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Alex in Motion

A journal of curiousity & travel
April 5, 2016

Kathmandu

At first glance, Kathmandu resembles India; the streets are more than busy, there’s tons of pollution (it’s actually one of the most polluted cities in the world), there is only a slightly less honking, street signs are randomly and haphazardly placed, and the people are quite friendly.

Nepal is still struggling to recover after the huge 8.3M earthquake in 2015. Many, many people lost their homes, and the government is not reacting quickly enough to rebuild. Other countries are trying to help, but most of the imported goods are confiscated by border guards or are just not being distributed properly. Nepal thrives on tourism, and are hoping for a strong fall season to bolster their fragile economy. If you love trekking, I urge you to travel to Nepal and sight see.

The district I stayed in Kathmandu was littered with white people. After spending so much time in India and Sri Lanka, it was funny, and rather weird, to not being around fellow Caucasians. Most come for trekking, but there are plenty of other outdoor activities (rafting, zip-lining, climbing, hot springs, volunteering) as well as great restaurants. In fact, I ate a delicious Mexican burrito on the first night! One of their local specialties is called momo which are dumplings made from chicken, vegetables or cheese. They are always made fresh and remind me of my favourite Polish pierogi.

On the second day, a local guide escorted me to the city’s sights and attractions. Most of his sentences began with, “before the earthquake…” or “after the earthquake…”. Sadly, many of their monuments were destroyed or severely damaged. And as pleasant as the guide was, I had a really hard time understanding his English, so I just nodded my head in agreement. I know I missed information, but I simply wasn’t in the mood to have him repeat everything twice.

Highlights from the day were the Monkey Temple, where he hand-fed some tame monkeys; the Golden Temple, which had a genuine and peaceful aura; and the temple of the living goddess. In the Hindu religion, they believe pre-pubescent girls are manifestations of a divine female energy. Girls are chosen based on several physical attributes and must pass several challenging tests before being promoted to the status of a living goddess. They remain isolated in a temple until their first menstrual cycle, after which a new girl is chosen. The previous girl is then able to live a normal life, and even get married.

FYI, my camera that was supposed to be repaired in India wasn’t actually repaired properly, so most of the pictures here are slightly blurry. I’ll buy a new camera once in Japan.

March 18, 2016

Sri Lanka

Back in Coffee Bay, a couple introduced me to the website workaway.info. It’s designed for travelers, where you list your skills and the countries you’re visiting, then find locals in each country looking for someone like you. In exchange for volunteering approx. 5 hours/day for 5 days/week, hosts normally provide accommodations and meals.

I thought it would be fun to experience Sri Lanka through the eyes of a local, to feel productive for the first time in 4 months, and to give back to community in some measure. Thus I committed to a gentleman named Alfie, who is building an eco ranch in the countryside and needed help. Since this was something that’s slightly out of my comfort zone, I agreed with childlike enthusiasm!

After arriving Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, located on the west side of the island, I decided to travel by plane to the east side, where the ranch was located. It was only after I arrived at the airport did I discover it wasn’t a regular plane but a seaplane! My inner child smiled once more; my last seaplane ride was when I was 10. From the harbour, I then took a tuk-tuk, local commuter train and another tuk-tuk along this crazy long country road that was more suitable for a motocross bike than a 3 wheeler. This ranch was really remote!

That evening I met another workawayer, Zuzana from Czech Republic, who was helping with social media and promotional pictures. Alfie arrived the next day, and he explained how things work (or should I say, don’t work very well). He was quite disorganized, so the three of us sat down and made a master to-do list. Lemme tell you, if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s creating structure!

Alfie was developing the ranch to promote eco tourism, adventuring, trekking and elephant safaris, so we determined the best use of my time would be to create a landscape plan for the ranch. In addition to determining what structures should be build where, new huts needed to be built for future guests, and those huts needed furniture. Great, I said, what materials am I working with? Pine wood pallets :/

Starting simple, I designed and built a coffee table. Then Alfie asked for kitchen cabinets so I built that. Then he asked for a bathroom mirror frame. Then a cutting board, then a drying board. The last 4 things were not on the to-do list; Alfie likes to change his mind, and change it often. No wonder there was never a to-do list, he wouldn’t be able to stick to one!

In addition, between

  • The lack of tools (there were only drills and saws from the 1970’s and getting other items from the closest town was challenging)
  • The lack of material (only 3 pallets were available, but Alfie said more were supposed to arrive every day; they never arrived)
  • Alfie constantly changing his mind about what’s important
  • The little creatures living under the kitchen countertop, and not the kind you want to add to your dinner
  • The sweltering heat, preventing me from working between 1pm and 4pm
  • The super-sized zombie killer mosquitoes from hell

My inner child was sad and decided a week was enough.

Keep in mind, since I didn’t exactly know what to expect, I kept my schedule flexible. If the place is wonderful, I had told myself, I’ll stay three weeks. If not, I’ll leave after sooner. So I felt I broke no obligation leaving after a week.

The other thing still on my mind was the conversation with the resort owner in Goa. So after checking flights, the weather and a tour operator, I decided to book the next 2 weeks in Nepal. It’ll start with a day tour of Kathmandu, followed by a 10 day trek through the Himalayas. Since I really loved trekking in Patagonia, I’m really looking forward to this trip and my inner child rejoiced again!

BTW, there probably won’t be an internet connection in the mountains, so don’t expect to hear from me for the next two weeks 🙂

March 13, 2016

Kerala

Located along the south western coast of India, Kerala is a province known for tea, coffee and spice plantations as well as an alternative medicine known as Ayurvedic medicine. More on that later.

My first town was the small mountain town of Kumily, where I was thoroughly entertained with a demonstration of traditional martial arts. Four men performed, exhibiting their skills with physical movements and weapons. The most impressive weapon was the curved sword, which has four long thin blades and a single handle. He whipped it around his body several times, like a deadly whip. Then two experts reproduced a mock fight, one with a sword and shield, the other with a long pole. Good times, but no one died 🙁

Immediately after the show, the audience moved to a second venue to watch a Kerala folk play/dance. To be honest, I wasn’t quite exactly sure what I was witnessed, but it was fun nevertheless. Apparently the actors were personality types, as opposed to individuals, as they over emphasized their facial expressions and hand gestures, resulting in an interesting performance.

The next day started with an early morning boat tour in a national park, followed by an elephant ride and then a visit to a lovely tea plantation to learn about how the traditional tea is made. At a spice shop, the sales lady desperately tried to sell me all kinds of ointments that apparently would improve memory and cure everything from psoriasis to my rosacea. I ended bought a small bottle, in the tiny hope it could help my rosacea. It was supposed to contain all natural ingredients, so what damage could it do? After one application of the smelly, greasy cream, I chucked the rest into the garbage.

The second town was Alappuzha, where I spent 24 hours on a boathouse. It was a very cool experience, as I was the only guest with a captain, chef and servant. They took me on a gentle cruise of the nearby lake, where we stopped at a local shop to pickup some ice cream and fresh tiger shrimp. The chef cooked it (the shrimp, not the ice cream) for dinner that night. We also stopped so I could cruise along some narrow, man-made streams in a canoe. Locals lived on one side and rice fields were on the other. This organic moment reminded me of a wonderful 2 week canoe camping trip from 16 years ago. Spending time in a canoe in the countryside is very therapeutic for me, and that simple moment was precious.

The third and last town was Kochi, where I visited two museums, a city palace, a couple of temples and a church. By this point, I was mentally exhausted with India, and everything I visited looked like more of the same. The day ended early and I was happy to spend the evening at the hotel and nearby restaurant, eating the delicious south Indian cuisine.

The next day I flew back to Mumbai to pickup my fully repaired camera (woo-hoo!) and get a much needed haircut. Then it was off to Sri Lanka!

After exactly a month in India, I’ve come to appreciate the culture and people there. They are super friendly, when not trying to sell you something or stare at you like you’re an escaped zoo animal or try to molest you with picture taking like the paparazzi. It’s dirty and smelly, but there’s plenty of beauty to be found if you know where to look.

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