Tamang, Langtang, Helambu and Gosainkunda Trek

We had a great time during this trek. We had a bit better luck with the weather than the Annapurna, as you will see in the pictures. The nights got very cold as we were hiking in late fall, early winter. The Helambu wasn't our favorite part by far. On the Gossainkunda we saw the big religious lake where Shiva (Hindu goddess) made the moon, the sun and poison. At Kyangin Gompa we had an amazing view of the Langtang and Ganesh Himal mountain range.

Holding up our prayer flags in the Langtang valley.  This little lookout was at 4300m.

We were treated to an impromptu cultural performance on our first night of the trek.  In Tamang.

We like yaks...

Where did the chicks go? Gabriel got a kick out of this little scene.

A small Stupa up high in the clouds.  These were common on our treks.  They are part of the Buddhist religion.

Behind us and across the river is Tibet (China) and some very paranoid Chinese.  This border crossing is literally in the middle of nowhere and the Chinese have it fortified and guarded like it's a national secret.  They have quite a few "projects" going on in Nepal that make some wonder why they would be so interested in being there.

Gabriel receiving a Kata (symbol of friendship and good luck for traveling) from our Tibetan host.  We stayed with a Tibetan couple at their homestay

Marek tying a prayer flag.

Rhonda taking a little break after a climb up to a stupa.

A far away picture of a guesthouse we stayed at. EcoLodge. Once again, we really had a great experience there.  The couple was very friendly and great with the boys.  We spent two nights here.

Marek receiving his kata  (pictures got a little out of order in the uploading..)

How to make your prayer wheel turn all day long (and night)?  Rig it up with paddles and place it in a stream.

A sea of clouds towards the end of our hike.

The temples of Angkor Wat

The temples of Angkor Wat is the biggest tourist attraction in Cambodia, as well as being the largest religious structure in the world. We spent one scorching hot day with a tour guide Rat visiting some of the temples. We visited three different temples, the first one was Angkor Wat, the second temple was Bayon (Gabriel and Louis` favorite temple) and the last temple was Prasat Phnom Rung AKA Tomb Raider because the Hollywood movie with Angelina Jolie (Marek and Rhonda`s favorite).

An outside view of the biggest structure of the Angkor Wat.

This little engraving is an apsara dancer. There are similar engravings scattered about on all the temples.

She has nothing to do with the temples but the fact she was there.  My parents thought she was cute...

AHHHHHHH Stop staring at me. The king that built this temple decided to put 4 faces of budha on every spire, and there are lots and lots of spires.

My parents thought they were enlightened for a moment.

I think that the ancient Cambodian kings knew something about dinosaurs that we didn't. Nobody knows why this dino was carved into stone.

This is the temple were they filmed the movie Tomb Raider. As you can see massive tree roots have completely taken over the temple.

The roots are all about as thick as two men standing side by side and much, much taller.

One week in Phnom Pehn

Phnom Pehn was much more westernized than we would have thought.  Right in front of our hotel there was a huge boardwalk along the Tonle Sap river.  This was an area of activity where we saw a photo exhibit, many people exercising (dancing, badminton, soccer, aerobics etc...) day and night (we heard them...) and we even saw an elephant walking down the street.  While there we toured different parts of the city and also around the city (orphanage next blog) and we chartered a boat to go up the Mekong river.

Big dog on a motor bike....

little dog on a motorbike.

Fresh sea food at the market. (sometimes it was still moving)

A typical Buddhist monastery.  They are quite different than the ones in Nepal.

A "delivery truck".

These people work and live on these boats. (some had mini TVs)

Another example of living on the river. These homes are floating.

Just before he caught the big one on the Mekong.

Coming home from school.

Anyone hungry for a bug? Fried, raw, spiced up etc... Check out the following video. 

 The following pictures MIGHT BE DISTURBING to some, but it was part of my visit (Louis) to Cambodia.  I'm sorry if some find these difficult but in speaking to some locals the past is not such a distant memory and this was part of it.  The pictures will speak for themselves.

Faces of Tamang

The people of the Tamang heritage trek where amazing. They were all so nice and always trying to be helpful. Our family wanted to redo the trek because of the people. The Tamang's are descendant's of ancient Tibetan horse trader's. We did the trek mainly for a cultural experience but there were more trekker lodges than we hoped and there was only one homestay. That was our favorite part of the trek because we got to stay with the people.

This was a woman at the spot we had lunch on the first day. She spoke no English and they only had potatoes so we ate potatoes for lunch. We sat around the fire on the floor in the smokey kitchen.  From then on we called it the potato palace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is our friend's porter and a cute little girl we met on the trek. Her name was Tenzing Lamu.

This is the man from the home stay we stayed at. They took out all there Tibetan handicrafts to show us and try to sell us some things and the man put on the hat and the big necklace to show us.

 

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My brother and I with our new Tibetan friends/host and hostess in their kitchen at the homestay.

This picture was taken inside a Buddhist temple and there was a high monk who was giving blessing's. We went to get blessing's and this man liked my hat so we took a picture with him.

 

Hopeful Home

If your coming to Nepal and looking for a great volunteering opportunity you should check out the Hopeful Home orphanage. We spent about a week there having fun with the children and helping out. Even though we ate Dahl Bhat  for every meal the food was still tasty. All the kids there were super nice and always trying to be helpful. They loved to play soccer and every evening we would run out and find a dried up rice patty to play in. We were even able to spend the festival there. Tihar, the festival of lights is one of the most dazzling of all Hindu festivals. In this festival they worship Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth. You will find out all about it in the pictures. The houses are decorated much like our houses are at Christmas. A part of of this festival involves going from house to house singing and dancing until money and food is given, sort of like our Halloween and Christmas mixed together, though different. This is done for 3 nights until very late (sometimes until 4 in the morning).

You think your house is small ,this house is the home for 35 kids.

This is me with the special Bhai Tikka. We don't know why there are seven colors.

This was mine and my brothers "sister" putting my tikka on.

These great bamboo swings are hand made by families specially for the festival. All the kids loved playing on the swings.

This is us in our whole Bhai Tikka festival regalia.

HAPPY BHAI TIKKA!!!!!!  This is all the kids at hopeful home except for 3 girls who went to a different spot to give Tikkas to their brothers.

An important part of the festival is decorating the house. Everyone gets involved.

The age of the kids vary and so does their dancing. The styles vary from traditional Nepali to Hip Hop. It makes for an interesting evening.

This is the fruit of their labor (we helped a bit) .  A tray with rice, money and food that is presented with candles and nicely decorated.  Sometimes the home owners drove a hard bargain, we had to sign, clap and dance for almost an hour. This is Goma, one of the wonderful women who run the orphanage.

We were walking around in the street when my mom was like "hey look at that dog" she then continued by saying " I know why  its all dressed up its the day that the Nepalese honor the dog".

Thanks to all of our friends in Hinton who donated money for a charity of our choice.  Many of the above pictures show children who will benefit from about half of that money.  This orphanage is well run.  The children are well fed, clean, HAPPY, respectful, and they are all supportive of each other.  They also follow a pretty structured schedule which include a couple of daily homework slots.  The expectation from the adults that work there is that school is first and achievement is important.  We knew the money would not go through different hands when we donated.  We gave it to Gopini (the boss) and she runs a tight ship.  If you'd like to check out where your cash went please visit: www.hopefulhome.org 


Again, thanks from all of the kids.