First Week in Gaunshahar: Dashain

Gaunshahar is a long way from Kathmandu. First one must take a bus to Besisahar which takes at least 6 hours. Then it is a steep hike or jeep ride to get to the remote village of Gaunshahar.

October 5th: Journey to Gaunshahar

The bus ride to Besisahar took over 8 hours. Many people were heading back to their home villages to be with family for Dashain. I took a lot of pictures and videos of the beautiful countryide on my way.

Dashain is as big for Hindus as Christmas is for most people in Europe and America. For the first part of the journey, traffic was pretty crowded on the small two-lane highway headed west from Kathmandu.

For most of the ride, the road goes along rivers. Many of the mountains we passed by are covered in forest, with tiny villages dotting the mountainsides. I liked to imagine what would be on the other side of these really vast forests.

We stopped for lunch at a little roadside hotel/market along the way.

Perhaps this is a more lethal variety of Snickers?

These little rope bridges are interspersed along the way. They seem to be the only means of crossing the river at points.

A small temple sits atop a hillside on the far side of the river.

Several of the small villages along the roadside featured small "resorts," perhaps capitulating on being so near to such a beautiful river.

This girl got on the bus and had a little doggy with her that reminded me so much of my dog Rocko! This is the only chihuahua I have seen on this trip so far.

We finally crossed over a bridge to start heading north to Besisahar.

We were soon passing many more rice fields.

At this rest stop there was some sort of mural of Communist martyrs?

We were now crossing many small bridges over the smaller streams that feed into the big river lower in the valley.

Once we arrived in Besisahar, I was quite famished. I had some time to wait for the jeep that would take me up to Gaunshahar, so I sat down at a nice restaurant called the Blue Glass and had a delcious vegetable Thali plate and some black tea. This came with a vegetable curry, a bowl of lentils, some spinach greens, naan, a yogurt sauce, crispy rhoti bread, some carrots, and steamed rice of course. It was so delciious, and I still think it is the best meal that I have had in Nepal so far.

By the time the bus got to Gaunshahar, it was already quite dark. I met some volunteers who were still there, had a little cold dahl bhat, and went to bed pretty early.

October 6th: First Day in Gaunshahar

The morning greeted me with some truly vast beauty. I still love the view every morning, but nothing quite matches the marvel and sense of mystery at walking out to see this view for the first tiime. 

I took a video at this point to capture the sounds of mystical music emanating from the temple down the hill. A slow and immaculate repeating chant of "Om" filled up this whole part of the village, ushering in the first of the holy days of Dashain. These mountains at the edge of the Himalayas rise up higher than any mountains I have ever witnessed. This mountain range truly defines the word "sublime."

I walked down to this temple in the morning and gave a very big puja. I knelt before the local village elder and received tikka and blessing from him. This courtyard has existed for huindreds of years. It was at one time the abode of Nepal's royal family. What is now a temple was once a very small royal palace, before the royal family relocated to Kathmandu.

The river valley below is breathtaking.

I love all the little twisting paths that run through the little village of Gaunshahar.

I went with a couple volunteers today to help out in the fields.

This little hill is where we cut grass for the buffalos. Little did I know that it hides a very old temple (which I chose not to photograph).

Our local friend Sugam took us through the trees to a fantastic cliffside view of the village and valley below. 

I walked through a very strong spider web... Good thing I didn't disturb this big girl!  There are lots of beautiful orb weaver spiders in this area.

Warning to the arachnophobic: spider video.

Back at our homestay, there are many of these strangely-shaped striped friends spinning away in the beams supporting the roof. The way I see it, they do us the favor of controlling the mosquito population.

(Spider video): they are among us!!

The sunsets around here are unreal!

This big one lives in the library, and I refuse to sleep there. She is about as big as my palm.

On this night, we were invited to come witness the biggest of the Dashain festvities. People from all the nearby villages had come to gather around the courtyard and enjoy some dancing, drinking, and animal sacrifice. I participated in the dancing at first (which at this event is a privilege reserved exclusively for men), but after the killing, I could not bring myself to dance.

In this video, you can hear the strange instruments they played as a prayer was being made to call out the gods prior to the sacrifice of the calf, which is tied to the post.

Warning, this video has an animal being beheaded. If you want to see the moment of the calf's demise, fast-forward to the end of the video.

Near the end of the night, animal blood stained the stone floor of the courtyard.

October 7th: Kaulepani

Most of the pictures and videos from today are from the walk up the mountain I had with another volunteer. We happened upon the lovely little village of Kaulepani.

We discovered a marvelous little invention of the locals. It's like a homemade wooden amusement park ride of questionable safety!! This first video shows the local kids, with one of them doing backflips!

I decided that I would give this crazy thing a try.

There is a viewing tower up here as well.

A panorama taken from the viewing tower.

The path continues up beyond Kaulepani.

We soon realized that if we followed the path, it would lead us straight up into the jungle. Not being quite sure of what wildlife we might encounter, we still decided to continue onward.

The jungle is incredibly beautiful. As we continued past the treeline, the ambient sounds of farm animals and villagers were replaced by singing birds and busily chirping insects. I have never before been anywhere like this.

As we set our sights onward, I noticed some stickers stuck in my pant leg. As I looked down to pull them out, I noticed something moving on my shoe. Soon I realized that my feet and the feet of the other volunteer hiking with me were covered in leeches! Soon realizing tthat we were woefully unprepared for this assault of tiny organisms, we hurried back out of the forest, only to find ourselves faced with...

...A bull and its calf. They were just outside the forest's edge, and the bull with its massive horns did not look very friendly.

I called the bull my big friend in this video, but I don't think he had the same idea. He faced us down, squaring his shoulders, his eyelids bulging and his mouth frothing with saliva that dripped down ceaselessly. We quickly understood that this situation was much, much more dangerous than the leeches. Unfortunately we were cornered, with an angry bull on one side and a jungle full of leeches on the other.

Thankfully, we found a side path leading through someone's rice field. When we came out to their house, we explained our situation, and luckily, the bull is theirs. A young girl told the bull to go away, opening the way for us to pass. That was quite an ordeal! Once we got to safe and dry ground, we took our shoes off and checked our feet to remove the last few leeches. My nice white socks were quite bloody at this point. Leeches are harmless, but the wounds they leave bleed for a long time.

Not quite ready to end our adventure yet, we took the other fork in the path. This way led to a peaceful pond. It was much more pleasant than a jungle full of hungry leeches. We enjoyed some time by the pond listening to Grimes on my speaker and skipping rocks. This pond is now one of my favorite places to go around here. It is so peaceful and secluded.

With an adventuresome day well-spent, we finally decided to make our way back towards the homestay. But we did still have one place to look for. There is supposedly a very old and lovely temple in Kaulepani. We set off in search of it.

Looking down on Kaulepani.

Crossing through Kaulepani.

Over a bridge and by a river near the edge of the jungle, we came upon what looked to be the mysterious old temple.

Situated in the stream are some moss-covered shrines, which I found marked with symbols drawn in salt.

A magically pure and still reflective pool is the centerpiece of this sacred ground.

A path behind the temple winds its way up around the mountainside to offer some more amazing views.

The paths in this village are almost all stairs made of cement.

The entryway to Kaulepani. We said goodbye for now, but I planned to visit this place many more times while staying in Gaunshahar.

One of the many marvelous eagles that prowl the skies around here.

The lights of Besisahar below look like another galaxy of stars below in the pitch black of night.

October 8th

Steam rises from the hills as the sun heats the region in the mornings.

We were all given big tikka on this day of Dashain. I think I sport it quite nicely.

We brought the other volunteers to Kaulepani to show them how amazing it is.

We headed back into the jungle, but this time we covered our feet in plastic bags in anticipation of the assault of leeches.

Feeling more protected now, I had the presence of mind to take a couple videos of the bloodthirsty annelids.

The jungle, as intense as it can be at times, is really an awe-inspiring place.

You are now entering the Spider Zone.

Warning: spider video.

A video of the stream running through the jungle.

I ended the night with a nice Nepali beer.

October 9th

Snow blowing off the high mountaintops in the morning.

Today we hiked down to the town of Besisahar. The other volunteers were leaving, while I wanted to take some time to have lunch and use a good wi-fi connection. The hike down the mountain is a steep but lovely walk through forest and field.

The bridge to Besisahar at the end of the hike down.

In the cafe in town, I treated myself to some yummy mushroom thupa (a type of Chinese noodle soup) and garlic naan.

A view of the same bridge from earlier with this picture being taken on my way out of town.

Just another video of me trying to talk to a cute goat.

I encountered a truly massive slug on my way up. They're all over the place around here.

While I had planned to make the hike back up to Gaunshahar alone, it would seem that the universe had different plans for me. I encountered a sweet little doggy who I pet and told he was a good boy. At first I thought he might want the samosa in my backpack, but after I ate it and he refused what I offered him, he continued to follow me! He must have felt the need to accompany me for some reason.

My little firend would even walk up ahead and look back, waiting for me to catch up.

When I was about 80% of the way back to Gaunshahar, the nice doggy left me to go off on his own. I was ready for him to follow me all the way back to the homestay. I would later see him in the village from time to time. I love making new furry friends.

The temple in Gaunshahar has a statue of the former king of Nepal.

October 10th

A Nepali Snickers.

October 11th

Heaven Hill Academy, the school I would soon be teaching at.

The sounds of nature and a sunset moon by the pond.

October 12th

Dogs and goats love to hang out by the homestay. Lucky me!

Bonding with a docile she-goat.

Back up at Kaulepani with the new volunteers.

One of the new volunteers and I had a beer together. These ones are cheap, strong, and not bad tasting!

The first week was a good time to get to know the village, relax a bit, and find some time to read and write. The next week Dashain would be over, and school would begin. By this time I was ready to get to work volunteering!