bhaktapur & patan - november 3, 2006

whatever angel(s) of mercy watch over me, i prostrate myself before them in gratitude for sparing me the ills that befell me the day i returned to kathmandu from the trek (october 25).

after surviving in some of the most primitive, unsanitary conditions for 14 days in the mountains (some of you will see the photos at some point), eating very little but the national nepali dish of dal bhat tarquari (rice, lentil soup and curried vegetables, sometimes with a spicy pickle), i experienced my first episode of nepal's version of "delhi belly" that evening and most of the next day. just when i thought i'd recovered, i stepped out of the bathroom into the main part of my room at the PRK Guesthouse in Boudha, and felt the familiar slip of something in my spinal column and then the all too familiar spasm that meant SOMETHING SERIOUS had just happened. i spent a couple of days in bed, thankful that i'd had the foresight to bring a full load of Flexoral from canada and praying that a little loving care would lead it gently into subsidence.

fortunately, that seems to have worked for the most part, though i'm still a little tender and have to watch how i move, but i'm still determined to travel with Bonnie on the 6-week junket that begins in just over a week. my latest challenge is trying to get either confirmation that i can get a "landing certificate" at the Dhaka Airport in Bangladesh when i arrive there on November 28 or else get a proper tourist visa from the Bangladesh Embassy in Kathmandu by November 13! since i haven't yet received a photocopy of my airline tickets from those in control of them in Canada, the latter could prove rather difficult. in the end, if i need a visa beforehand and can't get one, i'll have to fly back to nepal from Kolkata and wait for Bonnie to return before leaving for Tibet on December 9. as Nepali's say, ke garne? ["what can you do?"]

yesterday (Friday, November 3), Bahadur hired a driver--a Tamang friend, named Pema, of course--who ferried me and Katherine (the volunteer from Vancouver) to the exquisitely beautiful, medievally constructed city of Bhaktapur, about 40 minutes east of Kathmandu. Its Durbar Square is magnificent and competes for elegance with the Durbar Square of Patan, which we visited in the afternoon. i now have a shoulder bag bedecked in multicoloured elephants and several inexplicable photos involving erotic carvings on the roof supports of the pagoda-like temples.

now, i'm off to get my head shaved and pummeled by the lovely barber with a flair for head massage and chiropractic, eat lunch on a rooftop overlooking Boudhanath Stupa, of which i never seem to tire, and then maybe walk to Pashupatinath.