Cambodia - notes from my journal

NEPAL

Flying into Kathmandu…finally, I’m here Nepal! The view from the air is already amazing. The mountains are overwhelming and I can’t believe I’ll be climbing up there in a few days. Scattered around the mountains are tiny little houses looking like the little Monopoly game hotels. I am struck by the beauty I find in these ruins. It’s brick, stone, grey, and brown…and yet so amazingly colourful and full of life. Kathmandu won my heart from day one.

A wonderful man by the name of Mingmar picked us up from the airport and got us all settled, making sure our gear was ok and showed us around. He spent the whole next day sightseeing with us and took us to his house for lunch with his family and the guide and porter coming along on the trek with us. I can’t say history is really my thing, but is was great to have Mingmar around to ask all about the culture and different things we saw.

Kathmandu is cold as soon as the sun sets and with only about 5 hours of electricity there isn’t much of a heating system or hot water to be spoken of. I decided fairly quickly that showering wasn’t gonna be prioritized unless absolutely necessary.

Pictures from around colourful Kathmandu

View from our hotel

Pahupatinath, a Hindu temple where funerals are held on these small 'altars' by the holy river. The bodies are burned on the little wooden stacks that can be seen, but only after the dead person's feet have been cleaned in the river which to them is holy.

Children in a charity school

At the Bodhanath Stupa

faces of Nepal

We sat in at a monastery as the monks were blessing the food and got to share some snacks with them

Lunch at Mingmar and his cute pregnant wife's place

View of Kathmandu from the hill of the Swayambhunath Stupa

the prayer wheels that they turn to be freed from their sins

Busy streets of Kathmandu

with its beautiful architecture

the dentist...

I just loved the small little shops along the street

Dear Blog

I’m not sure what happened, but somewhere in between New Year’s, a wedding, Singapore, work, and Myanmar I lost you. As I’m now off to my next adventure, here is an attempt to catch up a bit. Also, I’m really starting to wonder if I should change the name to my travels or something…or do I stay true to the Cambodian beginnings?

Anyway, in short

Thailand

A combined New Year’s and wedding celebration at a beautiful villa in Phhuket. An absolutely gorgeous place, ceremony and couple, with a great dinner and party to follow.

We started with a girls and guys night out. Dinner at the rockfish.

Followed by a boat ride with the whole crew the next day

Great fun and yummy food

a kayak tour among the caves

some swimming

and partying

the happy bride and mom

The Wedding Day. This beautiful villa at Katong beach was the venue for the wedding

The groom and his crew

The "ring-warmers"

A beautiful ceremony

Followed by the you may kiss your bride kiss

and the kissing continues during the first dance

My favourite girls...everyone of course wanted a picture with the beautiful bride

The yummy cup cake wedding cake

And then time came to celebrate 2011

with sparklers and fireworks

Despite my fight

and call for help

my night ended up in here.

I might have worried about my dress and shoes for about a second and then realized it was a fun end to a great evening...what an amazing wedding and New year's!

The celebration continued on for a fourth day with an open house at the villa

hanging by the amazing infinity pool and enjoying the ocean view

Thank you Keriann and Kelso for an amazing time celebrating with you in Phuket...you (read Keriann :) ) sure know how to throw a party!

Singapore

Back to Singapore and work for a month in order to finance my next adventure. A good time to catch up with some wonderful friends.

Myanmar

A place on the map in Asia where I’ve always wanted to go, and lucky me a business trip brought me there. And of course I took the opportunity to combine this free trip with some sightseeing of all the places I've been wanting to see J After getting a few meetings out of the way I set off to experience this magnificent country.