Katmandu living

It has now been quite a long time since I last published a post here on the blog, but things have been quite busy here in Nepal leaving us no time. First of all we have had almost a month where we constantly had visitors - first Lieke’s parents came and after that we had our old friends from New York, now living in Hong Kong, Simone and Dominic with their kids Max and Jack. In-between I managed to get a bad infection in my knee and had to get admitted to the hospital for 4 days – However we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves here so lets step back a bit.


At the end of March Lieke’s parents came to Nepal as a part of their Asian roundtrip to visit all their expat children and grand children. When they where checking out tickets in the Netherlands they found out the best connection to Nepal would be over Hong Kong, which made it possible for them to visit Lieke’s brother and his family at the same time. So they arrived here in Nepal after having spent 4 or 5 days in Hong Kong first, which turned out well for us as they had already recovered from the worst part of the Jetlag when they came here. Much time was used on enjoying the grandkids but we also managed to see some of the sights in Kathmandu.


While Opa and Oma was here I managed to develop some kind of infection in my knee and though trying to ignore it I ended up going to a doctor on the second day – After looking at the knee he admitted me to the hospital right away for bed rest and antibiotic IV – It was very strange – I have never been admitted to a hospital before in my life (I was even born at home so this was the first time I had to spend the night) and this was quite a cultural experience. No food was provided so I had to get Lieke or one of the Didis to come to the hospital 3 times a day with food. I didn’t get any visitors from all the “western” we have gotten here, but pretty much every Nepali that I have ever met came to the hospital (this includes our night guard which I hardly ever see as he is on from 22.00 every night). I had gotten a deluxe suite in the hospital, so though it was at times hard and I was in pain, I could unlike at home enjoy electricity and television 24/7 – So I came home fully updated on all my sit-coms.


With a short overlap with Oma and Opa (we have now tested the house for capacity and we managed to easily fit 6 grown-ups and 4 children here) Simone and Dominic and their kids Max and Jack came to Nepal in the beginning of April. With them we made an overnight trip to Nagakot and also managed to visit Bakhtapur, besides some sightseeing in Kathmandu. It was nice to catch up with them – last time we were together was in Mexico where we met up at clubmed. We still hope that we will be able to visit them in Hong Kong later this year.

After the Ciafardinis had returned to Hong Kong we took off for Bangkok. Due to the state of the health service here in Nepal (which I have now had a first hand impression of) it is fairly easy to get medical evacuation from the UN for procedures that is not done in Nepal. Last summer while we were in the Netherlands we had Liva tested for growth hormone deficiency. As you need at least two test to fully prove or disprove deficiency, and they do not do this test in Nepal, we got a trip paid to Bangkok (that is, Liva and me got it paid – we had to pay for Joop and Lieke combined it with a trip she was on the Kuala Lumpur). We of course almost had to cancel the trip because of the riots on Bangkok, but luckily the “red shirts” decided to stop their protest 5 days before we left. Much of the time in Bangkok was of course used in the hospital where the whole family got checked up for all our ailments (The kids for GHD and me for my knee). Luckily the hospital was very nice and had everything you could ask for, including a McDonalds which was a hit with the kids. We also managed to see some of Bangkok – We went up the river to see where I used to live, saw the old grand palace, went to a IMAX movie, saw the children museum and the Aquarium and even managed to go the Build a Bear workshop. Besides that we did lots of shopping – the deals were absolutely amazing. So all in all we had a very nice trip – However, the best part of the trip was that both kids were found to have sufficient Growth Hormone. So the doctor has now told them that they have to eat better, which of course gives Lieke and I much more ammunition when they don’t want to empty their plates.

Yesterday was like christmas, Birthday and New Year, all in one - First of all it was the first day that Opa and Oma was here in Nepal on their world trip (they are visiting Hana, Pia, Sora, Maki and Martijn in Hong Kong before and after being in Kathamandu) and then we finally received our car - a Toyota RAV4. Unfortunately it will take a week to get plates and insurance for the car so right now I am just sitting pretending to drive .

Today both Joop and Liva had Parent-Teacher conference – However, here at Lincoln School they did it a bit different this time, so it was actually more like Parent-Pupil conference as the students were in charge of showing that they had learned. So we could see how far Liva has come with reading and writing and hear the letters that she has received from her Turkish pen friend and also how good Joopie is in counting and recognizing the letters of the alphabet.

Opa and Oma are arriving in 10 days time and after them we will have Simone and Dominic and their kids over from Hong Kong. As we are still pretty new here in Nepal we are using these days to explore Kathmandu so we have something to show off when we have visitors. Today we went to the Boudahnath Stupa in the East of the city and after that to the Hyatt hotel for Brunch.

It is soon spring here in Nepal and the flowers are starting to bloom. Our gardener Santa is busy getting the garden ready for the summer – We are now self-sufficient with salad and spinach and our zucchinis will probably be ready in a month or so. Santa is big on flowers – He keeps on running around pointing to places saying “colors” which means that he has planted flowers there. On the picture below you see Santa together with our Guard and some of the flowers from our garden.

Yesterday it was Holi, the Hindu spring festival of color. Holi is is celebrated by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other so we used most of the day inside cowering under the tables. Lieke dropped Liva at the bus-stop and as it can be seen on the photo she put on her whole protection gear, including rain jacket – In the end it was all for nothing as no one was interested in throwing color at her. If Liva looks a bit under the weather it is because she is sick right now. The called from her school 20 minutes after this photo was taken to tell us that she had thrown up in the bus, so she is home again today

This morning Liva lost her other front tooth and she is now able to eat rather big things without even opening the mouth. Ever since her other front tooth fell this tooth has been wiggling so it was with some relief that if finally fell out.

Today we left the kids at home with Lilly and climbed a mountain - or that is at least how it felt. In reality we only climbed 780 meter, but it was very tough as most of the climb was on "stairs" that was cut out of the path and was only over 4,2 km making it almost 20 degree climb on average. On the top of the hill (or mountain - I am not sure what it takes for an elevation to one or the other) were was a small shrine to Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche in Tibetan) and a viewing tower offering the best view of the Kathmandu and on clear days of the Himalayas.

Monday was Maha Shivaratri or the festival of Shiva - Here in Nepal the festival is traditionally celebrated at the Pashupati Temple and should be an incredible spectacle, with devotees paying tribute to Lord Shiva by smearing their bodies in ashes and praying until they fall into a meditative state. It is the only time of the year there the smoking of hashish is legal as this should help getting in the right meditative state. As I visited Pahhupati a few weeks ago, I didn't feel like going back (there should be more then 100000 people there on this day) and I therefore decided to explore the area just west of where we live where there is one of the old villages of the Kathmandu Valley called Kirtipur.

Down towards the river I passed the Dobi ground, the area where all the washing men (or Dobis as they are called here) come to wash and dry their clothes - I am not sure i want all my underwear to be hung out for all by-passers to see.


With the lack of water many of the people go to the local well to get collect water. We should keep this in mind as we ran out of water for 36 hours last week (I had to wash in a cup of water). In the end we had to pay double price to one of the water trucks to come and fill our water tank. One of the traditions of Maha Shivaratri is that the local kids can extort money from people by putting a rope over the road. Only after paying 1 or 2 rupees are you allowed through. One Rupee is of course only 1 Euro cent but when there are kids every 100 meters or so you run out of coins pretty fast.

Kirtipur is on a hill overlooking the whole of Kathmandu and the Himalayas (pretty much like our own house so I am not sure why I went all the way to Kirtipur!) - It was the scene for some serious fighting between some king and the locals 600 years ago - the king ended up winning and as a punishment cut of all the noses and lips of the local men. Like most Nepali towns it suffers from Urban sprawl (as much sprawl as a mountain permit) with the old city center occupying the top of mountain. The old city through, had some nice traditional Nepali Architecture and three nice temples.

With our car arriving some time during this spring both Lieke and I are getting a bit stressed out over the narrow streets of Kathmandu. Though we have driven in both Mexico and Yemen, it seems like that Nepal is the country where they have used the least land on transpotation infrastructure. The main road, which is about 50 meters from our house, is by Nepali standard quite OK - on that road is possible for two cars to pass each other easily. However, the road leading up to our house is quite a challenge. Not only is it very narrow, but the climb up to our house is extremely steep - on the top of this our drive way is going in the opposite direction than the road so you have to make a 180 degree turn at the same time as you go up a 30 degree climb - this often result in cars spinning and only touching the ground with three wheels. Luckily we have had quite a few visitors so we have been able to study how they have gotten up to our house and have after a big case study found out that you have to drive to the end of the road, turn around and access our house from this end. Quite a hassle but still a good idea to avoid ruining our new Toyota RAV4 when it arrives.

Today we had guests over for lunch - It is now the third weekend in a row where we have guests over on Sundays. Besides having to make the food (which I do not mind too much), it is really no hassle having people over as one of our Didis are normally doing the dishes. These days it is also really nice in our garden in the middle of the day so we can sit outside looking at our beautiful view - Today we could see the whole mountain range. I however hope that our grass will soon get a bit greener. Right now our garden is somewhat dusty

We have been pretty busy since arriving to Kathmandu and the last couple of weeks I have been busy getting my CV out to NGOs and the UN in search of work. However, today I decided to take a break and explore Kathmandu a bit. So I drove the 10 km or so through Kathmandu to get to the Pashutpatinath temple complex. This is one of the holiest sites for Hindus, not just from Nepal but also from the rest of the world. Some of the temples are only accessible for Hindus but there is still plenty to see. On the picture above, a Nepali wedding couple is emerging from the most important temple.



Pashupatinath is one of the most important cremation grounds in Kathmandu.When I was there there was four fires going. There is a whole hiracy to where you get cremated. This photo is of the expensive side of the bridge where a cremation cost 6000 Rupees (around 80 dollars) and up, so this is for the richer part of the population. On the other side of the bridge there is a platform that is only used for high ranking military people, a platform specially for the Dalits (the Nepali version of untouchables) and a platform for Bramins (the priest caste)




This platform is only used by the royal family - Now that Nepal no longer has a royal family it is not clear who will use these platforms - the white building behind is a hospis.

However, you do not only go to the temple complex to get cremated. On the top of the hill on the other side of the river there are a number of temples that is dedicated to fertility where you newly weds go to prey for many health children.

From the top of the the hill you can see the whole temple complex with the small fertility temples in the forground and the big shiva temple on the right hand side
On my trip home I came past our local cremation ground in Patan - However, as it can be seen on the photo there was not as much action as there was on the Kathmandu side.

The last couple of days Liva has had a wiggly front tooth and this morning it was clear that it would not stick around much longer. So when Liva’s classmates Nanna and Markus were over for brunch today they convinced her to give the tooth the last twist and it finally came out. Now we are just waiting for the other front tooth to come out as it has already started to wiggle.