Pokhara, Nepal, Part 3: I Go To Hippie Camp

When I first met Melissa, she'd mentioned a yoga/meditation camp she'd read about in the Lonely Planet in Pokhara. We signed up for a 3-day, 3-night weekend course at the Ganden Yiga Chozen Buddhist Meditation Centre. It's a peaceful little center on the North side of the lake in Pokhara - the course included lodging, meals, yoga classes, meditation classes, and a short introduction to Buddhism.

Sounded good - who couldn't use some meditation in their life?? So off we went to Hippie Camp (a term I use very lovingly - same with the nickname "prison", which I also used incredibly lovingly to refer to the center, because they locked the gates every night at 10pm and Melissa initially thought an empty light socket was a CCTV watching our every move).


Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Checked out of our lovely hostel to check ourselves into the center. "Checking ourselves into the center" doesn't sound so great, but you get the point.

And on the way, more street cows!

And here is the Ganden Yiga Chozen Meditation Centre!

This was our yoga/meditation/class room

This is the giant prayer wheel at the center. These are covered with prayers or mantras; and you turn them clockwise - which sends the prayer out against the wind. The merits of turning a prayer wheel a couple times equals hundreds or thousands times the merits you would have just reciting a mantra yourself.

• Our mornings began every day at 7:30AM with yoga, followed typically by meditation (I can't remember the specific kind it's called, but the kind of meditation where you focus on breathing a lot), some Buddhist lessons, group discussions, more meditation, and another yoga class at night. 
• To be honest, I've never meditated in my life and I wasn't that great at it. It's pretty difficult to focus your mind on one thing for a long period of time, and most of the time I was focused on how much my back hurt (because I'm old and my body is falling apart, apparently). We had different meditation exercises we were assigned; i.e. one in which you imagined sitting surrounded by all your closest friends and family, and then acquaintances, and then strangers - and spreading happy energy to them all (or SOMEthing like that, I couldn't really pay attention and my mind would often wander to other topics).  I guess I can see how some people can really find it an important practice in their lives. I think. Maybe I just have to say that. 
• Buddhism lessons were also very interesting - it was nice to have a general overview of the religion all at once vs. piecemeal, and a lot of the principles of the religion are great - kindness, compassion, karma, etc.  The discussions were also pretty interesting, in terms of hearing people from all over the world's life experiences, thoughts, perspectives, etc. We discussed topics like the definition of happiness, love vs. attachment, etc. (*cough*HIPPIECAMP)

One of our discussion sessions, which were always accompanied by a delicious plate of cookies. The important things in life.

Is it terrible of me to admit that mealtimes were some of my most-anticipated and exciting moments of the day? But the food was delicious, so not my fault

Clearly learning a ton about meditation

Our weekend class photo - we represented the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Spain, Canada, and the USA

• Overall, the weekend was a very enlightening experience (PUN INTENDED). I'm not 100% sure I'm continuing down a path of Buddhism and meditation, but it's always interesting doing something outside the box!
• Melissa and I had one last day in Pokhara the morning we graduated from hippie camp, which we decided to hike up to a famous pagoda, called the World Peace Pagoda. The World Peace Pagoda sits atop a mountain overlooking Pokhara and the lake. 

First step was hiring a boat to take us out to the base of the stupa

We're ready....for you to row us across

Artistic

• After arriving to the base of the stupa, getting to it involved an additional hike up tons of stairs that took about an hour. But the views from the top were incredibly pretty.

Pretty views

And here we've arrived at the pagoda!  I guess I forgot to mention that on the way to the pagoda, we ran into a guy from our hostel, Toby from the UK, who joined us for the hike

Some of the views from the pagoda - the city of Pokhara

And there's tons of flower gardens all around

Gold Buddha inside the pagoda

• For the way down, we decided to take an alternate route, which would take us directly back to town vs. going to the dock and taking a boat back to town. Obviously, this route took a lot longer - but it was so picturesque, and amazing because it took us through small towns and we passed by tons of locals and children heading home from school, etc.

Starting our descent

The day was hazy, which made for gorgeous hazy mountain photos (it's a thing)

More hazy mountain photos

And on the way down, I fell in love with this dog, who was so super friendly and followed us for a bit

Sun begins to set

Partway down, a local (very drunk - impressive for 4:30pm) came and walked with us and really wanted to show us his home and meet his family, etc.

One last view of Pokhara

• Later that evening, Melissa and I met back up with Quico (who had been trekking during both our rafting excursion and hippie camp), and then also Jessica, a girl from the Netherlands that we had met at hippie camp. We all went out for a drink. Jessica is based in Pokhara for 6 months doing her masters thesis on high-altitude farming/agriculture, so she's basically a local. We went to a bar that had a live band (tons of bars here do) and bordered the lake. 

Jessica informed us that a popular Nepalese thing to do is to take selfies with the band while they're playing on stage, usually drunkenly singing along and with shirts off.  We did what we could (with shirts on, and after they'd finished playing) - close enough!

Moment(s) of the Day:
On the way out of the meditation center, Melissa and I were trying to get a cab back to the hostel - but the cabs were trying to charge extortionate prices, per usual. We started walking instead, and beside us, pulls this tiny little truck:

It's a father and son and they were hauling bags of rice - they'd heard our price we wanted to pay when we were negotiating with the cab drivers, and offered to take us for that amount. So with that, Melissa and I found ourselves sitting on bags of rice in the storage of a tiny truck, being escorted across town.

Chillin in the back

Should we feel safe that we were basically caged in?

Later that evening, on the way home from the Peace Pagoda, the walk was much more extensive than expected (note to self: a local telling you something takes 20 minutes by walking means it takes an hour). A group of men driving bags of cement with a tractor engine passed by, and emboldened by our previous experience, Melissa stuck her thumb out.  And they stopped for us!  And that is how Toby, Melissa, and I found ourselves sitting on an open-air hauling mechanism on (very dusty) bags of cement, being driven by tractor back home.  I offered them money after we were dropped off (it was pretty far), and they refused - it was the nicest! I had to insist before one of them finally, begrudgingly, accepted. 

Just being hauled across town on bags of cement. Every local we passed on the way stared at us and then gave us a huge thumbs up

My new construction friend. And the blurriness of the photo should give some indication as to how smooth the ride was

Fun Facts of the Day:

• People in Nepal actually say "Namaste"!  Like the yoga greeting, but in real life!  And you say it a lot!  Usually (but not always) accompanied by putting your hands in a quick prayer position.
• I've been using "street cows" as a term to basically reference cows on streets - but it's an actual thing!  As cows are sacred to Hindus, people often just let their cows loose if they become too old, crippled, or develop problems - because they won't kill them. These cows just chill in the streets and rely on the kindness of strangers and locals to feed them. Like street dogs!

Pokhara, Nepal, Part 2: The River Wild (Minus Val Kilmer)

Initially, I'd wanted to go on a mini-trek for a couple days in Pokhara - but my hostel owner convinced me that I wouldn't get to see that much in a couple days. He recommended another kind of outdoorsy trip (because again, there are a million choices) - so with that, I found myself on an overnight whitewater rafting trip, which Melissa joined for.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Took an hour and a half drive out to the beginning of the rafting trip. There were 12 of us on the trip, with about 7 guides (this included the raft guides, as well as 3 safety guides on kayaks, and a couple guides-in-training who looked 12-years old and helped paddle). 

Seriously, I can't get over these dogs wearing necklaces

On the way, we had to make a sketchy pit stop for some contraband gas

The tiny town that was our departure point

I am very helpfully pumping up the raft

Melissa and I are ready in our smurf jackets and giant wetsuits

• And then we set off!  We had two rafts, on which we had strapped down all our stuff - camping stuff, food stuff, personal stuff, etc. The river itself was SO GORGEOUS. I know I always say this, but it honestly hurt my heart to not have my camera accessible, because the views were beyond incredible. We rafted down a smaller river that led into the Sethi River (literally means "white river") - the river is a light vivid sea-green color, framed by ridiculous mountains, bridges, and the occasional tiny village. Some of these villages lack electricity, so our moments of pure wilderness and trees were sometimes interrupted by a tiny child bathing in the river, or women doing their laundry.  And the children always waved happily and shouted hello. 

Lunch break! All the guides pitched in to create a fresh lunch for us. It was amazing; the stuff they pulled out of barrels they had stored on the raft and then set to work peeling, chopping, cutting, cooking.

Lunch views. With the river guides staring at my taking a photo

And here's lunch! The food was ridic amazing - every meal was totally made from scratch and was incredibly impressive. This lunch was toast, bananas, baked beans, tuna fish and mayo, coleslaw, etc. With the lack of cooking fuel and their typical gas stoves they would carry, our guides took the time to actually toast the bread on sticks over wood fires. It was AMAZE.

• There were only Class 2 and Class 3 rapids on the trip - so I would say most of the day was actually floating along and only 30-40% paddling, but it was stunning. And we definitely got wet. A couple hours after lunch, we arrived at our campsite for the night. 

Pulling in the rafts for the night

Campsite views - I loved it so much - it was incredibly remote, and just felt like our own tiny part of the world for the night

And here's our campsite! How cute are all the little tents?! 

Our little corner of the river

Melissa's and my home. It was the cutest tent of all, and we even had a little patio in front and a yard out back.

Let me take you on a tour of our new place

One of the guides mysteriously produced a tiny bottle of rum from his pocket

Dusk at our camping grounds - SO PRETTY

You could opt to sleep in a tiny covered tent, or they turned one of the rafts on its side, propped it up with paddles, covered it with a tarp, and made it an open-air tent.

And the guides set to work on cleaning, chopping, and prepping dinner - which was pasta bolognese and FRIES, and was SO GOOD. How did we have such delicious pasta bolognese in some random part of the wild in Nepal??

The sun sets

More pasta bolognese action, cooking over wood fires

After dinner, we set up a bonfire and a local village man came and sold beers, which we chilled in the river. It was honestly perfect. And you could see a zillion stars.

• The next morning (to be honest, our tent home was adorable and perfect, but it felt like sleeping on a slab of concrete) - we were served hot tea/coffee and another delicious breakfast, then set out packing everything up to continue our rafting expedition.

Here's an incredibly attractive photo Melissa took of me looking like a broken rag doll in my triple-XL wetsuit. On that note, we were the only two on the trip that had a wetsuit, which was because I had only innocently asked if we were getting wetsuits. We later realized that the guides had probably just given the two of us their wetsuits (given how huuuuge they were), which we felt terrible about! I was only asking, I swear!

I did manage to sneak in a couple (poor) photos on this leg, courtesy of my (only slightly) waterproof iPhone cover

Rafting views

• The rapids were more robust the second day, and we even managed to fit in a couple swims here and there. By that, I mean the guides thought it was hilarious to randomly throw people overboard by pushing, pulling, hooking them with the paddles and swinging them in, etc. Most of us got thrown into the river at some point.
• We finished the expedition around lunchtime - where we were served lunch, and then ran into a tiny pickle.  Apparently the company usually shuttles us back to Pokhara in a bus (at this point, Pokhara is 3-4 hours away by car because we've rafted so far away), but due to the fuel crisis, they didn't have a bus. They offered to pay for us all to take local buses back - which takes longer, and the bigger pickle is that it was one of the main days of the Tihar/Diwali festival, so every local bus that passed by us was crammed to the brim with people. We waited for over an hour, but every bus that passed was totally full.
• Back in the day, buses in Nepal used to let people ride on the rooftop, but it was deemed too dangerous and the practice had been stopped. However, due to the fuel crisis, the practice had picked back up - so after a long time waiting, a couple of us discussed riding on the roof of a local bus back to Pokhara. Melissa and I were thrilled at the idea, but only for an hour or so, as it looks pretty uncomfortable, and a ton of dust is thrown in the air as you drive down the dusty mountain roads.  But after seeing bus after bus pass by us full, four of us (Melissa, me, and two German guys) decided to just go for it. 

We are on top of the bus and all prepped for the long ride. And we kind of look like bandits.

The top of the bus is all grills, so it's highly uncomfortable, especially as the bus bounces along on some of the poorer-paved roads. You have to have a death grip on the metal bars to prevent from flying off, and we sat on jackets and some of the locals on top had sheets of cardboard they sat on.  But the views were incredible. Incredible.

Zooming by a gorgeous river

A couple hours in, we stopped at a village - all decked out for the festival. At this point, both Melissa and Danilo have both lost their hats to the wind, and we had realized how different our musical tastes were.

But look how festive the streets are!

• After almost 4 hours, we finally arrived on the outskirts of Pokhara - where we had to hail a cab to take us the final stretch. We survived our crazy bus-top adventure!
• That evening, our hostel had arranged for some dancers to come for Tihar - they basically come dance at storefronts and homes, and you give them donations. It was amazing because they invited all of us onto the dance floor at the end, and it became a crazy dance party to Nepali music - locals and foreigners mixed.

Some of the local dancers

Dance party!

• Overall, an incredible excursion, and tons of adventures <3

Moment of the Day:

While gripping a death grip on the bars and bouncing along uncomfortably on the top of a swerving bus (overall, so glad we got to do it, but it was slightly terrifying) - Melissa, Danilo (one of the German guys), and I tried to pass the time by playing a game I invented. One person sings a song, and whoever finishes singing the song lyrics wins a point. And here is where I realize world differences in music. Some examples below of songs I tried to sing.

"A Whole New World" from Aladdin. 

Melissa: "Is that from Frozen?" (even as I sang "on a MAGIC CARPET RIDE")

Danilo had never even heard of the movie Aladdin.

"Jessie's Girl"

Blank stares from both Melissa and Danilo.

"Don't Stop Believin'" - Journey

Danilo had never heard of the song or Journey.

Melissa: *manages to sing a little of the chorus* "I think I heard it on 'Glee' once."

I eventually had to just opt for the safer choices of old-school Britney Spears. Which everyone always got.  

It was overall hilarious, and so, so interesting/insightful to me - Journey: not a hit around the world. Britney: yes, a hit around the world.