Christmas in Chitwan

Aside from the afore mentioned glorious tree, some delicious mincepies - courtesy of (imported by Anthony importers) Fortnum and Mason mincemeat, and some carol concerts, it really didnt seem that Christmasey here. For starters we (Mel, John Anthony and moi) woke up on Christmas day and headed down to Chitwan National Park, to an island jungle place where there were absolutly no signs of Christmas other than the 2 aussies in the room next door randomly singing Christmas songs lound enough to be audible through the wall - which wasnt hard as the wall was made of reeds/straw or something like that...

At Chitwan we learnt many things about asian elephants. For example an elephant eats 250kg of food per day, drinks 150 litres of water per day, has a foot circumference which is half its height etc etc. I have decided elephants are amazing... very very lovely, but totally impractical as pets. We went on several elephant saffaris, the perpose being to spy rhinos in the wild. We actually saw 4 which was very exciting - pictures to come on flickr. The elephants just stamped through the jungle - nothing got in their way, so ducking and diving large branches and trees was essential when on their backs! One day we went out with the elephant herders/riders (?) to help collect the elephants food. It was sold as 'grass cutting', but seemed more like hacking down the tops of trees and loading them onto the backs of elephants to me... this involved a bit of bareback elephant riding (you discover muscles in places previously unknown to have muscles), and also involved clinging to the back of the elephant whilst the keeper was up a tree and the elephant decided that it was a bit hungrey and would really quite like to knock over a few trees to get some yummy vine from the top of one...

We also went walking in the jungle looking for Rhinos again with some sucess - once the rhino was spotted the guide had to call (making a bird noise) to signal the elephant riders to bring the elephants forward, we then all followed the elephants who were following the rhino. apparently rhinos dont charge elephants, but might go for humans - if annoyed - which they probably would be, being woken up by 7 tourists flashing cameras at it.

Generally we climbed onto the elephants via a wooden platform, however we learnt how to climb/be lifted up their trunks... it takes a while to adjust to the fact that elephants have very thick skin and arent in the least troubled by heavy walking boots stamping all over them! I was fairly crap at getting on this way, however it was easy in comparison to the time when in the jungle i was told the elephant had a bad trunk and so i would have to climb on via the back legs. This involved being shoved very hard from one end by a bemused Nepali and pulled up by another whilst my legs flailed wildly around... not very attractive!

We also did a boat trip to spot crocodiles and ate much food - especially Mel who seemed very keen on the 'eat a much as you like' buffets.

We made it home unsavaged, and in reasonably good time despite hanging around due to a strike/road blockade, which was fortunately called off after about an hour. When Anthony and I went up to investigate we saw that tyres had been burnt (traditional) and that the road was blocked, but asking around it transpired none of the teachers (who were protesting about pay) were there at the moment... random, a strike and blockade without those who were striking... not really sure how it worked!

The glorious felt tree

hi hello and happy new year for tomorrow. Please think of me as I go to work (I really dont understand why I have to work on New Years day)...

I think I'm going to have a bit of a blogging and photo uploading blitz today, I have various things to write about but I think I will put things under different headings.

Firstly a slightly dark photo of the most glorious christmas tree... Anthony got it from a garden centre (of the Nepali variety - not quite like Hilliers)... it is decorated with many lovely felt items. My favourite is the felt Yeti on the top of the tree. Every tree needs a yeti right? There are also felt elephants, felt bells, felt stockings, a christmas chili (?), a felt yak, a felt sheep, a felt santa, felt baubles and some felt reindeer... Nepalis dont really go in for christmas but there is most certainly a tourist generated market for felt decorations...

Pokhara mini-break

Well we had a great mini-break in Pokhara. The sun was shining, the Himalayas were magical and snow capped, the lake also looked lovely - although not up too close as there is a fair bit of pollution. We had a good time lazing around, eating food (and then being very ill if ones name is Anthony – I retain the stomach of steel award 2006), going cycling, going boating, climbing up a big huge hill etc… Most exciting however was my foray into extreme sports.

As many people know I really don’t like flying, so it was a slight surprise to me that I agreed to go paragliding. We went up a huge hill called Sarankot, and then I ran off the hill and into the skies for 50min - at the highest point we rode thermals to 2,200meters above sea level - which I can assure you is very high when you're only attached to a Swiss man and a kite (even if it is a big kite). The views of the lake and villages were amazing, although we didn’t have a clear day so the Himalayas were hidden – very frustrating when you know they are there and how beautiful they are. I did ok on the fear-front. I wasn’t ill and only stifled a scream once when we went rather too close (in my uneducated opinion) to the paraglider Anthony was with and my ‘pilot’ started shouting ‘hello darling’ in a dodgy Swiss accent… we didn’t crash and were probably nowhere near doing so but I felt unnerved! A strike by Maoists grumpy at not being included in selecting Nepali ambassadors meant that we could not land in the proper place and so had to use a very small rice field with many horses in it, needless to say on landing I fell flat on my face pulling the Swiss man down with me... ooops.

We have some nice photos and videos so I will try and upload some dans le weekend.

We rode the bus home, which made the 25min plane journey seem great value as it took nearly 8hrs (still 3hrs less than Mel’s trip up which was delayed by Maoist strikes and tyre burning students)… However I learnt many things:
1. Nepal has many suspension bridges.
2. Nepal has many other areas, which are in need of a suspension bridge, but instead of this they have some sort of tightrope wire set up which small children haul themselves across, and boxes on pulleys are winched across. They would not meet health and safety regulations.
3. The roads and very narrow and the ravines very deep and the drivers drive fastfast and there are a distinct lack of safety barriers. In one place we saw the remains of a truck at the bottom of the ravine, in the river.
4. People like to wash their clothes and dry them on pig stys, piles of hay, suspension bridges, piles of gravel – but rarely washing lines. I am wondering if this procedure could be counter-productive.
5. I am not in anyway an animal rights activist but I actually shouted at a man in the restaurant we were in for kicking a small cat… poor cat.

a strike and a delay

holo,
on Thursday i went up to Nagakot in the mountains just on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley, as part of a work conference type thing... it was really beautiful, and we could even see mount Everest in the distance... just seeing those tall tall mountains is amazing.

Coming back i got dropped off in town and then caught a taxi home, what should have been a 20min journey turned into an hour nightmare and my first Nepali strike/protest experience. So we were driving around the ring road and we run into loads of huge trucks just blocking the road, so we bump off the road down a side track and then get back up onto the road further along and all is well until we hit more trucks and this time its pitch black, there are no lights and there are lots of big men wandering around the small small taxi and I was feeling a bit scared as although i sort of knew where I was I wasn't totally sure, and the men weren't letting us go anywhere. We were forced off the road and onto this track and ended up in one of Kathmandu's narrow, walled streets, in a huge traffic jam, which would be fine anywhere else, but here everyone is shouting and honking at everyone else, despite there barely being room for 2 cars buses, bikes, motor bikes, people, trucks and buffalo were all trying to surge past each other in the que... i think you had to be there to understand... the smell of pollution, the confusion about where i was, the dark, the noises, the lack of car movement was all slightly distressing... but i survived and made it home in time to pack some things together for my mini-break to Pokhera...

the reason for the strike was because apparently some man got run over by a truck and people decided to protest about that by blocking the main road around Kathmandu... hmmm

so now i am at the domestic airport waiting for the plane, which is delayed due the fact that the lucrative 'everest flights' were delayed by fog, and we cant go until they come back. This place has a very nice internet cafe, which you pre-pay for and get an exciting envelope which when you open it contains a code and password for the internet - which all seems a bit unessesary. despite such hieghts of technology security is decidedly lacking (I was able to walk out of the checked departure lounge area, back into the main departure check in hall and then back to the departure lounge without anyone checking me or batting an eyelid - the reason I needed to go back outside was to claim the points on my Buddha air gold card!!!)... also despite the presence of 2 cleaners in the ladies toilets they are SERIOUSLY disgusting... almost enough to make one vomit. yuk...

Anthony is well and is happily watching dodgy small planes take off and land. He still insists he isnt a plane spotter, and that he doesnt have a spotter jotter, but to be honest I think he is enjoying the fact we are delayed as he can sit around watching planes...

photos

Time is flying by and now its nearly Christmas... crazy.

Im right now uploading some photos of my apartment onto flickr so you can see what its like... (click on the link on the right hand side of this page) I feel like I am settled now in, but also feeling quite poor as the majority of the stuff I've had to buy... oh for a relocation allowance...
anyways it shall be cheap next month!

this week I discovered that post from Mongolia to Nepal is twice as quick as post from England to Nepal. Random... i also bought the most fandabulous mountain bike (possibly another reason for feeling poor?!) now there are plenty of mountains, I just have to get fit to ride up them... there is a group of what I imagine to be hardcore men (why else would they go out at 5.45am?) who go out in the mornings 3x a week... I think it will be some time before I manage to get out of bed at that hour, especially as its cold in the mornings at the moment... aside from mountains, the bike will be useful for pootling around and exploring places. I havent really seen much of Kathmandu aside from the areas around my house and work...

Anthony is arriving tomorrow which is most excitabling, especially as he is bringing me some hair straighters... the perm wont go away and now looks a shaggy mess. Hair straighters be the only answer...
almost as exciting as that is the discovery of pesto in a supermarket. I had resigned to not being able to eat pest for a year as i couldnt see any, or the ingrediants to make it, but yesterday I saw 2 small jars gleaming amongst the jars of tomato paste. hooorah... on reflection i think a large part of my diet is pasta, vegetables and pesto (and paneer - Nepali cheese substitute)...

thats enough for now...

Chaupadi

I was reading about the practice of Chaupadi which takes place in many parts of Nepal - to various extents. I found it both interesting and scary, so I thought I would write a little of what I read.

Devout Hindus will practice Chaupadi, which seems to be the placing of certain restrictions on women during menstruation and childbirth when they are considered ‘ritually impure’. As such some women may be prohibited from cooking, in more extreme cases women are prohibited from contact with other people, including their families, and often have to go and stay in an outhouse. There are also restrictions on the food the women can eat during these periods of time.

This can have awful consequences. For example women can become nutrient deficient at a critical period of health; teenage girls may withdraw from school (particularly if sanitation facilities are non existent); and giving birth alone in a dirty cold outhouse doesn’t do the maternal and infant mortality rates any favours.

Maternal mortality ratio = 540 per 100,000 live births (UNICEF)
Infant (under 1yr) mortality rate = 56 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF)

Just as comparison, the UK data is:
Maternal mortality ratio = 7 per 100,000 live births (UNICEF)
Infant (under 1yr) mortality rate = 5 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF)

Therefore you are 77 times more likely to die of a childbirth related condition in Nepal than in the UK.

This practice also explains why many (but not all) domestic ‘helps’ are male. If girls are seen as unclean during menstruation, they may also be considered unable to work, because they need to be isolated for a certain period each month, and are thus less attractive to employ. Hence I have a houseboy??? Possibly not.