Pharping -With my eyes...

I just have to say that I have it so great here! I think I prepared myself for the worst, which is good, because everything is so much better :)

Those of you who have followed my blog know how I  described the scenario before, what I believed, and information I found on internet etc.
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 One of those things was about the placement of the monastery, I believed it was in the middle of nothing! That it would suppose to be only our monastery and then nothing more than a stunning nature. And its true, the nature is absolutely stunning!

Outside Jonang Monastery Pharping

The Monastery is placed in a beautiful nature.

But the fact is that here is a lot of monasteries  cos its a sacred place as I wrote before today. And its as well a small village, with some cafes, small shops etc. If I need something (simple things)  I can find it here. Like telephone card, water, soft drinks, a bit of food, some simple household goods etc.

One av the village streets

Pharping, one way of business...

...but  the commerce can be done  in many ways...

So yes, i have it really good here :)

Pharping - a holy site of Nepal

Pharping, the place I am in right now is known as a very sacred place, both for Buddhist & Hindus. But I don´t follow any religion,  I´m just very curious and want to know as well as explore, learn and understand.

Anyway, here are 2 caves, that the legend says was the place for Guru Rinpoche, thats one of the reason pilgrims are coming here to visit this place. 

I'm am very lucky cos the other volunteer here at the monastery is born in Nepal, and are buddhist, he knows a lot about this. We went for a walk yesterday evening after dinner, but its so dark here, so its impossible to walk up to the cave, even if it is right around the corner were will live. So he promised me to come with me, probably today :)

So in the meantime I search for Guru Rinpoche on Google and found some nice mantras, this is one of them.

Volunteers food...

You may be wondering about the food? Since I have the opportunity to live at the monastery, I also eat the same food as the students and other teachers.                                                                                                 

The breakfast is the same every morning, its a special bread, I don´t know the name, or the story about it, Yet! I´ll find out, but it´s very large,and I'm not hungry so early,  they come with it around 6 -6.20 I could just eat a little piece, but its good! Then a huge thermos with butter-tea, but as you see on the picture they put my butter on the side instead of inside the tea. Guess not many volunteers like it. The tea is a tradition from Tibet, so I thing the bread is too. Its a lot of milk, and have a very soft flavor. I learned today about Nepalese tea, i went out to Pharping together with a guy form Nepal, as work as an volunteer as well, and the tea was sooo delicious, lots of milk, smelled a lot of black tea and was sweet! Absolutely a new favorite.

At lunch I probably had one of the best soups I ever been eating, Yum!!!!! And a huge bowl of rice as well, for me is the soup more than enough.  , you get a lot of food,if you ask me.

They use a a lot of coriander and chili, which I love.Then there is also dinner, today a mushroom and noodle soup! Yum!!!

So I am very grateful for the lovely food i get here. 

the little discipline breaker...

, I arrived late last night and everything was totally dark, I couldn't see anything of the environmental. But I had a nice welcome, a nice meal and a terrific room, a private bathroom, new build, electricity (more or less), WiFi, water, even if there is no hot water, but that's not so important to me. Enough of that, now I wanna tell you something else :)

Okay, remember now, I´m new at the monastery, so I don´t know all things yet, so this is what I am assuming!!!

But I know the monastery has it own monastic disciplines, as the students have to learn & follow. And I have my room in front of the square were they start their morning "mantras/song" all students are suppose to stand in straight lines, keep their hands in prayer pose, its more or less what i do when I do my Kundalini yoga meditation

So, I woke up in a beautiful nature, on a very peaceful place, and I was standing watching them from my door. Look for yourself :)

I must say is sounded so good, it went straight to my heart! But one in the group, i think it is the newest one, and also the smallest one... had probably another opinion....

He is suppose to stand in the front to the left, but he just start to walk away and put himself after one of the oldest students, in the back, to the right, as far away from his position he can come :) Everybody tries to quietly tell him he can not do this :)

The teacher have to go down and tell him to go back to his place, and very slooooowly he goes back :) Now are the discipline gonna for most of the students (look at their faces) there were a lot of smiles and lot of lost concentration.

A supernice start of a brand new day, in a brand new place, for me.

Nepal shopping

Today I been out shopping. I went by taxi from Boudha to the tourist area Thamel. My god that was a bumpy road, several times I thought the taxi were gonna fall over.
However, I did some shopping, I found some thing I think i will never wear in Barcelona except from the yoga classes.

I also bought a beautiful "singing bowl" that I wanted long time for my feng shui, and a nice leather bag, huge, like a shopping bag. For a super low price.
And some other nice stuff ;)

But to be honest I don't like Thamel that much, but the people was really nice.

Kathmandu

So after a long trip I'm finally here. But I still didn't arrive to the monastery were I will work.
A very nice, smiling Tibetan Lama picked me up in the airport. Took me to the former monastery in Kathmandu, were I spent my first night. We went out for dinner last night, and he introduced me to a Tibetan dish- Momos, so super good. He has also helped me to get a cellphone number and lots of other things I need to know.

Today they told me I am starting to work Monday, so I decided to stay in Kathmandu to Sunday afternoon. So now I just took in at a hostel, and I will get out to see more of Katmandu. ( 7 € / night )
It seems like i will be Working monday to saturday lunch every week, and since The monastery have no hot water I probably will get into Kathmandu Saturday to Sunday every weekend, to shower, look around and enjoy.

In Doha

So I'm in Doha, I arrived at 11 in the evening and it is now 28 degrees, so nice :) Now I just need to wait until tomorrow morning to go to my final destination Kathmandu, I have about 10 hours to kill first.

 It was a bit funny cos I and my friends use to joke about why doesn't we never get a "Mr Nice guy" next to us on the flights.

Today I didn't either, instead a got a woman in her best age next to me. My first expression was that she was a bit grumpy. But after 20 min she looked at me and asked; - are you gonna go for voluntarily work? My gosh, how can she see that?

But she has a company working with volunteer projects world wide. And did for a long time. So we had a great talk and super nice company. Now she is of to India. And I'm here in a crowded airport and will try to get some hours sleep on the floor.