Relative Something

Sunday morning, 5th of April, I immediately wrote in my journal to catch the details of the dream with my mom, and then there is this note:

I’m noticing I’m really missing Rosemary Jeffrey – wonder how she is doing, want to share experience with her – and we just met !   Conversely – haven’t connected yet w/ Bonnie/Pam! Interesting.

Well, from my current vantage point, post-trip, I can happily report that I’ve since exchanged valuable correspondence with Rosemary and it was just a very short amount of time after I’d written that note that I was able to connect with Bonnie and Pam at breakfast in the hotel. When Gary and I came down for breakfast, we found Jim and David already in process and visiting with a French woman Jim just met. He has a keen ability to engage strangers in conversation and somehow take it quickly from the superficial to a level that feels like he has made a true friend, often times including us; unwitting beneficiaries of his conviviality.

Breakfast that morning was fun for the way the table served an ever-changing group of patrons as first-comers wandered away and late-comers filled their space. I enjoyed the treat of being in the middle and getting a little of everybody. I was having so much fun getting to know Pam and Bonnie that we pushed the clock right up to being a bit late for our scheduled meeting in the lobby with Tiger Mountain, the company providing services of our trek. It turns out that the ‘meeting’ was mostly a chance for Jim to review details that he had already given us, and then a chance for us to sign one more release form. Then we received our passes. Mine has my age listed as 85. Details, details. Close enough.

Next, Jim has lined up a tour of the area for us and we make a rough plan to get back early enough in the afternoon to also walk nearby to explore the shops. We meet our guide, Amit, in the lobby and climb aboard a van and head out. Amit is a very likable guide and knows his stuff. We learn he has a college degree and speaks 5 languages. David engages him in a fair amount of Spanish, but ultimately, he seems interested in using his English. Amit offers us more information than I am able to retain. I think there is a fair amount of disorientation affecting me, probably combined with travel fatigue. Most of the names and details of what he offers pass right by me and I just try to take in the experience of sights and sounds, enduring a fair amount of insecurity over my place as an outsider amid the barrage of temples and religious icons, marketers, peddlers, craftspeople, and even just others going about their daily activity as our tour passes by.

We stop at the Monkey Temple, at Patan -a city of temples, at a Tibetan Refugee Center where they produce carpets and sell scarves of yak wool and pashmina wool, the Dharmapala Thangka Centre where they teach the tradition of authentic Buddhist painting on specially treated cotton cloth and then ultimately at a market where Carol was able to find a singing bowl.

Adding excitement to the day was the difficulty in maintaining our time schedule. Amit was particularly sensitive to this as he had made a promise to get us back at the appointed time, yet was also very interested in accommodating our wishes and allowing people all the time they needed to make purchasing decisions. Out of his control was the traffic jam we happened upon. We got stuck in a gridlock for quite some time and he and his driver went back and forth discussing potential alternatives (I assume that’s what they were saying; they did not communicate with each other in English). At one point, we were invited to get out and walk, possibly to find the other side of the traffic jam and then get a taxi from there. Ultimately, things got moving and the van caught up with us, so we hopped back in and were on our way, but much time was lost by then.

We insisted he let us buy him lunch and he took us to a great rooftop cafe in Patan. Amit taught us much about Buddhism, including the five Buddhas, one of which touches the Earth. However, when he pronounces ‘earth’ it sounds like ‘art’ to our ears. So there was a little confusion for a while there as we were misinterpreting his English. When he realized the misunderstanding, he spelled the word and we were all, “Ahhh, Earth!!” Later, as we were descending steps, headed back to the van, Amit asked me about his pronunciation and I suddenly found myself trying to teach him. After several unsuccessful attempts to do so strictly by sounding it out -he continued to say it with a hard “t”- I reverted to trying to physically demonstrate the tongue on the teeth to produce our “th” sound. When he finally got it, there was much revelry, but it was obviously an unnatural thing for him and he seemed hard-pressed to maintain that success.

We did our best to assure Amit that our late return would not be attributed to his failings and that it was a result of our desires to accomplish all that we did. Later, we took some time back in our hotel, bought some bottles of water and then prepped our bags for the next day’s departure to Lukla. Then most of our group joined Jim for a short walk to a dinner spot that has nice second-level open-air seating. During the evening, the lights tend to go off and on as the power is periodically shut down as they shed loads around the city. It seems as though most places use generators to compensate during these shutdowns. It appears to be such a fact of life that no one is fazed in the slightest bit.

Next: Scheduled departure to Lukla…