尼泊尔4个星期行。。 完结篇。。。谢谢观赏

yoyyo2000

今年4月中旬去了尼泊尔， 在尼泊尔待了4个星期。 前一个星期多在加德满都做义工，然后后面两个星期徒步去珠穆朗玛峰的基地营。  然后去了泰国两个星期。 这篇就是尼泊尔的照片，下篇， 泰国。。。

尼泊尔是个神奇的地方，我每2－3天都写旅游日记。。很长，英文的，贴在这里可能没人看。。。 我就先发点照片吧。。。


Boudhanath  加德满都佛教最神圣的地方。。。


加德满都的Boudhanath stupa。 那天是一个节日，人山人海。。。Stupa 周围有10多个西藏佛教的寺庙。。


Shechen 寺庙 (Monastery)




节日晚上还在进行，很多人进香。。


Prayer wheel。 上面写着Om Mani Pemihum...















我的和尚朋友Wangchuk，一定要帮我们和Taxi讲价。。。这是我最后看到他的时候

[ 本帖最后由 yoyyo2000 于 2011-7-6 17:50 编辑 ]

lazysnail

就是这个庙让我觉得尼泊尔商业气息特别重。。。喇嘛还会帮你找角度拍照。。而且急不可待得跟你募集。。。

yoyyo2000

这个是我做义工的一个学校里， 7天里，我们看了1千多个病人。

下面是我们的设备。。很简陋，但是可以用。哈哈。 当地的小孩子牙齿不是特别差，因为很多也吃不起糖。。不过不少不刷牙，需要洗牙。。。 大多数要补的洞都不大。。
我们工作的学校叫SMD, 是一个西藏Rinpoche 创办的。 喜马拉雅一代的孩子可以免费读。 不过我们看的病人是加德满都各地来的，不是就是这个学校里的。  这个学校里的孩子都是信西藏佛教，他们要学尼泊尔语，英语，西藏语，数学，科学等。。。










上面这个是美国New Mexico 来的牙医，和本地高中生小助手Sithar.


学校里女生的宿舍


New mexico的牙医和小尼姑门。。


在等治疗的小和尚们。





集体照。。


真人秀

我穿着尼泊尔风格的衣服，和我们的小助手合照。。小助手都是那个学校的高中生，他们也是义工。


我和小和尚朋友，还有他最好的朋友的合影

[ 本帖最后由 yoyyo2000 于 2011-6-26 21:30 编辑 ]

yoyyo2000

呵呵， 我没碰到过。。  应该不是喇嘛，喇嘛一般比和尚高贵。。不会街头搞这个。。。很多穿和尚服装的也不一定是和尚。

老猫晒太阳

英文的也放上来阿，让我们阿丝给翻译。(paopaobing(68))

老猫晒太阳

楼主是doctors without borders的么?

lazysnail

不是在街头。。。在他们的大殿里的。。是那边的喇嘛。。一般我也就只跟寺里的喇嘛聊天。。外面那些随手掰点钱就可以了。。

yoyyo2000

一个印度教和佛教圣地，当地人火化的地方。

yoyyo2000

呵呵
我不是doctor,我是dentist
和 Global Dental Relief 干的活。。。

yoyyo2000

我进殿，都给点钱。意思一下。。。哈哈。。。当地文化习俗么。。和尚都是靠募捐的

我做义工的时候，认识了一个小和尚，和他聊天不要钱。。。 现在还经常facebook上和他聊。。。

老猫晒太阳

明了，游记可以的话，还是放上来吧，有胜于无。

astina

楼主啊，我们这里大多数人还是识英文的

mlstring

呵呵，俺在摄影版跟贴。想不到LZ已经贴到行路版上来了。。。继续跟ing...

yoyyo2000

毫巴。。。大家一定要的花。。我就发吧。。大多数都是iphone上快速打的。。。 语法拼写， 就不要批了。。。哈哈哈

第一片。。
Hi there , I was writing Julian an massive email and
I thought I can forward this to you too, so you know what I am up to. Some of the minor details could be inaccurate. I am trying to keep my story as detailed as I can.

It was a hot day when I arrived. Hot and dusty. I had to line up with a few other tourists to get the tourist visa. While I was lining up, an official looking guy was trying to sell me tours and offer to buy me dinner one night. I politely took his card but never called.

When I arrived, the guy in charge of the clinic, Mark, the paedodontist and our guide Karma picked us up. He gave me a kata. It's a white scarf for the guest. And they dropped us off at the shechen guest house which is part of the shechen monastery. There are mainly foreigners living in the guest house. Some travelers, some are here to study Buddhism, some are here for retreat. Our neighbor is a hollywood producer. There is a vegetarian restaurant in the guest house. they have an extensive menu. Tea, coffee, cakes, pasta, pizza, hash-brown ( healthier than the american version), veg curry, fake meat curry, fried noodles, noodle soup, muesli with yogurt, list goes on. the tibetan monks here do puja morning and night in the temple, it's quite a scene. The monks are very high tech, most of them own a mobile phone, and a few of them own laptops and iPads!!!

My guesthouse is close to boudhanath stupa. It's a sacred place for buddhists. I have been a bit jet lagged and waking up at 4-5 am. I had a few walks around the stupa in the morning, lots of local pilgrims came in the morning and walk clockwise around the stupa and pray. They chant as they walk past, holding their prayer beads. Some of them also leave offerings at the temple such as rice, flowers, oil lamp and money. You can also buy some grains to feed the pigeons. There are millions of them at the stupa. Early morning is the best with minimal tourists and maximum pilgrims. Great atmosphere. On my first day here there was a temang buddists festival on. It was packed, people dancing, lots if vendors selling food and offerings. You have to line up to get on to the stupa, and you have to line up to come down as well.

In Nepal, most Hindu hand buddhists can pray at the same temple, occasionally there are a few Hindu temples that only Hindus are allowed.

Second morning, I woke up super early, and went to the swayambhumath, the monkey temple. I took a taxi, my guide book said always put the metre on or negotiate the price. The taxi driver said 500 rupees, I said metre. When we got there, there was the second part of the temang festival on in swayambhumath, which I didn't know. It was packed, roads were blocked by the army, he had to do a few detours, in the end costing me 700 rupees. I think I will negotiate my price from now on, at least in Kathmandu.  The taxi Was hell of the ride. Had to dodge people, incoming cars, hundreds of sleeping dogs on the street, wandering sacred cows, goats... Was feeling a bit motion sickness at the beginning and the dusty air from the window was not helping much. Many locals wear mask walking around the street. I was trying to start a conversation with the driver, but very difficult with limited English.  When I got there, there were thousands of people, street vendors, pilgrims coming with their offerings. Priests sitting by the big stairway giving people blessings. Lots of the street food and fruits looked really yummy, but I did not try any not knowing the closest clean toilets are. I was getting really tired walking up the stairs wedged in thousands of people. Suddenly a sadhu popped out, sprinkled some orange flower pedals on my hair and red tika on my forehead and said it will bring me good luck. Then said 200 rupees. Not knowing the market price, and I did not want to cause a stampede, I quickly gave him the money and moved on. later on I found out a photo with sadhu, 50 rupee is plenty. But I did get a tika, some pedals and bleeding, so could be a bargain if the blessing was good. There are a few temples up there and of course monkeys. Very cute.there was a Stupid up there as well. I was pretty much wedged in and went with the flow. People throwing rice and flower pedals everywhere. Women were really very colorful saris. Everyone was chanting. It was a feast of sound and colours. The temple is high up there, you can see part of the Kathmandu valley from there. Unfortunately, can't see much because of the pollution. When I came back, I got a different taxi. This time we agreed on 500 rupees, the ride seems to be quicker due to improved traffic. He had a picture of dalai lama hanging in front and lots of beautiful orange flowers on the dashboard. He comes from a town which is two hours away. And he taught me how to say thank you in Nepalese.

Diesel are very expensive here ( similar prices to Australia, but the local income is much much lower ), and there is a shortage of fuel, people have to line up 4-6 hours, sometimes a whole day to get some. On the way back, I saw hundreds of buses lining up for diesel.

After I come back, I met our guide's wife Sonam. Btw they are both Sherpa people. She is an amazing woman. She started this non profits organization called the small world. She helps local women in the Himalayan region save up small amount of money each year and buy a sewing machine, when their children reach school ages, they can make their school uniforms. Lots of girls miss out school because parents only had enough money for the boys uniform. Lots of girls get sold into slavery or prostitution here or overseas. Sonam is trying to retain more girls in school, and get them educated, improve inequality. She had a 16 month old boy herself, and she is always busy organizing things. She comes to clinic every day to help out as well. Her organization got a Facebook page if you are interested.

Next day, more people arrived. My roommate, clarissa from new Mexico ( dentist ), Katherine an Chinese girl from uk ( dentist ). Jess from washington state (hygienist ), Kristen from Atlanta (hygienist), Doug from Ohio (paedodontist) , Wes from Canada (professional fishman) , antja from Germany ( lawyer), mihela (hygienist) and  cristian ( non dental)  from California and mark from California (paedodontist).

At dinner, Mark told us the story of his friend who used to volunteer in Nepal. This is the first year he work here without him. He got killed by Taliban along other 5-6 ( maybe 9) eye doctors last year near Kabul. they were traveling on this mini van,they told their security guard that they should be fine, so the security guy left. They picked up a hitch hiker and later on they got ambushed by talibans. They got prosecuted one by one because they found bibles on the car. The van driver got to live to tell the tale because he was reciting Koran all the way through. Pretty crazy.

Later that day,  We went to the pashpatinath to see cremations and had more photos with the sadhus. I only paid 50 rupees this time and they were happy. We were taken to durbar square and we went to the patan museum. there were lots of amazing wood carvings around the temples, and interesting statues in the museum. We went to the Shree Mangal Dvip school. It is founded by thrangu rinpoche for himalayan children. (www.himalayanchildren.org,www.smdhimalayankidspage.org ). The school is fully funded by foreigners. Kids age range between 4 and 20 live and study here. Some are orphans, some are from Himalayan regions which takes days to walk to ( yes, no bus or flight). They have boys and girls dorms. Mixed ages in one dorm, the older ones take care of the younger ones like big brother and sisters. And in play yard they all play together.  Most of our dental assistants are year 10-12 students. They speak very good English and they are great at their job.

My first assistant is Wangchuk, he is a Tibetan monk. He goes to medical school to study general medicine during the day and comes back to stay at the school at night.he also goes back to his own monastery to study dhama. He has been a monk and living at this school since he was seven. His home is five days trek away. He didn't go home for nearly 11 years, and he went back for two weeks last year. His home is next to the Tibetan border, stunning views. His older brother and sister are illiterate and are married with kids, they are farmers and keep yaks at home. His three younger siblings are at school. One of them is a nun, I think she is 13-14 years old, not sure.  Wangchuk's mother died 7 years ago when she was 39 years old. He was not told until a few months later because his family didn't want him to get distracted during exam time. He went back later to investigate the death of his mother. He think it's some form of hepatitis because she had jaundice when she died. They didn't have doctors where they live, they only have priests from local monastery.

Another assistant I had was called Tashi Dolma, she is 18 years old. She has four sisters in the school as well. She is studying very hard in her final year, hoping to get a scholarship in canada in September. She is a very good assistant and makes work a bit easier. Her hometown is one day walk from wangchuk's place, and she goes home every 1-2 years.

Pema is 16 years old, she just started learning dental assisting, she was not familiar with many instruments but she is a fast learner. She has 5-6 siblings as well and one of her sister is studying in Canada right now on scholarship. She lived in the same village as Tashi.

These three kids were just part of the school volunteer assistants. The clinic runs 2-3 times a year, and 6 days each. There are 20 kids working. What happens is different schools bring kids in on different day, the first few assistants will show them how to brush properly and hand out a toothbrush. Then they will go to the first dentist for a quick check up. Then if they need fillings, they will be numbed up straight away and send to the bench to wait for his/her turn, their check up instrument and notes will be lining up on a dentist's bench, if they need clean, it will be on a hygienist bench. It's very efficient, we see 100-170 patients a day, on average we do 80-100 fillings a day between 3 dentists. The patients are very good with injections in general. A few nuns spoked a bit.  

At this moment, there is a big ten day puja going on at school as well. From 6 am to 6 pm. The monks and nuns are praying for the world peace. It's interesting to hear people chanting, playing music instruments and drums while drilling teeth.

After three days of clinic, we went sightseeing for a day as well. Then we went to bhakatapur, and saw lots of wood carvings and more temples. After that we did a bit shopping in thamel. It's a crazy tourist place with lots of shops.

The food and drinks have been very good. I love the curry, Tibetan noodle soup and momos. Had a couple of everest beer as well. Banana lassi is beautiful. I haven't been sick at all, I guess I have a strong Chinese stomach.

We only have electricity 8 hours a day. It's not very convenient but enough for charging phones and cameras. There is free wifi where we stay as well. It's not very stable, and it's really hard to write a long email as well. But once I started this morning, I couldn't stop. Tonight we are going to a dance/dinner, I am wearing my new green/red Salwar kameez. Tomorrow is the last day of clinic, and we will have dinner with our assistants tomorrow night.

Anna is coming on 29th, and then  we are going trekking to the everest base camp. I will try to keep you updated. Sorry about any grammar or spelling mistakes. I am typing this up very very quickly.

Love
Wei

老猫晒太阳

楼主的游记还真的很详细，我要学习。。。。(paopaobing(68))

yoyyo2000

第二片游记／日记来了。。  之后还有10片。。。希望大家不要看吐。。。



Yesterday was the last day of clinic. The big puja was still going the school, lots of local tibetans came and sitting around the hall, praying and spinning their massive praying wheels.  

Even though it's school holiday, there were still lots of kids at school. Obviously walking home for 3-4 days and back is not a good option when the school holiday is only 10 days longs. While we were working, lots of volunteer walked through, they were mainly young people from Canada, switzerland and a few Australians as well. They were teaching them english, playing games, and they went on a trekking trip for a few days last week as well.

Last night, we had a garden buffet at the vegetarian restaurant in our Shechen guest house to thank all the student assistants. 20 something students came. They played guitar with our clinic co-ordinator Wes. And they were singing by the candle lights. It was really nice and sad as well. Wangchuk the monk gave me three beaded decorative things to hang on my bags and said they would bring me good luck. I guess they must be blessed if they are from a monk.  :p He also gave me a postcard of his home town, tsum valley. He thanked me for all the work I had done, actually I thanked him instead for all the good assisting work he had done to help me work efficiently. Pema was really cute as well, she gave me a friendship bracelet and a yellow hairtie which I have been wearing eversince. She also wrote me a letter which was quite moving. She is only 14, but her English is already very good and she is very smart and an fast learner. I told her I will come back one day, and will try to find her on Facebook. ( actually I told her to find me instead because there were millions of Pema on Facebook. Many Nepalese names were given by monks so lots of people have the same name. To make things more complicated, there is no street name or number in many area. There are small suburb names. So when you write a letter, you write their name, suburb name and maybe indicate the surrounding shops or landmarks. Sounds really confusing, with all the people with the same name, I wonder how the letters reach anyone. ). I also talked to a boy named Vidya. He is half Indian, and half Tibetan. He is 20 years old. He just had his final exams and he was trying to get into hygiene school and become a hygienist. He said he could never become a doctor, because he went to hospital to look for Wangchuk a few years ago and accidentally saw the birth of wangchuk's niece and he couldn't eat for days.  He  is a massive Indian cricket team supporter. He was overjoyed when India best australia last year in the international series. He was dancing for days with an indian flag. His mum died when he was 7 and he had been living at the school since then. He pretty much grew up with Wangchuk, they are besties. He is a very cool kid.

At the end of the dinner, Wangchuk hand out kata ( a white scarf for the guest ) for everyone to say thank you. And we said goodbye, getting emails and Facebook accounts. Lots of hugging, hands shaking and laughters. I don't think as females,  we can hug a monk. So we just shook hands with Wangchuk and hugged the rest.

Clarissa and I were planning to go for a day hike today in nagarjun forest reserve  today. On the top of the hill, you will have a panoramic view of the Kathmandu valley. And there is an old summer palace of the king from some decades ago. It's 2-3 hours hike to the top.  However, there is a big strike today. Apparently everything is shut and no cars or buses are allowed today. ( you can find more details herehttp://www.lonelyplanet.com/thor ... pa?threadID=2049689 ).  So instead, Kristen, Clarissa and I went to the boudhanath stupa, walked around it again, and sat on the top of it in the sun. The air quality had improved dramatically from lack of traffic. We could see a bit of blue sky peeking through the clouds.  Because no business was open, locals all come out and walked around the stupa and praying. We stayed there for half an hour, when we got back I felt exhausted. I might had a bit sunstroke. I drank lots of Water and passed out in bed for two hours. When I got up, had soup for lunch. Clarissa and Mark suggest a walk. We were walking on the empty street where thousands of cars, buses, motorbikes, rickshaws used to be. Then it started raining. We found a bus stop with a shelter, and we were just sitting there people watching. Lots of young people walking/running by in their traditional tibetan or Nepalese costumes. It's very interesting to see lots of little girls with dark/thick eyeliners on. Some baby girls did too. I googled it, I think it's used to prevent evil eye. There were 20 something police at one intersection with sticks and batons. I wanted to take a picture but I was too scared. If I have a telephoto lens, that might not be a problem.

The rain made the air nice and fresh. I saw the street itself for the first time. There were rubbish dumps here and there, and some holy cows were having a ball going through it. We also saw the statue of the first nepalese woman who reached the top of the Everest (local people call it Sagarmatha, "goddess of the sky"). Her name is Lhamu Sherpa, She is a Sherpa woman, and She died on decent.

Lots of street vendors were selling fruits and deep fried dough with some kind of sauce in it. There were not much business for them today due to the strike. We bought three bananas for 30 rupees and went home.  

Tonight Clarissa, my roommate is flying back home to new Mexico. I will be moving to Thamel tomorrow. I wanted to stay here in Shechen guest house for a few more days but they are already booked out. The Kathmandu guest house will be costing me a whooping 39 dollars tomorrow night, while Shechen is only 12-15 dollars per night.

At night there is not much to do before bed time, so we read books. I am reading Into Thin Air at this moment. My new friends also gave me a reading list that I might get to in the future. Most of them are non fictions that read like fiction, 1) little princes: one man's promise to bring home the lost children of Nepal. 2)  left for dead by beck weathers 3)doctor on everest. 4) the immortal life that henrietta lacks.

Bye for now. Will keep you updated.

Regards,
Wei

Forgot to mention:

1013 patients
627 fillings
79 extractions
816 fluoride treatment
304 new patient
224 cleanings.


Within 6 days. Pretty impressive huh? ;)


love,
Wei

yoyyo2000

我看， 我还是继续发照片，  2－3天发片日记，不然大家消化不了。。。

astina

读完了，lz的英语很流畅，经历也很有意思。介意跟我们简单介绍下你的背景吗？

mlstring

不错不错。LZ继续。。。俺滴坐等啦。。。

astina

原帖由 yoyyo2000 于 2011-6-26 18:59 发表
我看， 我还是继续发照片，  2－3天发片日记，不然大家消化不了。。。

可以花差着来

老猫晒太阳

这个。。。我看不懂了。。。。啥意思？

yoyyo2000

Bhaktapur
Bhaktapur 曾经是个王国，开车到加德满都大概40分钟。以木雕，印度教寺庙，砖厂，陶瓷，手工艺品为名。 还可以看到当地人生活。 很有意思


这个是它的Durbar Square




鱼摊



蔬菜店


本地尼泊尔人带着尼泊尔帽，他看我，我看他


街边小吃



木雕面具



当地井，家里断水，大家（基本是女的）出来打水。。 男的干什么去了。。



窗台上的公鸡



有名的孔雀木雕



小女孩提着重重的水桶回家



本地可爱的小孩子。


节日的时候推出来的大木车



坐陶瓷



Tongka学校。他们话藏图。。我也买了张。。





[ 本帖最后由 yoyyo2000 于 2011-6-26 21:41 编辑 ]

yoyyo2000

原帖由 astina 于 2011-6-26 18:59 发表
读完了，lz的英语很流畅，经历也很有意思。介意跟我们简单介绍下你的背景吗？

哈哈，我的背景很简单那。。
2002年来的留学生， 在墨尔本大学读了一年预科，然后去了阿德莱德读的牙医，读了很多年，毕业了，移民了，来了维多利亚州Warrnambool做牙医，今年是第三个年头。。。

yoyyo2000

来个第三篇，给读的快的同学，然后我去读书，看电视了。明天继续哈。。

Need to correct what I said the other day. Sonam told me there are street names and numbers. However there are many people with the same name. When she was little, she was living in this building with six Sonams. They only had one phone, when someone rang up for Sonam. They had to figure out if it's big Sonam or little Sonam. Sherpa Sonam or Tibetan Sonam?

Also I forgot to mention on the second last day of clinic (25th of April ). We went out for dinner. Sonam organized it because we wanted to do some really touristy stuff. We dined at this place called Bhojan Griha. Both Katherine and I dressed up in our Salwar kameez. The restaurant was located in this recently restored 150-year-old mansion in Dill Bazaar. The imaginative renovation of this beautiful old building was really  charming. One wall in the lobby was bit naughty with Kama sutra wood carvings. Each of us was given a red tika before we entered the room and we had to take off our shoes. The seating was traditional, aka, legless chairs with cushions on top. We were served rice wine, rice, dahl baat, spinach, fish, chicken, some root vegetables i didn't know the name of. Food was quite good. The rice wine was very strong. After the first one everyone became quiet chatty. We had 3-4 rounds of newari dances which ware quite entertaining. They had very nice costumes too. It's good to do some really touristy stuff sometimes. After dinner, tea and coffee were served.  At the same time, they brought out this wooden box of seeds and pieces of wood (?!?!). Sonam couldn't tell us the name of it and said you just chew it. The seeds were very hard and tasted like aniseeds which I hate. I like aniseeds in cooking  (like in Chinese five spices cooked with pork), but I don't like aniseeds in lollies or by itself. I could not chew through the wooden piece. Maybe it's Newari style chewing gum or mint.

Last night (27th of April ), I had dinner with Clarissa, Mark, Antja, Sonam, Vivek ( Antja's friend from Canada) just before Clarissa left that night. Sonam is such an interesting woman, every time I saw her I had to ask her more questions. She is a Sherpa woman. Their language and culture is very similar to that of Tibetans. Most of them follow tibetan buddhism. They live high in the mountains of east and central Nepal, and are probably the best known Nepali ethnic group. One of the first people to reach the summit of the Everest in 1953 is Sherpa ( Hillary from Uk and Tenzing, a Sherpa from Nepal.) Nepal, India and Tibet all tried to claim Tenzing as their own when he summited. Sonam means "luck" in Sherpa language. She is one of the six children in the family. Her dad was a porter for Europeans, and his dad's English was not that good. However he made sure Sonam knows how important learning English was. He told her that she have to learn Sherpa and English well. " Sherpa is your mother tongue, English is very important to communicate with the world. Don't worry too much about Nepali, because only one tiny country uses it."  So she studied English really hard at school. She even went through university studying nursing. She got sponsored by a lady from New mexico to go through school. She has never met her, she only knew her name and the city she was coming from. Even though she has never been overseas, she speaks very good English. She said she felt like she has been to every parts of the world because the people she had met. Her husband Karma is the one who founded The small World non-profit organization. They said they did it because they are very lucky people, and they want to give something back to their community/village.

Karma means Star in Sherpa. He has four older sisters and four older brothers. He was born at night in the mountains. His mother was herding yaks at the time from one village to another village when it happened. She gave birth, and tied him around her neck and kept going. She saw a bright star that night, thus named him karma. She walked all the way home that night all by herself.

He is the only one that got education and went through university. He and Sonam realized that keep receiving foreign aids and buy basic food and things is not a sustainable plan for Nepali people. They believe education is the key. Once people get educated and get new skills, they can earn a living themselves. Sometimes foreign aids trained the locals to be beggars. They go through small villages, convincing people to send kids especially girls to school. They try to empower the woman at the village by teaching them how to sew, make handicrafts, etc so they can earn money, be independent, and send their kids to school. She said the villages along popular tourist trails got rich very quickly. But the small villages out of the way still live in poverty. Very high illiterate rate. And many people got into slavery or prostitution.

They get school volunteers from USA and other countries to come to help as well. They have organized a 2-3 week farm stay volunteer trekking tours. The kids ( most time very rich ones ) will trekking to little villages, help with farm work, and help with building schools. Because they go through an American organization, they pay roughly 3600 US dollars per head plus airfare. If you go through the small world directly, it's around 1300 US dollars which covers food, accommodation and trekking. So far, they have built a few schools. They also have their own private trekking company. And 10% of their profits goes to the non-profit organization.

Sonam basically organized all of our transport, sightseeing, restaurant bookings and she also took me to this tailor place out of town to get some Salwar kameez made. Clarissa and I gave her a pashmina shawl as a gift to thank her.

I don't think I have ever described her before. She is really really pretty with a kind face. She has jet black straight long hair that almost reaches her hip. She sometimes braided her hair or just have them in a ponytail. She seldom has makeup on. She has big black rounded eyes and she always look you straight in the eye. You feel like you can see warmth and honest through her eyes when you are talking to her. And she smiles a lot. I hope I don't sound like I have a crush on her. Haha.

I forgot to mention before. Dogs are everywhere in kathmandu. Most of them are not that well groomed. At first glance you would think they are stray dogs, then I found out later they are actually people's pets. Most people don't keep them in the house. In the day time, you will see them sleeping on the footpath in the busiest street, by the temple, by the stupa. No matter how crazy and chaotic it is, they won't wake up. When the night falls, they wakes up and starts barking, sometimes whole night. It was really annoying at first, now I am used to it.

This morning (28th of Apri, 2011l), I checked out of the Shechen guest house, and I left my luggage in the storage until Sonam picked me later around 3pm to go to Thamel. I decide to have a look around the stupa and just have lazy day. I went to the Saturday Cafe . it was on the rooftop facing the boudhanath stupa. It was a very good view. Some people were on top of it and spray yellow paints around it to make multiple half circles. It's hard to explain, I will post some photos in the future. Even though the pollution is pretty bad and there is shortage of water. Lots of people keep lots of colorful pot plants on their balcony. I was surrounded by colourful pot plants. There were some interesting people at the cafe. Four French kids behind me were talking all the time which was a bit annoying. It could be interesting if I know what they are talking about. An old lady was having a pot of tea with an old Tibetan monk. And on my right sight, a young white girl was having private tutoring on Nepali language with a Nepalese tutor. Seems to be a lot of foreigners around here interested in buddhism. I guess the boudhanath stupa is one of the most sacred place in Nepal for Buddhists. Hearing and seeing Buddhism being practiced everyday, I started to have some interest in this as well. I got two books today, What Makes You Not a Buddhist by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, and A Tibetan Buddhist Companion. The latter was a bit deep. When it was getting too hard, I just switched back to Into Thin Air to have a bit mental break. Two hours of intensive reading, two pots of black tea and a small plate of fruit later, I actually felt quiet hungry. I walked to the Garden View Restaurant and had tibetan soup noodles and momos. It was an interesting crowd. White dhama students in their funky clothes and funny beards, local Tibetan monks, European tourists. Chinese tourists. I guess the stupa is surrounded by around 10 gompas, so people come here for either religious or tourist stuff. They actually charge foreigner 200 rupees to go through the stupa gate. Everytime I got caught, I had to tell them I lived in there.

I have been pretty careless with what I put in my mouth. I have been brushing my teeth with tap water, having salad, drinking lassi, and having ice in my beverages. I feel fine so far, must thank the immunity I got from china.

Sonam dropped me and Mark off at Kathmandu guest house around 4 pm. Mark doesn't live there, he just wanted to have a look what the rooms are like. My private single bedroom without bathroom costed me a whopping 15 dollars. You can get a room for 7-10 dollars in this area. There is no free wifi, so sometimes I stand outside next to the Northfield restaurant to use some of their free wifi. Maybe I am being too cheap, the wifi in the guest house only cost 1-2 dollars per hour.

The guesthouse is a converted old mansion. When I arrived, the power was off due to load-shedding (we only get 8 hours of electricity a day. Occasionally we get extra power with a few corridor lights with generator but not with power outlets.), it looked like a haunted mansion, and my room looked like a room in the old Melbourne gaol. Felt slight depressing and I missed the shechen guest house just a little bit. The cold shower I had afterwards didn't help. The power finally turned on after10pm, I could charge my phone and type my emails.

Tonight, I had dinner with Mark in a really nice thai restaurant tonight before we said goodbye. He is such a funny guy. He said he might visit Australia after he visit his daughter and grandson in new Zealand next year. It's a pity Anna won't get a chance to meet him. He is a Russian Jew as well! Actually according to him, he is a Jew-bu, Jewish turned Buddhist. Very funny. Dinner cost us a whooping 13 dollars. Its expensive by Nepal standars. I will stick to my 6 dollar meal tomorrow.

Thamel is a crazy place. Everyone is trying to sell you something, tiger balm, fruits, singing bowls, woodcarvings, cashmere, taxi, trekking trips, hash, rickshaw ride, you name it. There are a lot of white hippies on the street. Hippie clothes are really cheap here. Those woolen hippie hats cost 1-3 dollars, hippie pants or shirts, less than 10 dollars. It's a totally different vibe here. Boudhanath felt sacred, here feels chaotic and sensory overload. There is an Aussie bar across the road, maybe should check it out tomorrow!

It's getting late now. My door is a bit stuffed, I had to get people from the front to open it for me three times today. I will try to avoid going out before I pick up Anna tomorrow. Good night for now. Take care.

astina

原帖由 老猫晒太阳 于 2011-6-26 19:06 发表
这个。。。我看不懂了。。。。啥意思？

就是今天贴照片，明天贴日记，交错着来

hr6970

狠是羡慕LZ能有这样的机会深入地了解当地的人文。照片很漂亮，如果能再加些注解的话就更完美了。

astina

原帖由 yoyyo2000 于 2011-6-26 19:11 发表


哈哈，我的背景很简单那。。
2002年来的留学生， 在墨尔本大学读了一年预科，然后去了阿德莱德读的牙医，读了很多年，毕业了，移民了，来了维多利亚州Warrnambool做牙医，今年是第三个年头。。。

Warrnambool！ 大洋路的尽头啊。那里华人有多少？

yoyyo2000

呵呵，你下次也可以去阿，尼泊尔人民都很友好。  我会慢慢的加一些注解。。。前2片加了

yoyyo2000

是阿，华人不多。。我一个都不认识。。。。哈哈哈

astina

那你怎么知道新足迹的？