Herm walking
I am awake really early these days, and I am still coming to terms with the fact it doesn't get light until after 8. It was noticeably warmer, quite incredible how quickly it changes these days.
So after a practice, I went for swim in the sea at Petit Bot on my own. Well I say a swim but this time it was a dip, the tide was high and the sea was rough and while there was someone else on the beach, I didn't feel comfortable staying in long - but it was remarkably painless, I honestly don't feel the sea temperature is too bad at the moment.
At lunchtime Mum and I went over to Herm for a walk around the Island - nothing like blowing away the cobwebs. It was so lovely to be over there without many other people around so that we could enjoy the Island's natural beauty on our own. It really is a stunning place. We walked around the cliffs and then sat at shell beach to eat out lunch and then carried on around to the shop to invest in yet more crystals - one of the cheapest places I have found to buy them.
Another quiet and peaceful night on my own in front of the fire with the cat and an early night in preparation for the red eye this morning. New Year in London with H and an opportunity for Yoga at TriYoga, lucky me, this has certainly been a year of travel even if most of it has been this side of the world (well aside from RSA I guess), let's hope for even more next year (and keep planting trees!) - thank you Univere.
xx
Boxing day outdoor fun!
What a beautiful few days, the weather has just been amazing - admittedly cold but ever so clear and an incredible sunset last night and indeed sunrise today.
I managed to make the Boxing Day swim at Cobo this morning, I could not believe how many people were down there swimming and also watching. It was much easier today than yesterday and I managed to stay in for 4 whole minutes! Despite a lovely cup of tea in the Rockmount (I have never seen the place so packed, thank you Rockmount for providing free tea, mulled wine and mince pies, very kind), I lost all feeling in my toes until I thawed out in the steam room at the Grande Mare, half an hour later!
After lunch and watching the end of the Railway Children in front of the fire - you have to love this film, absolutely timeless - Mum, Dad, Val and I went for a long walk out at Pleinmont, which was truly beautiful with lots of birds around.
I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas festivities and keeping warm and cosy.
xx
Christmas Day swim!
Merry Christmas, what a lovely day, the sun is shining and the clouds are amazing.
I got up at 7am - I am finding it difficult accepting the fact that it is dark at that time in the morning, in Nepal it was light by 6.30am - to find the cat from next door waiting for me at the back door. Sounds sad but Ewan and I have grown rather fond of that cat and I have not seen her yet since I got back and was concerned about what had happened to her. So it was a bit of a Christmas present, especially without Ewan here.
After my Yoga practice I went drove to my parents house and spoke to my brother who is celebrating Christmas with Star in Australia. Then we went down to Vazon to meet my parents' friends for the Christmas Day swim. I must admit we weren't in for very long but enough to wake up and have me running to my towel afterwards. I do love swimming in the sea though, it makes you feel so much better, I am hoping to do it tomorrow too and perhaps stay in for a little longer!
My aunt, uncle and cousin are joining us for lunch before going to deliver presents to Ewan's family and spending the evening with Vicki. Hoping to fit in a walk...
Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope you all have a lovely day wherever you are in the world.
xxx
London!
Well I didn't manage to get that much sleep in Bahrain, a few hours after I finally gave in to sleep, my body decided it was still on Nepali time and wanted to wake up. Still it meant I went down to reception to hear an update (as the time we were told has now come and gone) and got to see the full moon setting!
Still I am still a little disappointed I did not get to celebrate the winter solstice and the full moon (with a lunar eclipse I think) as I had intended - in fact I booked my flights so that I would be back in time for it - but I guess it is just one of those things. Everything happens for a reason and maybe I was meant to experience the energy of it without actually having to do anything about it.
Anyhow after breakfast, and quite by chance that they were also up at the same time, I ended up checking out of the hotel with a few of the friends I have made as we felt out of control of the situation sat in our rooms at the hotel. And then at the airport we were told our flight was going at 13.30 (thi was about 8.30m I think) and we were given new boarding passes with the wrong date and there was no real clarity on the situation (and immigration certainly were not happy about it, but I have the stamp so all good!).
So we were a little dubious. There were 6 of us by then so we sat in the bar chatting. It is quite amazing how much you can learn about people when you are in a situation like this, and the people who end up coming onto your path so to speak. So it was quite fun. But then 12.45pm came and no sign of us boarding and our mood dropped again.
Eventually after many trips to the Gulf Air transfer desk and many text messages and facebook messages and emails from people back home (not me, everyone else in UK) with conflicting information we were re-booked onto the next flight to go (waiting on Heathrow and also too many people on flight) at 17.20 instead...and amazingly, because my friends were so great in making a fuss to try their best to get us on the next flight for certain (which I would not have done on my own) and because two of the women sweet talked the guy on the desk and gave him chocolate and everything, and I actually asked the question myself, we all got upgraded to business class!
And the strange thing is, while we spent all this time together and became a group of friends who looked out for one another and knew each other by first name, not one of us exchanged contact details to catch up again. And yet I am absolutely fascinated to find out how they all get on with their lives as I know a little of their hopes and dreams by the way they talked about things.
It is quite incredible really. I will never ever forget that whole experience, it just took me into a totally different state within me and it created a rollercoaster of emotions in a very short period of time. But I believe I have come out fine. I laughed lots, I cried a little, I walked around in a daze and then the adrenalin would kick in and I am still buzzing (and my body clock tells me that I should be getting up and eating breakfast!
So the flight was great. I didn't sleep for more than 2 hours however so I am on 10 hours of sleep in 3 nights, which means I am actually rather hyper as used to running on empty (not good). There was just too much to do! I got to lay back if I liked, legs raised and everything, but they didn't give us a blanket which seemed a bit weird, I got a proper menu and meal on proper plates and everything and I had a relatively decent choice in films. Plus of course I had my book and the views of the lights of the places we were passing over head (really cool) and the stars sparkling in the dark sky until of course we hit cloud in Europe!
So I finally got to baggage collection at 9.55pm and my bag finally came through at 10.30pm so I got the Heathrow express free of charge (due to weather, great stuff!) and then a few tubes to London Bridge and then an overland to St Johns, which was also free. I walked into Hannah's a little after midnight and it is now 2.30am and I really must get some sleep.
Fingers crossed I will be back in Guernsey tomorrow and can finally get into my own bed and get into the Christmas festivities!
x
Still I am still a little disappointed I did not get to celebrate the winter solstice and the full moon (with a lunar eclipse I think) as I had intended - in fact I booked my flights so that I would be back in time for it - but I guess it is just one of those things. Everything happens for a reason and maybe I was meant to experience the energy of it without actually having to do anything about it.
Anyhow after breakfast, and quite by chance that they were also up at the same time, I ended up checking out of the hotel with a few of the friends I have made as we felt out of control of the situation sat in our rooms at the hotel. And then at the airport we were told our flight was going at 13.30 (thi was about 8.30m I think) and we were given new boarding passes with the wrong date and there was no real clarity on the situation (and immigration certainly were not happy about it, but I have the stamp so all good!).
So we were a little dubious. There were 6 of us by then so we sat in the bar chatting. It is quite amazing how much you can learn about people when you are in a situation like this, and the people who end up coming onto your path so to speak. So it was quite fun. But then 12.45pm came and no sign of us boarding and our mood dropped again.
Eventually after many trips to the Gulf Air transfer desk and many text messages and facebook messages and emails from people back home (not me, everyone else in UK) with conflicting information we were re-booked onto the next flight to go (waiting on Heathrow and also too many people on flight) at 17.20 instead...and amazingly, because my friends were so great in making a fuss to try their best to get us on the next flight for certain (which I would not have done on my own) and because two of the women sweet talked the guy on the desk and gave him chocolate and everything, and I actually asked the question myself, we all got upgraded to business class!
And the strange thing is, while we spent all this time together and became a group of friends who looked out for one another and knew each other by first name, not one of us exchanged contact details to catch up again. And yet I am absolutely fascinated to find out how they all get on with their lives as I know a little of their hopes and dreams by the way they talked about things.
It is quite incredible really. I will never ever forget that whole experience, it just took me into a totally different state within me and it created a rollercoaster of emotions in a very short period of time. But I believe I have come out fine. I laughed lots, I cried a little, I walked around in a daze and then the adrenalin would kick in and I am still buzzing (and my body clock tells me that I should be getting up and eating breakfast!
So the flight was great. I didn't sleep for more than 2 hours however so I am on 10 hours of sleep in 3 nights, which means I am actually rather hyper as used to running on empty (not good). There was just too much to do! I got to lay back if I liked, legs raised and everything, but they didn't give us a blanket which seemed a bit weird, I got a proper menu and meal on proper plates and everything and I had a relatively decent choice in films. Plus of course I had my book and the views of the lights of the places we were passing over head (really cool) and the stars sparkling in the dark sky until of course we hit cloud in Europe!
So I finally got to baggage collection at 9.55pm and my bag finally came through at 10.30pm so I got the Heathrow express free of charge (due to weather, great stuff!) and then a few tubes to London Bridge and then an overland to St Johns, which was also free. I walked into Hannah's a little after midnight and it is now 2.30am and I really must get some sleep.
Fingers crossed I will be back in Guernsey tomorrow and can finally get into my own bed and get into the Christmas festivities!
x
Bahrain and Heathrow nightmare
So I left Kathmandu at 7.35pm Nepali time and arrived into Bahrain about 10ish, only to discover that my onward flight had been delayed from 01.55am to 10am the next morning so that was one long night in the airport.
Thankfully I have my laptop with me so I was able to simply sit and catch up on my blog in between wandering around and drinking tea. Oh and I did manage an early morning Yoga practice in a quiet area of the airport with nobody else watching, that is a first for me!
We did get to board the flight but then sat on the runway for 5 hours, having to get off to identify our bag (apparently the only reason our flight did not leave was due to the fact we had one extra bag on board, well done Gulf Airways!) before they finally told us we would not be getting a slot at Heathrow plus the crew would need to chnage before we left now in any event...
So we got to leave the terminal building and go through immigration and everything. Thanfully I befriended a British guy who lives in Oz and was on my flight from Kathmandu having just trekked up to Everest Base Camp so that lessened the tediousness of going through the whole "leaving the airport" situation.
Still on a positive this is the first time I have been to Bahrain, ort got out of the airport at any Middle Eastern country. On the bus on the way to the hotel (without our bags of course), this guy was going on about how he never in a million years had any intention of being here now in Bahrain and it dawned on me how funny this world that really you cannot predict anything and you simply have to go with the flow...we think we can somehow control nature but nature always wins.
Anyhow the hotel was a highlight, a large room all to myself with a television and hot water, luxury after the accommodation In Nepal the last few weeks. Plus we got to eat lovely food - fresh humous and salad, just what I needed after living on airline food the last day or so (yuck!). And finally after 27 hours of not sleeping, I got to lay down and snuggle up in bed.
Who would have thought it huh!
Thankfully I have my laptop with me so I was able to simply sit and catch up on my blog in between wandering around and drinking tea. Oh and I did manage an early morning Yoga practice in a quiet area of the airport with nobody else watching, that is a first for me!
We did get to board the flight but then sat on the runway for 5 hours, having to get off to identify our bag (apparently the only reason our flight did not leave was due to the fact we had one extra bag on board, well done Gulf Airways!) before they finally told us we would not be getting a slot at Heathrow plus the crew would need to chnage before we left now in any event...
So we got to leave the terminal building and go through immigration and everything. Thanfully I befriended a British guy who lives in Oz and was on my flight from Kathmandu having just trekked up to Everest Base Camp so that lessened the tediousness of going through the whole "leaving the airport" situation.
Still on a positive this is the first time I have been to Bahrain, ort got out of the airport at any Middle Eastern country. On the bus on the way to the hotel (without our bags of course), this guy was going on about how he never in a million years had any intention of being here now in Bahrain and it dawned on me how funny this world that really you cannot predict anything and you simply have to go with the flow...we think we can somehow control nature but nature always wins.
Anyhow the hotel was a highlight, a large room all to myself with a television and hot water, luxury after the accommodation In Nepal the last few weeks. Plus we got to eat lovely food - fresh humous and salad, just what I needed after living on airline food the last day or so (yuck!). And finally after 27 hours of not sleeping, I got to lay down and snuggle up in bed.
Who would have thought it huh!
Last few days in Nepal
Returning to Lakeside from Pokhara I managed to squeeze in a Yoga practice on the roof before we went for dinner at Manu's house to spend time with her two sons and to meet her sister-in-law, Amrita, who thanfully speaks fluent English.
I must admit it puts us to shame the way children and teenagers can speak English so easily over here. Even Abhanaya, who is 5 years old, can recite A, B, C etc and count to 80 in English. In fact Sushant, 10, is so good at English that his Nepali is suffering - my aprents sponsor the boys to attend private schools (not unusual out here) and in such schools all lessons (except for Nepali) are conducted in English. It is different in the government schools where children are taught in Nepali.
Anyhow we enjoyed the evening as Amrita, who is only 16, was a fountain of knowledge and makes me realise how easy we have it in the West. Here she goes to college between 6-10am each morning to study commerce and then she has to look after the house, do washing, cooking and cleaning and help Sushant with his homework, and here they have a 6-day week so there is only ever one day off a week and that is the day when everyone catches up from the week and prepares for the next and there is this constant pressure to get good grades so you may stand a chance of getting out the country to study abroad.
This going abroad thing is a big deal in Nepal. As it happens about 500 men leave the country every day to go and work in the Middle East or in Korea or Malaysia, or wherever else manpower is needed. Bijay - despite having a new wife and a 6 month old baby - is in the process of trying to get a visa to go and work in Korea as he knows he can earn so much more money over there than he can earn here.
To be able to stand a chance of getting the visa, which is organised by the government, he has to learn Korean (he is 3 months in and is finding it hard work) as well as put up some initial chas. if he gets the visa he will be away for 2 years before he will get the chance to come home and visit family. Can you imagine? And this is so he stands a chance of earning up to $800 a month which he can then use to get him set up back in Nepal.
So we enjoyed another Dahl Bhat, in fact Manu was very generous and we both left feeling really full - so silly really as they have so little, but you feel obliged to eat more so as not to offend anybody. Again Manu would not eat until all the rest of us had eaten our meals.
The next day was our last day in Pokhara and so we got up early and headed to Yoga and stranegly there were other people there so we got to enjoy a final class with Devika. This was followed by the usual breakfast by the lake before meeting Devika to discuss various aspect of the Trust and to have a look at the website together. More shopping and more tea, more Namaste's and more smiles.
We decided to make the most of the afternoon sunshine and hired someone to paddle us across the lake so that we could climb up to the Peace Pagoda at the top of the hill, which provides yet another vista of the Annapurna range. This was another hard slog, all up hill for 30 minutes, thankfully shaded by the trees! Coming down was another matter as we managed to get lost in the forest and it was the strangest thing as we ended up at the edge of the lake where we would have had absolutely no chance of getting back to the mainland if it had not been for 2 guys waiting for us (like guardian angels) in a boat who very kindly paddled us back across the lake!
We met Devika for a final tea down by the lake and then enjoyed salad for dinner before watching yet another DVD and another early night!
Saturday and we were up super early to pack before getting the Greenline bus back to Kathmandu. This was a particularly tedious journey as it took an hour longer than it was meant to and it suddenly dawned on me that we have spent quite lot of time on buses in the last week and generally on the same road too!
Anyhow not exactly great to be back in Kathmandu as it has a harder and angry energy in comparison to Pokhara but at least we were treating ourselves to a fancy hotel, which was actually a Rana Palace and all rather impressive. Mind you we didn't waste much time in taking a taxi 30 minutes up into the hills to Kopan Monastery, home for studying and retreating Tibetan Buddhists. This is such a lovely place, so calm and serene and such a contrast from the city below.
Back in town we did go into Thamel for dinner but we were both keen to get back to the hotel as soon as could, as it just didn't feel right somehow, people have an edge to them, they are not so friendly or open as they are in other parts of the country (not surprising perhaps, given the conditions of life in Kathmandu with its crazy traffic and noise).
Sunday and we got up early for breakfast beforre heading into Thamel so Ewan could find a guidebook for Cambodia. Snow causing chaos in Heathrow meant that his friend was not getting away to meet him upon arrival in Cambodia so now he needed to sort himself out. We then sat by the pool at the hotel for tea before it was time for Ewan to leave for his flight to Delhi, where he had a 9 hour wait, before his flight onto Bangkok and then Siam Riep in Cambodia (lucky thing!).
Of course this was not ideal, but then it has been so long in coming that it was almost a relief. So Ewan left me in tears at the hotel (poor guy) but I quickly pulled myself together and even managed a swim in the hotel pool with the water a mere 9 degrees celcius (the pool attendant thought I was mad, as did I, when I realised how cold it actually felt and I only lasted 10 lengths!). As it happens I only had a fw hours to kill before my own flight to Bahrain and onwards to London Heathrow. Well in theory!
Thank you Nepal and all my friends over here and all the people we met for making this such a wonderful trip. Neither Ewan nor I wanted to leave and I have every intention of trying to get back there again next year.
Namaste!
xx
Chitwan National Park finally!
The World Heritage-listed Chitwan National Park is one of the main tourist attractions in Nepal and completes the Nepal triangle with Kathmandu and Pokhara. We are rather excited about finally getting there and dream of seeing a tiger!
We get a taxi into the park, an hour drive from our overnight hotel in Bharatpur, along yet more pot-holed roads and then a dirk track leading to our resort, which happens to be one of the most popular places in the park set on a large island in the middle of the Narayani River at the western end of the park.
We are treating ourselves because it is rather expensive to stay in the park itself but this is one of the most atmospheric ways to visit Chitwan and it is hard to put a price on the experience of staying deep in the forest, surrounded by the sounds of the jungle. Plus this opportunity will not be there for much longer as the government are forcing lodges within the park to reolcate outside the park's perimeters when their leases expire.
You see Chitwan is one of a few wildlife parks that you can explore on foot when accompanied by a guide and it does not come without its risks - the only thing between you and an animal is a bamboo stick carried by the guide. Potentially scary stuff and you do hear of local villagers being killed by wild elephants and rhinos.
We have to take a wooden boat across the river and it is all rather lovely and atmospheric because for some reason it gets really misty here in the morning and evening and is really cold too! We are both really excited as we have never done anything like this before and it does feel rather special somehow.
At the resort itself all the staff are really friendly and we are led to our room, which is on stilts with views of the river. It is all rather basic, no electricity in the room as such and they are rather damp but there is lighting between 5.30-7.30am and 5.30-9.30am and hot water between 5.30-7.30pm. We also have to make sure to leave all food at the main bar to reduce the risk of attracting rats into our room (and we are warned that we may hear them scuttling over ou roof at night, which I don't notice, thankfully).
After a Yoga practice and some tea, we took lunch (yes you guessed it, more Dahl Bhat at the buffet counter) before we started our program with elephant bathing. Now I am not entirely sure about all this. One of my hosuemates at University has since gone on to become a doctor in some form of elephant research and now runs an elephant research programme and an elephant trust in Botswana so I am aware that perhaps elephants should be left in their natural environment and not exploited by us humans.
Still we felt we should join in and while the river was really cold, the sun was quite warm, so we both took turns to sit on an elephant and have him spray us with water from his trunk. Bless him, I can't help thinking that he probably doesn't enjoy doing this every day but what can we do, I don't know, it just does not rest easily somehow.
After the elephant bathing we went out on a 4-wheel drive with a few of the other guests to get deeper into the jungle. We were out for a few hours and initially we didn't really see anything other than a peacock, which both Ewan and I struggle to get excited about, but then we saw two rhinos from afar and we borrowed someone's binoculars to get a better view, quite incredible really. Then we saw a vulture in a tree, and then a stork, and then some spotted deer (Ewan refused to get excited about seeing deer!) and then on the way back to the river we saw another rhino, closer up this time.
Back at the resort it was getting dark by the time we had been rowed across the river and the temperatures were dropping fast and already we realised that we should have brought our coats with us for these cold evenings. We enjoyed a lovely hot shower back in the room before sharing a drink at the outside bar and then dinner inside and an early night, like 9pm because there was nothing else to do, it was simply too cold and dark!
The next morning we received our wake up call at 5.45am, which felt as early as it sounds and it was cold and dark and damp and we probably should have put on more layers because we spent the next few hours so cold that it took a few hours for me to feel my toes again, but it was still good fun.
This time we were going out into the jungle on an elephant, 3 of us at a time. This was quite some experience, not the most comfortable of rides and we didn't see a single thing. Well actually that is not strictly true. One of the guys at the resort has said the best he saw was a chicken...we didn't even get the chicken, the main distraction was a child's pink rucksack and our elephant driver actually dismounted the elephant to check whether there was anything in the bag (which there wasn't) before flinging it back into the undergrowth. We laughed about that for a few days.
Back at the resort and we had breakfast before heading out for a jungle walk on foot. Now this was slightly more exciting as we happened to walk upon two sloth bears in the undergrowth off to the side of the path. It was quite funny really as we had listened to the guide explain to us what to do if we did come across wild animals - rhinos; climb a tree or run zigzagged, tigers; stare it in the eye and back away slowly; sloth bears (the most-feared animal in the jungle due to its unpredictable nature) make lots of noise; elephants, run for your life!!
So here we were, the guide banging his bamboo pole on the floor and making noise and I instinctively did the one thing I was not meant to do - turn to run away. So much for looking out for others, if that sloth bear was going to kick off I wanted to be as far away from it as possible!! Anyhow thankfully the sloth bears went away and with my heart beating slightly quicker than it has done for some time, we carried on our way.
We came across more kingfishers and crocodiles too, quite incredible atually, to see them there in the wild.
Back at the resort we had a break before lunch, time for Yoga in the sun and an opportunity to simply chill out - it had been quite a hardcore morning!
After lunch there was more elephnt bathing but we gave it a miss this time, before another jungle walk, going to the same place we had been on the 4-wheel drive the day before. This got really quite exciting because we came across an angry rhino. Apparently the rhino has lost its one month old baby and killed a villager 4 days ago.
We didn't know this at the time however and I must admit I was rather alarmed when we all stopped to look at this rhino on the other side of a small waterway, before the guide suddenly started getting really excited and almost running us along the path as he was worried that the rhino had heard our voices and would come looking for its baby where we were - basically she wasn't taking any prisoners at the moment. The deer seemed rather tame after all that and as for the peacock, well wasted on us I am afraid.
Back at the resort we enjoyed another warm shower and dinner before our earliest night ever - 8.30am, quite unbelievable considering we can both be night owls.
The next morning and we had another 5.45am alarm call. This time I wore as many layers as I could for our nature walk, only 45 minutes and we didn't manage to see anything other than the resort's elephants but that doesn't really count!
We ate breakfast by the river before getting a minibus back to Bharatpur and a Greenline bus (we were taking no chnaces this time) back to Pokhara.
The Chitwan is great, we truly enjoyed the experience, it was so relaxing in its simplicity and incredibly grounding and uplifting for the spirit. I can highly recommend - just remember to bring contact lenses with you!