Life goes on...

Hello hello again!

Sorry, it has taken so long time since the last update... But I have two good explanations; I got a neck ache, and decided to give a little rest to my neck and upper back (tried to avoid the computer some time) AND I haven't done anything to mention about...

The life goes on and my mind is, at least, every once in a while quite much in Finland already, that's not a bad thing, I guess. Anyway I don't feel too bored anymore because I've been spending my time running around the Patan and tried to find tailors and fabrics for trousers, evening dress and traditional women shirt called chsolo (I think). And I've found them! Evening dress is on its way, one chsolo is in my hands already and another one is ready to make as well as trousers with check design :) Today I'm going to buy the fabrics and bring them to the tailor near by our apartment, couple of days and I should have nice new clothes!

The woman on the right is wearing a chsolo.



Yesterday I decided to find out if I have any space left in my baggage (this is the thing what you could always do if you don't have anything to do ;). So I pre-packed my rucksack and backpack and for my surprise all my clothes fit in there! Then I decided to borrow the scale from our landlord and for my surprise the baggage was too heavy! Luckily only couple of kilos... So I can still buy something more! ;) After this exciting exercise I unpacked my bags and started to plan how I get all my stuff with me. That I'm still doing but without panic, "everything is gonna be alright ..."

During this month I've also had couple of field visits and the difference between spring and summer is more noticeable at the countryside than in the city (although the Bagmati river has more and more filled with water). The fields, the rice fields! They look so nice! Little bit green here and there and whole field covered by water. Beautiful! Going to the field by car isn't that comfortable because of the monsoon rains, the roads are very very bumpy and muddy but it's interesting journey anyway. Every time you can notice the changes of the season and see something new, last time there were new born calf and little chickens on the road so we needed to stop for a while. They were adorable!





The weather isn't that sunny anymore, it's raining every now and then and especially morning time is quite foggy like you can see on the photos taken at the countryside around 10 am and for comparing around 1 pm.





Oh and mention about seeing something new, I saw naked man on the main street of Patan! I didn't go to ask what he was doing but it seemed to be something with the drain, I don't know and don't even want to know more. The little animals are better! :)

That's about it this time, this may be my last text from Nepal (I'm not sure yet if I'm going to carry on with the blog in Finland), yesterday I was presenting a guide to girl from Taiwan will see what I'm going to be today...

And once again I'll congratulate my close friend who became a married woman on Saturday! I'm happy for you both! And hope that you'll live happily together forever :)

Heli

I'm not from HOLLAND, not even from Germany!!!

Hey you!

That title is what I've had to correct more than often, almost all the people I talk with first ask if I'm from Holland and the second guess is if I'm a German. But no, I'm really not although I'm tall and blond. Germans and Dutch are beautiful but that assumption pisses me of every once in a while not to mention the thing that I sometimes feel like I'm a celebrity and it's not a good feeling. Everybody seems to know or at least recognise me and I'm supposed to say hello every one of them. Now I think I know how celebrities feel like, it's quite hard to act like everybody is your friend although you haven't met them ever before… Please locals, try to understand, I'm not a bad or angry person although I ignore many of you. I'm not looking for Nepali boyfriend either although I wear a top!

Despite the "celebrity" feeling my time doesn't feel too bad and boring anymore because I've found some good ways to spend my more-than-enough-free time. Now I think I can survive for these last four weeks with my new activities. First of all I've carried on with cooking… Actually I've also baked,,, a bread,,, and I fried it on the pan because we don't have oven :D So my wheat bread is very close to the Finnish hard bread, it's thin and hard, but anyway it's quite tasty although it may not look so. I found also cheese made of YAK's milk from the grocery store! If I'm not able to see living yaks I have at least opportunity to taste the cheese! That looks same than the "normal" ones and it tastes quite good, different than basic cheese but not too much, maybe it has a bit stronger taste compared to others. And if somebody thinks that yak's milk is pink (I've heard that) I can say that at least the cheese isn't.

Because I like to cook, bake and eat I also need some exercise, so I've started to walk quite long distances. Of course I did my morning walks, but I had to change the time because now I've something else to do in the mornings, I'll tell you more later on. Nowadays if I needed to do something in the centre of Kathmandu I walk there and back and it takes about one and half hour. I usually prefer my legs and map instead of taxi if I need to find some special place. That's why I once wandered to the airport (which is about 5–7 kilometres away from the Kathmandu centre) when I was trying to find a cinema at the centre… Then it was good idea to catch a taxi when the airplanes started to look too big :) The only problems with the walking in here are the lack of space and badly polluted air. There are footpaths for walkers in the centre but if the traffic doesn't move on the roads the motorcycles take shortcuts and drive on the footpaths, very nice! And during daytimes the air is in unbelievable bad condition, it's so dusty and it looks like fog in the mornings. You can feel how the little particles are flying towards your face and body and you can only hope that your lungs cope with that amount of pollution. At least until now I haven't had any problems and hopefully I won't get them either. I was very happy to read that some students are starting a campaign for using more bicycles in Kathmandu. The campaign is called Kathmandu cycle city 2020 (KCC) and the purpose is to get people and city more bicycle friendly till the year 2020. I really hope it works!

Oh yeah, I said I was trying to find a cinema and with the help of taxi driver I finally found it before the movie started. So at the first time in my life I went to movies in Nepal but luckily and surprisingly it was quite same than going to movies in Finland, England or in Mexico. The price was nice, 250 rupees for the best places (the price depends on the place). There was one clear difference compared to the other countries I've been, there was only one option for the movie you could watch so the movie was very easy to choose ;) The movie they were showing was Karate Kid with Jackie Chan and it was perfect for my emotions at that time. I could so easily identify myself to a little boy who moved from US to China ;) When I'll get back from here I'll start Kungfu, Hapkido or something else, for sure! :)

Talking about hobbies I also have one in here, yeah! Sadly but true It's not riding… But it's YOGA! And that's the thing what takes one hour or so of my mornings. The yoga in here is quite common but there are only a few places where foreigners can get the teaching in English. There is also a big gap between the prices, in some place you may get a one month course (everyday) for 2000 rupees and in another place you have to pay about 200 EUROS for one week course (5 times/week). Mine is not cheap but it's not the most expensive either and I get private lessons which is good. So nowadays about twice in a week I have thought lessons at seven in the morning and other times I try to do yoga by myself on the top of or building after I've woke up :) Will see how long this lasts, hopefully very long…

And to the end of this text I could say that little red ants piss me of a quite much nowadays. We have always had them and they get everywhere and they go everywhere where they find something sweet to eat, they make their way even to a little bit opened packet of muesli. Yesterday I proved that by eating, by accident, tens of swimming ants with my morning muesli before I got angry and but the rest of the packet to the freezer locker of our fridge! So next time I can eat muesli with delicious frozen, hopefully dead, ants, and I'm very happy about that :P But Happier I was when I took a drive with three-wheel-electric tempo sitting on the FRONT seat! I can say that the machinery of that type of vehicle has already seen its best days. And skirt isn't the best dress to wear while travelling in the front, it may be that you got stuck with it in the wings of rotating propeller…

That's quite much for now, write to you more in next time, keep your mind clear, and mind with the body in the present, not in the past and not in the future either, in the present! And take a deep breath, see ya!

Heli (Patan gate and the "home"streets on the photo)