Walking Between Kathmandu & Tibet – Day Four
DAY FOUR: FINDING THE LAMA HOTEL
Our night visitor was back the next day and once again imploring me to take a walk with him and help in some manner. I couldn’t refuse his pleas and besides I was stone out of my mind and paranoid. Whew. What a relief.
It seem that the whole village salad bar near me had gathered in the room of the farm house where I was lead to see the poor woman who indeed had a nasty gash in her head.
I asked how it had happened and they told me they throw stones at a barking dog. Seemed reasonable enough, but what a tragic result.
No soon had I look at the wound (what the hell was I doing here?) and turned to give my same advise,…. that it happened. Almost on cue, as is orchestrated and choreographed by a great directed,….. the man who had taken me to the poor women looked me in the eye and said: “We need money to go to hospital in Kathmandu. Can you help?” Simultaneously every doe eyed, tearful, and desperate looking villager looked at me in concert. I was alone in this small room as everyone waited for my reply.
Was I on the spot??? This seemed a little too well timed, so I used a time honored excuse,…”Let me ask my wife.” Although Kirsten and I were not married, for simplicity we pretended to be when traveling in traditional cultures. It saved a lot of explaining and made them feel better.
The entire village followed me back to the tea house. Rob & Julie had already come down to join Kirsten and I for breakfast. I must have looked like quite a site arriving with the entire village at my elbow.
We made a little conference. Rob rationalized that even if it was a scam you could in good conscience not help out. It was possible that that woman really need emergency care and we were her only hope. As an experienced Asian traveler, I took a harder line, but in the end relented. Everything seemed a bit suspicious.
In the end we decided to help. I asked what they needed and they told me 400 Rupees. This amount was about $8. at the time. I was shocked. I was expecting a very high figure and realized that the economic disparity between us and villagers was vast. It was a humbling experience. I only hoped that this small amount would really be used for the injured lady.
A heavy breakfast was enjoyed of Tibetan bread which is like as very dense pancake. Ordinarily that dense of food would give me wicked indigestion, but with 6 hours of hiking ahead it would all be burned up for fuel.
We saddled up with our back packs and bid farewell to our hosts and the dramatic events of that village. The ridge was a great choice as the views were outstanding.
As I stuffed my things into the backpack a young village boy stuck his head in to watch. I was compelled to take a picture looking at his silhouette in the doorway. He invibbed the village watching silently, an aura of innocence and curiosity with his hat and smock on. I didn’t have much in the way of gifts, but gave him a stick of Nag Champa incense to reward him for the photo.