Na de culinaire veertiendaagse met de familie Philips werd het voor ons tijd om de herwonnen vetrolletjes weer weg te werken. Onze eerste expeditie was een mountainbiketocht van 70km vanuit Kathmandu door de bergen en Shivapuri Nationaal Park. De rit klom en klom en klom, 29km lang stegen we "rustig" en na uren klimmen (en zweten...) bleek dat we nog maar eens 4,5km steile klim voor de boeg hadden. Dan zouden we volgens onze reisgids de fietsen nog enkele trappen moeten opdragen om zo het hoogste punt te bereiken, maar de weg (ondertussen een pad door het bos in het nationaal [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone! Finally I have had the chance to get onto the internet again. I thought I would just let you know what I got up to over the weekend... This weekend, I went to Nagarkot with a few other volunteers. Nagarkot is basically a region out of the city where you get amazing views of the Himalayas- there is also fresh air, which is something I have been missing for a while! It was such an adventure! We planned to travel from Kathmandu and intended to stop over in Bhaktapur, where we would be able to catch a tourist bus [View Full Entry]

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Aujourd hui, 26 janvier, nous restons a Katmandou pour faire qq visites. Nous avons decide de parcourir le temple de Pashupatinath, haut lieu du Shivaisme : Pashupati est l incarnation la plus clemente de Shiva, pasteur, donc apprecie des fermiers. Une des particularites de ce temple c est qu il est un grand centre de cremation. Arrives vers midi, apres le rituel taxi et sa negociation, le temple est tres anime. Des centaines de pelerins s engouffrent dans l entree et squattent a gauche, a droite. Plutot que de parler d un temple, il serait plus approprie de parler d un [View Full Entry]

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The drive to our hotel was spectacular once we got out of Kathmandu. The winding drive up the mountains offered some wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. The hills are cut into layers for farming mainly rape seed (for oil), vegetables and potatoes are grown according to our driver. The climb up the hills was a little scary at times as the roads are very steep in places and also very close to the edge of the cliff!!!!! After around 2 hours we arrived at our hotel atop a massive mountain at least you call it a mountain until we got [View Full Entry]

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My last day in Kala Masi, Yalamber returned with a check for the money we had raised at Casino Night as well as money raised by Crooked Trails ($4600 in total, with donations still being received). We went to the school for a small ceremony so I could give the check to the committee chairman and all the kids could give me flowers and sing songs. Just as an FYI to all you donators, KEEP (the Nepal NGO Crooked Trails works with) draws up an agreement with the school committee, requiring them to submit a budget and timeline for the project [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday was the festival of Janaai Purima, this is a festival for the high caste Hindu (Brahman- which is the caste the family I am staying with is in). This is the day the men change their janaai or thread necklace they wear and everyone else (including me!) receives a protection cord from the Brahman priest, it is a yellow thread tied around you wrist. I had also bought tikas for the girls to wear on that day in Bhaktaphur. Of course they wanted me to wear one too, so I complied...knowing full well I looked more like an extra in [View Full Entry]

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Sabina asked me if my mother can read and write. She was impressed when I said that she could. She said that her mother cannot. Sabita, who lives next store, also said her mother cannot read or write. Sobito (FYI, I have no idea why, but it seems that girls of a similar age in this village also have similiar names) Nepal who lives down the street, said her mother went to school until grade 7. When their mothers were growing up, their parents reasoned that since the girls would grow up to be wives and work in the home, there [View Full Entry]

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I had asking where Sobito Nepal was, as I hadn't seen here is 2 days. She is one of the "regulars" that usually come over to visit and play cards. The family told me she was having "means" or menustration. It was her 2nd menustration, so she must stay alone in her room for 5 days. On your 1st menustration, you stay alone in your room for 14 (!) days. When Nepali women have their period, they are not allowed to prepare food (which perhaps may be a blessing in disguise for the neer ending tasks of a house wife here). [View Full Entry]

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I asked Pradip if he knew any famous Americans. He knew George Bush and Bill Gates. I asked him where he knew Bill Gates from, he said from television. I asked if he knew any other famous Americans; he thought for a whole and said, "I know you." So the 3 most popular Americans ( in no particular order) are: George Bush, Bill Gates and Nicole :-) I didn't realize before how little information about the US comes here. Some people get the BBC channel in their home, and that is about the only source of US information. There also [View Full Entry]

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