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Sorry about that, one minute we’re venturing through Nepal, the next I’m babbling about baseball.
It’s kind of like that every day with me, which makes me wonder how M possibly follows along.
At any rate I think we owe it to you to finish up our Nepalese adventure.
Following our flight through the Himalayas M and I joined our guide on a tour through the Kathmandu Valley featuring the Temple ofChangu Narayan and the ancient cities of Bhaktapur & Patan.
Perched high in the hills, roughly 25 minutes drive from Kathmandu the Temple of Changu Narayan is an impressive monument to the Hindu faith, but perhaps more stunning were the views of the valley below as we watched mountain goats and children bound up and down the hillside with relative ease.
After another 25 minutes in the car, we arrived at Bhaktapur. To this point we had seen quite a bit and after awhile the scenery even to the most open minded of souls begins to look a bit familiar; nevertheless Bhaktapur lived up to its billing as the sentimental favorite site of locals and tourists alike.
The city’s Durbar Square is filled with temples, shops, restaurants, woven though a series of busy streets, but no where near as hectic as Kathmandu’s Durbar Square so you can move at your own pace and not feel overwhelmed by your surroundings. Coupled together it becomes clear why this is considered the favorite of all visitors to Kathmandu.
Following lunch we finished up and headed to Patan. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare, but Patan didn’t really have much chance of impressing us after our previous stops; meanwhile the day itself began to catch up to the both of us as we’d been up and running since 5:30. Upon arrival, M and I walked for about fifteen minutes down the plaza amidst the crowds, snapped a few pictures, and made our way back to the car.
In total though we managed to accomplish quite a bit in one day which turned out to hold true for the whole trip. We’ve seen a lot of places and done a lot of crazy things, but this trip kept us moving from start to finish. We didn’t know what to expect when we flew out from Tokyo, but by the time we left we realized we’d had quite an adventure.
Is Nepal the kind of place I’d recommend to everyone?
No, not really, but the more we journey through Asia the more we’ve come to realize that the truly special places are the most unassuming. While most people couldn’t find Nepal on a map without a bit of a search, I have to say I now consider it a small gem hidden in the mountains.
C’mon, where else can you do the following?
- Fly around the tallest mountains in the world
- Get chased by wild animals
- Take a bath with an elephant
- Be encouraged to start forest fires
- Not be mocked for being a vegetarian
- Get your head shaved and massaged for only a few rupees
- Find yourself constantly bumping into stoned hippie backpackers day after day
- Haggle with shop keepers for mystical keepsakes that their cousin made in the garage two days earlier
- Deal with power outages throughout the night and all through daylight hours
- Offered hashish at any hour of the day
If anyone has any suggestions, we’re all ears.
Well, we made it to Kathmandu after quite an interesting trip here.
Following a night in the Singapore Airport transit hotel (would recommend it if you ever need a nap in the Singapore airport) we made our way to our silk airlines flight.
It was all good…until we tried to land.
You see, there is a minimum visibility rule that requires pilots to be able to see 1500 meters. Sadly, halfway through our landing, this rule came into effect and suddenly we found ourselves taking off again. You can imagine how much my husband, who LOVES to fly (note the sarcasm) enjoyed this.
Finally, after 20 minutes we made a fairly frightening landing into Kathmandu. It was fast, hard and there was a lot of breaking involved but we lived!
We’re now at our hotel and have already met some great people, made plans to go on a safari with a 64 year old Turkish woman who simply goes by “Mama” and may just end up visiting mount everest in a small plane.
So far, it’s been great and we can’t wait to see what happens next.
Naked with strangers in an onsen that is.
Most of all, we had an amazing weekend. One that has left us exhausted.
Tons of monkey pictures on flickr. Probably some of my favorites that I have ever taken so enjoy!
More tomorrow.
Apologies for the slacking, to describe the last few weeks as chaos would be the understatement of the year.
Regardless, the Purple Puppy Pickup van has just taken the gremlin away to camp (yes, they have a purple doggy school bus that pulls up to the curb to pick up/deliver your dog – and it’s the norm for Japanese boarding) and we are all set for a weekend whirlwind tour.
Our flight to Beijing takes off in about six hours.
We’ll be in Beijing for less than 24 hours before the company gala on the Great Wall starts. This will involve dancing the Matsukan Samba with six co-workers in front of the Global CEO, Asia Pacific CEO, Japan CEO and all sorts of other people. And I will be dressed in a yellow striped kimono with a plastic wig dancing the matsuken samba.
I will not be providing pictures of this, the highlight of my career. I will however, provide you with a mental image.
I will be wearing this:
Plastic Wig and Gold Tinsel Pom poms included.
And dancing this:
Now, you’ll note that last week we did a skit (what’s with all the skits???) which required me simply to clap to the rhythm of “We will, we will rock you” and I COULD NOT DO IT. I can barely walk and talk at the same time without tripping over myself. I skinned my palms this weekend falling up the stairs. Thus, a big ol’ slice of humble pie and public humiliation is coming my way this Thursday night.
Thus, there will be no pictures of the dancing.
The wall? Yes.
Beijing? Yes.
The dancing? Hell will be frozen and the devil will be ice skating in a pink ballarina outfit before that happens.
That said, if I survive the dancing, I will be immediately rewarded as we’re slated to spend a long weekend in Hong Kong. We’ve had the trip on the books for months now and were unable to cancel it so we’re heading from Beijing to Hong Kong.
Check back Tuesday for pictures!
Keeping with the topic of lots of people in small spaces and offering travel suggestions, I offer you part of our latest adventures:
The Catacombs of Paris.
-I guess I’ll warn you now there will be pictures of skulls and bones, it might make you squirm but Halloween is coming so it seemed moderately appropriate timing.-
(My second warning in a week, look at me being all risque!)
As we were in Paris and had seen all of the main sights during our week in the city of lights, T and I decided to go a bit off of the beaten path to the Montparnasse area to see the catacombs of Paris. The simple concept of the catacombs alone is enough to elict a Halloween like feel alone so feel free to be rather surprised that chickens #1 and #2 were so excited to see them.
After many stairs and dark corridors, we made it to the underground resting place for an estimated six million people.
Perhaps a little background?
The Catacombs gather the remainders of approximately six million Parisian, transferred between the end from 18e century and the middle from the 19e century, progressively of the closing of the cemeteries for reason of insalubrity. Along a labyrinth of obscure galleries and narrow corridors , the visitor discovers the bones laid out in a “romantico-macabre” decoration. Pillars, bells of subsidence or bath of feet of the quarrymen evoke the origin of the places, the limestone quarries, while sharpening the curiosity of the visitor. This underground museum restores the history of Parisian and invites to a voyage out of time.
Walking through stacks of bones as tall, if not taller than myself certainly was an eery experience though it mostly make me wonder who I was looking at. Perhaps to find a bit of humanity in the dark piles of bones that wound on for what seemed like forever?
Anyways..it was creepy but an interesting experience.
Oh and there were these odd sculptures that seemed a bit random (perhaps to spruce up the joint?)
Ok, so not the most upbeat post. But still if you find yourself in Paris and want to see something a bit different, it is worth the few euros to go.
Still a bit skeeved? Would a dog dressed as a lobster for Halloween cheer you up? You’ll note he’s trying to eat the costume while still wearing it.
What was that again? Oh yes, our adventures in Paris.
On day two of our adventures we decided to keep up the family tradition of trekking around the entire city the first day we landed in town. Staying in the Latin Quarter naturally meant our departure point was the cathedral.
Next up…
Musée du Louvre. Personally, I’m more a fan of the D’Orsay but will admit that photographing the Louvre is quite fun. Granted, if you let me loose alone in Paris with my camera, I might never stop…
After strolling the grounds of the Museum for a while we ventured into the garden next to it for a bit of time in the sun. It turned out to be a lovely day and we were lucky to find a few open chairs to people watch from for a bit.
As we continued onward on the trek…
With the fall leaves on the ground it was quite nice just to stroll around the city.
And finally, we closed in on the real Eiffel Tower.
Not to be confused with..
Seeing the line and having been atop the Eiffel Tower prior, mum and I found ourselves a nice patch of grass and sent the boys into the mass of people headed to the top.
Did I happen to forget that T is slightly terrified of heights? Oops. My bad. (You’ll note he appears in later photos so he obviously survived unscathed.)
see? not so high.
He survived. and onward we went!
We didn’t manage to break the record set on our first trip (12 hours wandering the streets led by my grandmother. she was on her last trip to paris. well, last trip to paris #78…she’s been again since then and might be planning another last trip soon. it’s a bit of a morbid hobby as it’s important to note she’s still hustling the bridge tables and traveling the country without any sign of slowing down.) but we did have a great day.
Tomorrow? Well, perhaps I will show you the Looney Tomb aka…Napoleon’s tomb. For a little guy, the thing is a little on the cartoon size (by that I mean enormus.)
The city of lights…love…and…gargoyles?
While most spend their souvenir hunts in Paris scavenging for wine, cheese and small (cheesy) versions of the Eiffel Tower my family did not. We were on a hunt for the perfect garden gargoyle. Long my mother’s favorite part of Paris, the gargoyles represent the guardians against evil spirits or…if you are an architect a way to dress up a water spout. And thus, the hunt for the perfect gargoyle companion to sit aside Wilbur the cement garden pig was on.
(As I reread this I feel the need to clarify that Wilbur is small and grey…please do not picture any pink flamingo type things in the garden as my mother would be horrified. For the record, she won’t even allow my father to put a single christmas light with any sort of color within the 10,000 he puts on the house lest it be tacky. In summary, my mother has good taste please don’t question the garden fixture.)
And thus our adventures in Paris begin where many of the best Parisian gargoyles call home.
Only a short walk from the apartments we stayed in (actually the same place we stayed when mum and I first went to Europe some nine years ago) it seemed like an apt place to kick off T’s first trip to Paris.
More tomorrow when I might have slightly more time…
T forgot to mention one of his favorite moments in London…one where he continued his tradition of feeding the local wildlife.
Thus, I will share…
The scene: Hyde Park. A grey day in the mid-afternoon. As we’re walking along the park, we notice that the wildlife aren’t really as shy as they should be…at all. Actually, it seemed like they were following us.
The players: T, M and a little brown squirrel…and his friends.
T: They seem friendly.
M: They remind me of our constantly begging dog.
T: Maybe they are hungry?
M: I dunno.
T: I wish I had some peanuts or something.
Random Man in a suit walking by: Oh! Would you like some peanuts?
Yes kids, some random businessman in Hyde park proceeded to reach into his pocket and supply Thomas with a fist full of peanuts.
And thus, with a mere click of the tongue…the squirrel bombardment ensued.
Within seconds there were squirrels everywhere. Everywhere.
Keen viewers will also note the bag from T’s favorite British store. (Sainsbury’s, the grocery store)…nice attempt at product placement dear…no, I don’t think they’ll let you live there.
Sorry for the delay. After two weeks on holiday, we had a lot of catching up to do at work. Fortunately we have a three day weekend and can bring everyone up to speed on our travels.
London…lots of fun, would like to live there some day.
Where to begin?
The flight from Tokyo was long (12 hours), but on the bright side M & I both had plenty of movies to help pass the time thanks to Virgin’s selection. Aside from that I can’t say that I was blown away by Virgin’s service based on all of the hype; nevertheless we got from point A to point B safely.
Once we arrived at Heathrow, things picked up pretty quickly as we managed to get through customs and on the Underground heading to London proper in twenty minutes time. With our hotel located near Gloucester Road station we managed to find a few restaurants close by that would serve us well, but perhaps our greatest find was Sainsbury’s.
Yes, the supermarket…
I love supermarkets, my mother and both grandmothers took me all the time as a child and to this day I still enjoy roaming the aisles in search of cookies, cereal and chips. However in Japan , food shopping is not as enjoyable since I really can’t read half of what I’m buying and selection for our tastes are limited. Sainsbury’s by comparison was a wonderland filled with baked goods (I highly recommend the jelly donuts), exotic spices, culturally diverse frozen foods, wide variety of fruits and vegetables, cereals, and even ginger beer. Which leads me to my next point, London is a truly global community.
On the streets you experience a cultural mixture unlike anywhere else as Europe, Asia, the MIddle East, and Africa all meld together. By comparison, New York is more of a cultural clash as most ethnic groups live within rather sheltered enclaves that divide up the neighborhoods. I’m sure that I’m missing something and only saw a fraction of the truth, but through my eyes it was very appealing.
Also appealing…the green space.
During our first full day in London we walked. Starting out on the west side we ventured toward Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey while stopping off at the famed Harrod’s department store along the way.
All three sites were enjoyable, especially watching the Queen’s horsemen parade through the streets, but not until we reached Big Ben did I truly feel that we were in London.
From there we walked along the Thames towards the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.
Unfortunately the distance was a lot further than imagined and M rightfully protested we take a train, especially as the rains picked up a bit. But in time, fueled by a chai at Starbucks, M and I made our way across town and arrived with just enough time to tour the grounds before closing.
Little did I know the size and history of the Tower until I had the chance to experience it first hand. Everything from the Queen’s Jewels can be found there along with the Beefeaters who help guard the Tower. If ever in London, I highly recommend it.
Tomorrow, days two and three.
sorry for the absence. we’ve been out on another adventure.
seeing a little of this..
and a little of that..
and visiting here…
and there…
so we’re back from our adventure and have many stories to tell. stay tuned to hear about my mother’s mischievous ways in Paris, our walk through the catacombs and the sunny days we spent in London. (seriously, it was sunny.)
If you are lucky and behave I will even post some adorable pictures of my mother, regardless of her promise to disown me if she ends up in the blog…she should have thought about that prior to the incident in Angelinas.
Oh yes, mother…I’m soooooo telling.
