Foto Friday: introducing Lakshman (a Nepal flashback) 18 January 2008 6:43 pm
Posted by Tracy in : eating, hungry planet, nepal, pictures, travel , trackbackWhen I put out my general “who wants a postcard?” call before the Nepal trip, Cj said something awesome like, “I don’t need a postcard, but bring back some good stories.” Here, then, is a little story about Lakshman, one of our amazing kitchen crew.
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This story takes place on October 15, our first real day of trekking, when we set out from the “Rumjatar Hilton” schoolyard and hit the trail through lush green fields of millet:
What I remember most about that morning was the climbing. I am not so good at climbing, but I am very good at stopping to catch my breath, and in Nepal there was always something awesome to look back on, to make me feel good about how far I’d come, like I’d earned my sore muscles (I learned a new stretch later on):
After a few hours of hiking and many spectacular views, we came past our first mani wall:
We walked past on the left, like you do if you’re avoiding bad luck (which could mean the yeti), and met up with our cooking crew not much further on. They had passed us on the trail and set up kitchen to make lunch:
The lead cook was a fellow named Nettre, and true to cook form, he mostly stayed behind the scenes — I think this might be my only picture of him; he’s the one to the far right. Also he’s the one in the center of this picture by my cousin Mike, but I digress just a bit. Holy cats, it was amazing! And full-service! Lakshman and his assistant were in charge of serving the meal, like so:
There was flatbread to wrap around mystery sausages and green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and limes (all the vegetables carefully cooked and/or peeled — the cooking crew were unbelievably thorough about keeping stuff clean) and later on there was a second course of dal bhaat, and apples (also carefully peeled) for dessert. We ate sitting on a stone wall facing the cooking area, our backs turned towards the spot where Lakshman was dividing up the food, on a tarp on the ground just above us. I had just about finished my first sandwichy thing when Lakshman appeared over my shoulder — and neatly slid another fully loaded flatbread onto my plate. As I wrote in my paper journal later, “I was surprised, and delighted, even overjoyed,” and at that moment I decided Lakshman was the very greatest.
So that’s my “introducing Lakshman” story. I never got a good picture of his smile, which was perhaps even more stunning than Mingma’s, but you’ll have to take my word for it because I don’t have photographic proof. Cj, this is just the beginning of my Nepal stories for you, but I chose to begin with this one to get things off to a very happy start. (Also because there was food in the story! Yum!)
Happy weekends, all.
Comments»
I drove seven hours collectively yesterday (drove to Arizona and back), so perhaps my moment of weakness of tearing up a moment because you kinda sorta posted just for me can be blamed on being tired. Still it it was a very shiny kind deed in my very weary morning (ack! it is afternoon). Hopefully a moment of weakness will not mislead others to believe that there are any cracks in my vainglorious misanthropic nature.
Thank you for thinking of me, for my story, and showing such beautiful pictures of millet fields, and I look forward to all future tales (but, I like reading just about anything you throw out there)