Nepal - 28th June 2012
Hi everyone. I haven't been near any reliable computers for a long time so I have some blog catching up to do! Since my last blog I have met up with Mary and gone up into the Himalayas, done a bit more travelling around China and am now in Nepal. I wasn't able to do the Lhasa to Kathmandu overland trip, sadly, as there are no Travel Permits to be had for individual travellers at the moment and, sometimes, no Travel Permits at all, it changes every day.
So, reports begin...:
I left Changsha and the Butterflies. I am still in touch with a couple of folk from the Butterfly Home and so have the latest news. They have moved at last and are settling well into the new place with lots of space and playroom areas which is great. Paul has settled very well in Holland. Finlay is walking. They have had new babies in for terminal care so are now more into their Hospice role. I wonder if I will ever go back...
The next stage of my adventure began in Chengdu where I met Mary (Midwifery with Altitude retired Plymouth midwife) at Hollys Hostel. Hollys is really great - very adequate en suite room, very friendly staff and other guests, good cafe, etc. But in China to write a blog you have to have a 'tunnel' on your computer as China blocks anything with the word 'blog' in it. In the flat we had a tunnel but Hollys didn't, so I couldn't add to my blog there. Mary told me we would have to wait for the printing order of 'Safe Motherhood and Baby' booklets which MwA give out when visiting the nomadic women, as part of their teaching and support. So we had a few days in Chengdu waiting for these. For a big city, I liked Chengdu. It has a
'Tibetan Quarter' which we wandered around and I got a bit of a feel for what it might be like where we would be going. There is a park almost on Holly's doorstep which has an area with a lake and lots of little shops as well as the park areas - in the early morning the larger areas are full of groups doing Tai Chi and dancing and Mary and I joined in one of the Tai Chi groups; I came back and joined them again several times when I returned to Chengdu after Mary went home. There is a lot more colour and colourful people in Chengdu. We also visited the Pandas - there is a large park area where research and breeding of Pandas goes on - one of the main ones in the world. There were no babies, sadly, but lots of adults ambling around, up trees, chewing bamboo, etc. Aah!! We also spent a day with Holly, from Holly's, being driven around local countryside. We saw huge lakes of lotus's, a few in bloom - they eat the roots and stalks and use the flowers for medicines. also lots of other crops - it is a fertile valley. We stopped at a market where I had my first Tibetan toilet experience - very friendly - a dividing wall about 3 ft high, no door, people just stand waiting and looking and chatting. I won't go into any more detail but these toilet experiences were something I avoided whenever possible! We called into an 'old' family home - built around a courtyard with 3 families staying in different parts. All the women were playing cards - I guess the men were working in the field (its usually the other way around!) The house was single storey, very dark and looked very neglected. Looked more like a large disused shed. I thought it was probably about 200 years old but Holly said it was 50 years old at the most! We had lunch provided at a typical home - relatives of Holly - again, a very dark house, no paint on the walls or decorations, extremely functional - sink on a pile of bricks, water from a hose. We actually ate a delicious meal on the 'terrace' outside.
The interpreter, Dawa, was also in Chengdu with his wife and two children. He comes from a village where we would be going, up in the Himalayas in Sichuan province - what used to be Tibet. Dawa would be making the arrangements for Mary and I to get up to where we needed to be to do the work Mary had planned.
Finally we left Chengdu on a bus to Kanding. Not a bad road - it was a 10 hour trip with stops for the loo (no avoiding these experiences!) and lunch. Kanding is at 2,700 m and we planned to stay there 2 days to start getting acclimatised to the altitude. The first day we took a cable car up a mountain to a monastry and walked up even further for quite a good walk. I felt just fine. The next day I walked into town to do some shopping and started to feel most peculiar - sort of fainty and drunk. As long as I didn't go into a shop I was just about OK and I got back to the hotel without passing out. I took a Diamox tablet (for altitude sickness) and went to bed for the afternoon. I felt a bit better by the evening and managed supper. We were leaving the next day for Ganzi so I wanted to be OK for that! Our hotel in Kanding gave another experience... in the first night Mary and I both heard rustling and each thought the other had woken up and gone for the biscuits. However, when we went to get out our fruit for breakfast, it was nibbled and later that morning I saw a rat running down the corridor outside our room! So the next 2 nights everything was hung up out of the way and a spare duvet put along the bottom of the door. No more nibbles seen! I took Diamox for another 2 days and wasn't troubled again, even in Ganzi at 3,400 metre. Kanding is large, very noisy and not attactive but in a wonderful setting of mountains.
The trip to Ganzi was a bit of a nightmare. The roads were appalling, troughs, mud, holes, rocks. We were in a minibus with Dawa, his wife and 2 children, both of whom were travel sick. We had to take an extra driver who was very fat and took up loads of room! It was a 12 hour drive and I had started a cold and was streaming. Memorable day in a not-good way! But the scenery on the way was stunning, with mountains, waterfalls, yaks and a few black tents. On the way we were stopped several times by the border police - it could have been that we couldn't have gone to Ganzi one day as sometimes China gets nervous about people visiting what-used-to-be-tibet. The day we went Dawa had assured us we would be OK, but one lot of police told us to turn back and Dawa had some talking to do to get them to let us carry on. Ganzi is (to me) as I imagined Tibet to be. Again, set amongst mountains. Not a pretty place in itself but full of monks, houses and shops decorated in the Tibetan way, lots of colourful things for sale, and a couple of lovely monasteries, a river and a wobbly bridge. Not a skyscraper in sight. The Tibetan people are colourful in their way, the women wear a wrap around dress which is often made of lovely material but usually black with a woven colourful apron. They weave red wool into their hair which is braided around their faces I thought they were beautiful and the men, very handsome! They often had long hair and had me in mind of the American indians - very masculine despite their long hair. So now we were where we were going to do any work we could. Mary had been given money to make up birth packs (containing a large blanket to put over the straw, towels for mother and baby, nail clippers and soap, and scissors for the cord - plus a Safe Motherhood and Baby book). So off we went to buy supplies. We got enough for 100 packs which kept Mary and I busy the whole of 1 day making them up and filled our hotel room. I have now almost lost my voice but have stopped streaming. No rats that we could see in the hotel room but it was probably the dirtiest room I have ever been in and I went out and bought a brush to clean the loo with. We were there 5 days and it wasn't cleaned once. I emptied our bins and got clean towels! But the people were friendly! While we were there China blocked the Internet for Sichuan so we were completely out of contact for those 5 days. We started teaching in Ganzi - went out to a clinic and a school one day and taught doctors and students who were very attentive. The school is amazing - 391 students, mostly borders, from age 6 - 14. All very well behaved, delightfully curious and wanting their photos taken but when we visited their classes, they were totally into their books, not looking at us at all.
One day we went to Dawa's village and taught a group of 28 women. Dawa advised us not to give out birth packs or books as we were gathering together a large group of people, the session took place outside... He said he would give them out individually later. Most of those we taught were parents of the pregnant women as they were working out in the fields!! But their mothers would be their midwives. Another day we met an amazing Tibetan women who goes up to an area at nearly 5000 metres where it snows 9 months of the year and she takes health education and supplies to them. She took 25 of our birth packs to give out and lots of books. While travelling around I saw such awesome scenery, unforgettable. And lots of yaks, and a few black tents. We couldn't get any further than Ganzi as it was politically inadvisable so I didn't get to 'nomad land proper' which meant I didn't go into a black tent and I didn't stay in the monastry with the rats, either! But we got some useful things done and most of Mary's list ticked off.
Finally it was time for us to come down the mountain and we had to make the terrible 12 hour journey back to Kanding. It wasn't any better! This time in Kanding we stayed just outside in a hostel which was a big improvement on rat hotel! Then back to Chengdu, where Mary went home.
I then had a week when I should have been going to Lhasa/Kathmandu. Instead I booked a flight to Kathmandu and spent 4 days on a coach trip to an area which is, again, what-used-to-be-tibet set in a different mountain range. We visited 2 national parks and saw the most amazing lakes, waterfalls and cascades of irridescent blues and greens lakes - just wonderful.
So, now I'm in Nepal. Kathmandu is more like India and not a bit like China. Colour, life, dirt, smells, cattle, happy people, wonderful things in the shops. Narrow streets buzzing with motor bikes, people, dogs. I am so happy to be here! Absolutely wonderful flight over huge high mountains - and Everest! And today I've come to Pokhara which is set amongst wonderful mountains and just by the 2nd largest lake in Nepal. Tomorrow I get up for 5 a.m. to see the sunrise over the mountains.
There's loads I've left out but this is quite enough. My next blog will be from home, where I'll be this time next week. I have 2 more days in Nepal, then back to Delhi for 3 days where I'm meeting the lady I met on the train from Delhi to Kerala, and having a pampering session!
I can't believe this is nearly the end of my adventure. Now I'm here I feel as if I've hardly been away any time - but I'm SO looking forward to seeing my sister and family, wonderful friends, house and garden again. I have the most amazing memories and photos - its going to be a long job getting all those organised - which I'll have to do as I'll have to give some talks!
Thank you all for your perseverence in reading these blogs. I've kept a diary too, so if you want any gaps filled or have any questions, just email me.
With love, Liz
Hi everyone. I haven't been near any reliable computers for a long time so I have some blog catching up to do! Since my last blog I have met up with Mary and gone up into the Himalayas, done a bit more travelling around China and am now in Nepal. I wasn't able to do the Lhasa to Kathmandu overland trip, sadly, as there are no Travel Permits to be had for individual travellers at the moment and, sometimes, no Travel Permits at all, it changes every day.
So, reports begin...:
I left Changsha and the Butterflies. I am still in touch with a couple of folk from the Butterfly Home and so have the latest news. They have moved at last and are settling well into the new place with lots of space and playroom areas which is great. Paul has settled very well in Holland. Finlay is walking. They have had new babies in for terminal care so are now more into their Hospice role. I wonder if I will ever go back...
The next stage of my adventure began in Chengdu where I met Mary (Midwifery with Altitude retired Plymouth midwife) at Hollys Hostel. Hollys is really great - very adequate en suite room, very friendly staff and other guests, good cafe, etc. But in China to write a blog you have to have a 'tunnel' on your computer as China blocks anything with the word 'blog' in it. In the flat we had a tunnel but Hollys didn't, so I couldn't add to my blog there. Mary told me we would have to wait for the printing order of 'Safe Motherhood and Baby' booklets which MwA give out when visiting the nomadic women, as part of their teaching and support. So we had a few days in Chengdu waiting for these. For a big city, I liked Chengdu. It has a
'Tibetan Quarter' which we wandered around and I got a bit of a feel for what it might be like where we would be going. There is a park almost on Holly's doorstep which has an area with a lake and lots of little shops as well as the park areas - in the early morning the larger areas are full of groups doing Tai Chi and dancing and Mary and I joined in one of the Tai Chi groups; I came back and joined them again several times when I returned to Chengdu after Mary went home. There is a lot more colour and colourful people in Chengdu. We also visited the Pandas - there is a large park area where research and breeding of Pandas goes on - one of the main ones in the world. There were no babies, sadly, but lots of adults ambling around, up trees, chewing bamboo, etc. Aah!! We also spent a day with Holly, from Holly's, being driven around local countryside. We saw huge lakes of lotus's, a few in bloom - they eat the roots and stalks and use the flowers for medicines. also lots of other crops - it is a fertile valley. We stopped at a market where I had my first Tibetan toilet experience - very friendly - a dividing wall about 3 ft high, no door, people just stand waiting and looking and chatting. I won't go into any more detail but these toilet experiences were something I avoided whenever possible! We called into an 'old' family home - built around a courtyard with 3 families staying in different parts. All the women were playing cards - I guess the men were working in the field (its usually the other way around!) The house was single storey, very dark and looked very neglected. Looked more like a large disused shed. I thought it was probably about 200 years old but Holly said it was 50 years old at the most! We had lunch provided at a typical home - relatives of Holly - again, a very dark house, no paint on the walls or decorations, extremely functional - sink on a pile of bricks, water from a hose. We actually ate a delicious meal on the 'terrace' outside.
The interpreter, Dawa, was also in Chengdu with his wife and two children. He comes from a village where we would be going, up in the Himalayas in Sichuan province - what used to be Tibet. Dawa would be making the arrangements for Mary and I to get up to where we needed to be to do the work Mary had planned.
Finally we left Chengdu on a bus to Kanding. Not a bad road - it was a 10 hour trip with stops for the loo (no avoiding these experiences!) and lunch. Kanding is at 2,700 m and we planned to stay there 2 days to start getting acclimatised to the altitude. The first day we took a cable car up a mountain to a monastry and walked up even further for quite a good walk. I felt just fine. The next day I walked into town to do some shopping and started to feel most peculiar - sort of fainty and drunk. As long as I didn't go into a shop I was just about OK and I got back to the hotel without passing out. I took a Diamox tablet (for altitude sickness) and went to bed for the afternoon. I felt a bit better by the evening and managed supper. We were leaving the next day for Ganzi so I wanted to be OK for that! Our hotel in Kanding gave another experience... in the first night Mary and I both heard rustling and each thought the other had woken up and gone for the biscuits. However, when we went to get out our fruit for breakfast, it was nibbled and later that morning I saw a rat running down the corridor outside our room! So the next 2 nights everything was hung up out of the way and a spare duvet put along the bottom of the door. No more nibbles seen! I took Diamox for another 2 days and wasn't troubled again, even in Ganzi at 3,400 metre. Kanding is large, very noisy and not attactive but in a wonderful setting of mountains.
The trip to Ganzi was a bit of a nightmare. The roads were appalling, troughs, mud, holes, rocks. We were in a minibus with Dawa, his wife and 2 children, both of whom were travel sick. We had to take an extra driver who was very fat and took up loads of room! It was a 12 hour drive and I had started a cold and was streaming. Memorable day in a not-good way! But the scenery on the way was stunning, with mountains, waterfalls, yaks and a few black tents. On the way we were stopped several times by the border police - it could have been that we couldn't have gone to Ganzi one day as sometimes China gets nervous about people visiting what-used-to-be-tibet. The day we went Dawa had assured us we would be OK, but one lot of police told us to turn back and Dawa had some talking to do to get them to let us carry on. Ganzi is (to me) as I imagined Tibet to be. Again, set amongst mountains. Not a pretty place in itself but full of monks, houses and shops decorated in the Tibetan way, lots of colourful things for sale, and a couple of lovely monasteries, a river and a wobbly bridge. Not a skyscraper in sight. The Tibetan people are colourful in their way, the women wear a wrap around dress which is often made of lovely material but usually black with a woven colourful apron. They weave red wool into their hair which is braided around their faces I thought they were beautiful and the men, very handsome! They often had long hair and had me in mind of the American indians - very masculine despite their long hair. So now we were where we were going to do any work we could. Mary had been given money to make up birth packs (containing a large blanket to put over the straw, towels for mother and baby, nail clippers and soap, and scissors for the cord - plus a Safe Motherhood and Baby book). So off we went to buy supplies. We got enough for 100 packs which kept Mary and I busy the whole of 1 day making them up and filled our hotel room. I have now almost lost my voice but have stopped streaming. No rats that we could see in the hotel room but it was probably the dirtiest room I have ever been in and I went out and bought a brush to clean the loo with. We were there 5 days and it wasn't cleaned once. I emptied our bins and got clean towels! But the people were friendly! While we were there China blocked the Internet for Sichuan so we were completely out of contact for those 5 days. We started teaching in Ganzi - went out to a clinic and a school one day and taught doctors and students who were very attentive. The school is amazing - 391 students, mostly borders, from age 6 - 14. All very well behaved, delightfully curious and wanting their photos taken but when we visited their classes, they were totally into their books, not looking at us at all.
One day we went to Dawa's village and taught a group of 28 women. Dawa advised us not to give out birth packs or books as we were gathering together a large group of people, the session took place outside... He said he would give them out individually later. Most of those we taught were parents of the pregnant women as they were working out in the fields!! But their mothers would be their midwives. Another day we met an amazing Tibetan women who goes up to an area at nearly 5000 metres where it snows 9 months of the year and she takes health education and supplies to them. She took 25 of our birth packs to give out and lots of books. While travelling around I saw such awesome scenery, unforgettable. And lots of yaks, and a few black tents. We couldn't get any further than Ganzi as it was politically inadvisable so I didn't get to 'nomad land proper' which meant I didn't go into a black tent and I didn't stay in the monastry with the rats, either! But we got some useful things done and most of Mary's list ticked off.
Finally it was time for us to come down the mountain and we had to make the terrible 12 hour journey back to Kanding. It wasn't any better! This time in Kanding we stayed just outside in a hostel which was a big improvement on rat hotel! Then back to Chengdu, where Mary went home.
I then had a week when I should have been going to Lhasa/Kathmandu. Instead I booked a flight to Kathmandu and spent 4 days on a coach trip to an area which is, again, what-used-to-be-tibet set in a different mountain range. We visited 2 national parks and saw the most amazing lakes, waterfalls and cascades of irridescent blues and greens lakes - just wonderful.
So, now I'm in Nepal. Kathmandu is more like India and not a bit like China. Colour, life, dirt, smells, cattle, happy people, wonderful things in the shops. Narrow streets buzzing with motor bikes, people, dogs. I am so happy to be here! Absolutely wonderful flight over huge high mountains - and Everest! And today I've come to Pokhara which is set amongst wonderful mountains and just by the 2nd largest lake in Nepal. Tomorrow I get up for 5 a.m. to see the sunrise over the mountains.
There's loads I've left out but this is quite enough. My next blog will be from home, where I'll be this time next week. I have 2 more days in Nepal, then back to Delhi for 3 days where I'm meeting the lady I met on the train from Delhi to Kerala, and having a pampering session!
I can't believe this is nearly the end of my adventure. Now I'm here I feel as if I've hardly been away any time - but I'm SO looking forward to seeing my sister and family, wonderful friends, house and garden again. I have the most amazing memories and photos - its going to be a long job getting all those organised - which I'll have to do as I'll have to give some talks!
Thank you all for your perseverence in reading these blogs. I've kept a diary too, so if you want any gaps filled or have any questions, just email me.
With love, Liz
Another wow from me..... how could you ever top this trip Liz? As for the toilet arrangements !!!!!!! .... this might just stay with you for life????.. although this would be classed as 'delux' in some countries... we westerners do like a bit of privacy. Its been great following your travels now I cannot wait to see the photos.....
ReplyDeleteSee you soon Penny