Kathmandu - the last days

And so I've ended up thinking that Kathmandu is a nice place after all :) I've located Matilde and had some fun with her, though we're staying in different places, but tonight we're gonna go out together and dine with Kamal. He wants to show us this nice restaurant and I'm sure we're going to have fun! I also found Krishna and at last - always nice to see him again :)
I've been strolling around in Thamel thinking about hot chocolate, books and christmas gifts. I found a good bookstore and bought (another) Murakami book - he is a genius writer! I've also located the only place in Nepal where you can get something that looks like a burgerking burger, a sad need I've had since the daal bhaat in Kantipur ;)
I'm going out to find Manoj today and say hello and goodbye to him and maybe take a walk to one of the temples in the city before I leave monday. The ticket home is (almost) confirmed, but the truth is that I never really want to leave (though I miss my family) and I believe that I now am what you call addicted to travel - and loving it ! All in all not bad at all :)

On my last day I managed to go with Kamal to the Shiva Temple which is the place where the Hindus burn their dead relatives. It is something special to see dead people being carried to the water, washed, blessed and then set on fire! I haven't really seen any dead people in Denmark (they are mostly enclosed in a coffin) and it is kind of strange to be confronted with dead in this most physical way. We also found a holy stone which protects against skin deceases (so now I can go into the sun without any block on ;) ) and some funny deers and a badminton court in the middle of the temple!! Nice :D I love driving around Kathmandu on a motorcycle (a dangerous adventure) and seeing the city, all the women wearing saris, kutas and western clothes - a nice mix! The small shops along the road and the many insane drivers.
I found a new friend Kishan, who took me to the palacegarden and made me laugh my head off - he's even more crazy than me, believe it or not! He took me to a nice reggae club in the evening though they played more rock than reggae... but nice people and nice environment :) A nice surprise exposed itself in the afternoon; Bijay came from Pokhara to say goodbye :D Really nice, so we spend the evening together with Kishan and other weird people - it is so much fun to meet new friends !
Now Delhi, London and Billund are waiting for me, I'm taking the flight in three hours and hope to be home soon; my headphones are gone, so it's kind of boring with so much time on your hands, though I've got a good book...
Goodbye to Kathmandu, Nepal and the best experience in my life - so far :)

Kayaking

Back in the capital and . . . NOT enjoying it! The city is just not for me - I miss Pokhara and true nature in remote areas, too many cars and people and trouble - I'm beginning to look forward to getting home :)

The kayak trip down the Seti has been a great experience! In the end I got really good at forcing my way through the rapids though I had to swim a little to get to it - it's much easier to make the eskimo roll in calm water than on the river with a stone in your shoulder! But I made it though without any real damage done (if we forget that I burned my hand in the campfire and now have huge blisters on my fingers) and can now call myself experienced in the real kayaking adventure! The trip has been a real beauty through wild rapids and enormous valleys made by the ever falling rain during the monsoon time. I have fallen down through rocks and butterflywaves made by the river and collected driftwood in a big sandalgraveyard by the shore, been drinking roksi (still don't like it) with the local people and made myself friends with the guides in the rafting company. It's been wonderful and I see it as the perfect way of saying goodbye to Nepal - the wild way :)

Eskimo Roll

First day of the kayak school and we took it slow on the Phewa Lake, no currents, rapids or dangerous sharks ;) I'm on the trip with three Swedish guys, who all seem very nice though they've, surprisingly, never been in a kayak before! The kayaks for the wild rivers are much different from the Danish ones I'm used to - much smaller and easily affected though also very easy to navigate - perfect for the adventure I'm going on! We started learning a little about how to row and steer and then spend the day in the lake trying to the eskimo roll! A very wet, cold and fun day!! In the end I learned how to make the eskimo roll, eventhough I'm cheating a little and holding the paddle easier - but I'll learn. I'm really proud of myself, because I never thought I would succeed, but I did - because of my iron will (thanks Emil). Tomorrow we hit the Seti River and will spend some days there forcing our way through the rapids.

The two extra days I got gave me the time to go the Peace Pagoda again and take a little boat out onto the lake having a little lunch and swim with myself - the water is surprisingly hot here - IN DECEMBER! I hope everbody in icy Denmark is jealous of my swim in the lovely lake and sunshine :) I had a sleep over day and now feel ready to take on the next adventure before heading for Kathmandu and Europe.

WTF?

When I went to start the kayak tour today it turned out that my instructor is sick, so the whole thing is postpones two days! Interesting... Now I have time to relax even more! Wow I'm gonna have fun :)

The Day Night Cafe

Since Matilde left for her meditation I have been wandering around Pokhara doing sight seeing and buying myself hot chocolate and goood food :) Bijay from the Day Night Cafe has taken me to see different things, so now I've been to the local market, into the Bat Cave (which was much smaller than I thought), the Mahendra Cave where I got a tika and a blessing from and old hindu and to Devi's Fall, a huge waterfall (though only during the monsoon) which we saw from inside a dangerous and exciting cave made by the water. I've enjoyed myself looking over the Phewa Tal and I have made myself known and friends with all the people who work in the Day Night Cafe, my favorite place here - I eat there at least once every day :) Tonight they're having a jazz-jam party, so I'm going to embarrass myself by singing something I don't really know - I'm looking very much forward to it :)
I've been enjoying myself, relaxing, talking to weird, interesting and funny people all day long and experienced what it is like to be locked out of the lodge because I came home too late - don't worry I didn't sleep on the street! I've been having fun and laughing my head off with all these nice people :)

NO!!!

The worst thing ever has happened! (Okay not the worst, but still...) ALL my videos from the two months in Kantipur is gone!! I had a man make a back-up on a dvd for me, and then yesterday I deleted everything, thinking I had it on the dvd... but the stupid man made a mistake!!! There's only the pictures - no videos! I cried myself to sleep last night, those videos were the best ever made and their like does not exist :(

BUT! Today I had a great day, so I don't mind :) Matilde left at 5.30 in the morning and I have spent the day with Bijay my new friend and musician from a nice little cafe here... We went to the local market to see real Nepalese people and then went walking in the streets. I've booked a kayak school from saturday (four days on a wild river) and bought myself a nice cup of hot chocolate - a very nice day indeed :)
AND it is also the first of december today - christmas is coming! Even though you can't tell in this part of the world ...

PARAGLIDING !

I'VE DONE IT! I've done the most crazy and wild thing in my life! I threw myself off a 3000m high cliff only supported by some cloth!!! I must be insane .. .. but I survived (and so did Matilde) to tell the tale: Paragliding is AWESOME! It has to be the best thing I've done so far, it's just wild and the best :) We paid for an hour and hang above the Phewa Lake enjoying the view over the valley and the mountains - through the clouds we could see Annapurna and Fishtail clearly - it was SO beautiful! Amazing experience! In the end my Koreaen pilot (we flew tandem) wanted to show me something fun, so he made some acrobatics in the air!!!! It was the wildest rollecoaster I've ever tried mulitplied by ten!!! SO wild to turn around in the air and feel your body dropping down towards the lake.... wow I had problems with my stomach afterwards!! But I survived and must say that it's the funniest thing to do in a place with mountains :) Everybody should do it at least one time in their short lives, is my advise - it gives you a new perspective :)

In Pokhara we've found peace and quiet at a lodge with a beautiful view over the lake! Great way to wake up :) We have located the most cozy bar in town with cushions and good food (a rarerity here) and drinks served by some friendly nepalese jazz-lovers who are now our friends :) We love their mentality :) Matilde is going to a meditation and yoga school tomorrow which leaves me alone for some ten days, so we are enjoying the last evening together and I'm preparing for my future alone... which is quite empty actually! Wonderful :)

Lumbini

Lumbini is the birtplace of Buddha himself and also the best place to exactly what we need: peace, silence and beautiful surroudings !!! When we arrived late at night two days ago we quickly realised that something was going on. No rooms in any hotels were available!!! A big tibetan Lotus Lantern Festival is taking place and thousands of buddhists are filling up the rooms. That turned out to be our luck, because we are now sleeping in the Korean Monastery INSIDE the garden! And that is really nice :) No sounds at night and everbody is walking around silently saying quiet hello to each other - we're loving it! A big disapointment about the place though is that there's no really good food here! It's kind of crappy and we had to go far away to find a decent meal yesterday; which on the other hand turned out to be worthy of the royal family!
The place is filled up with monasteries and statues of Buddha and there's also a crane sanctuary ahich we will visit tomorrow - it's really beautiful and nice to bicycle around and discover funny temples and frightning animals in the night. A good way to spend a few days before we go back to Pokhara, paragliding, meditation and civilization...

Leaving Kantipur

is the most difficult thing I've had to do in a long time! We've been so warmly welcomed that it's a new family for us and it really hard saying goodbye when you don't when you'll return. But the last days were a party and we had a great time!
We went for a picnic with both schools and sacrifized a goat (!) and ate it all!! I've never eaten brain or lungs before... it was an experience!! We held a ceremonious goodbye on both schools the next day and went to visit one of the teachers from Ayodhyapuri, Soma, who had become our good friend. It was very nice, a quiet place, and her children were nice and gave us small gifts - it seems to be something all nepali do a lot, give gifts to each other. It is both wierd and lovely to get presents from people who are much more poor than yourself. Manoj came down from Kathmandu and took us to yet another sacrifice, this time a gandharba festival (it never ends), so we are now experts in killing hens and goats in a quick and very effective way !
The very last day in Kantipur was a gift: we spent it alone home on Siddhi Lal's farm - all the kids were in school! A very lovely surprise and we spent it talking to Mommi China and the animals, we had goats, hens, buffalos and cows to converse with :)

All in all our stay in Kantipur has been lovely and something that has changed us and taught us a lot. We are going to miss our family and the children and it has been an amazing experience.

Ayodhyapuri School

After ended job in Kantipur we moved to Ayodhyapuri School to teach; the school is a lot bigger - five classes - and also a lot richer, they had money to give us lunch :D The minut we arrived on the first day in the school we felt better. They had a lot more structure in every aspect of the work and the teachers were all more easy to communicate with. We spend three weeks in Ayodhyapuri and became much better teachers. We learned about mistakes we made in Kantipur and got new ideas and were able to take the teaching to a much higher level - great for the kids and us :) We also made a book for the next volunteers, so I won't bore everybody with the details ;) In class 4 and 5 we were able to let the children write essays about themselves, so now there is a book on the way to Kragelund Skole in Denmark with photos and writings from Nepal. We had a lot of fun with teachng the children songs and games, so they are able to play and sing bankeboef, funky chicken, lille peter edderkop, aramsasa, bro bro brille, mester jakob, boogie woogie, en lille and med vinge og go down moses!!! It was really fun to let the children sing the danish songs that we know from our own chidhood ;D

Tihar Festival

After the first two weeks in the school we hit another hindu festival (it seems like there are more holidays than actual work days here - not to complain of course!), the Tihar. The festival was really only one day, but we got four days off and enjoyed the opportunity. On the special day we gave tika's to our brothers and they gave tika's to their sister (which seems to be the only holy thing about the day). They didn't mind us not being Hindues and since they see us as family, we participated - lucky for us :) We gave our brothers Himal, Subas and Bidde tikas and presents from their parents. When we sat down to be blessed it turned out that our smallest brother, Himal, had bought us a present! Brand new saris! It was a very nice and beautiful gift, and he had even hand-picked the colours and pattern himself - he's only eight ears old and already a genius! He chose to give me a red one and Matilde a turqouise one which fit us both perfectly, thankyou bai :)

Kantipur School

After the festival ended we moved up to Siddhi Lal, teacher at Kantipur School. The first day we spent visiting the two schools we are going to work at; Kantipur and Ayodhyapuri. The children received us with flowers and small half-scared smiles and the teachers were so happy they almost fell over each other to greet us - very nice to be so warmly welcomed! After a small presentation we used a lot of time to debate; the schools wanted us to work alone, so each school would get more time, at it took us the best of an hour to explain that the terms for our teaching was to work together, but we succeeded :)
We have now been teaching in Kantipur for two weeks and have come to love the job and the people there, both children and teachers. We have the fun classes: communicative English! So our job is basically to make the children talk in English. This might seem easy, but be prepared! Even though the children new many words and phrases in English they had never before been asked to think for themselves, only to repeat the teacher! So it was a fight to make them answer our questions! Through games and a lot of drawing though we have been able to accomplish something, and we are proud of ourselves :) The assignment has been hindered a bit by the fact that we teach the whole school at one time: 30 kids! They are on three different levels (class one, two and three) and the smallest one just started school, they don't know any English and have trouble sitting still! It's quite a problem, but we survive, and we believe that we make even the small ones learn just a little :)

Dashain

After a never ending and very bumpy bustrip we reached our destination almost four weeks ago! We were received by a teacher and a lot of kids and other curious people - it was very nice and everybody was happy, smiling :) They gave us flowers and tika's and then walked for half an hour to get to Kantipur - the village that is now our new home :)
We stayed the first nine days at Manoj' house where he lives with his wife, three kids and parents. On both sides of his house, his brothers live - it stays in the family, everyone is nearby! We lived in a small room with absolutely no privacy which was hard to get used to in the beginning, but you learn not to start when some unknown women pops in her head and asks "kani?" (= means eat). We enjoyed the time with Manoj - it was the Dashain Festival (the biggest in Nepal) and so nobody went to school and we spent the days having fun with the kids and helping out a little, cutting grass in the fields, bathing everyday in the nearby river and watching the dragonflies fill up the evening air - wonderful. Every morning during the festival days we sacrificed an animal to the gods which turns out to be a rather macaber way of starting the day, but it was very fun to watch anyway, they are clearly professionals! In the evening we sat in the yard on ricemats, ate dhaal baat (which I have come to enjoy after all), drank ricebeer, watched the beautiful full moon and danced and sang. We had some magic days :)

Got ourselves a two hour trip because we needed money, met Manoj who promised to teach us to play the gandhabas instrument, talked with the somalian tiger and melted away in the heat!

Those were the last words before we go to Kantipur and the teaching tomorrow :)

Chitwan National Park - or close to!

In the southern part of Nepal - the Terai - is a royal national park: Chitwan! We are now as close as we can get to it without actually entering it, it's just across the river :O and it look.... similar to this side of the river! ;) Which is none the less beautiful! We have been riding an elephant into something we thought was the park (and was later enlightened) and saw a few amazing animals! The most wierd one was the rhino (we saw two) taking a bath in a small pool in the jungle lying still and comfortable until our elephant disturbed it - a moment of panic in my body before i remembered that the elephant I was riding doesn't have any enimies here! Actually a VERY comforting thought considering the size of the rhino!! :) We also saw some monkeys and beautiful deers, but otherwise the only actual dangerous animal we saw was other human tourist and I think they might have scared the other animals away - they were very noisy and extremely unpleasant!!! We actually made a video in which we talk so loudly and hatefull about them - it's quite embarrasing ;)
BUT ! Yesterday - in the middle of dinner - we saw something that made our eyes pop out!!!! A SOMALIAN TIGER !!!!! Or so we were led to believe by one americanized nepalese tourist! Actually it was a beautiful cat, but when you see it up close it looks like a tiger ;) Thanks Amit :)
The most wierd, amazing, and beautiful creature so far has to be - without doubt - the elephants here! Yesterday we went bathing with them in the river and THAT was a really fun experience :D They are so huge and has a surprisingly hard skin and then they are quite frighting and still very peaceful and calm :) Happy, happy, I like :)

Annapurna Base Camp!

Never in my life have I seen such beauty! I have witnessed that it's true - the Himalayan mountains are the biggest and most beautiful mountains in the world! (not that I've seen that many though, but they're definitely different from the ones in Norway and Greenland !) The most amazing thing was sleeping in the Base Camp (4130m) and wake up to be surrounded by mountains on all sides! And all between 6 and 8 thousand meters high! That is as high as they get in our world for your information ;) It is kind of crazy standing in the middle of mountains so big it doesn't even fit in your imagination !
We have been guided all the way by our new, funny and wonderful friend Krishna, who seems to know about everything about this area - which was really nice! We also had a porter, Binod, to carry our big bag so we didn't even have to carry more than a small schoolbag! But even though we got the trip the easy way, I've never experienced something this hard on any other trekking !!! Himalayan hills do not have anything that just seems like its flat - it either up- or downhill! This was a really big test for my poor legs who were not used to being.. well, used! So I can truly say that I look forward to be reunited with the relative flatness of Norways mountains :) Another thing that i simply cannot get used to is the fertility of the nature here! Trees grow up until and past 3000 meters (nothing like a treeline here) and are only stopped when the mountain gets to steep! It's insane to watch and difficult to walk though, but an experience I like to have!
We've seen endless ricefields, insanely high and beautiful mountains, donkeys, buffalos, cola and pringles in endless amounts, LEECHES in numbers so big they almost sucked the life out of me, hot springs, sunrise and new card games with our lovely Krishna!
We also had time to act studip, funny, lame and danish, which is all documented in the videos that won't come out of the camera until I get home so you will have to read about it instead: me sweating myself away, Krishna's "keep you smiling" jokes, and the best of all Matilde who plays with trees, rocks, and water where ever she can find it - she got completely lost in her own world at least a dozen times a day to great entertainment for me and Krishna :)
All in all: what a GRRREAT and WONDERFUL adventure, I wish you could all feel the happiness we did :)

Pokhara - before we trek

Finally we made it to Pohkara and I can already feel the peace and loneliness creep into my bones - and I love it!! After six days Kathmandu became to crowded, loud and wild, though very fun ;) We ate dinner the last night with Kamal - very nice and fun and spent the last day shopping gear for our trekking tour - which starts tomorrow!!!! We are just SO excited!!! :D Looking forward to the mountains, the peace and the beautiful view in company with our guide Krishna, who is a funky little man, very funny and good natured, we already love him ;)
Today we spent in a bus - NOT a trip worth telling about - and watched the beautiful view over the Fewu Lake by Pokhara, wonderful!

But everything has an end, also my time by the computer! I'm going to love my life the next ten days without Internet and mobile connection :)

A looong day!

You know the days where you do so much it just doesn't seem to fit into only one day? This is a day like that! :) We started out with Dal Bhaat in the morning with Manoj and the other Gandhaba's - a wonderful and spicy experience!! But lovely though :) Then the Gandhaba's (who are the music caste of Nepalis) made us a private show of their musical talents - and Matilde learned how to dance to the music too :D A great and deep morning a would say and lots of laughter and smiling faces :)
Past noon we went to Boudhanath - another Buddhist temple and in the guidance of Lhaku we found our way around and was blessed by a Buddhist monk! => we felt special :) We also saw her cozy little teashop and tasted some great chai tea - made the real way ;)
We wanted to meet Kamal in the afternoon to settle the last things for our trekking, but got the idea to visit the monkey temple (Swayambhunath) again (since Matilde hadn't been there yet) and so we did :) It was a really hot day today, but a way more beautiful view over the Kathmandu valley - no rain! A nice way to end the day, silence and a breathtaking view :) We watched the sun go down and met an Israeli guy with whom we shared a cap back to Kathmandu! He talked a lot and I found him really nice so we decided to eat dinner with him and his friend! BUT! He never came back after looking for his friend, so now we find all Israeli guys very unsympathetic!! ;) But we got ourselves a really nice dinner and a beer and ended off crying with laughter - apparently I talk while I sleep and matilde told me I'd been saying "samsoe" like it was a disco repeat! when she asked me what I did I told her that I would try to behave better when I was living ! ("i levende live")... so I am considering bying something to keep my mouth shut with!!! ;)

So we actually forgot about Kamal but had a wonderful everning, and will enjoy our last day in Kathmandu tomorrow :)

Monkey Temple

.. or I would like to tell you all the Nepali name, but I forgot, and anyway it's really hard to spell ;)
Today a did a really amazing and wonderful thing: I got myself completely lost in Kathmandu! You won't think it possible, but yes I did it :D Kathmandu is a really big valley surrounded by "hills" and is more than just shops and people! So I spent the afternoon at the Monkey Temple looking out over the valley and enjoying the view even though there was a lot of clouds today! But I could imagine the size anyway so it was worth all the way up the stairs ;) Up there I met the first friendly Nepalese guy who didn't try do sell me anything! That small experience is worth telling of ;) But I found that he studied English and was very interested in Europe and European culture - we talked a lot! But THEN! On my way back to the hotel in Thamel something awful happened! While I took the wrong way back from the temple I got hidden by a huge wave of pride which wouldn't let me turn around! So instead of taking the right way home I went a HUGE "shortcut" around the river and used more than an hour to get back! (it should only take half an hour in normal tempo). But from all this great despair for myself I have been able to draw something good: the knowledge that no matter how far away I get myself lost, I will always be able to find my way back! And that is actually a really good thing to be sure of :)
Unfortunately Matilde had a really bad head ache this evening, so she couldn't join me :( But before I went on my adventurous tour we met with Manoj - our local contact in the village where we're going to teach - and that was also really great! He's a fine man and very helpful and generous and we're looking so much forward to meet his family in the festival of Dashain in the end of September! We also talked about the teaching we're gonna do in Kantipur and Ayodhyapur and it all sounds good, so I'm sure we gonna enjoy our time there :)

The evening we spent at the hotel eating dinner and drinking beer and I learned that I will be affected by alcohol even though I'm far away from the normal habits of the Danish youth :)

Bakthapur

We spent the day today wandering around in a far-away part of the Kathmanduvalley, Bakthapur! We got lost a few times, but saw a lot of the natives so we were quite satisfied!! We saw a lot of the local clothing style and more of the way people live here: their work, cooking, school and children :)
We have also been givin a tour around Thamel (which is the tourist area of Kathmandu) by Kamal with whom we also booked a treeking tour round the Annapurna Base Camp! It's a ten days tour and we will be able to see some of the real mountains and not just the hills of Nepal! ("hill" in Nepal is any gathering of earth which isn't covered in snow all year or just a mountain under 5-6000 meters!!!)
Thamel has been seen by our eyes and tasted by our tongues and we are now aware of the friendly nepalese people who doesn't want to be our friends just because they talk nicely with us - they are ALL trying to sell us something! Matilde and I have been (almost) able to say no thanks to these friendly offers, but today we were captured by a student of the buddhistic art school in Bakthapur from whom we bought our first (and WAY to expensive) souveniers: paintings! I got myself one of the Wheel of Life; a very beautiful and thoughtful painting!
We have also suffered from the very low prices here - we often forget that we could actually get the things for half the prices even though it seems like stealing when they are already so low ;) So we are now a little more experienced and poor and happy and will enjoy the evening with a huge BURGER!!! (we have to enjoy it while we can, we're gonna live on rice and *linser?* for two whole months!!! ;)
One funny thing about Kathmandu is that we haven't seen any McDonalds' down here :O really a big surprise!! On the other hand can't we take a turn on the street without seeing a Carlsberg logo somewhere... It's really funny to see something that danish down here :D Besides this it seems like everybody down here knows where Denmark is - also something we're definetly NOT used to, and it's actually nice !

Kathmandu!

Arrived in Kathmandu we are and have found that this is a VERY hot place! After a long day in London, waiting for our flight, we finally made it here and are now completely exhausted! But still very happy because it turns out that Nepal is a wonderful place :) Luckily most tourists haven't arrived yet, so we will be able to really see the town and the people who lives here. We have made contact with our guide, Kamal, who turns out to be a nice man able to aid us in any way :)
Nepal is eveything you see in the pictures of the place, but the experience is much stronger and we feel like we're gonna like the people here - they seem relaxed and very helpful! So we are looking very much forward to the next three months!

Inden vi rejser

Den 30. august begiver jeg mig - i selskab med Matilde - til Himalayas vilde bjerge i landet kaldet Nepal! Jeg fik den gode ide (stjal den fra Signe - tak) at starte en blog, så I mennesker der finder dette kan følge med i vores rejse og se hvad der foregår undervejs - MENS det sker! Det er jo næsten magisk :)
Det meste af september måned vil vi være at finde som turister i Nepals vilde bjerge, hvorefter vi begiver os ned til sydens jungle for at undervise en masse nepalesiske børn i engelsk - med alle de herlige ideer vi nu kan finde på!
Planen er at vi undervejs (så vidt det er muligt) opdaterer siden, så vi kan vise jer alle hvor fantastisk vi har det :)