Mary in the Mountains, Part 2

This is a continuation of the last post, which chronicled part of my mother's visit to Nepal.  Besides that, if you missed the Oct. 29, 2011 post, click here, and check out what we saw one day!  It's pretty cool!

Here are some other things we saw that one normally doesn't see at home--this one in the freezer section of our favorite grocery store:

...and the yogurt in it's dish, which you get without a cover.  This is from a local dairy shop.  I must say that it really is super delicious and I could eat it three times a day (and I've never gotten sick from  it).  Mom is not a yogurt person and I couldn't get her to even taste it.

And of course--this view!  

Mom lives in Maryland and gets to see the Appalachians,

 

but it was nice to get to see something different and so majestic.

 (If I say so myself, "Nice picture Kathy!")

Some other different sights we saw include this fellow

and this one:

and this boy, like so many, working on a bus and hanging on, just barely it seems, because there's no room inside. 

Other things to see here are nice restaurants,

(This one is called Fire and Ice and is located in Thamel, the tourist section of Kathmandu.  When you're here, you might want to go there--you'll be happy you did!)

and busy streets (Watch out Mother!  Liesl and Shea wisely stayed out of the way of the traffic!)!

 

Nepali artifacts are interesting

and so is this beautiful hall

where we found some delightful old photos, including this one of Lord and Lady Mountbatten's trip to Nepal in 1945!

Mom enjoyed looking at the beautiful jewelry in this shop

that is in this nice row of shops--if you have money to spare, you can really buy some nice things here!  She bought some nice stones at one of these.  (Yes, stones!  Beautiful ones however!  She also bought a nice purse.)

Although we never had a chance to go and see it up close, Mom enjoyed looking at this statue of Shiva, which is the tallest one in the world!  It's not far from here and we see it when we drive to Kathmandu.  There are lovely views around it.  Maybe next time we can go up there.

On a clear day, right behind the statue, you can see the Himalayas as  you come down into the valley!

You can also see the Nepali people hard at work.

This guy worked hard to try and get Mom to buy something.
He didn't succeed.  (Remember she had just bought some stones and a purse and didn't want anything else--at least that day!  If you know my mom, you know she's a shopper!)

Here she is with her purse (some beautiful embroidery is on the other side).

Now sometimes I made Mom "work"--so just like in Curacao, she came to work with me.
Here she is with some of her new friends.

Mom and I enjoyed (and I still do) watching Liesl with the kids.  They love her!

Mom and Liesl both helped in the library.

Mom helped some of the kids with one of their art projects.

They both enjoyed the Speech Competition.  (Can you spot them in the audience?)

Mom gave Anjan some advice, while Liesl talked to the little ones.

Reading time:

After working hard all week, it's time for another day off, and another lovely ride into Kathmandu.

It's a beautiful drive!
By the way, it's 17 miles and about an hour's drive.

I'll close with the "scenes" from two restaurants we tried.  One you probably won't recognize unless you've been to New Road in Kathmandu, a place with great samosas,

but this one you may recognize!

If you still  haven't guessed, this will clue you in.

One day one of my students asked me if I knew what "KFC" stood for.  When I told him I knew, the kids were all impressed!  "She knows what it means," they exclaimed!  "How do you know?" one of them asked.  "Well," I said, "I've been to Kentucky."  Boy, they were really impressed then!  :)

Have a nice week and stay tuned for Part 3 of Mom's trip to see pics of the Monkey Temple and some other interesting sights!

Mary in the Mountains

Since my mom was used to visiting us every year in Curacao,

she wanted to come and visit us here in Nepal too.

She says her motto is, "Have suitcase, will travel."  :)  Anyway, she had a good time and maybe she can come again.  The flights are a *little* bit longer than the flights to Curacao, but eventually you get here!  :)  This is what you see when you look out the window as you fly into Nepal!  Majestic!

She traveled with my niece Liesl, who is helping out at the school, and with Shea, who is helping out at the Muscular Dystrophy Center of Kavre (see previous post for their website).

We went with Shea to see the Muscular Dystrophy Center.  Here he is with Santosh, the director.

 
They have worked so hard for the boys and we're proud of them.  Santosh gave Mom a radish from the garden.  They're a little bigger than they are at home (!) but they taste the same.

 School was on a break for the national festival holiday of Dashain, so we had time to do some sightseeing around Banepa.  Here is a temple that was put up in town for the holiday.

Mom enjoyed this view from our balcony, which we never get tired of...

Here's a close-up of part of the town that's straight ahead.

...and just to the left, on this day we got to see a rainbow!  (Plus in the distance you can see the Chandeshwori Temple, which is just down the road.)

 

One day we took a walk over there to the temple, which some people think was probably built in the 17th century.  Here is the entrance.

Inside, there's a mural you can sort of see (can't find my good pic) of the goddess Parvati in the form of Chandeshwori slaying the demon Chand, who is at the bottom of the mural.

There was a sacrifice at the time, but we didn't get too close.

Here are Shea and Liesl in another part of the temple compound.

We had such a beautiful day!  Did you see the blue sky?

In front of the entrance, this time of year, you see a swing set up for the children.  These can be seen all over Nepal during the Dashain festival time.

We didn't wait in line for our turn!

This is the road to the left of the temple, which leads to the village of Opi and beyond that, eventually, China!  We walked up to Opi and Mom did pretty well hiking in the mountains!  I guess her aqua-aerobics classes paid off!

 

She was glad (as I was too) not to have to carry anything like these ladies were.  These baskets have a strap on their foreheads. Sometimes they carry a lot more that this! These girls know how to work!

Even the children help out the family.  (We saw this little fellow right before we saw the ladies.)

These guys were also working hard, but Mom didn't want to get too close to them!  You can't really tell, but they were pretty big!

Mom was hoping no one would fall off of this bus!  It's a normal sight to see many people crowded onto the buses, and I think the drivers are very brave to drive on these mountain roads!

I'm glad this driver stayed in the middle of the road and that he didn't meet any buses coming the other way!

 

Just your every day trip up the driveway!

Here's the house at the top.

 

Here is their view--beautiful!

  

Here's the close-up of one of the houses.

I'm so happy to see they have electricity (at least when the load shedding schedule says they can).

We walked through the village

to the top of a "hill" (as they call it, but it's a mountain for me!)

and here is our "reward":

Pretty nice, eh?

To their right, is this view:

Let's zoom in shall we?  Yes, it's a swing on the edge of the mountain!!!

Looks like fun!

(I hope they're not TOO close to the edge!)

Oh, what's over there?

It's a family walking.  (Yes, I'm enjoying my zoom lens!)

 

Soon we were walking back ourselves.  Here is our destination--the hospital campus. 

Well, that's all for today!  More adventures of Mary in the Mountains soon!  Have a nice day!