After three plus months at a meditation centre I have been feeling the need for a bit of an escape. Iit can get quite intense and sometimes oppressive being there as a helper – what with all the yogis going through their inner turmoils and the staff upholding a certain demeanour that sometimes begins to show the cracks when interacting with each other – no doubt myself included. However, I do have the aussie cultural tendency to and the luxury of being able to speak my mind more openly - so in this case I did and said I needed a break. I have been worrying and thinking too much about what to do when back in oz re houses and dogs and supporting myself etc – which has contributed to the desire for time out.
So took a taxi – with Birjesh at the wheel - and we headed up into the hills above Lumbini – a 2 and a half hour drive with a quick stop in Butwal, a large town, for a brief snack of local bananas and muesli bars before winding our way up a narrow and sometimes rocky road looking down into a river gorge to Tansen. The views were wonderful – with terraced fields laid out along the hill sides running down to the river and small settlements of mud walled thatched roofed houses dotted on the slopes.
We got to Tansen at lunch time and Birjesh and I sat on the hotel terrace and ate a traditional Nepali lunch of dhal bhat tarkari – dhal, rice and curried vegetables with piickle and pappadams on the side. The view from the terrace was quite something – looking down over the town of mutli coloured houses and into the valley below then across to the far of hills. As I had to move from this hotel, the Sreenagr, the next day I spent a quiet arvo walking down into to town for a quick look and to sort out a room for the next night. The hotel sits on a ridge 2 kilometers above town and has views south down to Tansen and the hills beyond and to the north is the giant Himalayan range – amazing views.
I met up with a lively local Man Mohan who runs a tourist info office from his home. He has a small homestay so I booked a room situated on the roof for the next nights and after my one night at the Sreenagar walked down the hill with my pack to my new home. The room is little
(and pink) but the bed backs onto the window, which looks out over the roof tops of Tansen and beyond. Out the door is the roof top terrace where I have spent some pleasant times chatting with the irrepressible Mana Moha. And just this moment his son brought me my cup of morning chiya – so I am typing on the bed with tea on the window sill with the noises of birds and people waking getting ready for the day ahead drifting through.
Tansen is a charming town set out up the hillside with many steep streets and houses of bright aqua and green and pink as well as the more traditional earthy reds and browns. This is a town with a large Newari population - who havea distinctive architectural style – featuring timber roof struts and carved posts and window frames. So I have explored the town and yesterday had a 3 hour walk into the countryside through villages of earth houses with tidy vegetable plots and terraced fieds of wheat. Accompanied by Man, we firstly went to the college where he teaches business and tourism. I became the lesson for the day and in front of a small class of 5 students talked about my perceptions and experiences of Nepal as well as asking them about their lives. The two young female students - 15 - were very shy but started to open up as the time passed. At the end of the class I took a group photo then Man and I headed off. It was a beautiful clear sunny day and the scenery was gorgeous. The walk was made even more pleasant with the addition of several stops along the way for refreshments – freshly made samosas and tea, a pepsi further on and an invite to a past students home for another chiya. We finally reached the valley floor and caught a very packed local bus back up into town. I became a interesting diversion for the passengers - at least for the first few kilometres when it became apparent I wasn’t that exciting. Arriving back into Tansen we finished the outing with some buff momos and ginger soup.
Although I walk everyday, I realised that the plains of Lumbini haven’t given my calf muscles much of a work out and they are now experiencing the effects of walking in the hills again – a good feeling.
So have been having a lovely time but seem no closer to any answers to my questions of what to do back in oz, which I have been asking here every morning when I wake but so far no great clarity arises in my mind- oh well – Ke Garne – (Nepali – What can I do? Sort of equivalent to the Aussie “whatever) Maybe I’ll be back in oz before long to try to deal with things from there or stay and suffer the apparently unbearable heat of a Lumbini summer and agonise over it from here! In the meantime I will try my best to enjoy the simple pleasures of Tansen before heading back to Lumbini and life at the meditation centre – where some retreat time might be in store.
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