Monkey Doodle Doo

Monkeys upon a tree never are very blue
They never seem to be under par that is true
Not like the ones you see on a bar in the zoo
Monkeys upon a tree do the Monkey Doodle Doo

Oh, among the mangoes where the monkey gang goes
You can see them do
The little Monkey Doodle Doo

Oh, a little monkey playing on his one key
Gives them all the cue
To do the Monkey Doodle Doo

Let me take you by the hand
Over to the jungle band
If you're too old for dancing
Get yourself a monkey gland
And then let's

Go, my little dearie, there's the Darwin theory
Telling me and you
To do the Monkey Doodle Doo...

--Irving Berlin

We're still (Friday) at the hotel in Gokarno Forest near Kathmandu. Vicki's Khumbuitis has morphed into either a pinched nerve or strained ligaments in her shoulder, and she's been pretty much bed-ridden since Wednesday. Very painful. Sister-in-law doctor Beth has recommended medication and treatment, but it's mostly the kind of thing that will take some time. Send her a sympathetic and encouraging email!

Hopefully not too much time. We're scheduled for Chitwan National Park Sunday through Wednesday and an elephant ride somewhere in there, hunting for rhinos and tigers to shoot with our camera. Already done bears. Nepal has got to be one of the world's more diverse places, geographically. Chitwan is downright tropical, 30m above sea level. Snakes, crocodiles, mosquitoes. Kathmandu and its valley are sub-tropical. Then, 45 minutes away by slow plane, you've got most of world's 8000m peaks.

Saturday I will go into Kat to ship some trekking things to New Zealand and also hopefully see a few sights, Thamel again, Durbar Square, Freak Street, the Monkey Temple, etc.

The monkeys in this forest are strange. One day the place is crawling with them, scores, everywhere. Today, they're scarcely in view. But I trust I'll see them at the Monkey Temple, maybe doing the Monkey Doodle Doo. Irving Berlin's song was the musical centerpiece of "The Cocoanuts," the long-running Broadway musical collaboration with the Marx brothers that became their first film. It was the only musical he did that did not produce a hit tune. But my inner-Floridian still loves it. I'm struggling to understand what my inner-Floridian sees in the Himal.

Addendum: Saturday, while Vicki rested, Mingma took me to see some more of the sites in Kathmandu. Should the reader ever visit Kathmandu, two things I saw Saturday are exceptional. One is the Monkey Temple, on a high hill to the north over-looking the city and valley. The view, the rites and ceremonies, and the complex of temple buildings are worth the several hundred-step climb, and then some. Plus there were real monkeys. Kathmandu's Durbar Square is more than exceptional...scores of temples, shrines and other religious edifices, many ancient, all packed into a square kilometer or so. It is written that Kat has more temples and shrines than residences, and Durbar Square would lead you to that conclusion. We also walked along Freak Street, a shadow of its former self, I gather. I understand the Durbar Sqaures in Kat's adjoining cities of Patan and Bhaktapur are even more impressive. Next time.

Sadly, the National Museum was less impressive, mostly collections of weapons of former kings, coins and stamps, and a few comical life-sized dioramas of traditional peoples doing traditional things--a reminder of the poverty of this country and the fact that, under the previous regimes, it has invested very little in itself. Hopefully, both the poverty and investment will change.