anticipation & preparation: nepal in 2013

I went to Nepal without much of a plan in January of 2013 because it was a last-minute trip.

My colleague, Mona Lisa, had spent several months in Nepal and loved it.  She highly recommended the Kathmandu Guest House (Kathmandu Guest House), so I promptly arranged to stay there.  I downloaded to my Kindle the Rough Guide to Nepal and Lonely Planet Nepal and started reading. Mona Lisa stocked me up with trekking essentials (which I wasn’t sure I would use since I didn’t plan to do any long overnight treks), a city map, a walking stick, and miscellaneous other essentials.  She also sent me the link to some Tibetan incantations, music that would soothe my soul in Kathmandu, music that she said I would hear everywhere on the capital’s streets, music that would capture the soul of the place.

Another colleague, Zida, told me she hated Kathmandu because of the filth, pollution and chaos, but she highly recommended Pokhara, which she said was stunning.  I hoped the Kathmandu Guest House would help me book a flight to Pokhara, home of Phewa Lake, Mt. Machhapuchhare and Annapurna.

Here are some books about or set in Nepal; I read some of them (the ones with links and star ratings) after I returned home.  The others are merely suggested reading:

1. The Guru of Love by Samrat Upadhyay *****
2. Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay *****
3. The Royal Ghosts: stories by Samrat Upadhyay
4. Mad Country by Samrat Upadhyay
5. Buddha’s Orphans by Samrat Upadhyay
6. The City Son by Samrat Upadhyay
7. New Nepal, New Voices: An Anthology of Short Stories, ed. by Sushma Joshi ****
8. City of Ghosts by Johanna Stoberock
9. The Memory of Leaves by Manan Karki (Kindle)
10. Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East by Pico Iyer (travel essays from many countries)
    
11. House of Snow: An Anthology of the Greatest Writing About Nepal
12. The Tutor of History by Manjushree Thapa
13. Forget Kathmandu by Manjushree Thapa
14. Tilled Earth: Stories by Manjushree Thapa
15. Kathmandu by Thomas Bell
16. While the Gods Were Sleeping by Elizabeth Enslin
17. Thamel, Dark Star of Kathmandu by Rabi Thapa
18. Battles of the New Republic by Prashant Jha
19. The Living Goddess by Isabella Tree
20. The Bullet and the Ballot Box: The Story of Nepal’s Maoist Revolution by Aditya Adhikari
21. The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
22. Mustang: A Lost Tibetan Kingdom by Michel Peissel
23. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
24. The Waiting Land by Dervla Murphy
25. Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson
26. Down and Out in Kathmandu: A Backpacker Mystery by Jennifer S. Alderson
27. Notes of a Native Traveler: Nepal and Thailand by Jennifer S. Alderson
28. Shopping for Buddhas by Jeff Greenwald
29. Life and Death on Mt. Everest by Sherry Ortner
30. True Summit by David Roberts
31. Horses Like Lightning: A Story of Passage Through the Himalayas by Sienna Craig
32. The Kingdom by Clive Cussler
33. Palpasa Café by Narayan Wagle
34. Bones of the Tiger: Protecting the Man-eaters of Nepal by Hemanta Mishra and Jim Ottaway Jr.
35. The Soul of the Rhino by Bruce Babbitt and Jim Fowler
36. Don’t Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees by Thomas Hale Jr.
37. On the Far Side of Liglig Mountain: The Adventures of an American Family in Nepal by Thomas Hale Jr.
38. Massacre at the Palace: The Doomed Royal Dynasty of Nepal by Jonathan Gregson
39. Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas by Jamaica Kincaid
40. Tibetan Diary: From Birth to Death and Beyond in a Himalayan Valley of Nepal by Geoff Childs
41. Annapurna: A Woman’s Place by Arlene Blum
42. Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal by Conor Grennan

Here are some movies set in Nepal, but I haven’t seen any of them.

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
2. Himalaya (1999)
3. The Sari Soldiers (2008)
4. Kathmandu: A Mirror in the Sky (2011)
5. Who Will Be A Ghurka (2012)
6. Manakamana (2013)
7. Red Monsoon (2014)
8. Sold (2014)
9. Jerryy (2014)
10. Everest (2015)
11. Highway to Dhampus (2015)
12. Sherpa (2015)
13. Seto Surya (White Sun) (2016)
14. Dr. Strange (2016)
15. Bijuli Machine (2016)
16. Dying Candle (2016)
17. Death Zone: Cleaning Mt. Everest (2016)
18. Even When I Fall (2017)

I would go to Nepal from January 17-24, 2013.