Tuesday, September 29, 2009

It's puja time!


The national Dashain festival makes the peak of pujas! The cars again got blessed at the embassy to mark the holiday and are hereby insured against any bad happening by all good sprits. This can be seen as the Nepali time of thanksgiving, the monsoon is over and the harvesting is done, so it's a time to celebrate and enjoy good meals and time with family.

The puja is an interesting ceremony that seems to have become a practice by a mix of religions, although originally a Hindu ritual. Incents are burned and tikkas are given by a priest who is hired to makes sure everything is done properly. Normally goats and hens are sacrificed too, but we managed with a coconut. It can get messy otherwise! As you can see the cars are nicely decorated and drive around like that for days afterwards. The chancery and me too got blessed with a tikka. Namaste and happy Dashain!

Posted by Picasa

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Riding to Nagarkot




As new members of the Windhorse Riding Stables in Kathmandu, we thought it would be great to join their two-day trip to Nagarkot this weekend. It is located on top of one of the hills near Ktm (apx 2000 m altitude). We drove just past Gokarna, and got picked up there by the instructors and horses. Lasse took his bike up and down.

It was a beautiful and fun ride. I am so pleased that I still remember how to sit on a horse, and sometimes even make it do what I want.. It got better with more practice and by the end of the trip I couldn't go fast enough. Ada got to ride also, and is very excited that she will continue to take lessons with Cecilie who already has been riding for a year.



Saturday, September 12, 2009

Annapurna Round on bike 2009

http://picasaweb.google.com/lasse.storholt/BestOfAnnapurna2009#

Annapurna Round on Bike, it was 11 days of biking and 12 total(1 extra day travelling back from Pokhara). Very nice trek, and also on bike, but some tough sections with lots of push/carry. Going over the top(5417moh) was really a great experience.. and doing the downhill 1700 down to Muktinath was extremely fun:)