Lunch with Bhuphendra

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Alan Stock

My friend Bhupen

Day 76 – Location: Kathmandu; Nepal

16/11/12

Now the festival was over I really needed to get out of Kathmandu. I was bored and felt quite isolated despite being surrounded by people. However I’d heard from Sophie (the German girl I’d met at Pashupanitath) that her and Jhabraj, her Nepali host would be coming to Kathmandu in a day or two: after that I should be able to join them back up north to stay in Jhabraj’s village for a bit. It sounded good so I had a day to burn before meeting them. I decided to knuckle down with some serious diary/blog work, I walked to Thamel and sat in a garden on the wi-fi. Keeping on top of the blog is hard work – aside from typing up every day’s events I then do an edit of each post before publishing, and then there’s also the photos to select and insert into each post, which takes ages especially with the terrible wi-fi in Nepal. Despite the pain in the ass it can become, I think it’ll be worth it to be able to read back in years to come – and it’s also a good backup for my best photos.

During my writing session I was contacted by Bhupen, from Fantastic Nepal holidays, who had arranged my trek. We decided to meet for lunch in Thamel to catch up. He took me to a great little local place decorated like temple roofs inside. It was a haunt for young Nepali people. We chatted for hours.

Afterwards I went back home and spent the rest of the day reading and sorting my iTunes out. I got a call from Jhabraj. He and Sophie would arrive tomorrow and I could meet them then. Perfect timing.

Bhai Tika – Brothers and Sisters Day

Posted on April 27, 2013 by Alan Stock

Some kids insisted I take their picture when I was walking around the backstreets. Looks tough, eh!

Some kids insisted I take their picture when I was walking around the backstreets. she looks like a toughy!

Day 75 – Location: Kathmandu; Nepal

15/11/12

Today was the final day of the Tihar festival,Bhai Tika – a day when sisters give their brothers a tikka to give them long life and thank them for their protection. After breakfast I waited for Ashman. He’d invited me to his house nearby to become an honourary brother for the ceremony, a kind gesture. We walked towards the monkey temple down the backstreets, arriving at a modern Nepali house. Upstairs we waited in Ashman’s large shared bedroom for the others to arrive. The interior was quite a modern affair and looked pretty western, definitely the highest living standard I’d seen in my visits to family homes. They even had a PC which I’d never seen in a Nepali house. Ashman’s elder brother arrived who shares the room. He’s 26 (Ashman is 22) and also works as a waiter in a nearby hotel. Then his cousin, her husband and three little girls joined us. His cousin was arranging a huge mountain of food onto silver trays.

Now that’s a feast alright!

In Ashman’s room was this hypnotic, pulsating psychedelic shrine. I’ve seen them in some businesses too.

After they’d made preparations for the ceremony more people arrived, an older man and his wife (I think he was their uncle), another female cousin, and Ashman’s younger brother. It gets confusing because in Nepal they also call their cousins “brothers” and “sisters”!

The “brothers”, ( the uncle, me, Ashman and his two brothers) were sat arranged eldest to youngest in a line, on two sides of a square because there wasn’t enough room for us. We had to sit cross-legged, a bit of a problem for me as I have no flexibility and long legs! I even got told off for not sitting properly but I explained it was physically impossible for me. One of the girl cousins, under direction from her mother, took a brass jug of water with grass coming out of the spout, and went in circuits around us dribbling water on the ground. This is holy water or oil and she was making a protective barrier for us, a ritual called Puja. Then she had a cup of holy water and a bunch of long grass which she dipped into the water and “painted” over the drip barrier she’d made.

Me and my “brothers” after the ceremony

Next she came along and dripped holy water on our heads, coming around again to comb the water into our hair. Now a silver tikka tray was produced filled with the brightly coloured powders I’d seen on sale in the streets. The cousin and her sister took it in turns to dab a line of coloured spots with cotton buds vertically on our forehead, held in place by a gluey paste. Inevitably some coloured powder was going onto our clothes or our faces causing some amusement amongst everyone, it wasn’t a stone-hearted affair.

The aunt carefully dots the tikka line on her son’s forehead.

Ashman with his completed tikka

Now it was the brothers turn to give the sisters a tikka. They came along the line and we each put a coloured spot on their foreheads until they were finished. A tray of orange marigold petals was brought and the cousins sprinkled them over us. Finally we were each given a big malla – a garland of marigolds around our necks, plus a smaller garland of dried purple flowers for the two eldest, me and the uncle.

It was eating time. Each of the brothers were given a small tray with baked fish and eggs, which were pretty tasty. I was already quite full from breakfast. After that the big silver trays heaped with food were brought forth. There was one tray for each of us! My eyes boggled at the amount of food, even with my notorious appetite there was no way I could even scrape the surface of this. They were stacked with round sweet roti donuts, apples, bananas, a box of nuts and chocolate, and little cakes/sweets similar to Indian ones. As we picked away at this feast even more food was produced – one of the cousins had big pots full of curried chicken, potatoes, chick peas and prawn crackers. I tried a bit of everything, the chicken being especially tasty. I was offered beer and whiskey, I asked to try the whiskey and was given a large glass! I said it’s too much but was waved off and so had a pretty tipsy lunch!

Oh god, we really have to eat all this?!

My stomach was fit to burst and I couldn’t eat any more. After finishing we each gave the female cousins some small money, another part of the ceremony. I thanked my guests and we left. Ashman was heading to another part of town to see another sister. I walked back to Freak Street and then headed out to Thamel where I took my broken camera zoom lens and broken waterproof camera to the repair shop. I spent the afternoon working on the blog at a café, and in the evening went to Yak restaurant again to meet the Dutch girls I’d met the previous night. We were soon joined randomly by some Aussies they’d met when trekking and we had a pretty chilled evening eating and drinking there. The girls weren’t up for another big night as they had to pack their bags, so I wished them well and toddled off home.

On the way back from Ashman’s these kids asked for a photo. They were entertaining little rogues!

A dog sleeps next to souvenir masks at the Durbar Square

Newari New Year

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Alan Stock

Thamel lit by the Tihar lights

Day 74 – Location: Kathmandu; Nepal

14/11/12

After the festival of lights I’d been planning to leave Kathmandu, but Ashman (my waiter friend from the hotel) had invited me to join him for the final day of the festival, tomorrow, so I decided to stay for that. Today was the Newari caste’s new year, and during breakfast I heard that there was music and dancing at the Durbar Square so I hurried out to catch it. Most of the shops were closed today, it being another national holiday. Durbar Square was crowded, and I climbed up the steps of one of the tiered temples to watch a long procession of musicians, flag bearers and shouting groups walk past the square for twenty minutes. One man was carrying a very long pole covered in flags, maybe two stories high, and was twirling it around his body athletically. The musicians in the procession played drums and cymbals and most of them had traditional dress: the men with black clothes and black Nepali hats, and the women with black and white dresses.

A festival street mural for Laxmi, goddess of wealth

I walked into Thamel to collect my camera which had been in for a clean. There was a long convoy of open-backed jeeps driving through the streets, each full of young guys and girls drinking, singing, shouting and waving flags. Most had big speakers and were blasting out distorted dance music or had people shouting chants through microphones, with their passengers yelling out replies. It was fun and very noisy!

After collecting the camera I came across a big convoy of motorbikes clogging the streets. There were hundreds, mostly ridden by young people, honking, revving, cheering and waving flags. There was barely room to squeeze past.

On the way back to Freak Street I bought a 100% goose-down jacket for the cold evenings. A copy of course, but three times cheaper than you can get at home. It made me look like the Michelin man but it would be really warm and ideal for trekking if I went again. Goose-down jackets are very light and they compress to the size of a small sleeping bag.I passed more convoys of jeeps blasting out music, and dancing in the streets on the way back to Freak Street.

I got some lunch in the wi-fi bar across the road, one of the only open places in the area. A graying, overweight and long-haired German hippy in his 50’s joined me at my table and we got chatting. He works as a translator online and has been travelling for 6 months in India. He’s now in Nepal for another 5 months. He had a nasty story; in India his landlord sent a gang of guys to beat him up to try and get money from him. He left the country soon afterwards, disillusioned with the attitude of the locals to Westerners living there. He told me that although on the surface this area of Kathmandu seems alright, he’s been hanging out for a while in shisha bars and he’s seen guys throwing around big wads of cash – he is convinced there’s a lot of drug dealers and human traffickers around here. Like every big city there’s a seedy underworld. He was going to be travelling South East Asia as well and gave me some advice on good places I should check out.

I bid him farewell and rested at the hotel for a while. Once it was dark I was bored and feeling fed up and a bit lonely. Although I like Freak Street it’s not a great place to meet solo travelers. I decided to head into Thamel to see if any celebrations were still going on. Sure enough I came across a street performance with singing, music and traditional dancing. The dancers had painted faces and were dressed in gold, twirling around energetically to the songs. It drew quite a crowd.

Celebrating with drums and singing

After it was over I went to Yak restaurant for dinner. The tables here are shared so I hoped to find some company. Sure enough I was sat at a table with an old lady from Brussels and two Dutch girls. The old lady was a bit eccentric but quite an inspiration. In her late 70’s and she was still going trekking. She said she loves walking and Scotland is her favourite country. She had recommendations for the best trekking areas in Nepal and India. The Dutch girls were cool and were travelling together. They’d be leaving the day after tomorrow for Bangkok. We ended up going to a nice bar together and chatting the night away. It was just what I needed to perk me up a bit and we suggested meeting tomorrow evening.

Made completely from coloured rice and other vegetables!

I walked back home and hit the hay, quite tipsy after happy hour cocktails. Although it was after 10, in other countries you might think twice about wandering dark narrow streets at night, but in Nepal people of all ages are still wandering around and it doesn’t feel dodgy as long as you use common sense.

Thamel is lit up for the new year

Alan Stock Photography

My travelling (mis)adventures. It's ok to cry.

Monthly Archives: April 2013