So...

I'm thi king of blogging again. Should I stick toFB? Is blogging still nice? Not sure...

No more pics

My school is preparing for a whole school inspection. I dont have time to blog. Sorry.

Free Shoes? Where?

This is at the entry to the Hindu temple (starts with a P....) It tickled my fancy (the sign, not the temple).

Stupa

This is the huge stupa at Boudnath. It really is quite a sight, especially with the blue sky as a backdrop. Of course every bit of the Stupa signifies something, but just now I cant remember any of it!

Monks at work

There is a large Gompa at Boudnath, which is where the monks live and work. Here we were able to sit inside and watch them chant. Now I always thought this would be a rather serious affair, but these guys were really mucking round, showing off and generally having a laugh!

Boudnath

It's inevitable... Go to Nepal, you're going to see a lot of temples! Here we are at Boudnath, another famous Buddhist temple. Or are we in Venice???

Monkey Temple (AKA Suwambathyu?)

The Monkey Temple is one of the most famous buddhist temples in Kathmandu. It's perched up on a hill and you can see it from lots of places in the valley. This was my second visit as Zadok and I had come here on our stopover tour.

A trip to the butcher

For some reson I quickly started telling locals that I was vegeterian on the rare occasion that the opportunity to eat meat arose. This is a butchers by the side of the road. Often there would be a headless goat on the bench then 2 or 3 goats waiting their turn, tied to the side of the stall. It didn't seem to phase them!

Cow

Hindus consider cows to be sacred and they are left to roam freely wherever they fancy, particularly in Kathmandu. This one was happily moseying

along the road we were walking on.

Prayer Wheels

Every temple has heaps of prayer wheels, although not all as big as this one! There are mantras written on scrolls inside them. The buddhists believe that when you spin the wheel the prayers are spun out over the world.

Buddha

This tiny temple was my favourite, up on a hill with no tourists around it has a great view of Kathmandu. The priest was very friendly although noone could understand a word he was saying!

Gerge (gorge)

The first week was spent in a hostel in a suburb of Kathmandu, learning Nepalese. We did 2 day trips, one to this gorge at the edge of the valley. The water was filthy and with rubbish everywhere it wasn't my favourite spot off the trip!

It was very hot, wet and muggy... The whole trip!

?????

Keep on hand in case things get out of hand at an inappropriate moment....

Around Kathmandu

A safe way to travel? When I got out of Kathmandu I actually saw a number of buses that had crashed off the side of the buses and fallen some way down the side of the road. I guess the ones that had fallen a long way I didn't see. Doesn't seem to deter the Nepalese!

Setting off for Nepal

I've finally started with the photos!

Here I am wondering why I am travelling without my muscly husband to assist in the bag carrying. In fact, the bag situation only got worse when I adopted a thin matress to supplement the wooden boards I was having to sleep on!

Back in Dubai, Back at Work.

I have been back in Dubai for 2 weeks now would you believe! Nepal certainly was an interesting experience, I'm not quite sure what to say when people ask me about my summer! i haven't started blogging any photos yet, trying to work up some momentum to start.

I am back at work, I've hd a week with no children and a day with the children. They all seem quite nice. I have a big class of 27 and one little girl with special needs but she is a sweety and comes with her own assisstant so that should be ok.

Dubai is a bit of a drag this month, it's hot hot hot, so not much to do outside, it's also Ramadan so no eating or drinking in public during the day, and restuarants and bars are quieter in the evening. The only thing that is not quieter is our neighbourhood, we live amoungst lots of locals and due to the fasting in the day, they are up late at night... Having all sorts of gatherings.

LAST ONE!

Appropriately, the day we left it poured with rain. We had left the KL Manara tower till the end, so we didn't get the best view! We could still see the city so it was OK. Here are the Petronas Towers, although the KL tower is shorter the viewing deck is much higher so the view is better.

We had the best holiday and would strongly reccomend Malaysia to anyone who was thinking of going. The people were friendly and helpful, the country was beautiful and the food was delicious, what more could you want!

As write this I am in an internet cafe in Thamel, Kathmandu. By the time it posts it's self I will be back at work. I have hundreds of photos from Nepal. I am thinking about photo a daying them as well. We'll have to see!

A special dedication...

Here is a special picture just for my favourite Ibis. What more could anyone want? A SCARLET IBIS playing in the sun!

Back in KL

We went back to KL and stayed again in Hotel Maya (they gave us a double upgrade). I'm nearly finished now... Just a few shots of the birds in the bird park. Here is the Horn Bill getting his lunch from the Horn Bill cafe.

Sleeping?

So we both got beds one above the other. Our back packs stayed in the aisle and small bags near pillows. We got on the train at about 7.30pm, off at about 7.30am. I managed to sleep/nap for about 8 hours.

Getting around

Someone suggested taking the train back to KL. Neither of us had been on a sleeper train so we booked tickets in the 2nd class sleeper cabin (first class was full, you get your own little cabin). This is the station at Alor Setar. I had just finished a book by Amitav Ghosh that was set in this area and he wrote about this station! It was as lovely as he described. Exciting!

Ferry

There were heaps of things to do on Langkawi, we could have stayed longer, but the train ticket was booked and we had to move on. We took another ferry, this time to Alor Setar which took an hour and a half.

Stunning Views

Langkawi Chairlift

This was a highlight of the trip, the chairlift was so steep and the mountain it went up fell away to the sea on the other side. There are 99 islands (I think) in the Langkawi area.

Breakfast

Here it is.... Zadok's favourite pass time, breakfast, the paper and a quiet wife.