Tag: Hindu
Nepal…to visit or not to visit?
March 23, 2017
Visit to Nepal
Before getting ready to head back to Canada we took a last holiday from our holiday. We decided on Nepal for a few reasons
- Peter had wanted to go there for 40 years.
- It was much less expensive to fly to Kathmandu from Thailand than from Canada
- We needed to leave the country one more time before our visa expired
- Tourism is down in Nepal since the earthquakes 3 years ago. We wanted our tourism dollars to help make a difference.
- We thought it would be a good place to escape the burning season of bad air in Chiang Mai.
Four of the five reasons were good reasons. The last one proved false as the air in Nepal is even more polluted than when we left Thailand. Fortunately, we had bought Vogmasks to filter out the most dangerous particles and wore them most of the time we were away.
Reasons to visit
- The people of this country are happy and kind. They work very hard to make a living. Even before the earthquake though, 1/3 of the economy is from local efforts, 1/3 comes from money sent home by those who leave to make a living, and 1/3 is from tourism.
- There is a wonderful energy here. I am glad we had time in Thailand to have some experience with city living or this might have overwhelmed us.
- Our hotel, The Tibet Peace Inn, was very good value at about $35/night. They could not have been more helpful. They picked us up at the airport, provided a hot breakfast for $3 a day and arranged our itinerary for the time we were there. The manager booked our flight and driver for our trip to fly by Everest. He also booked a driver and hotel for our trip to Pokhara for 2 nights and even let us leave some of our things in our room in Kathmandu when we were gone. And not only that, but they had the best hot, high-pressured shower we have had since we left Canada.
- You can hire a private guide and driver for a whole day of touring the villages near the city for about $80. We had a great day with Ranjan Mishra, our guide.
- You can buy any knock off clothing gear that you want, all made in Nepal. I got a mid-weight down jacket for $20 and waterproof duffel bags for our camping gear for $35.
- We stayed in the Thamel area. It is the tourist area and has lots of restaurants serving food from every country, including Nepal. Local beer is also cheap. $4 for 620 ml.
- The country is primarily Hindu with many Buddhist and some Muslim. They have a strong influence from India which we could see in the women’s dress. Having heard many Hindu stories at Angkor Wat was a big help to understanding the culture here.
- There is a very strong sense of community here. Children hold hands as they walk to school. They play in the streets with whatever they can find. People smile and welcome you. Parents play with their children and laugh with them. I saw lots of dads carrying their children around
Reasons you might not want to visit
- Air quality. It is not only very dusty, but the skies register over 150 ppm of 2.5 micron particles which is above the dangerous level.
- Traffic-There is too much traffic for the roads. There are no traffic lights at all in the Kathmandu valley. Many streets are not paved due to mismanagement or because of the earthquake. These roads are full of holes. If a mudslide occurs in the mountains, the traffic must drive around it. The unpaved roads also result in lots of the dust.
- There are many people who walk here, especially compared to Thailand although are almost no sidewalks in our neighborhood. 40% of traffic fatalities are pedestrians.
- There is not a central government that knows how to help its citizens. Although building techniques must be adhered to when rebuilding homes after the earthquake, money that was promised has not arrived. They dig up roads to add someone to a water line, but don’t replace the road. There are power poles that are half a meter into the road because roads people and and power peope don’t work together.
- Local people we talked to feel that too much of the country’s money goes to corrupt officials. If you want a certificate stating you are a trained plumber, you can just buy one.
- It is hard to see so many poor people living in tents and shelters. Children say to visitors, “Give me a chocolate.” Many people in the smaller villages share a community water well or spigot.
- Garbage is often dumped into the river or pushed down a hill or piled up in a yard. Infrastructure is very limited
- Public school is only free up to grade 5. The children look great in their uniforms of skirts or pants and sweaters with ties, but their education is very much like ours was in the 50’s. Punishment for creativity and very much rote learning with workbooks of homework.
Hope for Nepal
We met a couple of locals who want a better future for Nepal. Our guide wanted to share what he loved about his land, but wants a government that is accountable to the people.
Our driver lived in a village that was mostly destroyed. He left his brother behind to look after their old father and moved to Kathmandu with his and his brother’s children so they could continue to go to school.
A young man running a nightly movie on the upper level of an Irish pub, Cinema under the moon, has many ideas for Nepal. He wants a trades school that is accountable to the employers that the students will have needed skills. He wants to use the hydroelectric power available in Nepal for electric cars and has read up on Elon Musk’s Tesla battery. Depak lets tourists message him on Facebook if they feel they are being taken advantage of by anyone in Kathmandu.
These thinkers make me feel positive. They also get me thinking much more about, “What should I be doing? What is my role as a citizen of the world? We are here for a few more days. I will continue to ponder my responsibility as we see and learn more about Nepal.
I will include some more pictures of the devastation and rebuilding from the earthquake in a travel subheading in the next couple of days , as well as some photos from our flight by Everest. Check back.
Siem Reap Area Temples known as Angkor Wat
March 11, 2017
Angkor Wat
The Siem Reap Area Temples are generally all referred to as Angkor Wat and encompass 400 sq km. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the actual Angkor Wat temple is the largest religious monument in the world! To help put some of this into perspective, many of these structures were built before or at the same time as the massive cathedrals of Europe, by a people living with limited tools in the jungle. According to some web sources, they completed the construction in only 35 years.
We spent 4 days in this area. I’ll begin with some background and history. The next post will continue with descriptions of the other places we visited besides Angkor Wat temple itself.
Getting to Siem Reap
We took a bus from Phnom Pehn to Siem Reap which takes about 5 1/2 hours on pretty good highways. They picked us up at our hotel and drove us to the Giant Ibis bus terminal. We transferred to a big charter kind of bus and had a chance to see the countryside of Cambodia. There was no toilet on board, but we stopped for a break after about an hour and stopped for lunch in about 2 hours more. They even switched drivers halfway through. This trip cost us $15 each.
Hotel Choice
We stayed in the city of Siem Reap at the Golden Mango Inn. It was a great place for us for a few reasons. It was a away from the high energy part of town, it had its own restaurant and the pool was shaded and cool in the afternoon after a morning of touring.
We arrived to register and were led to the couch seating and given cold lemonade and towels to refresh ourselves after our journey. They helped us plan an itinerary for the 4 days that we were there. Breakfast was included and the day that we went to see sunrise at Angkor Wat, we were given a breakfast to “take away.” We upgraded to the deluxe room by the pool and paid $217 for 4 nights. Their customer service was outstanding.
This price included pick up at the bus and delivery to the airport when we left. Our tuk-tuk driver at the bus became our driver for the whole week. Chatting with him at the bus station gave us a chance to check out his English, which was great. You can find him on Facebook. The set fee for the driver was $15-$20/day, depending on the distance. The hotel booked him for us for 3 days, and we arranged to have him take us to the Angkor National Museum on the 4th day ourselves.
Travel Tips
- Hire a guide unless you are an expert on Buddhist and Hindu legends and symbolism. They know the stories, the history and where it’s best to take pictures. There are few signs showing the names of the temples, there are no descriptions on site, and no wifi to look things up yourself. We had the guide all to ourselves for $45/day. The hotel booked the guide for us for the first day. We booked her again for the fourth day of our visit.
- Hire a tuk-tuk driver. They will drop you off at one gate and pick you up on the other side. Ours also drove us on a loop of temples without our guide, then accompanied us on the boat trip to Tonle Sap.
- Get some local advice for planning. It’s hard to remember all the names and to know the distances between them. Our hotel was excellent at providing that information. There are many travel offices in town to help as well. There is lots of information on line, but it was difficult to make our own itinerary, just because there so much.
- Wear a big hat. There is not much shade in the temples
- Take lots of water-see above
- These sites are large and there is lots of walking.
- Wear sturdy shoes. The temples are not very accessible. There is lots of climbing over high sills between rooms and large steps to get up to the other levels. There are no railings or warnings about low doorways.
- Take a camera, or your phone at least.
- Stay at a hotel with a shady outdoor space.
- If you can’t walk it, check out Google street view–Angkor Wat
Background Information
There is a great museum in Siem Reap called the Angkor National Museum. It has many artifacts, historical context and a room with 1000 Buddhas. Their audio tour is very informative. We spent 2 hours there, but I could have spent longer. We visited there on day 3 after a day with a guide and a day with just our driver. Some other travellers recommended going there first, but this timing worked for us.
History
Great Kings who ruled in the area from about 950 to 1180 AD are responsible for these monuments. Kings were not always crowned because of their birth, but often because of victory in battle. The temples and City of Thom were built for the gods, to commemorate battles, and honor family members. The interesting thing is that some of the Kings were Hindu and some of them were Buddhist, although both religions originated in India. The gods they worshiped were different. The Buddhist Kings left the Hindu statues but the Hindu kings removed the Buddhas from the temples. Some of the carvings showing Buddha sitting in lotus position were re-carved by adding a beard and moving the knees up to a new, higher level. Others were removed altogether leaving an empty Buddha silhouette.
Angkor Wat Temple
Angkor Wat temple represents the gods in the center, the walls are the mountains and the moat is the oceans. The outer walls of the temple complex are huge and completely covered with carvings that represent Hindu legends and great battles. It is hard to imagine a society so advanced that they can employ and feed so many workmen to not only build these monuments, but cover them with beautiful art and stories.
The temples were built with a kind of brick called laterite. It looks volcanic but when the clay is dried in the sun, small holes form but the blocks are strong. They were faced with sandstone that had to be moved 30 km to the area. Some of it was covered with a kind of stucco and even painted.
What’s next?
I will include the names of each temple with the pictures. There is lots of information on line if you want to know more about these temples and the history. I found the Travelfish site the most useful for me.
After visiting all the amazing structures, the idea that stayed with me was that these were powerful leaders who built cities and temples as well as conquered large areas of southeast Asia. Cambodia is very proud of this history.
Some pictures can be found within this post. I will also add them and others to the travel page found at the top of my webpage. If you are reading this blog by email, click the link to the site, found at the bottom of the email.
Have a look at some of the comments shared by other readers. Thanks for the interesting conversations.