INSIDE HIMALAYAS | NEPAL | TIBET | BHUTAN
INSIDE HIMALAYAS | NEPAL | TIBET | BHUTAN
The romance of bygone era...
A popular activity at the homestays is cooking with the host women. Photo: RMT.
perfect. Raja didn’t join me, though. I
asked him how he could manage not
to eat between 10am and 8pm. He told
me that he’d have a snack. In all my
years here, I cannot adapt to the Nepali
meal schedule. I was so grateful for
that midday meal.
Together we modified our day’s
itinerary. It was leech season and
neither of us wanted to get bloody
by walking through the jungle to any
waterfalls. We’d also both been up
watching the World Cup finals the
night before, and were happy to take it
easy. It wasn’t raining, but it was pretty
hot. We decided to stroll through the
village. Raja had plenty of stories to tell.
We walked through corn plants that
were eight feet high, growing next to
skinny green beans, potato patches,
onions and scarecrows. Raja told me
that when it’s time to harvest, all the
manpower of the community comes
together, moving from field to field
collecting the goods. This system is
becoming endangered as the young
workforce continues to go abroad.
We ended up at the family’s local
temple, where Raja told me stories
of the gods, like Hanuman the flighty
70
monkey. Hanuman forgot which
medicinal herb he was urgently tasked
to fetch from the hilltop because he
was playing with buddies he met along
the way. Luckily, he was pretty strong,
so he brought the entire hill back to his
father so he could pluck the healing
herb himself. These stories flowed
freely from Raja, stories passed down
from his mother and father.
In the afternoon we sat with his uncle,
the temple caretaker, took some
photos, and listened to the quiet. A
little later we walked to a viewpoint
high above the river that was roaring,
swollen, below us, hidden by the
thick green leaves of monsoon. We
watched a husband and wife team,
his distant cousins, adeptly collecting
turpentine from pine trees, using an
intricate system of funnels and slash
marks in the tree bark. Raja said next
time I come I can bring some friends,
beers and a picnic and while away the
afternoon here. I agreed that was a fine
idea. It was wonderfully calming to be
out of Kathmandu.
On the walk home we met more of
Raja’s cousins. A group of bubbly
kids came by and gave us candies
because it was one of the little ladies’
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birthdays. We met the yoga teacher,
his uncle, who would teach me the
next day. He stopped in for a tea on
the terrace. The president of the local
homestay committee, another cousin,
stopped by for tea too. We sat on
small stools as the sun set over greater
Bhaktapur. Hunch-backed 78-year-
old Grandpa came home from the
temple, and Raja’s incredibly friendly
father, a retired police officer, joined
us too. It was nearing 8pm and every
other household nearby was preparing
dinner. The whole of Bastola Gaon
smelled aromatic.
It came to me in a wave again, the
family aspect. “So, all of these people
around us are all related to you, aren’t
they?” I asked.
...the delight of tasteful cuisine.
Bricks Cafe is a multi-cuisine restaurant located in
Lalitpur - offering a wide range of food menu, but
prominently renowned for divine Nepalese flavor,
which arrives in authentic hospitality.
The building of Bricks Cafe was built during
the Rana era, and that classical, intimate, warm
ambience is still evident today in the attic seating,
sun deck couches, rich garden, and shady porch.
Please drop by to the Bricks Cafe and comfort your
taste buds. We serve every day from 12pm to 10pm.
“Yes. Yes they are. They are my uncles,
aunties, brothers, cousins. My family.
We’re all Bastolas here.”
Then we all sat down together on the
terrace to his mother’s meal of rice, dal
and local greens, complemented by spicy
cucumber and sesame pickle. There was
a serenity in knowing that everyone, all
the Bastolas in this community, were
sharing meals together.
Kupondole, Lalitpur, Nepal 5521756
[email protected]
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