Panauti Town

My next hiking adventure took me to the town of Panauti. After several hours on the bus, entertained by never-ending nepali songs (one song can easily keep repeating for more than 10minuts) I arrived to this small town with invisible river. Filled with ancient temples and curious kids, I found a group of Hindu men called Panauti Tribe Ni Ghat.

Very hospitable, they invited me to join them for a tea. No nepali spoken on my side and no English on theirs, however our conversation somehow flew anyway.. The men represented all generations and enjoyed the afternoon by making hashish, smoking it, drinking tea, playing music, dancing and chanting. One member didn’t hesitate to perform some yoga posters for me, and yes, I was quite impressed..

Impressed and inspired at the same time so I decided to make in depth story about this Ni Ghat Tribe. I will share a link to the photo story once it is completed. For now, just some random photographs of random kids and things I saw at this place that will forever remain stored in my memories in a shape of marihuana leaf.

East Meets West

Visiting The Buddha

One day I walked through Godavari village and up in the near by mountain I saw Buddha statue sitting up there overlooking the Valley. The following day, I decided to find my way up there and visit this shiny gold man. I took Lily and Andy (volunteers from Ama Ghar) along and together we took on a day long adventure. As we climbed up there, enjoying the views, wiping up sweat and running out of water we walked by beautiful houses staffed with animals; whole families of chickens and goats everywhere. After decent number of steps (which Andy ran up to prove who knows what) we met the Buddha and without his permission, shared some of his peace for a moment.

At some point we found a small shop and sat down for a soda. Even though I never drink it, I loved every drop of it this time. Sugar feels incredibly nutritious in Nepal.. Given small chairs by the shop owner, we sat down to sip our drinks. It seemed like a slow motion movie that was played in front of my eyes. Kids playing or bathing, a man pushing his track full of beans for sale, dogs wondering around... everything so mellow, no rush, plenty of time for everything.. concept I haven’t seen nor experienced in years..

As we kept walking, we greeted locals by “Namaste” one of the 2 words in nepali we all learned so far.. Still feels a bit unusual to put this word in use in "greeting" context, instead of having it linked solely to the end of yoga session.

Our journey ended in the rice fields.. It was hot and humid evening by the time we got back, however the Buddha must have move me in some way as I didn’t feel such an intense hater for mosquitoes as I usually do, every day, every hour..




In the photo above you can see the Buddha.

Rice Fields

In a village Godawari, I found these amazing rice fields. They are, so far, my favorite place in Nepal.