Pagoda trek

Last post from Nepal, we head to Bali tomorrow, so I'll get to take a whole bunch of new photos from exotic destinations. This living in Asia thing isn't so bad.
Here is Olivia sleeping on Daddy after a long trek up the hill to the World Peace Pagoda. And Olivia didn't actually trek, Carl carried her (and bunny) the whole way up, and then the whole way down again. Daddies do come in useful sometimes.

Friends

It is becoming increasingly clear how important other little people are to Olivia. She is very friendly to other children, typically offering them imaginary sweets or things to play with (they, of course, have no idea what to make of that!) We discovered a very nice Swedish family at our hotel, they had 3 kids, aged 7 months, 3 and 5. And we thought that we were brave taking Olivia to Nepal. Not only did this family have 3 kids, but they went trekking with them! Anyway, here are some photos of Olivia playing with the grass and her new boyfriend, and then colouring with the older girl who was very sweet to Olivia and lent her pens and paper. Not a bad view to have whilst colouring!

Fishtail Mountain, Pokhara

I am still posting the backlog of pictures from our Christmas holidays. Bet you didn't know we could say so much about a one week holiday.
These photos are taken in Pokhara, which is in the Annapurna region of Nepal. It is very scenic, slighty chilly, and unfortunately the clouds hang over the mountains for much of December, so we didn't get the stunning views that we were hoping for. Fishtail Mountain (or Machhapuchhare in Nepali), elevation 6997m, did pop out above the clouds a few times but doesn't reproduce that well in photos. The Lake is Fewa Lake, and out hotel was right on the lakeside with views of the mountains. Very peaceful. We decided not to take Olivia trecking and were content to look at the peaks and the snow, although it did make me want to go skiing!

Yeti airlines

OK, last post for today.
After 3 days in Kathmandu, we took a flight 200km west to the Annapurna mountain range. We could have taken the bus or a taxi but because the roads are so bad, it would take 2 days!!! A 25 minute flight was more my style, thank you very much.
We were delayed for nearly 2 hours in the horrible domestic terminal in Kathmandu. Dirty, heaving with people and smelly. Not the place you want to be with an active two year old. All flights seemed to be delayed, and apparently this was nothing to be shocked about. The schedule had 3 flights all taking off at the same time (AND going to the same place). There really weren't many foreigners around, and as I predicted, when our flight was called, someone ran around the departure lounge to find us and make sure that the 'whiteys' got on the right plane. I guess you could call that customer service, in a Nepali kind of way.
The plane was an old put-put, pedal it yourself plane. Those kind of flights make me nervous. Only 16 seats, one seat each side of the aisle. Curl yourself into a pretzel to get on board. They hand out cotton wool because it is so noisy. Actually it wasn't so bad (I'm only saying that because I am still alive). Olivia went to sleep after 2 minutes so clearly she wasn't bothered. We could see the Himalayas out of the window. I wasn't so impressed to see the pilot kick his legs up and read the paper. But we landed safely in Pokhara and collected our own baggage off the plane.

Hyatt Kathmandu

Because we were traveling with Olivia (plus Carl is a sucker for loyalty points!) we decided that we'd stay in the nicest hotel in Kathmandu. The Hyatt was certainly very nice, and ended up being a good deal for us because every evening they had Cocktail and Nibbles hour. We headed up to the executive lounge every evening and ate so much of the 'free' nibbles that we didn't need dinner! Now that is what I call good value.
Olivia was a big fan of the lobby, which had it's own temple, and she decided it was made for climbing. Who needs to go sightseeing when you can see the temple in the hotel lobby? She was a big fan of flowers floating in bowls, and would constantly bring them to me and say "flowers swimming".
There was a nice pool and hot-tub outside. The pool was too cold to swim in, but people did lay out on the loungers (not us). We did use the hot-tub though, and after much deliberation, Olivia agreed that the pool was too cold and she would come into the steaming hot-tub with us.

Durbur Square and curry

The centre of Kathmandu is Durbur Square where there are about 50 temples all concentrated in one place. It is very civilized and convenient; so you can do all your worship in one easy visit! Too much to explain and will be boring on a blog but we hired a local guide who escorted us around and then showed us to a good place for lunch on the roof of a nearby restaurant. It was slightly chilly up there but the view was good so we braved the weather (note Carl wearing his new cashmere scarf!) and ordered Nepali curry. Olivia got gummy bears and cranberries which i had packed just in case.
When the clouds cleared, we could just make out some of the Himalayas. Snow-covered and way in the distance. It didn't come out on the photos.

Temples

We visited quite a few temples during our stay in Kathmandu. It was hard not to. Temples everywhere, and dedicated to everything from the tooth doctor to kama sutra! Needless to say that we didn't get temple'd-out as each one was so different and interesting. The most iconic temples are the white Buddhist Stupa temples. The name apparently means 'heap', supposedly to cover the buddha's remains, is whitewashed annually. Each part of the Stupa represents the Buddha, crowned, and sitting in medidation posture on a lion throne. Typically the stupa has Buddha's eyes and eyebrows painted on. The 'nose' is actually the Nepali symbol of unity.
Prayer flags are often hung from the temple to trees and buildings nearby. These flags have blessings and prayers (unsurprisingly!) written on them, are hung from high places such as the top of the stupa, are of 5 colours which represent the 5 elements (sky, air, fire, water, earth). By hanging them high, these 'wind horses' will carry the blessings to all people, and the air that brushes past them is purified. Enough of the history.
Pictured are three different stupas in Kathmandu. One of which was at the top of a VERY long set of stairs. And Olivia decided to sleep just at that point. I carried her all the way up while Carl carried the stroller.

Monks

Clearly I am posting Nepal photos in waves. It takes so much time, I hope that people actually read this thing! Anyway, here goes for the next installment.
One of the things which felt very different in Nepal from China was the obvious presence of religion. It literally was everywhere. More temples than you could imagine and many monks just hanging out (including brunching at the Hyatt!). There was a definite feeling of religious harmony; a religious melting pot without conflict. This may not be the case under the surface, but it is the feeling that we got as tourists. Praying was part of the day, and at sundown at the temple at the end of the street near the Hyatt, literally the whole village turns out to circle the temple. Always clockwise. At one point we saw a Monk with an iPhone; I guess it comes on the path to enlightenment!

Nepali Street Kids

One of the things that we saw much of in Nepal was begging on the streets. It hasn't been so prevalent in China, although beggars seem to be creeping back into Beijing after being cleared out for the Olympics. Anyway, in Kathmandu there were many people approaching us for money. It wasn't aggressive and these people are clearly very very poor. Some kids approached us, but for the most part the kids were far more interested in Olivia and the stroller. They flocked around her taking a peek (when she was asleep) and even the adults would stare at a blonde-haired, blue eyed baby. They don't see too many of those, I am sure. We even had one albino girl, about age 7, follow us for a while, extremely interested in seeing another kid who looked much more like her than any of her own friends.
We were encouraged not to give to the beggars but instead to donate to the monasteries and organisations that help street kids.
Many kids, very young themselves, were looking after their younger siblings; maybe their parents were out at work, or begging. There wasn't any adult supervision and at one point I saw two very young kids (less than 2) playing with one of the offering plates which was on fire at the time (see photo). You realise how little these kids have.

Kathmandu—Thamel

Now for some Nepal posts and photos. I'll split them up for easier digestion.
After a long flight as we had to have an unscheduled stop in Bangkok for refueling, we finally got to our hotel in Kathmandu at 1.30am local time (which was in fact 3:15am China time - arrggghhh).
The following day we decided to take ourselves on a walking tour of downtown Kathmandu. The tourist centre is called Thamel and is a low-budget traveler heaven. Luckily we didn't see too many other tourists, it was mainly local Nepali going about daily business.
One place we walked through was called Tahiti Thole; it is packed full of people selling fruits, vegetables, spices, brassware, and incense and everything else you can imagine. Amongst all this chaos was a small temple where people were praying. Apparently this thoroughfare was historically one of the busiest in Kathmandu. We could barely get a stroller through as it was so crowded. Luckily Olivia was taking a nap through this part as she people would have been freaked out by so many people. Note that these were not tourists, but regular Nepalis who live, work, eat and sleep right here. Sadly sounds and smells can't be captured but trust me, it was like nothing I've really experienced before. We truly felt like we were in a foreign country. And although I haven't been to India, it felt more like what I expect from India than China.

For family only ; )

Most people won't be interested (or that thrilled) to read this but I thought it was funny and Olivia seems to always choose milestones when Carl is away. It is the evening before Olivia's second birthday. Months ago we bought Olivia a potty and Juli had given us "The Potty Book for Girls" and Olivia was definitely showing interest.
At around 6pm tonight, I took her diaper off and left her with just trousers (we don't have any toddler underwear, note to self to go and buy some). Anyway, she spent 30 minutes just pulling up her trousers up and down and squatting, and saying "undressed" and "Ia go pee pee". She was clearly enjoying the feeling of no diaper. After 30 minutes she backed her bottom over the potty and spend then next 10 minutes getting up and down over the potty. Much praise from mummy at this point.
I decided to go and get the camera so that I could share this milestone later with Carl (I'll add it to this post as soon as I download it). So I took a photo of her, she promptly got up and peered in the potty. Then ran over to me to give me something - it was a poo!!!! She had done a little rabbit-poo in the potty and didn't know what to do with it! When in doubt - hand it to mummy. I didn't know what it was until I had it in my hands. Arrggh. Anyway, still laughing (luckily).

Update: two more poos (one of which scared her) and two big pees later. Not bad for one evening. Very proud.

Flight to HK

On our way to Nepal we had to go via Hong Kong so decided to have a 2 day stop over for some shopping and civilisation. I hadn't been there since the handover in 1997! Flight went well and Olivia spent over an hour 'making breakfast' with the plastic cups and the butter pats, and then serving them to bunny and the flight attendants. Who knew, next time we don't need to bother with all the toys and games to distract her?

Hong Kong

For our two day stop over we were staying in a hotel in Kowloon; we had heard that it is the place to be. Little did we realise that we were right in the centre of the action. On entering our suite we saw a giant speaker attached to the outside of the bedroom window and a ton of people immediately outside the window. Apparently there is always a giant Christmas Eve celebration until midnight with live music bands in Kowloon; it turns out that the set up was on our windowsill. No joking, I couldn't believe that the hotel even was considering putting guests in that room, let alone guests with a small child. We got moved but literally to the next room, so finally after much polite discussion they moved us to a room on the 14th floor. We could still see the street party but it wasn't right outside (later, we were very relieved to have moved as the band was dire and played '80s songs including David Bowie and Wham - aarrgggggh).
Anyway, our two days was spent exploring the city, both Kowloon and Hong Kong Island side. We took the Star Ferry, walked around (a lot), ate good food, went for tea at the Peninsula and saw a wonderful girls choir in the lobby (it reminded me of school, and finally made it feel like Christmas).
The only other thing of note was how many people were around on the streets. I've never seen so many people. It was like Black Friday or Boxing Day sales ALL the time. You'd never know a recession was on. People spending like crazy, and not the cheap stuff. Bags and bags of Louis Vuitton etc. I knew that it was going to be a shock going from this to one of the poorest countries in the world.