POKHARA

Written February 18th

Sitting on the bus, waiting to leave from Pokhara. Early morning, Sunday. It seems to have been here for an entire week, but it's only three days actually. My husband made me happy with this wonderful surprise, it was long time I wanted to visit this place famous among tourists and Nepali as a holiday destination.

It was a real holiday, despite the brevity of the time spent, there were all the ingredients for a relaxing time, fun and enjoyable. As usual, the way out from the city is like a horrible rollercoaster. unpaved roads turn an ordinary trip into an adventure. A flat tire is a normal experience, remain still for hours in traffic, literally stuck between cars and trucks driven in every direction, it can become a habit in Kathmandu. What will never become a habit, it is the breathing dust ... the road is so dusty, the air so dry that breathing becames difficult, it gives you the sensation to fill nose and lungs of waste and stench. That's why, the first breaths ofthe lake's air were so invigorating and pleasant. 

The hotel was good, not exceptional, but good. Clean, tidy, very friendly people.  The child played with the receptionist every free minute, was always telling her with her proverbial excitement experiences she had done and that she intended to do. After two days she was friend of each employee, everyone greeted her by name and she was sad at having to leave.Although the weather was not the best, the mantle of pollution and clouds made everything hazy and foggy, we tried to see as much as was possible around the lake. 

Rejecting the proposal from the child to do paragliding and bungee jumping (as if she was brave enough, the little timid), we asked to cross the lake to go up to the temple of peace. The intent was, as always, to see the mountains, as well as to experience the peace and quiet of the Buddhist temple. The sailor who rowed for us was a characteristic type, English limp but very chatty. Like all Nepalese fond of children and smiling despite the fatigue.

 Stay on that boat was really scary, we did not dare move for fear of falling into the water. The water was like the typical mountain lakes lake, dark and ominous calm.The crossing lasted about half an hour or maybe even less, but we had the perception that never end. The climb to the mountain was pleasant and lonely even though finding the path was not so easy: we saw the temple on top but could not find access. Other tourists after we showed the same  difficulty. 

The little girl walked

 with enthusiasm and 

without complaint because

 it was driven by the idea 

exciting horseback ride that 

he would wait in the afternoon.

The temple really instills peace and serenity,

despite the mountains that should be 

framed on this show you are seen at all the problem of young people were Nepalese

 or Indian tourists who just

 could not respect the rule

 of silence: they chattered and laughed in order to make 

funny selfies.

The afternoon passed by
 having a drink in the
 lakeside, looking at the
 little girl who rode happy
 silhouetted on the colors 
of the sunset ... just poetry.

The activities around the lake
 kept in an almost magical stillness:
 the woman who washes clothes, 
the guy who takes pictures,
 the workers who carries his "doko" ...

 everything as if time had stopped, enclosed in these normal 
activities. And the bustle of the city seems light years away from
 here.The light dinner in the most famous restaurant in the village,
 go to sleep early in the morning because we expect the sunrise, 
all these activities we have
turned down in a real holiday.
After seeing the dawn light 
the mountains in the fog, and 
the mount fishtail turn pink 
in the gray sky, we agreed
that it was worth it to do
a early rising at five in 
the morning.
As if it were a football game, 
on the lookout at Sarankot,
 there were so many people,
 unfortunately, some of them 
really thought of being watching 
game and quacked or listened to
music. 
At the dawn moment, however, a chorus: "Ohhhhh !!!" 
 has silenced everyone. The kid also, nervous about
 waking up and climb to the top, took full beauty 
of the moment. The photos do not give a good idea.


After a quick nap in the hotel we went to vist the


 “International Mountain Museum”.
Interestingly, although the 
rooms are pretentious than in reality 
there is to see.Just to give an example:
 the part about the yeti that could be so
 interesting for children that many are 
inclined to visit the museum, consists
 of a panel with a photo and description
 of legends and a reconstruction 
(rather ugly) of the beast . 
That's it, in a sad and dark corner,
 


at the bottom of a dusty shed.
But we realized that, despite the 
great wealth in culture
and history of Nepal, the
organization of museums is not
 the best.


The Gurkha Memorial Museum,
which could attract the 
attention of many visitors,
the special view of these
 brave soldiers, is a building
 (naturally dusty) sad, with 
narrow stairways and dark
 halls. It often recalled 
the Naval Museum of Venice,
 but without presenting the 
same abundant historical path, so the museum's (the building
I mean) antiquities 
represents a message in itself.
The museum of gorka, the bravest of the brave, is interesting 
only to the insiders. Yet it is an obvious reflection of the culture
 and life of the Nepalese. Become a Gorka represents for a 
Nepalese boy a turning point in his life and in his family, 



earns much more than to do 
any other work, has a 
prestigious role in 
society and then, 
after just 16 years
of service is entitled
 to a substantial pension 
and his British citizenship. 
This is emphasized from 
the first room, sadly
 accompanied by the sound 
of gunfire and heavy moving vehicles ... makes it clear
what the price of a choice as prestigious as courageous. 
For the rest I found the museum very boring and I preferred
 to be chatting with the driver in the meantime he already 
knew all about the horseback ride that the child would have 
done in the afternoon. 


And and the next evening was
 pleasantly same as the previous, 
with drink on the lakeside while the
 girl was riding. Last round of shopping 
in fair trade that deal to employ 
disadvantaged women, dinner 
by candlelight, over vacation.
And here I am on the bus, waiting 
to face six hours (if it fits) of roads 
partially paved the Nepalese call it
 boldly highways ... the occasional 
presence of asphalt strips makes
 them different from the side streets, 
covered only with earth and boulders.

New House Kathmandu-Nepal

Written 23rd October

Early morning of a week day, six a.m. The light comes at five; life begins with the first ray of sun.

The new house is bordered by a deposit of ferrous materials, shouts and metallic sounds awake us like an alarm clock. Here there are not streets vendors shouting, but the prayer's bells start playing at five thirty in the morning, as everywhere in Kathmandu...I suppose.

On the other hand at five thirty in the afternoon it is dark and life slows down, increase traffic for an hour and then everything calms.

If I go out on the balcony, I can see the spectacle of morning ablutions of the workers, some of them live in shacks of the deposit.

The house is smaller than the previous 

one, but more modern and easier to clean. I'm proud of the solution I've found to get a room for the girl in the living room: using half sofa as bed and a curtain as wall.

Now she has a cozy bed room and a small private bathroom, and we have a normal living room.

We are still on holiday (I'm obliged, my school is working but I should follow her), every morning we fight for homework...I get the advantage of the holiday to get on the Italian school: multiplications table, reading, History, Geography...

During breaks she escapes in the garden: the guardian has a puppy, a hen and four chicks. We have the pleasure of animals without having to treat and care.

We had to make a wardrobe of clothes on purpose to play in the garden. It is composed by holed clothes and irreparably stained, by the battles with the dog and the chicks sleeping under the t shirts. I invented funny patches to cover spots and holes; the whole sight is not bad at all.

But, with her uncombed hair, clothes patched, and animals in harms...she is definitely wild!

The season has changed no more rains, crystal clear sky, and beautiful views of the hills surrounding the city.

Cold in the morning, 17-18 degrees, hot around noon and in the early afternoon and windy afternoons and evenings, the sky is full of kites. This is the kite season! Children can play games with kites: they "cut the rope" and earn points from each other, must be fun.

They build big swings for children and adults, you go high in the sky to ask the gods to stop the rains, now no longer needed, the ground is wet enough

This holiday, dashain holiday has these rituals with kites and huge swings to ask the sky for quitting rains. This culture is so different from what we (Westerners) know .

Cardio experience - Kathmandu Nepal

Written 3rd November

Now that we moved, the gym is a little bit far away from the new house... So going to Pulchow is an exercise itself.

On wednesday morning, after leaving Elena at school, I walked to the gym, it took nearly half a hour. Once there, I started with step machine since there wasn't electricity to use the treadmill.

When I was near the end of my workout time electricity's arrived and I couldn't leave the gym without at least twenty minutes running, so I ran.

I started to be pretty good tired when a funny little man came to call me telling that I could join the cardio fitness (box?) class. 

The temptation to run away was strong, but the curiosity was stronger; so I joined them.

At the very beginning I felt like a giant in an ants room.

Then I started to feel like a goofy giant in a busy ants room!

Being a woman of normal heigt in Nepal  means to be as high as my daughter  probably will be next year: very short for European canons.

That was the first uncomfy sensation, but it is not everything.. Two chubby women an a plump man were sweating profusely following the strong elf who called me before. He was helped by a gracious pixie with the size of a doll;then he introduced her to me as his wife.

After all that walking and running I have done, I was confident to be warmed up enough to follow them doing a sort of aerobic warming up, and that was almost true. But when they have started to move as fast as lightening following a thumping music, I felt lost. Too proud to give up, I got strenght and I kept going on...

I did feel judge. May be I was being a bit paranoid, may be not, but those people weren't shy about having a look. Althought it was a welcoming group I felt observed: too large to pass unnoticed, to slow to not be ridiculous! Really quite embarassing. And normally people when they are imbarassed, they are not loose and agile, so I was even more rigid than usual. At a time when others where doing two movements, I completed one, legs and arms too long to be so fast!

The situation was so weird that I couldn't stop smiling at me (lots of mirrors in that room!), and everyone thought I was insane, but it was worth continuing despite that.

When the teacher-elf asked me to complete three series of fifteen push ups each, I answerd that I've never done fifteen push ups in all my life long... So I took my time to watch at the pushing up group: everyone was making an effort to meet the demand, I couldn't be the only who quitted!

All the class was quite brutal but I came out floating, I really floated out.

And now, days after, I can felt muscles I did not know I have; breathe deeply give me a painful feeling: too many pushups!

Magic Bangkok - Bangkok, Thailand

Written Oct.14th 2016

We like Nepal, that's true!

But, after those stressful visa days, after the relocation, everyone needs holidays. My husband needs to relax after so much lack of sleep; the baby needs to stop studying after such intense school days; and I need to stop supporting them. So we went to Bangkok!

In Italy the common idea is that Thailand is a destination for adults. The most typical stereotypes about Thailand: busy, crowded, street food, amazing massages, weird sex tourism, lady boys, full moon beach parties, buckets full cocktails, kickboxing, temples, westerners being locked up in prison for drug possession, scooters, golden Buddha statues, amazingly friendly and smiling people and the film “The Beach”  with Leonardo DiCaprio. I can confirm that concerns the city, except of the weird tourism; we have not seen anything suspect, maybe a western paunchy-middle-age-man accompanied by an oriental pretty lady, but it cannot be an indicator. Some of the hotel waiters were quite ambiguous: they could be both handsome men and pretty girls, the hairdressers were a little bit weird, but is not unusual even in Italy, so nothing strange or noteworthy.

The idea is to came back again, to visit some islands, so we can confirm o disconfirm the others cliché about the beaches and the sea side life.

Thai people are very nice and kind, they teach you how to behave: in the archeological sites there are signs that teach good manners. 

The hotel was amazing, not the best in town but one of the best where we have been to. Fifteen floors of order, cleanliness, silence...And it was surrounded by higher palaces, hotels mostly but even offices and flats. Friendly people, excellent food, nice massage area, lovely outdoor pool, everything was a sort of dream.

First day: shopping! Must did, so many malls! The biggest shopping center, even the most luxurious, holds the aquarium.

The aquarium is interesting, we have seen bigger and may be more original, but our daughter was amazed by the water tunnel, the amounts of sharks, and the dimension of a giant spider crab. She was so excited! We spent at least two hours inside...and the rest of the day around the shopping center!
I've never seen something so big, huge, enormous...

 But we couldn't find a simple pair of sleepers that the kid needed. Well, it was full of shoe shop, but too expensive. 

We only bought some t shirts in the Chinese "HeM", medium quality stuff, very good prices. That's all.

A relaxing evening in the hotel pool, looking around for massages, a nice place for dinner, try to go to bed early to rest before a sightseeing day.

Thai people are Buddhist, they love their king and queen, you can guess it by the amount of Buddha statues (literally everywhere) and king's and queen's pictures (again: everywhere).

 Near our hotel there was a nice small open air temple with musicians and dancers.

They pray with flowers, incense and candle... They were praying for the health of the sovereigns, both octogenarians and hospitalized. This information was even in the newspaper. Our guide, a friendly lady in love with Elena showed us the Grand Palace, the amazing temple with the emerald Buddha inside. Everywhere was colorful, mostly shining gold and red, but crowded and very hot. Too hot! Sweating is a must in Bangkok!

Our daughter's hair and colors (and beauty), are always an attraction for Asiatic people, obviously she did not like being the center, to be the subjects of many pictures... The guide did not understand why the girl was so grumpy.

But she felt fortunate she could take some pictures with her smiling.

We visited also the summer residence, lovely indeed, but the kid was interested only in animals outside: enormous fish, some turtles and a lazy caiman. She was running and jumping all around; all tourists were looking at her helping me to find her every time I couldn't see where she was.

Nice experience. It looks she is disappointed because she did not see the interior of the apartments; probably she remembered our trip to Vienna, where we visited so many interiors!

After the palace, other temples, very old 

and ruined but full of charm.

 Too much culture, we needed another shopping immersion... we went to another big mall, little bit of the lower level to the other, less luxuries, more crowded and even more interesting.

We did find the fake cheap sleepers for the child, many easy going massage centers, a very cheap hairdresser, many interesting restaurants...

We decided to spend all evening there. 

We had to wait half an hour for the massage, so we went 

around without a destination and we crashed into a weird man: protruding ears, orange haired, effeminate attitude... a hairdresser!

Perfect. We had our hair cut; my husband had a pretty girl, I a strange blonde Asian. Very silently, quick and professional, in ten minute we were done, and happy. He tried the massage but he did not enjoy very much, mine the previous day, in another center, was better, I believe.

 Original Thai massage, strong an effective.

Our last amazing dinner, original Thai, easy to eat: on the menu (with images) there were symbols for spicy food, vegetarian; food contains nuts, really "idiot proof".

Once at home we decided to understand why you cannot eat a

Thai fruit called DURIAN in the hotel room. No smoking signal was accompanied by a "forbidden fruit" signal,

strange indeed. But the durian, even called "the king of fruit" for its amazing taste and the nutritional properties, has a horrible smell that that seems unbearable and impossible to remove from indoors, that's why!

But our experience, overall, was very pleasant and positive, we must come back again, even to taste finally the legendary fruit.