It's been raining all day. Didn't stop the sightseeing though! Went to some really cool and very old, old, old sights from the 10th, 12th and 16th centuries: Patan, Durbar Square, Bouddhanath stupa, the Golden Temple, the Royal Temple and Pashupatinath. Phew!

Bouddhanath is the Tibetan area of Kathmandu and it is the most amazing feeling when you go in there. It actually feels calming to be there. The scent of burning incense and the sound of the chants and spinning prayer wheels is enchanting. I took some videos. My guide explained a lot about Buddhist symbolism.

Pashupatinath was an experience. Less calming, kind of disturbing. It's the massive Hindu temple in Nepal. There were about 4 or 5 funerals going on while I was there and I took some video of the funerals. And there were monkeys and holy men. I was hounded by sellers and warned not to look the monkey's in the eye - apparently that pisses them off.

Durbar Square in Patan is very cool and really old, medieval actually. It is going back in time…the architecture…the narrow stone paths. A lot of these buildings were built well before they had access to concrete. They used a mixture of ghee, black lentils and dirt to build the structures, a mixture much stronger than concrete. Go figure, a little butter, lentils and dirt...who knew?

The Royal Palace in Durbar was built in the 12th century and is the home to massive slaughter celebrations. Thousands of animals have been slaughtered over the years. Last week about 100 buffalo were killed (heads cut off in one slice) in the palace courtyard. I have some video explaining the slaughter. It's a huge pool of blood. There were tons of blood-stains and hanging entrails when I was there today, gory remnants of the celebration.

Only one courtyard in the temple is open to the public. A few years back, all three courtyards were open to the public but an American film crew came in to film and apparently they stole a lot of the statues and stuff, so the other two courtyards were closed off. Nice eh?

Then off to Lazimpath (sp?) Street for a little shopping after a potato curry and flat bread lunch… yummmmm

Full day of learning

OK, jet lag is done. I can't sleep on the plane which may suck but fortunately, I don't suffer from jet lag (three cheers!). I woke up after a good sleep at 6:30 AM (thanks to a rooster) and still feel great now at 10 PM. And the ankle is no longer swollen (fine after a night of sleep). Moving on from the boring stuff...

I had orientation this morning and afternoon with Rajendra and Geetika. CECI first, etiquette and then Uniterra background. All very interesting. Rajendra, who's been with CECI for 20 years covered the history of CECI from the beginning. It's been quite a journey for them. Uniterra is a product of a merge (shared interests) between WUSC and CECI and it too has had quite an evolution. Their hedgehog concept (sustainable forestry, dairy, micro finance) has been firmly hammered out for the next five years. Uniterra I evolved from an international volunteer program servicing projects with 2 year term volunteers to a focused program with short, medium and long term volunteer placements. This new plan, Uniterra II, launched this Spring. This is a short and 'not worthy' synopsis of a lot of information and history but I'll stop here.

I walked around a bit mid-day, got a phone card, had lunch at 'Trendy" which is a nice restaurant...except for the big dead bug in my meal, many legs, laying on his back, dead (gross). Fortunately I had already eaten most of the plate of briyani and rice. Or maybe not so fortunate...the jury is out on that one.

Later on in the afternoon I went to Thamel with Naomi, Tessa and Moose (nickname obviously). We took a crazy cab ride (I still can't get over the driving) to Thamel and went for dinner at this cute hippie restaurant. The food was good, everyone was Badeshi (foreigner) and the seats were really low, sitting on cushions, black lights, candles, cute and mellow man. Then we wandered around the shops a bit and had a look at some things I want to pick up such as the mandalas and colourful hangy-thingies and nice artwork, and clothes... I can't believe you can get tailor made jeans (saw them myself and they're nice) for $7. Isn't that wild? Oh yeah, my meal was 180 rupees and the drink (mint lemonade that tasted like a mojito) was 80 rupees so all together 260 rupees which is $3.50. Love it! It's cheap to eat and the portions are big. However, cars and real estate are crazy expensive, at least 3 times the price of housing in Vancouver.

I've uploaded videos of Thamel and the OR2K restaurant here. I have to mention the smell of Thamel. Imagine some spices and incense wafting around, a warm sweet smelling air, and listen to the sounds of honking and music. Kind of dreamy really despite all the commotion.

Here at Last!

OK, Kathmandu is pretty amazing. Hectic, noisy, busy, jammed with buildings, people, cars, motorcycles, dogs, etc... This city is buzzing.

I arrived around 8:30, had a ONE HOUR line up for a VISA which was nuts. I was picked up at the Airport by Rajendra and Pushpa (CECI Admin). We drove to the CECI office/passage house and the driving is truly insane. There are no rules other than use your horn. Seriously.

I had a tour of the offices of CECI and Uniterra with Geetika and then went over to the Passage House to settle a bit. Then went to lunch at Buzz which is a really cool outdoor restaurant about a 10 minute walk away. Then had a power nap - totally exhausted. I woke up to a dark house, the load sharing of course - it lasted about 2 hours which is fine.

Tessa and Naomi came back later and we've been chatting since and geeking out on the now accessible internet. Check out the new videos I added to YouTube - click here

Rating of the Day: 8/10 because I am exhausted, hot and sweaty, wearing wrinkled clothes and unshowered dealing with strangely swollen ankles.

En Route!

Halifax to London to Doha…Doha…Doha…still in Doha. I have no idea what the time is in Halifax, nor London nor Kathmandu. I haven’t slept on the trip yet and it’s been 24+ hours. I’ve been at the Doha airport for about 4 hours now and am afraid to go to sleep in the ‘quiet room’ in case I snooze right through the boarding call.

I had a tight transfer to the Qatar Airlines flight in Heathrow, even though it was in the same terminal. The security check had a super long line. It’s such a superficial inspection station anyways; really, we all just got off planes where we had an inspection. Sigh.

Anyhow. In about two hours I’m off to Kathmandu…Yay! OK, here’s some notes about the airports. Heathrow is big which means a lot of walking. The Doha Airport is small, noisy, boring and the washrooms are disgusting…blah. However, I know there’s a new swanky airport opening in 2012, which should be awesome. The lengthy bus ride from the plane to the terminal, jammed with scrambling travelers, was a bit much…but that probably will change in 2012. Also, make note, cutesy Western chit chat and manners don’t garner much of a response here. Leave them at the gate.

A snapshot of home

How silly of me, I've posted images of Kathmandu but none of Halifax. Here are some photos of home, the downtown, the market, and the snow!

Some Facts

1. Time slows down a week before departure.
2. The time difference between Halifax, NS and Kathmandu is approximately -9 hours.
   
3. The distance between Halifax, NS and Kathmandu is 11, 397 km.
   
4. My flight from Halifax, NS to Kathmandu is 17.25 flying hours so with connections and all, it's a full day of travel. Doesn't seem that bad. I've taken flights from Halifax to Minneapolis that took all day...sigh.
   
5. Nepalese is not an easy language to learn...and it sounds so cool.
6. Nepal has very interesting customs.
   

Two Week Countdown

Tick-tock, tick-tock, time to start the countdown. Fingers are still crossed because it's all so unpredictable...knock on wood. In the meatime, while I wait and work on the lesson plans, it's a good time to learn some of the language. Could I find a Nepalese phrase book at the library? No. Am I going to buy one? No. So, of course, I headed to the ol' internet and came upon some good sites. I'm starting with this video tutorial and am writing out the phonetics. It's not scientific or accurate but it will get me started and comfortable with the sound of the language. There's no chance I'll be able to read any of it. Let's be realistic. So where do I start. At the beginning: Namaste. K chhaa? Teekai chha!