walls of the uterus and the dangers of bumping it. I could tell it was BS and if she only knew how many times I bump my belly walking around my apartment, she'd have a heart attack.

So, where have I come to with all of this? I've done the best that I can, to do what I think is right and safe based on the information available to me. I've had a couple sips of wine along the way, I've taken some supposedly safe medications, and yes, I've been rock climbing throughout my pregnancy (without bumping my belly). Hopefully, the kid turns out ok. We'll see in a few weeks.

Incongruous Post

I have two unrelated stories to tell, and they are these:

Story #1 - Blogging in the evening seems a little more enjoyable with an adult beverage. But it's cold here, so I didn't want a cold drink. Gin and tonic is my favorite, but it's a malarial region drink. Maybe for our next posting in India or Ghana. Life at altitude calls for hot coffee with a kick. The natural solution is a coffee with a liqueur. But then the caffeine will keep me up, and I have visas to adjudicate in the morning. This sounded like a dilemma that only the internet could solve. So I consulted the series of tubes and found this little gem:

Hot Buttered Rum
- 2 oz Dark rum
- 1 tsp Brown sugar
- Pinch of nutmeg
- Fill w/ hot water
- Small floating pat of butter.

Sounds delicious, right?! Yeah, I thought so too. But it's not. That's 2 oz. of Captain Morgan's I'll never get back. That's the end of that story. On to...

Story #2 - I took a trip to the ancient city of Bhaktapur last Saturday. Bhaktapur was the capital city of the old Malla Kingdom until the 15th century and then became an independent city-state until Prithvi Narayan Shah unified it with Kathmandu, Patan, and the rest of the valley. Bhaktapur is apparently like Kathmandu was decades ago. It's the third largest city by population but hardly any traffic is allowed inside the city proper. Not that the narrow streets can accommodate much more than a moped. Due to the large number of temples, monuments, open squares, and palaces it is an official UNESCO World Heritage Site. The place is really amazing and certainly what you picture when you think of "Nepal." The roads are all cobblestone and buildings are made of ancient red bricks, some looking like they could crumble to dust at any moment. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened during the last big earthquake in 1934. I'm glad I've been there now, and plan to go again, because another earthquake will hit eventually and I'm not sure how many of these building will survive if it's a big one. It's also fascinating because much of the traditional lifestyle remains. I saw weavers and potters. I saw people hauling water from deep wells and winnowing grain in shallow wicker baskets. And I saw a naked baby get a massage. (That's apparently very important traditionally here, and helps explain a previous post/picture about charcoal briquettes for baby massage.) Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pictures because our camera went home with Elyse since we have our own baby coming. But I did manage a few decent shots with my cell phone. Here they are. Otherwise, to really grasp the ancient grandeur, do an image search on Google.

Nyatapola Temple - the tallest temple in Nepal, dedicated to Siddhi Lakshmi, a bloodthirsty incarnation of the goddess Durga. The stone guards up the stairs are pairs of legendary wrestlers, elephants, griffons and two little but really mean goddesses. Each creature is said to be 10 times more fierce than the preceding.









Bhairabnath Temple, as seen from Nyatapola's steps and past the head of a fierce griffon. Bhairab is one of the incarnations of Shiva the destroyer. Devout Hindus push offerings through a tiny opening in the front to a depiction of mighty Shiva....only 15 centimeters tall.









Baghini, the tiger goddess. Or is that Singhini, the lion goddess? They're hard to tell apart.















Not a great picture, but a simple snap shot of a shop owner with big bags of beans, lentils, and grains.











I'll post more pictures of Bhaktapur, the "City of Devotees," once I get our camera and we go back for the baby's first charcoal briquette massage.

PS: The Hot Buttered Rum drink kinda grew on me. Give it a try, if you are brave enough.

Home Sweet Home

It's true. The last year has been quite eventful and I have done a horrible job at writing about said events. Is it too late to make a New Year's resolution to write a blog post a week? (Do people even do New Year's resolutions anymore?). Anyway, I promise I'll do better.

As a cursory attempt at improving my blogging logging, I'll offer the following random thoughts about my recent transition from life in Kathmandu to America:

I was surprised to find that it was much easier to adjust to American life than I thought it would be. I'm not sure why I thought it would be tough, considering that I've spent less than 1% of my life in Kathmandu and close to 99% of my life in America. Still, I thought I would have had more trouble remembering which side of the road to drive on, how to move my head to answer "yes" to a question (i.e. up and down, instead of the Nepali side-bobble), etc. I imagine part of my miscalculation came from how comfortable I came to feel in Kathmandu. Over the course of the 3 1/2 months that I was there, the 'Du morphed from a strange new place, into a place to call home.

On my last day in Kathmandu before returning to the states, we (~10 Americans taking language classes at the Embassy) went on a field trip with our language teacher to an open-air market (see picture below). We fought through Kathmandu traffic for a half an hour to get there, emerged from our van, and set out to buy some veggies with our new language skills. The market was crowded, dirty, and smelly, but it all somehow seemed normal, even the part where strange words came out of my mouth that Nepali people understood and which resulted in an exchange of rupees for food. What fun! (except the really smelly part) Three months earlier I probably wouldn't have gotten out of the van, but now I thought this was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning. Go figure...

Don't get me wrong, I still love America (especially the food, seeing friends and family, the clean air, the traffic laws, and the food - did I mention the food?), but I'm happy that my home, at least for now, is Kathmandu.


More thoughts to come...Happy New Year!

Missing: Small pregnant neuroscientist

Wouldn't you like to hear from this woman? She is my beautiful wife and she is, ostensibly, a contributor to this blog. However, to date she has yet to pen an article. It's not as if she doesn't have anything new to share. In the past year she has moved to another country, gestated a baby, and done approximately 1,000 crossword puzzles. Beyond that she's brilliant and witty. She has lots to share. So if you'd like to read what she thinks about Kathmandu, pregnancy, and Will Shortz, among other things, please write a comment...kind of like a written request for an encore.