Sweden

I've finally come around to make the photo album of our trip to Sweden.
You are welcome to see it here.
I've put a lot of effort in placing the photos in order, but Facebook seems to have scrambled them. I hope they will solve the problem, otherwise it's difficult for you to get an idea of what we did and when.

Vacation

A vacation in the mountains is a great treat for both body and mind.
This time we stayed at the Hotel at the end of the Universe.

We had this cute little cottage all to ourselves.

The first evening we were hit by a hail rain and the girls had never seen anything like it.

The next morning the sun was shining from a clear blue sky and we had a pleasant time in the little garden. You can see that they dry the hotel laundry on the hedge.

Wednesday it was the dogs' day, so they had a special ceremony.

Even Lizzie, who of course came with us on this trip, got a tikka and a flower necklace, but we had to remove the necklace since the bees were chasing her.

A nice walk to the tiny village center and we were accompanied by this breathtaking view.

At the top of the universe they have built a Shiva temple.

Super cute girls!

Today we came back to Kathmandu for some hands on celebrations with our Nepalese family, Mom Sweetie and the rest of the gang.

Himalayan aphrodisiac

A friend sent me this article about the yarsagumba, that is more expensive than gold. Crazy!
Read the article here.
I wonder how they came up with the idea to start eating it in the first place, about 5000 years ago.
This is the most expensive, Grade A, yarsagumba. Strange little caterpillar-fungus thing.
I have contacts if someone is interested.

Nagarkot

Tomorrow we are taking the girls for a few days vacation up in the mountains.
We use to go to Pokhara for Diwali, but since Leya has had the flu we had to postpone the trip for a few days and Nagarkot is just two hours away from our home.
Nagarkot is located high up in the mountains and we long for the silence of the nature and the fresh air.
I don't know why, but I love snowy mountains. In a distance, I must add.

Cute dogs at Boudha

Yesterday Leya and I went to Boudhanath to shop some malas and Tibetan and Bhutanese incenses.
When we had a fika, it's a Swedish word for taking a break and have a drink and eat something light, like a pastery, our dog friends came and wanted some of our delicious brownies.
As you can see Leya is really popular.
First one dog, who we have named Tiger.

Then two dogs. Busifer (means naughty guy) joined him.

Then three dogs. The light nougat one who we have named Naan (as in naan bread).

Finally Busifer demanded full attention.

Kopila

This is Kopila, one of our suppliers of Tibetan style handmade jewelry.
She started her career with two empty hands and now she is a successful business woman.
I'm always very impressed by people like her!

Here are some examples of the beautiful things she sells:

Best friends

Leya and Eva are truly best friends!
They've been together now for the last two weeks and they love each others company, if not every minute, every other minute.
Watching the old classic The fox and the hound (Micke och Molle)...

... and walking to KL Tower, a shopping mall, to play at the children's playground.

Today Eva will go home for a few days since Leya has to go to school for the coming week, but after that we will hopefully go to Pokhara for a few days vacation over the festival Diwali and the girls will be together again.

Weather change

The monsun season is over for this year, so for the next couple of months I have to listen to soothing rain sound on the phone.
Autumn is here with sunny days and chilly nights. Very pleasant!
With the weather change comes the flu and both Nicholas and I have had fever the last couple of days.
Leya and Eva, who has been to Eva's dad's home village for the last couple of days, came home yesterday and they are both healthy and full of energy.

Dashain celebrations

Yesterday and today are the main days of the longest, most important festival in Nepal.
Yesterday was the big animal killing day, which I'm definately against. Apparently our landlord killed a goat downstairs, but thankfully we stayed in all day so we didn't know anything about it.
Today Nicholas and I went to Hyatt for the lunch buffet. Yummy!

In the evening we got the traditional tikka and the very important grass behind the ear, at our landlord's huge party.
All women were dressed in their nicest red saris and the men were playing cards.

Baby gecko

Yesterday when I was lying in bed, watching TV on the computer, I felt something crawl on my arm.
To my big surprise it was a baby gecko and I screamed so loud that I probably woke up the whole house.
I think geckos are cute, but I don't like them on my body.
Nicholas only replied that a gecko is nothing. A few weeks ago he had a huge cockroach running up his leg. I agree. That is much worse!