Arriving in Asia - Nepal, Bhutan

22.-28 march 05

Kuzum sangpo,

after a week out of Austria I will give you some of my news here, as promised.
I left Austria on 21, arrived in Nepal / Kathmandu on 22 of March and was invited to stay with my Nepali friend Vidya again. I got to know her last summer while working on the groups which we had to book and guide. She did the better part of bookings in Nepal. It’s always great to stay with her as a member of the family, you can get so close to them, see what you would never see staying in a hotel and be able to understand some strange looking things on first sight.
The political situation in Nepal is still not really good, Newspapers suffer from rigid censorship, news from the far western region, the Maoists’ strongholds, don’t reach the capitol. Police controls increased, especially at night. Soldiers practise their „morning exercises“ on the street to make people feel safe.
Tourists are quite rare nowadays, because no one believes, that there is nothing to fear about. But i know, there is REALLY nothing to fear. I enjoyed the days very much.
I joined playing Holi, the most colourful festival in Hindu religion.

Everyone is behind you with colour powder and little plastikbags filled with blue water to hit you from above. Great fun, though it’s a big mess afterwards. Tons of plastik on the streets. Men drink quite a lot and it’s better to avoid big crowds and risky motorbike rider. They roam the streets till the late afternoon. But all in all it was fantastic. We (Vidya, her husband and me) joined a private birthday party. They told me in this way they will stay out of the festival, not being affected by dirt, water and colours.
As we arrived there they greeted us with water splashed over our heads and all kind of colour powder to make our face Holi. Before I didn’t know, why it is called “playing” Holi, I thought it must be “celebrating” but then I knew. They are playing, like children of all ages. Great fun, just take old clothes along.

Now we arrived in Bhutan (yesterday) Martin’s son David and his girlfriend Steffi also arrived yesterday. They will join us on the overland trip back to Europe. Tomorrow I will resume teaching German to a young Bhutanese. He wants to go to Austria to attend the Tourismcollege in Salzburg, so he needs to know German before. Let’s see what I can do for him. He is quite ambitious.

Here in Bhutan the just unveiled the first constitution (draft), in all districts at the same, auspicious time which was chosen by lamas + astrologers.

Tashi Delek,
Isabella

there are pics on yahoo - they are too much for this blog... if you are asked for a password: acchigom (its not just letters, it means "i come back " in khowar language)

Nepal Pics

in this folder are also other pics of nepal, only the first ones are about HOLI festival...