Nepal #13: Bathing will never be the same again.

What you're probably thinking is this: "Oh man, it must have sucked to shower without clean or hot water for 3 weeks." Well, that's not entirely true. Bathing in the village was a life-changing experience for this reason:

 

Sunrise at the public water tap: A breathtaking view!


Bathing in a Nepali village goes something like this (yes! back to lists):

1. Gather all the necessary shower items into a bag.
2. Take a gander (ha! I never use that word, but it's perfect) down the hill to the public water tap (hereafter referred to lovingly as the Big Tap).
3. As you get closer, you slow down once it comes into view down the steep hill ahead. One of two things happen: (1) You (a woman) see men bathing. This results in immediate return to your house until later. (2) You see no one or only women at the Big Tap. In this case we experience option 2.
4. Walk down the remaining trail (equivalent to 10 flights of stairs) until you arrive at the Big Tap.
5. You have arrived at the Big Tap. This tap is basically a parking spot-sized slab of concrete with a 3 inch metal pipe sticking out of a side wall constantly pouring ground temperature water onto the concrete slab. There's a drain in the corner that drains to who-knows-where.
6. Now it's time to shower. Since you're a woman, you take off all but your bottom layer of clothes (usually pants and a shirt). Now put on your lungi. Lungi? What's that? A lungi is basically a sarong. It's a tube of fabric that you step into and tie off at the top so it doesn't fall down. Once that's on, take your remaining clothing off from under it.
7. Approach the big tap, trying not to slip on the incredibly slippery/algae-covered concrete floor. Wash your hair first because once your lungi gets wet, you want to get out of there as fast as possible.
8. Now, get under the tap and completely soak your lungi with soap and water. Use the lungi like a giant sponge. Rinse.
9. While you're there and already drenched, you might as well do some laundry.
10. Squeeze as much water out of the lungi as possible. Repeat previous de-clothing process backwards. Yes, this results in very damp undergarments - hopefully you have a dry set to change into once you get home.
11. Return all your clean, wet laundry and lungi to your bag and start heading home.
12. Walk up the giant hill.
13. Yes! You're finally home, and you are even more sweaty/smelly than when you started this whole adventure.

And that is why bathing in Nepal is so wonderful. Don't forget about the incredible view of the mountains! Also, when men bathe they don't use a lungi. Don't ask me how they do it - I was a strict follower of the rules as stated in Step 3 above.

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the Big Tap or lungis, but here's a photo to give you the idea:

Loons, Bugs, and Bears on Lake Winnipesaukee

Winnipesaukee is a BIG lake (approximately the same surface area as Cayuga Lake) located just south of the White Mountains in NH. It's a little over an hour from Manchester when the traffic is cooperating. We (Tina, Brian, and I) stayed over at Chris's condo on Long Island (not the famous one), which stick out into the middle of the lake.

The kayaking portion:


Date: Saturday, July 3rd

Distance: 15 miles

Time: 4.5 hours including breaks

On Saturday morning I got up at the ungodly hour of 5am (ok, it was 5:30 when I was done snoozing) for a 6am launch. Due to a lack of sea kayaks (or more likely morale at 6am), I embarked on this journey alone.

The lake felt very different from the Finger Lakes for a number of reasons:

1. It's not long and skinny, so you never know what's just around the corner!
   
2. Island hopping!!
   
3. More motor boats... more chop (hence the 6am launch)
   
4. Beautiful mountains on every horizon

Around 8am I met up with a loon family (two adults and two chicks). Here's a picture & movie of them!

I made it back feeling pretty tuckered out (slightly sore in the shoulders/abs), but I'm starting to have hope that I can paddle the length of Cayuga -- if we kept up the same rate (and the weather was perfect, etc...) it would take about 12 hours, which is an hour less than the hours of daylight in Ithaca in September...

The non-kayaking portion:
On Sunday morning the four of us got up "early" (9am, ha!) for a hike (Tina's first!) to the top of Red Hill, which sits between Squam and Winnipesaukee. On the dirt road to the trail head, a tiny black bear cub jumped into the road and scrambled across right in front of my car. We watched it run into the woods and join its mother and sibling 100 yards away!

It was a little under 2 miles to the peak (2,030 ft). The views from the fire tower at the top were incredible. We had a 360 degree view of both lakes, the Whites, and a number of other mountain ranges nearby.


We spent the rest of the weekend swimming, hanging out on the boat, basking in the sun (but not getting burned!), enjoying good food, and reading.

Adventures with Julia and Thundery Kayaking

Warning: This post is too long and I know it... I promise I'll try and keep it more concise from now on!

This weekend I met up with the lovely Julia Schoen in Portsmouth, NH for a weekend of sunny beaches and other adventures. But since this is a kayaking blog, I will cover that part first!

After Julia and I sadly parted ways (she's off to Brazil for a year), I was due to meet up with some kayakers from the NH AMC paddlers group at Odiorne Point State Park in Rye, NH. There were 5 of us in total. The tide (! that scary thing that doesn't exist where I come from) was really low when we put in, so the banks of the shore were SUPER muddy and I almost lost my chacos getting in. Normally I try to keep my feet dry when I'm getting in my boat (call me a wimp), but there really was no getting around it this time (and of course I couldn't seem like a wimp around these new peeps!).

Date: 6/20/10
Distance: ~4 miles


As we were first heading out, we heard some rumbling in the distance, but the trip leaders said it was from a nearby bridge. It was definitely thunder. But as usual, I figured these NH'ers knew what they were doing and followed blindly (do you see a theme? if not, read the previous post). We paddled along the beaches at the park and then cut across to circumnavigate Leachs Island. On the way over there we had to pass under a bridge that kind of constricted the water, and since the tide was coming back in we were flushed right through. As I was being rushed towards the bridge, it occurred to me that a couple of the bridge supports were closer together than the length of a sea kayak, and definitely would have made for some good strainers. I only realized this at the last moment and had to resort to a hasty yet somewhat effective side slip. Woohoo!

The way back through the bridge was a lot harder because the flow rate had increased and the downstream water was churning in all kinds of directions. I hopped in an eddy before ferrying across and paddling as hard as I could upstream to get back to the other side (COE whitewater class is highly recommended!) .

Once we were on the other side of the bridge the rain started coming down and the thunder picked up again. I was not so cool with that, and the end was in sight, so I paddled in as fast as possible. Just as I got my boat up onto my car there was a HUGE crack of thunder directly over our heads. I probably jumped 1.5 feet into the air and decided to make the trip home in my wet clothes. For some reason everyone else seemed less phased than me... maybe I should add thunderstorms to my list of fears (right after spiders), or maybe I just have a very conservative attitude towards kayaking in thunderstorms.

ANYWAYS, I made it home alive, only slightly dusted with dried salt water and frizzy hair. I miss my Rochester and Ithaca paddling buddies!

This is the part where you stop reading if you just care about kayaking (perfectly valid).

Rewinding now to Friday night. Julia and I both pulled into the parking lot of Shel-Al Campground (we think it's a contraction of the superbly sweet owners' names) exactly 2 hours later than planned. I managed to leave my tent in the backyard and only realize once I was halfway to the coast, and she locked her keys in the car and printed out the wrong directions. It worked out quite well!

There really aren't many places to camp along the NH coast (correct me if I'm wrong). Shel-Al was the only one within a reasonable driving distance of the coast, and it's mainly focused on trailers. But it worked out quite nicely since there were very few tent-ers there this weekend.

Both Friday and Saturday night we went into Portsmouth and explored. It's a really lovely city with a bunch of streets with *local* restaurants and shops. I'd love to return when my mother is in a shopping mood (is that terrible of me?). After making a stop on Newcastle Island (just had to do it. brown ale is just too good), we had dinner downtown at a little seafood restaurant with a very friendly waitress. After dinner we sat on a big rock by the ocean and listened to the waves.

On Newcastle Island:

On Saturday we drove up and down the coast (Route 1A, Ocean Blvd) multiple times, testing out Odiorne Point, Rye, Jenness, Hampton Beach. Julia made me get in the water, which was good because I'm a chicken when it comes to these (icy cold) things... While in search of a surf shop we discovered a delicious little cafe on 7th street in Hampton called KB Bagels. Highly recommended.


Saturday night we cooked couscous and black beans for dinner, and I took an ice-cold shower to dampen the terrible sunburn I managed to acquire. Around dusk we decided to make some hot drinks and the mosquitoes decided to join us. They came out in droves and we fled to the safety of the Volvo. We put the seats back, sipped our hot cocoa with Bailey's, listened to Jack Johnson, and watched our classy neighbors setting off fireworks (just for us of course). Magical.

The next morning we woke up to the 4am alarm and dragged ourselves back to the coast to watch the sunrise (5:03am). At first we were worried that it would hide behind the clouds, but around 5:30am it revealed it's cheery face. It was quite a relief since Julia would have hated me forever if it hadn't.


After another trip to KB's for some much needed coffee and a frigid swim (by Julia), we parted ways. Now you can scroll back to the top and start over! (This is the post that never ends... and it goes on and on....... sorry.)