Pokara and the Laughing Buddha Restaurant

After a five hour bus ride we arrived in Pokara.  The first place we went was to the Laughing Buddha Restuarant.  My parents are friends with the family that owns and works in the restaurant so we wanted to meet them.  As it turned out, the restaurant was the best part of the holiday for Ali.  She wanted to spend every day in the restaurant.  I ended up leaving her here to go shopping.  Ali would play with Rekha who was 13 or 14 or watch tv.  But the best part was actually working in the restaurant.  Ali has played waitress since she was little and now she got to do it for real.  She gave out the menus, took the orders and they even had her cutting up vegetables in the kitchen.  She was just in her glory.  And Nira and Rekha loved having Ali there. 

In the Laughing Buddha Restaurant

Rekha and Nira

Pokara is a lovely place to be.  Much quieter than Kathmandu and on a lovely lake.  We went for a boat ride on the lake and watched the paragliders coming down from the hills.  I love this picture of Ali in her too big life jacket. 

Chitwan

Ali and I headed off to Chitwan so she could see the animals and ride an elephant.  We headed off at 7:30 Saturday morning on a bus and arrived around two.  Lunch was waiting for us when we arrived and we then had a short rest before heading out for a walk with the guide.  The resort where we stayed was outside of the park and you had to walk in to see anything.  I didn't expect to see much on our first walk in.  It took half an hour walking through the town before we arrived at the edge of the park.  We only walked along the river for about 5 minutes before the guide caught the sight of two rhinos wandering towards us.  We then spent the next 10 minutes or so watching the rhinos as they walked past us to the river.  While I enjoyed this immensely, you can see from the photo that Ali was less then impressed.   The heat and the long bus ride and taken there toll and she just wanted to go home. 

Sunday was a much better day for Ali.  It was the day to ride the elephant.  We had an hour and a half ride through the jungle and saw monkey and deer.  Ali just loved the ride.  In the afternoon we had a trip up a river in a narrow boat that took us past several crocodiles including one sunbathing on a bank.  The canoe let us off to being a jungle walk.  I was worried that Ali would have another meltdown since we would have to walk about an hour but she was great.  Infact, she was the one to find the tigers foot print by a small pool.  Most of the walk was spent tracking down a rhino that the guide had heard.  We bush wacked through the jungle past big termite nests finding lots of deer along the way.  We finally found the rhino hiding in some bushes. 

Monday was a restful day with nothing planned for the morning so we walked through the town and sat at the rivers edge and waited to see if any elephants would arrive for a bath.  And they did.  Ali also enjoyed this. 

Elephant bath, Chitwan from Wendy Marshall on Vimeo.

                                                                                                                                        

She also enjoyed the second elephant ride in the afternoon.  On this trip we found another rhino and more monkeys and deer.  The highlight for Ali was riding the elephant through the town and back to the hotel.  The elephant we were on lived at our hotel so we got a longer ride. 

All in all, Ali enjoyed this part of the trip especially the elephants and the dog at the hotel, Lila.

Kathmandu

We arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday night and were met by our friends Jagat and Mann who gave us marigold garlands.  A friend of my Mom's was also with us after he joined us at the Hong Kong airport.  We were tired after the 5 hour flight so headed to bed. 

Me, Mann, Mum, Chris, Ali and Da

The following days were spent visiting people and orphanages and doing some shopping in Thamel.  Wednesday we went to Patan.  We didn't go into the temple site since we had been there before but you could see them well enough without going in.  We did do some shopping and spent a long time in a sing bowl store where we were shown how a singing bowl can relieve headaches.

Mum under the singing bowl

Thursday was a trip to the zoo.  Ali wanted to go here because I took her there as a baby.  With us were some of the poor children that are sponsored through my mother's  charity.  It's not a great zoo but many of these kids will never get to go a zoo.  Most of the animals were native to Nepal.  There were lots of deer and birds plus a few tigers.  Ali was most impressed with the elephant that was walking through the grounds. 

Liza, Mann, Ali and the elephant

On Saturday we head to Chitwan on the bus.

Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong late Saturday night and went to bed for a well deserved sleep after an 18 hour flight.  We had been gone from home for 24 hours.  Ali was great on the plane thanks to her own personal tv in front of her seat.  She sat with my parents in the row ahead of me. 

Sunday morning we got up and explored the big city park where there were birds and unusual plants.

Ali on the Park Exercise Equipment

Birds in the Park

We watched people practicing sword dancing and Tai Chi.  We also walked through the streets looking at the stores.  We didn't have long as we had to be at the airport by 3:00.  On the drive to the airport I was amazed by the port and the huge facilities for loading cargo.  It was massive and there were tons of ships in the harbour waiting to be loaded with freight.  Hong Kong looks like a very interesting place and I am looking forward to coming back.

Not good enough

Yup. The psychological report addenum that was sent to the country last week was not good enough. My agency let me know last Friday. The frustrating part is that the Adoption Ministry said it wasn't good enough but wouldn't say what they wanted changed or how to improve it. My Lawyer (facilitator), in the country, went in and met with the head of the department to get some direction. Today, my agency let me know that the Ministry has decided to write out a format that my psychologist can follow. At least they are giving some direction but this is so frustrating. This has never happened before and my reports followed the same template of other PAPs who submitted days before my dossier was submitted. Not only is this frustrating its getting expensive to keep having reports rewritten. And of course I am going away next week so don't have much time to do this. It will probably take the Ministry a few weeks to write a format. I am not even sure if I keep my place in line or what will happen at this point. I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens.

Running weekend

This past weekend we were in Victoria for the Victoria Marathon event.  No I didn't run the marathon, I ran the half in 2 hours, 5 mins.  I was happy with this time considering that I crammed the training in. And the fact that I am coming back from two years of no running due to surgeries.  All considered, it was pretty good.  I felt strong through the race and ran a negative split, 1 hour and 4 mins for the first half and 1 hour and 1min for the second half.  I could say that this was smart running on my part but the truth is that there were so many runners (6,500) crammed onto narrow streets that I spent the first 13k stuck behind slower runners.  I didn't worry though as I was out to just finish, not to set a PR. This was my 10th half and my third Victoria half

So now that I am almost back up to speed so to speak, I will now plan more races for the spring, maybe a half in March and another in June.  I am going to stay away from marathons for a while as they just take so much time to train for.  And lets not to forget how tried you can feel.  No, halves are good for now.

Ali also ran this weekend in the kids run.  She ran the 1.2 k with my Dad.  This year she actually ran it all except when she had to stop to tie her shoe.  This was easier for my Dad.  In past years he has had to carry her.  I must mention that my Dad and Ali beat Simon Whitfield.  You know, that Triathalon dude who has won Olympic Gold and Silver.  Sure, he may have been handicapped a bit by his two year old son but still, they beat him.  That's all we have to focus on.

Her is some photos of her running with my Dad. 

Dad and Ali



Simon Whitfield watch out!



With our finisher medals

My Mom ran the Marathon.  Yes, the marathon in 5 hours and 57 mins.  She is 63 and running marathons.  She collected pledges for this race and raised $2,000 for her charity, The Nepal Education Fund.

We did spend the night in Victoria and stayed in a hotel much to Ali's delight.  And in just over a week from now, we will be in a hotel again.  This time in Hong Kong! I can't wait.

Wendy

Ali's Bedroom

This weekend I finally finished off Ali's bedroom which I started in August.  I am happy with how it turned out and I like the new arrangement of furniture.  Now when you come into her room you see the bed and not a messy bookcase.  And I like the room with one colour on the wall instead of the 4 that were there before.  Here are some before shots. 

Ali picked out the spots and the fish for the walls and helped to put them up.  Here are the after shots.

What I really like about these pictures is that the room is neat and tidy.  Not that it is ever any different.  I mean Ali's room would never be messy, or have piles of toys everywhere, or all the clothes removed from the dresser and thrown around the room, or the closet two feet deep of dress-up-clothes and shoes and dirty clothes and art work.  And there would never be piles of kleenex under the bed either.  And I would never have to spend two hours Saturday morning sorting, cleaning and organizing.  Those things would never happen in this house. ;)

Wendy