Smiley

Madhav Gautam, the manager at Maruni Sanctuary Lodge, remembered me from an incident that happened in 2006.  Click here to read, Honesty and Poverty

Smiley the Manager, Madhav Gautam

Here is picture of an Elephant carrying tourists in the jungle that I didn't have pictures of when I wrote Honesty and Poverty.

Hunters in the Jungle

Maruni Sanctuary Lodge

I'm glad they are not hanging real animal heads a la 'Hemingway.'

"Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter. You will meet them doing various things with resolve, but their interest rarely holds because after the other thing ordinary life is as flat as the taste of wine when the taste buds have been burned off your tongue." (from 'On the Blue Water' in Esquire, April 1936) - Hemingway


OKALI  DOKALI!
What a scary thought.


I like to hunt with my binnies, binoculars.

Arriving at Maruni Sanctuary Lodge, Chitwan Jungle

We arrived at Maruni Sanctuary Lodge, had our welcome drinks and crashed, after the long bus ride.

The Artisans of Patan

After the long hike down the mountain, we had a still longer drive out of the mountains.  At about 11 pm after 9 hours of rattling along in the land cruiser on unpaved roads, stopping briefly to return Atit and JR to the village, we arrived back at the Kathmandu Guest House.  The next couple of days were a whirlwind of meeting with my suppliers and trying to show Tania around Kathmandu.  During this time, still ecstatic about my trip to the mountains, I talked to everyone that I knew about how to help create a library for a rural school in the mountains of Nepal.

Tania and I visited an area of Kathmandu called Patan where most of the craftspeople's families have lived for centuries.  When I walk up and down the narrow streets, I literally trip over masterpieces.  Even the gutters have carvings of open mouthed celestial beings that spout water.  All day long in this area you can hear the hammering and chiseling of statues, prayer wheels, door handles, window frames and all manner of handicraft items.  The craftspeople live in districts where many of the neighbors are related and everyone seems to have the same vocation.  There are entire blocks of silversmiths, stone cutters, metal workers, or painters. This is not a tourist show, this is art as work and worship intertwined-- life as it always has been in Patan.

Here are the ordinary dwellings of Patan! 

This is an inner courtyard.  There was a little cafe back here where we had lunch behind the apartment homes.

Below is Patan Durbar Square, or Patan King's Square.  What I love about this place is how alive it is.  I have been to beautiful town centers in the USA that are virtually empty.  This square is 500 years old and much more than that in spots. It is composed of temples, museums, homes and shops. It is also the playground of children, the market place for merchants, the holy place for believers, where women separate the wheat from the chaff, and the meeting place for old men who smoke and swap stories.  It is a place to think, to work, or to beg.  Life happens here!

Please double click on these so that you can see the detail and the exquisite beauty that I saw.

Even in the city, many people get their water from, and bathe in, the public taps.

Oasis

The front entrance of the Kathmandu Guest House

The front entrance of the Kathmandu Guest House

The Kathmandu Guest House inner court yard. Photo from the balcony outside my room.

Guests enjoying lunch at the Kathmandu Guest House, inner court yard. Photo from the balcony outside my room.

Photo of the balcony outside my room. Fresh garlands of flowers, called mala, are placed on statues of deities and their steeds.

If your surroundings are chaos, then you must find an inner sanctuary in which to clear your mind.

After the disturbing ride from the airport, I entered Thamel. It is traveler central. Every kind of entertainment, restaurant, hiking equipment, knick-knack, clothing and more are available here. It is impossible to walk the streets of Thamel without being harassed to buy something or smoke something. Taxi and rickshaw drivers constantly ask where you are going even if it is apparent that you are not going anywhere.

The Kathmandu Guest House is dead center in this jumble of mercantile ecstasy. Fortunately, it is gated. A guard is posted at the front and allows approved vehicles inside. And once inside, the noise dissipates and the clutter gives way to sculpted beauty. The guest house used to be a Rana Mansion, built in a very traditional style with buildings on the outside and an open garden space on the inside. It was converted into a hotel by Karna Sakya in 1967 and originally had 13 rooms. Now it is a 121-room hotel, still, I think that they have managed to keep the charm.

There are several hotels that offer beauty and escape from the streets of Kathmandu, but for me, this one offers the right balance of comfort and anonymity.