Arriving into Tibet

We booked ourselves onto a nine day tour of Tibet. We've always fancied the idea of travelling around Tibet, but you can only get a visa with an organised tour, so this was a real treat to end our year off.

On the last day of our meditation retreat, our guide and driver picked us up from Kopan Monastery and drove us and Natalie from Sydney to the Tibetan border. It was a long, hot, winding journey. It took us the whole day to cross the border. We had three books confiscated and were lucky not to be arrested.

Kopan monastery had given us both a book which we put in our bags to look at later. The Chinese authorities are very strict with travellers in Tibet, we knew we couldn't take pictures of the Dalai Lama into Tibet, you can't take the Tibet Lonely Planet into Tibet, and you cannot take Tibetan maps! But when the Chinese guard pulled my Kopan Monastery book out of my luggage and asked me where I had got such a book and why I was bringing it into Tibet, I began to worry that we wouldn't get in! Not least of all because I had just told him I didn't have any books! 

Pete confessed straight away, and handed over his Kopan monastery book with a picture of a monk on the front cover! The guard flicked open his Nepal lonely planet on the only page on Buddhism in the whole book, and swiftly confiscated it, all the more stressful for Pete as he had hidden my birthday present inside the book!!

The moment we crossed the border, it instantly felt like a different country. The landscape, climate, language and people were completely different. We stayed in a traditional Tibetan guest house in Nyalam, a tiny village just over the border.

The next morning we started our drive through the Tibetan mountains, which were just amazing.

The roads were wonderful, very empty, smooth and level, no pot holes and the first road markings we've seen in Asia! We could tell we were in China! This one road goes over 5,000km, all the way to Shanghai, with a sign every kilometre counting down!

Agriculture was the main industry we saw Tibetan people working in, these people were using yaks to farm the land.

This ice was a sure sign that it was getting colder and we were getting higher...

Meditation course

Next stop Kopan Monastery near Bodnath in the Kathmandu valley for a 10 day introduction to meditation and Buddhism course. Days started at 6.30am and finished by 9pm. Most of that time was spent sat crossed legged on the floor meditating and being taught by monks and a nun called Ani Karin who was originally from Sweden. We learnt different meditation techniques and learnt a lot about Tibetan Buddhism which was really fascinating.

The monastery itself was beautiful and very peaceful despite the hundreds of monks who lived there! The garden at sunrise:

We joined a ceremony with the monks chanting:

One of the lovely, gentle monks who taught the afternoon sessions:

For the last two days of the course, we practiced noble silence. Not only could we not speak, we also couldn't  make eye contact with people, very challenging as you naturally look at people as you walk round! Even more difficult for Selina as she smashed someone's mug in the dining hall!

Chitwan National Park

Chitwan National Park was beautiful and hot, humid and green. Nepal is a landlocked country, but here, with the big wide rivers, it felt like you were almost near the ocean, it was very laid back and low key, with not too many tourists! We walked along the river:

There were more elephants than cars, this was the local traffic jam on the only road in town:

We went on an early morning canoe ride to see wildlife:

And saw an elephant crossing the river!

We went on a half day jeep safari and saw about eight wild rhinos. We went on an extremely uncomfortable elephant safari and saw a mother and baby rhino in the river

But our favourite rhino was yet to come......we were sat having drinks at a bar overlooking the river into the evening when all the lights went out and the owner came to our table to point out an enormous rhino in the middle of the river about 20 meters from our table!

He was literally, just over Pete's shoulder:

I spent a happy morning helping to wash the elephants in the river! I'm not sure who was washing who though!!

White water rafting!!

We stayed in Kathmandu for the Nepali new year, then caught the tourist bus to the Trisuli river and went white water rafting. The water was freezing cold, but luckily it was a beautiful hot day, so it was actually quite refreshing.

We had to walk through pretty farmland to get to our raft!

It was good fun, there were a few scary rapids and someone did fall out of our raft when we hit a rock, but thankfully not us! I jumped out the raft and swam down some rapids which was a bit scary, but I had my life jacket on!

We stopped at a pretty beach for a break.

Then after a long wait, we took a local bus to Chitwan National Park

Best leaving party....EVER!

We've finished up volunteering with International Commission for Dalit Rights. It has been hard work, but also lots of fun. We've met some ace people who certainly know how to party!!

Last moments in the office:

Speeches, cake and leaving present:

Then mayhem:

I've never ever ordered a whole bottle of vodka in a restaurant, but this evening, we ordered not one, not two but THREE full bottles of vodka between us, and we drank other drinks on top of that!

It was truly the best leaving party ever!

Thanks for the great memories guys, we had a wonderful time getting to know you all!

Family visit

Charl and Nev had a spare week off and decided to come over to Kathmandu to visit us, which has been a lovely surprise. They have been really busy at work, so we made sure we had a very busy first few days itinery to take their minds off work.

We listened to live jazz music at Moksh live in Jwalakhel (Kathmandu), before heading by bus across to Nagarkot to enjoy the great views across the Himalayas. What a setting to enjoy a cold Everest beer with!

The next day we did a short two hour trek to Changu Narayan Temple from Tharkot. 

Next stop Bhaktapur. We have been here before and loved it. This time we agreed this is our favourite place, it's ace wandering around the temples and squares.

Much of the rest of the week we left Charl and Nev to investigate different sites while we worked and then met up for nice meals in the evening, including one with our friends Krishna and Sundar. Then a bump back to earth with a spot of this:

Yup, that'll be paragliding. Obviously I didn't go as I hate heights, but Selina, Charl and Nev had an ace time, wow! Followed by an impromptu visit to a local brewery in Godavari in the valley. After an hour tour and sample tastes of their beer, the owner asked how they got his personal mobile number to organise the visit. He found it hilarious that the number was out of the Lonely Planet as he never even knew he was in the guide book. Haha! He wasn't at all bitter, even giving the guys a bottle of Kathmandu and Commando to bring back for me and still he posed for a photo. What a top sport and typically Nepali welcome!! Love this country.

After a fun packed week, Charl and Nev have returned to blighty and we are now into our last week of volunteering.... Thanks for a super week!

Working life

Over the last few weeks we've been kind of working and living in Kathmandu. In the daytime we have been working in the office, developing key documents including a very long, complicated Bid Proposal seeking significant new funding for our project. We also had lots of meetings with other organisations to promote our work and look for support in taking forward our project. Although I didn't expect to see this walking out of one place we had a meeting (they are sacred here, so can kind of do exactly as they wish, including attending impromptu meetings!):

In the evenings and weekends, we've visited the homes of some good friends which has been really interesting and welcoming, as well as introducing us to some amazing local cuisine. We even went bowling with some of the guys from work (I resisted doing a full statistical analysis of our results!):

We've also done a few tourist things, like a walking tour of Kathmandu. There are some REALLY old monuments which don't always seem to be cared for, like this little Buddha statue dating back to the 6th Century, amazing that it is still intact:

And this intriguing wood structure with thousands of coins nailed on as offerings to the toothache god, suffice to say Selina made an offering:

We also visited Monkey Temple:

Since we don't have a kitchen in our guest house, we have had the opportunity to try lots of different food. We have been discovering the wonders of Korean food, like bibimbap which is a combination of veg, noodle and egg mixed together in a hot bowl. Here's a tasty stack of (spicy!) nachos and amazing pizza (although the oil on the pizza made us suffer that night!):