Touchy feely Kathmandu

Another week, another blog-posting. Highlights this week include some excellent cultural sessions,(where we learned about Nepali human rights achievements) and a birthday trip to the countryside. More on the former in a later blog and more on the latter below.

Before moving onto a touchy subject, here are two more questions:

- Can you get a good cup of tea in Nepal? (Henry Massey Farwell – age 16 months and who loves tea).

Yes. In Kathmandu we can get a wide selection of teas, both in restaurants and in the tea-shops, which have loads of tins of tea-leaf varieties. The traditional Nepali tea (at least in these parts) is ‘Chiya’ which is similar to Indian ‘Chai’. It is weak, milky, sweet and with extra spices such as cardamon and cinnamon. Steve loves this but Mel prefers ‘thato cargati’ – hot lemon.

- What did you do for your birthday Steve? (Sharon Massey – age confidential)
Despite the fact that my birthday is not until 24th April, I have already received and devoured the parcel of home made sweets sent from home and had my main birthday treat. This was a long weekend in nearby villages where we stayed in friendly guest-houses, had nice walks and got great views of the Himalayas at dawn (yes-we did get up before sunrise to appreciate them). There are photos in the album but here’s a taster:
Now for ‘Kathmandu: A Touchy Subject’

A touch, that has been taking up much of our time and energy recently, has been choosing suitable fabrics for clothing. In particular, to help fit in with local culture, Mel has been buying some ‘kurtaa suruwaal’, which are local outfits. These come in a variety of bright colours and styles. We will post some photos of Mel in her outfits after they are back from the tailors. Sense of touch was valuable when it came to choosing a cool and comfortable fabric from the many on offer in the fabric shops. Here is a photo of one of the shops that Mel bought her fabric from:

Steve had a less enjoyable ‘touchy feely’ experience when he encountered a local hairy caterpillar. Although you may not think that a hairy caterpillar is as scary as a tiger, crocodile or cobra (all of which live in Nepal) they produce a very nasty rash and Steve wishes it to be known that he was very brave (if somewhat itchy):
Another common feeling is ‘rice between the fingers’. The custom here is to eat with your right hand. This can be fun, though tends to be messy for the inexperienced, especially with rice and ‘daal’ (which is mushy):
As dedicated ‘tree-huggers’ it has been nice to find new kinds of tree, such as this tangled Peepal Tree (a kind of fig), which are great to get our hands on:
Keep the questions coming and we’ll post again after we come back from our week-long village trip. Next time, ‘A taste of Nepal’.

Smells (and your questions answered)

Welcome to our latest posting.

Since our last update we have mostly been on VSO training, including 4 days in hotels on conference. There has also been a national election. This much awaited event was luckily more peaceful than many had feared. The results are still coming out.

Before moving onto ‘Smells of Kathmandu’ here are some more of your questions answered:

- What music traditions are there in Nepal – is there modern and folk music? (Alwyn)

Like many other aspects of Nepali culture, there are lots of influences. Indian (Hindi) music is popular, both traditional and ‘Bollywood’ hits. We have yet to experience a cinema with a Bollywood film but apparently the whole audience joins in enthusiastically. Also, Tibetan music is commonly heard. This is mainly in the Buddhist chanting tradition and with a funky beat. More about music in future blogs.

-What have you found the most challenging/surprising/interesting aspect of Nepalese culture? (Alwyn)

Lots of things but if we have to choose one we would say the all pervasive presence of religion and ritual. It is not possible to walk more than a few metres without encountering a shrine or full temple of some type. There are lots of festivals and daily/weekly rituals to be attended to and nothing happens on astrologically inauspicious days. Even our well educated and informed language teachers admit that the purposes and complexities of much of the religious system are unknown to anyone. All this makes for a very colourful, confusing but fascinating experience.

-How will you be traveling to your placement? (Alwyn)

We’re not yet sure is the short answer! We will go by bus if possible (18 hours) but VSO don’t really like this so we may have to hire a jeep. We’ll keep you informed.

-On a similar theme: When do you expect to move to your placement? (John Gould)

In about a month (mid May). We’ll really be desperate to go by then and, hopefully, be able to speak Nepali to a decent extent. Before that we will have a week’s placement in a village, to improve our language and cultural knowledge.

-What do you eat? (Luca Shier)

We eat all sorts of food because Kathmandu has lots of tourist restaurants. When we go to our placement on the other side of the country, we will mostly eat rice and vegetables.

-What animals have you seen? (Luca Shier)

We have seen lots of colourful birds and butterflies. Apart from this we have seen lots of monkeys and cows and a dead snake. When we get to our new home, we hope to see camels, elephants, crocodiles and maybe deer. If we’re very lucky, we may see rhinos or a tiger.

Luca’s other questions about school will be held over until our ‘school special’ in a while. We hope that’s OK Luca.

And now….

The Smells of Kathmandu

Like the sounds, the smells of this city are hard to miss and some are nice and some nasty. Here is a selection of the most obvious and if you scratch your computer screen, you may be able to smell them (We accept no liability for computer screens damaged in this manner!).

Traffic fumes are all around and so the smell of pollution is hard to avoid. The usual smell of exhausts is added to the smell of kerosene, which is mixed with the petrol. The kerosene is also used for fixing patterns on clothes (especially tourist T-shirts). Infact, cars are a constant menace:

In addition, one nasty smell that everyone hates is the smell of rubbish. There are no bins and, although rubbish does get collected from streets, there are piles of it everywhere, especially in the river. The rubbish piles do perform one function however, they provide food for the stray dogs (see last posting) as well as a bed for cows:

Often, the nastier smells are masked by the incense sticks, which can be found everywhere, but especially next to shrines and butchers shops. Their strong aromas are common across Asia and Nepal has many incense shops.

Another welcome smell is that of the cooking that wafts from many doorways and restaurants. Most Nepali cooking uses lots of spice and other tasty ingredients so the smells are enough to make your mouth water. Here is Rikes, the chef at our hotel, in full cooking mode:
Finally, when we can escape the other smells, the beautiful smell of jasmine, rhododendrons and other exotic flowers can be found wafting from gardens, parks or people’s window sills:

On that happy note, we’ll finish for this time. Please keep the questions coming and next time we’ll describe the ‘touchy-feely’ side of Kathmandu.

Sounds of Kathmandu (and your questions answered)

Thank you to people who have commented on this blog-site. Here are some of your questions and our attempts at some answers:

- What is growing on the stepped terraces (in one of our previous photos)? Is there a shortage of water in Kathmandu? (From Irene Gould)

Our co-volunteer, Hanuman Tredi, who was a farmer in India, identified the crops as Wheat. The reason for the terracing is to prevent soil erosion in the heavy rains.

There isn’t really a water shortage in general, because of rivers and the rainfall in the wet part of the year. There is, however, a shortage of CLEAN water. The rivers and groundwater are polluted with sewage and other chemicals. The water pipes that go to some houses are cracked and in poor repair. Many houses do not have their own water taps but people use communal taps that are usually nearby.

- How do you say ‘hello’ in Nepali? (From Jonny Gutteridge).

This one is an easy one! We would hope to be able to answer this after 2 weeks of solid language training. With some confidence we can say that the way to greet a Nepali is to put both hands together and say “Namaste” (in India as well). The literal translation of ‘Namaste’ is “I bow to the god within you”

- What is the food like? (From Gemma Mebhratu)

The short answer is ‘tasty’. The national food is similar to North India and is called ‘Daal Bhaat’ (lentil rice) and there are many varieties and levels of spiciness. In Kathmandu, there are a huge variety of restaurants, catering for all the tourists, so it is easy to eat pizza, sandwiches and other ‘Expensive Western’ foods. When we go to our placement, such varieties of food are not expected . It is very easy to be a vegetarian here as many Nepalis don’t eat meat.

- Here’s a final comment from our newest nephew Cy:
And now, the first in a series of 5:

The Sounds of Kathmandu

Here are some of the sounds, both pleasant and not-quite-so-pleasant, that are an ever present feature of Kathmandu life:

The first and all pervading sound is that of the traffic. In particular, the constant honking of horns. Drivers seem to honk not to express anger but to warn you and other drivers of their imminent presence. Since there are very few pavements, you can bet that we get honked at quite a bit as we risk life and limb crossing (or even just walking down) streets that are dominated by lorries, cars, and, especially, motorbikes. One of the more pleasant modes of transport, along with bicycles, and those with the most unique horns, are the rickshaws, which ferry people around the more touristy areas. Their sound signals range from personalised whistles to bells and horns made from plastic bottles and gaffer tape. Here is one:

The next sound that we noticed, from the first night, is the sound of dogs barking, howling and otherwise making a racket. There are dogs everywhere, most of them stray, and they seem to lead a nocturnal existence. Having mostly slept all day, they will start up a howling and woofing contest at regular intervals throughout the night, especially outside our window! Here is one such miscreant:

Another sound which is very common here at the moment are the sounds of megaphones from the many marches and political rallies that happen several times a day. Sometimes the megaphone is mounted on the back of a truck and driven at speed around the city, with flags flying. Sometimes the megaphone leads a march and is followed by anywhere from 5 to 500 exuberant activists, all shouting and chanting slogans. The square outside our hotel appears to be a favourite place for such marches to start. We expect that this activity will reduce in a few weeks after the elections of April 10th. We couldn't get a good shot of a march as the political situation is a bit sensitive and we didn't want to upset anyone.

A more pleasant sound, that can be heard all over Kathmandu, is that of bells. Bells are always present outside even the smallest of temples and are rung to obtain the attention of the gods, especially after an offering has been left:

Another pleasant sound is the beautiful dawn-chorus that greets us every morning and the bird song from most of the trees. There are bird photos in some of our albums.

Lastly, and certainly not least, we have the interesting sound of the Nepali language itself. Spoken everywhere in Kathmanfu, we are finding ourselves slowly more able to understand. This is mostly due to the intense efforts of our lovely Nepali teachers who we listen to and have a giggle with in our daily classes. Pictured is Krishnaji whose favourite words include:

Malai ukusmukus bhayo (I'm so full I'm about to suffocate).

Jiskeko (Just joking)

Barph re barph / Aamai (said with incredulity means 'wow, that's amazing)