I made it!

Well, I've made it here to Kathmandu and I am so happy to be reunited with my family.  A bit concerned that they didn't recognise me at the airport (well, it was dark, and I arrived without hair on my head and sporting some new spectacles so I guess I can forgive them).  They had made me some welcome signs which really made me feel good.
Cody and Taiga really appear to be at home, taking me around the streets of Kathmandu.  Being the newby, to me it just looks like absolute chaos with people, cars and bikes sharing (like sardines share a can) the street.  Cars and motorcyles going the wrong way down one way streets, lots of tooting and yet the pedestrians (who appear to be taking their lives in their hands just being on the street) all seem so nonchalant.  Amazingly, Lisa says she hasn't seen anyone hit by a car or motorcyle.  Cody and Taiga duck and weave in and out of cars and people, the local shopkeepers know them and say hi, and now Dad is in tow struggling to keep up with them.
Today was my birthday and I was treated to cake at brunch at Cody and Taiga's favourite bakery.  I requested that we go for lunch at the same place Lisa took me yesterday, actually a Tibetan themed restaurant, with real atmosphere and lovely local food.
As Lisa will post, today we went to the only Children's Oncology hospital in Kathmandu.  Quite a humbling experience seeing the poor conditions in which these doctors have to try to cure the sick children.  The soft toys donated by some of the staff at my workplace, The Gold Coast City Council, filled more than half my luggage travelling over here, and today they were so gratefully received by the little kids at the Oncology hospital.  It really felt like we were doing something good, on my birthday.  Seeing the sparkle in their tired eyes was uplifting.  Lisa has made a great friend in Baba, and I am so proud to see my wife trying to make a positive contribution to the people of Nepal.  Lisa is a brave, committed person with a huge heart, and this experience seems to have only driven her to want to do bigger and better things.
We are off on our Everest Base Camp trek tomorrow and are all packed and ready to go.  We have worked through the itinerary with Kul, our travel agent and we have now met our guide Dawa.  We will also have two porters to carry most of our gear so we are very lucky.  Many of the people we have met are surprised that Cody and Taiga are planning to go all the way to base camp, as it is uncommon for children of their age to attempt it.  We shall see.  We are heading off with the best of intentions, whilst being cautious about our health.  We plan to follow the recommended protocols in respect of hydration, acclimatisation and diet.  We now have all the right gear (some last minute shopping today) and are all keen to get on the plane in the morning.
Steve (happy Dad)

Reunited

Dad looked different

Dad finally got here on Tuesday night. We didn’t recognise him. He had shaved his head and had new glasses. 

From Taiga

Mum had to explain to the locals what Daddy Cool meant

Dad has arrived!

Dad arrived on Tuesday night. The plane was four and a half hours late. We made signs, so Dad would see us.

From Cody

Waiting for Dad at Kathmandu airport

Making a change

Today is a great day. Not often in life do you feel you’ve made a significant change in someone’s life. Today I know we have made a huge difference in the lives of 14 children.

When we left the Children off the Street Orphanage (COTS), it was amidst a cholera epidemic. Something I have purposely left off the post until now.

Cholera is spread through contaminated water and can result in death.

The boys and I have been very worried about the children at the orphanage as the water there was not filtered, and there have been a number of deaths recorded in the area.

I am thrilled to say we have secured a water filter from Sally, Mary and Dinesh of the Ten Friends NGO for the children at COTS.

x Lisa (thrilled Mum)

HOPAD

Anyone that was in Taiga's class this year will know that he did his speech on the evils of Nestle, particularly with regard to the way they distribute powdered milk in poor countries and yet here we were purchasing as much as we could carry.

My father gave us money to donate to a cause we felt deserved help whilst we were here.  We chose, Child and Woman Promotion Society (HOPAD).  Essentially it was another orphanage. This one had babies. They had been left by their mothers in hospitals, in rubbish dumps, in bins and more.

What struck me most, was not how fortunate these babies were to now be in a safe and caring environment, but of how the mothers who left these babies behind must have felt. There was no support for them, financially, emotionally or physically. It is so unacceptable to be a single mother here, that they would leave their babies in such hideous circumstances.

As a mum who has had so much love and support from my family, I felt that it seemed fitting that we donate the funds from my dad to buying milk for the babies at HOPAD.

With much gratitude from me, my sons and the babies of HOPAD,

Thank you Mum & Dad.

x Lisa (a very grateful daughter)

Cody with the Nestle milk

Taiga with the Nestle milk

Look at that gorgeous gummy smile!

We are checking out Cody taking the photo

Sight Seeing of a Different Kind

Many of the people we have met in Kathmandu have invited us to their homes to stay. We had been invited to spend the latest Dashain holiday with many families, however at that time the boys and I had been keen to see a bit of the country, so instead had headed to the Terrai for our previously mentioned adventures.

Having now returned to Kathmandu, the invites have begun again.

The security guard of our hotel had asked us many times and the other day brought me a hand written sentence requesting us to visit on Thursday, his day off. We agreed to go.

Kathmandu doesn't have slums as in India, however they do have poor areas. He and his family live in a poor area.

They wanted to cook lunch for us. We were under no illusions as to what that meant, dhal bhat.

Whilst dhal bhat was part of the menu; they had also added mushrooms, greens and chicken. Meat is only ever added on the most auspicious occasions. This was a very special meal and we were their very honoured guests. There was no doubt they had spent some of their savings on this meal.

I was given the best parts of the chicken, that our hosts fingered through the bowl and chose for me, then I was anxiously offered the only utensil they had, a teaspoon with which to eat. The boys and I had eaten enough local meals here now to know how it should be done. I plunged my right hand into my dahl bhat and squelched it through my fingers.

The family laughed and instantly the ice was broken. Everybody else was then served and so the feast began.

Now as we all know when you go to somebody else's house you are generally on your best behaviour, right? Don't get me wrong, we were. However, I had seen the meal prepared and did struggle a bit with now consuming it. The chicken was fresh. It had been killed only half an hour before, beside the dusty road, and then left to sit on the floor.

So it could have been completely psychological, but that food no sooner hit the bottom of my stomach and wanted to come right back out. 

As we sat chatting after the meal, beads of perspiration began forming on my brow. I excused my self and used their bathroom.

I have had an upset stomach in Asia before and knew this wasn't going to be fun. Despite our host's pleas of wanting us to stay the night, I explained that the time had come for us to return to our hotel. They insisted they accompany us home. This was a good thing as I had no idea where we were.

As we boarded the micro, so aptly named as that's how much space you have once you are on the bus, my stomach went into overdrive. I politely asked how long it would take for us to get home. 10 minutes.  A slight underestimation, I asked again, 30 more minutes. WHAT???!! As bullets of sweat now ran down my face, our host asked if I was ok. I apologised, but explained that I needed to get off the bus, NOW.

Frantically we asked for a bathroom, there was none. Only bushes at the side of the road, the stench were the only directions I needed. My boys were horrified. I was desperate!

My next stop was a public bathroom. Once the corrugated iron door shut, it was pitch black. Surprisingly hot for the cool outside temperature. I was terrified if I moved I'd fall down the hole. Not fun.

Due to our host being an ex-policeman, I was given special permission to use a lock up bathroom at a local police station. His wife and my boys were not allowed inside. Trust me; you NEVER want to go to jail!! My eyes were stinging it was that bad. I'm sure the retinas of my eyes are burnt and my throat is still sore. However, some drunks did cheer when I emerged still in tact. I gave them a half hearted triumphant air punch.

Final stop before home was a building site. The women on the site moved the wooden sheeting that had kept it private, so they could chat with me. They wanted to make sure I was o.k. By that stage all dignity had disappeared. I chatted back and thanked them for their concern.

As I said, it may have been completely psychological, because once home, having had a hot shower, I felt fine. The boys on the other hand, were mortified.

x Lisa (slightly embarrassed Mum)

Preparing lunch

Eating lunch with the family

Monastery in Lumbini

Lumbini is very famous because it is where Buddha was born. It is a pilgrimage site for Buddhists.

We stayed in the Korean Monastery while we were there. It was the biggest monastery in Lumbini. We meditated in the mornings from 5am until 6am. Then we ate Korean food for breakfast at 6am. I didn't really like Korean food.

When you stay at a monastery there are lots of rules. You can't drink alcohol, you can't smoke, and you can't sing, dance, cuddle or play cards. You have to be really quiet.

Taiga and I broke one of these rules. Can you guess which one it is?

We went to the Bodhi tree where buddha first spoke and to the exact place where he was born.

There were a lot of monks in Lumbini.

From Cody

Lumbini

It was here in Lumbini, in the year 563 BC, that one of histories greatest and most revered figures Sidhartha Guatama was born, better known as Buddha. This area is a world heritage site and is of huge religious significance. It is therefore no surprise that this area attracts Buddhist from all around the world.

x Lisa

I love Bardia!

I love Bardia! We went rafting and saw gangetic dolphins. When we stopped on the river bank for lunch we saw tiger foot prints and tiger cub's foot prints. We also found a sand lion and saw loads of monkeys.

I also liked jungle trekking. It took about 8 hours a day and was very humid. We saw monkey, deer, crocodiles, otter, jackel, wild boar and lots more. I found deer bones and lots of tiger prints around it. So I guess a tiger must have eaten it. We found a rattle snake skin and caught lots of frogs.

We went in the jeep one day. It broke down. While we were fixing it, we heard a leopard. It was hunting the deer near us. The deer were making this howling sound. The leopard got quite close, so we had to run away and get back in the jeep.

We followed rhinosorus, elephant and tiger tracks. One day when we were following a herd of elephants, we had to run to the look out post because we were in very long grass and the elephants were coming through the area we were in. One of them had killed a lady the night before, so everyone was a bit nervous.

We found a place where the elephants had been eating mud and playing. They had made lots of holes.

One day we were near a water hole and saw that all the fish were dead. Poachers had put poison in the water, so they could kill animals. The next day we went back there and the army came through looking for the poachers. We were told, if the poachers had a gun the army would shoot them.

We went on an elephant trek. When we went into the water a huge python snake jumped in next to us.

The rats woke us up early every morning because they kept eating the mud walls of our hut. Mum kept trying to scare them away, but they weren't scared of her.

From Taiga

The army looking for poachers

This Rhino killed someone 3 months ago

Bardia

Bardia is the largest and most undisturbed protected area of the Terai region of Nepal. Due to the Maoist insurgency over the past ten years, what tourists the area may have had has dropped off to virtually nothing. There were army checkpoints everywhere along the road, still checking for weapons. We saw very few foreigners, so the local Tharu people were very interested in us being there. It was fantastic.

Due to it being harvest season, we needed to watch out for wild elephants. The first night we were there a woman was killed by an elephant. Two days later an elephant reaped havoc in the village. He was met with gun shots and flaming wood. The gunshots meant nothing by the way. These animals don't appear to be frightened of anything.

Rats gnawed on our mud hut walls in the early mornings and leopards roamed the streets at night. There was no doubt, we were in the jungle!

We spent all day everyday in the depths of the jungle. We spent our days tracking animals in the hope of catching a glimpse of them. There are so many stories to tell from this part of our trip, I honestly don't know where to start. I could spend another six months there. It was awesome!

x Lisa

Highway to Hell

The boys had been very keen to head back to the jungles of Chitwan, so with that in mind we decided to travel further North West to the steamy plains of the Terai to a place called Bardia.

Again, like all travel here, we had to work out the safest and most comfortable way of getting there. There was the option of flying in a small aircraft, of which I am not a huge fan or the overnight bus, which could take anything from 18 hours to 36 hours depending on the roads, i.e. landslides, traffic, bus accidents or livestock wandering about. Actually, the mind boggles at what you can see on these roads. The buses are notorious for crashing, particularly on this stretch of road due to the narrow winding roads, snaking up and down around the mountains. We chose a private driver and van.

We were fortunate enough to bump into friends we had met in Kathmandu, a Canadian family, Louis and Rhonda Corbei, travelling for a year with their 2 boys, Gabriel, 13 and Merek, 11. We all get on famously. We all decided to make the road trip together to Bardia.

We left the relaxing shores of Pokhara with its glistening lake and snow capped peaks early, to try and make the best time we could. However, we hit the dramatic Siddhartha Highway with its landslide scarred valleys, winding roads and spectacular views and stopped every 10 minutes or so. There was vomit, oh so much vomit!

It was touted as an awesome sing-along road trip; instead it was the bilious, chunderous, churning, vomiting road trip from hell. Not only was it happening inside the van, but people from passing buses hung from their windows splattering our windscreen and roof. We reeked of the stuff!

However, that said, we made it to Bardia by early evening and we did make it in one piece.

x Lisa (slightly traumatised Mum)

Sidhartha Highway

Arriving in Bardia on the roof of our van

Holy Cow!

I've been offered just about everything money can by on the streets of Kathmandu. Not terribly surprising. However, after becoming friendly with a restaurant owner and his sons in Pokhara, we were offered something that really did catch me completely off guard, 'boti', better known as 'cow'.

In Nepal, cows are considered holy and sacred. They walk freely and it appears that they really are able to please themselves what they do, in rural and residential situations. It is two years jail for killing a cow.

So as the owners son's eyes darted left and right as we discussed the possibility of me actually buying some boti from him to eat, I was completely intrigued.

He barely moved his lips and his eyes followed every passer-by with suspicion as he explained how he came by the meat.

Now, I can't tell you if we bought any boti, and I can't tell you who may or may not have eaten the boti. And, It's only hearsay, but I'm told it was very good.

What I can tell you is, it wasn't me!

x Lisa (innocent Mum )

Our favourite restaurant in Pokhara, Kebab King

A New Friend

We have made some wonderful and interesting friends on our trip. One of my sons in particular found a kindred spirit in Ashoknut, our new friend the snake charmer.

We met, as the boys and I headed to the market to buy some snacks. We passed a scuffle down an alley, Ashoknut, the Indian snake charmer was being beaten by a drunken Nepali man.  

After eluding the aggressive drunk, and calming Ashoknut, we chatted about his snakes. We were all keen to see them.

We found another alley. One son was in his element, the other stuck close by my side.

The snake charmer took to the enthusiastic son and tried to teach him how to charm cobras. He had a two headed snake, a python, 2 hooded cobras and another that looked worryingly like a small brown snake.

We invited Ashoknut home with us to take tea and join our other friends. Needless to say he was a big hit. He's one son's new best friend.

x Lisa

Taiga and Ashoknut

Marek, Cody, Taiga, Ashoknut & friends

The Gurkha Museum

Yesterday we went to the Gurkha Museum. The Gurkhas are the toughest fighting force in the world. To join the Gurkhas, one of the tests you have to do is run uphill for 5 km carrying 25 kg of rocks in a tradional doko basket. Some people want to be in the Gurkhas so badly; they will continue to run even if they have broken bones.

You can tell a Gurkha, because they carry very big curved khukuri knives.

We caught a public bus to the museum. It was so crowded!

From Cody

At the Ghurkha Museum

Public buses are slightly overcrowded

Pokhara

The boys and I are currently held up in Pokhara. It's quite a hip place to hang out. It's a bit like Nepal's version of Bali except without the surf. However, they do have a booming adventure scene, paragliding, canyoning, kayaking, microlight flights, horse riding, mountain biking, white water rafting, trekking and the list goes on. It's extreme in adventure and chill factor. It is set between the stunning waters of Phewa Tal, Nepal's second largest lake and the snow capped Annapurna Mountain Range. We can see both from our hotel.

One of my sons has looked longingly at Phewa Tal for some days; sure it must be full of fish. So he talked his more reluctant brother into joining him on an expedition of discovery.

Armed with a rock, bound with Nepalese kite string, (the rod) the thorny part of a rose bush (the hook), and chocolate cake, (the bait) they left. The reluctant son was not convinced. Neither was I.

Can you believe it, my Huckleberry Fin and Tom Sawyer, caught themselves an eel!

x Lisa

Taiga fishing

Cody playing

Elephants

In Chitwan we went on an elephant safari, the elephant actually walked really quietly and wasn't afraid of anything. We went through rivers with crocodiles. Elephants are quite hairy. The more pink an elephant has on it, the older it is. One elephant at the breeding centre had twin babies, which is quite rare. They were very cute. The one I rode kept wrapping its tail around my foot.

Early in the mornings, monkeys rattled on the windows of our room trying to get in. Lucky they didn't. They would have made a big mess!

From Taiga

The elephant we rode on our safari

Chitwan

We went on a safari in Chitwan and saw, a variety of deer, monkeys, wild boar, elephants, and a variety of crocodiles, lots and lots of different types of bugs, a python (a bit too close up) and lots of different types of birds.

At our hotel there were guards with guns, so they could shoot any animals that tried to attack the guests.

From Cody

Walking through the jungle looking for wild animals

Travel

Over a week ago now, the boys and I decided it was finally time to head down to the steamy plains of Chitwan. There were a variety of ways we could have taken to get there, plane, bus or car. We chose to white water raft down the Trisuli River and camp over night at Charaudi and continue to raft as far as possible the following day. Then bus where needed. We were pumped!

The first day we cruised, no problem. We had only just taken off on the second day when the accident occurred. Apparently, it had never happened before.

We are all fine.

However, we passed 5 bus accidents on our way into Chitwan. We were pretty exhausted and shaken up by the time we got there.

x Lisa

Having a rest during white water rafting to Chitwan

The Prophet

Ram Chandra is the modern day prophet who had the vision for the Sri Aurobindo Yoga Mandir Ashram. Regardless whether you believe in his teachings and ideals, there is no doubt he is amazing and we were awestruck when we met him. He had such an amazing presence.

As we were leaving the ashram, we were lucky enough to meet him. He came onto the ashram bus as we were about to depart. A crowd of people just wanting to be near him had gathered.

I knew immediately who he was and stood up to greet him. I'd seen his photos. He took my hands in his and kissed me with warmth and love on both cheeks. He knew me by name (probably not hard, I was the only blonde, blue eyed woman on the ashram at the time). He said something to me that still has me smiling today.

He spoke to both boys individually. As we basked in his gloriousness he started down the steps of the bus to exit. Just before he stepped off the last step he turned, I immediately focussed on him, what other words of wisdom did he have for us?

"You've got my email, right? Keep in touch." Well, I did say he was a modern day prophet.

I'm not sure that any of us reached any great heights of enlightenment during our stay, but we had a great time trying. Chapattis? Well, some lessons in life just never stop. I'll keep practising. I have to, I promised my guru. 

We have all enjoyed the simplicity of life on the ashram and learned so much about being self sufficient. As Taiga asked, 'Why does life have to be so complicated?' We all realise now, it doesn't. It can be as complicated or as simple as we choose.

 

x Lisa (contented Mum)

I Liked the Ashram

I have really liked being at the ashram. I particularly enjoyed using the foot pedal sewing machines. I made myself a wallet, even though it was difficult. I discovered that I really love eating fresh curd. I quite like yoga, but I don't like getting up so early. I like that every time we eat, we give thanks. I think it is because everyone works so hard to make the food.I really liked making incense.

I got to meet a real prophet. Ram Chandra was very nice to me, he asked me if I enjoyed my time on the ashram and said I could come back anytime.

From Taiga

We used tree resin and fine saw dust to make the incense. They take 2-3 days to dry.

Making incense.