Katmandu and Pokhara Fuel and Festival
When I flew back to Katmandu I didn’t realize what the border blockade by India had actually done until I tried to catch a cab for 500-700 Rupee. The taxi driver said 2000 rupee. While I waited for my bag I spoke with Dr. Ajit George Kuruvilla, a consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist from Manchester who had been out in the Himalayas doing volunteer work and was finished for now. We spoke of the lack of proper medicine and doctors in the mountain region. He agreed and considering all the negative elements to Nepal’s recent past, it wasn’t going to get any better until the political situation changes. I grabbed my bag and wished him well. Had it been earlier in the evening I would have walked the hour and one half but it was dark and getting late. I took that cab to the Holy Himalaya and pulled in for a couple nights of an awesome hotel at the edge of Thamel. The hotel came highly recommended by a Scottish friend I met at the Strand Hotel in Rangoon, Burma. He’s the same man that introduced me to Bardia National Park and Wild Trak Adventure.
The reason I was in Katmandu was to come see and show my support for the first Gharana Music Festival founded and directed by Dan Linden. www.gharanamusicfoundation.org. I had met Dan and his wife previously and instantly new this was going to be something out of the ordinary. I was not disappointed.
The Gharana Music Festival ran from October 8th – 11th with concerts starting in the evenings and after the first night various workshops were offered to students and music enthusiasts regardless of musical level. There was even a didgeridoo workshop offered and I heard that it was a really enjoyable workshop run by Salil Subedi.
One of the festival musicians had plane issues and couldn’t make it so the other musicians gladly filled the time slots and all ran smoothly. This was mainly a classical guitar festival playing scores of various composers of predominantly Hispanic roots but when they all got together on stage they played the Beatles. That was fun. Rupert Boyd - classical guitar, Ana Marie Rosado – classical guitar, the multi-talented Mr. Brendan Evans – Flamenco and classical, and Paul Cesarcyzyk – classical. They mixed it up playing solos, duets, and of course a quartet. Brendan had a few days after the show to look around and on one particular night took to the stage with the existing band and threw down. It was good to plug-in, it had been a while.
The venue was at the glamorous Yak and Yeti Hotel in Katmandu, one of their many leasable halls. At the intermission guests walked through French doors to a spacious lawn with food and beverages offered. For me being in Nepal for 4 months of earthquakes, Banda, new constitution, political unrest, border closure brought on by India, fuel shortage, this festival was exactly what I needed to show me a ‘diamond in the rough’.
I have a certain amount of magnetism towards Sam's Bar in the evenings for many reasons, the mixture of Nepali and foreigners, the cold beer, the conversations, the service, but most of all is to sit at the bar and hangout with V. She is a class act all by her self and worth the visit. I learn from her experiences over the last decade. She's rich in personality and information.
I took a bus 6 hours to Pokhara and pulled into the Lotus Hotel where I felt the second big earthquake a few months back. Pokhara is a lake town surrounded by snow capped peaks and offering hang gliding, zip lining, boating, hiking, biking, motorbike rentals, and of course the gate way to trekking Annapurna and the Himalayas.
I came to write, relax and take it all in. I hadn’t yet experienced the fuel shortage except for the taxi ride to my hotel but arriving in Pokhara it was a different feeling all together. There is a festival on called Dashain, a ten-day festival involving family ties and getting to them. As I came in on the bus there were hundreds of motorbikes on the sidewalk all pointed at the petrol station. Then I noticed two rows of cars at the edge of the road. The cars were backed up for a kilometer and had been there for two days.
When I went out to eat certain items were off the menu because they didn’t have any fuel for cooking let alone any more cooking oil both of which come through India. With Dashain in full swing people stuffed the buses and many rode on the roof. I felt a slight urgency in their patience.
I asked a friend to give me a ride to the Penguin Public Swimming pool and when we got there the attendant said they drained it for winter. I took a walk down lakeside to the dam side and had lunch in a quaint little restaurant called, ‘Don’t Pass By Restaurant.’ The restaurant is on the edge of the lake and in the shade of umbrellas and trees giving it a peaceful setting. I recommend an order of Momo and Tea Masala.
I was curious about the fuel shortage so I went out wandering through 5 different gas stations and they all looked the same with hordes of motorbikes and cars and tour buses and cross country buses waiting for fuel for their return trips. Down a rubble alley I notice children on a large bamboo structured swing. The boy was swinging 20 feet in the air or more. I learned that this was part of Dashain and the children participate by swinging and flying kites. Considering the state of the nation the Nepali children wear smiles shamelessly and are a genuine happy lot.
Two men drove by on a motorbike with a goat straddling the bike. Odd. Across the street a sheep is standing on the roof of a bus full of people. Another bus goes in the other direction with two goats on the roof. For Dashain the traditional family meal is a goat or sheep, similar to Americans having Turkey/Ham/Duck for Thanksgiving. I became fascinated on the goat transport business and the swings. When I walked passed the pens where the goats were held people were inspecting goats for purchase. Some other pens had sheep and there were as many people there inspecting as well, nose, mouth, eyes, ears, tail and under it. An auger with a trailer pulled up and they loaded six goats in the back and off the auger went back up the hill.
There are very few tourists in Nepal these days. Walking down Lakeview in the evening there are very few cars, motorbikes or people. Stores are having a hard time keeping their doors open and paying bills. Scheduled and unscheduled power outages continue daily. Below the Monsoon Restaurant workers cook over an open fire because they have no fuel. Smoke drifts out of the parking garage.
Happy Dashain
