Time is flying...

... and as soon I reach half time in my journeys it start to go so fast. So sometimes I have hard to live in the moment. I am thinking about how it will be to come home, to leave this Monastery and all the kids behind....uhh...

LittlesLamas at our front yard, with Himalayas and the monsoon in the background 

Local bus to Kathmandu

I don´t know, but it feels like it is so near to go to Barcelona from here, but more far away to go from Barcelona to Nepal again...

Cow all over the place in Kathmandu...

Ahh you hear, I'm in the future with my thoughts... So STOP , here and now!!!


Last weekend I was i Kathmandu,  I found a new super great hotel, low rate, perfect situated,

My hotell is on Freak Street,as is next to  and Durbar Square 

 a great roof terrace

Great breakfast at the roof terrace, Nepali tea, fruit salad and more goodies... 

 with a view over Kathmandu valley... So tomorrow Ill go back again.

View from the old Palace on Durbar Square

Hanging out on Durbar Square, as in an World Heritage Site

Candles, coconuts, flowers... you can buy all the holy things you need here... 

Protected...

I had a dream to go to Ganges, were she starts... But everybody tells me it is impossible this time of year... So we will see how i best use my last month here... I have some ideas :)

beautiful handcraft in the old Palace

Amazingly Kathmandu!!! 

By the way, last week I got a roomie, A Taiwanese woman that lives in US, she is here teaching for 2,5 week only, and we share room. She been here before, and she is a Buddhist so I get a lot of answers from her. She is very goodhearted and funny, giggling all the time, so sometimes we laugh so much so maybe the Abbott that lives in the room next to us, want to throw us out hihihih... But nice with a roomie after 2 month without any fluently English talking person in the monastery :)

Bus back home, see the police van.. :)

Swayambhunath - Kathmandu

I took a taxi to The Swayambhunath - maybe more known as the "Monkey Monasteries" in Kathmandu last Sunday  One of the places i felt I must see when I´m in Nepal.

After a bumpy road through Kathmandu I finally arrived to the fabled area. The first I saw was a monkey eating mango on the outside. To get in you have to pay 200 rupees for entering. Which is less than 2 €.

 A typical view here, monkey and prayer flags. I will see if I can find them in only withe as well. They would be beautiful as a decoration of av a garden party etc...

 Beautiful Stupa with Buddha eyes in all four directions.

 The whole area is full of souvenir vendors. It was impossible to take a step without them hanging over me, wanting me to come and watch, etc. In my opinion, it ruined my whole experience of the place.It was impossible to soak up and feel the atmosphere, to really be here with my full concentration, body & soul ... The disadvantage of traveling alone, and being blonde.

 Besides vendors, it's some beggars here as well. A monk haunted me for a while, at first I did not understand what he wanted, because he just walked after me and smiled, and held a book about Nepal in his hand. When I realized he wanted money, I gave him some money. That  was apparently  not enough, to judge of his facial expressions. I told him this is all I can afford. Then he hit me with the book in my head,and on my shoulders, then he repeated the same procedure on himself while he mumbled something. I hope it was not a curse, but a blessing :) but considering that this month is" the month of all good" which means all need to be extra nice now,  it was probably a blessing, I choose to believe it anyway. hahahaha .....

 another monkey hanging around....

 The view is stunning!

 The architecture, the buildings, the clothes, the culture is fantastically beautiful. An explosion of colors, shapes and details.

 Another monkey climbs on the statue of Buddha :)

 fruit and water vendors are here too ...

And with the beautiful and important message contained in the background of this Buddha statue (where you throw coins for good fortune and fulfilled prayers etc.). I end this blog post.

May peace prevail on earth! 

Boudha, the area I use to live in when I´m in Kathmandu...

After a bumpy, scary, hectically ride on a scooter from Pharping (I´ll never do that again!) and some shopping in Thamel I arrived to my hotel in Kathmandu.

I surely can recommend this Hotel if you are nearby. It´s near The Boudhanath Stupa, but it is so quiet here comparing to the rest of Kathmandu. Hotel Norbu Sangpo.

  You find lots of fruit & vegetables, this is the backstreet...

.... between my hotel and the Stupa.

 For dinner I went to an neighborhood restaurant, and it was not even a "hole-in-the-wall- restaurant",  I felt I was in a private families backyard  There was their scooter, only 1 tables for guest (like a garden table set), and one ordinary dining table for them, an a TV they were watching :) Behind that curtain is the kitchen.

And for the first and only time since I arrived I had meat, or to be exact, chicken. But it was probably one of the best chicken I ever tasted. Yum!

 Other vice, this is typical street views from the main street in Boudha... Colors...

 Cows, they are all over, usually in the middle of the streets, or among the garbage...

The trucks and buses are so nice decorated! I love them!!

And not to forget  the sleeping dogs! They are everywhere, sleeping! They don´t care about, people, cars or noise.  This dog for example, didn't move a bit even when this lady started to ring in the bell!

Another thing about the streets are that they are in so bad shape. This is normal as you see on the pic above, and much worse. When you go between the areas in Kathmandu,this is how it looks like. It is so bad roads  with large holes and pits, one time I thought the taxi were gonna turn upside down! Not to mention the dust, sometimes you can not see more that a couple of meters ahead of you. As well as bumpy, after a ride it feels like the body been through  a combat. And this is the capital city :)
Everybody tells me, now when the monsoon is starting... It will be big problems!  Yeah yeah, we will see...

Buddha´s birthday...

Not many can claim to celebrate their 2,500+ birthday. Then again, not many can claim to be the founder of a major world religion, Buddhism.  So because that  we had no classes s today at the monastery. (But the real celebration in Nepal, of  Buddha's birthday will celebrated first on the full moon day of May. In 2013, the holiday occurs on May 25.) 

 So, I started my relaxed morning with  Tibetan tea, and the morning paper, I can´t remember when I did that last time??? It´s ages ago!!! I never do it in Spain, so it must have been when I lived in Sweden, hahaha... But very nice indeed!


After breakfast I went up to the mountain for meditation, on my walk up I met a monk. He looked like a Samurai very powerful  but he told me he was from Tibet as well but from another Monastery.  He followed me a bit on my walk, he was very nice, I hope I will meet him again. I liked him.

Then as a super nice surprise for our lunch. We got sooooo much food!!! Just look at it!!!Yum!!! Do you see that dish as is white in the top of the pic? They said when they served it  to me, "It´s milk" But it was thick, cold, and tasted vanilla :) Super yummie! That dish had a reason, look bellow: 

"It is said that the Buddha tried to attain enlightenment sooner, so he sat for a prolonged time with inadequate food and water, which caused his body to shrivel so as to be indistinguishable from the bark of the tree that he was sitting under. Seeing the weak Siddhartha Gautama, a girl named Sujata placed a bowl of milk in front of him as an offering. Realizing that without food one can do nothing, the Buddha refrained from harming his own body."

And this is what the "Little lamas" did, and still do :)

 Running competition....

 other acrobatic work outs...

And some took care about "the little treasure " :)

Food & Table Etiquette...

I am going to live my 3 month at the monastery and eat there as well, but I also want to do some travelling around, to see Kathmandu, and other places in Nepal. I don´t know my work schedule yet, but all will be as it is suppose to be :)

So now I have been searching a bit on the internet about the food, table Etiquette etc, just look at this, not so much different from other places i been to before, but, it´s good to know :)

Table Etiquette in Nepal

There are a few dining rules that visitors to Nepal should be aware of including:

• It is considered taboo for non-Hindus to enter a Hindu kitchen.
• It is considered bad manners to touch anyone else’s food in Nepal.
• The local people use their left hand for cleaning themselves after the toilet so only the right hand is used for eating. It is also bad table etiquette to pass food to someone else using the left hand.
• It is traditional for the Nepalese to eat two main meals of the day – one at about seven in the morning and one around eight in the evening.
• In recent years the Nepalese have tended to snack more. They refer to this type of food as kha ja which translated means eat and run.

Dal Bhat is the National Dish of Nepal

Dal Bhat is the National Dish of Nepal

The nearest thing to a national dish in Nepal would be dal bhat. The basic ingredients of this are rice and lentil soup. Many Nepalese will eat dal bhat twice a day. There are many different versions of this meal, but the most popular is dal bhat tarkari which also comes with curried vegetables.

the info I found at volunteer Nepal