A Walk in Nepal
A Walk in Nepal
Included on this blog are a series of journals from our trip to Nepal in 2015. There are nine journals written by myself & my husband, Ryan. There is one poem written by our hiking companion & friend, Jennifer. There is one Nepal post that is focused on tips for trekking & one discussing the story of how my parents met in Nepal.
Many of the photos contain an unnecessarily ostentatious watermark from a now-retired blog called "Sarah's Sunbeam." Apologies, but this would be too labor-intensive to fix and I prefer to focus on new writing than cleaning up every detail of the old posts.
The journal writing remains mostly genuine to our original journals, so the tense switches from past to present and back again. There are some sentence fragments, but I think the story comes across how we experienced it at the time.
I do want to stress in the journal portion that we were fortunate to have approximately 20 days in Nepal prior to the earthquake (yes, that one). The experience of Nepal stands on its own—intense and beautiful with plenty of literal and figurative ups and downs.
Many of the villages on the Manaslu Circuit were severely damaged post-earthquake. As of this writing, the Manaslu Circuit is closed to trekking (Spring, 2015). We have only vague information about each village after the earthquake. It is devastating to imagine some of these places now. That said, one of the last images is of a woman in Kathmandu. Her shop was entirely destroyed, yet she is again setting up shop amidst the rubble. There is an incredible resilience evident in so many Nepali people that we encountered which is hopeful, but that does not erase the incredible loss that so many Nepalis experienced after the earthquake.
In over 1500 photographs with a few included in the Nepal journals, there is a pattern of swinging bridges, mules with colorful headdresses, stone steps, waterfalls, rhododendron bushes, dark rain clouds, spectacular mountain peaks, mani rock walls, striking blue sky, kite flying, and portraits.
Please note that all portraits are taken with permission, unless taken from a distance as in a market scene. Close-up photos of children are taken with permission from the parents or other relatives. I took far fewer “people photos” than desired, but in many cases it was inappropriate to even ask for a photograph in my mind. I thought to myself, how would I feel if I was doing a regular activity like mowing the lawn and a foreigner asked if they could take a photograph? So, all people photographs included an interaction of some kind.
Some interactions included: kite flying with Tibetan children; a translated trail conversation with a woman who thought it was hilarious I asked her to smile. She is pointing at her missing teeth in the photo; and daily traveling with our guides Rajbeir and Sune, and porters Khadga and Padum.
The Nepal journals are only a small sample of our journey, but hopefully represents a glimpse into our grand adventure to Nepal.
Enjoy the walk.