In the Christmas mood

It was pouring rain all day today, so we stayed at home and decorated for Christmas! This didn't take long, because (ahem) our HHE shipment still is not here. Luckily, we acquired a few things while in temporary housing last year, or we'd be in serious Scroogeville.

Our full-size tree is on a boat somewhere (not too far from here, I hope), so we set up the small tree we bought last year. I'm grateful that the kids get ornaments from us, Grandma and Grandpa Cragun, and Nana every year. This meant we had a few things to hang on the tree.

All of our Christmas music is on the previously mentioned boat, so we relied on YouTube for our mood-setting tunes.

Samuel spent all his time munching on last year's candy canes. Is this safe? And why do I keep last year's candy canes?

There's something about having a lighted Christmas tree in the house that fills me with a peaceful, happy feeling. The pine-scented candles and cinammon potpourri are a nice touch, too. We're ready for the Christmas season!

Thanksgiving, Chennai style

Thanksgiving here was pretty low key. We had invited some friends for dinner, but they were sick and it ended up being just us. It was a nice day, all the same. We spent most of the day relaxing, cooking, and watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was still in the future, and we felt its loss. It's been a tradition to have it on as we prepare our meal. Can't have everything!

Since we were busy with travel and illness right around Halloween, we had a couple of pumpkins that never got carved. Evie and Johnny designed, and John carved (simplifying the designs somewhat) some Thanksgiving jack-o-lanterns.

Showing off their designs

We decided to turn our pumpkins into a Pilgrim and a Native American. Gopal roasted the seeds, and they were far yummier than any I've ever attempted.

Howdy, Pilgrim

We had headdress issues ...

Here's the guest of honor ready for the feast.

Turkeys are difficult to find here. Imported frozen turkeys cost over $100, so we tried our luck with one found locally. It tasted OK, but I sure missed American turkey. This one was tougher, stringier, and "gamier." More like what the real Pilgrims would have eaten, I guess. The rest of the meal was fantastic, though. I even managed to find a can of cranberry sauce!

I'll tell you what was wonderful about this year's feast: Having four adults in the kitchen. I made the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and desserts. John made the green bean casserole to perfection and put together some fizzy drinks using Sprite and litchi juice. Gopal made the dinner rolls and mashed potatoes, and he did all the prep work for the other dishes. He and Joseph also handled the clean-up. I'm so spoiled!

Gopal and Joseph joined us for dinner, and a good time was had by all. We talked about what we're thankful for, of course: Family, friends, and a smooth transition into life in India top the list.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nepal, part 5

Congratulations! You've made it to the last Nepal post. Never mind sick kids and no sleep, I was not going to leave Kathmandu without a visit to Durbar Square. Luckily for me, John and Johnny survived their Everest flight and Evie and Sam were pretty well recovered from their bugs, so it was on to Durbar Square!

I just have to mention our one bad experience with a taxi driver. Most people in Kathmandu were kind and accommodating, and though some haggling was often required, we never felt cheated (or not too cheated, anyway). The taxi driver who took us from our friends' house to Durbar Square, though, thought he'd found some dewy-eyed tourist chumps. We probably look like an easy target, I have to admit.

Before we got into the taxi, we negotiated a price to Durbar Square. This guy took us halfway there, then pulled over and said, "Here we are! 200 rupees!" He obviously had no clue that we have all kinds of experience dealing with the autorickshaws of South India. We happened to know that we were NOT at Durbar Square or anywhere near it. (Rule #1: Know your destination.) He tried to tell us it would be another 200 to the square, at which point John had us all get out of the taxi and start walking away. (Rule #2: Know the fair price.) This must have been a sight to see. When the driver realized he would get nothing at all, he quickly agreed to take us all the way to the square at the agreed upon price. Back into the taxi and on we go. No tip for you! Ha!

Durbar Square is the center of old Kathmandu and is filled with temples and palaces and surrounded by narrow, crowded, noisy streets. The site is ancient, but the current buildings date to the 17th and 18th centuries. The largest building is the Hanuman Dhoka palace complex, which is a combination of ancient and more modern architectural styles. Here are some ornate carved windows at an older part of the palace.

Evie and Samuel taking a peek

Much of the palace was built in the 17th and 18th centuries, but part of it was constructed in 1908 in a more European style. Here's a picture that shows how strange the juxtaposition looks.

Across from this part of the palace is a huge open square that used to be the royal elephant stables. Now the square is full of souvenir vendors. I've discovered that I'm not so excited about all the carving and metalwork available in Nepal and India, but the textile industry just fascinates me. I found some hand-carved wooden stamps that had been used to dye fabric, so I bought a couple of those as my Nepal mementos. I got the price down to about a third of the original asking price. Woot! I'm usually not that good, but in this case it helped to know what similar artifacts cost in India. I feel like I got a pretty good deal.

Next to the elephant stables is the Kumari Bahal, home of the city's living goddess. Here's a photo.

There really is a young girl living here who is revered as a living goddess, an incarnation of Durga called the Kumari Devi. The girl is chosen from a specific caste and goes through a series of tests to determine her authenticity. When she's discovered, she moves into this building with her entire family and only shows herself publicly on a few ceremonial occasions. Her reign as the Kumari ends when she has her first period. Then she goes back to being a normal human being, and a new Kumari is chosen.

I couldn't help but be reminded of Ursula LeGuin's book The Tombs of Atuan, probably the darkest in her Earthsea series. The book is about a girl-goddess who eventually escapes her island palace and the cult that both reveres and enslaves her. Good but haunting reading.

After seeing the Kumari Bahal, we climbed the steep steps of the Maju Deval, a temple to the Hindu god Shiva. Just a note on Hindu temples: Watch out for the erotic art, and if you're an easy blusher you might not want to think too deeply about the symbolism surrounding Shiva and his consort Parvati. Let's just say it's all about creative powers. I didn't point anything out to Johnny and he remained blissfully unaware.

From the Maju Deval, we got a great view of the square below.

This is a temple to both Shiva and Parvati, built in the 17th century over a much older platform.

This temple is to Narayan/Vishnu, one of the principle Hindu gods, and was built around 1680.

A street leading away from the square

The Vishnu temple with a Garuda statue on the left and the Lakshmi Narayan temple to the right

Our next stop was for a closer look at the Shiva-Parvati temple. Here they are looking down on us from the top of the temple.

At this point we picked up an unwelcome barnacle. The guy to the right of John in the following photo was pestering us to hire him to be our guide. He would not go away no matter how uninterested we tried to appear. Politeness turned to sharpness ... but we only ditched him when we went into a museum. I was almost afraid he'd be waiting for us when we came out, but he'd apparently moved on to some other poor soul.

The main temple in this grouping is thought to be the oldest structure on the square and was built about 1563.

We finally ditched our unwanted tour guide when we went into the courtyards of the Hanuman Dhoka, the palace complex. It's named for the monkey god Hanuman, who aided Rama in his rescue of Sita in the epic Ramayana. Johnny could tell you all about this. He was pretty excited to see the statue of Hanuman to the left of the entrance (it's covered with an umbrella and hung with flower garlands). The figures flanking the entrance are Shiva and Parvati mounted on lions.

Inside the Hanuman Dhoka is a very cool museum with artifacts (thrones, wedding and coronation robes, office and cabinet rooms, weaponry, photos) relating to Nepali royalty. The kings lived in the Hanuman Dhoka from centuries ago until 1896, but the old palace was used for royal events until very recently. The last coronation happened in this courtyard in 2001 on the platform you can just see in the bottom right corner of the following photo.

We saw some of the museum, but by this time the kids were more than done with being tourists. John was dying to get up into one of the towers, though, so the kids and I rested in the main courtyard while John did a sprint through the rest of the museum.

In one corner of the courtyard we saw a statue of Vishnu in his man/lion incarnation disemboweling a demon. Yikes! The statue dates to 1673. We also saw the Malla king's throne, a funeral litter, and a bridal litter.

After Hanuman Dhoka we spent some time wandering around the narrow streets surrounding Durbar Square. I've never been to Morrocco or Egypt, but I've always imagined the ancient streets there to be just like those we saw in Kathmandu: lively, loud, colorful, narrow and crowded. Part of our wanderings were in search of a bathroom for Evie. I am so glad my kids aren't fazed by Nepal/India-style toilets. And I'm glad I remembered to bring toilet paper and Wet Ones.

Durbar Square was our last tourist stop in Nepal, and it didn't disappoint. Early the next morning, we piled into two taxis (honest drivers, both) and were off to the airport for our return to India. Getting out of Nepal turned out to be almost as aggravating as getting in, but the trip really went pretty smoothly.

The only real incident of note happened on our first flight. You don't see too many Western families with young kids travelling around the developing world, so we always turn heads when we board an airplane or come tumbling out of taxis or rickshaws. Plenty of business travellers and wealthy tourists see us coming and run for cover -- or wish they could -- and I can't say I blame them, really. Who wants a 2-year-old kicking the back of your seat through a long flight?

It does bug me, though, when people make it obvious that they're annoyed by our presence even before the kids do anything. Evie was sitting next to a guy like this on the flight from Kathmandu to Delhi. She got into her seat and quietly colored until it was time for food to be served. Then she spilled some of her bottled water right into her neighbor's lap! All right, I'd be annoyed, too. But the way this guy spent nearly two full hours asking for more and more napkins and generally making a big deal out of the mishap (for which Evie, John and I apologized profusely) was just too much! As we got off the flight he made a big show of wrapping a sweater around his waist, even though by this time his pants were totally dry and showed no sign of the spill at all. Ack!

We had smooth sailing through the Delhi airport, though the flight was a little delayed, and got home to Chennai with all kids and bags accounted for and intact. Ashok was waiting with the car, and the streets of Chennai seemed homey and familiar. It was a great trip, but it's always good to be home.

Nepal, part 4

Our last full day in Nepal, Johnny and I got up early to take a taxi to the airport for our Everest flight. This was a domestic flight, so we got to start our father and son adventure by experiencing the domestic terminal. It was like walking into the past. The building is ancient, and so is the bureaucracy running the place.

We found the ticket counter for our airline, Buddha Air (what a cool name for an airline) and proceeded to wait in line. When we finally made it to the counter, the ticket agent asked me where my tax receipt was. Silly me. We had prepaid tickets, and I assumed any government charges would be included with the cost of the ticket. No, I was informed I needed to go stand in another line, pay a government tax, then return with the receipt.

So we went to the other line, paid the tax, went back to the airline ticket counter, got checked in for our flight, went through security, and finally made it to the waiting room, at which point we discovered that all flights were suspended indefinitely because of fog. We learned this by overhearing a tour guide mention it to a tourist group that was sitting nearby. This information was probably included in one of the announcements that were periodically being made over a loudspeaker, but these announcements proved to be rather useless as the speaker was of such poor quality that all I could make out were some completely unintelligible squabbles that I assume were in Nepali and some other slightly less unintelligible squabbles that I can only assume were supposed to be English.

After some searching, I found a Buddha Airlines representative sitting quietly behind an unmarked desk, who though rather hard to find, was quite polite and helpful once discovered. I checked in periodically with this representative for the status of our flight.......for the next 3 and a half hours.

Finally, almost 4 hours later, we started boarding, along with two other flights, from the same gate, at the same time. Sound confusing? The passengers weren't the only people confused. When we went through the gate to the tarmac, we found airline employees arguing about which buses were assigned to which flights. Seeing the confusion, we fellow passengers of flight 103 compared tickets and banded together. This was definitely a time when there was safety and comfort in numbers.

The airline figured out which bus to put us on, and off we went. Then we stopped to add two German tourists who almost missed the bus. Finally on our way......we stopped again. There was a traffic jam inside the airport. People were hand pushing little carts full of baggage all around the tarmac, and several buses were trying to get through. How many countries in the world have traffic jams on the city streets and inside the airport? Fantastic!

View of the tarmac from our bus as we try to get to our plane

Our bus made its way to our plane, a small propeller plane with window seats for every passenger. Johnny and I were in the front, right by the cockpit. The cockpit didn't have a door, so we could see the two pilots work the controls as we took off.

View from my window as we took off from Kathmandu

Only a few minutes after taking off, we were flying along the Himalayan mountain range with views like this that made the wait at the airport well worth it.

The highlight of the flight, of course, was Mt. Everest. You can see its distinctive pyramid-shaped peak in the photos below. It soared over the tops of the clouds with such majesty that it gave me chills.

The pilots let us into the cockpit and pointed out the names of different peaks. Johnny was thrilled. Here we are during the flight:

On our way back to Kathmandu, we could see some of the terraced farmland below us.

Each passenger received an "I flew to Everest" certificate after we landed back in Kathmandu. Here's Johnny getting off the plane with his cherished certificate in his hand.

When asked about his favorite part of our trip to Nepal, Johnny is quick to say that it was the Everest flight. It was an experience we'll never forget.

Nepal, part 3

After lunch at Flavor's we packed our screaming kiddos into the car for the long drive out of Kathmandu and up a mountain to Nagarkot. I say it was a long drive, but it's actually pretty incredible that you can get from a place as crowded and lively as Kathmandu to a place as quiet and peaceful as Nagarkot in less than 2 hours.

Kathmandu is one of three city-states that competed for power during the medieval flourishing of the trade route between India and Tibet, and it obviously came out on top. One of the other two cities is Bhaktapur, which we drove through on our way to Nagarkot. We had planned to stop and see some of the city, but by the time we got there Evie was snoozing and Samuel was screaming so we decided to continue on up the mountain. What we saw as we drove through town was pretty interesting, though. Bhaktapur is city-size but quite rural. There was a lot of farmland right in among the houses.

Roads in Bhaktapur are narrow and bumpy, and one of them winds its way out of the city and right up a mountain to Nagarkot. We navigated switchbacks for quite a while that were so narrow that when a car or bus came in the opposite direction, we had to stop and inch our way around each other so that nobody fell over the side of the mountain. Outside of Kathmandu, Nepal is mostly rural, with farmland terraced right up the mountains. Unfortunately, it was a misty day and we couldn't get good pictures of the beautiful views of terraced land and homes perched on the steep inclines. We did get a great glimpse of village life, though.

The main reason people go to Nagarkot is to see magnificent views of the Himalayas like this one taken from The Fort Resort, where we stayed. We were unlucky as far as weather goes, so the views we saw were more like this:

View from our room's window

Panoramic it is not, but it does have a certain beauty. We were literally walking in the clouds the whole time we stayed. We checked into the hotel and then found a trail and did some exploring.

I was surprised at the mixture of tropical and mountainous plant life in Nepal. Because of its altitude, it's easy to forget that Kathmandu is only 27 degrees north of the equator, less than 4 degrees out of the tropics.

Samuel was still insisting on being carried, and Evie was showing clearer signs of fever, so after a while I took the younger kids back up to the terraces of the hotel while John and Johnny continued to explore. There was no sign of yeti, but Johnny was keeping a good watch. Nagarkot is only at 2,000 meters above sea level (Everest hits 8,484 meters -- we think ... there's actually a debate), so we decided that maybe the yeti keeps to higher elevations. Good thing, because by the time I had climbed back up the mountain with Samuel on my hip I was yeti bait for sure. Luckily, there were plenty of chairs on the terraces that were surrounded by a good cover of potted flowers, and the kids and I recovered from the climb in safety.

Check out the size of these flowers!

That night we ate at the hotel's little restaurant, which normally has panoramic views of the mountains but instead had a lovely view of a lot of fog. I'm not really complaining, because it was a beautiful place no matter how you look at it. Well, maybe I'm complaining a little, because I had really been looking forward to the views. Oh, well. Another time. Ha! When will I be back in Nepal? Maybe never and maybe next year.

This is where Evie's little body called it quits. That sounds like she died. She did not die, but she did fall asleep before dinner and stayed asleep (except for a brief arousal for toilet and Tylenol) well into the next morning. I have to say that Evie is such a trooper. She plays, sings, dances and in this case climbs up and down mountains right through illness so that half the time I don't know she's sick until she suddenly throws up on my feet. Luckily, no throwing up this time (well ... there was the drive down the mountain, but we won't go there). She had a pretty good fever going and was really tired. John and I took turns going to dinner so someone would be in the room with her, and we just let her sleep it off. She wasn't 100 percent the next day, but she went chugging right along anyway.

Meanwhile, I got almost no sleep because of Samuel's need to lie down right on my chest. This is a 25-pound 2-year-old, folks, not some feather-light newborn. So the next morning John and the boys did some more exploring while Evie and I slept. Here's what they saw from the hotel's lookout tower.

And here are my adventurous boys.

Here's a shot that shows how the buildings seem to be clinging to the side of the mountain.

We left Nagarkot in the late morning and saw incredible views of village and mountain farm life on the way back down into the valley. None of our photos came out well, though, so you'll have to trust us.

My mom told me once that one thing she loves about travel is trying to imagine what it must be like to live in places as diverse as a farm in nowhere Iowa or a company house in industrial St. Louis or a village in the remote Andes. On the way down from Nagarkot we passed a small home perched on the side of the mountain and surrounded by tiny terraced fields. There was a woman standing on one of the steep paths observing her two cows, and I found myself wondering what her life is like. Does she find it difficult or lonely? Does she mind the hard labor? Does she have a family that loves and cares for her? What must it be like to wake up to those mountain views every morning of your life? It's so far from my own life, but I feel like I caught just a glimpse.

So I'm glad we made that drive up and down the mountain, even though I didn't get to see Everest.

Coming soon: Johnny sees the top of the world!

Nepal, part 2

After a day of recovery, we figured we could handle a stop at Boudha before heading up into the mountains for a night at Nagarkot. I'm so glad we braved the rain, because it was a fascinating place.

Stuck in traffic on the way to Boudha, John took a photo of this bus. Many cars and buses in both Nepal and India are decorated with images of dieties or colorful designs or inspirational or funny quotations. This one is more pessimistic than most, but pretty funny. You can read it more clearly if you click on the photo.

Boudha is a center of Tibetan Buddhism and is surrounded by gompas, or monasteries, and by what amounts to a Tibetan village in the middle of Kathmandu. It's been around for centuries and has several stories regarding its foundation (in the 5th or 6th century), but it's well documented that it has been an important stop for traders traveling between Nepal and Tibet since the 15th century or earlier.

Since the late 1950s, a large Tibetan refugee population has settled in the area, so it's considered to be one of the only truly accessible centers of Tibetan culture. We spoke (briefly) with several Tibetans at Boudha (they were drawn to Evie and Samuel). I also got to chat with a group at Swayambhunath that was on its way to India to see the Dalai Lama. The women wear a distinctive costume that I never captured in a good photo (the weather had people pretty covered up), but you can see a bit of it on the woman in the bottom right of this photo. She's wearing a striped apron over her dress.

There's a good photo of Tibetan women (it looks like they might even be at Boudha) on this blog written by former foreign service officers who now own a handicrafts store.

You might think from the photo that Boudha and Swayambhunath were similar, but aside from the obvious similarity of the huge Buddhist stupa, they were really very different. The Hindu influence at Swayambhunath was striking, but Boudha seemed purely Buddhist. It's hard to explain, but I thought the feeling was just very different there.

Here's a photo of John and kids on our clockwise tour around the stupa. Walking around a Buddhist shrine in a counterclockwise direction is considered disrespectful. This Buddhist blog has a pretty good explanation as to why moving clockwise, or following the path of the sun, is important. At least I think it's a good explanation ... I'm not even close to being an expert!

You can see from the photo that Samuel was still insisting on being carried around. We know he was feeling better, though, because he kept shrieking "Namaste!" at everyone who so much as glanced his way. The locals were highly amused. Evie (that's nothing worse than a lollipop hanging from her lips), though, was developing a fever. Being the fabulous mom that I am, I didn't notice this until MUCH later in the day. At Boudha she just seemed a bit mellow.

The main stupa at Boudha is surrounded by shops, restaurants, hostels, and the monasteries called gompas. We did a little exploring at Tsamchen Gompa, which faces the western entrance to the stupa.

This enormous prayer wheel was just inside the entrance, and the entire building (at least the part open for exploration) was covered in gorgeous murals.

View of the stupa from the monastery's second floor.

Johnny and Evie among flower offerings on the monastery's balcony

Murals in the gompa

Doors leading to a meditation hall

The Boudha stupa is ringed with prayer wheels, just as at Swayambhunath. Here's Samuel turning one of the wheels.

At Boudha you can climb up to the plinth and view the plaza from the stupa, walking around it clockwise, of course. We found statues of a man and a woman on elephantback (is that how you say that?) on the plinth (unfortunately, I can't remember who they are), and we were able to see devotees making offerings and prostrating before the image of the Buddha.

Probably someone important

Prayer flags were, of course, abundant.

Here's one last look at Boudha before we move on. If you ever get to Kathmandu, don't leave without a stop here.

Before making the two-hour drive to Nagarkot, we stopped for lunch at one of the many restaurants surrounding the stupa at Boudha. Flavor's Cafe was the Lonely Planet guide's pick for the area, and we have yet to go wrong with Lonely Planet (love it!). It was a fun place that (oddly) had more than a hint of New Orleans flair.

Sadly, Samuel chose this time to have a major meltdown, so we drove several backpacker types from the terrace. Oh, well. I was able to keep him pretty quiet when we checked out this view of motorcycles (always fascinating).

And here's Johnny, who did really well until Samuel started crying. Johnny just has no patience for it at all and starts yelping "Stop it, Samuel!" as if it will do us any good. So. Flavor's Cafe had a nice ambience and good food, but we sure spoiled it for a few people! Ahh, Third World travel with kids. You know you want this experience ... you know you do.

I'll end this post with a couple of shots of a procession we passed on the way out of Kathmandu. The Patches' driver, Manik, wasn't quite sure what this was all about but guessed it might have been something political. That might be true, but I've seen similar processions here in India of people headed to a temple for a special puja. Once (in Chennai) we saw one with an ascetic who was wearing a metal dome that had sharp points pricking his skin all over. He was followed by drummers and a group carrying an idol on a litter. These photos were taken out the car windows and through a crowd, so they aren't great.

Still to come: Driving the switchbacks up to Nagarkot! Everest flight! Durbar Square! Stay tuned.