An Incredibly Busy Journey to the South of Tunisia

This past weekend was quite amazing. I think I did more diverse activities in three days than I ever have in such a short time frame.

FRIDAY:

We left Tunis early Friday morning for the city of Kairouan. Kairouan is the 4th most holy city in the Muslim world, acted as the North African capital of the Arab world for most of the five centuries of Muslim rule in the area, and has more than 100 mosques. We visited the Mosque of Sidi Oqba that was begun to be built around 680 AD. However, I think this early building was torn down a few times and the mosque I saw looks like the one that was built in the late 9th century. Sidi Oqba was a saint who arrived in Kairouan 40 years after the death of the prophet. He founded the city and began the mosque that bares his name. A picture of the prayer area of the Great Mosque is below:


Also in Kairouan, we visited the shrine of Sidi Sahib, a companion of the prophet (I think he was the prophet's barber). The inside of the building was covered with beautiful tiles and mosaics. Below is a picture of me in the shrine. The lower walls are covered in decorated tiles, the upper part of the wall is carved stone:


After the visit to the shrine, we stopped at a carpet sellers shop, ate lunch in a hotel and then went to Dougga. The Romans began occupying Dougga around the 2nd century BC. There was a theatre there (similarly to the last Roman site that we visited) and there were three temples to the gods in the former center of the city. The picture below is of the remains (I do believe they've been rebuilt a bit...)

Finally, after about 14 hours of traveling, we arrived at our hotel in the desert. I watched the stars in the sky for a while and then headed to bed.

SATURDAY:

We woke up early on Saturday, ate breakfast, and jumped back on the bus for probably the most jam-packed day of my life. First we visited an oasis in the desert. To get around the oasis we rode in horse drawn carts (below is a picture of me and my horse):

We also walked around the oasis. In the oasis, they grow fruits and vegetables for local consumption and dates for export. Below is a picture of me and some friends climbing a date palm tree. I think the background also shows how very green the oasis is.

After we left the oasis, we headed back on the bus and began our trek across the desert. We stopped in the salt desert and played for a while (the picture is below). I guess the salt desert was a part of the Mediterranean that was cut off and now is a pretty thick layer of salt covering a lot of sand. What really surprised me about this place was its incredible flatness and lack of anything in sight. It was almost like walking into nothingness. It was an especially strong contrast to the other desert we had thus far seen - which looked a lot like Death Valley in the USA.


After this stop, we headed on farther, until we got to the part of the Sahara where it is just sand and sand dunes (and tourists). At this stop, we did my favorite activity- we rode camels into the Sahara. It was very hot and the camel was a little bumpy, but I had a wonderful time. Below is a picture of me and my camel. As you can tell, we didn't go too deep into the Sahara, because as the rest point, we could buy a coke.

After the camel ride, we had lunch (I can't believe we did all of that in one morning) and then headed out on the bus to ride through more of the Sahara. We stopped in Matmata, which is an old Berber town with two very cool things. The first is that the houses used to be all dug into the ground, which is impressive considering the hardness of the rock there and the coolness of the houses compared to the outside air. A picture of a house:

BUT this was no ordinary house, it was also the location where Star Wars Episode 4 was filmed. Remember Luke's childhood home? This was the location. When he ate with his aunt and uncle, he ate in a room here. Now its a bar (and the rest of the homestead a hotel of questionable quality). Here is the entrance to the bar:

However, I was a little disappointed with the bar, besides a few newspaper clippings and movie posters from the movie, there was really not much to see. I think I had been hoping for something with a really high kitch factor - like the bartender dressed as Chewbacca or a few droids wandering around. But, alas, Tunisia is not really Disney Land....

After our pilgrimage to the Star Wars site, we continued our voyage across Tunisia to the Island of Jerba. We crossed the Roman Causeway (also rebuilt often, I am sure) and here we stayed the night in a very nice hotel. (By the way, the Island of Jerba was home to the Lotus Eaters where Ulysses and his men spent some time in the Odyssey, but I didn't see any lotuses.)

SUNDAY:

Sunday morning we had free, so I woke up early and had a nice run and swim in the hotels pool. Afterwards I split my time between the beach and the hotel. After lunch we again boarded our bus (I was a little sick of buses at that point), and went to see the sights of Jerba. We stopped in a little village that seemed to exist solely to sell pottery to tourists.



After our stop at the tourist pottery trap, we visited the synagogue on Jerba. It was quite beautiful, and a picture of its interior is below:

After the synagogue we headed to a museum that was interesting in so much as all it had was mannequins of everyday Tunisian things, and then went to the airport. After many hours of waiting in the airport, we boarded our plane and arrived back in Tunis in time to sleep before Monday morning classes.

Last Last in a Watermelon Eating Contest

Arabic is going along well, although I can't believe how quickly time passes and that the program will be over at the end of next week- oh my! Its been an interesting experience: we have an incredibly large amount of highly structured activities on weekends (like we go on a field trip almost every weekend), we have lots of time at the school during the day, and everyone lives in the same hotel. The result is that I feel like I am at summer camp, only with tests in Arabic.

Last weekend was one of our few "free" weekends. Most people traveled around the country. I stayed at the hotel and had quite a relaxing experience. On Saturday, I had lunch with a few new friends and then headed to the beach for some swimming and sun. On Sunday, the American Embassy in Tunisia had a 4th of July party. It was an interesting event. There was a navy band that played music (they sounded just like the songs on the radio) and they said that they spent the whole year just traveling from place to place playing music. Doesn't seem like too bad a job. They also had a BBQ. The invitation said they would have veggie burgers and at first they were very reluctant to make these, but after some "strong" requesting, they pulled them out of the freezer and made a couple. I ate two and they were pretty good (I think they were my first American made veggie burgers in over a year....). Most excitingly, I participated in the watermelon eating competition. My motivation for this was that I wanted some watermelon - its really good here in Tunisia. Surprising, I came in last place. And I think I've satisfied my desire for watermelon for a good long while.

Tomorrow morning, we are heading to the south of Tunisia to see the Sahara and ride camels. I'll take some pictures of the travels and tell all early next week!

Weekend Excursion to Dugga and Tabaraka

This past weekend, we had another wonderful field trip. Again, we headed towards the beach (this time to Tabarka in the northwest part of Tunisia, I think). On the way to the beach, we stopped for the afternoon at Dugga. At Dugga we saw ruins from the Punic Period and from the Roman Period. The first picture is from the Roman period:


This picture is of a tower (?) from the Punic period:

After exploring the ruins, we did a talent show on the stage of the theatre there, (the back of the theatre is in the first picture). It was great fun, but very very hot, as summer as finally reached Tunis. (If anyone is interested, yesterday it was 115 degrees in Tunis and the day before it was over 120 degrees - so happy my classroom has air conditioning).

In the evening we arrived at the beach, giving us enough time for a cool dip before dinner. On Sunday, I opted to spend the day at the beach (some others did more active touristy things...). The beach was great and it was nice to take time to relax. Sunday night we returned to Tunis and hit the books (and the heat hit us!).

A weekend sleeping in a sand castle and Staying in a Tunisian Home

yikes, well, it’s been too long so since the last post, I have too many fun pictures and nice things too report, so this post may be to long to appreciate, but I want to tell everyone what I’ve been up to…..

Not last weekend, but the weekend before, we had a field trip to Le Cap Bon. It’s on the northeastern part of Tunis and its quite beautiful. We stayed in Hammamet, in a hotel that looked like a sandcastle. The hotel was right on the Mediterranean, so I got to have my fill of swimming and wandering around old forts.

Below is a picture of an area of the beach - note: the area I swam around was crowded with tourists, not boats. But the boats seemed more scenic when I was taking pictures.


And this is a picture of me at a seaside cafe next to a very old fort:


And on our way back to Tunis, we took the long way back and saw some differing places on the coast. Below is at the very tip of Tunisia:

And finally, a picture of the sunset on the Sunday before last:


After the wonderful and fun weekend, we had another week of intensive classes and homework. But on last Friday, we all went and stayed for the weekend with differing host families. My host family was really wonderful. The 'mom' (a few years older than me), is an English teacher at the University. Her husband owns a restaurant (where I was fed amazingly delicious food), and they have 2 children - a 10 year old girl and a 4 year old boy. The woman's mother lives with them and the woman's sister lives close by. The sister also has small children andalong with an assortment of random nieces and nephews, I was happily surrounded by children all weekend.

Saturday morning we went to the Bardo museum, which has art from Grecian times to the Ottoman empire. Below is a picture of the mom, her daughter, and I in front of a Roman mosaic.


Later Saturday evening, we went to Sidi Bou Said to watch the sunset and relax. Below is a picture of the family at a cafe:


Finally, on Sunday, we drove to Hammamet and spent the day at the beach. It was a really great time and I am hoping that the next time I have a free weekend that I can go and visit again.

An Afternoon in Carthage

Well, perhaps as you can see from the overcast sky in the pictures below, this weekend ended up being unseasonably cold and rainy, so no beach. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the warm weather and sun returns quickly....

So, instead of going to the beach I spent a relaxing Saturday hanging around Tunis. I took a nice walk and ended up in the meat section of the general market, where I can buy a cow head for very little (yuck...)

On Sunday, I took a 20 minute trolley ride with many other people in my group to the city of Carthage. It was really cool to see the ruins of the city from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC and I put a couple of pictures from the visit below.

These Days in Tunis

Tunis is a really beautiful city. I've been here since Saturday morning and I feel as though I am settling into the pattern of class. I go to class for about 4.5 hours a day and have an additional 2 hours of informal tutoring time. Hopefully by the end of the 7 weeks, I'll be able to say "hello, my name is Andrea" in Arabic. Right now I am struggling with the new sounds - the Urdu and Arabic alphabets are similar (but Urdu has more letters), but the sounds are very different. To me, Urdu uses softer and more beautiful sounds. Right now, I think I can say good morning (SabaaH il-Kheer) with relative competency and most people even seem to understand me, but then I totally mess up on asking how people are..... but, its fun to learn a new language and quite exciting too.

We don't have classes on weekends, so last Sunday we took the metro north a few stops (maybe 15 minutes) and visited a small town overlooking the Bay of Tunis called Sidi Bou Said. It was a beautifully painted blue and white. We walked around the town and I had a cup of tea in the harbor area. Below are pictures from Sidi Bou Said:




This weekend, I think I'll go to the beach and swim. It gives me a thrill to think that I'll be swimming in the Mediterranean off the coast of the African continent!

Some Pictures from Lebanon

Well, as I think I made clear from my older posts, I loved my time in Beirut. Unfortunately, the internet connections that I had access to were a little slow making updating the blog hard and putting pictures from Beirut up on my blog impossible. Well, now I seem to have faster access to the internet and can put up pictures. So here they are, a little dated, but nice.....

The first picture is my on the route from the main road to Will's home. Will moved since the last time I was there and now he is living in a beautiful house that has balconies, lots of windows, sunlight, and Syrian turtles living on the roof. The only downfall to the apartment is that you have to walk up a pretty steep hill and then a bunch of stairs to get to his house. Fortunately, the path is quite beautiful, as you can see below:


Will and I took many walks around Beirut while I was there. One day we headed to the northern part of the city. On the way, we saw a man selling Christian paraphernalia and plastic flowers that he had decorated his car with. When I expressed interest in taking a picture he added even more flowers to add to the beauty of the picture. This is him and the flowers:


We also took a day trip to Tripoli. Fortunately, we went a week before the conflict began there. It was a really nice city. I enjoyed the, what seemed to me to be, a calmer pace than Beirut. There was quite a nice old part of the city that we wandered around. While we were there we met a very nice woman that makes soap. We also walked around and looked for a castle, but unfortunately, could not find it. This is a picture of part the old city with some boys taking a break from playing soccer.


Will and I also took a trip to the south. There we visited a castle that was built by the Crusaders and later used by the Ottomans. It was really fun to wander around the castle, climbing staircases, and exploring nooks and crannies. Below is a picture of Will at the castle:

Doing well in Beirut

Well, its been a long time since my last post and I have tried to post a few times, but I really wanted to post pictures along with my words (they seem so much more interesting to me). Unfortunately, the Internet access that I get here (in really nice coffee shops - what a luxury!) is a little slow and doesn't seem to be able to upload the pictures. I really wish that I could as it is so beautiful here. Hopefully when I go to Tunis on Saturday I'll find a better Internet connection and post some old pictures. I think I've probably written this before, but I think Beirut is really one of the most charming places I've ever been. The city is located on the Mediterranean - allowing me to run along the beach in the morning and watch the sunset over the sea in the evening. In addition, the streets are narrow and have a distinct French flair to their style. The people are lovely, super friendly and polite (and very fashionable). I've been doing quite a bit of reading and relaxing. Some of my favorite activities are making dinner with Will and playing Scrabble. Its nice to have a little time off with such wonderful company.

We have done some exploring around the country. Its a pretty small country (geographically speaking) and most places are only a 1 or 2 hour bus ride away. Last weekend, we went to Tripoli. While we were there we wandered around the old part of the city (it has to be one of the oldest cities I've ever been in) and met a really amazing woman who makes soap. We also have gone to the southern part of the country. We visited a castle the Crusaders built and walked again on the beach. Both trips were fantastic.

Yesterday (Sunday morning) there was some fighting in Tripoli (you can visit this BBC website if you are interested http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6675163.stm). It really makes me horribly sad that such a beautiful place with such wonderful people is having these problems. But, besides my sadness for the Lebanese people, I am fine and very safe.

Out of the Waiting Room, Time to enjoy the sunset.....

So my last days in Lucknow were a stressful combination of waiting in a bureaucratic hell for some paperwork, sweating in the 115 degree weather, trying to figure out how I have so much damn stuff (and how I am going to move it), and too many sad goodbyes. I am excited that I'll be back there at the end of July - I already miss it horribly (and, to be honest, I haven't really resolved the too much stuff issue). Despite the chaotic and stressful last days, I love Lucknow - it had become home in a very special way.

Now, I am with Will and enjoying morning runs along the beach, watching the sunset from his new home's roof, and trying to keep my Urdu up. No adventures, really, but lots of relaxing. So life good.

In other special news, I received a scholarship to go to Tunisia this summer to study beginner Arabic, so it looks like I'll be in Tunis, Tunisia from the end of May until late July. Hooray! I am so excited. I love learning languages and living new places. It should be quite the adventure....

A morning bike ride

So most mornings, I go for a run and then to yoga. But some mornings I go for a bike ride instead of the run. Because it is so hot here in general and heats up so quickly once the sun rises, I usually leave around sunrise for these activities (around 5 am). Last Friday, I went on a bike ride with my camera so that I could take a picture of a sign that I had seen on an earlier ride. I left earlier than normal, because the trip was pretty long and the crowded roads and strong, hot sun make the ride unpleasant if I leave too late. . .

The way out of Lucknow is beautiful, with fields and trees and before dawn everything is quiet. On my way, around the earliest part of dawn I came across a striking scene of the moon over the trees. The picture below doesn't do the peacefulness or the beauty of the ride justice, but I thought I'd put it in anyway, to give a hint at what I saw.....

Finally, I arrived at the sign I wanted to take a picture of (see below). It says (in Hindi) Panchayat Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh is the state that I live in. A panchayat is political system which groups five ("panch") villages. Each village has appointed tasks and responsibilities, such as cart-making or basket-weaving. The central village, usually the largest of the Panchayat, traditionally handles food storage and meeting-places for officials, as well as their residences. ‘Panchayat’ literally means assembly (yat) of five (panch) wise and respected elders chosen and accepted by the village community. Traditionally, these assemblies settle disputes between individuals and villages. I really am not sure what the picture has to do with this form of political organization of the town in particular, but I thought the picture was quite funny.

The ride out and back is a nice one. I live close to the edge of Lucknow, and early in the morning there are very few people, maybe a truck or two, and no cars. However, the journey was not without its dangers. When I arrived at the wall were the painting was, I squatted on the side of the road to take pictures. As I tried in the dawn's poor light to get a good view, I kept feeling twigs hitting me on the head. Assuming that the wind was knocking these twigs off the tree, I kept photographing and did not look up. Finally, after getting pretty squarely knocked on the head, I looked up. In the tree were quite a few monkeys (including a lot of baby monkeys) throwing twigs at me, laughing, and staring with interest. They were also playing around my bike. I have a sort of love/fear of the monkey (I love the idea of monkeys hanging around but do not like them too close or eating my cookies). I decided to leave while the leaving was good - i.e. while most were still in the tree and not on the bike - and headed back to town. Below is a picture of a monkey scurrying away from my bike (isn't my bike beautiful? I think it was made 80 years ago in China and it weighs almost as much as me, but its a fun way to get around , has a lovely basket, and I feel pretty attached to it....)


On the way back to Lucknow, the roads fill up with men who ride their bikes into work in the city. This line of bicyclists - usually 2-4 people deep, consistently fill the road all the way into the city. I can't help but think it must be a rough ride home on their way back from work, as even after nightfall the temperatures at night are hot (in the mid to high 90s). The fields of many shades of green are colored with the blues, oranges, reds, purples, and yellows of women's saris and the rivers also fill up with dhobi walay (washers) washing clothes (see picture below).

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone is having a happy day! Here, we celebrated a non-traditional Easter lunch. I made vegan brownies, refried beans (with pinto beans), and vegan carrot walnut muffins. Two housemates helped me cook and another made a delicious salsa. We rounded out our very healthy meal with some Easter candy a housemate's parents sent. Afterwards, the power went off and we sat in the kitchen, sweat up a storm, wished for the fans to work, and played a game. It was an enjoyable afternoon, but now the power is back and I am off to work!

An article about the state I live in and its up-coming elections

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6528675.stm

Some thoughts.... (and sadly, no pictures)

As the program is winding down and the summer is setting in, I am feeling nostalgic for home yet super reluctant to leave India. As the temperatures exceed 100 degrees everyday now and the general weather condition is haze (from the burning of the garbage and leaves that fall in the spring, not the winter), I sometimes question my sanity in not wanting to leave. Yet, I really do enjoy being here, I love the friends that I've made and enjoy speaking, listening to, and writing Urdu.

Regarding the language learning, I am feeling super self-conscious right now about my ability to communicate. I wish that I was better at the language. But I need to remind myself that I have made improvements over the past year and developed a real love for the language (and for language learning in general) that will sustain my Urdu learning when I am not here....

I think that language learning has also been good for me as I grow as a person. One way is that I've become much more comfortable with ambiguity. For example, I was speaking on the telephone with a friend about our day's plans and my visit to his home. For me, phone's are much harder than in-person conversations to understand - maybe its the lack of visual clues or maybe its because people don't have an immediate reminder of my "foreign-ness" and forget to speak slower. As we made the plans, I knew that I was definitely either eating or not eating with his family, but I was unsure of which. Instead of going over the plan for a 5th time, I decided to grab a granola bar and head out the door. If food came, then that would be ideal (his wife is a great cook), if no food, then I would not starve. Luckily, this time food came!

The other thing it has helped with is coming to terms with not being able to speak my thoughts clearly and, therefore, sounding like a dunce often. Its hard to discuss ideologies and vague concepts when your vocabulary is not so developed and strange to have big ideas in my head that I can't communicate. The thing I find most frustrating about this is that your ability to communicate is often used by others as the main indicator intelligence. So, one day I was in class and my teacher was telling a story about Indian politics and stopped to ask me, in particular, if I knew who Indira Gandhi was. Now, I understand that many of you probably don't know who she is (but she was India's 5th and 8th prime minister and a huge force in Indian politics), but I don't imagine that any one working on a ph.d. in Indian history and anthropology doesn't now a lot about her - it would kinda be like an American historian not knowing who Nixon was. At the time I was concerned that he would think that I would not know who she was, irritated, and embarrassed by the fact that he had singled me out. For me, learning to positively use these situations, to feel less enraged or ashamed, and trying to use them as another gateway to learning the language, has helped me think about a lot of things - and is a project I am still working on.

Ok, I do have more reflections, but I imagine that the may not be the most interesting and, also, I am completely drenched in sweat - its 9 am and already hot. This is made worse by the fact that to type, I can't sit directly under the fan (the computer has a short power cord) and I have to have the computer on my lap and the computer generates a ton of heat. So I am going to move the computer from my lap, sit directly under the fan, and do some Urdu paper writing!

Social Butterfly whose wings are melting....

Actually, I am very happy, which I am not sure that the title of the blog conveys, but it did get hot in Lucknow almost overnight (about a week ago). Now the daily high temperature is around 100. So I try to go and do fun things, and then I usually have to go home to lay under my fan in the afternoon and marvel at all the places I can sweat.

But despite the heat, I am having some very nice days. About a week ago, I went to my friends' home to have a late lunch and visit. It was a nice, long afternoon - my friends have two children and we played quite a bit. Below is a picture of their daughter (whose birthday is today) on her dad's motorcycle. We went to their home after she was finished with school, that is why she is wearing the uniform.

The following day, I went to "Amma's" home for dinner. She lives with her husband, her daughter (whose name is Goria), Goria's husband, and Goria's two children. In addition to being quite close with "Amma", Goria and I are also good friends, so we had a really fun time laughing and visiting. Below is a picture of Goria and Amma cooking dinner. In the background is Goria's daughter and a neighbor boy. The neighbor boy had all sorts of questions about America and he asked these questions very very quickly - so he had to repeat them a few times before I could understand them - but he was overjoyed to learn about a new place. t was a fun evening.

As you walk into the neighborhood where Goria lives, there is a mandir (or temple) dedicated to the god Shiva. It seems like many neighborhoods have a mandir or a mosque near the entryway (sometimes both). I put a picture of a part of the shrine near Goria's house and the man is responsible for its upkeep below.

At school, I am still learning how to cook and enjoying my time with the cooks. Below is a picture of me making chutney. Chutney means sauce in Hindustani, but usually refers to a spicy side item that you can eat with just about anything. Below, I am making an am (mango) chutney. The mango used is green, so it tastes bitter. To make the chutney, I grind the green am, some spicy peppers, onion, garlic, and mint. It is really delicious (I like it with vegetables, almost like a salad dressing), but it is hard work in the heat.....

A pleasant day

And yesterday, was one of the more special days in the city. Although nothing very different from usual happened, I had a really lovely time spending time with some of my favorite Lucknowis.

My day started like usual, biked to my yoga class, came home, ate breakfast (the fruit here is yummy), and went to school. Fridays are pretty easy days at school, so I often spend part of the time I am there with the school's cooks. I really like spending time with the cooks and I am learning to make some really delicious meals (everyone is welcome over for a dinner feast when I return to the US). Below is a picture of me and the cooks. Gita-ji is the lady in the lower left of the picture. She is the head cook and a really patient and nice woman. Her super awesome and funny assistant's name is Anita-ji. The three of us have spent many a morning laughing and laughing.


After a very delicious lunch of salad, choli (chickpeas), roti (bread), aloo-goobi (potato and cauliflower), and dal (lentils), I went to Gita-ji's house for an afternoon visit. I love visiting her house as her family is so friendly - although I often feel at a complete loss as to who is related and how they are related. Hindi/Urdu is really interesting in that each family relation has a special name. So your mom's sister is called something different than your dad's sister and that name is different than your dad's brother's wife. This is confusing at the aunt/uncle level and almost impossible for me at the cousin level - I just can't remember all the words. But it is fun to try to puzzle out. At Gita-ji's house, I we chatted and drank some chai (tea). It was lovely.


Later that evening, another good friend of mine in Lucknow stopped by my house for a nice chat. I call her "amma", which means mother, but her real name is Seela. Calling older people or people in relations of authority over oneself by family names is very common. For example, I call the cooks "aunti" and my yoga teachers "didi", which means older sister, even though I think they are younger than me. I've put a picture of amma and I below. We are at my house.

My trip to Nepal

Oh, my, this past week and a half has seemed super busy and I am hoping to wind it down soon..... Anyway, I really wanted to post about my trip to Nepal 2 weeks ago now (oh, how fast time goes!).

Like I said in an earlier blog, I spent over a day on buses getting to Kathmandu. A long trip, but well worth the time as I really think Kathmandu is one of my favorite cities I have visited. The day following my arrival, I wandered around the tourist area I was staying in. I bought a guide book and took the walking tour to Kathmandu's Durbar square (Durbar means royal court). It was a pleasant day and I really enjoyed walking around the city.

Because I liked walking around the city so much, the next day I decided to walk to an eastern suburb of the city to see the most important Hindu temple in Kathmandu, called Pashupatinath. After that, I walked northeast to Bodnath, a Buddhist stupa linked to Tibetan Buddhism. There, I had a nice lunch at a vegan cafe; I sat on the roof of the cafe and had a wonderful view of the stupa. (There is a picture of the stupa below.)

The following day, in the morning, I walked to another Buddhist stupa, Swayanbhunath. It was a lot closer than Bodnath, but a lot harder of a walk because the trip was all uphill from where I was staying and then once I arrived at the stupa, I had to climb 333 stairs to get to the top. There is a picture of this stupa below, if you look hard, you can see me in the lower right corner. As you can see, both of the stupas have eyes painted on them and prayer flags hanging from them. The eyes are symbolic of god's all-seeing perspective. There is no nose between the eyes but rather a representation of the number one in the Nepali alphabet, signifying that the single way to enlightenment is through the Buddhist path. Above each pair of eyes is another eye, the third eye, signifying the wisdom of looking within. No ears are shown because it is said the Buddha is not interested in hearing prayers in praise of him.


After returning to the area I was staying, I was feeling like I still wanted to explore Kathmandu more, so I walked south to Patan, the second biggest city in the Kathmandu valley. There I explored Patan's Durbar Square (see picture below) and wandered around the city. Perhaps the highlight of the trip was the steamed veggie momos (Tibetan dumplings) that I bought from a lady on the street, they were delicious....


As I was walking back to my hotel, I ran into these lovely girls. They were dressed for a school performance and agreed to let me take a picture of them. Aren't they lovely?


My last day in Kathmandu, I spent more time wandering around the city. Because there was a strike called that day (in protest of something regarding the government, but I am not really sure what....), the streets were empty of cars, which was very nice. However, no one had school or work, so many started celebrating Holi early. This meant that I spent a lot of my time dodging children's water balloons and I returned to my hotel thoroughly soaked.

One of the things that I really liked about Kathmandu was the way in which very ancient temples, statues, and monuments were incorporated into the city. The picture below shows how a clothing seller had set up his shop on the front steps of a very old Hindu temple and the temple was in the middle of newer apartment buildings. It was really quite pleasant, because more often than not, when I turned a corner, I was met with an elaborate mixture of the past and the present....

The next day I took the bus to Pokhara. The ride was about 7 hours and the trip was quite beautiful through some mountains. Pokhara is a beautiful small city located on a lake. A picture of me on the lake is below. I was hoping to do some walking through the hills, but unfortunately, it was quite rainy in Pokhara and this put a damper on how much walking was possible.


However, on my second day, it did not rain in the morning, so I walked into the hills to see some of the area. Below are two pictures from my hike. (I am in the second, with a lady I met from Holland. One of the really nice things about Nepal , in general, was that there were a lot of single travellers who had interesting stories and it was relatively easy to find someone to take a walk with or have dinner with.)


In the pictures above, you can see that the hills have a thick layer of clouds over them. In Pokhara, early in the morning, and before the clouds blow in, it is possible to see the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. Pictures of the Annapurna range are below. The mountains really took my breath away, they were so beautiful.



After Pokhara, I returned home to Lucknow in time for Holi celebrations (as I described in my last blog). My trip to Nepal was a super wonderful. I loved the people that I met in Nepal, found the country to be very pleasant and welcoming and I really hope that I get the chance to visit again (and maybe take a long trek in those snow-capped mountains!).