Sonam and Phurba...I miss them dearly.

Not sure about the spelling of Nepali names but even the Nepalis don´t know themselves as they have their own script of Sanskrit origins.

My first friends in Nepal were S.Maharjan and R.

They were returning home from Nebraska (US) for the first time after 2 years. R. was looking forward to seeing his wife in Kath. The flight took them over 24 hours and five transits! Really cool guys, I learned from them my first Nepali words...and slang: k-chha?! means "what´s up?" My Tamang friend told me that Maharjan is Newar (one of the 40 tribes in Nepal which inhabit Kath Valley) and are mostly Buddhist. But this S. is Hindu and for one thing, he´s fun...

Then, it was Sunil Gurung of Bhaisi Kharka (baishi means buffalo and kharka, place). No wonder why, there is plenty of buffalos in this Gurung village. I told Sunil: mero nam Machhapuchhare ho ("my name is Fish Tail") and we had such a good laugh!

Lima and Devindhra (what a lovely couple!) are running the Sunrise Lodge in Banthanti with the help of Kanji (Devindhra´s young sister). Kanji means literally "the last one", she´s gorgeous and Lima is so beautiful too: dark long hair, big eyes, such coquettes. I find that Gurung people have pretty attractive features. After we met Devindhra, we all (Nepali and non-Nepali) ended up saying "manjare!" for the rest of the trek. Lima named me "sumdarit" and from then on, everyone was calling me "didi sumdarit" instead of my real name. We had the best ever after-dinner party (a "mit" celebration) in a magical deep valley retreat: just think of the Kali Gandaki river, a cosy and tiny dinning-room with a stove and dim oil lamps and a dozen people drinking raksi (millet liquor) and Kukrum rum, playing madal (traditional drum), singing and dancing Nepali songs till late...but this is another story for a new entry...

And here is when I made friends with Sonam Tamang and Phurba Sherpa. The day before we had to say goodbye to each other, my dear Phurba told me that he would remember my face after I left. And Sonam, that night of celebrations for the "mit" of a Gurung -Devindhra- and himself, a Tamang (that is, the closest friendship between two people of different tribes who also must look alike), composed a song only for me! It´s called "Hong Kong Malayee" and was the first and last song in Nepali we will ever learn so we sang it together all along the trek for five days, in spite of the risk of avalanches!!! The lyrics goes something like this:

HK malaai, maia leh, maitara bahi-ni titi cho lah yei...

We trekked altogether to Tatopani before heading to different directions. I gave my sunglasses to Phurba to protect him from the blizzards up there in Jomson and Muktinah and Sonam took his Buddhist bead charm and twined it round my left wrist to look after me...how can you not fell for people like this!

The very first night after we went away, I saw them in dreams and ended up in tears.

The list of absolutely charming people we met is rather long even though we stayed in Nepal for such few days. I wonder whether we would feel the same if we manage to go back and meet them again...dhanyabad, my dear ones.