May 3 at 1:20 AM
My oldest son, Matt, and I take off from San Francisco for a 14-hour flight to Hong Kong on the first leg of our journey to Kathmandu, Nepal. Never in my wildest dreams, back in Mrs. Stauffer's 7th grade social studies class where I learned world geography, could I have imagined that one day I would travel halfway around the world to watch a son of mine get married!
My youngest son, Andrew, is marrying Subechya Shrestha who he met at work in San Francisco. They both have degrees in economics, he from the University of California, Berkeley, and she from Macalester College in Minneapolis. She speaks English excellently, as well as three other languages.
Matt and I have an 11 1/2- hour layover in Hong Kong. Luckily he has a college friend from Stanford who lives there, and she and her husband meet us for dim sum in central Hong Kong. Then it's back to the airport to catch our Dragonair jet for the 5-hour flight to Kathmandu. (I look out the window on board but I don't see any dragons!) After landing and obtaining visas at the Kathmandu airport where Andrew and Subechya meet us, Matt and I arrive at our hotel and collapse into our beds after midnight on May 4. Jet lag has me rising at 5:00 the next morning, though, and I walk the hotel grounds taking pictures, including the one above.
To thank us for traveling to Nepal Andrew and Subechya have chartered a bus two days later to take us up to the mountain resort of Nagarkot where we'll stay overnight. At 6,722 feet our hotel balcony offers us a panoramic view of the Himalayas, from Dhaulagiri in the west to Mt. Everest and Kanchenjunga in the east. We rise at 5:30 the next morning to catch the sunrise over the Himalayas. Later, riding down the winding one-lane road back to Kathmandu, our bus slows several times to squeeze by vehicles going uphill. We hold our breaths hoping that we don't scrape together or careen off the edge of the road into a canyon. Fortunately we make it back in one piece.
Back at the hotel we women guests are helped by some of Subechya's aunts to dress in saris. (Wearing one was voluntary but since I'd never had one on I decided to grab at the chance!) Then it's on to the reception where everyone greets the newlyweds, and we eat, drink, and dance the night away. I'm introduced to Sabal's girlfriend's father who is an accomplished Thangka artist, and he gives me a lovely silk Nepali scarf to wear around my shoulders.
Swayambhunath Temple is a very impressive Buddhist temple that sits upon a hilltop. It is also known as the Monkey Temple because of the wild rhesus monkeys that scramble around the grounds. In the center is a large white stupa, or whitewashed dome, crowned with a gilded spire that is painted with the eyes of the Buddha. The strong smell of burning incense and butter lamps greets you as you enter the grounds, and you can see the faithful circling the stupa, spinning the small cylindrical metal prayer wheels with their hands as they walk around it clockwise. Near the stupa hundreds of colorful prayer flags flutter high above in the breeze.
Later comes pita biee, or the time when the bride says goodbye to her family members so that she can join the groom's family. After a few shared tears, Subechya is carried out to the wedding car on her brother Sabal's back. They circle the car first three times as we all laugh at the sight and snap pictures.
