Hi everybody from Thailand,
We safely arrived early this morning in Bangkok and, so far, the city is very different to Kathmandu and Nepal. For a start there are nice cars, nice buildings and electricity seems to be fairly reliable which is weird for us. Also, this evening we saw beer-swilling brits drinking by the bucket load (literally) and lots of other normal holiday-makers. This is definitely a marked contrast to the crazy hippy travellers who pass through Nepal, although I'm sure we'll find them again somewhere in Thailand. Anyway although different it is a thrilling experience and we can see why people love to soak up the melting-pot that is this city.
We really miss Nepal, the family, the guys from VIN and all the friends we made so we have decided to console ourselves by fleeing from the excitement of the city in search of a quiet beach retreat in Southern Thailand to get some much needed chill-out time with swimming and sunshine (and cocktails I'm sure). We'll be back in Bangkok a fair bit over the next few months so we can absorb this intriguing city another time (although we have all day for sight-seeing tomorrow). Tomorrow evening I think we'll be getting a 12 hour bus to Krabi where we can get a boat to the exotic Islands (Just like in "The Beach" - Leo Di Caprio).
We'll take lots of pictures and upload them to the Flickr page when we get there but in the meantime we're happy, excited and looking forward to getting-to-know another crazy country far from home.
Lots of love
Laurence and Rozzi
xxx
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Final days in Nepal
Namaste!
Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes and those who called Laurence on Friday... it really means a lot! I know it is very hard for Laurence to have his birthday so far away from family and friends, and especially from his other half (literally!) Harry! So me and a few volunteer friends decided to throw him a little surprise birthday party in the garden of our hotel and then out to our favourite spots in Kathmandu. There were balloons, a cake with candles, jazz, mandolin, a lot of fun and jokes and I think we all had a very good. And just last night we went back to our host family's house in Panchmane with a couple of friends for the second party for Laurence - this time joint with Sujan who's 21 in a week. This was a slightly different party from what we're used to, for example there was still daal bhat and we went to bed at 9.30pm but it was very sweet and fun! So all in all I think L had a good birthday although we will still have to celebrate with everyone back home!
So now we're into our last week in Nepal - we only have 2 and a half days left and we're already thinking about when we can come back again! It is quite strange leaving this country as it has been our home for the past 6 weeks - we even have a family here! But we're also very excited about going off to Thailand and lazing around on beaches without any plans or responsibilities. I don't know why we even bothered bringing our guidebooks with us - we havent looked at them once so far!
I think we'll finally go around and take pictures of Kathmandu in our last few days. We've already used up 10GB of memory cards in just 6 weeks - I dread to think about sorting through it all later! I don't think there will be much more to report in the next few days, so we'll make this our last blog from Nepal (for this year at least), and then we will post something from Thailand as soon as we can when we get to Bangkok - Friday or Saturday depending on how quickly we get settled in.
Lots of love from us both.
Namaste!
Rozzi and Laurence
xxx
Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes and those who called Laurence on Friday... it really means a lot! I know it is very hard for Laurence to have his birthday so far away from family and friends, and especially from his other half (literally!) Harry! So me and a few volunteer friends decided to throw him a little surprise birthday party in the garden of our hotel and then out to our favourite spots in Kathmandu. There were balloons, a cake with candles, jazz, mandolin, a lot of fun and jokes and I think we all had a very good. And just last night we went back to our host family's house in Panchmane with a couple of friends for the second party for Laurence - this time joint with Sujan who's 21 in a week. This was a slightly different party from what we're used to, for example there was still daal bhat and we went to bed at 9.30pm but it was very sweet and fun! So all in all I think L had a good birthday although we will still have to celebrate with everyone back home!
So now we're into our last week in Nepal - we only have 2 and a half days left and we're already thinking about when we can come back again! It is quite strange leaving this country as it has been our home for the past 6 weeks - we even have a family here! But we're also very excited about going off to Thailand and lazing around on beaches without any plans or responsibilities. I don't know why we even bothered bringing our guidebooks with us - we havent looked at them once so far!
I think we'll finally go around and take pictures of Kathmandu in our last few days. We've already used up 10GB of memory cards in just 6 weeks - I dread to think about sorting through it all later! I don't think there will be much more to report in the next few days, so we'll make this our last blog from Nepal (for this year at least), and then we will post something from Thailand as soon as we can when we get to Bangkok - Friday or Saturday depending on how quickly we get settled in.
Lots of love from us both.
Namaste!
Rozzi and Laurence
xxx
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Pokhara! (and final volunteering days)
Hello!!
I know it's been a while since we last updated the blog but we have been so busy in the past couple of weeks, so here are the latest updates!
Last week was our final week volunteering at the ECD school. On Sunday we went to a big teaching resources store in Kathmandu and bought a few things for the school, which we gave to them the following day. It was unbelievable just how excited the children were about the smallest things like little plastic toy animals and small rubber balls (which they actually chewed through on the first day!!). It was amazing watching their little happy faces when they were playing with their new toys and looking at the pictures of the new story books. So after that it was business as usual until our last day - Thursday, when the teachers and the children decided to surprise us with decorating the whole school with balloons and colourful paper. We spent the whole day playing games, periodically feeding them sweets and just having fun with them - each one of them danced for us which was the sweetest thing ever! At the end of the day they also gave us some lovely flowers and tikkas (which are traditional Nepali red bindi's made from coloured red rice). It was all very touching and emotional (especially for some!) and we really didn't want to leave them. It was very hard saying goodbye and watching them running after our taxi.
Our host family were also very sweet and made an effort to make something special for us for our last meal - daal bhat accompanied with a soup of potatoes and hard boiled eggs! It was very sweet, despite the fact it wasnt quite our last day - they are throwing a joint birthday party for Laurence and our host brother on 21st September!
So last friday we left with some volunteer friends for Pokhara, which is an incredibly beautiful town surrounded by the Annapurna mountain range. Our hotel was right on Phewa lake and we spent a fair bit of the weekend rowing/pedalling/swimming in the lake, whilst looking out onto the surrounding mountains. One of the day's we got up at 4am to watch the sunrise from Saran Kot, which looked out to Machapuchre, Annapurna I (which is one of the highest peaks after Everest!) - all I can say is that it is the most spectacular view either of us have ever seen and pictures don't do it justice! We also found a little waterfall so we managed to have a dip and a natural waterfall shower/massage!
So in general this weekend was a lot more chilled out than Chitwan, well at least that was until Monday! So instead of going for the normal option of taking a tourist bus back to Kathmandu, we decided to go for a more adventurous 5 hour white water rafting trip down Lower Seti river, followed by a gruelling 6 hours on a local bus. The rafting was very exciting- there were very big rapids so some bits were pretty scary. We capsized and also had a few other interesting moments swimming in the rapids but everything was fine and we got back to Kathmandu in one rather exhausted piece.
And today we spent in a Bhuddist monastery in Pharping, near Kathmandu, where a friend of ours is teaching English. It was very interesting spending some time with the monks, who are nothing like what you would imagine! They have phones, iPods and most moderns conveniences, including a couple of motorbikes!
So that's all for now - I don't want to waffle on for too much longer. The plan for our last 10 days in Kathmandu is to help out the charity with some office work and also finally do a bit of sight seeing. I think Laurence is now updating the photos on Flickr so there may be some from Pokhara soon. Also, if anyone feels like sending us an email or 2 - we Love getting news from home and hearing about what's going on back home.
Lots of love from us both,
Namaste!
xxx
I know it's been a while since we last updated the blog but we have been so busy in the past couple of weeks, so here are the latest updates!
Last week was our final week volunteering at the ECD school. On Sunday we went to a big teaching resources store in Kathmandu and bought a few things for the school, which we gave to them the following day. It was unbelievable just how excited the children were about the smallest things like little plastic toy animals and small rubber balls (which they actually chewed through on the first day!!). It was amazing watching their little happy faces when they were playing with their new toys and looking at the pictures of the new story books. So after that it was business as usual until our last day - Thursday, when the teachers and the children decided to surprise us with decorating the whole school with balloons and colourful paper. We spent the whole day playing games, periodically feeding them sweets and just having fun with them - each one of them danced for us which was the sweetest thing ever! At the end of the day they also gave us some lovely flowers and tikkas (which are traditional Nepali red bindi's made from coloured red rice). It was all very touching and emotional (especially for some!) and we really didn't want to leave them. It was very hard saying goodbye and watching them running after our taxi.
Our host family were also very sweet and made an effort to make something special for us for our last meal - daal bhat accompanied with a soup of potatoes and hard boiled eggs! It was very sweet, despite the fact it wasnt quite our last day - they are throwing a joint birthday party for Laurence and our host brother on 21st September!
So last friday we left with some volunteer friends for Pokhara, which is an incredibly beautiful town surrounded by the Annapurna mountain range. Our hotel was right on Phewa lake and we spent a fair bit of the weekend rowing/pedalling/swimming in the lake, whilst looking out onto the surrounding mountains. One of the day's we got up at 4am to watch the sunrise from Saran Kot, which looked out to Machapuchre, Annapurna I (which is one of the highest peaks after Everest!) - all I can say is that it is the most spectacular view either of us have ever seen and pictures don't do it justice! We also found a little waterfall so we managed to have a dip and a natural waterfall shower/massage!
So in general this weekend was a lot more chilled out than Chitwan, well at least that was until Monday! So instead of going for the normal option of taking a tourist bus back to Kathmandu, we decided to go for a more adventurous 5 hour white water rafting trip down Lower Seti river, followed by a gruelling 6 hours on a local bus. The rafting was very exciting- there were very big rapids so some bits were pretty scary. We capsized and also had a few other interesting moments swimming in the rapids but everything was fine and we got back to Kathmandu in one rather exhausted piece.
And today we spent in a Bhuddist monastery in Pharping, near Kathmandu, where a friend of ours is teaching English. It was very interesting spending some time with the monks, who are nothing like what you would imagine! They have phones, iPods and most moderns conveniences, including a couple of motorbikes!
So that's all for now - I don't want to waffle on for too much longer. The plan for our last 10 days in Kathmandu is to help out the charity with some office work and also finally do a bit of sight seeing. I think Laurence is now updating the photos on Flickr so there may be some from Pokhara soon. Also, if anyone feels like sending us an email or 2 - we Love getting news from home and hearing about what's going on back home.
Lots of love from us both,
Namaste!
xxx
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