To Stockholm again, a stressful journey home, the Margaret Thatcher days and remembering Nepal.

Me dressed up very warmly in Stockholm this week

Hello everyone,

This has been an exciting and very tiring week.  I love travelling but the getting up at the crack of dawn and the hassle in air travel these days, especially if the latter doesn’t go as smoothly as planned, really make me tired.  This is probably because of my age.  Well I will, after all, be reaching the grand old figure of 55 this coming week.  

The week started off with a very quiet Monday.  Of note that day I had lunch with my friends Julio and Fátima to celebrate her birthday.  As tradition dictates, we did so at one of our favourite restaurants, El Buey in nearby Boadilla del Monte, a great little place that serves the best steak in the area.

Tuesday was a busier day.  I was up early to have my hair done at Marco Aldany, the hairdresser I go to these days.  Unfortunately Cristina, who does a great job with my hair, wasn’t there so I got a slightly different style this time.  I realised it was not quite what I wanted when Susana, my eldest daughter, observed I looked a little like Margaret Thatcher!  Then I was off to the office for the weekly management team meeting where I am always painfully aware that I am the only woman member but certainly not an “Iron lady” although I sometimes have to appear so in this very male dominated sector that I work in, full of telecommunications engineers.  It’s not a career I would ever have chosen, but it’s the sector I am in for good and for bad.  

On Wednesday I was up again at 6 in the morning to leave for the airport to catch the only direct flight to Stockholm which leaves just after 10.  I coincided with Olivia, my youngest daughter, who gets up at that time everyday to go to the TVE morning programme she works for called La Mañana de la 1.  I thought that if it made me tired just to get up so early only occasionally, how tough it must be for her to do it five days a week and felt sorry for her.

I boarded the plane with the rest of the management team, destination Stockholm, the headquarters of TeliaSonera, the Scandinavian telephone operator who own Yoigo with a 76% share.  We were to take part in the annual management team meeting together with our counterparts from the Nordic and Baltic countries beginning the next morning.  But first we were to have a tight schedule of meetings after our arrival, including a presentation from my former boss in Nokia, Thomas J.  who now works as the head of external relations in TeliaSonera.  Talk about a small world!  We also had a meeting at the world HQ of a Swedish company I admire enormously, Spotify which I was much looking forward to.  

Europe this week has being going through a cold spell so I had packed accordingly and was glad I had taken a thick coat and warm winter head gear as it was well below 10ºc throughout our stay and snowing most of the time.  It also gets dark very early; something I would find very difficult to have to face if I lived here.  Thankfully I live in a country with probably the best climate in Europe.

We arrived in the early afternoon and lunch was a sausage in the street, something I don’t think I have done since my Inter rail days as a teenager when that was all I could afford.  My empty stomach though, was very happy to digest a hot and spicy, Swedish sausage appropriately called “Stockholm”.  Dinner was a much finer affair at one of the city’s best restaurants, Wedholm Fisk where the fish was out of this world.  It is certainly a place to go back to if I could ever afford it.

FISK RESTAURANT

I nearly froze in the ten minute walk back in wind and snow and was happy to return to my warm room at the Scandic Sergel Plaza hotel in the centre of town.  Warm, was actually the only saving grace, apart from the location of the hotel which is soulless, drab and quite downturn for sophisticated Stockholm.  I remarked to my colleagues, who totally agreed, that the rooms reminded me of prison cells. 

The next day, I was up before seven as I had to attend an 8 o’clock conference call from my room about the financial results which TeliaSonera had published that morning.  The news was good for Yoigo.  We had reached the 3 million customer mark and had not only remained EBITDA positive, but reached the cash flow positive objective for the last quarter of 2011.  Results days are always stressful for me, because we have to get the information ready in Spanish to send out to the press as early as possible, be prepared for all sorts of questions throughout the day, as well as inform the staff in more informal terms.  That meant that breakfast, usually my most important meal of the day, had to be sacrificed.  In any case the breakfast room at the Scandic resembled feeding time at the zoo, with not much on offer and a huge flow of people fighting for the coffee machine and bread table, so I didn’t miss much.  The next day I was rewarded for my work with all the main newspapers reporting positively on Yoigo’s results.  I was especially pleased with the coverage in one of our top newspapers, El Mundo where we were included in one of the main “ups” of the day in the “vox populi” section of page 2 as you can see here, if you can read Spanish, a most prestigious position to be in and something no advertising money could ever buy.

We got some excellent coverage in the Spanish press about Yoigo's 2011 financial results.

The conference started at 10 o’clock and was held in the cultural heart of Stockholm, bang in the middle of the city.  The building is called Kulturhuset (literally "culture house") and is full of people enjoying the library, eating Swedish cakes or going to the theatre.  

The square where the Culture House in Stockholm is located was covered in snow.

We on the other hand were to go through a day of presentations.  The first, to my surprise, was absolutely fantastic.  We had the privilege of seeing and hearing Sweden’s next export after Abba and Stieg Larsson, talk to us about the future.  The man’s name is Magnus Lindqvist and he is truly inspiring.  He calls himself a trendspotter and futurologist.  He is also a fantastic speaker.  I have just ordered his book from Amazon.co.uk called “Everything we know is wrong”.  I look forward to be being just as entertained as listening to him.  Not for him the trends of today, such as gadgets and fashion items that come and go, but to quote him “the more important deeper slower moving stuff” that you never really see coming.  He makes you stop and think and he certainly made an impression on me.  He is apparently a celebrity speaker, so if you ever get the chance to listen to him, grab it.  Magnus Lindqvist was definitely the best item on the whole agenda of our two day conference in Stockholm.

Magnus Lindqvist is one inspirational speaker and we were privileged to have him as a guest speaker

The rest of the day was like any typical corporate management or sales convention, nothing out of the ordinary.  The best part for me is always mingling with colleagues from other countries and getting to know new people and thankfully there was plenty of that.

The evening ended with a dinner party and awards and I was happy to see my colleague Urban get a prize for the best growth in mobile date.  I went to bed as soon as it had finished though as I had another early wake up the next day as the second day conference was to start just after 8.  I had a terrible night as the television kept switching on automatically.  In the end it seemed that the TV wake-up call had been programmed various times during the night and the only way of stopping it was pulling out all the cables.  

This week’s visit to Stockholm was so busy I hardly had time for shopping.  My only trip to the shops was during lunch on Friday when I crossed the snowy square to Lindex, the Swedish low cost women’s fashion store.  Oli had asked me to bring back a Swedish woolen cardigan.  So I braved the weather and with an eye on my watch, made a dash into this lovely store.  Unfortunately there were no winter clothes left on sale, so I had to make do with a quick choice from the new Spring collection.

Normally when flying out of Stockholm, we, or I, take the only direct flight to Madrid which leaves just before 3 and gets you to Madrid airport just after 7.  However, as we wanted to stay to the end of the conference which was finishing around 3, we had been booked on a flight via Amsterdam, leaving the Swedish capital at 17.15 and arriving in Madrid just before midnight, a long haul.  We were not lucky as the flight to Amsterdam was cancelled because of snow at Schipol airport and that is where our adventure began.  KLM booked us into the SAS flight to Frankfurt leaving at 16.40 from where we would have a two hour wait before taking the last flight to Madrid.  Check in and going through security was nerve wrecking as we were very pressed for time.  At the last minute my colleagues were already on board and I joined the queue after a quick loo stop only to be told the plane was full and overbooked.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, “you mean I cannot get on the plane?”  There was a lot of discussion and mysterious punching into the computer by the SAS hostesses.  I was desperate as I didn’t want to spend another night in Stockholm and most of the following day getting home.  And then came, my salvation.  A Russian gentleman offered me his seat and told me he would get on the next and last flight to Frankfurt as that was his final destination, unlike mine.  I accepted very gratefully and later remarked to my neighbour from the horrible middle seat I was sitting on with my cabin suitcase under my legs because the plane was so full, how generous the man had been.  My German fellow passenger then told me that the kind Russian man would have been compensated with 150 euros for taking the next plane.  So, maybe he wasn’t so generous after all but I can tell you I wouldn’t have stayed for 500, so am still grateful for his gesture. 

The nightmare didn’t quite finish there, as we had another flight to catch in Frankfurt which at one stage we also thought might not be leaving.  But finally it did and again I was squashed into a middle seat, a position in an airplane that I always try to avoid.  We arrived at Barajas after an awful journey home well after midnight and I did not get home till half past one in the morning.  I swear I will only ever get the direct flight back from Stockholm whether that means I have to leave in the middle of a conference or not.  I also swear that I will never ever go to the end of a queue to get on a plane as I have learned the hard way that it might be overbooked and if you are at the end you are more than likely liable to be left behind as I nearly was if it hadn’t been for the help of one Russian gentleman.  Thank you whoever you are.

The only thing that kept me going through both flights was the fascinating book I was reading, “A swim on part in the goldfish bowl”, Carol Thatcher’s biography of her very famous Mother, Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first and only woman prime minister.  I had ordered it eagerly after watching Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, a role she may well win an Oscar for.  

I devoured Carol Thatcher's biography of her Mother whilst flying this week

It’s a great read; written in a very candid manner and makes you laugh on many an occasion.  It also brought closer to me the lady who dominated politics when I was a teenager and student and didn’t particularly identify with at the time.  However, she will most definitely go down in history for her role in British politics, whether you like her or not.  In fact, after reading the book I learned that beneath the iron lady veneer, there is a person with a far bigger heart than I could ever have imagined.  I was also very interested to read about her consort, Dennis Thatcher, a bit of a joke figure in my time.  But as I read more about him, it is quite clear, that without DT as she called him, Margaret Thatcher could never have done the job she did.  I have now ordered Carol Thatcher’s biography of her Father called “Below the Parapet” as the subject is interesting me so much, I have even gone one step further and ordered her mother’s  autobiography, “TheDowning Street Years”.  After all, she governed in amazing times and they were the times I was often too young or too uninterested to appreciate when she was in Government..  So, Margaret Thatcher will continue in my life for the next few weeks and of course, in my memory for ever.  It is very sad that she herself, such a dominating and clever woman, no longer remembers very much, not even that her dearest Dennis is no longer alive.  Carol has to remind her time and again and each time she is told, the Iron Lady, no longer made of iron, has to go through the sorrow of hearing the news.  One of the times, she poignantly asks her daughter, “were we all there (at the funeral) for him?”.  This is indeed not a very nice ending for such a brilliant life.   My Father is reading it now and no doubt he will enjoy it more than me.  He and my Mother were great fans of Margaret Thatcher, but I think even they had had enough when towards the end of her 11 years at Downing Street she said the famous “we shall go on and on and on”. 

Margaret and Dennis Thatcher.  He was 10 years older than her.

Yesterday was Saturday and it was real tonic to spend it at home with the family after such a tiring week.  For the first time in ages, we had lunch together.  We were joined by Juli and Gaby and it was a joyful meal.  There was time to relax, to be with the dogs, go for our walk and there was even time to go out to the cinema.  Eladio and I were waiting for the latest Iciar Bollain (Spanish woman film director) film to come out entitled “Kat(h)mandu, a mirror to the sky” and luck had it that the premiere was this week, so we jumped at the chance of seeing it.

This film will haunt me for a long time.

I didn’t know really what it was about but had seen the trailer and was keen to see a film about a country that is close to our heart. Even though we only spent three days there on our trip to India for our 25^th wedding anniversary in December 2008 and January 2009, we fell in love with Nepal and its people.  I wrote three posts on our unforgettable journey there and actually they are among the top read posts in my blog.  I am honoured to say that thousands of people have read them.  If you want to read them here they are (first, second, third).  In the second post I tell of the story of three boys for whom we bought an English Nepalese dictionary in Bhaktapur so I was delighted to see that some parts of the film had been filmed there.  Other famous spots we had seen also come out in the film and watching it yesterday certainly took us all the way back there, reminding us of our wonderful trip of a lifetime.

Our dictionary episode on our visit to Nepal. This is in Bakhtapur in the Kathmandu Valley in Jan 2009.  You can read about it here.

The film is about a young Spanish teacher, Laia who goes out to work as a teacher in Kathmandu.

She is helped by a Nepalese young woman, Sharmila, also a teacher, and together they set up a school in the slum district.  They are faced with insurmountable problems and the cultural obstacles are many.  Some of the characters, in this part real, part fictional film, can only be people off the streets in the Kathmandu Valley and I take my hat off to Iciar Bollain for this masterpiece.  I fell in love with the people in the film and find it hard to forget Sharmila, the teacher bent on having a son to make her family happy, Tsering, the young man from a remote village who agrees to marry Laia in a marriage of convenience, but asks her what will happen if they fall in love, Bimala, the girl so untouchable she has no name and finally clever little Kushila who is sold by her parents and sent to work in a brothel in India and her journey back.  They all tore at my heart strings as did the film.  It is not a film with a happy ending.  The story it tells is taken from real life, some of it happy, a lot of it sad but a real eye opener to the clash of cultures.  How can we, or Laia, understand how a young girl, for instance, is put into a dark room on her own for 10 days when she reaches puberty, so that the light she sees when she leaves it at the end of the 10 days will guide her for the rest of her life?  In short, the film had me crying from the middle to the end and I shall probably never forget it.  It brought back memories of our visit there and has triggered in me the wish to return.  I hope one day we will.  Meanwhile, if you get the chance, I cannot recommend this film more highly.

Laia and Sharmila in the film Kat(h)mandu

Today Sunday has been quiet.  I spent the morning on my computer and cooking lunch, alas not for all of us today, just the “three oldies”.  The rest of the day will be like most Sundays. We shall go for our walk, have a cup of tea, spend time reading and then have a small dinner and go to bed to watch the television.  It may sound boring but after a stressful week, it is a complete tonic for the mind and body.

Next week will be my birthday which will be nice but sadly the girls won’t be here for it.  They will be going on holiday to Africa, imagine!  Yes they are going with Rocío to Tanzania for two weeks and will be joined by another friend Elena for the second week.  It sounds very exciting and hopefully they will be in no danger.  They have strict orders to come back, as my Mother always used to say: “in one piece”.  

I hope you all have a great week,

Cheers until next Sunday, Masha.

Getting out of Nepal, a cat and a mouse, thick fog, goodbye Nepal and India, the end of our journey, till we come again.

Lord Shiva, so important in the Hindu religion
Hi,

I am writing from our hotel room in New Delhi, the Palace Heights on Connaught Place, which was the same hotel we stayed at when we started our tour of North India.

As I said then the hotel is neither a palace nor is it high. It is, however, a clean and comfortable little place with everything you would need, the only draw back being its very tiny rooms.

It is in the very heart of Delhi, in Connaught Place which deserves a mention. Connaught Place was built and designed by Robert Russel and W.H. Nichollas in 1932 and is typical Georgian architecture which was modelled on the Royal Crescent in Bath, UK. It is instantly recognisable on the map of Delhi as one big circle in the middle of the town with lots or roads, like wheel spokes, leading off it. It was probably beautiful in 1932 but today it is in vital need of renovation. However it brims with activity and here is where you will find the top brand shops alongside typical street vendors. A walk around the circle is a very pleasant and interesting activity.
Connaught Place, the heart of New Delhi
However we may not be able to take that walk as we are stuck in the hotel room as Eladio is not feeling well and neither am I really. Last night we went to the Chor Bizarre restaurant in Delhi. It was recommended by the Globetrotter guide book and also by Kuldeep, the representative from our travel agency Real Incredible India. We liked the decoration and the service was great but we were rather disappointed with the food as the meat was really tough. And this morning Eladio woke up feeling sick. We were planning to visit some of the places we hadn’t seen at the beginning of our trip but I think we won’t be doing that now. Our flight is tonight, well actually tomorrow as it’s at past midnight at 01.40. If he gets better we may well take a stroll round Connaught Place.

Meanwhile, this is the perfect opportunity for me to round up my travelogue on our trip to India and Nepal which has been fascinating and has contained some of the most everlasting travel impressions we have ever had. Of note these are, the Indian and Nepalese way of life and culture themselves, the Taj Mahal, the Ganges at Varanasi and, of course, the flight over the Himalayas and the bird’s eye view of Mt. Everest.

Yesterday was our last morning in Kathmandu and as we had to leave at noon to be at the airport 3 hours (yes 3 hours!) before our flight to Delhi, we decided to spend it in our lovely hotel, The Dwarika, a haven of peace and beauty.
Eladio strolling through one of the courtyards in the Dwarika hotel yesterday morning.
We said goodbye to Rajan Tuladhar from the travel agency ACE Hotels and Resorts who had done an excellent job and were then picked up by our wonderful driver, Mr. Lama to whom we bid farewell at the airport.

And here at Kathmandu international airport we were to go through the longest and most bureaucratic check in, customs and security process we have ever experienced in all our travelling life. Now I understood whey we were required to check in 3 hours in advance! The process is amazing. It started with porters outside the airport fighting for our services to carry the luggage to the airport door, then to 2 more porters fighting to carry it into the airport and to take us through the first security check (both luggage and body). Of course all these people have to be given a tip and if they think you haven’t paid them enough they don’t hesitate to ask for more! Once past this first security check, the 2 porters took us to pay the airport tax which was to be the equivalent of 20 euros each and a lot of form filling in to the bargain. From the bank we were taken to check in which took place quite normally. From check in we went to emigration where we had to fill out a departure card and show it with our passports. Once past emigration we thought all the procedures were over but they weren’t.

We were in what we thought was the departure lounge and here we made our last purchases in Nepal, the odd calendar and Hindu God posters (!).

I went to the loo and found the usual ladies inside waiting for me to give them a tip but this time I walked in saying I had no money on me!! As we were sitting down in the lounge we saw a cat walking around and it eventually came to sleep on a seat next to us. I have never seen a stray cat in any airport in the world and the sight was most unusual. But then, Nepal is an unusual country.
The cat in the departure lounge of the International terminal at Kathmandu Airport

Then we saw another queue and realised there was yet another security check. So we joined the queues, one for men and one for women which is quite common in both India and Nepal. Here our baggage was checked and our bodies searched. Once through this security, amazingly enough there was another manual baggage check after which they stamped your boarding pass. From here we went to board the Jet Airways plane (India’s second largest airline). And here on the actual steps to the aircraft we had to go through another baggage check and body search. I can understand the need for security, what I cannot understand is the need to repeat this procedure 3 times. It is a total waste of time and an enormous nuisance to passengers.

Finally we took off and were lucky enough to be on the side of the plane from we were to view for the 3rd time the highest range of mountains in the world. Our flight followed the Himalayas until the mountains turned to hills and to slopes and then we slept until we arrived at the Indira Gandhi International airport of New Delhi. My first impressions of that airport when we arrived 16 days ago were awful but somehow this time I thought it was quite ok. And it was ok, except for the mouse I saw running from under the immigration officer’s desk and the sleeping toilet lady in the arrival’s lounge. The photo is quite something.
The toilet lady asleep!
A smiling and welcoming Kuldeep was waiting for us as was our new driver, Mr. Rawat with his Tata Indigo car, the same model we had travelled round Rajasthan with our previous driver, Rajendra (Rajesh). Actually we would recommend anyone travelling through India to use a jeep as the bumpy and hole filled roads, often unpaved, of India can be very tiring in a saloon car.

Once again we were greeted in Delhi with thick fog and it was late afternoon. Our whole holiday has been affected by this fog which apparently happens always in January and February in this part of the world. We did not know about this before we came and no guide book seems to mention it. It is however worth noting before deciding to come at this time of year. Also this is considered high season and prices are at their very highest, something else we were not really aware of. Apart from the fog we have had good weather, always warm and only cool at night and in the mornings. For instance it was 18ºc yesterday when we arrived in Delhi. In the hotter months in some parts it can reach just under 50ºc which was the main reason we didn’t come in the summer.

And so our journey is coming to an end and it is time for my last reflections and observations.

We have learned a bit about the religions of this area and have come to the conclusion that the most popularly worshipped God is Shiva, or Lord Shiva as he is known. Nearly all temples seem to be devoted to this God. We have also come to understand that there are many different types of Hinduism or worshippers and many doctrines. Nothing is black and white as nothing is black and white here, apart from the holy women and men or widows!

I was happy to read in the Globe Trotter guide that Sikhs reject the caste system, promote equality between men and women and interested to read that they only worship one god. It seems their religion is somewhere between Hindu and Moslem but I know no more so am only guessing.

The Indians, be they Hindus, Jains or Sikhs, are extremely religious but very tolerant of other beliefs. Also in Nepal where 10% of the population is Buddhist, they live in total harmony, respecting each other’s beliefs. They seem to be an example to the world. Maybe a deeper analysis would prove me wrong, as, after all, India is divided into 3 countries, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, precisely because of the differences between Hindus and Moslems.

As a person of British origin I am curious to know what is left of the British influence in this part of the world and also to know what the Indians think of the British. You would think that if they were once dominated by the latter they could be negative towards England. But on the contrary, to whomever I asked this question I was told they greatly respected England and the British and they even ventured to say that some people in India said life was better under the British. I surely disagree with that, as did Gandhi, that great Indian hero and universal man who gained independence for India passively.

I think some of the respect comes from the fact that the British left India passively and peacefully and continued the good relations under the Commonwealth. But what did India inherit from its time under the British Raj? Apart from some infrastructure, the trains and architecture such as Connaught Place, the most important inheritance has been the English language. Nearly everyone speaks English and even some Indians speak it together. Then, as I have written before, there is sport, Cricket mainly, the English suit, worn quite a lot by men and newspapers to mention some. The Times of India is a huge institution here and owes its origins to the days of the Raj. I shall be bringing back today’s copy for my Father to read, together with the Kathmandu Post.

The cost of living in India is also a subject that interests me. India is a developing country where, at least for a tourist, some things are incredibly cheap and others are extortionate. Having your laundry washed at hotels costs very little but India’s top hotels, like the Taj or the Oberoi have prohibitive prices, some costing over 500 euros per night!

A cup of tea in the street, “cha” costs 6 rupees which is too low to convert into euro cents. Meals can be very cheap even at the best restaurants. Petrol costs about half of what it does in Spain and is 31 rupees per litre.

But how much do people earn? I got this information from our guide in Varanasi and I don’t know how reliable it is. We were talking about education and teachers. I have seen many schools and gathered education was taken seriously. I later learned that the good schools are the private ones which, like anywhere, are very expensive. I was told the state schools, although able to cater for all children for free were not very good because of rife teacher absenteeism. This I later read in The Economist special report on India.

So I asked how much does a secondary school teacher earn per month? Apparently they earn a meagre 15.000 rupees, less than 250 euros. So no wonder they don’t turn up. Our driver told us he earned 1.800 rupees, less than 30 euros. I wonder how they live? Doctors and lawyers earn up to 25 or 30.000 which is between 400 and 500 euros which is not very much either. I wonder how much the lower professions earn?

India is very obviously developing though. Internet and mobile phone infrascture are witness to this. I had no problem connecting, either through my data card or the hotel connection and mobile phones work everywhere. Service is also great. Indians are extremely punctual and things like laundry service, the best I have seen in the world.

Security is a big thing in India and has obviously been tightened up after the terrible Bombay gun blasts. At nearly all the hotels we went to, there were police checks and even bomb detectors. The security I liked best was the security we found at the cash machines, or ATMs as they are known here. Often they are guarded by an un-uniformed man usually bearing a gun. They looked like hunting rifles to Eladio but I don’t know. But the greatest security was at the airports for which we were grateful, not so the bureaucratic kind found at Kathmandu airport!

Whilst here the biggest news items were the aftermath of the Bombay blastings, India’s 9/11 and the financial scandal of its huge IT emporium, Satyam, a sort of Indian Madoff. Certainly tourism has been hard hit by the former. We were a bit worried about coming here when the blasts happened but not so much as to cancel our trip. But many other tourists did as we have noticed from places like the Taj Mahal which should have been much fuller during this high season. Indians though also travel extensively and we coincided on our tour with many Indian tourists too.

Finally a note on the people and how we have been treated. Apart from the money making guides and beggars who are inevitable – there are many beggars in India – a large percentage of the population of Delhi are beggars! – we have encountered some really lovely people and have been treated with great respect. I think “respect” is a word inherent to the Indian people. They seem to respect all living creatures, both animal and human. The word “gee” is a suffix of respect, the most obvious example being to their sacred river, the Ganga or Gangees. Now I understand why they called Gandhi, Gandhi Gee. They also called him Baphu, which means Father.

We want to come back to India, to get to know it better, to delve deeper into the Hindu culture and, of course, to see more of its geography and towns. We have heard of magical places such as Goa, Kashmir, Kerala, …

We also want to return to Nepal which left a deep impression on us. It is not unsimilar to India but has Chinese influence too. After all it is in between the two countries. We definitely want to go back to do trekking and stay again at the wonderful Dwarika hotel, a reason in itself for returning.

So did our trip live up to its expectations? I think more so actually. India is mind blowing, different in every way. It is only partly what you expect. I knew we were going to find poverty and dirt which of course we did, often more than we had expected but we also found what we were looking for; new experiences, and a totally different culture. Now I understand why they call it “Incredible India!”

Until we come again. Namaste!

Masha
Ok corrected the comment on the number of beggars in Delhi.  Thanks!

Bhaktapur City, the dictionary episode and life on the street in Nepal, Nagarkot and the end of our trip to the roof of the world, Namaste!

View of Bhaktapur

Hi again

Today, Saturday 10th Jan, was our last full day in Kathmandu. Tomorrow we are returning to Delhi and on Monday night we are flying back home. Half of me wants to stay and the other half is looking forward to going home. But I know I want to come back to this part of the world again.

This morning Mr. Lama was duly waiting for us to show us more of Nepal. We drove to the beautiful town of Bhaktapur. It is the 3rd largest town in the Kathmandu valley and was once the capital of Nepal in the 15th century. Known as the town of “devotees” it is well known for its traditional art and architecture, historical buildings, wood carvings and of course, its temples. I read that it had been partially restored by a German NGO and definitely it is very clean, apart from the dust that comes from the pottery making.
Eladio and I in one of the squares of Bhaktapur. They are all very similar.
Eladio on a rooftop café in Bhaktapur
It is full of squares, one being Durbar, of course and in these squares you find the typical pagoda temples and monuments all built by the traditional red brick. The woodwork is magnificent. I was specially struck by this 15th century “peacock” window. It is a true work of art.
15th century carved wood window with a peacock in the middle.
There were also excellent souvenir shops and stands all over the town and we shopped happily for things that seemed authentic or at least we hadn’t seen elsewhere. It’s a pleasure to see so little globalisation. Here we bought some wood carvings for our walls at home, one of a dragon which apparently will help to protect our house. The other was of Om the sacred symbol in Hinduism for Brahman, the unknowable, and which has its origin in the Sanskrit language, the mother of the Hindu languages.
The Om symbol
Me in Bhaktapur in front of a marvellous wooden carved door and 2 magnificent lion statues
But apart from monuments, Bhaktapur was a window of Nepalese town life for me. Here I snapped happily at the street markets everywhere at the people washing clothes and washing themselves for all to see in the street and at lovely little corner shops that seem timeless. There are no supermarkets here. We felt as if we were in a film, floating on clouds.
A chemist shop in Bhaktapur, isn't it just something? I took this for my pharmacist friend in Madrid, Mari Carmen.
People washing themselves in public in Bhaktapur
People washing clothes in the street in Bhaktapur, a very common scene.
We were constantly harangued by people to buy bric-a-brac which we did at times. Then I was joined on our walk through the town by 2 little boys aged 11 and 12. They were brothers. One was called Vijay and I can’t remember the name of the other. They were eager to practise their English and I was quite impressed. They told me London was a lovely town. So I agreed. Then Eladio was joined by another little boy and we all engaged in conversation. I was expecting them to ask for money but this time was different.

Vijay shyly asked me whether I would buy him and his brother a book for school. At first I resisted but not for long. He took us to a bookshop and pointed at a Nepalese English dictionary. How could I resist? Eladio couldn’t either and so there on the spot we bought two very good quality hard backed dictionaries, one for the two brothers and one for the other boy. They could hardly believe their luck and we were delighted too. As they thanked us, I asked them to study hard with the aim of one day going to England to study. We probably behaved like proud well off people happy to do a good deed but that wasn’t my objective. I took a photo too of the boys, perhaps to remember my good deed but actually to remember their thirst for knowledge which I thought was admirable in their very humble circumstances. How many 12 year old European children would ask for a bilingual dictionary? Not many I guess.
The three boys in Bhaktapur with their new dictionaries.
From the charming town of Bhaktapur we took the road into the mountains which would take us to Nagarkot, a small town from where, fog and clouds permitting, we would get a glimpse of some of the highest peaks in the world. Nagarkot is about 35km from Kathmandu and is renowned for its wonderful views of the Himalayas. It stands at 2.195 metres and the road to it is beautiful with views of pine tree filled hills and sloped terrace cultivation of what must be wheat. We were not unlucky today as the visibility was acceptable and so we were able to clearly see some of the peaks, namely Mt. Langtang which is 7.234m high!
Eladio in Nagarkot with the Himalayan mountains behind, very impressive.
We had tea and something to eat at the Club Himalaya Nagarkot resort and then drove back to Kathmandu to relax at the lovely Dwarika hotel.

Tonight we celebrated our last evening here by going to a Nepalese folk restaurant called Bhojan Griha which apparently means House of Food. But it is much more than that. The restaurant is housed in an old Nepalese building and the dinner, all very ethnic is served on low tables with the same sort of ceremony we found on the first night at Krishnarpan here at the Dwarika hotel. Here we were served amongst other things, bara, lovely cakes made with black lentils and momo, sort of ravioli or meat dumplings. There was entertainment too with typical Newari and Nepalese dancing and music. It was an interesting evening.
Dinner at Bhojan Griha
Tomorrow we will be leaving this charming hotel and wonderful hospitable country to which we would dearly love to return. Here, as in India, we will put our hands together in the praying mode, nod our heads and say “Namaste”. Taken literally it means I bow to you. And so as I bow to the wonderful people I have met in Nepal and say thank you for everything.

Namaste

Masha.

Varanasi to Kathmandu, Santosh’s story, the subject of toilets, Nepal, the Dwarika Hotel, Mr. Lama, flight over Everest and getting to know Kathmandu.

Mountain flight over Everest this morning
Hi again,

This post covers Thursday and Friday 8th and 9th January, the 13th and 14th day of our fascinating tour.

Yesterday we had a luxury late wake up at the Radisson hotel in Varanasi. You could tell it was a Radisson but truth to tell it was a bit run down with rather old upholstery. We had a good hearty breakfast to last the day. On this trip we usually have a good breakfast and good dinner but more or less skip lunch or just have some fruit so as not to lose time during the day or eat too much. We travel such a lot by car that we are not exercising enough and are missing our one hour daily walk back home.

We were leaving for the final part of our trip, 3 nights in the remote and exotic country of Nepal, the roof of the world and the home of the highest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest.

We were picked up by Santosh our driver. I had a good long talk to him as I guessed he needed some mothering and I am always game for talking to the locals and finding out more about the country. Santosh who is a delightful, well mannered and well groomed young man has a difficult life and I felt for him. He is good at his job and has a great attitude, not like some of the guides we have met. He has so much talent and yet is in a catch 22 situation. He is from a humble village and had to leave school at the age of 10 when his Father died, to work and keep his Mother and fellow siblings. He would love to study but cannot afford it as his salary is very low (1.800 rupees per month (less than 40 euros per month!) and he has to keep his wife and children who live over 250km away and in order to get on in his job, he needs qualifications which, of course, he cannot get. It was very frustrating to hear. Furthermore he said he only sees his family once every few months because it costs 200 rupees to get to his village and 200 to get back. We went on to talking about mobile phones and cars, Indians’ favourite topics and he asked whether we had a BMW. I felt ashamed to tell him that not only do we have a BMW but that we actually have 4 cars! I promised to send him a mobile phone when I got back and only hope it will get to him. We gave him a tip to more than cover a journey back to his village and when we parted at the airport he had tears in his eyes, bless him. I wish I could help you more Santosh, you and many more people I have met in India.
Santosh
At the tiny airport of Varanasi we were met by hundreds of porters offering to carry our luggage. I made my way to a small kiosk outside to try and buy some chewing gum. I asked how much a tiny pack of Happydent cost and I was told 50 rupees but I must have been cheated blatantly as when I gave them a note of 100 they had no change. The same happened the day before in Varanasi when we bought a gaudy cheap calendar with the image of my favourite God, Ganesha. They charged 25 rupees and again had no change for 100.

The airport terminal was acceptable, not so the bureaucracy of the check in procedure, security and customs. Everything seems to be done more than twice. To top it all at customs we were told we could not take notes of more than 100 rupees (1.5 euros). We ended up having to change 18.000 into dirty and brittle 100 rupee notes and stuffing them into Eladio’s travel bag. They took up so much room! By the by we paid 720 rupees in commission. You get the feeling that wherever you go in India they try and make money out of you.

I must mention at this point, the subject of toilets as the experience at Varanasi airport is definitely worth mentioning. At the toilets you usually get given some very thin paper from someone standing outside, you go in, do what you have to do and then pay that person. Sometimes you even pay twice, the person outside and another one inside. At Varanasi airport there were 3 barefooted ladies in a tiny dirty loo. One offered to “clean” the loo seat I was supposed to use. She did so with the dirtiest looking cloth I have ever seen. And I was expected to pay her for this service!! Varanasi is meant to be the cultural capital of India. I think they have to introduce the culture of cleanliness. There is an English expression my Father used to tell me when I was a child and it is: “cleanliness is next to Godliness! It could be of great use in India but most turn a blind eye. I can’t. I can understand poverty but I cannot understand the extreme lack of hygiene.
The loo at Varanasi airport
Throughout our trip we have tried to go to the best toilets possible but that is not always easy. Thus you go to the best you can find or the only one. Most of the latter are quite dirty but tolerable. Often they are the stand up type which I hate and at the airport in Nepal today I even came across the stand up type which are open and are in a row. An Irish girl I met said she had seen many. I hadn’t so I took a photo. In fact Lou gave me the idea of starting to do “loo photography” on my travels and then put the photos in our bathrooms at home! I’m going to take her up on that and started the photography today as you can see. Nice eh? Apparently it’s hilarious when women are using them because you get to see 3 bottoms’ up!!
The open stand up loos, 3 in a row - Kathmandu airport!
Our flight on Air India was delightful, mainly because we were in Business Class. We weren’t expecting it; maybe the flight was nearly full when the travel agency made the reservation. We got a lovely Indian meal but best of all we got a glimpse of the Himalayan range of mountains including Mount Everest. So yes, we knew now that we had reached the roof of the earth and the top of the world, Nepal.

Nepal is a remote landlocked country in between India and China. In fact its capital, Kathmandu is 300km from the Indian border and 120km from the Chinese border (Tibet). It has a population of 29 million, the capital having 1.5m inhabitants. It is multi religious with over 80% being Hindus, over 10% Buddhists and the rest Moslems and Christians. Nepal is one of the poorer underdeveloped countries and ranks only 96 in the world. We noticed too that the light goes out frequently and there are great problems with running water.

Nepal now has a Moaist government but not so long ago it was a monarchy. However in 2001 the whole family was assassinated by one of the family members. Since then monarchy has been abolished in Nepal. Well I suppose there is no one left to carry on the succession!!

A silly observation of mine is that the Nepalese flag is the only non square flag in the world. Funny eh?

India is definitely a richer country than Nepal. However we were soon to notice that Nepal is slightly cleaner and that there is somewhat less misery here. The time difference is weird. It is 15 minutes ahead of India! It is obviously Winter now in Kathmandu but it was 18ºc at mid afternoon when we arrived. It gets cooler in the evenings and mornings when it is about 1ºc. Mt. Everest, though is 18º-c which is quite a difference.

We were met by Mr. Rajan Tuladhar from the travel agency and by Mr. Titendra Lama who was to be our driver of quite an old Toyota. We have ended up calling him Mr. Lama. He told us he was Buddhist and we asked him if he was related to the Dalai Lama which of course he wasn’t.

Mr. Lama told us that the village he was from stands at over 2000m2 and that it used to take 10 hours to walk to the nearest point of public transport. Today it takes a 5 hour bus ride and 2 hours on foot. While we were in Kathmandu his wife and 2 of his children were going there. He also told us his wife cannot read or write and nor does she want to! He excuses her by saying she is a "village girl". I told him this was no excuse at all. As we got to know him a bit more we asked him another burning question we had which was about arranged marriages. He admitted his was an arranged one and that today, at least in the cities, it was going out of fashion. I asked him whether he had been happy with his parents choosing his wife and he said "no". I asked no further questions.
Mr. Lama's wife
They drove us to the nearby Dwarika’s hotel and we soon realised we could not have made a better choice. We were given a very warm welcome with the offering of the Buddhist scarf, the "kata" which was put around our necks.

The Dwarika hotel is something special in Nepal, a garden or oasis with a cluster of traditional Newari (area of the Kathmandu valley) ethnic buildings separated by brick courtyards. Everything from the furniture to the atmosphere breathes peace, quiet, elegance and even romance. The rooms are decorated in the same style and absolutely everything has been made in Nepal.
A partial view of the Dwarika hotel
Ours is lovely, big, spacious, light and we adore the Newari style of stone floor, carved wooden furniture, ethnic cushions and low tables. The bathroom is big and similarly decorated with a sunken bath and wonderful kimono type bathrobe I shall be buying to take home. If anyone reading this is coming out to Nepal, then again I would urge them to come here. You won’t be disappointed. This place is absolutely authentic.
Our lovely room at the Hotel Dwarika
After settling in and as soon as we had freshened up, Mr. Lama drove us to the Tamel tourist district, a great place for shopping. First, however, we went with him to park the car near where he lived, just off the Tamel district. Here we met his wife and children who were playing in the street. They were very friendly and posed for pictures very spontaneously. I even got them to say “cheese”.
Mr. Lama, some of his children and their friends
The Nepalese look part Indian and part Chinese and this is certainly so of Mr. Lama. We actually think he looks like Mr. Tenzing, Edmund Hillary’s famous Sherpa. Mr. Lama is a very positive happy sort of person and extremely willing to please. I apologised for being late once and his answer was: “it’s my duty”. He meant, of course, it was his duty or part of his job to wait.

Mr. Lama took us shopping and not once did he take us anywhere he was going to get a commission and that was so refreshing. With him we enjoyed shopping for tiger balm against headaches for my niece Marta and I, for silver bracelets for the girls and for even more baggy trousers. We also got some lovely incense holders which I know we will enjoy back home.
Mr.Lama and Eladio buying tiger balm and other Nepalese things such as tea and curry.

In the evening we had dinner at the hotel but the dinner wasn’t just any dinner. It was really special. We went to the Nepalese restaurant called Krishnarpan. It has been frequented by the likes of Jimmy Carter and Hillary Clinton and really is the best you can find here. The whole experience was very enriching. First you walk in and you take your shoes off, then they wash your hands and afterwards you are lead into the dining room by a beautiful Nepalese lady in ethnic dress. You are lead to a very low and wide table and somehow get yourself into the chair. Next another beautiful Nepalese waitress puts a huge white bib around you and then the gastronomic feast begins. We went for the smallest menu of 6 Nepalese traditional dishes. You could have anything from 6 to 22 believe it or not. With the first dish you were supposed to take some food from you plate and leave it for the Gods! I happily removed the piece of egg I wasn’t interested in eating. The food was laced with rice licquer, a sort of saki. I loved it. The food was served on century old plates and bowls and beautifully served. It was one of the best dinners of our trip and again I highly recommend the Krishnarpan restaurant.
Eladio enjoying the Nepalese dinner experience on the first night.
This morning we were up really early at 6 to catch the 8 o’clock mountain flight over the Himalayan mountain range. We were worried the fog would be an obstacle and had heard from a Spanish couple in Varanasi that they hadn’t been able to fly. We were not sure ourselves until the very last minute. The plane was delayed for more than an hour but then finally we took off with “Buddha Air”. It was a 16 seater with each person having a window seat. There were actually quite a few flights, at least 9, going up at the same time. They were full of tourists like us and that was where we met Lou and Paul, a lovely couple who have been teaching English in China for the last year and who have been travelling extensively in India and roughing it from what I understood in our exchange of experiences. Lou is from Waterford in Ireland and Paul is actually from Sheffield. If you read this, hi, guys, it was good to meet you.

We finally took off on this very exciting flight and we were soon to see all the main peaks of the Himalayan range in Nepal, on the Nepalese side that is. Everest is best seen from China but we could not enter Chinese air space. Not only were we able to view the peaks from the window but each and every one of the passengers was also able to go up to the cock pit twice and take photographs close up. The one illustrating this post proves I saw Everest. As the certificate they gave us on completion of the flight says: “I did not climb Everest but I touched it with my heart”. The experience was one of the best of the trip so far, and was probably the third most exciting highlight together with the Taj Mahal and the Ganges at Varanasi. Wow is the best way to describe it.

The rest of the day was spent exploring Kathmandu and here we soon realised it was the temple centre of the world. First Mr. Lama took us to see the Boudhanath, one of the holiest Buddhist sites in Nepal. It is one of the most visited monuments in Nepal and a tourist landmark. It has the biggest spherical “stupa” in Nepal. I first came across this word at Sarnath in Varanasi and here it was again. It is, I think, a round structure which often holds religious relics. It is, of course, Buddhist.
The Stupa at Boudhanath
Here I also came across “praying wheels” for the first time and they are everywhere in all sizes, from hand held to any size. They are used to spread spiritual blessings and well being and are filled with rolls of many copies of the mantra (prayer) Om Mani Padme Hum. They are really beautiful and tomorrow I know I will buy one to take home and remember the Buddhist temples I have seen here.
Buddhist praying wheels.
From here we went to see the famous Hindu temple of Pashupatinath Temple on the shores of the sacred Bagmati river. Not surprisingly it is dedicated to Shiva as most Hindu temples seem to be. Here Hindus come at least once in their lives to purify themselves. Only Hindus can enter.
The Pashupatinath temple we couldn't go inside.
The river is sacred and flows into the Ganges. Here too cremations take place on the Arya Ghat and people bathe. We talked extensively to Mr. Lama and to a guide and heard that women, as in India, used to throw themselves on their husband's funeral pire in an act known as sati. Apparently they could not bear life without their husband but I think they probably could not envisage life as a widow as widows in Hindu society are somewhat shunned, can no longer marry and have to wear black and white all their lives. Thankfully these practises are disappearing.

We also heard that the mountain people of the villages in the Himalayas often cannot cremate their deceased because there is no wood and they cannot bury them because the ground is frozen. In this case the bodies are cut into pieces and thrown to the nearby vultures!! This we found difficult to stomach.

Here we also saw and visited a Social welfare centre for old and infirm people and went to meet the oldest inhabitant, a woman of 102 who was unfortunately asleep. I walked out feeling humbled once again.
Cremation on the Bagmati river
Afterwards we visited the Durbar Squares at Patan and Kathmandu and saw even more temples. Durbar apparently means "palace" and it seems there is a palace square in every village in Nepal.
Eladio on the Durbar Square of Patan
Durbar Square in Kathmandu
At the former we saw the famous Golden Temple and at the latter we actually saw the Kumari, a living goddess who is 3 years old. She is from the higher Nepalese caste and lives in the Kumari Ghar until puberty. Then she is no longer a Goddess and another one is chosen. She is worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists in the Kathmandu Valley.
She looks out of the window only once a day and we were lucky enough to be there when she did. Quite extraordinary is all I can say. Judge for yourself.
The Kumari, the living goddess
Our last visit of the day was to Swyambhunath, an ancient religious complex on the top of a hill in Kathmandu. It is also known as the monkey temple as there are plenty of them guarding it. We heard earlier from a guide at Boudha Nath that in the Hindu religion there are 4 holy or sacred animals. I only knew about the cow but apparently monkeys, bulls, dogs and snakes are also holy. I thought bulls and cows were in the same category and am surprised about the dogs as they seem like the lowest of the low to me. This was new to me.
Swyambhunath
What I have noticed today is that, although very similar to India, there is slightly less dirt, people tend to use western dress a bit more and that the streets are marginally less noisy. The architecture in Nepal has a Chinese look about it, specially the tiered roofed temples in the Durbar Squares. Contrary to the one low and flat houses you see in India, here they are all made of red brick and have 4 or 5 floors. There is always a terrace at the top which seems to take the place of a garden.

Funnily enough the Nepalese play football, unlike the Indians, although they do play cricket too. Nepal was not part of the British Raj, I think, but was given its independence in 1923. The Nepalese fought with the British Army in the area and are very famous for their tough, hard and resilient Ghurka soldiers.

On the subject of sport or play, Nepal is another great kite flying country like India and Afghanistan. It is also an "early to bed" country to quote the Lonely Planet Guide. And this we experienced as were not able to book a table for dinner past 19.30h.

I like what I have seen of Nepal so far and feel really at home here. I just wish we had more time to go and see Pokhora and to do some trekking. We do have one full day tomorrow though and Mr. Lama will be taking us to see Bhaktapur City and Nagarkot from where we hope to glimpse the Himalayas up close from the ground, although according to Mr. Lama it would take 15 days to walk there. Well, we won’t be doing that.

More tomorrow, from Kathamandu, Masha.