A Very Moving Experience

  Yesterday we visited Pashupatinath Temple, considered by many to be the holiest place in Nepal. Pashupatinath is a cremation site on the banks of the Baghmati river in Kathmandu. There is a large Hindu temple along with many other buildings that support the...
Namaste!

Namaste!

Our trip to Nepal is one that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.  Though we tried, our words and pictures do not do it justice.  However, I am thankful for them because I know that for years to come, we will be able to relive this adventure through these...
Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned

We arrived back in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, but our time in Nepal has stuck with us more than we could have imagined.  When I set out on this journey, I was hoping to add a few details to my Master’s thesis, but what I found was that as much as I tried, I could...
Circle of Life

Circle of Life

It is fitting that we ended our trip to Nepal with a visit to the holy crematorium at Pashupatinath.  On the banks of the holiest of holies, the Bagmati River, Pashupatinath represents the place of endings and beginnings to the Nepali.  It was there that we were...
Monkeys on the Runway

Monkeys on the Runway

I am fortunate to have travelled quite a bit in my life.  I have napped on beautiful white sand beaches, navigated through the back streets of Europe, seen the ruins of Machu Picchu, drifted along the Amazon.  I have seen the Andes, the Alps, the Rockies.  But none of...
La Bohéme

La Bohéme

Pokhara couldn’t have been more different from my first impression, and it quickly turned into one of my favorite cities.  It’s a small (by first world standards) town nestled on the Phewa Lake blockaded by the Himalayas.  It is actually the second most populated city...
Kathy Cooks

Kathy Cooks

One morning, I offered to cook dinner.  In Nepali homes, the guests do not enter the kitchen, so I really didn’t know how this was all going to work out. Our friend, Shree, has a chicken farm and had been telling us that he was going to bring a chicken for...
Bright busses and personal space

Bright busses and personal space

I take back everything I said about the drive out to the valley.  On Tuesday we took the local bus to a nearby city called Besisahar.  Besisahar is about a 1½ hour bus ride from Rupakot, and it has an impressive hospital to which the patients in the rural villages...

Fireflies and Night Skies

When the sun sets in the Lamjung Valley, the air becomes still and quiet.  When the power is out, as it often is, the stars litter the sky.  It takes a few moments for your eyes to adjust to the deep darkness that we so rarely see in the States, but once they do, they...
Goodbye, Rupakot!

Goodbye, Rupakot!

As it usually happens when you’re on vacation, the second half of our week in the valley went by too fast.  On the morning we left, I remembered back to the first few days when I annoyingly asked my parents why in the world we needed to be here for one whole week.  I...