Belly of the Whale

I have been away, but at least I return with a story. It is long and it weaves around, here and there, and in the end it returns to where it started. I don't know how to tell it in a brief fashion - an hour can hardly do and my back is already sore. It has been a long weekend, but quite surprizing.

My students Tuesday informed me that I indeed did have the next three days off. Tenzing, my supervisor, had mentioned that he thought this was true. He was regretful, because my time here is so short that he feels I should spend as much time with the students as possible. But arrangements were set and class was canceled. That is five days, Wednesday through Sunday free. That is enougjh time, I thought, enough to get out somewhere to do a trek, a short one.

My energy was not yet flowing during or right after class. Part of me whispered that perhaps I should stick around and pursue further the thoughts and creative impulses that had characterized my last week. But I knew, deep down, that I had to jump, that this too was part of me, part of the reason I was here, part of my growth and part of my life. So I summoned the energy and excitement to create a plan. It was the eleventh hour already. After class I was free.

I knew I had time restraints. I knew I wanted to be alone - no guide. This meant I needed to do something relatively simple as I was still new to trekking in Nepal. I figured this all pointed to Annapurna. It is perhaps, if not definately, the most popular trek in the world (I could be wrong). The route is clear; there are villages all along the way to serve food and give shelter; it is right outside of Pokara, a major city nearby and easily accessible - and by ariplane.

Okay, I need to speed this up. . . .

So this is what I did. Thianks to some great Dutch folk that I met at dinner that night, I few to Pokhara and then to Jomoson, high in the northern Annapurna region. It is the lower Mustang region really. From Jomoson I would hike back and downhill through the deepest valley in the world, between Daulgiri and Annapurna, both 8000 meter peaks. I thought it sounded like a plan. I was energized with the realization that I would finally set my feet upon Himalayan rocks. This route (only a small part of the entire Annapurna circuit) normally takes five or six days maybe - I don't remember now. I wanted to do it in four.

I didn't fly out until seven the next morning. A brilliant flight - a small twin prop plane. The airport was so funny that I wrote a a lttle story about it later. They pretty much ignore the metal detector as it sounds at every person who went through. They ask you if you have anything dangerous; you say no, and then they wave you through. I thought it was great fun. $65 for the flight.

In Pokhara, I couldn't fly to Jomoson until the next morning at six. I thought this was a bummer - but nothing to done, "nothing to be done" - I love that line. It will forever remind me of "Waiting for Godot." So I planned my route with the time remaining. I wrote a fiction (again, is it really fiction?) story about this great guy I met in the airport. I found a hike right outside of town to do with my afternoon.

After waking up at five, I was more tired than I would admit to myself. I didn't want to believe that my fitness had dropped off so badly from the spring. This was a small mountain I was climbing. I had been quite uninterested about doing a hike right in the middle of these villages, right on the side of a city like Pokhara, the second biggest city in Nepal. I should say that it is quite the opposite of Kathmandu. It is quiet; it is calm. Everything is slow. You feel like you should be napping the whole time, which is exactly what I did on my way up Sargarkat. I am not sure if I ever reached the top. I was uninterested.

It was very lush, jungly. I thought how nice it was that this mountainous area of Nepal was not occupied by cobras like the lowlands. That would be a problem; I couldn't see past my nose. I proved this by twice nearly running into buffaloe before seeing them. How do you not see a buffalo? You know me, I guess. This thought was somewhere near the top. Then I napped; then I decended. At the bottom I was crossing some rice patties, looking at nothing I can remember. Out of the roof of my vision dropped a bird closely resembling a magpie in color and size, and it dove into the path before me. As it did, it clawed at something eluding its grasp. As my eyes focused, I recognized the sleek back half of a great snake - brown, long, and conspicuously flat. It slithered into some shubs on the side of the trail, leaving its tail exposed for another instant before retracting it into the cover. I had to think about what had just happened: could that have been a cobra? Everything I felt said it was. What if that bird had not dove? And why? It was much to small to have any chance at such a serpent, though I think it was small for a cobra if in fact it was. How beaufiul that I had thought of the snake earlier. I certainly don't normally think on finding snakes. I've been thinking about alchemy and how it fits into the spiritual/philosophical theories that haunt me. It had rained an hour ago. A villager later told me that cobras have been coming out into the patties recently, and especially after a rain.

On my way home, I came across some guys playing billiards. I was tired, but I can never resist. I went over to watch, and of course ended up playing the next game. The player was good, and I played cold. The next two games I found my game and won them both. I was pleased to beat a good shooter, though he didn't play his best pool. The next morning I left for Jomoson. Or I was supposed to.

This is Nepal. If you want something done, something important, you had better take care of it yourself. This could be the theme of this trip. So I have to be at the airport at six. I don't have any alarm. When I got my room I ask it he would wake me. He said of course. Great. When I got back, I went in the office to say I needed a 4:30 wake up. The man wasn't there and there was a woman who looked none to pleased. She said that that was awful early and that I didn't really need to get up for a trek that early, surely. I said that I had to catch a plane and I surely did need to wake up that early and she had been find this of importance because my flight was the only flight to Jomoson and I was not about to miss it. I was not incouraged, but again, "nothing to be done."

I went to bed at nine quite tired.. My thoughts went crazy. I thought things, I connected things and saw things I have never seen before. Every now and again I would think, "you need to sleep. You need to wake yourself up at 4:30," but then I thought, " No, this is more important than any flight." I refused to try and calm my mind. I was getting excited. This went on for hours.

I thought that if I didn't stay up too late, I would likely be able to wake up. Bouda comes to life at five. Most monasteries start their morning pujas, or prayers, then. The sun is also coming up and the compination of these (they blow great horns and beat drums with the pujas) conspire to wake me up.

I started to sleep some time late, but woke up again around 2:45. I slept some more and woke up again at 4:20. Close enough. I got up, brushed, clothed, and packed. 4:35 - no wake up call. I walk down stairs. The door man is asleep at the gate. I am not pleased.

I will end here for today. I will finish or proceed tomorrow. I need some sleep.