We have just got back to Kathmandu after spending the past 2 and a half days in Chitwan National Park and it has literally been the best weekend ever!!
Our trip started pretty interestingly with a rather bumpy but unforgettable ride on the roof of a bus (please don't worry Mums, it was safe and amazing but we probably won't do it again), which gave us the best views possible of the journey to Chitwan.
Chitwan is in the Terai region of Nepal and it is completely different from what we have seen so far around the Kathmandu valley. It is extremely hot and sweaty but amazingly beautiful with stretches of flat rice fields, mountain views in the distance and a huge variety of wildlife (we saw rhinos and crocodiles and many more!).
It was a very action packed weekend and we finally got to not only see some elephants, but feed them, bathe with them (which was the funnest thing ever!!!), and also ride them in the jungle! Elephants are officially our favourite animal now - they're absolutely amazing! We also got to dance on stage at a Tharu cultural show, then got a rather informal Nepali dance lesson on a balcony and we also went on a jungle safari trek. It has been the best weekend and none of us wanted to leave!
So next on the agenda is Pokhara, which we are hoping to visit in the weekend after next. That will be a completely different trip with more sight-seeing, lake activities and possibly some paragliding!
So that's the latest updates from us - there should be some more photo's on our flickr page if you want to check them. And also please keep us updated with what is happening back home!
Namaste and lots of love from us both,
Rozzi & Laurence
xxx
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Volunteering Impressions
Namaste!
So first week of volunteering is over and we are both exhausted! We are staying with a very sweet host family consisting of the big mamma, 2 daughters and 1 son who thankfully speaks good English and is our translator/Nepali teacher most of the time. The house is nothing like the houses in England - it is made out of bamboo and clay and they clean it by layering mud on the floor! We eat dahl baat (lentils, rice and curry) for breakfast and dinner so although it's nice I'm getting pretty sick of it, whereas Laurence is loving it. The family keep goats and have a big garden with all the vegetables they need for cooking so we're eating organic! The views from and around the house are incredible - we are quite high up in the mountains, overlooking the Kathmandu Valley (we're in a place called Panchmane, near Jitpur, around 12-15km North of Kathmandu in case anyone feels like looking it up). There are also regular power cuts, but its all part of the cultural experience!
Both Laurence and I work in a tiny school 2 minutes up a hill from our host house. There are only 18 children in total, ranging from 3 to 9 years old, and we are both getting very attached to them! They are so innocent and sweet and get excited about the smallest things from playing with a blow up ball to Laurence's beard (which is now getting longer and even more orange!). For now we are helping the teachers with anything they need us to do, such as lessons in English and maths, as well as playing games with the little ones and trying to keep some of the more naughty boys under control. Soon we will start working with them on more longer term plans like introducing a more structured teaching approach, as the current situation is rather chaotic.
Everything else is absolutely fine with us - we're healthy, happy and now thoroughly in the Nepalese culture, which is great. If anyone wants to get in touch with us, you can call
00977 9808064914 - this is our Nepali mobile number, however where we are staying we have a very bad reception, so if it doesnt go through, that would be why.
Next weekend we are going to Chitwan National Park with the other volunteers. This is where we get to ride elephants and trek through the Nepalese jungle, so we're all very excited!
That's all for now - next update coming up soon. Some more pictures are up on Flickr now so you can check them out on www.flickr.com/rozziandlaurence
Namaste and lots of love from us both!
xxx
PS: Happy Birthday Paps!!! I won't be able to call you on the actual day as we will be back in Pachmane, but I will be thinking of you. I hope you have an amazing day - love you lots!!!! xxxxx
So first week of volunteering is over and we are both exhausted! We are staying with a very sweet host family consisting of the big mamma, 2 daughters and 1 son who thankfully speaks good English and is our translator/Nepali teacher most of the time. The house is nothing like the houses in England - it is made out of bamboo and clay and they clean it by layering mud on the floor! We eat dahl baat (lentils, rice and curry) for breakfast and dinner so although it's nice I'm getting pretty sick of it, whereas Laurence is loving it. The family keep goats and have a big garden with all the vegetables they need for cooking so we're eating organic! The views from and around the house are incredible - we are quite high up in the mountains, overlooking the Kathmandu Valley (we're in a place called Panchmane, near Jitpur, around 12-15km North of Kathmandu in case anyone feels like looking it up). There are also regular power cuts, but its all part of the cultural experience!
Both Laurence and I work in a tiny school 2 minutes up a hill from our host house. There are only 18 children in total, ranging from 3 to 9 years old, and we are both getting very attached to them! They are so innocent and sweet and get excited about the smallest things from playing with a blow up ball to Laurence's beard (which is now getting longer and even more orange!). For now we are helping the teachers with anything they need us to do, such as lessons in English and maths, as well as playing games with the little ones and trying to keep some of the more naughty boys under control. Soon we will start working with them on more longer term plans like introducing a more structured teaching approach, as the current situation is rather chaotic.
Everything else is absolutely fine with us - we're healthy, happy and now thoroughly in the Nepalese culture, which is great. If anyone wants to get in touch with us, you can call
00977 9808064914 - this is our Nepali mobile number, however where we are staying we have a very bad reception, so if it doesnt go through, that would be why.
Next weekend we are going to Chitwan National Park with the other volunteers. This is where we get to ride elephants and trek through the Nepalese jungle, so we're all very excited!
That's all for now - next update coming up soon. Some more pictures are up on Flickr now so you can check them out on www.flickr.com/rozziandlaurence
Namaste and lots of love from us both!
xxx
PS: Happy Birthday Paps!!! I won't be able to call you on the actual day as we will be back in Pachmane, but I will be thinking of you. I hope you have an amazing day - love you lots!!!! xxxxx
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Kathmandu Updates
Namaste!
A quick update from Kathmandu. Things are great here, we're starting to learn Nepali (which is extremely difficult!) and we're getting immersed in the Nepalese culture through our training. Our placement with the host family starts tomorrow so we probably wont be able to update things for at least a week. The charity seems to be very well organised and all people involved in it seem genuinely committed to the projects. Its founder, Bhupi is the sweetst guy and is totally devoted to his cause in Nepal. We both can't wait to start our volunteering, although it is also going to be quite a challenge.
Other than a touch of Kathmandu belly, things are fine with us healthwise. Everything is pretty cheap over here, although it all adds up especially when I (Rozzi) want to buy everything!! I am totally in love with a Nepalese vase that costs around 60GBP and am still trying to convince L to loosen the purse strings a little (not much chance!).
If anyone wants to get in touch with us in Nepal, we do have a Nepali number, but i've forgotten the phone at the hotel so we'll update on that in the next blog. Also if anyone wants to see photos there are some on the flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/rozziandlaurence
Thats all for now - must rush off to the local Nepalese bar with the other volunteers.
Namaste! (which they use here as hello + goodbye but it actually means I bow to the God in you!)
Lots of love
Rozzi and Laurence
xxx
A quick update from Kathmandu. Things are great here, we're starting to learn Nepali (which is extremely difficult!) and we're getting immersed in the Nepalese culture through our training. Our placement with the host family starts tomorrow so we probably wont be able to update things for at least a week. The charity seems to be very well organised and all people involved in it seem genuinely committed to the projects. Its founder, Bhupi is the sweetst guy and is totally devoted to his cause in Nepal. We both can't wait to start our volunteering, although it is also going to be quite a challenge.
Other than a touch of Kathmandu belly, things are fine with us healthwise. Everything is pretty cheap over here, although it all adds up especially when I (Rozzi) want to buy everything!! I am totally in love with a Nepalese vase that costs around 60GBP and am still trying to convince L to loosen the purse strings a little (not much chance!).
If anyone wants to get in touch with us in Nepal, we do have a Nepali number, but i've forgotten the phone at the hotel so we'll update on that in the next blog. Also if anyone wants to see photos there are some on the flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/rozziandlaurence
Thats all for now - must rush off to the local Nepalese bar with the other volunteers.
Namaste! (which they use here as hello + goodbye but it actually means I bow to the God in you!)
Lots of love
Rozzi and Laurence
xxx
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
First day in Kathmandu, Nepal
We have now safely arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal!
The vibe here is totally different from that in Delhi and we LOVE IT!!! We were picked up from the airport by a representative from the charity we will be working with and she took us straight to our hotel in Kathmandu. There are many travellers here and the locals are all very warm, welcoming and smiley, so it all feels very safe :o)
We were told that the place where we will be staying with our host family is only about 15km from Kathmandu at the top of a hill overlooking the city. Also we will have to walk for about 40 mins to get to the nearest shop but the exercise will be good to burn off all the calories from the delicious Nepalese food (it is veggie heaven here!).
We have 2 days now to explore Kathmandu before our training with the charity starts. Tomorrow is Hari Krishna's birthday here, so there will be some good festivities around and we will make sure we visit some Krishna temples too.
First impressions are fantastic and we are looking forward to exploring the city even more over the next few days. We'll log in again in a few days for updates. Hope all is well in England.
Namaste!
Rozzi & Laurence
xxx
Monday, August 10, 2009
OMG Dehli is Mental!!
We're here and we're safe!!
After the best flight ever (!) on Jet Airways, during which we both watched 4 films and managed to sleep a total of 1 hour, we embarked on our journey to our hostel. This sounds simple enough, however as we have now come to realise, things are a bit more complicated in India. We spent 2 hours in a sweaty taxi dodging all tuk tuks and kamikaze motor-cyclists. We then eventually reached the address of our hostel, only to find an empty apartment and no sign of tourist accomodation. Following this, we set out on the second half of our hunt for a hostel, which ended up dragging over another 2 long hours, involving lots of stops at super expensive hotels and trying to haggle prices down to hostel rates. We finally got conned into signing up for a hotel which was 3 times more expensive than our original hostel, and it has mould in the corner, no window and no toilet paper!!!
So after briefly "freshening up" we ventured into big crazy and scary Dehli for food, during which time we got stopped about a million times by locals trying to make a quick buck off the naive English tourists (only a few of them succeeded until we started to catch on). Cheeky locals also tried to pick-pocket us twice so far but good thing we knew better than to carry wallets in obvious places!
So, it's hot, sticky, busy and totally in your face, and if you look past all those trying to con you we can see that the locals are lovely and warm people living in a thoroughly interesting place.
We're doing a trip around most of the major sights around Dehli tomorrow, so until then, the jury's out on this unique city.
You'll be hearing from us again soon, and until then:
Lots of Love - Rozzi and Laurence xxx
After the best flight ever (!) on Jet Airways, during which we both watched 4 films and managed to sleep a total of 1 hour, we embarked on our journey to our hostel. This sounds simple enough, however as we have now come to realise, things are a bit more complicated in India. We spent 2 hours in a sweaty taxi dodging all tuk tuks and kamikaze motor-cyclists. We then eventually reached the address of our hostel, only to find an empty apartment and no sign of tourist accomodation. Following this, we set out on the second half of our hunt for a hostel, which ended up dragging over another 2 long hours, involving lots of stops at super expensive hotels and trying to haggle prices down to hostel rates. We finally got conned into signing up for a hotel which was 3 times more expensive than our original hostel, and it has mould in the corner, no window and no toilet paper!!!
So after briefly "freshening up" we ventured into big crazy and scary Dehli for food, during which time we got stopped about a million times by locals trying to make a quick buck off the naive English tourists (only a few of them succeeded until we started to catch on). Cheeky locals also tried to pick-pocket us twice so far but good thing we knew better than to carry wallets in obvious places!
So, it's hot, sticky, busy and totally in your face, and if you look past all those trying to con you we can see that the locals are lovely and warm people living in a thoroughly interesting place.
We're doing a trip around most of the major sights around Dehli tomorrow, so until then, the jury's out on this unique city.
You'll be hearing from us again soon, and until then:
Lots of Love - Rozzi and Laurence xxx
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Leaving soon!
Hi all,
We'll be leaving soon and I am attempting to set up numerous online structures to keep you all up-to-date.
Here are our various accounts:
Twitter page - http://twitter.com/rozzilaurence
Gmail Account - rozziandlaurence@gmail.com
The address of this blog to send on to others - http://rozziandlaurence.blogspot.com
My master plan is that we will update the blog, which you can choose to follow. This will automatically publish a Tweet which you will receive if you also follow us on Twitter, then anything else we will communicate with our email account.
Send us an email if you have any questions about our pictures, videos or stories. Also take the time to let us know your most up-to-date details so that we can update our contact info.
x Love
Rozzi and Laurence
We'll be leaving soon and I am attempting to set up numerous online structures to keep you all up-to-date.
Here are our various accounts:
Twitter page - http://twitter.com/rozzilaurence
Gmail Account - rozziandlaurence@gmail.com
The address of this blog to send on to others - http://rozziandlaurence.blogspot.com
My master plan is that we will update the blog, which you can choose to follow. This will automatically publish a Tweet which you will receive if you also follow us on Twitter, then anything else we will communicate with our email account.
Send us an email if you have any questions about our pictures, videos or stories. Also take the time to let us know your most up-to-date details so that we can update our contact info.
x Love
Rozzi and Laurence
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