Happy Lorhi

Chandigarh Rose Garden

We are in Chandigarh, the Punjab and Haryana capital 4 hours north of Delhi. The air is cool and filled with rhythmic drumming that bounces off the side of the building. It is the beginning of the holy festival Lorhi – celebrated throughout Punjab by both Hindus and Sikhs. Families and friends gather around fires and offer sweets to the fire.

A woman, Auntie, comes in the morning and evening to prepare meals for us and to clean the dishes. We have high-speed Internet, movie channels and a market where you can get fresh juice or tantalizing sweets for pennies within shouting distance. Our hosts are extremely accommodating and have even given up their own beds for our convenience. This morning I got up with Cub, rode my bike 5 km to the lake, and ran 10 km underneath fragrant cherry blossom trees. This is all wonderful, but I am feeling an urge to get back on my bike or get on a train to see more of this country.

For the past few nights Cub has taken me out to get chocolate. We frequent this one bakery and choose 2 – 3 cakes and a brownie and then get coffees and the nearby shop. It’s like going on a date every night. The night before we left, I was surprised with 2 beautifully made suits from Cub. I feel like a princess.

Heavenly Farms Revisted

We have safely reached India and stayed a few day at Heavenly Farms in Sirsa. Since this was the 2nd time that Jamey, Bonnie and I were there, we all fell right into our familiar and comfortable routines. Bonnie and I instantly took refuge to the kitchen with Surinder, the woman in the household, and Jamey went into the bedroom with Harpal, the man of the house, to discuss future documentary movie plans regarding organic farming. Anthony awkwardly waited in the living room until dinner was prepared. Meals were a bit uncomfortable since it was evident that Harpal and his wife were not talking to each other and possibly had not for some time. Something to do with dog food, she murmurred.

Surrinder asked me what Anthony does at home and I told her that he does some IT stuff. Her eyes lit up and she went and grabbed an old xbox and a computer the size of a fax machine and placed them on the living room table. Once Harpal knew there was someone who knew how to operate a PC the house, he suddenly lost the little computer knowledge he knew – like how to write an email.

I spent the next few days attached to Surrinder – watching old wedding movies, peeling garlic, eating sweets. Harpal asked me one night what I was planning on doing the next day.

“Whatever your wife asks me to do, I will happily do,” I replied.

I don’t think he appreciated that answer and said, “She sure like to watch her television.”

When Harpal saw Surrinder and I watching old wedding movies (once in which the camera was left in a corner of a room and forgotten about for an hour), he too wanted to take part of the misery. He took one on the disks and had us watch his daughter’s wedding on the small screen of his PC. Anthony started the computer, Bonnie and I sat painfully watching, and Jamey hid behind us with his computer, making sure to look up every few seconds.

The next day Surrinder asked me if the boys were going to the put up the badminton court. This discussion apparently happened in the secret meeting Harpal had with Jamey behind the bedroom door on the night we arrived. Something to do with the boys playing badminton at his nephew’s house and Harpal wanting the boys to play at his house. Surrinder was concerned with Jaspal eating junk food over there. Controlling parental stuff, if you ask me. Us Americans cleared out an area in the back and put up a sad looking court. We used 2 old tables and 2 old poles to hold up the net. Tables has to be moved, drying lines had to be restrung and shit had to be scooped. I give this net a month before it’s taken down.

We went to play badminton that night and felt sad about our court that we had set up. Remy had a professional court and concession stand. Immediately a boy popped out on the court offering us sweet lime juice and canned soda. Later he served us 3 plates of home made fries in which we played “never have I ever” with them.

Happy New Year, Nepal

Wow, it's been over a year since I started my last blog - curiousrunner.blogspot.com - about my thoughts in running. I am in such a different place - not better, nor worse, just different. Bonnie and I will be embarking on a 20 hour bus ride back to meet the boys at the Nepali-Indian border to continue our journey through Asia. I am really blissed to be able to travel and have great companions to do it with. It's so hard to step back from everyday life and do things in your life that make you truly happy, but I promise that once you face the right direction, all you need to do is walk.

Kitty Box

Orphan Tigress at Chitwan National Park

After another delicious breakfast of paratha and curry, I was led to what I thought would be a squat toilet – something I have to come love in Nepal – but turned back around when all I saw a makeshift bathroom half covered with tarp, no water bucket spicket and worse yet, no hole to aim for – it was a mound of ash open to the neighbors. No thanks. I was led back to that area after repeating “toilet” several times and then realized I was in an oversized litter box. I took a poop, washed with my water bottle, covered up the evidence with the ash and then stepped into both Jamey and Bonnie’s poop. I never had cats before.

Happy Holidays

It’s Christmas night and we are spending it in the nicest hotel in Mahendranagar, a small Nepali city near the Indian border. We arrived in town early afternoon yesterday and had planned to cross the border, hop a night bus to Delhi, and be at an Indian wedding with friends in Punjab on the 26th. A bit of a rush, but definitely doable – that is until I rushed to get to Indian immigration thereby forgetting to zipper up my back pocket, and lost my passport in the matter of minutes somewhere in the 400 meters between India and Nepal. This morning consisted of several hours going in between Nepali and Indian immigration. Not the way I would want to spend the holidays, or worse, make others spend it this way, but our spirits are high. Bonnie and I leave for Kathmandu in two days so that I can get a new passport. We get to see the entire route we biked via high-speed bus. Sigh.

Blah Bhat

Delicious Plate Of Endless Dal Bhat

Nepali food is cooked fresh and it’s delicious. We began our bike trip eating simply for breakfast; chow mein and samosas for lunch and either Dal Bhat or curry for dinner. I was sick the entire 4 days of cycling and had no appetite nor energy, so on day 4, we decided to have a hot breakfast before reaching our destination of Pokhara. We were served a deliciously huge breakfast of parathas (potato stuffed bread) and subjee (vegetables) and were reenergized for a hard day of cycling. From that day on, we began eating hot breakfasts, no matter how long it took for the restaurant to prepare (sometimes up to 90 min), and then dal bhat for both lunch and for dinner.

I started this trip sick of dal bhat (because I had attributed my week long diarrhea to my 1st meal in Nepal which was Dal Bhat) and now I love it. Dal Bhat literally translates to lentil rice. The meal comes served on a segregated metal plate and consists of a large amount of rice, a bowl of dal, subjee (a curried vegetable), spicy chutney and pickled relish. The best part of Dal Bhat is that it's Nepal's version of all-you-can-eat. One never leaves eating Dal Bhat hungry, let alone not stuffed.

Now I will explain how one eats Dal Bhat:

1. Pour the dal over the rice.
2. Mix up the rice and dal with your right hand (the left hand is used to wipe your bum, and is NOT to be used to shake hands, let alone to eat with).
   
3. Pick up soupy rice mixture with your right hand and eat.
   
4. Graciously accept seconds.
5. Repeat 8 hours later.
   

The good news is that according to one of the yoga books I picked up in Rishikesh, yogis should eat a diet consisting of dal and rice since it’s easy to digest. Thanks to both the squat toilet and a healthy diet of dal bhat, my digestion has completely changed.

Caffeine Fix

Up Above Pokhara and Smiling

Just left the high Himalayan mountains where we spent 8 lovely days working on an organic coffee farm. We will bike another 3 days to reach Chitwan National Park to work on another farm for 8 days before our 550 km bike ride out of Nepal and back into India.