Bangkok-Kathmandu- Besisahar-Guanshahar

Bangkok-Kathmandu- Besisahar-Guanshahar

So the kids have taken this sprint into their stride....

Perhaps they had itchy feet from chilling at Pun Pun, perhaps they were just ready for the next move. Perhaps the novelty of a super kiddy friendly swimming pool at the Bangkok Airport hotel was a really smart move by daddy. 

The discovery of  pomegranate at the local market and its super kid fantastic tiny juicy packets of goodness that take small children's fingers hours to pick apart was exactly the right distraction when we had forgotten to take our photos out of the big pack and it took 2 hours to get through Immigration at Kathmandu airport.

They certainly enjoyed the airplane trip from Bangkok to Kathmandu  with meal provided :Tara disassembled her dinner tray with surgical precision and Lukey honed his fine motor skills by tearing open the paper sachets of pepper ad salt and scattered them liberally, poured what collected in my teacup into Boyd's glass  and then played toss and catch the imaginary ball with Daddy for the rest of the 3 hour flight.

By the time we were driving through the dusty streets of Kathmandu dodging the trucks and honking loudly to pass the stalled traffic they were both blissfully asleep. In fact they remained asleep while we arrived at our hotel and dodged interrogation by the hotel owner who assured us that we were certainly not going to  be able to get a a bus ticket to Besisahar because of a very important Hindu festival called Deshan that was going to happen in 2 days time and every one from Kathmandu was leaving to go home for the festival.
"We must not worry though because we could certainly stay at his hotel throughout the festival for a very reasonable price. And he would be delighted to assist us to find and ATM and book a bus and get a trekking pass for a small fee whilst we were staying with him."

With the children sweetly sleeping and the clock ticking and with just 24 hours to gather all that we needed to get to Guanshahar ( the small village we were destined for just outside of Besisahar) Boyd disappeared onto to the streets of Thamel with a long list. I gazed dismally at the crusty carpet and stinky adjoining toilet and longed for the ingrained cleanliness of Thai hotels.

The kids woke up when Boyd got back with  crusty bread and croissants and we ventured out onto the streets of Tamel, kids in the backpacks and dodged hooking motor bikes and  parked Taxis and found a roof top restaurant with really great Italian Pizza.

*Honk* Imagine what Glastonbury festival ( or Womad) would look like if all the stalls  in the Greenfields became established permanently *brrrrrrrrrrmmmm* Imagine that roads had been layed down  in places and some were under construction but that the mud still crept in and became dust that permeated everything: the stalls, the clothes and got under your eyes and into your mouth and under your skin *beep-beeeeep*.   *brrrrrrrm* Imagine as if in a fairyland the shops provided what every purchaser wanted to see. THIS is Thamel and in this quasi paradise the customer wants quality trekking gear at slashed prices. So interspersed between the "organic pashminas" and the "funky hippy clothing" was " genuine Marmot/ North Face" gear for $10 a pop. *Honk Honk Hooooooonk* all copies with variable stitching and questionable quality.  *brrrrrmmmmm*

Now in Changmai, Lukey got pretty adept at leaping off the road at the sniff of a *brmmmmmm*  cheerfully yelling " Motorbike!! " and would peak out from behind a bumper looking hopefully for more. So he was in brmm brmm heaven with easily 3or4 bikes sharing the road with  8 pedestrians or more and the odd taxi all honking to aid the pedestrian/ taxi/ other motorbike/small childs decision to get to out of the way. It made for slow progress:-) Not that Tara minded: every stall was a mesmerizing ,tantalizing collection of beautiful things.

Somehow,( actually aided by a  low caste street vendor called Maia who spotted our plight and found  us the Trekking shop called Shonas owned by an ex Everest climber and his Sherpa wife Shona who designs and manufactures her own gear under the brand Alpine  Designs and found us some excellent Chai when we were super parched.) We completed our shopping list and  while Boyd and the kids hunted down banana lassisI hopped in a taxi to  suss out tickets for Besisahar, which we had been advised were unavailable/1000 rupees but must be purchased in advance/ no busses depending on our sources. Even the taxi driver assured me that there were no busses and that he could happily assist me by driving the family safely to Besisahar for a price to be negotiated. :-)

Now, Deshan is a like Christmas for Hindu folk and it also involves the sacrificial slaughter of animals for the festivities. After getting to the  (250 rps  taxi ride from Thamel) New Bus Park at 5.50 and purchasing 3 bus tickets for 410 rupees each with no difficulty. Boyd and Tara watched the butchery of a cow in the bus car park whilst the mechanic  greesed up the bus before her journey. And while the kids happily munched on digestive biscuits and pomegranate s the bus lurched out of the bus park and trawled about town with two young guys hanging out the bus shouting for folk to get on. Finally with the bus filled we started out of Kathmandu  starting our 6 hour journey along  mountain roads( think Awakino gorge)

Tara fell asleep on my shoulder and Lukey slept peacefully on the booby. I stared steadily out of the side window surrounding the bus with a white bubble of imaginary protection  hopeing that this added to to the  protective tikkas that I could see on the Hindu passengers foreheads would somehow balance the red bull charged bus driver honking wildly and overtaking on blind corners with the two touts still hanging out of the open bus door. Several passengers vomited in the front seat and a little girl screamed for an eternity in the seat in front of us. I assumed that she was shocked by the lurching of the bus and the stoney looks on her mums face.. But when I offered up an apple to distract her her father explained that she was livid because she wanted to drive the bus :-)

The first goat sacrifice on the side of the road was a surprise... But soon I looked forward to slowing down at each village and spotting the goats and cows in various states of disassembly on roofing iron on the side of the road. :-)

We arrived safely if a little early in Besisahar and were convinced to share a jeep by a man who assured us that the pink bus was not going to the village today, too tired  to argue we spent 3000 rps  to get to Guanshahar 8 kms and 800m elevation up the hill.  We were welcomed by Shamser and the kids immediately set to playing with the kittens/ the hammock/ the football whilst their parents soothed their shattered nerves with Nepali chai. The pink bus turned up moments later. :-)

Faces we remember Thailand

So Much Laughter

Pun Pun Thailand en route to Bangkok and Kathmandu.

Its late and the Pun Pun Truck leaves at 6.30 to take us away in the morning. I wanted to capture my thoughts on Pun Pun  from the sanctuary of my mosquito net whilst the cicadas still chirrup  around the house and the friendly ants quietly meander across us in the dark.

We arrived 5 weeks ago  fresh into traveling, nervous of slithers in the grass, refusing ice for fear of tummy bugs and counting each mosquito bite fearfully calculating compounding risk of tropical diseases.

I didn't really have any expectations of what Pun Pun would be like and what unfolded was a fascinating insight into the workngs of a thriving  community :successes ,challenges, financial structure. I have been inspired by gardening, composting, planting,  singing and seed saving and learned about making soap , shampoo, tofu, banana vinegar. But what fascinates me is watching a community thrive on preparing and eating great food, working hard together with so much laughter. Everything is funny from eating passion fruit with fish sauce to putting the 500th bag of chicken poop on top of the stack. Its not about efficiency, but about companionship.

I guess if I did have an expectation it was to find a home from home to start our journey that was safe ( emotionally) for our children and Pun Pun has surpassed this.  I once asked Sheena  what she felt that Pun Pun did really well and she  said that Pun Pun gave folk the opportunity to experiment. For us the relaxed nature of life here has given us the freedom to explore parenting whilst traveling and volunteering.

:-)

Preparing green tapioca noodles I don't know what was being said but it was soooo funny!

People said "you're brave"

As we were getting ready to travel I explained our plan to go traveling with 2 young children through Asia.  Aged 2 and 5 specificly Thailand, Nepal and India.
The most common comment was "you're brave"
At first I took the comment as typical from someone who has never traveled in a developing nation and never left New Zealand and the security's it brings.  Law and order,  medical capability and access, friends and family,  the list goes on.

Even now when we meet other travelers some still say "you're brave!"

Is it scary traveling with 2 young children who mean more to you than anything,  children who know nothing about snakes, who crack open chillies in the garden cos they are pretty and  happily walk in front of crazy Bangkok traffic cause there is no side walk. 
Hell yes it is. I even had a minor panic attack when the bangkok to Chiang Mai train had  broken down in the middle of no where surrounded by bush for hours,  when I started bleeding from the bum after having a poo and it didn't stop.

Life becomes so simple when confronted with these challenges.
Clarissa and I have supported each other (totally grateful to have her along side me). When things are not right  with the Happyy I have found myself using a concept i used to sometimes refer to at work : Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's theory is that if any lower level is not fulfilled then how ever well met the higher levels  are the human is not Happy

Luke and Tara need these same needs as well and in the same priority we have discovered

Our first challenge was food. Clarissa was fine but I personally struggle with food when I have no idea what is in it. Strange mushrooms. Some meals all I could eat was rice and a little cooked egg. I lost 7 kg in the first 2-3 weeks. Sometimes there was chocolate cake. But here at Pun Pun we had no idea what was to be cooked. I worried about malnutrition of the children.

I acknowledged my fear was just the food and started slowly to try new things. I found deep fried mushrooms as yummy as KFC chicken but all organic !

Next was the Mosquito and possible dengue fever or worse Japanese encephaitis, we found talking to ex pats living here for years explain that dengue has not been here for years, the lower population help allow it down in the country. Where in Chiang Mai we heard of a number of people contacting it.

Another aspect was budget and figuring out we were not going to run out of money.

And here at Pun Pun we have been accepted as family sharing and helping each other.

These are just a few specific aspects that affected me, everyone else in the family was slightly different. Luke had typical 2 year old tantrums twice a day but the moment we checked he had the  Maslow's foundations set right  he has not had a single tantrum.   I firmly believe the comment that all children have tantrums and it's normal is wrong. I believe they are caused by a lack of these foundations which heavily includes attachment parenting for those traditional western parents.

I think we have the tools and approach in place to continue. Hence I feel I can write about my feelings and challenges openly. We have ended up staying a long time in one place,  but we found an extended family, people to trust, people to play and live with.  We found time to explore slowly along side our children and watch them grow as people. 

Tomorrow is our last day here at "Pun Pun"and I have the same anxiety as when we first left New Plymouth airport. Keen to go but full of unknowns once we get off the plane in Kathmandu.

Boyd