Category: textiles
A local guide to tour some Nepal villages…so worth it
March 27, 2017
We hired a taxi and a guide (Ranjan Mishra) for a day and headed south out of the city. The village didn’t look much different at first, but it didn’t take long to realize that we were in a separate community. It was noticeably quieter with few vehicles. More people were just sitting outside but there were many people hard at work. We started in Khokana, walked through the fields to Bungamati, then drove to the monastery in Pharphing, and finished in Kuripur.
Mustard Seed Oil
Ranjan led us into a small dark building that had 2 people working inside. The owner joined us soon after. They were making mustard seed oil from local crops. The seeds had to be dried then roasted. They were put into a long narrow mesh bag then squeezed through rollers several times. A tin bowl on the floor collected the oil.
Since Nepal only had 6 hours of electrical power per day up until recently, this operation works with an electrical motor for the rolling, but can also be operated with a large wheel that turns a series of gears to tighten the rollers and make them turn. It took one of the workers, using his whole body weight to make this possible.
Another worker crushed, stacked and bagged the remaining material which becomes compost for the fields. Our guide suggested we give them a little money for showing us how this operation worked and taking their pictures. He said they could use it.
The mustard seed oil is used to massage moms and babies in the sun after birth, cooking special Nepalese dishes, and rubbed into the hair to make it shine. We had a little bit and it tasted like some of the local dishes we’d eaten.
Rugmaking
We stepped into another building and found a rug factory. There were groups of 2 women sitting on benches together working on wool rugs. Some rugs were single colors while others had elaborate designs. The women were so fast, although the man in charge would come by and mark their expected progress along the side of the threads.
There were many other women in the village supporting this. They spun wool using a hand powered wheel. Others combined the spun wool into 3 ply using some special wheel that wool people would know the name of. The wool was rolled into balls as part of this process. These jobs were all completed while sitting on the ground on a mat. The women sat in small groups while they worked.
Weaving
The usual weaving room was closed but Ranjan knew of another. There were 4 looms in the room and on one they were creating some fine white material from bamboo fibres. It had a white on white pattern that was controlled with cards punched with holes. The young women sat on a fabric wrapped 2 X 4 and ran the loom with a foot pedal and shuttle.
The woman who seemed in charge was very knowledgeable and did her best to explain how the process worked. When her English was too limited, she had a catalogue containing pictures that she shared with us. She was very proud of what she was accomplishing in their little room. Another lady was working on a more rustic cotton fabric in shades of blue and brown. She was repairing a broken thread while we were there.
According to our guide, women are working more outside the home now to help support their family income. It didn’t sound like their incomes were very much, but they were doing beautiful work in this “factory”.
Earthquake reconstruction
The villages to the south and west of Kathmandu were most heavily hit by the earthquake in April of 2014. Not only was there one large tremor of 7.6, but the aftershocks over the next few days were nearly as strong. Most of the houses are built of brick, but they are often 3-4 stories high. Those built in the villages were older and the building techniques less stable. Many of them lost the upper stories of the house.
As you walk through these villages today, they are in various states of tearing down and building up. There are piles of bricks and gravel on every street. The brick factories in the valley are working full-time. This provides many jobs but also fills the valley with more smoke. There is no place to remove the rubble so it piles up in a corner, or behind the new home.
This construction is also providing lots of work for the locals. It surprised me to see how many women were hauling bricks and gravel in baskets on their backs. The building plans have engineer approval for earthquake resistance, but the workers did not all appear to be skilled for the job. We didn’t see any machines like bobcats or even many wheelbarrows for moving materials. Most of the work was done by hand.
We did see a couple of men using chisels to cut mortise and tenons into window frames. We saw another man putting them together. There were also several men we saw carving designs into wooden lintels that were spectacular.
There are many families still living in temporary shelters beside the fields as they wait for the homes to be rebuilt. I’ve put a few pictures here and the rest in another page in the travel section.
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- temporary housing
Agriculture
The flat land in the bottom of the valley and the terraced hillsides are used for growing a variety of crops. We walked down to the bottom of the village Khokana and back up the other side to Bungamati. What a workout! The farmers were using terraced land to grow wheat, potatoes and mustard for now. Rice will be planted in this area in May.
We saw workers in the fields when we were there. They were weeding the crops by hand or with a deep, narrow metal hoe. We saw cows being used to pull a plow that was managed by a man in flip-flops. At the end of the day they all walk back up the big hill to the village. It is a very difficult life.
Other activities
We bought some pop from a woman who had a little store in the front of her house. She wanted about $1.05 for 3 bottles. Peter insisted that was not enough and gave her double that.
As we sat on a bench outside, we watched her doing the family laundry. She hauled the water in buckets from the inside. At least she didn’t have to go to the nearby water pipe. She had several pails and basins that she used to wash and rinse the clothing. As the rinse water deteriorated, she would replace the dirtiest and continue rinsing from most soapy to least. We saw many women in Nepal washing clothes in buckets on the ground near an available water source.
We visited a man who creates designs on metal statues sold in the market and to people who want Hindu deities in their homes. Women were weaving rice straw into floor mats and corn stalks into table mats. A couple were shelling what they called chick peas, that looked and tasted very much like regular peas. They also had harvested a mat full of turmeric roots.
We saw many schoolchildren in their uniforms off to school as usual.
Pharping
We crossed the valley over terrible road but our taxi got us safely to the Pharping Yanglesho Monastery. We saw several differences from the ones in Thailand. There seems to be a closer link to Hindu here. Since both religions come from India it is not so surprising. It also has lots of influence from Tibet.
The Tibetan prayer flags that epitomize the hike to Everest are in 5 colours. They represent earth, air, fire, water and Buddha himself. Read up on Pharping if you want to know more. We climbed lots of stairs and had some good views. A blessing was ending as we arrived at the top and some novices shared some oranges with us to share their blessing.
Kuripur
We finished our day with a drive to Kuripur, just south of Kathmandu. We walked through a quiet, old community to get to the Pagoda. Children were playing. Women were sitting under an enormous tree. Men were sitting on the stoops of their homes. The buildings were mostly old, but there were also several more modern homes. A large water containment area was built into the square. It was the size of a swimming pool with steps down to accommodate varying water levels.
The pagoda is from the 16th century and is a tribute to the Hindu god Bhagh Bhairab who is the destructive form of Shiva. It has a row of knives and swords hanging from the upper level. If the sky were clear, there would be wonderful views of the city.
Conclusion
We saw a woman with a crowd gathered around her in Bungamati. I realized she was white. I then realized that we had been the only white people in the village up until that point. Our guide told us that she was a donor working with an NGO. Until then I hadn’t noticed that we were the only non-asian people. That is quite unfamiliar to us, although I didn’t feel like anyone acted like they noticed. How lucky we are to be oblivious to the colour of our skins most of the time.
I am feeling more positive about Nepal after a few more days in this country. It doesn’t work the way I think it should and I can see how difficult it is for the citizens to survive each day here. They do have a strong sense of community, however, and that seems to just make things work for here. Stay tuned for more comments as we continue our journey.
Having a guide for the day was priceless. We paid him 5000 rp or about $50 and he led the way for the whole day and 15000 steps. He said his usual rate was 4000 rp but we could pay him whatever we thought he was worth. Without him we would not have found all the hidden treasures within the villages. He also provided us with a local perspective on education, family, religion and how the government handles things in Nepal. He was so knowledgeable on Hinduism, Buddhism and life in the village. We are so glad he found us in Durbar Square and gave us the opportunity to write a reference in his little black notebook.
Luang Prabang, Laos…a visa run holiday
January 28, 2017
Since our visa extension was expiring soon, (see the blog on Travel Documents for Thailand), we decided to take a trip to Luang Prabang, Laos and have a visa run holiday. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995, the town was described by the global body as “an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional architecture and Lao urban structures with those built by the European colonial authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its unique, remarkably well-preserved townscape illustrates a key stage in the blending of these two distinct cultural traditions.” We can certainly see what is special about it and I want to share that with you.
Trip to Laos
Laos Airlines flies directly from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang every afternoon. It only takes an hour and cost us $234 USD each which included a box lunch on the plane. It was a propeller plane, but saves a stopover in Bangkok and it was an easy flight over the forested mountains into Laos.
We had completed our visa forms and arrival/departure cards on the plane. Since I amazed myself by packing some clothes and my camera gear into my daypack, we were quick to arrive at the visa line. We had pictures, passports, forms and $42 USD ready to go and moved quickly into a new country where we would be allowed to stay for 30 days if we wanted to.
A puzzle we haven’t been able to solve is why it costs more for Canadians to enter Laos than it does for anyone else in the world. It is $35 for Americans and only $40 for citizens from Afghanistan. Another part of the puzzle is why you pay in American dollars. They do accept Thai Baht, but the exchange rate they offer would discourage most travellers so have American currency. Fortunately we exchanged some Thai money for American at the airport in Chiang Mai.
Laos Money
Money in general is challenging to sort out here. The kip has been so devalued, that $1 CAD is the equivalent of about 6000 kip. A million kip is about $160. Although they have a 100 000 kip note, the bank machines often run out of cash. Many places take Thai baht or American dollars, but few places take credit cards. Once you leave the country, there are few places that will take kip in exchange for another currency.
The money exchange offices do a good business exchanging mostly American dollars into kip. We didn’t bring cash except for the visa payment so we used the ATM to take out money from our account at home. The exchange rate was much better for us than if we exchanged it at the booth. We did discover, however, that the ATM’s close to the money exchangers charged a 3% fee to withdraw funds. The bank ATM’s charged a flat rate of 20 000 kip (about $3). I read later that a bank machine near the market doesn’t charge any fees for withdrawals. This could be related to the company or bank that owns the ATM, but it would be worth paying attention to the fees, depending on whether you are taking out a large or a small amount of cash.
Phonesaseuth Guesthouse-link
I found a guesthouse on TripAdvisor, but chose to book it directly through the guesthouse website. I had also emailed the owner to let him know when we were arriving. For $35/night we got a room with a king size bed, tv, fridge and shower. It also included a hot egg breakfast with a large warm, white baguette and real drip coffee. The use of a bicycle and pick up and delivery to the airport were also part of the package. The webpage describes the bridge across the Nam Kham (the route to the main part of the city) as a rickety, rackety bridge. It was surprisingly sturdy, however. They have to take it down in the rainy season or it would just wash away.
The guesthouse is only 6 years old and was built where a coconut forest used to exist. It was built in the French Colonial style to match the UNESCO preservation expectations. It feels old but has wonderful wood stairs and dark furniture. The front staff here speak excellent English and went out of their way to make us feel welcome, even returning our missing phone to us at the airport.
Laos Expectations
I knew that Laos was a poor country with the GDP only $3000 per capita. During the Viet Nam War, this country was hit with more bombs by the Americans than Germany received during WW 2. The number of people living in poverty is very high as are illiteracy levels. I expected something much different that what I saw.
People here live in a fertile land. Forests cover the mountains and the Mekong River provides water, transportation and fish. The rainy season renews the land. Tourists flock here to see the old French buildings and experience a part of Asia that moves much more slowly and quietly than most other towns and cities.
The people themselves are so resourceful. Old houses are converted into guesthouses and cafes serve french food, Laotian food and even wonderful fusion food using fresh local ingredients. Silk, cotton and bamboo from Laos are woven into beautiful handmade scarves, bags and wall hangings. The textile industry is bustling here but you might not notice it for the artistic appeal of the products. Even old bombs are used to make metal items like spoons. There is a day market and a night market where they sell these products. Check the travel menu page for more pictures and details on Laos Textiles.
French Architecture
Farmers have terraced the land and grow lots of rice. Other fields are divided into small raised beds and grow lettuce, herbs and other fresh vegetables. We saw a water buffalo dairy on a side trip.
Kuang Si Waterfall
We rented a scooter and rode to a Natural Preserved area about 25 km away. The road was pretty smooth, although narrow considering it is the main road through the country from China to Cambodia. There were a few potholes but we did ok. The views on each side of the road were quite a contrast. The infrastructure still needs some work in Laos.
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- Left side views
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- Right side views
Bear Rescue Center
There was a village outside the park with lots of stalls selling fruits, grilled meat and locally made textiles. We had to pay about $3 to get in to this Area. The first thing we saw were bears! I love surprises.
The Bear Rescue Center was similar to one we visited for grizzly bears in West Yellowstone a couple of years ago. They rescue Asiatic Bears that trapped by poachers or whose mothers were killed. They are on display in large natural areas part of the time and in cages the rest of the time. We watched as a keeper placed food around the enclosure for the bears to find. These animals seemed pretty comfortable and I didn’t see any clear paths where they had been pacing. They were sleeping, eating or wrestling with each other. We saw about 12 bears altogether.
Waterfall
The park had many groups of people from all over the world. They were swimming in the pond, walking along the paths, taking pictures of the waterfalls and just enjoying the beauty of nature. The park contained several picnic tables, pathways, bridges, changing rooms and signs describing the importance of the many plants and animals. Like many of the places we are finding in Asia, this park could be anywhere in the world.
The falls themselves drain the mountains and eventually the water ends up in the Mekong River that starts in Tibet and after flowing through Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, passes through Viet Nam into the South China Sea. In this area, the water flows over limestone. As the rock breaks down from the flow of water, it gets carried along. The light reflects off the calcium carbonate in much the same way as the light does on glacier water in the Rockies, giving the ponds a lovely blue color.
The overall drop is 85m. If you look carefully you can see some swimmers standing 2/3 of the way up on the highest falls. In other places, it looked like the water was just flooding into the jungle. It is such a spectacular place that is so well preserved in a part of the world where people are more attuned to trying to feed their families.
I will leave you at the park and continue in another post describing the Royal Palace and some of the amazing food we discovered in Luang Prabang, Laos.