Ari's Planet

I went for a walk to the Peace Pagoda in Pokhara. Walk down along the lake, turn right, cross the dam at dam side where people do their washing, then follow along some rice fields for a bit until you come to an orange temple with a spring, where you turn right and head up the hill. The rice has been harvested and people were out in force threshing. The fields are dry now and only the lower stalks remain. As I was walking up the hill across the valley came Old MacDonald Had a Farm followed by It's A Small World After All. In the forest, butterflies, eagle, monkeys, and buffalo made their way, each in their own style. An abandoned terrace. A few shops, tourists, a shop being extended with the oddest angled bamboo poles as scaffolding, a shiny white and gold pagoda. Pokhara stretched out, the Annapurnas rising, gleaming, snow, blue sky, paragliders, a lake with colorful boats. On the way back I heard the sounds of some celebration, what for I do not know. A French tourist asked me if it was worth the climb up; how do you answer a question like that? Is life worth it?