May 21 – Red mud slippery, my friend and alpeshor cave.
Today
my Canadian comrades have fallen ill. This sucks immensely as we had planned
for hiking today with our friend Kripa from the hospital. I went alone to meet
her at the hospital gate. I did not make yesterday’s mistake of failing to make
coffee before I left, and instead I waiting for tatopani (hot water) so I could
mix myself Via before leaving. I made it in a metal cup and drank it at the
hospital while I waited for her to meet me. Once she arrived we set off to take
a local bus to Kushma where we would begin our day by crossing the longest and
highest suspension bridges. I had yet to travel by local bus so was pleased
when we climbed aboard with its fancy painting and coloured window shades. On
the bus Kripa met the healthpost in charge of Pusma and we were able to walk
with him through town until we reached a cable car.
After some consultation we paid the fare for the cable car and climbed in. This was a fancy cable car – one car on each side, operating similar to a gondola and passing slowly in the middle. After the cable car ride we walked by an old aiport, now a grassy field, and wound our way up a narrow track past people’s farms. On the way we saw monkeys in the fields, a gorgeous pine forest and mysterious, beautiful mists. After we walked for some time and met a few people we started to make our way down over a hill, into the forest and eventually to the bridge. Here there was a curious restaurant and we had a masala omelet that was very tasty with onions, red and green peppers and chilis mixed in. The theme of the restaurant seemed to be fairytale woodlands meets Greek mythology and our stools were made to look like carved stumps. After this we had a pleasantly swaying walk across the bridge. On the other side we walked through a pine forest that smelled so fresh and clean. The smell reminded me of home, but the pines looked different – they had few branches near their bottoms and all the foliage near the top. We then crossed another big suspension bridge, this one the longest. This led to a cave we had decided to visit. On the other side we saw the sign for the cave and headed off.
As we
were walking we heard drumming and singing. We decided to check it out. It was
a large gathering of people, mostly women sitting in the group, men hanging
back. A woman on the road told us they were a Christian group. I was surprised.
Nepal has less than 0.45% of its population following Christianity. We were
curious so we got closer. The men were preparing a goat as we approached. Other
men spoke to Kripa and laughed at the suggestion that they were Christian,
assuring us that no, they were a Hindi group and they met every Saturday to
sing and pray and feast on a goat. Frankly, I was relieved. There are
challenging things about all religions and belief systems, and Hinduism has its
share of undesirable qualities are well. However, I find the Mission work
somehow unethical. It isn’t fair to come to another county and culture and
build nice hospitals and schools and provide desperately poor people with the
necessities of life and then tell them everything about their religion and
culture is wrong and they need to convert to be saved. 
We
continue on towards the cave. When we got there we were met by a yogi. He
offered to lead us through the cave. He had two flashlights for us and a
headlamp for himself. After Kripa made prayers we made our way down into the
cave. It kept dropping, down and down we went. After some ways and at least 3
long ladders we got to see some impressive stalactites and stalagmites. Some of
them he identified as the various Hindu deities, Shiva and Parvarti, Ganesha
etc. It was a very nice cave. Then Kripa informed me he said we needed to go
through thigh deep water or go back. I thought we had gone quite far and was
under the false assumption that wading through water would result in getting
out sooner so I agreed and removed my boots and socks. Barefoot we walked down
over a cliff holding onto ropes for support. Then we began to wade. At times
the water was at the base of my bottom. I preferred when I could see the bottom
at least to place my feet as I was afraid I would step off into some abyss or
roll my ankle. Around 45-50min. later we finally saw light! Boy were we
relieved. As much as we loved the cave after about 15min. of stepping on precariously
slippery rocks covered in bat faeces or alternatively wading barefoot through
water down rocky steps we were ready to be finished. After seeing light
however, we were very excited we had done it. After confirming with the yogi we
are certain we came down 750m inside the cave! And then we traveled 
After crossing the lowest bridge of the day we headed up the
other side. At one fork in the path Kripa decided we should go left. Soon our
little foot path got steeper, then it disappeared. Just before this I had
commented, “Kripa, I think this is not the people path, this is the goat path.”
Sure enough, soon I was leading us across an unstable small waterfall and
edging us along the cliff using semi stable stones and tufts of grass to get us
to a path again. With relief we made it to the other side laughing. After a
switch back we then had one last steep climb and we were in Kushma town again.
We drank a very refreshing cool Coca Cola as Kripa told the young women and
children at the shop about our adventure. They had a hard time believing we had
come through the whole cave. They also asked if Kripa was my guide, to which
she assured them, no I was her friend. Later on the bus (after she had been
asked about being a guide again) we had a laugh about this and decided that I
guess it made sense, not a lot of visitors probably become good friends with
the locals in their travels. I am glad that I have been able to make such a wonderful
friend here in Baglung. We had such an excellent adventure today! Oh and I
should mention, I wore hiking boots and bare feet today. Kripa wore flip flops
and bare feet and managed just as well or better than I!
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