Our driver- he has such a lovely smile (& I am going to have to get used to opening car doors myself when I get back!) He wore this traditional Nepalese dress all week and always drove us with his hat on.

An assistant from a shop called Helping Hands which supports blind and deaf people in Nepal by training them in weaving. You can also have a blind massage from the same company. A worthwhile initiative providing employment and dignity to the disabled.

Two ladies begging outside the temple were delighted to get a small monetary donation from me.

My bags being carried ‘Sherpa-style’ by the hotel staff up to the top floor. In actual fact the Sherpas didn’t do the portering up the mountains, they were the guides. Another tribe were the ones who carried the bags, we just call them all Sherpas.

An old lady high up on a mountain road where we had paused. She was curious to know where we were going. Mountain folk are hardy and very healthy.

April is the Nepalese New Year and everyone dresses up for the festivities. This family look splendid.

Many people climb the mountains like this with enormous burdens on their backs. Respect.

A fellow tourist on New Year’s Day when we visited Devi’s falls. The red dot is because they have just been to the Hindu temple to make offerings.

In Nepal married women all wear red. So although it is one of the poorest countries in the world the streets and villages look bright, colourful and vibrant as the colours shimmer in the sunshine.

Above a family is planting rice and everywhere you go you can easily spot who is married and who isn’t.

Interestingly girls marry 3 times. Firstly when they are 5 or 6 they marry the god Shiva. A group of 10 -20 girls are dressed up and decorated as brides. The priest gives each one an apple to signify the marriage because Shiva likes fruit. These are given out randomly but if you receive a large apple then they reckon that your future husband will be a big man and vice versa with a small apple.

Then on her first menstruation the girl is kept indoors in a darkened room for 12 days. Women folk come and dance and party (which is probably not what you want when you have period pains!) On the 12th day the girl is washed and decorated as a bride and taken out to see the sunshine. This is her marriage to the Sun. Finally she may or may not have a human husband. Because of the 3 marriages a woman who is widowed can still wear red as her other ‘husbands’ are still around.

This is our guide (below) She is married and is wearing pink/orange but she also has a red necklace. She told us that in Nepal it is the woman who has all the control in a marriage. Go Nepal!

This lovely lady tried very hard to sell me some necklaces (I had already purchased 2) but she was happy to have a photo taken.

A group of children in a mountain village who were tickled to be photographed by some ‘rare foreign visitors’

Cooking at the roadside cafe using traditional methods.

Children our with their families celebrating the Nepalese New Year at a Hindu shrine. It turned 2075.

Finally, this is a Lama from 1375 who has a beautifully peaceful expression on his face. It made a refreshing change from all the Buddhas.

1. The time difference here is 15 minutes out, which has greatly confused my inner clock.

This is apparently so that they are not in the same time zone as India. It’s a bit like Scotland gaining independence and the insisting on being 15 minutes ahead of the rest of the U.K.

2. The Royal family was massacred on 1st June 2001 (some of you may remember the news). The Crown Prince allegedly assassinated the rest of his family in a row over the woman he wanted to marry! Admittedly it is hard to tell exactly what happened as everyone who was there died and there are lots of conspiracy theories. What is fascinating though is that even though he was clearly a deranged patricidal maniac, the Nepalese still made the Crown Prince king for the two days that he was in a coma before he died!!!

As a traditional part of the mourning there is a royal exorcism. A high caste priest dressed as the old king & wearing a paper crown rides an elephant out of town taking the ghost of the king with him. The same ceremony was performed for his son but unfortunately a pregnant woman dashed in front of the elephant believing that this would ensure she gave birth to a boy but she was crushed to death!

3. If you order a cheeseburger in Nepal it comes as grilled cheese in a bun. What a radical idea. It did what it said on the tin and to be honest I think that Macdonalds have missed a trick here. It was delicious and any vegetarians visiting will miss out on a treat.

4. When you are in Chitwan and you are on an all-inclusive package they give you set meals and the dessert is…

… a bowl of custard. It was very nice custard and we have not had any since leaving the UK but it was missing a certain something, say a slice of jam roly poly or apple pie.

5. They have some VERY high mountains. You will all know about Everest (goes without saying) It even features on their money which is lovely.

but did you also know that Nepal has 8 of the 10 highest mountains in the world. Annapurna is the 10th highest at over 8000m.

And in this picture of the Annapurna range taken from our hotel) this pointed one in the middle (machhapuchchhare) is sacred and no one is allowed to climb it.

Kevin would also like me to add a further fact (which fascinated him)

6. There is a considerable amount of construction underway in Nepal and everywhere we went he saw JCB diggers. This was a detail which totally escaped my attention, I have to be honest!

Anyway, he reckons that somebody in Staffordshire is doing a brilliant marketing job over here!

Virgin worship has been prevalent in Asia for thousands of years but The Kumari began in Kathmandu in the 17th Century.

No one is sure exactly how it began and there are many stories. One is that King Jayaprakash used to play dice every evening with the goddess Taleju, on the condition that he told no one about the encounters, when one night his wife interrupted them. The goddess retreated into a young girl and has remained there ever since. The king, without the patronage of the goddess had to search amongst the Shakya people until he found her again.

Another version (and a more likely one) is that the king was in fact a paedophile who had intercourse with a very young girl who subsequently died. The people believed that the goddess was so angry with the King that she entered the body of another young girl and forced the King to worship her.

Either way the tradition has continued to this day with a pre-pubescent girl being specially selected to be venerated as the physical manifestation of the divine female energy.

In exactly the same way that the Dali Lama is chosen the land is scoured to find the child who the goddess has selected. In the case of The Kumari she can only come from a particular high caste Hindu family of the Shakya or Bajracharya (mainly the gold or silversmiths)

She must be free from disease

Unblemished

Have eyelashes like a cow

Have a neck like a conch shell

Thighs like a deer

A chest like a lion

VERY black hair

And a voice as soft and clear as s duck! (They obviously haven’t heard the ducks on the Hest Bank canal!!)

If a girl is found then her horoscope is examined in detail to ensure that there are no clashes with that of the King.

Once a child meeting all these criteria has been found then she is subjected to a terrifying ordeal. She is put into a darkened room with the severed head of 108 buffaloes and goats. Men in masks dance around uttering blood curdling screams. If the child remains calm then she truly is the goddess because no divine being would be afraid of demons.

(In her book From goddess to mortal which I must read, a former Kumari says that it is probably only about 12 severed heads and nobody danced in masks at her selection. Perhaps the severed heads are becoming pricey or maybe the mythology of the process is part of the attraction.)

In any case, once selected The Kumari and her family are moved into a special palace where they live like royalty until the girl comes of age and has her first period. At this point the goddess leaves her and she becomes mortal again.

I have to say that I was intrigued and have not yet decided if this is a good thing or not. On the one hand it is manipulation of an innocent child but I was pleased to hear that nowadays tutors are sent into the palace and she does receive an education.

On the other hand GIRL POWER!!!

The Kumari is worshipped and venerated. No one, even her siblings are allowed to contradict her. She and her family live in luxury for a few years and this is a sought after honour in Nepalese culture.

Traditionally The Kumari’s feet do not touch the ground and when she goes outside (special festivals) she is carried in a golden palanquin. She makes only a few public appearances and if you do catch sight of her this is supposed to bring good fortune.

In an interesting literary aside those of you who know The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones will recall the child Ashreth, a little girl worshipped as a goddess in one of the worlds visited. This character is based on The Kumari.

We saw her! We were ushered into a small courtyard in a house off Durbar Square. There were perhaps 40 or 50 of us. We were told to be silent and after a few minutes a little girl appeared at the window of the second storey and gazed down at us. She was dressed in red and had her hair tied up in a bun. I learned later that she is the new Kumari and is 3 and a half years old.

She looked at us all for about a minute I would say and then retreated. We were not allowed to take any pictures and we were not charged an admission fee (so she is not being used for financial exploitation thank goodness).

I felt fortunate to have glimpsed something which the Nepalese consider holy but at the same time I had misgivings about the use of a child in this way.

Our guide told us that once they return to normal life the girls can be spoiled brats (hardly surprising if you have never been contradicted since you were young) and as a result they find it difficult to get a husband!

Today though we are in Pokhara and had an early morning visit to see the sunrise over the Himalayan mountains. After a week of inclement weather in Pokhara we were blessed with a cloudless sky and a glorious sunrise.

Maybe there was something to the good fortune after all…

Prince Siddhartha Gautama was born in Nepal in the 6th century BC at Lumbini. His mother Queen Maya had a dream where an elephant with 6 tusks entered her side. This signifies that her baby was going to be a Buddha (so watch out if any of you have a dream like that!)

Legend has it that heavily pregnant Queen Maya was traveling visiting to her parents when she stopped for a rest in a grove of sweet smelling trees. There she went into labour and standing up held onto the branch of a bodhi tree. The Buddha was born with no pain (lucky her!)

The story is depicted here from the Austrian temple.

This site is now a massive complex called the Fountain of world peace. This is the peace flame

On the site is the actual bodhi tree (it’s amazing how well it has survived!!!)

As well as the ruins of an early temple which has an ancient bas relief of the birth story that we weren’t allowed to photograph.

Legend also has it that when he was born the Buddha had auspicious webbed toes and his testicles were withdrawn ‘like those of an elephant ‘ (who knew that about elephants!!!)

Allegedly, he immediately took seven steps and said something significant like:

‘I am chief in the world

Eldest am I in the world

This is the last birth

There is now no more coming to be’

Queen Maya then bathed the baby in a nearby pool which is venerated here

I think it is fascinating to learn about the birth stories of religious leaders.

The site is also significant because it has one of the Emperor Ashoka’s pillars. This one is inscribed with the birth stories.

I found this whole place fascinating as I had studied Buddhism at A level and University. Ashoka was to Buddhism what Constantine was to Christianity. He helped to popularise and establish the religion. His pillars are the earliest known Buddhist writings.

Every Buddhist country around the world has built or is building a shrine and monastery so there are lots of interesting places to visit. They are quite well spaced out and obviously infrastructure isn’t top of the priority list so the roads between each shrine are lumpy to say the least! We took a tuk tuk but I would not recommend this to anyone with a bad back or a slipped disc as we were shaken, rattled and rolled.

Here is the zen shrine from Japan.

And this is the Thai one

There were monks everywhere as this is a place of pilgrimage

And we even saw a crane in the grounds

And more stunning flowers

Finally work is progressing on the construction of a huge moat which will surround the birthplace eventually. Here the grass is being cut

I noticed that the majority of the grass cutters were women and commented on this to our guide. He said that women were better at cutting than men which is utter bollocks!!! He said the men carried the cut grass. Big deal!

On the plus side the women looked very bright, vibrant and colourful.

So today was safari day. A 4 hour trip in an open jeep through the Chitwan National Park.

Here the animals are protected by the government and access is strictly controlled.

Fortunately the rain stayed off (it was cloudy & threatening when we set off) but unfortunately we didn’t see any tigers. There are some but they are rare sightings. Shame.

What we did see lots of were

Wild boar (which made me feel very Gaulish for those who understand the literary reference)

Even families of boar

Monkeys swung high above us in the trees, crocodiles floated in waterholes, peacocks flew above us and termites busied themselves underground

I was interested in the environment as I had never seen elephant grass before. Apparently we visited at a good time of year when the grasses are not too high so visibility is not obscured

I was also fascinated by the trees

Many are unusual shapes but what was most striking was the prevalence of strangler vines

Almost every other tree was being strangled and twisted into unnatural shapes. Some of these vines were vicious and attacked multiple trees. I felt very David Attenborough.

The highlight though was spotting the Rhino. These are now so heavily hunted for their horns that they are an endangered species. It was quite special when we caught sight of one ambling about in their natural habitat

I was a little miffed though to have to share our jeep with ‘the family from hell’. The whole clan were unruly and undisciplined which made it very difficult for the rest of us in the party.

We also saw an elephant breeding centre. The Nepalese government was so concerned about the drop in elephant number due to poachers that it imported elephants from Myanmar & Thailand to breed. Females are with their calves for up to 5 years so it isn’t a quick process.

Once the elephants reach about 10 years old they can be trained to be ridden. This is happening here

I was somewhat concerned as this is generally a bad thing and there are lots of problems in Thailand with elephants being mistreated. However it turns out that these elephants are ridden on patrol every night to try to catch poachers. Being so large the other animals don’t attack and in the last two years there haven’t been any poaching incidents. So I guess that they are helping to protect their wild cousins and preserving the species as a whole.

On the way back we came across a young orphan rhino having a snack by the car park. Lots of people were being kept back but we had to go past him to get out. What a great close up we had.

How special is that!!!!

And Kevin even got me in one of those boats. No choice as we HAD to cross the river. It was a 2 Min trip though so I took the risk

If you should find yourself in Nepal

&

If you need to make an 8 hour drive across a Himalayan mountain range

&

If you suffer from a little bit of vertigo…

…then take my advice and DON’T DO IT!!!

Unfortunately for us the regular road between Kathmandu and Chitwam which takes 4 hours was closed for reconstruction! Dammit.

This meant that our VW Ventro had to take the longer and HIGHER road over the mountains!!!

Road in this instance is probably a bit of an overstatement. Dirt track or continual series of enormous pot holes would be more accurate. We did have some tarmac for say 100 yards then it disappeared!

To put things into perspective Ben Nevis stands at 1345m and we drove over several peaks that were 2844m. In most cases the road clung to the edge of the mountain and there were some VERY sheer drops.

As you can imagine safety is not a primary feature of these roads and so barriers were only occasional.

If you did however find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to make such a trip here are some things to watch out for:

1. The driver zigzagging across the already quite narrow road to avoid pot holes

2. Said zigzagging placing you directly in the path of oncoming large trucks

3. Said zigzagging taking you perilously close to the edge (see aforementioned sheer and extremely long drops)

4. Toilet stops. Ok so basically being in a car for 8 hours straight with 3 blokes and NO TOILETS!

5. Finding a remote toilet only to discover that a) they are filthy b) they are squats c) they are communal!!! Four holes in the ground and no cubicles. Just picture it ladies. However needs must. Fortunately I was alone except for a 6yo girl. Now I am going to assume that her prolonged stare was simply because I am a white middle aged lady not because I was having a wee!

6. Stopping for a cup of mountain tea (small one in my case on account of the self enforced fluid restrictions- see points 4 & 5). This was fairly pleasant and we were given a biscuit which attracted the attention of what felt like all the dogs on that side of the mountain. During the break Kevin chatting to the driver about how much more difficult/dangerous the drive would be in the rain. 20 minutes later the raindrops splashing down making the dirt track muddy and slippy – particularly near the very sheer edges!!! Thanks chaps that really helped my confidence levels.

7. Having a puncture and having to stand at the side of the dirt track/road whilst your driver & guide change the wheel.

But nothing NOTHING is as bad as

8. Your driver pausing close to an edge, opening his door and looking back to see how close the back wheels are to the sheer drop!!!! And you are sitting directly above those back wheels. OMG! That is the stuff of nightmares.

I tried closing my eyes but to be honest that was worse as my imagination just ran riot and I pictured us tumbling to our doom or worse having one wheel off the edge and tipping precariously.

Most of the time we were being hurled from side to side over the rough ground and I wished that we had been in a 4×4

And this torture took 6 solid hours. The other 2 hours were on the flat with the driver playing dare with the oncoming traffic every time he overtook (which was often) but by then I didn’t care. A head on collision was way preferable to the terror of driving at height over those roads.

Not many pictures in this blog. I rarely let go of the door handle…

Kevin has more. He quite enjoyed the experience.

I’ve said we’re returning by a different route.

Phew! We landed. Ok, it was a jerky bumpy landing as though we had touched down onto a pothole in the runway (not as unlikely as you might think having seen the state of the roads here!!!!) Anyway we were safe which was a huge relief; you see a week after we had booked our tickets a Bangladeshi plane crashed here killing 50. I read that Nepal has the worst air safety record in the entire world. Gulp! That wasn’t comforting to know. But we reasoned that statistically a second major disaster shouldn’t happen so soon after and we would probably be ok. Plus we were flying Royal Thai (which I can highly recommend folks) and they have new planes etc. Getting through immigration though was another nightmare. I think that this country is about 30 years behind the rest of the world, which makes it lovely and quaint to visit but does nothing to assist the queues waiting for a visa.

But we are here now.

Our hotel is very central and has an air of faded gentility but everything works (just)Apparently Kathmandu suffers from almost daily power cuts which can last up to 16 hours. The newspapers even publish when the power will be on where in the city so that residents can plan their days!

The old streets around us are delightful. So pretty with the flags and ticker tape decorations. You need good shoes though due to the aforementioned pot holes.

They sell a marvellous selection of cashmere and yak wool clothes, brightly coloured felt hats and of course lightweight, breathable hiking gear. I got a pair of (ostensibly) North Face trousers for £12! Bargain.

For those of you wondering about the local beer – it’s called

And the adventure begins… first up we went to the Monkey Temple (Buddhist). No prizes for guessing how it got it’s name.

However, it could also have been called the Sleeping Wild Dogs Temple as the place was littered with them. Apparently they are nocturnal.

This temple has prayer wheels and you walk clockwise (for good fortune) spinning the wheels and chanting Om Mani Pom Me Om. I have always wanted to do this so today fulfilled a life goal. Here is me

And here is a professional doing it

The temple is also strung with coloured flags. Each piece of cloth has a piece of Buddhist scripture on it. The colours represent different elements so red is fire, yellow is earth, blue is sky, white is water and green is air.

What happens is that the flags are put up during a festival and when they flutter in the breeze your sorrows fly away. Brilliant idea. We could all do with more of that. Each year more are added and they look quite spectacular. That’s quite a lot of sorrow blown way. It’s just a shame that it was cloudy when we were there so the pictures don’t look so vibrant.

This temple had a relatively new statue in a pond at the entrance and people throw coins at it. If your coin lands in the alms bowl then you get good fortune

This struck me as good income generation but it also reminded me of Wishing wells in Europe. Humans seem to have a great desire to throw money into water all over the world.

Then we moved on to the Hindu Temple. Not being Hindu we weren’t allowed inside the actual shrine but could view the golden bull from the hill above.

This temple complex was quite a moving experience as we witnessed open air cremations in the grounds. These are carried out by the river

The white building in the background is a hospice and bodies are burned very quickly after death. Here you can see the relatives carrying the deceased down to the River.

Special prayers are said by the holy men. Then the bodies are burned while the relatives go into another building for some food (the wake I guess). It takes 3-4 hours to burn completely then the ashes are washed into the river. This river flows into the Ganges which is sacred for Hindus.

From a western standpoint it felt invasive to be watching something so personal but they obviously didn’t mind. We had paid our £8 to enter the area so it was income for the temple. Plus we didn’t see anyone grief stricken. Perhaps the Indian philosophy of reincarnation makes the process of mourning easier.

As a special you can pay (68p) to sit with a holy man and have your photograph taken. I was given a bonus red dot on my forehead and had a double blessing for long life and happiness.

Then we were taken to the golden Stupa (for lunch) where we saw the vivid coloured powders that they use during Holi.

We were able to stroll around the raised section of the stupa and it had a truly spiritual feel as we looked down on the hustle and bustle of the street below. It felt as though we were elevated from the world and in a peaceful place.

The stupa itself has eyes and a nose drawn on each of the four faces of the tower. The eyes are looking in every direction for good deeds or acts of compassion and the nose symbolises unity. The Buddha is watching you.

Finally we saw the Grand Palace. Or rather the site of it because in April 2015 there was a huge earthquake in Kathmandu and this along with many other buildings were severely damaged. There is currently a massive restoration project underway as most of the old city is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Below is the Temple of Hanuman, the monkey god (which wasn’t badly damaged). Apparently there are over 3 million gods and goddesses in Hinduism which is quite a lot to keep on top of. Each level had a fabric trim which ripples gently in a mesmeric pattern.

The sixteenth century streets around Durbar Square are impressive and the details on the wood carvings are superb. Only a few survived the quake intact.

One temple has a series of karma sutra carvings around it because at one point the king was worried about the population decline so he basically put pornography in places where the people went to encourage them to get down to it!

Nepal is 85% Hindu so the cow is sacred and as in India they roam the streets freely. This can cause some serious traffic problems congestion.

Note the state of the roads. I am surprised that any of the vehicles have any suspension left at all.

Our walk back to the hotel was through the old market with its hobbit-sized workshops and unusual stalls. This is a flute seller.

‘Mad dogs and British Schools go out in the midday sun’

Is the quote which springs to mind today.

It is the Shrewsbury Fun Run Day in support of local charities. We all bought the T shirt for 300 baht or £7 which is how the funds are raised.

You can see some of my team members here modelling the gear.

Very snazzy. All day the school was a sea of blue.

The early years did the course in the morning but the rest of us ran in teams of 4 during the afternoon.

Our team was made up of library and TA staff

Seen here looking cool and collected – ha ha. THAT was soon about to change.

I have been doing a weekly Zumba class since coming here so felt reasonably fit. Boy was I wrong.

The course was simply a lap of the field. No problem thought I. The seniors were due to do 2 laps. I can do that easy thought I. But I had reckoned with out the 34 degree blistering heat and 65% humidity.

Here is the field seen from our apartment

But what you can’t see is the water tunnel or the men throwing buckets of water or squirting hose pipes as we negotiated benches, jumps and other obstacles. Songkran style.

I was worried about my hearing aids as once you were on the course that was it!!! Fortunately Marivic had a small towel with her so I covered my ear & that protected my ears ok.

Oh and here we are at the end where I am doing an extremely good impression of a tomato. A soggy tomato is probably more accurate!

The whole course only took 15 minutes but I quickly realised that I hadn’t exercised my running legs in a looooong time!!!! Whole different set of muscles

But one thing is for sure. It was fun!!!

Songkran is the Thai New Year festival which happens in April. This year it is 13-15 April.

The word Songkran literally translates as ‘astrological passage’ or ‘passage of time’. Although it is a traditional Buddhist occasion here in Thailand, as with many other religious occasions it has origins in an ancient festival. In this case the Hindu spring festival of Makar Sonkriti which was once celebrated in India around January time.

The astrological charts of Buddhism follow those of Chinese traditions and so April 13 will mark the Thai year of the Dog.

Living here means that we celebrate the actual new year, (Jan) the Chinese New Year (Feb) and now the Thai new year (April). We are well and truly refreshed and renewed by now.

Songkran is marked by family reunions, meals and celebrations with Thais often returning to their family homes in the countryside (which can clog up the roads) and a long weekend of public holidays.

People are encouraged to make merit by donating to their Temple. We celebrated at school with our own merit making ceremony last week. Monks from the local temple arrived at 7am and those who wished to participate gave dried foods or other necessities such as shaving equipment as monks are not supposed to own any worldly goods.

That day everyone in the junior school wore flowery shirts in bright, cheerful colours.

The items are placed into the alms bowl and then quickly removed by some sixth form helpers and bagged up. I gave some rice and instant noodles. I think that anything the monastery kitchens don’t use is distributed to the poor.

Everywhere in Bangkok we have seen special Songkran shrines. These have 7 Buddha statues one for each day of the week and you are supposed to pray to and donate to the statue for the day of the week on which you were born. This astrological observance is quite significant in Mahayana Buddhism.

So I decided to find out what this meant for me. I was born on a Saturday and I discovered that my lucky day is Friday (yay!) and my unlucky day is Wednesday until dusk (after that I’m ok). I am apparently calm, logical and likely to be engaged in physical work (shifting library books about all day is more physical that people realise). My lucky colour is blue (who knew) and my unlucky colour is green!

My Buddha statue is this one:

It is Siddhartha sitting in the full lotus position meditating whilst being protected from heavy rain by Naga the snake king who made a shelter using his multiple heads as a hood. Cool or what!

Kevin, born on a Friday just gets this ordinary seated one

The school parents put up a beautiful shrine for the festival

Floral offerings are often made at shrines using a small white flower which represents love. The flower is seen here kindly modelled as a necklace by one of my excellent readers from year 1

But Songkran is perhaps best known for its association with water. Water symbolises washing away the problems of last year and renewing/cleansing yourself in preparation for the year ahead. As such people pour water over each other. I have to say that I asked several people about the significance of the water and most thought it was just to keep cool as April is the hottest month of the year!!!!

In modern times the water purification aspect has developed into fully fledged water fights all over the city. All done with good humour and high spirits you can expect to be doused by water cannon until you are completely drenched!

This goes on for four days!!!

I shan’t be doing that bit. Water doesn’t go well with my dodgy ears or my hearing aids so we will be departing the country and leaving everyone else to that bit of the fun.

So we are off to Nepal next week. We got a tad worried when a plane crashed immediately after we had booked our tickets killing 50!!! But we aren’t going to let a minor thing like ‘country with the worst airplane security record in the world’ stop our adventures. Wish us luck!