When I arrived at the last settlement in Langtang Valley, Kyanjin Gumpa, I was invited to stay a little longer. If I painted Gyalbu’s Tibet Guest house. On my wander up the beautiful valley, I did my best to stay in smaller guest houses, this meant that I was often eating with the families and sharing more space with them. When I arrived in Kyanjin Gumpa I hadn’t slept the night before, dancing through the night, and I had beaten many of the locals back home. The town was silent. I found Tibet Guest House at the end of the town, the town is 100% guest houses, with people there, Gyalbu, his wife and small daughter.
On the second evening Gyalbu asked me to help him stack firewood. As we were tossing wood into the new pile he asked me. Do you want to stay and paint the windows of my guest house? I said sure. So the next day I found myself scraping, sanding and painting the windows of his guest house. I was saving 500 Rupees a day, about $7. But hey, not many people can say that they’ve painted at almost 4,000 meters! When I was questioning myself and why the heck I was hanging out of a second story window by one hand, and attempting to paint it with the other. I would switch the focus of my eyes to the reflection of the mountains in the glass. I was getting to stay in one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on the planet, during some surprisingly clear weather for the season. It was clear almost all of the five days that I spent there. Amazing, considering that for the rest of my trip, and the days before it rained all the time.
Gyalbu, the guest house owner, worked me hard. I worked 8 hours a day 4 of the 5 days that I spent there. It was great because Gyalbu helped me with my Nepali, which was shabby at that time and fed me well. The experience was wild, for a couple days I was the only foreigner in Kyangin Gumpa. There were some things that happened while I was there. Sadly one of them was the death of two people, one Japanese tourist and her Nepali guide. They tried to tackle the Ganja La Pass which is usually attempted at other times of the year. They died in an Avalanche. Their cook and porter returned bringing the news.
One day about 30 Nepali armed police and army walked up over the hill, fully armed, with dogs and dragging 3 US army personel who weren’t acclimated at all. They were doing a missing person search funded by the American Embassy, last year one American woman went missing in the Langtang Valley. I bluntly asked one of the huffing and swearing U.S. Army guys, “What’s with all the guns and glory.” He said that it was training for the army, to practice carrying all their equipment. I have seen Nepali Army carrying mortars, and bazookas as they trudged along a road.
The time in Kyanjin turned out to be perfect. Gyalbu was happy with my work, I was thorough and meticulous. The person who painted previously was not. He called me the paint doctor, he gave me a white coat of his so my clothes wouldn't get covered in paint, bu to no avail. He asked me multiple times whether I’d trained in painting back in the states. I told him that as a gardener I've done almost all the work under the sun. On the fourth day I finished all the paint. The next morning he surprised me by telling me that I’d have to go since there was no more paint and no place to buy it, thus no work. It was the right amount of time to be worked that hard, I don't think I would have wanted to stay longer and it just so happened that there was another ceremony happening at the Gumpa in Langtang. I packed up my stuff, headed down the trail, and spent another night dancing, singing and having a grand time with my friends. After a week in the Valley, and the knowledge that I was painting, people were even more friendly to me. I did my best that time to really help out. I served people food, dragging buckets of curd, curry and rice to many hungry people and of course, washing dishes in the dead of night.
No comments:
Post a Comment