Kathmandu to Jiri

Up early again this morning, we finished last minute packing, had breakfast and loaded up the four of us, Ramesh (our guide), two porters and the driver in an Indian-made  Mathindra land-cruiser type

Through Kathmandu we headed east through heavy traffic.

Kathmandu elevation was approx 4200 feet. We got as high as 5500 feet as we crossed a couple of small ranges then headed downhill following the Kochi River until at about 1500 feet we crossed the river and headed back uphill.

 Tire change time slows the line. 

 It was a long drop to the river with nary a guardrail in sight.

After lunch stop got nack back into the sardine can.

The road from Kathmandu was a nice two lane that reduced to a wide one lane and eventually to one partial lane. 

 Open air bus full of kids. 

Glad I wasn't driving. He stopped, we stopped, we backed up and up the bank at a low spot, the truck drive by and we got back on the road.

Driving on roads like this, we went over the pass at 8000 feet then back down to Jiri at 6000 feet. Temps ranged from mid-eighties to 101.5 degrees in the river valley to 74 in Jiri when we got there at 1730.

Checked into our abode, got cleaned up and had dinner.  I had dal baht for lunch with an extra bowl of lentil soup and wasn't too hungry so ordered Tibetan bread with jam and a bowl of onion soup for dinner.

Rest day in Kathmandu

Tuesday,  May 8th

Today was a rest day so we could recover from the flights and adjust to the time change.  We took it easy and let our bodies catch up with the marvels of modern transportation.

After a leisurely breakfast we caught a cab to "the Monkey Temple. " (Swayambhumsth Stupa), climbed a little over a million steps and enjoyed the view and fresh breeze on top.

Mike, Jeff, Harold & Russ

Lots of souvenir vendors, dogs (old strays to cuddly puppies), many monkeys and tourists of all stripes were competing for space and our attention. A friendly young lady from Uruguay took our mandatory photo in front of the stupa. 

Back down the steps, we negotiated another cab and made our way back to our part of town. 

We sorted and packed some, had a pretty dinner and went to bed early. 

Dubai to Kathmandu

Left our hotel at 0600. Saw modern buildings everywhere albeit somewhat obscured by the smog. I was impressed with the orderly Dubai traffic.  Very orderly and laid back.

Checked back through customs and immigration and found our nearby gate so had time for breakfast. Ordered a "snack pack" with the spicy option at KFC. First time I've seen that option.  Turned out to be mildly spicy but good, if you like such fare for breakfast.

We were traveling Emirates subsidiary, Fly Dubai.  Through the gate and onto a bus we went.  Planeside we climbed the portable stairway and settled into our 737-800. Had another window seat but this time we were fully loaded but the seats were comfortable even if having no power jacks or seatback screens.

The view below made me appreciate our pacific northwest rain.  Here I saw no green, only shades of brown as the desert rolled by beneath us.  Somewhere over India the desert was broken four awhile by scattered dry fields before returning back to dessert.  Must be hot and dry waiting for monsoon.

Cabin temp on the flight from Seattle hovered between 67.5 and 68.5. This flight it was between 83 and 85. 'Twas a warm flight.  Fortunately we had a tail wind so landed at 1415 local, a few minutes shy of the scheduled 4 hr 10 min.

Cabin pressure on this flight was maintained at 8350 ft.

Ramesh, or guide, meet us with an Indian-made Land Rover like vehicle. Our big bags went on top, we piled in and headed for the hotel.

Traffic here is more like what I expected.  Right of way depends on vehicle size with motorbikes and pedestrians everywhere. Drivers routinely played chicken but it all seemed to work and there were smiles around.

Our hotel was a cut above what i expected with a toilet, shower and a/c. Two-man rooms were the equiv of $20/Pierson  per night and included a good breakfast.

After we took care of money change and other admin details, we went out for diner.  I had some good pumpkin soup and an excellent daily special of garlicky chicken.

On the way back to the hotel we saw some wiring  that resembled what we saw in Saigon in 2015.

Back at the hotel, jet lag and lack of sleep caught up with me and I crashed early.

Random Thoughts

Several people have asked if it's okay to send my blog link to others. Absolutely, it's a public blog, anyone can read it if they have the link or if they search for it.
The link is: hrodenbergersblog.blogspot.com

I forgot to mention yesterday that my altimeter showed that Emirates pressurizes the cabin, at least of that flight, at around 6,600 feet.  As I recall most flights are pressurized at 10,000 ft so the higher pressure at 6,600 feet is quite a bit more comfortable.

 When we landed last night I noticed the air looked a little thick. This morning when I looked out my hotel window, it is thick.  Don't know if this is an exception to the rule, or if they have an air pollution problem here.

 We stayed in a hotel-type Howard Johnson's last night, courtesy of the airline. It's a pretty nice room. What we would call a suite in the States. I'd include a photo or two but I'm a little gun-shy about leaving this draft to do anything else on my phone. You'll just have to imagine the sitting room with overstuffed furniture, dining area with table and four chairs, windows with heavy drapes on two sides and a nice desk with hot water maker and the usual instant drinks and condiments.

 From what I saw when landing and driving through the city to the hotel, Dubai impressive me as a very modern city.

Seattle to Dubai

Checked my bag at Emirates and headed for the TSA security line.  Was wearing my trekking boots because they are critical to a successful trip and didn't want to chance losing them in checked luggage. They are big and heavy so I expected to remove them even though I usually leave my shoes on since I'm over 75.

There was a new procedure in place at the TSA terminal line. When I finally got to the checkpoint, everyone left their shoes on. There were no totes to put things in and the guy with loudest voice was shouting for everyone to empty their pockets and put everything into their bag. We left our liquids in the bags and didn't remove laptops  (those who had them). Reminded me of the days before 9/11.

I wear a travel vest, so carry my phone and other odds and ends in that. I put it on top of my backpack and sent that stack and my walking umbrella through the scanner.

The new procedure made it much faster but a drug sniffing dog and his handler actually walked through the queu inside the guide pylons. Been awhile since I've seen that.

((What you see, above, is what I wrote while sitting in the plane at the terminal. I saved it as a draft and then later while we were in the air I added to it, several times. In fact, I'm sure I wrote too much. In any case, before we landed I was preparing my phone for sleep and closed  that page. Saved it first, or so said blogger.

We have a layover in Dubai tonight so after we got checked into the hotel I checked into blogger. What you see above is all there was. Lesson learned. I'll be more careful how I handle drafts when not connected to the internet. Now I'll written a condensed version. ))

We pushed back at 1749 , one minute ahead of schedule. Our route was a modified Great Circle route. From Seattle we headed Northeast over British Columbia, Alberta and Ft McMurray.  North of Hudson's Bay we ran into the edge of darkness. This time of year 24-hour daylight creeps South so we flew through Twilight for a couple hours until just west of Greenland we found full daylight again.

Not long after we took off an attendant came through handing out amenity packages consisting of travel socks, toothbrush and paste, ear plugs, and an eye mask. They were all in a stylish zippered fabric pouch with Emirates logo Etc.

Our tasty dinner was served on melamine-like dishes and there was stainless cutlery.

The seats even back in steerage had ample legroom and reclined 12 inches or so. There was a new doily on my headrest and the reading material was in a plastic bag.

I'm impressed with Emirates Airline. They compare favorably with Singapore, Korean, and Japan Airlines. Of course they're a five star Airline so they should treat their customers right.

I was sitting way in the back on the starboard side in a window seat. The young lady sitting next to me talked to the attendant as soon as the door closed and moved to another seat. I think she didn't like being so close to the lavatory. I ended up with a window seat and room to spread out and relax.

I slept for about 4 hours until we got near Norway where it was late morning. Thought I'd better stay awake to prepare for the coming evening in Dubai., so tracked flight on the seatback navigation system

We crossed the upper part of the Scandinavian peninsula, crossed Finland well north of Helsinki, passed just to the west of Petersburg and Moscow, flew over Tbilisi, then into Iran, where we passed a little southwest of Tehran and on  into Dubai, landing at 1915 local time.

Incidentally, it's a pleasure to be using 24-hour time again. I wonder when the United States is going to join the rest of the world and use world time and the metric system?

We are laying over here in Dubai about 12 hours. Time we got unloaded, through customs, arranged our transportation and checked into the hotel we'll be able to catch a few hours sleep before we leave at 0600 in the morning for the airport again.

No photos on this on this entry. Perhaps tomorrow.

Headin' for the Hills

My tests were all good. Blogger has made some good changes so it's easier to post from my phone.

It's been a busy time preparing for the trek while still doing volunteer work for my VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Post and doing some training for the trek. Old legs have to be trained constantly or they quickly lose what little strength they have left at my age. 

One afternoon (outdoors) was dedicated to spraying my trail clothes with permethrin (bug repellent) so the lower altitude flying insects look for more tasty morsels. It might even scare off the leeches (I hope). Permetrin is pretty good stuff. It smells bad when it's sprayed on but when dry it has no smell and will last through six washes or six months, whichever comes first. We used in the summer of 2015 when we toured northern Vietnam and Laos (see my blog for 2015) and I was impressed how well it worked.

I'm heading for the airport this afternoon to catch our flight to Dubai. Fourteen hours and some minutes from SEATAC we arrive in Dubai, layover 14 hours then go on to Kathmandu (five hours and change) where we'll have a rest day then set out for the hills.

Nepal is twelve hours and 45 minutes ahead of PDT so when it's the middle of the day here it is the middle of the night there. We'll adjust to the time change while adjusting to the altitude. That's a double benefit of taking it easy the first few days.

Will post updates whenever I have time and WiFi is available.

Test of Quick Posts

My blog host, Google Blogger, usually does a good job of posting my updates. Sometimes they show up live within 15 minutes but most often it takes twelve to 24 hours for them to go live.

When I was posting from Vietnam in the summer of 2015, WiFi service was available most of the time but a couple times I had to save posts until WiFi popped up. At that time, when I posted two entries within a short time,  the result was garbled posts with pics from one mixed (or completely dropped) with those of the other. Sometimes even the written dialogue was rearranged.

After that experience, I've made it a practice of waiting until a post goes live before posting another. Today I'm going to try posting this one fifteen minutes after I post another.

It might be a problem only when I post from my phone, but that's going to be my medium of choice while in Nepal so I'm trying to work out the bugs in advance. So far I've been impressed with the advances Blogger has made over the past two and one-half years so maybe the quick posting problem doesn't exist anymore. Here's hoping.

I'm going to include some photos just to make it a realistic test.

Moonfruit near our home.

 north side of the curb grows healthy moss. 

A miniature scene in moss.

Kuro's New People

Kuro's new family are taking good care of him and he has made a quick transition to being pampered by them and running with his new friend, Chewy.

Makayla loving two little dogs

Fred has a lap full of Schnauzer

We took Kuro's bed, and toys over so he could have some familiar smells. 

Kuro quickly adjusted to his new family. He enjoys the big yard and the big house. Mostly he enjoys the freedom than he didn't have in the condo.

Mention a walk and they pay close attention!

Spring Fever

Around this time of year my thoughts turn to gardens and plants. I feel a need to dig into the dirt and plant something.

This year is no different. Three or four weeks ago we bought some pots. We added one more last week. Today I decided it was time to plant something.

Ikuko and I went to the nursery and got a couple plants and some potting soil. We also got some drainage rocks and soil fabric.

Back at the condo I broke out my little shovel and started work.

Yard work at the condo

There is a nice breezeway running down the middle of the condo buildings. We catch some afternoon sun in our yard. Some of the people aren't so lucky, depending on where they are.

 Some nice condo gardens

This striking camelia is sheltered from the rain so the blooms don't rust

This maple graces our entryway

Tired out by the strenuous work I cleaned up my yard, washed my hands and took a nap.  Gardening is tiring work.

Finished for now, I'm waiting to pick up some plants from my gardening expert sister,  Darla, before planting the last pot. 

Goodbye, Little Dog

When we moved away from the only house our dog knew, and took up residence with him in a condo, he was shocked but we hoped he would settle in over time.

Moving from his own fenced-in backyard with his special dog door was a big change. He learned not to bark at strange noises outside the door and he learned to walk on a leash wherever we went, but he had to beg for walks and was restricted to 3 or so walks a day. Sometimes those walks were long and exciting but sometimes they were shorter depending on available time.

When we traveled, our son took care of the little dog, but late last summer they moved across the water to the countryside not too far from Sequim. It was a ferry ride plus an hour or so drive each way to deliver and pick him up.

A few weeks ago, a niece and her family, who live in the county not too far east of us, volunteered to watch Kudo while we were on a short trip away from home. Her family has another dog (Chewy) and we weren't sure how the two would get along. They wanted to get another dog to keep Chewy company so we thought it would be good to see if the two dogs could get along.

After our trip I went to pick up Kuro. He had made friends with Chewy and niece reported that they had a good time playing together. 

Kuro was happy to see me but as I prepared to take him home, he was a little reluctant to hop into the car as he usually does. Instead he stopped at the end of the sidewalk and looked back and forth between me and the house.

We took Kuro to visit again last weekend while we were in Vancouver for Ikuko's singing recital.

This time we discussed adoption with our niece.  Her family was in favor and, although we knew we would miss him, we wanted Kuro to have a chance to live a good dog's life with a loving family, a dog buddy and more freedom to run.

Kuro exploring his new yard

New smells and new places, all off leash

Kuro and Chewy playing together. 

When we got ready to leave this time, we could see Kuro had mixed feelings.  He remembered his first family but he was happy with his new family.  As we went out the door, he stayed inside. 

We'll miss him but we want him to have a free and happy life unrestricted by life in a condo. It's nice to know we have visitation privileges and I plan to take both dogs on walks as I have time. 

Meanwhile, goodbye, little dog.  I'll miss you on my walks but wish you well in your new home. 

Signs of Spring

Those of you who have one will agree and those of you who don't will just have to take my word for it.  A little dog is a foolproof way to discover the signs of spring.

Normally, Kuro lies abed in the morning, knowing that first walk won't come until I've finished coffee, paper and breakfast.

Kuro keeps one eye open just in case I head for the door early.

Yesterday when I stepped out onto the deck at first light, Kuro was right there, nose lifted, sampling the morning breeze for scents of spring.

Later, during our midday walk, he was busy checking out the smells of other dogs who had earlier passed his way, but he also investigated some small bits of color in the otherwise green carpet.

Small daisies hard at work soaking up some sun.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a dog nose. there are smells of all kinds, each telling a story or raising a question begging investigation, wafting along with the breeze. 

I would be

[I had almost completed this post on my phone when I stopped to answer an incoming call. When I returned to Blogger to complete the post and post it for publication, this is all I found. I've tried everything I know to find the rest. I worry that my readers will have to put up with an occasional broken post while I'm in the hinterlands. In order to complete this post I'm moving to my laptop. I'll investigate the problem more later.]

I would be overwhelmed to suddenly smell all the things that a dog does. Depending on the breed, dog's noses are hundreds or thousands of times more sensitive than our human noses. Of course, it takes a lot more gray cells to process this information also. Estimates range upwards of 40 times greater than ours proportionally.

Of course, I guess a dog would be similarly overwhelmed if it could suddenly see the full range of colors that humans see. Most authorities say dogs see basically shades of yellow, blue and gray. Quite a change if they could see the full rainbow and rich tones we see. But their eyes also see better in dim light and are better at detecting motion.

Back to our spring walk. Near the northwest corner of the park, Kuro began to pull toward a small rise. When we topped it, even my poor nose could smell what was attracting his attention.

The bright yellow and strong smell of skunk cabbage are a sure sign of spring.

Kuro likes the smell and I like the colors and shape.

In addition to helping me discover the signs of spring, Kuro encourages me to get my daily allocation of walking time. I feel better for that and I know Kuro appreciates it.

Test from Edmonds

Still work to do discovering how best to use this app.  Last night while on the flight from North Carolina to Seattle I drafted a post thinking it would simulate the internet-free zones on my trek. Actually I made up two drafts using to different approaches. 

Too tired last night to play with it, today I went looking for those drafts.  So far it seems they've disappeared into the ether.  Or maybe I managed to turn them into anti-matter.

I'll try to find them again later. Meanwhile, please join Kuro and me as we walked along the Edmonds waterfront to the local dog park earlier this afternoon.

 Quince in bloom along the path

A perfect camelia blossom

 Kuro told me he liked the contrasting flowers and sky.  

We saw some daffodils discussing the weather

Refreshing white hyacinths

Forsythia blooming in front of the Port of Edmonds sign

All told it was an invigorating three-mile walk round trip from our place.  Kuro enjoyed a romp in  the off-leash park.  Maybe next time he'll go for a swim.

Now back to the drawing board...

Test post from Durham

In  preparation for my upcoming travels I've been trying to get decent blog posts from my phone. 

At first I had problems adding photos.  Then I had problems editing the text.  Maybe its an old guy thing.  

Finally I uninstalled my old blogger app and installed a new one.  Looks like I may have at least some of the problems solved. 

Cherry tree outside Whole Foods in Durham,  NC

Azaleas are just beginning to bloom

I'll try this and see how it looks.

Have a Little Wind With Your Rain?

Here in Edmonds, it has been raining off and on since we moved into our new home. Of course we moved in last October so it's the time of year for rain in this part our country.

 Yesterday morning my little dog and I waited for a lull in the heavy rain before starting our morning walk. When we leave our condo, there is a covered walkway that leads to the entry gate. When Kuro hears rain spattering on the guest parking lot, he decides whether the call of nature is strong enough to counterbalance his dislike of getting rained on.

In this case, it was our first walk of the day so his desire to relieve himself was stronger than his desire to stay dry so we set off. I was wearing waterproof shoes and a good rain jacket but my jeans were a weak point as was my floppy Tilley hat.

If you live in northern Washington, west of the Cascades, you may recall that the wind was huffing and puffing yesterday. Kuro's beard was flying and my jeans and hat were soon damp.

We walked through the woods in Edmonds Park. The wind was was adding to the light rain by shaking the trees and sending big water drops down on us. Kuro usually keeps his nose pointed down to pick up strange scents but he sensed something different and looked up a couple times trying to find who was sprinkling water on him.

As we walked I thought about taking photos that would show what I'm trying to describe. Decided I need more skill than I have to picture the rain and wind. Maybe some things are best left to the imagination. Even Snoopy had more success with the written word than photographs when he started his novel (many times), "It was a dark and story night."

we did find a couple photo-worthy scenes.

A couple weeks ago I noticed this early-flowering ornamental tree
displaying open flowers near the tips of some branches, now it's
almost completely in bloom.

Not far away we spotted these mushrooms having a morning drink
while fretting about the weather.

Back home, Kuro quickly found a warm spot in front of the fire to dry off and get warm.

After a walk this windy, rainy morning, I decided I need to add a good pair of rain pants to my walking kit. Some days a walk in the rain is bracing but some days it's just plain wet and cold. 

Kindness

Kindness is rooted in Old English words for family, kin and tribe.

I think it is a product of the days when feelings of kindness were reserved for members of one's own family or tribe. All others were outsiders and foreigners, suspect and feared until proven otherwise. Such feelings were necessary when residents of the cave on the other side of the valley were likely to steal your food, or your woman, if given the chance. Strangers were suspicious and certainly were not shown kindness since that would risk one's own best interests.

As the world has grown smaller, the need to think of strangers or different people as threatening has also grown smaller. Yet that instinct is still with us and is hard to overcome. It's easier to fall back on instinct and prejudice and treat someone from a different race, culture or country as suspect. Our guard goes up quickly. Kindness is a last resort when faced with the scary outsider.

Yet, the way we think of our family and close friends is the way we should think of the rest of our brothers and sisters in the whole human race. In my travels throughout the world I've found that regular people are the same everywhere. The politicians and rulers may be different but people are the same and deserve our kindness.

The Golden Rule applies to kindness just as it does to other forms of human interaction. Treat others with kindness just as you would like to be treated kindly.

Kindness goes deeper than politeness or courtesy but encompasses both. We can show kindness by returning the shopping cart someone else left running wild in the parking lot. Make an extra effort to show kindness to the aggressive driver or the single driver taking advantage of HOV bypass lanes at freeway on-ramps and diamond lanes on the freeway.

As I've grown older I try to imagine it's my wife, sibling, son or daughter-in-law driving and respond gently and kindly when someone cuts me off or acts unkindly. Sometimes we just don't know what others are feeling or suffering. If there are two ways of interpreting another's action choose the one that shows kindness. That will give the other person the benefit of the doubt, spread a little kindness and reduce your stress level.

Buddhism and Hinduism have a concept called karma where past and present actions influence your future. It's nice to have another person reciprocate, but kindness can be its own reward.

Be watchful for a chance to demonstrate kindness. Do what you can to make a pleasant world, earn some good karma and relax in a happier and lower stress day.

Moved In, At Last

During the past six months we have been moving. It seems everyday was devoted to moving. First, preparing for and moving out of the old house consumed our days, and some nights. Then there was concurrently looking for, and buying a new place. Finally, there was preparing and moving into the new place.

The final result was downsizing from a big house to a smaller condo. Each step in the process seemed difficult. The sorting and disposing of excess things was tough both physically and emotionally, but it was finally finished, we thought.

Looking for and deciding on a new place was time consuming, both the actual going to and looking at process, but also the time it took to study the "full disclosure" forms required in today's real estate market. Due diligence is especially important when buying a condo since there may be problems that aren't easily seen during an inspection but show up during a careful reading of the required forms.

After we chose our new home, there was painting and cleaning to prepare for moving in. Then we had to buy furniture to fit the new place. Then came the moving van with more furniture and boxes than would fit in the new place. Again we had to sort, choose and dispose of the excess that just wouldn't fit.

Finally, two months after our furniture and packing boxes were delivered, we are getting settled in. We broke out some Christmas decorations and put ornaments on a a tree.

Christmas tree guarded by Kuro's overstuffed friend.

The second bedroom finally gave up the last of the boxes stored there and became functional and my tools were cleared out of the second bathroom which had served as a temporary mini-shop during the move-in period.

Looking back at how we finally got mostly settled, I think a large part of the process was developing new habits. Which drawer held silverware and which had pot holders. Where to find coffee cups and which way to turn when getting up in the night to visit the bathroom.

Old habits discarded and new ones formed make a person comfortable in new surroundings. We are now at the stage where most of the daily decisions are made by rote. Only occasionally do we ponder where to find something.

Sometimes the simple things make a big difference. Our old house had a dog door so Kuro could come and go at will. No such thing in the condo so he (and we) are learning the new routine of walks, at least three times a day. Of course, I and sometimes Ikuko benefit from the increased level of human exercise so that's a good thing.

Kuro relaxing in a snow free spot under a tree after a romp in the snow
Christmas morning

I've missed posting entries to my blog, and I've missed, even more, having the spare time to write those entries. There are still paintings to hang, minor repairs and improvements to make but now, finally, I feel free to take time to spend on this blog.