Koshi Camp and visit at sponsor-"sister" in the sub-tropical

We have now experienced the state of roads in Nepal: Kathmandu - Biratnagar, a trip of 400 km. Time: 15 hours, including a detour on 112 km as the shortest route was too small and narrow for the bus. We went in a Deluxe Bus, with A/C, music and Bollywood movies, and we were served water and snacks by the very kind staff. But it did not changed the bunking, honking, screemning brakes and the many hours sitting in the bus. So we came back this morning by Yeti Airlines. Many thanks to Plasang for getting us the tickets :0) (foreingers can not buy planetickets online directly, but have to go through an agency).

Arriving to Biratnagar, we went out to exploring the city. Biratnagar is located in the sub tropical lowlands, just before the border to India, and is a classical border town, full of people passing by and business people. But as it was the last days on Dashain, everything was a little quiet. Walking around looking for a place to get a cold drink (the temperature was above 30°C), we quickly realised (like with ½ hours walk thorugh Biratnagar), that our plan of going to Koshi Camp the day after was a very very good idea. There is a reason for why all the guidebook only mention Biratnagar as a place of no interest to tourists.

So on the 8th in the morning, we had, with the help from Anju at Plan Nepal Morang and the hotel, booked a car and a driver. They do not allow for foreingers to rent a car without a driver (we guess the insurance would cost a fortune). We drove to Koshi Camp, where we had book an overnight stay. Koshi Camp is located just down to Sapt Koshi River and inside the Koshi Tappu Wildlfe Reserve. The reserve was established in 1976, primarely for the protection of wild water buffalo and a number of birds, and designated as Ramsar site in 1987. And the camp is an absolutely great place. It is full of very competent ornithologist, which can give you guided tours, describing birds and other wildlife. We saw among others, White-rumped Vulture, Herons, Bulbuls, Bablers, Wodpeckers, Kingfisher, and wild water buffalo. And the place had their own house Spotted Owlet :0) On top of all this, we meet Tony and Helen from Scotland, which were there helping ringmarking birds. We helped ringmarking and learn loads of stuff about birds in general and how to hand and ringmark birds! We hope to see Tony and Helen one day again.

On Friday 10th we visited our sponsor-"sister". That was an absolutely amazing and truly great experience. We can highly recommended this! We started the day with being picked up by Anju from the Plan Nepal, Morang office. From there, we went to their office, where they told us about Plan's many programmes and activities, throughout the district, and how the sponsors money are spend. It was very interesting to hear, and made us rather proud of being sponsors. After this we went to the area, where we saw the different facilities they support: Health clinic, district office and childrens club. At the childrens club we meet our sponsor-"sister", and we played football with the children (thanks to Sportigan in Auning for providing the football!). It was a lot of fun, but also very very hard, as the temperature were around 32-35°C, very humid and midday! There is a thing called Bikram Yoga, which is yoga in a 40°C hot humid room. We think we invented Bikram football that day......... After the match there were prices for everyone (tooth brushes from Tandex - thank for the sponsoring)

We spend the afternoon at our sponsor-"sisters" home together with her, her parents, grandparents and a lot of friends. We think we were around 20 people in total and we cannot explain the hospitality and kindness we were meet with - it is simply beyond words! We were served delicious lunch (prepared over a fire place) and received presents from them. We had also bought different small presents for our sponsor-"sister" such as hair clips and other small things, and we had bought her two dresses and a T-shirt. It turned out that the cloth was perfect timinig, as they have a festival right now (Tihar), where the sisters cook for her brothers and the brothers buy nice close to the sister. So we have decided that we must make it a tradition to send her cloth each year for Tihar.

We saw the house they live in, and talked a lot with all the people there. We found it very interesting to hear about their life, and they asked into our life in Denmark, and it was so nice to be able to give something back to them as well. And when we left, the most amasing thing happened, as the father gave Valdemar, Harald and Holger each pocket money, and telling us that this is custom when ones child leaves to go on a travel. On the way back in the car, Harald said: " It is like we have two sets of parents!"

We are now back in Kathmandu, where we have found our home away from home. We are staying with our new friend Palsang in his house with his family, and appreciate the oppurtunity to just be in an ordinary home. This is life!

The next few days will be spent on buying the last things for our trekking trip, which starts around 16th October. We are soooo ready to go.

A little bonus information, here at the end:

About rickshaws. There are rickshaws in Kathmandu, mostly concentrated in Thamel (which is the tourist part of Kathmandu). But the real tough guys, we meet in Biratnagar. Here, in temperatures above 30°C, you can really speculate about energy intake, and how much food they can buy for the money you pay them for a ride. The drivers are all really skinny, and you can see every muscle fight when riding the rickshaws - it is vary hard work. We are not sure that our 4,5 km ride with lugage to the airport benefittet our drivers in the end. This is the first time we argued the price up for a ride (saying that the lugage was very heavy).

About being a white person / woman in Nepal. We have meet quite a few people, who treats us as not being capable of doing thing which are in any way hard, difficult or in the smallest way dangereous. But this really got to a whole new level at the hotel we stayed at a few nights in Biratnagar. They called us several times while we were at the Koshi Camp to hear if we were all right - they were concerned for us, now that we had gone to a new place. Seriously! If we did not go to new place, we would not be travelling, would we?!

About finding your way around Kathmandu. Most of the streets have no names, and the houses have no numbers! People use traffic junctions, schools, hotels, large trees (yes - large trees!) as landmarks. Once you are in the area, the rest of the way you find by people on the street / the people you are visiting. In our case that means: call the place you want to go, and hand over the telephone to the driver. It works :0)

:0) Kirsten, Valdemar, Harald og Holger

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Koshi Camp og besøg hos vores sponsor-"søster" in det subtropiske

Vi har nu oplevet standarden på vejene i Nepal: Kathmandu - Biratnagar, en tur på 400 km. Tid: 15 timer, hvilket inkluderede en omvej på 112 km, da den kortest vej var for lille og smal til bussen. Vi kørte med Deluxe bus, med aircondition, musik og Bollywood film, vi fik vand og snacks og personalet var meget flinke. Men det ændrede ikke på den konstante bumpen, dytten, pivende bremser og de mange timer i bus. Så vi kom tilbage til Kathmandu med Yeti Airline. Tusind tak til Palsang for at skaffe os billetter :0) (udlændinge kan ikke købe flybilletter direkte på Internettet, men skal gå igennem et rejsebureau).

Da vi ankom til Biratnagar, gik vi ud for at undersøge byen. Biratnagar ligger i det subtropiske lavland, lige før grænsen til Indien, og er en klassisk grænseby med folk der rejser igennem og mange forretningsfolk. Men da det var de sidste dage af Dashain festivalen, var alt lidt stille. Da vi gik rundt og kiggede efter et sted at gå noget koldt at drikke (temperaturen var over 30°C), fandt vi hurtigt ud af (på sådan cirka ½ time) at vores plan om at tage til Koshi Camp dagen efter var en rigtig rigtig god idé. Der er en grund til at alle guidebøgerne kun nævner Biratnagar, som en by der er uinteressant for turister.

Så om morgenen d. 8 oktober, havde vi med hjælp fra Anju fra Plan Nepal Morang, og vores hotel, bestilt en bil og en chauffør. Det er ikke tilladt for udlændinge at leje en bil unden chauffør (vi gætter på at en forsikring ville koste en formue).Vi kørte til Koshi Camp, hvor vi havde bestilt en overnatning. Koshi Camp ligger nær Sapt Koshi River og inde i Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve. Reservatet blev etableret in 1976, primært til beskyttelse af vild vandbøffel og fugle, og blev udpeget som Ramsar beskyttelsesområde i 1987. Og campen er et super sted! Det er fyldt med dygtige ornitologer, som kan give guided ture, hvor de fortæller om fuglene og dyrelivet. Vi så en masse fugle, både grib, rovfugle og andre mindre fugle, og stedet havde deres egen "hus-ugle". Oven i alt dette, mødte vi Tony og Helen fra Skotland, som var der for at hjælpe med at ringmærke fugle. Vi hjalp med at ringmærke og lærte rigtig meget om fugle generelt og om at håndterer og ringmærke fugle! Vi håber at vi møder Tony og Helen igen en dag.

Fredag d. 10 oktober besøgte vi vores sponsor-"søster". Det var en fuldstændig fantastisk og ubeskrivelig oplevelse. Det kan på det kraftigste anbefales. Vi startede dagen med at blive hentet af Anju fra Plan Nepal Morang kontoret. Vi blev kørt til deres kontor, hvor de fortalte om Plan's mange programmer og aktiviteter i området, og hvordan sponsorenes penge bliver anvendt. Det var meget interessant at høre, og det gjorde os stolte af at være sponsorer. Efter dette, kørte vi ud i området, hvor vi så de forskellige ting Plan støtter: Sundhedsklinik, distrikt kontor og børneklub. Ved børneklubben mødte vi vores sponsor-"søster", og vi spillede fodbold med børnene (tak til Sportigan, Auning for fodbolden!). Det var rigtig sjovt, men også meget meget hårdt, da temperaturen var omkring 32-35°C, høj luftfugtighed og midt på dagen! Der er noget der hedder Bikram Yoga, som er yoga i et 40°C varmt fugtigt rum. Vi tror vi opfandt Bikram fodbold den dag............ Efter kampen var der præmier til alle (tandbørster fra Tandex - tak for sponsoreringen).

Vi brugte eftermiddagen i vores sponsor-"søsters" hjem, sammen med hendes forældre, bedsteforældre og en masse venner. Vi tror vi var omkring 20 mennesker ialt, og gæstfriheden og venligheden kan ikke beskrives med ord. Vi fik serveret dejlig frokost (forberedt over et åbent ildsted) og modtog gaver fra dem. Vi havde også købt forskellige små ting til hende, såsom hårspænder og andre ting, og vi havde købt to kjoler og en T-shirt. Det viste sig at være rigtig god timing med tøjet, da de har en festival lige nu (Tihar), hvor søstrene i familien laver mad til brødrene og brødrene køber fint tøj til søstrene. Så vi har besluttet, at vi må lave det til en tradition at vi sender tøj til hende hvert år til Tihar.

Vi så deres hus og snakkede en hel del med alle menneskerne der var der. Det var meget interessant at høre om deres liv, og de spurgte ind til vores liv i Danmark og det var rigtig rart at kunne give noget tilbage til dem også. Og da vi tog af sted, skete noget af det mest fantastiske: Vores sponsor-"søster"s far gav Valdemar, Harald og Holger lommepenge og fortalte at det er tradition at give ens børn penge når de skal på en rejse. På vej tilbage i bilen sagde Harald: "Det er som om vi har to sæt forældre!"

Vi er nu tilbage i Kathmandu, hvor vi har fundet vores hjem væk fra hjem. Vi bor hos vores nye ven Palsang i hans hus sammen med hans familien, og sætter stor pris på bare at være i et helt almindelige hjem. Dette er livet!

De næste par dage vil vi bruge på at købe de sidste ting vi mangler til vores trekking tur, som starter d. 16. okotber. Vi er sååååååå klar.

Og lige lidt bonusinformationer:

Om richshaws: Der er richshaws i Kathmandu, mest koncentreret i Thamel (som er den turistede del af Kathmandu). Men de rigtig seje fyre, mødte vi i Biratnagar. Her, i temperaturer over 30°C overvejer man om regnestykke for energiforbrug og hvor meget mad de kan købe for de penge de får for en tur, går op. Rytterne er meget tynde og du kan se alle muskler kæmpe når de cykler - det er meget hårdt arbejde. Vi er ikke sikre på at vores 4,5 km tur med bagage til lufthavnen, gavnede rytterne i den sidste ende. Det var den første gang, vi talte en pris op for en tur (sagde at vores tasker var meget tunge).

Om at være en hvid menneske / kvinde i Nepal: Vi har mødt en del mennesker, der behandler os, som om vi ikke rigtig kan finde ud af noget selv. Men dette blev virkelig for meget på hotellet i Biratnagar. Da vi tog til Koshi Camp, ringede de flere gange for at høre om alt var iorden. De var bekymrede for os, da vi nu var et sted vi ikke har været før. Helt ærligt! Hvis vi ikke tog nye steder hen, ville vi jo ikke være på rejse, vel?!

Om at finde steder i Kathmandu: Langt de fleste gader har ingen navne, og husene har ingen numre! Folk bruger vejkryds, skoler, hoteller, store træer (ja, store træer!) som pejlemærker. Når du så er i området, finder du den sidste del af vejen ved hjælp af folk på gaden eller dem du skal besøge. I vores tilfælde hedder modellen: ring til det sted du skal hen, og giv telefonen til chaufføren. Det virker :0)

:0) Kirsten, Valdemar, Harald og Holger