Cinema

What amazes me here in Nepal is the cinema.
They show Hollywood movies just days after the world premiere, sometimes even before India and definitely before they are shown in Sweden.
Yesterday we went to see Alice through the looking glass, an adventure in 3D and it's nothing like sitting down in the hyper modern cinema with a bucket of popcorn.
It feels like you can be anywhere in the world.

The boy who would love to go to school

Yesterday I sat at my usual shop when the dogs sniffed around a big field.
In the field there were six cows eating grass and there was this little boy guarding them.

After a while he sat down and I bought him some juice and cookies since I realized that he probably didn't get any of that at home.
We started talking and it turned out he spoke English really well.
I asked if he went to school and he told me that his mother couldn't afford that since he had three sisters and three brothers.
I was curious to know how he learnt to speak such good English and he said he learnt it from reading.

After a while he told me he only owns one book, so I went home and gathered some of Leya's old school books and gave him.
I will also buy some stationary, like pencils and copies.

Even though the government schools are almost free they have to pay for books, uniforms, shoes and a small monthly fee and because of that this bright 12 year old can't go to school.
It's a real shame since the cost per year would only be like 150 USD, 1200 skr.
Not a lot for most people, but a fortune for someone who can't afford it.

James, a Buddhist in Essex, UK

One of our sweet customers in UK is James and he has been practicing meditation and reiki for many, many years and in -98, after a 10 hours open heart surgery he met a Buddhist master from a Chinese lineage.
Now they have five temples set up around Essex and a few months back he built his own heaven.
A cottage in the garden is their own sacred place for ceremonies and meditation.

Khumjung village

One thing I love about living here is when you go to one of the local shops, I'd say there are about 10 of them in our neighborhood, you can sit down and talk to other customers.
Today I spoke with a man who was in Kathmandu to visit his son, he lives in the village Khumjung far up the Himalayas.
Read more about Khumjung here.
It's always interesting to start Googling on different subjects since you end up leaning a bunch of new things and today I learnt that in the Khumjung monestary they have a yeti scalp. Or an alleged scalp of a yeti, that is.

How to get to Khumjung:
Step 1: Take the plane to Lukla airport, one of the most dangerous airports in the world.
Watch a landing here and a take-off here, and you'll understand why I said to the man that I thought he was really brave.
Step 2: Walk 8 hours up the mountains. I've made an illustration how it might look like.
As you can see the village is not that far away from Mount Everest.

But on the bright side they have lots of fresh air, always electricity and clean water.

Water

This time of year it's a huge lack of water here in Kathmandu.
Yesterday Nicholas spoke to someone who is only relying on the government supply and they turn on the water every 10:th day for four hours, so they can refill their tank.
I know it's not like living in the desert, but it's hard to understand when you come from a privileged country and used to fresh water just pouring out from the tap every time you turn it on.
We are lucky since our house has a well under the parking spot, so the landlord is busy at night refilling the tanks on the roof with a pump, whenever there is electricity.
This is a short term problem though. Thanks to the warm weather the snow and ice on the mountains will melt and it seems as the monsoon has sneak started, or how you say it in English, a month early and that helps a lot.
This is the dry river bed at the famous Pashupatinath temple where the Hindus cremate their dead loved ones.

There a something we have wondered ever since we moved to India.
Why are there no water towers? I mean, it's a natural way to elevate the water instead of using pumps and put a strain on the already fragile power systems in these countries.
Read more about water towers here.
I'm especially aware of the phenomenon since I grew up near the town Örebro, that has an extraordinary water tower that is called Svampen, the Mushroom, that is a landmark every Swede knows about.

Svampen is not a particularly pretty building, but it is functional and you can go up with the elevator to the top so see the whole town and have a meal in the restaurant.

Wedding surprise dance show

Our landlord's son's best friend got married a few days ago and for weeks they had been practicing a surprise dance show for him and his bride.
Leya was asked to participate and since she loves to dance there was no question about it.
The whole family has been under the weather the last week because of a stubborn fever, but Leya went all in, as the brave girl she is.
Here are Nicholas and I with the happily married couple at the Military Club in Kathmandu.
It was a party we'll all remember for it's excellent food.

Leya wasn't well, but she was determent to perform.

Leya and friends.

Here you can watch the whole show.

Noel's Bartabanda

The second most important event in a Hindu man's life, after the marriage, is the Bartabanda.
The boy goes through lots of rituals and it all ends up with a huge party.
He shaves his head and leaves a small tuft of hair on the top-back of his head.
After this celebration the boy is allowed to get married. That's what it's basically about.
Adorable girls! Leya is wearing a traditional Sherpa dress.

Here is Noel, the man of the hour.

They even had face painting for the kids.

The food was amazing! First we eat snacks for three hours and then we had the actually dinner. We were so full we rolled home (in a taxi).
We brought our new friend Cata from Costa Rica to experience a real Nepalese party with 700 guests.

Foodmandu

We have just discovered Foodmandu and we just love it!
You can choose any restaurant from their list, order and they will deliver the food to your doorstep within an hour.
Tonight we will have Afghani chicken, butter chicken, rice and garlic naan. Yummy!
Here you can see the website and order. If you live in Kathmandu, that is.

Happy Easter!

As usual we did some Swedish traditional things to keep Leya connected to her Swedish heritage.
This year we were happy to invite our darling Kochan from downstairs.
My mother is born in the district Småland, directly translated to Small land, even though it is a pretty big district, and when she grew up the crane came with candy.
Of course they never actually saw the crane.
It's like the tooth fairy leaving money under the pillow at night when you lost a tooth.
As a kid you believe they exists to a certain age or til your elder sibling tell you that it's all a lie and your whole world falls apart.
I think the crane bringing candy is a local tradition, for example has Nicholas never heard about it.
I believe the Easter bunny is more common, but I like to hold on to these old traditions that makes the kids happy.
Watch the candy and gift hunt here.

We have a lot of cranes in Sweden and it's a special time at spring every year for bird watchers and other bird interested people to go to Hornborgasjön, directly translated to Horn castle (the medieval kind of castle) lake, when the cranes arrive from warmer regions.
The record is more than 26 000 cranes.

My parents has a couple, they live in couples, that comes every year.
You can recognize the male crane since one of his legs is dipping when he is flying. His is named Tom and we have been able to follow him every year from when he was single, got married and had a kid.
One year he was insane coming to my parents' house pecking on the windows and cars really early in the morning.
They filmed it and my dad was on the local news.
Not everyone can be proud to have an annoying crane waking you up every morning.

Painting eggs is another tradition and I must say it's much easier in Sweden since almost all eggs are white, so you can see what you have painted more clearly.
Apparently the Christians were fasting for 40 days, maybe some are still doing that and when they were allowed to eat again, at Easter, they had a lot of eggs saved.
Here the girls are painting eggs.

Happy Holi!

Today we are celebrating the festival Holi and, as usual, we are hiding indoors.
Holi is the festival of colors, but in our neighborhood it's more like a color and water war between kids and teenagers and I've never liked those kind of surprise, splash games.
Leya celebrated Holi in school yesterday, since it's holiday today, with a water war and face painting.
She loved it!

Today we did some color experiments and you can watch one here.

Me with hair

My friends here in Nepal are of course curious to see what I looked like with hair and my mom was kind enough to send me some old photos.
This is when I was 22 and was saying bye bye! to our puppies before I went on a five months trip to New Zealand on my own.

This is an old goody from about 25 years ago. It's my father, my 4 years younger sister Tess and me in our kitchen right before dinner.
I guess it's some kind of holiday since we have the party glasses on the table.

My parents went to Madras, as Chennai was called then, a long time ago and my mom brought home a sari that, I must say, suited me pretty well.

2003 Nicholas and I got married in Rome, Italy and by then I'd started to loose my lovely hair.
We found an amazing hairdresser that managed to cover the hairless spots with this creative hairstyle.

We were married in a small, very old chapel by a retired government representative and this place was like a walk-through-wedding place for Catholics who are not allowed to get remarried in church.
We were eight people in total celebrating our marriage and we had an amazing dinner at a local Italian restaurant.
It was the best wedding ever and I'm still in love with the gorgeous guy next to me!
(Well, not the guy next to me in this photo.)

Happy Shivaratri and Women's day

Monday it was the festival Shivaratri, the celebration of the Hindu god Shiva and the only day each year when it's legal here in Nepal to smoke something heavier than tobacco.
One day I will go to the temple Pashupatinath and celebrate with all the other crazy people.
There are so many sadhus, holy men, gathering for this festivity.

I'm so proud to live in a country where the Women's day is a public holiday.
Not even in Sweden, that is supposed to be sort of equal, there is a special celebration for women the 8:th of March.
Here are women performing a dance dressed in Newari traditional clothes.
Read about the Newar people here.

Plane crash. Again...

Our thoughts and prayers go to the families who have lost their loved ones in today's plane crash.
You think about the two children who didn't get a chance to live a full life here on earth, the pilot who only had six months left to retirement and everyone in between who was in the middle of ... living.
It is always a huge tragedy when these accidents happen, but there is no other way to reach these remote areas, unless you want to spend weeks walking up and down the mountains.
The weather conditions are often hard and there is not enough space for emergency landings in the Himalayas.
The pilots have enough experience to fly these extraordinary routes, but I'm not so sure about the safety routines, as the EU has mentioned when they put Nepalese flights on the black list.
Read more about the crash here.
Only STOL, short takeoff and landing, aircrafts, like the Dornier 228 and Twin Otter, can land on airports like Jomsom.
These aircrafts are used all over the world and considered safe according to the number of flights in relatively to accidents.
Watch a landing at Jomsom airport here and you'll get an idea of why this airport is one of the most dangerous in the world.

Spring and the border

Spring is here since a few days and we can feel the life spirits come to life yet again.
In Sweden we have a saying that it would be seven set backs before the winter ends, but here you can almost pinpoint the date in the calendar.
Mid February is the time to defrost and in just a few weeks we will switch the heater for the fan.
Spring blossoms always give you new hope!

Latest news about the border is that all border points are open, but so far there are still long lines waiting for petrol.
Maya says it's still difficult to find Indian products to sell in her shop, so everything is not back to normal just yet.
The new Nepalese prime minister KP Sharma Oli is in India shaking hands with important politics, but when you talk to the locals they don't give a rupee for these politicians.
KP Sharma Oli and his counterpart Narendra Modi a few days ago.

KP Sharma Oli and the External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj who says that India is not Nepal's Big brother, but it's Elder brother.
The reader is free to interpret this statement as you like.
Read the article here.

Happy Democracy day!

Today we are celebrating the public holiday Democracy day and it makes me think about how important this day is.
We take democracy for granted, especially after growing up in Sweden, but to be able to speak freely, love who you want, wear what you like, believe in any god and vote, is not everyone's right in this world.
People have been killed for us to be free and that is something we should be grateful about when we kiss our husband or wife, walk in the street in a sleeveless top or shorts, listen to music of any kind, pray to Buddha, Shiva, Jesus or Allah, as a women drive a car or walk alone in the city, go to school without fear of being raped or killed, or update Facebook with criticism about the government.
All this can result in prison, whipping or even death in some countries.
Here you can read how the democracy in Nepal came about.
Embrace the democracy and love each other! Peace!

Losar and Saraswati puja

Last week we celebrated the Buddhist new year, Losar, at Boudhanath.
It was a lot of people enjoying the festival.

Finally they have some sort of plan how to repair the stupa.
They have installed this snail speed wagon to bring bricks to the top.
I guess it only works when it's electricity, so it will take a long time before the stupa is back to it's usual glory.

Saturday we celebrated the Hindu Goddess Saraswati at Leya's school.
Watch a video of the puja here.

News from the border

Since we came back from Thailand we wish we were bears so we could sleep through the winter and wake up when spring is here for real.
Read these news. Of course we all want the border to reopen, but any kind of violence is wrong.

Thailand and 18 hours power breaks

I'm back! I know I just vanished, but we've been to Thailand for a month just enjoying the warm weather, lazy days by the pool and fresh seafood.
Guilty! Leya and I love McDonald's and since we don't have it Nepal, yet, our visits were frequent.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Nicholas' brother and his family and friends who came from Sweden to spend a few weeks in the sun.

Most of the time we spent in a small town called Cha-am, about 20 km from Hua Hin, and we found a price worthy resort with a pool, bungalows and a 10 minutes walk to the beach.
Leya finally got the hang on swimming and we both enjoyed to snorkel. You are never too old to find new passions!

This is paradise!

We hired bikes at the hotel. Tandem is super fun!

Before we went home we stayed a few days in Bangkok and visited the amusement park Dream World and Leya had the opportunity to feel snow and go down the hill on a sledge.
I know we are from Sweden, but Leya was only 3 years old when we moved to India, so she doesn't remember what a Swedish winter is all about.

We were so lucky to have the possibility to get away from Nepal for a while.
2015 was really, really tough with the earthquakes and the Indian blockade of the border.
When we came home from Thailand it was freezing cold, it was, and still is, more than 18 hours power breaks every day and the cooking gas in our home was finished.
But we have to be hopeful! Spring is just around the corner and some border points are now open, so slowly, slowly life will go back to normal.

Movies, a new pet shop and Nicholas' birthday

Finally they showed family movies at the local cinema, so we saw them both last weekend.

Close to the cinema our landlord's son has opened his own pet shop.

I'm so happy that he is selling my vintage sari dog leash made by Nepalese women.

The next door vet has a nice information sign on his door. (Check the picture in the left corner).

The 13:th of December, also known for the Swedish festival Lucia, is Nicholas' birthday and we celebrated him with a nice dinner.

As you can see in the background they still have a long way to go repairing the stupa after the earthquakes.