On the road again

After 2 months in Nepal we are on the move again...but not without a little change of plans. We endured our first travel problems due to the chaos in Bangkok. On Wednesday the 26th we had already checked in for our flight and through immigration when we were told our flight was canceled due to political disturbance in Thailand. We waited for around 5 hours to see if the flight would go...no dice. We went to the airline office and got a new ticket for the Friday flight. We hung around Kathmandu and ran into our Canadian friend Myanna again. Friday was the same story with an ominous start. We tried to get a taxi but they were hard to get because of a strike--we found one to take us and as we were winding through the dusty and sleepy streets we had to avoid an elephant in the road. Our flight was canceled again and back to the airline office. We were very lucky and got 2 of the last 5 seats to Kuala Lumpur that same evening. The only catch was that we had to pay for business class, and to our dismay they didn't even give us our money's worth by announcing "Now boarding all business class passengers". As we left from the airport office to the immigration office to make sure we would be OK for overstaying our visas, we passed a dead dog on the sidewalk and a man relieving himself in the bushes and with the Bangkok airport still closed we made the right move.

We didn't even know anything about Kuala Lumpur but it is a really nice city, modern, clean, and a great contrast to Nepal. For example we have been up in the Petronas Towers skyscraper, ate at Pizza hut, cruised a large mall (with a huge christmas tree), watched the new Bond movie and hung out in a clean park. After seeing little in the ways of modern transportation or amenaties for 2 months we were thrown into the huge city of around 7 million people. Our Bangkok flight switched around and are now flying out on the 2nd to Perth, Australia.

Our last few weeks in Pokhara turned out really well. We got into a nice routine at the school and began to figure things out. On a couple of slow days I even got to go paragliding with Brad two more times...sans the vulture. I played basketball every morning and most afternoons. And ref'd another NBA game. I realized that my mark on Nepal won't be the nursery rhymes I taught the children or how to pronounce certain words but teaching them the basketball game bump and rebound which they seem to love. They play a lot of pig and horse but call it Monkey. Melica and I also made our "family" an American meal as they called it, but it was just pasta and spaghetti sauce, garlic bread, no-bake chocolate/peanut butter cookies and fruit salad. It was good to give the mom a night off and to see their expressions as most of them hadn't had anything other than Dhal Baht and Nepali food. They seemed to enjoy it even if they did use a little chili sauce to spice it up.
We took two field trips with the school one to some bat caves and the other to a mountain museum. Both good times.
I got my first hair cut of the trip and it was a good experience. Halfway through the power went out like it does for 3 hours most nights, so he had to finish by lamplight. The haircut concluded with the man giving a rough head massage, bopping me on the head with his fists and popping my neck. All for 50 cents.
Our last day at the school was good with some really nice festivities. We took a couple classes then visited the annex building to say good bye to the kids and teachers. They gave us a Tika (red dot on the forehead) and silk scarves as good luck and thanks. We went back to the main campus where there was an assembly with music and dancing by the students. We were given a gift of a trophy and the teachers and students said good things about us and that they would miss us.

We also had a dinner party with the Pun family, some friends and neighbors. Good food and a good way to end our time there. The Pun's saw us off to the bus with more silk scarves and flower garlands. They were great people and we hope we can see them again someday.
Time to move on and we are glad we stayed as long as we did but are glad to be out of Kathmandu and have the whole Bangkok hassle done with. Off to Aussie land.

Festival Time

After a little hiatus from blogging we are back. We didn't have much to say after our long trek but finally have some news to report. It was festival time for another week or so. This one spared the goats and buffaloes but not the general public. The name was Tihar and Diwali and included children yelling a song at every home and place of business for money, fireworks and dancing in the streets, they also celebrated different animals and gave a tika (red dot on the forehead) to dogs and cows. It became a running joke because whenever we asked a Nepali person a question(what is the price? when is it open? etc) it always started..."well it's festival time..." We later found out that Nepal has over 100 festival days a year...what a great country. We took a week or so off in Pokhara hanging around Lakeside-- eating and relaxing, we extended our visas for a month and sent out some emails and asked around for volunteer leads. While at one Internet cafe I began talking to the owner of the hotel and cafe, he said his uncle is the principal of a school on the edge of town and they might need volunteers. We visited the school and the Principal's house and it looked like a good fit. We would live and eat with the Principal's family and help out and teach at the boarding school. The school is Manakamana Boarding School and it is sits in a quiet location with good views of the mountains. All but one subject (Nepali) is taught in English and the ages vary from 3 to 18 years old. After saying goodbye to the comforts of lakeside we have settled in with the Pun's. Our first few days were a bit awkward but we were met with the language barrier and very nice people. The first day of school was unexpectedly good, we were met at the school with marigold lays and a silk scarf and the whole school lined up giving us each a marigold and saying good morning sir/mam. All of the teachers are nice and I think they enjoy a few hours off now and then. Mostly we teach some English conversation, or reading out of their science/social studies books etc., all of the teachers speak English in class but I'm sure it helps to have a native English speaker talk to the kids. Some days are only games and nursery rhymes with the little kids. How many times can we sing twinkle twinkle little star without going for a run with scissors?

Our extra curricular activities have included renting scooters and braving the Nepal roads and heading to a nearby lake. Myanna the Canadian from the trek was doing some freelance volunteering as well and joined us for a few extreme days and we said goodbye to her again a few days ago. The biggest thrill of the week was last Friday when we went paragliding or more particularly parahawking. My friend Brad Sander who I worked with in 2004 while fighting fire in Alaska works for Frontiers Pargliding and just made it to town. He holds two paragliding records- I think...one for height (7700 meters) and distance kms. Anyway a great guy to know. He and paraglider/falconer Scott Mason took us up with Kevin an Egyptian Vulture for a very cool afternoon. It is the only place in the world where you can do this and it was a great experience. (http://www.parahawking.com/) I'll try to describe it...attached to a parachute- two people run off of a hill and sail over the tree tops. You sit back in a comfortable chair and take in the view. You take a chunk of buffalo meat out of your fanny pack and hold it out in your leather glove. At the blow of a whistle a vulture lands on your hand for a snack. At that point you think "How crazy is this, I am floating hundreds of feet above the ground and a vulture just landed on my hand"....The vulture rotated between Melica and me and cruised the skies for about 45 minutes with great view and good memories. An amazing day.

I've also been playing basketball every morning and some evenings with the older kids at the school and the nephew of the principal who we live with. Fun times and they are actually good ballers. On Saturday Manakamana had a "friendly" match with a neighboring school. We came to watch and I was asked to Referee. Not a bad job and only a few travels and fouls. I never pictured myself reffing an NBA (Nepali Basketball Association) game but it worked out.
Overall things are good and we glad to be settled and getting the full Nepali experience. Once you leave the touristed area of Lakeside you see real Nepal, burning garbage, dirty kids, poverty, old men sitting around playing cards. Our general routine is that we have early morning tea, a full meal of Dal baht at around 9:30 a.m., school at 10 to around 4, snack at around 1, read or walk around until dark, eat dinner with the family at around 7 or 8. Dinner usually is Dal Baht (white rice, curried veggies, and lentil soup) but sometime we have flat bread and other goods. Sometimes we eat on the floor in the kitchen, on metal plates, we haven't taken to using our hands like the Nepalis do. But when in Nepal...After dinner, if there is electricity we watch some Indian soap operas or play cards with the Principal's 13 year old daughter and the cousin.

We luckily got a working holiday visa for Australia without needing a medical check up and just got our tickets. We leave Nepal on November 26th to Bangkok then to Perth Australia on December 1st. So it looks like a Christmas down under for us.