Nepal - 2012

Where do I start? We just returned from an amazing trip to Nepal and there are so many things I want to document before I start forgetting all that we saw and experienced. I've posted some pictures here of highlights and have also put together a slideshow at the bottom, but there are over 35 photos so unless you like other people's vacation slides it might put you to sleep as those things tend to do. We took close to 700 photos so labeling them and then whittling it down was no small job. I've also listed some of the things I learned about Nepal at the bottom of this post so I won't forget and for the boys in the future. The only thing I really knew about Nepal before going was that it was a jumping off point for climbing Mt. Everest.

First on the agenda...a flight up close and personal with aforementioned Mt. Everest. Kenny and I both thought this would be our highlight of this trip and although it was awesome, there were so many other wonderful things about Nepal that we both kind of forgot to list it when talking about our favorite things about the trip with the boys. It's an unbelievably huge and beautiful mountain range, but we both noted that compared to what everyone in Seattle calls The Mountain (Rainier) it doesn't stand out so much. Mt. Rainier is all by itself whereas Mt. Everest is surrounded by huge mountains.
Pashupatinath Temple - the most holy spot in Nepal for people of the Hindu faith

One of the more fascinating things we saw was the cremation ghats (broad steps leading down to a river) along the Bagmati River which are used for open-air cremations. During the time we were there we saw 4-5 bodies somewhere in the process of being cremated. The Bagmati is an extremely sacred river and these ghats being located right next to Pashupatinath Temple (above) make it a very holy place for people of Hindu faith.

We were given no warning about where we were going so initially I was a bit startled at the sight of these open-air cremations, but as travel tends to do, the more I thought about it the less odd, as far as death rituals, it seemed. How much stranger is this than our widely accepted practice of draining a body of fluids, pumping it full of chemicals, dressing it up, applying makeup and fixing the hair just so everyone can walk around and say what a nice job the mortician did and how "good" the person looked? Every culture has it's rituals and traditions regarding death and frankly, I found the quick, matter-of-fact Hindu process fascinating. Well, except for the bathing part explained below.
The men would carry the body around the platform numerous times before setting it down. The professional cremators (who stood out because of the all white clothing they wore as you can see in the above picture - not the best choice for the job in my humble opinion) would then pile wood around and on top of the body and light it on fire. He would continue to stoke the fire until the body was completely burned which took 3-4 hours according to our guide. Our guide said that this ritual would only continue at this spot in Kathmandu for the next couple of years because the government is building electric cremation facilities. They will then close the cremation ghats along the Bagmati River.
Our guide said this man must have been a high ranking government official because of the flag he was draped in. Until recently women weren't allowed at the cremation. Nowadays they are, but seemed to sit in the background.
After the body is burned, the ashes are scraped off the ghats into the river. The water is black with ash, personal belongings and what looked to me like garbage. I did read that this river is one of the most polluted in the world...and it looks it. Something "different" (I'm trying to be worldly, open minded, and PC when I really want to say "gross") I learned is that after the ash is in the river the family and friends bathe in it. We had to ask the guide a couple of times if we understood him correctly, but then saw these men standing in the ash of their loved one. Since the water here is currently no more than a trickle, they couldn't really bathe, but our guide said out in the countryside they really submerge themselves.
Another odd part of this stop was that on a hill right above the cremation river there are graves. Neither of us caught what our guide said about who was buried here, but he told us that it was up to us if we wanted to take the kids up there because Nepalis generally don't find it appropriate for kids. This was right after our kids had watched 4-5 people being cremated 100 yards downhill.
After a day of touring Kathmandu we were off to Chitwan National Park in search of rhinos, elephants, sloth bears and crocodiles.
Three to four groups of us would go out on elephant safari at a time
Nugget was so worn out he even napped atop an elephant. Jack was just flopped over resting because he was "bored."
It took three elephant safaris and one bird watching activity, but we finally spotted the elusive rhino. We also saw a mom, dad and baby, but didn't get a very clear picture. They are amazing looking animals. So prehistoric.

We spent two nights in Chengdu on our way home and went to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. This was on my list of must-sees in China. In this picture is "Grandma" and five of her grandchildren. She is one of their most successful mamas, having had 13 live births.

- Nepal is a very poor country with it's only industries being tourism and farming (rice and wheat). They lack any natural resources to speak of.

- Every year thousands of Nepalese men apply in a lottery for slots to live abroad. Our guide's uncle and family live in Denver because he won the lottery. Our guide said it was hard to say what he did because most Nepalis that live abroad lie about what their job is since it's usually not a professional position. He said his uncle earns about $10/hour working in a hospital in Denver and now owns a mansion in Nepal that he bought with his earnings although he does not want to come back and live in Nepal full time. He said it would take three days of work to earn $10 if he was working in Nepal.

- Hinduism is the religion of majority, but Hinduism and Buddhism coexist and mingle very peacefully even worshipping in some of the same temples.

- Jobs are very scarce and coveted jobs include the military, airlines, hotels and embassies

- Nepal felt like a cross between India and Tibet. The people looked like people from India and many Tibetan refugees now reside in Nepal. A driving force behind cultural concepts is caste and status. 99.9% of marriages are arranged.

- Our guide, who was college educated in Nepal and was a college lecturer before the civil war, had no idea what Apple was, what an iPad was or what it could do. I never saw an Apple product in Nepal unless a foreigner was holding it.

- Nepal is 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of GMT. According to Lonely Planet, "This curious time differential is intended to make it very clear that Nepal is a separate place to India, where the time is five hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT!" So we were 2 hours and 15 minutes behind our home time in China.

- The one-horned rhino is one of the signature animals in Nepal along with royal Bengal tiger and spotted leopard. The rhino population plummeted during the civil war, but has recovered slightly.

- Monkeys and cows are considered sacred and we saw them everywhere in Kathmandu.

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