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呵呵，大家喜欢就好，让大家消化一天。发下尼泊尔第四片日记
29/04/2011 roughly around 10 am
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> Now I am in my new room in a much brighter part of the guest house. Private bathroom and toilet, hooray!!!
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> Last night I had the worst sleep. The bed was actually amazingly comfortable. And the freezing communal shower was rather refreshing. We have a generator for general lighting in the room, so for the first time I didn't have to use a torch to read which makes life a lot easier. I was reading a book until 1 am, thinking I could sleep in the next day. I was wrong. There was a thunder storm last night. I kept waking up during the night. I woke up at 6 am and can't sleep anymore. I did a bit reading for an hour then headed to northfield cafe for breakfast. They had free wifi which allowed me to send my mass email no. 3. I had banana porridge and fruit salad and two pots of black tea. The manager and waiters there were very friendly and funny. The manager was trying to sell me a tour which I politely turned down. I was doing a bit of reading and using the wifi.
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> When I got back to the guesthouse, I got locked out again. So I went to the front desk asking of our new room is ready. The new room was not cleaned, but I didn't care. I moved in straight away and let them clean later.
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> Because last night's storm, the air is amazingly fresh. I think Anna will be impressed today when she gets here.
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> By the way, we even have a tv in our room now!! Lots of Bollywood movies and soaps on!! If only there are subtitles.
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> I went to the airport around 12 30pm to pick up Anna. Sometimes lining up for visa can take forever if multiple planes arrive at the similar times. There was no display board either to show whether flights had been delayed or they have arrived on time. I was anxiously waiting, wishing that I had made a big sign and put it against the glass windows in the waiting room so she can see me straight away. Finally she arrived and looking rather refreshed!! We were both very excited. Finding a taxi can be a bit fun. It's not because there is not enough taxi. There are always too many taxi and everyone wants you. And you have to negotiate a price. An old man with very few teeth and severe periodontal disease insisted on taking us to the taxi, i negotiated a price of 300 rupees, and insisted it was for both of us. then it turned out to be a tourist bus. I said we didn't want bus, we wanted taxi now, so we could go back to kathmandu guest house straight away. Then he took us to another taxi. He got in the front seat and tried to shuffle me and Anna and two enormous bags in the bag seat (the taxi is very small, it's very very crowded if you have three people in the back.) I didn't know what he wanted, maybe a free ride?? Me and Anna could barely fit in the back. I said no no you are not coming, and insisted him to leave and Anna sit in front. I still didn't know what happened. Seems like Anna had fun with the taxi ride, definitely a culture shock for her.
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> We had lunch in New Orleans Cafe. We had chicken thupak. It was nice, but wasn't as nice as the Tibetan restaurants around Boudhanath Stupa ( garden kitchen is the bomb). I used the wifi, then we walked to nearby Durhar square. It wasn fun try to Negociate your way through a Narrow street in between cars, rickshaws, bikes, motorbikes, pedestrians, dogs, cows, muddy patches, rubbish dumps, vegetable stalls. When we got there, it was a very nice square with lots of temples. It cost 300 rupees to get in. It's a world culture heritage sight and there is a living goddess living in one of the temples (you should google up how they select the goddess. Rather interesting ). I think most of the temples were Hindu temples and they have beautiful wood carvings. A lot of people, I mean a lot, were trying to sell us their service as tour guides. We tried to politely reject them, and it was really tiring. They were very persistant. I didn't even have time to read my guidebook properly to find out where we were. In the end, we sat up high in a temple where the locals sit people watching and had a bit rest. As it got a bit later, the square turned into a little local market. People were selling fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, those orange flowers for god offerings. We got lost going back home because every street looked the same with similar shops and it was impossible to find a road sign!! Luckily most people in Thamel area speak English and finally we made our way home.
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> When we got home, we ran into Wes ( professional fishman and clinic coordinator from Canada) and his girlfriend Rosy. We ended up having dinner in Northfield with Nepali music playing in the background. Anna had her first Nepali chicken curry set with dahl baht, yogurt, salad, cauliflower and spinach. She had a long day and she felt quite exhausted so she went back to the guest house and went to bed.
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> I went shopping for pencils, some english children's books, and an english-nepali dictionary. I couldn't find anything good in Tibetan because 1) I didnt know what Tibetan looked like 2) Even if I found a Tibetan children's book, I wouldn't know if it's good because I couldn't read it. They do learn English at school, so i thought a couple of easy english books for children.
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> Anna also got a few toys and pencils from Australia. We are going to visit the SMD school tomorrow, the school I was working in before. And we will give all the toys, pencils and books to the kids. Then we will check out the ongoing puja at school, and Wangchuk is going to give us a tour of the school, then the tibetan monastery nearby which is owned by Dalai Lama's division. I will try to show Anna the boudhanath stupa as well. It's an amazing place.
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> 30/04/2011
> Today we got up at 6 am, took a taxi to boudhanath stupa. The taxi cost us 400 rupees which is a rip off. It was too early in the morning, and not in too much mood for negotiating. We got to the Stupa, went through a back way so we didn't have to pay. After all, we were only walking through it to get to the school. It was very nice as usual, minimal tourists and vendors trying to sell you stuff, lots of pilgrims praying, chanting mantra, minding their own business.
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> On the way to school, we bought 6 bananas for 30 rupees (less than 50 cents? ). When we got to the school, the kids were having breakfast. Wangchuk showed up, and Anna was a bit surprised because she didn't realize he was a monk with full monk costume. Wangchuk showed us the puja. Thrangu Rinpoche was actually doing the puja today. He is the founder of the Thrangu monastery which Wangchuk belongs to. He fled from Tibet in the 50s with a few thousands rupees which was nothing. He set up a library first, then eventually monastery and SMD school. (this is what Wangchuk told me, if you want more information, you can google it. :p. ). At the puja, there were hundreds of monks and nuns were chanting and playing sona and drums. Wangchuk said we could go in to get blessings. I really wanted to, but I didn't know what to do exactly and worried that I would make a fool of myself in front of such important figure.
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> Wr went upstairs and saw what used to be a dining hall. All the tables and chairs were taken out. Hundreds and hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims were sitting on the rugs on the floor, chanting and spinning their mantra wheels. This puja will go for ten days, 6 am to 6 pm and food is provided for all the pilgrims. Then he showed us the class rooms. There are around 600 kids in the school, from nursery to year 10. Then the really smart kids might have a chance to get a scholarship to study in USA, switzerland, Norway, Canada, Australia etc.
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> They have a computer room with about 20 computers, a library with pretty impressive collection of Tibetan, Nepali and English books. I even saw Harry Potter, and Wangchuk said the kids loved it. We also saw the Taylor's room where they make school uniforms, a medical room, principle's room with an impressive display of inter school soccer trophies. Vidya said both him and Wangchuk were in school soccer team before, and they won a few games.
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> I asked if they take the kids to the movies, they said they do. But no romantic or war movies are allowed. Vidya likes romantic movies. I guess many Hindu movies they play on tv here do look very seductive with pretty girls dancing around with tight bodice and belly showing. The early movie sessions cost around 80 rupee ( which is a little bit over 1 dollar).
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> Wangchuk has to stay in his monk uniform at all times, except when playing soccer, he can wear shorts for that. He actually can get fined 50 rupees in the monastery if he doesn't wear the correct clothing.
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> Apparently both of them are mad cricket fans as well. They like playing cricket, but it's very hard in Kathmandu as there are not many wide open space for them to play. They watch a lot of cricket on tv. When the international series was on last year, Vidya missed the final, and Wangchuk had to ring him to tell him India had won. Vidya ( who is half Indian) was dancing with the indian flag for days.
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> I guess its pretty hard to play soccer or cricket if no ground is available. I have seem random kids doing taekwondo in their uniform in an open space with concrete ground. And there were rubbish, broken bricks, mud patches everywhere on the ground.
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> Vidya and Wangchuk have graduated for a few years. They were studying together for more than ten year. Wangchuk is in his 3rd year as a med student and Vidya just did his exams and is trying to get into hygiene school. They are both staffs at the school now as well, working in the medical room sometimes.
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> After the school, we did a long walk up the hill to the Kopan Gompa ( monastery). It was a nice long and steep walk. Once we got up there, we had an amazing view of the kathmandu valley. The air was a lot fresher. We could even see the airport and the boudhanath stupa from there. We could also see the dark clouds start to gather on the southern skyline.
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> Kopan monastery was built by Dalai Lama's division of Tibetan monks. However Dalai Lama is not allowed to enter Nepal because Nepalese government wants to have a good relationship with China. It is a very big monastery with multiple buildings, it has around 400 monks, and there are retreats for foreigners (hippies !! ) as well. It had a shop, a cafe, and Internet cafe.
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> When we walked in, the morning Puja just finished, a child monk just ran out the side door and had a happy cheeky smile on. Wangchuk said he was Tulku. Tulku is the name given to a child when he is the reincarnation of rinpoche. They made a movie about him and it's called Unmistaken Child. He is actually Wangchuk's cousin from Tsum Valley. He is the Reincarnation of a gelunpa lama Geshe Lama Konchog. When Geshe Lama Konchog died in 2001, the monastery found the little boy in Tsum valley near nepal-tibet border according to Geshe Lama Konchog's instructions. He will be a Rinpoche in the future. Apparently he is really smart, and a very fast learner. He knows he is different, so he can be a bit naughty sometimes. He gets punished when he is naughty, but the punisher had to pray first. They believe he has to be disciplined, or he will become very spoiled, and that's a sin.
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> Then we walked around the monastery, he showed us the retreat area where no outsiders are allowed. Wangchuk told us, for a monk to be become a lama, he has to be living in the retreat for 3 years, then 3 months, then 3 weeks, then 3 days, then 3 hours, 3 minutes and 3 seconds. After the first three years, the monk will become a Lama or Khenpo. Lama is good at mantra and performing ceremonies. And Khenpo is good at philosophy. When In the retreat, the monks are completely cut off from the world, food will be sent in everyday. They will sit in this 3 inch wide wooden box and sleep while sitting at night. They will be studying dhama and contemplating philosophical questions by themselves.
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> While we were walking outside, the rain started to pour down. We went in the monastery's praying hall. The seat reserved for Dalai lama had a big picture of him left on the seat, because obviously he couldn't be there. The wall paintings were very pretty.
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> Then we went to a little museum with previous rinpoche's holy relics (which means the remaining of the body after the cremation. Google it, I think they think the more holy you, more naturally formed pearl like little stones they will find in you cremated remains.). The museum was locked, but wangchuk found the curator and opened the door for us. I took some photos because the curator monk said it's ok.
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> After that, We were waiting in this cafe for 20-30 minutes for the rain to go. We had a cup of the hot tea while watching the panoramic view of Kathmandu valley being cleaned and purified by the storm. A few literally very wet dogs ran in as well, and a really cute little white fluffy dog was being hand fed by a nun.
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> Wangchuk rang a taxi so we could go back to the stupa. I wanted to go to the garden kitchen for some momos (dumplings ) and thentuk (soup with thick pieces of dough floating in there). Unfortunately this time when we tried to pass the stupa entrance lady insisted on charging us foreigners the tickets to get in. Normally I just tell them I live in there, and there is no problems. So Wangchuk tried very hard and had this long conversation with her and eventually got in for free. He is so nice and patient, how can you say no to him.
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> We had lovely momos, thupak and thentuk there. 6 dishes between 4 of us. 880 rupees...(less than 13 dollars). Then when we try to get a taxi, Wangchuk told us to wait, and he went to negotiated the taxi fare for us, so we only needed to pay 250 rupees. I hugged Vidya and shaked Wangchuk's hands, hoping it's not our final goodbye.
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> When we got back to the guest house. We met the team. Ram is the leader. There two girls and two guys from USA, one from uk, one from Nz. Everyone seems to be very nice. We rented our sleeping bags and Anna rented a down jacket from Shona's rental. The couple who own the shops are very funny. The woman is Nepali and the man is English. The English man had some interesting stories to tell, including pulling his own tooth out up in the everest, and finishing all the beers at the local guest house on the way down etc. If you ever need a jacket or sleeping bag, you should go to them. No monkey business, and you might get a bit of comic relief for free.
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> Anyway, it's Really late. And I probably won't take my iPhone because I heard horrid stories about how iPhone and high altitude don't mix. I will be quiet for two weeks. I will keep writing stuff by hand, and keep you posted later. Bye for now. Take care.
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> Namaste, wei
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