we came back yesterday afternoon from two nights at shivapuri resort (our former landlord prem singh's place) on the backside of d big hill behind us. i pushed shaku and leah to get out of d valley and home for a bit since it's leah's spring break. you know how time can disappear and dissipate here in k'du... meetings, phone calls, garden time, 'modern family', football games, lounging, lingering, work...
mom and leah proposed two nights somewhere nearby (as opposed to my original saturday-wednesday annapurna short trek...). we agreed on prem singh's place since it shares this hill w/ us and lets us experience the neighborhood in a different, fresh way. i had a great night up there in september after dale & friends' 60th birthday party w/ some of our kathmandu gang. it's amazing how remote it feels, yet so close to the k'du valley.
we drove up tuesday morning, taking the high road past the military camp. that road is basically a dirt track through the forest. not easy on a vehicle, given the ruts and streams that crisscross the road, but some big buses also do it jam-packed with villagers. the govt's building an almost serious highway up through tokka to near kakani from within the valley -- but we were told it was being paved and we couldn't take that road. but after 1.5 hours from home to the lodge, we were sure we didn't want to return on that 'road'. we were bouncing the whole time and leah was a bit afraid as it's steep, too, in places following the contour of the hill.
still, we got there in time for a good dal bhaat lunch served by the staff. to our surprise, the young tharu boy who worked at prem's home when we lived in his little a-frame in bansbari when you boys were toddlers (15 years ago!) now runs the resort. amazing, no? he was probably about ten when he worked as a household staff at prem's home! he recognized us, mom, especially, of course, then caught us up with his life story since then...
we spent that afternoon simply enjoying the forest of shivapuri above us. there weren't good mountain views of the himalaya to the north, as it was pretty hazy. but good time for merely lingering, reading, enjoying the magnificent perspective, the scores of deodar that prem had planted a decade or two ago, the fields below the simple lodge, the dense forests and open sky all around us.
then all hell broke loose in the sky just before twilight: thunder, lightening and huge rain all evening and night. really wicked! it poured all night -- like something out of 'king lear'... leah hugged me tight all night in bed, really apprehensive with the sound of thunder reoccurring throughout the night.
then on wednesday, we took a lovely 2.5 hour walk along the level road running on the northside of shivapuri. really peaceful and quiet! leah had us turn around (fair enough...) after an hour or so, but it was still great fun and relaxation together. mom picked wild ferns, leah found a dead snake and we splashed each other in the puddles along the road.
when we got back we played leah's latest favorite card game, which had us laughing; sitting together around the table for a few hours, slapping the matching cards and saluting the jack, greeting the queen and king and dovening the ace. strange fun, but she enjoyed alot!
i think it's just the joy of a child to have the full attention of her parents... the building of a family that provides her the confidence and love that we each go back out in the world to seek...
in between card games and meanders around his extensive property, we read. me: erik mueggler's 'the paper road' about the early botantcal expeditions in yunnan/sichuan of the 20th c.; shakun, her second in the brilliant amitav ghosh triology about the european colonization of india and china in the early 18th c.; and leah finished all the chapters of 'the wizard of oz'.
all good!
yesterday morning, mom and i walked down to the village below the resort. a good walk down but quite steep up. we chatted with a tamang villager by a temple in a grove. he was on his way down much further to his own home. then we rememebered that some of our household nightguards came from the nearby arcoli village.
just above where we were sitting chatting, we found birkha-dai's home, the chowkidar who worked for save the children at our home for many years. he'd already headed up the hill to go to kathmandu, but we found him when we reached prem's place again (his daughter in law works there...). he was surprised, of course, to see us. we were leaving soon, so we gave him a ride to budhanilkantha, where his son works at the park village resort.
it was so sweet to see him again after many years. he's 73 now and looks good. he was so proud to tell us that his youngest son and daughter have both completed their BA degrees. that's quite rare for a tamang villager. the government never prioritized education for these communities when they could have cheap household labor just on the other side of shivapuri, a few hours away from the wealth of kathmandu. maybe it was the influence of save the children or a mark of the many changes that modern nepal have educed...
birkha stood patiently in his dark suit jacket and dress shirt -- certainly better dressed than us, casual tourists and trekkers out for few days from their world on the other side of the hill...
it was really a good couple of days out of the valley. we all enjoyed the resorts' simple healthy, regular meals w/ loads of local potatoes and my own bottle of wine. basic, mountain simple accommodations, with incredibly pure nature.
good for all of us, i'm sure!
now, we're just back in time to prepare for leah's b-day party on saturday w/ her class. her closest friends, esther, priya, nicolina and gwendo, are all spending the night, too. girls just like to have fun! leah's excited, as you can imagine... she deserves this, too! you're only 11 once, and the years, as we parents learn to our dismay and confusion, disappear so quickly... too quickly...
that's us for now...
