Manaslu

Just had to share a photo from our deck taken of the sunset over Manaslu (an 8000+m peak)

Shopping

Most weeks we go to the main nepali shopping centre to do our shopping. Yesterday I had a bit more time than usual and I took the camera so tried to look at it in a different way. I really like some of my photos so thought I would share some of them with you.
Yesterday, the temperature plummeted to 21 deg and we were all so cold that there were lots of Nepalis shopping for blankets, jerseys, shawls etc.

 Potatoes

 Meat for dinner

 Ginger

 Garlic

 Fish

 Powder for tika's - the dot worn on foreheads. A big festical is coming up this week so there are lots of different colours available at the moment.

 chillis

 Samosa's - really tasty

 Apples in a doko (straw basket)

A new supermarket has opened - such a constrast to the markets on the street outside.

Dashai Photos

Ping
During the big festival of dashai (the largest hindu festival which has lots of holidays and the atmosphere is a little like Christmas) one thing that is built on nearly every corner is a ping. Yes, it is a bamboo swing. You can see how big they are built based on the size of the adults in the photos.
Jo has been working at the hospital through this time and has also seen some great xrays of people who have fallen off them and broken both hands, legs and backs. If this was in NZ we think ACC would try to ban them or at least put thousands of dollars of cushioning underneath, that is if the council allows you to build one in the first place. However, htey are soo much fun and you can get really high on them.

 

The other main thing that happens at dashai is that thousands and thousands of animals are slaughtered as sacrifices to one of the hindu gods. Many people travel back to their home villages therefore there are a huge number of vehicles on the road - often with the sacrifices coming along for the ride.

Some sort of sheep

This is called a changria - it looks like a goat and sounds like a sheep! The Nepalis think of it more as a sheep than a goat. Its meat is not particularly tasty and is quite chewy but that may also be cos they wait till they are old to eat.

Sunrise at Sarangkot

A lovely man from Tearfund UK was interested in going to Sarangkot to watch the sunrise so we agreed to go with him. We woke up at 2am to rain and thought we might be wasting our time. However, when the alarm went off at 4.30 the full moon was reflecting amazingly in the mountains and we jumped on our bikes, meet him and got a taxi to the top just in time for the sunrise. Sometimes, living here really just is sooo hard.....