First of all SORRY, that it has been over a month from by last blog post. There are several reasons for this; first I was three weeks in Nepal, then one day at home in Oulu after that a few weeks in Kuusamo and yesterday I arrived to Sotkamo. Hopefully I still have atleast a few readers. During this last month I have experienced very much! New friends, excellent food, getting to know a new culture and having some memorable moments.A big thank you to all of you, who have somehow been a part of this journey.
The first days in Nepal aren't that clear to me, because the culture shock was so big to me in the beginnig. Also the weather conditions, heat and humidity, are so very different when comparing to Finland.
On the first day we went to one of the most interesting and beatiful places during the whole trip. This place was a buddhist tempel, that's officially called Swayambhunath, but even the locals use the name monkey tempel. The name comes from the fact that there are monkeys running freely in the area. The visit could have been even better, if I wasn't so tired from the travelling and the weather wouldn't have been so hot.
During the next couple days we had introductions to Nepalese culture and we got to know our Nepali guides. If you, our guides and new friends, are reading this a huge thanks from me :). We were also given a change to learn some Nepalese language. I still remenber about 10 words, Nepalese people please correct if I have written some of them wrong. So dhangebad, namaste and jaimessiah where the words I used most often. So Namaste and jaimessiah have the same meaning in English and it's hello, but the difference is that christians say to other christians jaimessiah and to everyone else namaste. Dhangebad is a word that atleast Finns forget quite often to say. Now I'm not talking about the word sorry. If you haven't guessed yet it means thank you.
First week also contained a sick day for me. I was the first of our group ( 13 people) to get diarrhea. Luckily with good medication I only had to stay one day away from our program. Unfortunately the program that day was about other faiths which interest me very much. It was one kind of experience, but I would have rather not had it. The next day I was already visiting a tailor shop, where all the tailors are deaf. We also visited an organization called Forward Looking. They organize different kinds of programs and cources, where disabled people can learn skills to get a job. This day was very important for me, because it made me realíze how "good" things are in Finland for disabled people. Most of you probably don't know that I do volunteer work with cp-children and also have been a helper ar a camp for disabled youth. Organizations like Forward Looking are really important in developing countries, since for example in Nepal disabled children might not ever get a change to go outside of their own home. And in this the caste doesn't matter.
We also had some shopping time. Because of the cheap prices I bought a lot of things! T-shirts, jackets, necklesses, spices and TEA.
We also got to ride buses quite often. The longest trip was to Pokhara, 7 hours to one direction and the same back. The distance from Kathamndu to Pokhara is about 200 km. The bus didn't have air-conditioning so we arranged it by opening the windows and the ones sitting next to the windows got to wipe black dirt and pollutions from their faces at Pokhara in the evening. Thanks to good coompany the journey to Pokhara and back felt more like 3 hours than 7. Us who travelled in the back seat felt every bump and pothole, since we jumped up atleast 2 meters each time.
Alongside the heat we also experienced the humidity. The monsoon had started and we got soaked a few times. One time we were visiting a school and were eating at the cafeteria of the school, where there was a tin roof. I couldn't hear what was said on the otherside of the table.
When we came back from Pokhara it felt like coming back home. Back in Kathmandu and I experienced diarrhea again. I was fortunate and was able to visit a family for a whole day. Here we witnessed true everyday life. We had some communication issues with our family, since their English wasn't that good and they didn't understand what I spoke. The beginnig was a little creepy, because of the communication issues and the place where they lived. As some time had passed we could spend wonderful time with the family and had the best food during the whole journey. The family grew fruits and we had a change eat some delicious fruits i.e. mango, (passion fruit?) and asian pear.
At the last dinner at least I was sad that we had to leave our new friends and this culture behind us. The last 2 days we travelled back home, spending one night and half a day in Delhi, India. I was personally so tired from fighting with Nepali and Indian airport officials so I stayed at the hotel.
A part of my heart was left at Nepal and at the base of the Himalayas. A new dream of mine is to go back there and visit South East Asia on a larger scale. If you have a change to visit this extremely beautiful country, that isn't spoiled with tourism. I'll advice you to go without any hesitations.
The first days in Nepal aren't that clear to me, because the culture shock was so big to me in the beginnig. Also the weather conditions, heat and humidity, are so very different when comparing to Finland.
On the first day we went to one of the most interesting and beatiful places during the whole trip. This place was a buddhist tempel, that's officially called Swayambhunath, but even the locals use the name monkey tempel. The name comes from the fact that there are monkeys running freely in the area. The visit could have been even better, if I wasn't so tired from the travelling and the weather wouldn't have been so hot.
During the next couple days we had introductions to Nepalese culture and we got to know our Nepali guides. If you, our guides and new friends, are reading this a huge thanks from me :). We were also given a change to learn some Nepalese language. I still remenber about 10 words, Nepalese people please correct if I have written some of them wrong. So dhangebad, namaste and jaimessiah where the words I used most often. So Namaste and jaimessiah have the same meaning in English and it's hello, but the difference is that christians say to other christians jaimessiah and to everyone else namaste. Dhangebad is a word that atleast Finns forget quite often to say. Now I'm not talking about the word sorry. If you haven't guessed yet it means thank you.
First week also contained a sick day for me. I was the first of our group ( 13 people) to get diarrhea. Luckily with good medication I only had to stay one day away from our program. Unfortunately the program that day was about other faiths which interest me very much. It was one kind of experience, but I would have rather not had it. The next day I was already visiting a tailor shop, where all the tailors are deaf. We also visited an organization called Forward Looking. They organize different kinds of programs and cources, where disabled people can learn skills to get a job. This day was very important for me, because it made me realíze how "good" things are in Finland for disabled people. Most of you probably don't know that I do volunteer work with cp-children and also have been a helper ar a camp for disabled youth. Organizations like Forward Looking are really important in developing countries, since for example in Nepal disabled children might not ever get a change to go outside of their own home. And in this the caste doesn't matter.
We also had some shopping time. Because of the cheap prices I bought a lot of things! T-shirts, jackets, necklesses, spices and TEA.
We also got to ride buses quite often. The longest trip was to Pokhara, 7 hours to one direction and the same back. The distance from Kathamndu to Pokhara is about 200 km. The bus didn't have air-conditioning so we arranged it by opening the windows and the ones sitting next to the windows got to wipe black dirt and pollutions from their faces at Pokhara in the evening. Thanks to good coompany the journey to Pokhara and back felt more like 3 hours than 7. Us who travelled in the back seat felt every bump and pothole, since we jumped up atleast 2 meters each time.
Alongside the heat we also experienced the humidity. The monsoon had started and we got soaked a few times. One time we were visiting a school and were eating at the cafeteria of the school, where there was a tin roof. I couldn't hear what was said on the otherside of the table.
When we came back from Pokhara it felt like coming back home. Back in Kathmandu and I experienced diarrhea again. I was fortunate and was able to visit a family for a whole day. Here we witnessed true everyday life. We had some communication issues with our family, since their English wasn't that good and they didn't understand what I spoke. The beginnig was a little creepy, because of the communication issues and the place where they lived. As some time had passed we could spend wonderful time with the family and had the best food during the whole journey. The family grew fruits and we had a change eat some delicious fruits i.e. mango, (passion fruit?) and asian pear.
At the last dinner at least I was sad that we had to leave our new friends and this culture behind us. The last 2 days we travelled back home, spending one night and half a day in Delhi, India. I was personally so tired from fighting with Nepali and Indian airport officials so I stayed at the hotel.
A part of my heart was left at Nepal and at the base of the Himalayas. A new dream of mine is to go back there and visit South East Asia on a larger scale. If you have a change to visit this extremely beautiful country, that isn't spoiled with tourism. I'll advice you to go without any hesitations.
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