Thursday, April 30, 2015

HELP IS NEEDED!!! / SEGÍTSÉGRE VAN SZÜKSÉG!!! (Magyar szöveget lásd lejjebb)

Dear Everybody!
I am terribly sorry that I have to write this post, but I am sure you have heard about the earthquake in Nepal, on 25th April, with a magnitude of 7.8 that resulted in huge damage at many parts of the country.
Having spent 5 months in 2014 in Kathmandu, and being extremely touched by all that has happened, let me tell you a short story of this country that might sound a little different from the news.
Once upon a time there was a country, called Nepal. A country with an incredible culture based on the peaceful grounds of Buddhism and Hinduism, also seen in centuries old monuments, stupas, temples... It was a country where time stopped, the rush of the western world was left behind you and you could just get caught in the moment... and the next one... It was a country of a magical chaos where you could never expect what you were going to live in the next moment. But it was also the country where you could get hundreds of smiles a day, the most beautiful and the most honest ones... from the most amazing people who would already welcome you like an old friend after only knowing each other for minutes... It was a country that really felt like home...
And I believe that it WILL BE, it can be still this country again!!!
But for that right now they need your help… Because even though almost a week has passed, the news are fading, and you tend to move on and try to forget, the truth is that the earthquake did happen! It’s not just a terrible dream like you and I might want to think… The people are still struggling! Their home is still destroyed! They are still living in temporary tents and they still don’t have safe drinking water!
So what can we do? DONATE!!! Give money or collect supplementary to a RELIABLE, LOCAL organization, called Aangan Foundation, currently working in the area (that I know personally):

Here is the details:
Account Name : Amir Lama (main member of the foundation) Bank Name : Everest Bank Ltd Account no: 02300501200748 Bank Address : Gwarko Branch Shift code : EVBLNPKA

Postal address: P.O. Box 20541 Aangan foundation , Kathmandu, Nepal, C/O Amir Lama or Ugs mirga gurung



THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN ADVANCE!





Kedves Olvasó!
Gondolom, hogy mindenki hallott a múlt hét szombaton, április 25-én Nepált érintő, 7.9 erősségű földrengésről, amely az ország számos területén óriási károkat okozott.
Miután 2014-ben öt hónapot töltöttem Kathmandu-ban önkéntesként és a hallott hírek rendkívüli módon megérintettek, szeretnék elmesélni egy történetet erről az országról, amely talán másként hangzik, mint a híradó.
Volt egyszer egy Nepál nevű ország. Egy ország, hihetetlen, kultúrával, amelyben egyszerre ötvöződött a buddhizmus és a hinduizmus és ahol mindez több évszázados műemlékekben, sztúpákban, templomokban testesült meg. Egy olyan ország volt ez, ahol az idő megállt, az ember maga mögött hagyhatta a nyugati világ rohanásának zaját és megélhette a pillanatot... és a következőt... A mágikus káosz országa volt, ahol az ember sosem tudhatta, hogy milyen csoda várja a következő pillanatban. De egyben egy olyan ország is volt, ahol az embert naponta száz és száz mosoly várta, a legszebb és legőszintébb mosolyok... a legcsodálatosabb emberektől, akik szinte az első pillanattól úgy köszöntöttek, mint egy régi barátot... Egy olyan ország volt, ahol az ember valóban otthon érezhette magát...
És hiszem, hogy Nepál egyszer újra ez az ország lesz!
De ehhez most segítségre van szükségük... Mert hiába telt el a tragédia óta szinte egy hét, hiába halványodnak a hírek, és szeretnénk feledni, az igazság az, hogy a földrengés megtörtént... Ez nem múlik el... És nem is csak egy rémálom, amint azt gyakran szeretnénk gondolni... Az emberek továbbra is küzdenek! Az otthonaik továbbra is romokban állnak! Sokan még mindig ideiglenes sátrakban alszanak és a tiszta ivóvíz biztosítása sem megoldott!
Tehát mit tehetünk? ADOMÁNYOZZUNK!!! Adjunk pénzt – bármely kevés összeg is számít – egy MEGBÍZHATÓ, HELYI szervezeteknek (akiket személyesen ismerek, minden tekintetben vállalom értük a felelősséget és biztos vagyok benne, hogy a felajánlások a megfelelő helyre jutnak):

Aangan Foundation

Név: Amir Lama (a szervezet vezetője)
Bank neve: Everest Bank Ltd Számlaszám: 02300501200748 Bank címe: Gwarko Branch Shift kód: EVBLNPKA

Postacím: P.O. Box 20541 Aangan foundation , Kathmandu, Nepal, C/O Amir Lama or Ugs mirga gurung


ELŐRE IS KÖSZÖNJÜK A SEGÍTSÉGET!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

So Let's Continue with Chitwan National Park

Dear Everybody! Sorry for disappearing in the middle of the adventures, the truth is that living the last weeks of your time in Nepal and arriving home is not the calmest and easiest part of the adventure.
But don't worry, still I won't leave you without stories and pictures of this last period, to start again, here's a story of a trip in August in Chitwan National Park which is one of the world's very few still existing rainforests:



Chitwan National Park is one of the most famous national parks of Nepal – maybe besides Annapurna Conservation Area which is most famous with its trekking routes. As for Chitwan, it is a deep jungle area, with rich wildlife and a wide variety of activities offered – form the elephant and jeep safaris, to the canoeing on Rapti river and walking jungle tours as well. Before having been there, I thought that this is a place which is 100% touristic, but still I cannot leave Nepal without having some jungle experience, too.
Well, it turned out that I wasn’t exactly right, it wasn’t as touristic as I expected, instead I got to live some amazing moments being almost alone in the middle of the jungle.
But starting it from the beginning: even getting to Chitwan contained more adventure than I expected. Since I was trying to save my remaining free days for a later holiday in Langtang, I decided to leave for Chitwan just after I’m finished with teaching on Friday. This also meant that a tourist bus wasn’t even an option since they only leave Kathmandu in the morning... So finally I set off in the early afternoon to Kalanki from where the microbuses to Chitwan were supposed to leave. I felt very fortunate to instantly find a bus that was just leaving Kathmandu, supposedly to Chitwan. At least that’s what I thought – until about 4 hours later the conductor literally put me off the bus, saying that this is my last stop, and pushing me in the arms of the taxi drivers. It was only at this time that I realized that the microbuses don’t go directly to Sauhara village, which is the village by the national park, instead they only approach Chitwan from about 25 km of distance. From here, you have a few options to get to Sauhara, as I found out:
#1: You take a taxi: Well, the taxi drivers are going to start at a price of 1500 Rs and won’t go under 800 Rs, for sure, even if they find out that you are willing to stay at the guesthouse of their friend. They will use any trick to get business of the desperate, lost travellers, even telling that there’s no direct bus to Sauhara and it will take you 3 hours to get there – but don’t believe them!
#2: You take a riksha: Ok the only problem with this version is that there’s quite a chance that they will misunderstand your destination, since you are willing to go too far. As for me, after getting rid of the taxi drivers, I got on a riksha that promised me to take me to Sauhara for 500 Rs. I thought ok, this might be a fun experience to try. It was only after one corner that it turned out that he had no idea of where I was going to, so he tried to ask for the help of some people passing by and when he realized that it was kinda far where I was heading to, he just offered me to take to the bus station. Since by this time I was already pretty furious about it that everybody only saw the business in me, I left him there without paying anything – about which though I felt a little guilty later.
#3: Just simply cross the road where you are dropped off from the micro and take a direct public bus – which in fact exists and which will take you to the village in about half an hour, just for 30 Rs!
Anyway, after facing all these challenges I finally arrived in the village of Sauhara by the evening, where there were already a few owners of guesthouses waiting for the late-coming tourists to offer them their accommodation. Luckily by this time I was already prepared: two guesthouses were suggested for me by my friends, who have been there before – these were called “Crocodile” and “Butterfly”. So at this point I just tried to stop the locals, all talking at the same time and offering me better and better options and asked for these places and finally I got lucky: the owner of “Butterfly” was there, so he offered to take me to his really pretty and calm guesthouse, where a quite cheap room (only 300 Rs) was waiting for me, even with a terrace and a beautiful garden in front of it.
Still this evening I had another job to do: I had to book all kinds of programs for the following day. For this again, I got an advice before: I was told not to book anything at the hotel, but to go to an agency, instead. So this is what I did and booked a nice all-day-long jungle walk for the next day, which actually turned out to be a private tour just for me, with two guides since there were no other tourists for that day. At the same time, my future tour guide was so nice that he even took me to a little bit injured rhino close to the agency. He said that since it was injured, it cannot go back to the jungle, because other rhinos might kill him, so that’s why he is just wandering near the village. Later, I got to see a show presenting the traditional culture, dances and dresses of the people of the area, called Tharus. At the end of the event, even the audience could take part and learn some of the dances as well.
When I went to bed after this long day, I didn’t know yet, what kind of adventures were waiting for the next day. I got up early in the morning, got breakfast in the cosy local restaurant just by the guesthouse – tasty Tibetan bread, yammyyy!  - just to meet in time with my two guides, ready for the trip.
We started the adventure with getting into a huge canoe, carved from just one piece of giant tree and canoeing down the Rapti river that was eventually supposed to be full of crocodiles. They said, that two types of crocodiles were living there – only one of which could be dangerous for people since the other one doesn’t really eat meet, if I understood well. Although finally we didn’t see any crocodiles, but the thought of them already increased my adrenalin level a little bit... But the real Jurassi Park only started after getting out of the canoe: It was only at this point, where you already have no chance to turn back, when I was told, what kind of animals we might meet when walking in the jungle and what the adequate reaction to them should be. For example in case if we should be attacked by a rhino, we should either climb a tree, or start running in zig-zag, because due to their huge weight, they cannot turn very fast. Also, it turned out that the most dangerous animal in the jungle is a wild elephant. Since throughout the years they have been socialized to be afraid of the humans, it’s pretty likely that they are going to attack... Also, to me surprise, I got to know that contrary to common  knowledge, tigers are not so dangerous at the same time, they are known here as pretty shy animals – that’s why they cannot be seen very often – but if we meet one, we just have to look in his eye and the we can take our shots. After getting to know all these information, I was desperately trying to remember all of them, hoping that my memory would still work in the case of an incident. During the day, sometimes walking in the deep jungle, I continuously felt who small I am compared to the nature and all these creatures, watching in all direction all the time, not knowing in which moment a huge rhino would appear by us. Finally I got to see three rhinos during the day, and a few deer and monkeys, too. Fortunately, none of them attacked us. Two of the rhinos were peacefully having a baths in a pond or in the river. Spotting the third one was already a bit more adventures experience: since it was just in the bushes, it wasn’t too safe just to approach him on the ground, so finally I had to climb high up on a tree, while I was told not to make too much noise, since if the rhino would hear us and get mad, it could still try to hit the tree to get us down from there.
By the end of this long day, I was already so tired that I was falling in my bed already around 8 pm. Having also booked an elephant safari and planned an elephant bath as well, the next morning still new experiences were waiting for me. Although the elephant safari was said to be not so interesting regarding the wildlife, we still saw quite a few deer from pretty close, besides that it was a really memorable experience to be sitting in a small basket on the top of the huge animal, while the elephant was walking in a way that I thought all the time that I might fall down at the next step.
Later, when the elephants arrived back after this “morning walk”, it was time for them to have a bath in the river. In this ritual, for a small amount of money (100 Rs) tourists can take part, too: you can get a chance, to get on the bare back of the elephant, who is going to give a nice shower to you by pouring water on you with his trunk, and at the end, he is going to sit down to let you fall into the water. I know that in a way this is all using the animal just for your fun, but despite that, just feeling this huge animal so close to you, playing together with it,  was just an experience that I still couldn’t miss and that I will remember for a long-long time!
Maybe knowing a bit Nepal, I don’t even need to say, that after this great weekend in Chitwan, getting back to Kathmandu was an adventure, too: since the tourist buses again, left in the morning, I only had the local options, to take. I was told that several local buses pass by Sauhara Chowk that are going to Kathmandu. Here the first challenge was to get to Sauhara Chowk – the same place where I was dropped from the bus the other day, but it was actually about 6 km from the guesthouse. Although walking that distance shouldn’t have meant a problem, but since I was kinda in shortage of time, I was advised to take a local bus there that should pass by in our street. Of course there was no timetable or anything like that..:) I decided to have a final lunch in my favourite local restaurant in the street. Here I was just in the middle of a conversation with an interesting Danish guy who was planning to stay in Chitwan for long term, when we saw the bus passing by, so my lunch and conversation ended in a fast run after the bus, while I though some money for my lunch and was waving to the bus at the same time. But finally, I managed, I was on the bus an d soon arrived to the chowk. Here, after getting to know in which corner I was supposed to be waiting for the bus to Kathmandu, I started asking all the buses, but none of them were heading to the capital. I started to get a little worried, so I asked an also waiting policemen, who of course didn’t speak any English, but assured me in Nepali that there were some buses from here to Kathmandu. He stayed with me for about another 15 minutes, soon already in the company of another policeman, until finally they stopped a bus for me in the middle of the road and said that it was the right one for me. Since it was literally a very local bus, absolutely crowded, I spent about the first 5 minutes of the trip hanging outside the open door, the next one our standing in the crowd, after which the conducer asked two smaller size men to squeeze a bit together and provide me at least a quarter of a seat.   
Now, actually writing about these experiences about 3 months later, I miss so much all these adventurous, crazy moments, the challenges of everyday life or the challenges of getting from one place to another, when you never know what is going to happen and how, you only know that at the end everything is going to turn out good. You cannot get bored or lazy, you just need to be open for all these small surprises that Nepal has to offer you...
 


Tharu dance show representing the original culture of the people in Chitwan

So this is the view that you can meet during the elephant safari

But if you want some more adrenalin, take part in the whole-day-long jungle safari to meet these rhinos from not more than 2 meter of distance!

Or follow a tiger! Yes, this is really his foot print!

And be prepared to climb a tree to be able to stay close to a rhino like this!

This is how the elephant safari really looks like!

And yeah! I even took part in the elephant shower! :)

Friday, August 15, 2014

Cooking classes



Well, after having spent in Nepal more than 4 months and having got addicted to their food, we (with the Spanish volunteer) decided that our skills for cooking real Nepali dishes need to be improved and it’s not enough anymore to be able to cook dal bhaat (the lentil soup with rice) or aloo parotha (the bread filled with potato), but we cannot go home without learning the real and original recipe of my favourite Nepalese dish, the momo.
So this is how we ended up attending a whole afternoon-long cooking class with Socialtours. Well, the afternoon absolutely wasn’t spent useless: imagine that we went to the market together with our Nepalese chef, selected the best items for our momo, after which we started cooking – of course we had to actively participate in this part – and at the end, we even had a nice lunch / dinner of the momos that we just prepared.
Ok, it sounds pretty easy, right? But the truth is that the process included quite some challenges for us, already starting with chopping the vegies (cabbage and onion). Well, when they say ‘chop the veggies fine’, you have to imagine something that almost looks like a sauce or some minced veggies. While we were struggling with this for quite some time, our chef’s hand moved so fast with the knife that you could hardly see it – and just like magic, truly fine vegies were lying under it in a minute. Probably this is why it’s not us who is giving cooking classes – I thought. After all the chopping, learning about the different kinds of spices, and getting to know that momo sauce actually includes a lot of roasted peanuts, the next challenge was faced. It was time to actually form the momos – we learnt two different shapes, the one that is round and the one that looks more like a moon. Again, the process that seemed so natural and easy under the hands of our ‘teacher’ turned out to be a little more difficult for us, as a result of which we had quite a few interesting, ‘modern shaped’ momos.
By the way, we were preparing two different kinds of momos: the most usual veg momos, and another type that was probably more designed for European taste than Nepalese – spinach cheese momo. This latest one I have never tried before, but it’s for sure that this won’t be the last time I ate, because it’s one of the best things I have ever tried! The taste of the spinach mixed with some yak cheese and garlic perfectly match each other! Anyway, we even had a surprise momo, too: when we were all finished with preparing our veg and spinach-cheese momos, our chef brought out a piece of Snickers chocolate, cut it up and formed small balls from it to have a very special filling for the last few momos.
The best part only came after this: when we finally got to try the sometimes strange shaped, but delicious results of our work of the afternoon.
It was a really great experience, no I will just have to try all the process all alone, once I get home. Even if it’s something very touristic, I would absolutely recommend these cooking classes to everybody who is looking for a fun and ‘tasty’ afternoon in Kathmandu! :)





Thursday, August 14, 2014

Trip to Pharphing



Pharphing is a small village about 25 km from Kathmandu which became my destination for an easy Sunday trip.
The village is famous for its many Buddhist monasteries as well as a Hindu temple and it was sai to be a peaceful, quiet spot just in the neighbourhood of the capital.
After taking off with the bus from Ratnapark and soon finding out that it was passing pretty close to our place in Sanepa, I arrived in the village after about one hour of bus ride – that took me by the banks of Bagmati River while leaving the last houses the road slowly melted into small hills and deep forest. Approaching Pharphing I already saw a few small monasteries so I constantly kept asking the man sitting next to me: ‘Are we there yet? Is this Pharphing?’.
When finally reaching the village I started climbing up and up a hill – because why not start at the top? – that I saw almost covered by all the Buddhist flags. On the way I also found a famous Hindu temple, saw some monasteries that I walked through, too, while often young monks were crossing the road or just sit around by the monasteries. After climbing and climbing I found out that it was really worth reaching for the top: besides all the flags above me blown by the wind also an amazing view of the valley was waiting for me. I finally spent here quite some time, enjoying the view and sitting under all the flags. Do you remember what I once wrote about the meaning of these flags? That when they are swinging in the wind, the wind is supposed to blow away all the problems and bring back good solutions and luck instead... Well, really having this thought in your mind, it is truly a beautiful experience to spend some quiet time under the flags, over the valley and Kathmandu city by the hillside of the village of Pharphing.






Shrawan - month of lord Shiva



Do you still remember what I have written a few months ago about the Nepalese calendar? You know that we are writing 2071 here and start the year on 14th April according to our calendar. If you are good at math then now you already know that we just finished the fourth month of this calendar. This month is called Shrawan which is a really special period for the Hindu people. It was about a month ago when I noticed that a lot more women – and sometimes even men – were wearing beautiful henna on their hands than before. Also, yellow and green bracelets (bangles) appeared on the counters of all the small beauty shops by the streets.
After asking several local about this mystery I slowly started to put the puzzle together: I got to know that the month of Shrawan is dedicated to lord Shiva, the most important god in Hindu mythology. In this month, women wear the henna – which is called mehndi here – and the bangles to take care of their relationships. Married women wear it, because it is said to bring good luck a good health for their husbands (!), young girls might ask their boyfriends to give bangles to them, because it is supposed to strengthen their relationship, or they can just simply wear it in order to have luck in their future relationships.
The darkness of the henna is not meaningless either. After having drawn the beautiful patterns on the hand or feet and having waited at least an hour before removing the material, it is said to take about 24 hour for the henna to darken and show its final colour. According to Nepalese people, the darker the mehndi becomes, the more the woman will be loved by her husband. Of course there are some tricks to ‘strengthen’ this love as well: after having the patterns drawn, most women add lemon and sugar on the mehndi to increase the colour, and some also put plastic bag on it for some time to let it dry slower which will again result in more intense colour. So girls, these are the Nepalese tricks, if you would like to have happy and loving relationships! By the way, for me there’s still something grotesque in all this placing it in the context of all the arranged marriages and the local’s ‘natural’ explanations according to which love will automatically come after the marriage...
Anyway, after getting to know all this of course I also walked up to a man drawing beautiful mehndis by the edge of the road in Swayambhunath and – after bargaining for some time – finally we agreed in the pattern and the price of ‘my future luck’. Well, I asked for a pattern covering my palm and half of my arm. When by next day, the part on my palm turned pretty dark, while the other part remained mostly light brown, I started wondering about the meaning of this: maybe I will be loved a lot until halftime and after that no so much? :) Well, probably a more scientific explanation would just be that the mehndi turns darker where the skin is thicker... Well, we will see how much luck my mehndi is going to bring me, but it’s for sure that i have been walking proudly with it for quite a few days, while all my students were amazed by how beautiful the pattern was.