The first weekend

So Friday afternoon, once I was done with teaching, Paldin (my Yogi friend) and I were ready to go off on our great journey to Mahayana monastery with the bicycles. I was all excited to ride a bike… it had been a while. We went to get the bikes and I walked off the ramp onto the road. I excitedly sat on the bike and horror struck. Once you place your weight on the back of the bike seat the entire front of the bike seat moves up. So there I was sitting on the most uncomfortable bike ever, attempting to ride along the bumpy roads silently chanting to myself ‘this is Nepal’ ‘this is Nepal’. Within 2 minutes I couldn’t do it anymore, the bike seat was hurting me way too much; Paldin said that I could try riding his bike. So we did the exchange and within 5 minutes of being on this new bike I ripped my pants and realized I wasn’t ready for biking… my Dutch family would be so disappointed. So with my favorite Nepal-bought pants ruined and a loss of hope in my Dutch DNA, Paldin and I did the walk of shame; we walked with bike in hand back to the monastery and decided we would take the bus.

For 15 rupees you can go anywhere with the bus (going to Kathmandu will be more expensive though). We got off along the road and walked to the monastery, then I realized the walls did definitely not look as white as they did a week before and once the gate opened I realized that we were definitely at the wrong monastery. When I said Mahayana was close to Nyingmapa Wishfulfilling Monastery I meant close as in compared to the other volunteers and their monasteries, Paldin thought close as in the monastery nearest to our monastery. So again we had to do yet another walk of shame back to the road and had to find another bus. Whilst waiting for a bus to come Paldin said I should try this type of street food. I was terrified because at VIN they had said to never ever ever eat street food… but I trusted Paldin and the food looked SO good (plus it was covered with a fly net). So for a very small amount of rupees we got some food… and DAMN it tasted good, for my Dutch readers; it tasted just like oliebollen but even sweeter, so I was feeling all sentimental. Turns out that my stomach is stronger than I thought because I didn’t get sick at all from the food! Awh yeah! Don’t think I’m taking the risk again though…

Then we got on the bus and we went to Bouda (remember the big stupa with the Buddha eyes that I went to during induction?). We had agreed to meet Rachel and Colten there instead because neither of us knew where Mahayana was. Being at Bouda with a Yogi is very different from being there alone as a tourist. Paldin told us stories of how the stupa came to be and explained the prayer wheels to us. Then we had some tea on one of the rooftop cafes and Colten and Rachel finally got to ask someone some questions about Buddhism. After that we were walking back and I saw a shop selling the door curtains that all rooms at my monastery have except my room; I decided to buy two, one for at the monastery (I’ll finally fit in…) and one for my room back in Abu Dhabi. After doing one clockwise round around the stupa Paldin left and Colten, Rachel and I had to somehow find our way to Premium Hotel. We took a microbus, which turned out to not be such a clever idea; it was stuffed full. I was sitting on Rachel and Colten was sitting on me and we were surrounded by tons of people (my personal bubble was totally invaded~~) and it was super hot in the little bus. After half an hour of travelling we finally got to Kathmandu and got off the bus. From there we didn’t know where to go so we called Rachel and Colten’s friend Tom, a 19 year old guy from England who is travel obsessed (in the best way). He was the one who taught at the Mahayana monastery before Colten and Rachel, and was leaving within two days. We found our way to the hotel and decided it was a good idea to book a two person room for all four of us. It wasn’t. Colten ended up sleeping in the bathroom…

Spyro chillin' in the garden of
dreams

After we were done putting all our stuff in the room we went to meet up with the others. Our group is so cute; we are like a little family. It was nice to see their faces again and talk about our experiences. We all went to a café/bar together and had some drinks. I did not get much sleep. The next day we all got up super early, and after awakening Colten from his bathroom nest we went to have breakfast at the rooftop restaurant of the hotel. People were planning all these things but I was WAY too tired to function so I told them I was going to take a nap and meet them later. When I woke up from my 2 hour nap I called up Colten and Rachel and found out that they were at a place called the ‘Garden of Dreams’ with half of the other volunteers. With a map in hand I started my journey but I got lost within 5 minutes. So I decided I would go with one of those bike things. I had no clue how far away the garden was… I ended up getting ripped off big time, so big it made me want to cry. We had decided beforehand that I would 400 rupees (which I later found out was already way too much) but once we got to the garden he changed his mind and said he wanted 500. I said no, because we said 400 at the start. The guy then proceeded to literally throw a tantrum… there I was awkwardly standing there with this guy going crazy and a herd of Japanese tourists slowly forming a semi-circle around us to find out what the commotion was about. In the end I caved and gave him the money and wanted to cry a river full of tears. But alas, this kind of stuff was bound to happen at least once…

Lewis, Rachel (who transformed into a beer bottle),
Charlotte, Tom and I at the Woodstock cafe/bar

The garden was beautiful and so peaceful, there we met up with George and had a conversation with him about our different experiences at the monasteries. Colten and Rachel discussed their options with him and then we decided that it was time to find a place to eat at. We ended up going to a Thai restaurant. I was feeling all soppy when I read that they had Thai coconut and lemongrass soup because it’s something my mom always makes for us. So I got that, and I got to say MOM YOURS IS WAY BETTER AND I MISS YOU. After leaving the restaurant we went on a hunt to find new shoes for George, we ended up in a place filled with all the stores that are found in the Abu Dhabi malls; Nike, KFC, Baskin Robbins… After that we all walked back to the hotel where we had planned to meet with the entire group at the rooftop to watch the sunset. There a new volunteer arrived; a guy also from the US named Lewis. After watching the beautiful sunset we went to eat at a burger place (how un-Nepali of us) and then went to another café.

The next morning we all headed to the VIN office. Once there I could see how stressed Rachel was about the whole monastery thing so I decided that I should try to help out. I talked to her for an hour and we came to a conclusion; they’d shorten their trip to 8 weeks, spend 4 weeks at the monastery and 4 weeks just in Nepal by themselves, and I’d try to organize that they could come to my monastery once a week. I could just see the relief on Rachel’s face. Then I went to talk to Isuda, the cook, and she was so excited to see me! She came up and hugged me and told me that she’d missed me. She brought up the cooking class idea (she’s apparently just as excited about it as I am!) and gave me her number, telling me that I should call one day ahead of the time that I can have the lesson so she can go and buy all the materials. She said she’d teach me how to make fried rice and parathas; I’m so excited. People slowly started leaving back to their placements and soon Charlotte, Patrick and I were left behind. Then a French couple came into the building. After they had a conversation in Bhupi’s office Bhupi directed the lady towards me. Her name was Audrey and it turns out that she lives in the UAE too and that she’d like to set up a connection between VIN and the UAE as well!!! Holy cow, this kind of shit gets me every time… I have an idea that I am sitting on for weeks already and then all of a sudden something like this happens. So we had a whole conversation about what we should do and how we’d figure it out (turns out there’s a lot of government stuff we’d have to organize and get permission from) she gave me her card and I added her on facebook, I’m so excited.

Colten and I adopted a cat
for 5 minutes... we named
it Henry

After the couple left I started to feel sick, my voice had been cracking all day but I thought it was because I was tired, but it turns out I might be getting a cold. When I got back to the monastery my monk friends told me that they are getting a cold too, so it’s probably something I caught here. After taking a nap in the office I started making plans to leave. I still wasn’t feeling good so I decided that I was going to take a cab to Sundarijal. I asked the receptionist if she could help me organize a cab, knowing my previous history of being terrible at negotiating with cab drivers (I don’t know how much a trip somewhere is supposed to cost in rupees) so she called someone for me. It took almost an hour for him to get there but that was okay, it gave me time to catch up with Bhupi. The cab ride was scary, I was sitting in the front seat and I could see all the traffic coming really close so I just spaced out instead. The cab had a meter on it and at the end of the one hour journey it said 570 rupees! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! That 4 minute bike ride yesterday cost almost as much as this 1 hour taxi ride?!! I can’t handle this… hahaha… oh my. It was good to be back at the monastery, everyone shouted ‘Zizi’ when I entered the monastery, followed by questions of how my weekend was. I missed the monastery.

I’m still not feeling 100% and OF COURSE this type of thing happens. I literally am prepared for ANY kind of illness, diarrhea tablets, food poisoning medication, antibiotics ect. but of course I forgot to bring the one thing which I’d end up needing; throat candies… mom and I spent all last night laughing at this.

Charlotte x