Sunday 30 November 2008

Catching up with cousin Ville, Pranita and Arwas

Jen's cousin Ville has been holidaying with his friends Pranita and Arwas in Nepal for the last month. We'd hoped to see them for some rhino spotting in Chitwan national park but were busy in the Everest region.



Luckily we all managed to finally get together in Kathmandu. Pranita lives here with her son Arwas and very kindly had us round for delicious home cooked food – a welcome luxury that we've not had since Indonesia! Jen took delivery of a heavy shipment of Finnish liquorice and rye crackers that her mum had sent in Ville's rucksack. As a special treat, Ville made some 'salmiakkikossu' (vodka with liquorice) which was very drinkable. Even Andy liked it. Jen says: “Kiitos aiti ihanasta suomiilahjasta!”




Pranita was an excellent host and showed us around Kathmandu's Swayambhunath Temple, also known as the 'Monkey Temple'. We made an offering to her god and received a tika on our foreheads. Pranita's relatives run shops by the temple, so Jen took some time to do a spot of shopping.




Andy was greatly entertained by the Hounds of Swayambhunath Temple that were sleeping, playing and eating in the temple area. As the temple's nickname suggests, there were also hoards of monkeys that were running around, stealing food that had been meant as an offering to the gods.





The other day, we went for a relaxing stroll in the Garden of Dreams. It was built by field marshal Kaiser Shamser after a visit to England and has been recently restored to a striking effect.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kiva nähdä kuvia teista kaikista, ja kiva et tapasitte! Voikaa hyvin,
terveisin Arja ja Tero

Anonymous said...

How nice to meet up with your cousin Ville Jen, especially as he had a stack of LIQUORICE

Love Liz x

davidjwaugh said...

Hello!
Hope you have arrived in Hong Kong okay