Katmandu living

the van de Wiel/Schou Hansen family blog


I am loosing track of time here so I just went to the calendar and checked and it is true - We have now had guests for 7 weeks in a row - that must be a new record for us. When Margje, Chris, Philip and Ilias are leaving on Tuesday (knock on wood and sacrifice an virgin to the Ejafjalljökull volcano on Iceland) we have had guests for 54 days in a row - It is true - my fancy Ical calendar on my Imac says so. However I am getting a bit ahead of myself here and should really go 7 weeks back.


Seven weeks ago, Frederikke and Simone arrived to Nepal. They were backpacking around East and South East Asia as you do when you are 18/19 year old Danes, and had arrived in South Korea only to find out that the family they were to visit had gone to the US. So with some support from Frederikke's mom and I they managed to get a return ticket Seoul-Kathmandu with some Chinese airlines - After being turned back three days earlier due to lack of visa for China, they finally arrived on the 5 March, starting our long period of visits.

The good thing about having visits from backpackers is that they are grateful for the small things. I can remember it from myself and my backpack trip back in 87 - you start to appreciate things like quality plumbing and hot water and the lack of stress and that you are able to leave your backpack behind without things getting stolen out of it..... And it is nice to have some days where you do not have to visit a train station to get those third class hard sleeper non-AC tickets to next destination that you just have to visit because they have such a cool and enormous Buddha there. You really get to appreciate just staying put in one place for a while.

So it was very easy to have Frederikke and Simone over - they would hang around and play Wii with the kids and sleep endlessly and once in a while also do a bit of traveling and sightseeing.

In the middle of March, my sister Henriette and her family arrived for a full month in Nepal. I still do not quite understand the Danish rule for parent leave but their trip for one and half month to Nepal and Goa-India was planned to utilize parent leave for one of their three children (don't ask me which one but I actually think it was Ebbe that was born before our wedding back in 2001!??).

With the Millers (the last name of Flemming is Møller which is Danish for Miller, and this was the name that Flemming gave every time they ordered tickets & hotels ) we managed to go for four days to the National Park in Chitwan. Last time we we went to Chitwan we stayed inside the park and though it was an amazing experience and the kids really loved it, it was also a bit gloomy because of all the trees. This time we opted for staying outside the park which was very nice as it was much more airy and light. It however, was very hot in the Tarai this time of the year - every day it came up to around 37c. Whenever in Chitwan a full program is always provided for you and this time was no difference. However, due to the extreme heat we had most activities in the mornings and afternoon. We went on elephant safari, sailed in canoes down the river, went on jeep safari, bathed with the elephants and went on walks in the local village etc.

Two weeks after Henriette & Flemming had arrived, Lieke's sister and family arrived just in time for Liva's birthday. After being out traveling around a bit Henriette and Family also came back so we were all gathered her to celebrate Liva. She had a great birthday in company with 5 cousins, four aunts and uncles and the three of us - all in all 7 kids and 6 adult incl. herself.

With Margje, Chris, Philip and Ilias we went to Pokhara to hike. Before going to Pokhara Margje and Chris and kids went to Chitwan National Park where Margje unfortunately contracted a stomach bug. So we had to postpone our hike. Unfortunately when Margje got better Ilias had also gotten a bit of stomach trouble so in the end we had to limit our hiking to short one day walks.

We all returned to kathmandu in time for both families to get ready for their trip on (to Goa for the Millers) and home (for the Ingelse/van de Wiels) and this is when it started to get interesting. With the volcanic eruption over Iceland the airspace over Europe started to get effected, so each day was started with a thorough examination of the internet to follow wind pattern etc. In the end the van de Wiel/Ingelse family had to give up going home on time but it still came as a surprise to all that it would take so long to get another flight.

Anyway, hopefully (knock on wood again) they will be on the Etihad plane out of here in Tuesday ending up in Frankfurt some time Wednesday morning - this is just in time as the Hotel Kupondole Height will close down indefinitely so we can take a well-derserved holiday in Thailand from next Friday onwards. Judging the newspapers right now the saga can continue with us being unable to leave Thailand due to the fighting between yellow and red shirts.

We will publish pictures from all our visits separately in other blog posts.

1 comments

  1. Anonymous  

    Nice pictures and story! Everything OK here. Oma&Opa

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