Tibetan butter tea, Dashain Festival and we have planned our trekking trip!

Since last post on the blog, we have meet a very kind Tibetan guy, Yamjang. He is 30 years old and has lived in the Tibetan refugee camp in Jawalakhel for the last 25 years. He showned us around in the camp, where we saw their home for elderly people without family to take care of them. We meet some of the women living there, and they were sitting in a cosy room, with their prayer wheels, constantly spinning them and saying the mantra: "Om mani padme hum" over and over again. There was a good atmosphere, and for every elderly person we meet, we were told their age. We meet several people in their mid and late 70'ies and it is clear, that the community is proud of their elderly people. It was very nice to see, that the community takes good care of them, and it should not surprise us, if the average living age is higher in the camp, than in the rest of Nepal. We were also shown the kindergarden, where most of the children were taking mid day naps. It looked exately as a Danish kindergarden - cosy and with very kind people.

We were invited into Yamjangs home, a two room flat, which he shares with his mother. The flat doesn´t have any kitchen, but instead they had put up two gas burners in the living room. We meet his mother. She was very nice and she gave us some tea called Tibetan butter tea. It was the worst tea we ever ever tasted in our life. It reqiured a lot of biscuit to take and the very kind women even makes refills! :0) But we are very happy for the experience, and we showned them our photos book with pictures from Denmark, and we think they also had a good experience.

Yamjang works on a carpet factory, which is part of the refugee camp. He showed us the factory, and we saw the place, where they make the sheepwool into threads. It was some friendly womens, which were sitting and spinning the wool on whells and making the wool yarns. They were very good and fast, but the salery was low. If they were good, they could make 900 rubies (55 DKK) in 2 weeks! We were shown the place, where they makes the carpets. Women are sitting and tying rows of knots, and a "normal" size of carpet would take one women 1 month to make.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were very important days in the Hindu religion. They have a festival called Dashain, which is the biggest festival of the year - a little like Christmas. They sagrifice animals like goats, ducks and chickens (a man on the street offered us a live chicken - do we really look like someone who would sagrifice a live chicken at home?.....).

On Thursday, we were walking around looking after the Tempel, where they sagrifices the animals, and we saw two live goats on the top of a car (when du you see that in Denmark? - never). We also saw a live duck sitting in a bag hanging from a motorbike. Unfortunately, we as tourists could not enter the Tempel where they sagrifice the animals, but we received blessings from a Hindu guy (assuming he was a priest), eventhough we are not Hindu. Duing our search for the Tempel, we meet a french photographer how told os where a cremation was taking place. When we got down to the place, there were people and a big fire and you could not see the body inside the fire anymore. The cremation location was right on the river bank, and the ashes would be put in the river afterwards. It seemed like a very nice place to be cremated.

At the Tempels, where people go to offer things, there are many poor and disabled people begging. It is a very tough experience to see, and it make you want to help everyone but we know we cannot. We chose to give out biscuits, some said no and only wanted money, whereas others was happy to get some food. There was even a little boy who came back again and again and again for more :0)

An other traditions during the festival, is that the children play with kites. So we have bought a kite. Well - we have actually bought 10! Because here in Nepal the kite flying is totally different game. The important part is the line and the wheel for the line. You compete with all other kites in the air for staying up the longest time. All tricks are allowed, including cutting the lines of other kites. We got our line cut! But it was a lot of fun because we got help of the staff from the guesthouse to show os how to fly the kite. All the grown men turned into little playfull boys. But it sort of ended after we had beaten them twice in Bagh Chal (he-he).

A bit of reflections on our experiences with the Nepali people: They have humuor! Example are a taxi driver that, after we start driving, tells us that the agree price is per person. We get a little pissed, and he just laughs, and tells us that he is joking. We also meet a street child oneday, who was begging for money. We offered him salty crackers, but he turned it down. Then he saw Holger eating Orios, and we offered him one of those. He all lighethned up in a smile :0) But the minute after, he put his sad face on, crossed the street to beg at some other tourists. Standing there, he turned around and smiled at us. Cute boy.

We also thinks that Nepali people are very helpful and friendly. Sometimes we get free fruit at "our" fruit both, and one day we also got free suveniours at a photo shop. They are also always ready to help with finding your way, as the other day where a hotel guard left his "post", to find us a taxi, called the travel agency which we could not find and gave directions to the taxi driver. The fact that the directions turned out to be wrong, is not really his fault and after the taxidriver had talked to the agency over the phone, we found the place. But sometimes they can almost be too friendly (watch out for helpful people you meet in the public busses - they can be rather difficult to get rid off again).

But the best thing we have experienced, are the children at the local swing. During the Dashain Festival (which lasts in total 15 days) they build large swings from bamboo, and there are all the time kids playing at the swing. But every time we turn up at the swing, we are offered a ride. They have a lot of fun watching us play, and they laugh very easily at/with us (we are not really sure which one it is, but it is fun). A constrast to this is the large swing in Garden of Dreams. Garden of Dream is a garden with a restaurant, where it costs money to enter. Here the children are very focused on their own needs, and you are never offered to try, but have to "fight" for your turn.

And we have now booked our trekking trip! We have booked it with Himalyan Vacation Trek and Expeditions - many thanks to Signe for passing on this contact. This is going to be great!. We will leave on 16th October (approximately) and be trekking Manaslu circuit, together with a guide and 2 porters. 1 porter could maybe be enough, but as we do not have experience in trekking above 2000 m, we want to be on the safe side, and brings 2. We have put aside some extra days for the trek, so we will be trekking for approximately 25 days. We can nearly not wait, and we have already started to buy the few things we needed: Gator, waterbotteles and North Face down jackets. All really cheep but the real stuff :0)

Tomorrow we will go to Biratnagar and visit our "sponsor-sister" on 10th October. We are very exited about this, and have talked about how she is. Is the shy? Can we get her to smile? Will she play with us?

:0) Kirsten, Valdemar, Harald og Holger

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Tibetansk smørthe, Dashain Festival og vi har planlagt vores trekking tur!

Siden sidste blogindlæg har vi mødt en rigtig sød tibetansk mand, Yamjang. Han er 30 år gammel og har levet i den Tibetansk flygtninge lejr i Jawalakhel de sidste 25 år. Han viste os rundt i lejren, hvor vi så deres plejehjem for gamle uden familie til tage sig af dem. Vi mødte nogen af damerne der boede der, og de sad i et hygeligt rum, med deres bedehjul, de snorede hele tiden rundt på dem og sang mantraen: "Om mani padme hum" igen og igen. Der var en god atmosfære, og for alle ældre personer vi mødte, fik vi fortalt deres alder. Vi mødte mange menesker i midten eller i slutningen af 70erne og det er klart, at de er stolte af deres ældre menesker. Det var rigtig fedt at se at beboerne tog godt af de ældre, og det skulle ikke overraske os, hvis levealderen er højere i lejren end i resten af Nepal. Vi fik også set børnehaven, hvor de fleste børn tog sig en middagslur. Det så præcis ud som i en dansk børnehave, hyggeligt og med rigtig søde menesker.

Vi blev inviteret ind i Yamjangs hjem, som er en 2 værelses lejlighed, som han deler med sin mor. Lejligheden havde ikke noget køkken, men i stedet for havde de to gasblus i stuen. Vi mødte hans mor. Hun var rigtig sød og hun gav os noget te kaldet Tibetansk smør te. Det var det værste te vi nogen sinde havde smagt. Det krævede en masse kiks for at få teen ned og den rigtig søde dame fyldte hele tiden op! :0) Men vi er glade for oplevelsen, og vi viste dem vores billedbog med billeder fra Danmark, og vi tror også at de havde en god oplevelse.

Yamjang arbejder på en tæppefabrik, som er en del af flygtningelejren. Han viste os fabrikken og vi så stedet hvor de lavede fåreuld om til garn. Det var nogen venlige gamle damer som sad og spandt uld til garnnøgler. De var rigtig gode og hurtigere, men det er ikke særlig godt betalt arbejde. På 2 uger kan de tjene ca 900 rubier (ca 55 danske kroner)! Vi så os det sted hvor de lavede tæpperne. Kvinderne sad og bandt knuder på, lag efter lag og et "normal" størrelse tæpper tager en hel måned for en kvinde at lave.

Torsdag, fredag og lørdag var rigtig vigtige dage i Hinduhismen. De har en festival kaldet Dashain, det er den største festival på året - lidt ligesom jul. De ofrer dyr f.eks geder, ænder og kyllinger (en mand på gaden prøvede at sælge os en levede kylling - ligner vi virkelig nogen som vil ofre en kylling derhjemme?!.....).

Om tirsdagen var vi ude og lede efter Templet hvor de ofrede dyr og vi så to levende geder på taget af en bil (hvor tit ser man lige det i danmark? - aldrig). Vi så osgå en levende and sidde i en pose som hang fra en motercykle. Uheldigvis, kunne vi som turister ikke komme ind i templet, hvor de ofrede dyrene, men vi blev velsignet af en hinduistisk mand (måske en slags præst) selv om at vi ikke er hindu. Imens vi ledte efter templet mødte vi en fransk fotograf som fortalte os hvor en kremering fandt sted. Da kom der ned til stedet var der nogen menesker og et stort bål og man kunne ikke se kroppen mere. Kremeringen foregik ved siden af en stor flod så asken kunne komme ned i floden efter det var blevet brændt. Det lignede et godt sted at blive brændt.

Ved templerne, hvor folk ofre ting, var der mange fattige og handikappede folk der tiggede. Det var en meget barsk oplevelse at se, og det fik os til gerne at vill hjælpe alle, men vi ved at vi ikke kunne. Vi valgte at dele kiks ud, nogle sagde nej og ville kun have penge, hvoraf andre blev glade for at få mad. Der var også en lille dreng som kom tilbage igen og igen og igen for at få mere :0)

En anden tradition i festivalen er, at børnene leger med drager. Så vi har købt en drage. Nej, faktisk har vi købt 10! Fordi her i Nepal er drage flyvning noget helt andet. Den vigtiste del er linen og hjulet med linen. Du kæmper mod de andre drager om at blive i luften i længst tid. Alle tricks gælder, og det inkludere også at skære de andre liner over på de andre drager. Vi fik skåret vores line over! Men det var rigtig sjovt for vi fik personalet fra vores hotel til at vise os hvordan man gør det. Alle de voksne mænd blev pludselig til børn igen. Men det satte vi lidt en stopper for ved at slå dem i Bagh Chal (ha ha det var sjovt)

Og så lidt tanker fra vores erfaringer med nepalerese: De har humor! Et eksempel er, at en taxi chaffør efter vi startede med at køre fortalte han os at den aftalte pris var per mand . Vi blev lidt irriterede og så grinede han og sagde at han bare lavede fis. Vi mødte osgå en gadedreng en dag, som tiggede om penge. Vi bød ham på saltede kiks men han ville ikke have dem. Så så han at Holger spiste Orios og vi gav en til ham. Så begyndte han at smile :0) Men øjeblikket efter spillede han trist og ked igen, krydsede gaden for at tigge hos nogle andre tourister. Mens han stod der, vendte han sig rundt smilede til os. Sød dreng.

Vi synes også at nepalesere er meget venlige og hjælpsomme. Nogle gange får vi gratis frugt ved "vores" frugt bod og en dag fik vi nogle gratis magneter til køleskabet i en fotobiks. De er også altid klar til at hjælpe med at finde vej ligesom den hotelvagt der forlod sin post for at finde en taxi til os så vi kunne finde rejse bureauet, og som gav taxi chafføren informationer om hvor det lå. Det viste sig så at informationerne vi havde fået var helt forkerte, men fik så taxi chaufføren til at ringe til bureauet. Men nogle gange kan de godt være for hjælpsomme (pas på hjælpsomme mennesker du møder i de offentlige busser - de kan være svære at komme af med igen)

Men den bedste ting vi har oplevet er børnene ved den lokale gynge. I løbet af festivalen (som varer 15 dage) bygger store bambus gynger rundt omkring i Katmandu og der er altid børn der leger ved gyngerne. Men hver gang vi kommer op til den lokale gynge bliver vi tilbudt en tur. De synes det er rigtig sjovt at se os prøve og de griner nemt af/med os (vi er ikke helt sikker på hvilket en af dem det er, men det er sjovt). Det modastte er den store gynge i Garden of Dreams. Garden of Dreams er en have med en resturant hvor det koster penge komme ind. Her er børnene meget fokuserede på deres eget behov og du bliver aldrig tilbudt en tur. Men istedet skal du "kæmpe" for at få en tur.

Og vi har nu bestilt vores trekkingtur! Vi har bestilt det ved Himalayan Vacation Trek and Expeditions - tusind tak til Signe for at havde givet os kontakten. Det kommer til at blive godt! Vi tager afsted ca. d. 16 oktober, og vi trekker Manaslu sammen med en guide og to hjælpere. En hjælper ville måske være nok, men da vi ikke har erfaringer med at vandre over 2000 meter, vil vi gerne være på den sikre side og tager 2 med. Vi har lagt nogle ekstra dage på, så vi vil nok trekke omkring 25 dage. Vi kan næsten ikke vente, og vi har allerede startet med at købe de få ting vi manglede: Gators, vandflasker og North Face dunjakker. Ret billigt, men stadig de ægte varer :0

Imorgen tager vi til Biratnagar og besøger vores "sponser søster" på d. 10 oktober. Vi er rigtig spændte på det, og har talt om hvordan hun er. Er hun genert? Kan vi få hende til at smile? Vil hun gerne lege med os?

:0) Kirsten, Valdemar, Harald og Holger