Here is a bit of news from Pat:
I have had a couple of very interesting weeks. Hired a guide who took me bird watching in the hills south of Kathmandu. He was very good and very nice, so we had a great day. He picked me up on his motorcycle in the dark at 6am and we zoomed thru the city and countryside as it woke up - great fun (& freezing!). The day in the hills was very good. We identified over 30 birds; very few of which I had seen on our last trip here. It makes such a difference when you are with an expert! We also had a bonus of a huge view of the Himalayas. Even at such a distance, it was obvious that they were much higher than we were!
Spent a morning with the Tibetan family which runs 'our' hotel. They said I was like part of the family, and I felt very honoured to be invited (I stayed at their hotel for a month on our last trip here, and have been almost a month here this time!) It was Tibetan New Year, which has great religious significance to Tibetan buddhists. The Dalai Lama had asked Tibetans to NOT celebrate this year, in protest of all the Tibetan protesters who were killed last year by the Chinese govt. So it was a quiet affair, just following them around as they prayed in a couple of monasteries, and did the circuit of the 2 huge stupas in Kath. I was blessed by the head Lama of one of the monasteries. We also visited the Dalai Lama's representative in Nepal.
Spent about 4 days so far working with the local consultant which is doing an engineering and rehabilitation plan of the rivers in the Kath valley for the Nepal govt. Most rivers are very badly polluted and there is no planning control on new building along their banks. I have been on 2 field trips: one to a site inside the city which has a Hindu temple and cremation site, and the other to a rural area upstream of all the pollution. The villagers there showed me around and explained how they wanted to divert the river back to its earlier course and then relandscape it. I tried to convince them to leave it in its present alignment because it would cause less damage and take less work, but they were adamant. Their property lines do not move with the river like in Canada, so the land owners want 'their' land back!
B has already described the day we spent with one of her family's relatives, a little girl who went through a coming of age ceremony. The day ended with a party to which only their closest relatives were invited (about 300!!) We were the only foreigners, so again I felt very honoured.
I have also been busy arranging the rest of our trip: a lodge in the middle of Chitwan Park - a dryland jungle, permits for the 4-week trek around Annapurna, and a whitewater rafting & camping trip down the Sun Kosi River.
I am living the life of Riley here: sleeping in, having breakfast on the hotel roof, doing day trips to the valley's 7 world heritage sites (which can be an adventure in itself!), and trying to communicate with the locals with my very rudimentary Nepal!
I hope everyone is well back in Canada.
- Pat