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 !