approaching the Himalayas

Delhi > Kathmandu—4 Feb 2015

Dear Inurnet ..

.. at Delhi airport .. such incompetent + inefficient security never have we experienced before .. a cricket ball them took away from the kid in front of us .. kid seemed about to cry (ball apparently hit by sum famous cricket star) .... outside can barely see more than a football field so smoggy ..

leaving Delhi

.. sleep wd not come last night so The Strangers by Eugene Lim we started to read .. fun + campy .. reminiscent of Wes Anderson perhaps but not so precious .. characters like particles bumbling around in a bubble chamber bumping into 1 another + breaking apart then recombining into diffrent chara-particles .. morphing .. all cleverly crafted + witty + well paced .. for some reason kept thinking of Jeff + Akbar .. awkward but more unencumbered in allowing for awkwardness + a certain stylized zenness to it ..

.. continuing the Hinduism/absence thread from 2 posts ago—the epilogue to The Strangers:

«Form does differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form.»—The Heart Sutra

Himalayas from a distance

The Strangers over Kathmandu (+ crow + distant Himalayas)

Kathmandu, Nepal—5 Feb

.. since leaving Penang on 17 Jan we've travelled east (Bali > Hong Kong > NYC > Rome > Delhi > Kathmandu) most of the way around the world (by our estimate a time zone short .. tho Nepal weird in that they 1:15 behind Penang .. + 10:45 ahead of NYC .. why the xtra 15 minutes who knows) .... never have we travelled «around the world»—where u actually travel all the way round in 1 direction starting + ending in the same place .. this = close as we come:

our route over the last fortnight

.. back in Kathmandu feels weird .. like we here just yesterday .. in same hotel maybe even same room it seems .. started us actually writing 'SSES" 'SSES" ^"SSEY' on the way to here 1½ years ago .. + last month we published it .. to little fanfare so far .. guess it doesnt help that every time we publish a book we immediately disappear ½ way round the globe .... 1 thing struck a chord in us watching the Aaron Swartz documentary on the way to Delhi (besides the stuff dealing w/ copyright etc) .. his efforts at organic promotion .. in an age where any1 can publish (book or website etc) .. emphasis no longer on getting published but what content becomes visible + available to the general public (via search engines or RSS feeds etc) .. the dilemma of the decade for virtually every1 ..

wall in Kathmandu

.. a shithole we thawt of Kathmandu before but after Delhi seems sorta nice .. at least from the air .. only takes a few minutes on the streets (either on foot or in a car) to member the chaos + danger + sheer assholeness of the place .. or when near a river which resembles more a sewer .... went out w/o a map thinking we'd member our way but got lost .. before finding ourselves + getting a pair of pants (only brought 1 pair) for hiking .... then A met us to give us beta on trekking since he from Pokhara ..

sacred cow

writing on the wall

leaning tower

Durbar Sq revisited

(bottom right yak horns w/ fur + blood still attached)

Pokhara—6 Feb

.. The Strangers we finished .. as if to validate our thinking that the characters therein act (+ re-act) like morphing particles in a bubble-chamber Lim calls the 3^rd section Spooky Action at a Distance + alludes to quantum entanglement a few times .. specifically in terms of entwined twins in parallel universes ..

.. + speaking of entanglement we feel severed from our better-½ (travelling solo now) .. rarely do we separate to different places .. yet at the same feel our wave functions entangled even tho not in the same place ....feel the same way bout our brother-½ (Chaulky—co-author of 'SSES" 'SSES" ^"SSEY') .. even tho dead his wave function absorbed into us .... in many ways we making this sidetrip to reconcile our wave functions .. to finish his odyssey .. rarely do the paths of our journeys x-sect xcept here in Nepal + also France (where serendipitously we go next) ... + for whatever reason Annapurna seemed the apex of his odyssey so let's see how close we can get ..

.. since our better-½ went south to Lumbini (+ we already went last time .. near the birthplace of Buddha) to Pokhara we decided to go .. 2x we've come to Nepal + never have we really seen the Himalayas u cd say .. last time rainy season + always cloudy .... so figured at least we'd go to Pokhara this time around .... dont have much time + not so prepared for trekking but we'll see ....

.. woke up early this a.m. (in Kathmandu) + saw a tree full of crows all making a fuss + 1 crow dangled from its wingtip unable to get free no matter how hard it flipped + flapped .... disturbing sight .. a murder of other crows gathered watching but nuthing they cd do .... we took this as a bad omen .. considering wether we shd fly today or not .... then thawt (justified) that maybe it meant (since «early bird gets 1^st worm») we shdn't go to the airport early as we inclined to do (specially with terrible traffic + open seating on plane (a window seat facing the Himalayas we desired)) ..

.. also anxious cuz we didn't want to part ways w/ our better-½ .. separation anxiety .. nevertheless went to the airport (after brewing a cup of coffee + spending another ½ hour w/ our better-½) .. strangely no traffic (every other time insane) so still there early .. early enough to get on earlier flight even cuz Yeti Air (how also we flew to Lumbini) .. delayed due to dense smog/clouds .... complete chaos at the «gate» .. no computers all by hand .. handwritten list of people + boarding passes .... all flights delayed many stranded refugees .. then they just yelled out all aboard all at once thru same gate big free-for-all .. 3 unmarked busses so sum people from another flight got on our bus + vice-versa .... when the dust cleared managed to get on (right) plane 1^st after VIPs + snagged window seat ....

.. thawt about the crow as we taxied thinking maybe we shd follow our gut + abort .. imagining the plane wingtip getting snagged just like the crow trying to tell us sumthing .. we took off + rose into the air thru the smog (after the 1^st day not so lucky .. so smoggy now cd barely see mtns from Kathmandu) + then we cd see the Himalayan skyline we thinking we didnt care .... if the plane crashed sure that'd suck but good a day as any to die .... mostly it'd suck cuz of our better-½ left behind but we quite content so far w/ our life + wdnt want to let fear/superstition restrict ourselves from more experience .. only wish our better-½ also here to experience this w/ us .... that said might make a point of not flying in propeller planes (like certain people we know) in the future .. pushing our luck ....

rising above the clouds/smog

approaching Pokhara

.. got to Pokhara + made necessary arrangements + got permits etc to hike .... then walked down to the lake .. ended up on some slow rowboat across to some island w/ a temple on it .... came back + ate tandoori chicken lounging in the sun looking at the mtns + the lake + paragliders twirling thru the sky .. Pokhara quite warm + laidback compared to Kathmandu ....

truck in Pokhara

boats + a distant Annapurna thru the haze

island temple

temple offerings

.. hung out charging things (bringing this here computer w/ us) + got nuts + dried fruit + water .. itching to get into the hills to walkabout ..