Sunday, 12 August 2012

Massage and Mindi


Today was a great day for mom and daughter. After walking for hours and hours yesterday we had a relaxing day today.

The banda (transportation strike) was off today and we are getting better at figuring out the bus system so we hopped in a tuktuk (3 wheeled truck?) and headed to the Lazimpat area where we had massages. There is a place called Himalayan Healers of Nepal Massage Therapy where a man named Rob, from the US, has set up a business training the untouchables to do massage. The untouchables are the lowest caste in both India and Nepal. Those that still follow tradition will not hire them, one of the only jobs they can get is in cremation. Anyway, Rob let us have a 90 minute massage for the price of 60 minutes because he knew we were volunteering in Nepal and it was a friend of his that sent us there. OH yeah and best part…it only cost 1,300rps=$15Cdn!!! I spoke to Rob about Taxes, running a business and the corruption in the government in Nepal. Very interesting to talk to a local business owner.

After our massage we walked to Thamel where we had an amazing lunch, purchased some postcards and a camera. No great bargain considering how close we are to China! Then we took a Rickshaw to the Monkey Temple because there were lots of people giving mindi’s (hand painting) there.  We got a bit lost so climbed a few hundred more stairs than we needed to because we got a bit turned around which added a bit of stress but we only bickered a bit and moved on.

Other fun facts:
  • We do not have air conditioning in our room but the nights have been cool enough that I really wouldn’t want one. OK yes we all know that I don’t use my air conditioning in Canada either but truthfully the evenings have been cooler here.
  • We did laundry again today but did not make it back home before the daily rain storm knocked it all down. Back to square one!
  • One or two of the volunteers have been mildly sick but nothing major so far and Hailey and I remain healthy but tired.

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