Monthly Archives: January 2012

Abseiling

Posted on January 9, 2012 | 11 comments

I am one of those people who are really nervous at heart but love the heart racing adventures. I am always scared when I try out different adventurous things but the adrenalin that comes with the adventure always wins over my fear.

I have a long bucket list of things I want to do like Sky diving, swimming with the dolphins, Bungee jumping, Everest base camp trekking to name just a few. I am glad one of the things was checked off while we were in Vanuatu, and that was Abseiling.

When I was researching things to do in Vanuatu, abseiling was one of the things that came up and we decided to do it. I am scared of heights, especially when I know that the only thing that is holding me is a piece rope but somehow I convinced myself that it was going to be fun so I must do it.

Abseiling is a sport that involves climbing down the front of a large rock or a tall building while holding onto a rope. In our case it was more exciting as we were abseiling down a waterfall. The day we were meant to go for abseiling I was a little scared and a little excited. We went to the Mele Cascades and met our guide. The place looked beautiful and I saw so many tourists just walking around the waterfall. The guide gave us some safety instructions and the equipment and helmet. Also, I signed my life away saying I am responsible if anything happened to me during this adventure. We were joined by 2 other couples for this adventure.

Their website says the following about abseiling:

Vanuatu waterfall abseiling Vanuatu is a unique opportunity to experience Vanuatu and the Mele Cascades from a different angle. Anybody can walk to the Mele Cascades Waterfall but why follow the beaten track when Edge offers you the chance to abseil from the top of the Mele Cascades in the amazing rainforests of Vanuatu. While on tour with us you will have majestic views of the island only seen by those who dare to experience the adventure Vanuatu has to offer.

This award winning tour will see you abseil 50 metres down the Mele Cascade waterfall in two 25 metre pitches. You will receive encouragement and one on one instruction from our friendly instructors at the 8 metre practice cliff. After the abseil you are guided through the stunningly beautiful Mele Cascades, so you will see the whole thing from Top to Bottom.

So I was quite excited to start the adventure. But no one mentioned to me in trip advisor that there was almost a half hour long intense hike before we reach the place to start the abseiling. It was a hot and humid day so when we finished our hike all of us were sweaty, hot and tired. Thankfully there was water available on top of the hill for us to drink. The view from the top was amazing as well. There were 4 more people waiting for us at the waterfall. They helped us put on all the harness and show us how things work.

First we did a practice session on an 8m cliff where we were shown how to take control of our decent. It was really good as it gave me confidence to do the real one. They even let us do the practice session twice so that I could practice how to use my hands to control my decent with the rope.

When we were at the top of the falls for the real decent, I looked down and for a second I wanted to back out. I realised then that 50m is really high but I had no choice but to go for the descent. It was not very difficult as I was able to guide my descent with my hand on the rope behind my back so I could get a good position with one leg before I made a move with my other leg. It was really fun and amazing. The water was flowing down from the top as I went down and it was sometimes hard to open the eyes but every minute was such a great adventure. When I got to the bottom of the falls I thought that the first leg was over and was excitedly waiting for more. Imagine my reaction when AS told me that, that was it. I really wanted to do more J

On the way back we walked past the beautiful waterfall where people were swimming and cooling off. Once we reached the bottom, our guide brought us some fruits and juice and we had some while watching our photos which he and his team had taken.

Overall, very beautiful and fun experience. Click here for some photos.

11 Comments

Posted in Adventures, Vanuatu

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I love living in Sydney

Posted on January 8, 2012 | 17 comments

Every time I go outside Australia, I realise why I love living in Australia particularly Sydney so much. It reminds me what we have here and how lucky we are to live in this place.

In Nepal, there is a proverb “najjiko deuta hela” which roughly translates into “You neglect the temple closest to you”. I feel that happens to me as well when I think about Sydney.  I keep forgetting that I am living in one of the nicest places in the world. Coming back from Vanuatu I was amazed again (I tend to forget it from time to time) to see the beautiful view of Sydney from the plane. The amazingly beautiful blue water, lots of beaches and the landscape with a backdrop of Harbour Bridge and Opera House. I didn’t notice before but even our suburbs look nice and green from above.

So in the sprite of falling in love with Sydney again I decided to make a list of things that I love about living in Sydney.

  1. Sydney is one of the most multicultural cities I have seen so wherever you are from, you don’t feel like an outsider. You will see people from all over the world living in harmony here
  2. As it is multi-cuisine as well, you can get any food in the world easily and it is not that expensive either. You name food like Chinese, Mexican, South African, Cuban, Spanish or Italian and there are restaurants that will serve you your type of food.
  3. If you are into music then you can find hippies, trans, punks, rockers, jazz , hip hop in the nightclubs so life is not boring.
  4. Everyone is so nice and friendly (seriously if you have a smile on your face and walk around the city I bet more than 80% of the people will smile back at you. You know what they say about laid back Aussies.)
  5. We have so many nice beaches here, like 100’s, from famous Bondi to Manly, you can pick one beach every weekend in summer and you will still have many beaches left to go for the next year.
  6. There are so many nice places around Sydney for a day trip that your life can never be boring. Just jump in the car and drive away. Whichever direction you go, you will reach a nice destination.
  7. Every time I go to any other country and even interstate, I remember why I love Sydney’s weather. I know it has been crazy lately but the weather is mostly beautiful. The beautiful sunshine right now is my witness 🙂
  8. I don’t have to worry about what I wear as no one stares at you. (I have that problem every time I go to Nepal.)
  9. You can wear thongs (flip-flops) everywhere in summer and it won’t be consider inappropriate. Ohoo my mum was not happy when I tried to wear tongs outside my house in Nepal. It is considered ghar ko jutaa(slippers for wearing in the house) there.
  10. We protest with peace rallies about anything. It makes the point and no one is adversely affected. I really feel Nepali politicians need to learn this. This Nepal Bandh (Close Nepal) in Nepal is getting ridiculous. I can say it “Today is Nepal Bandh” because my favourite restaurant down the road closed down. (WTH)
  11. Coming from Nepal, free health care is one of the perks of living here. I know people complain a lot about things that can better the health care system but if you have lived in a developing country like Nepal, you will appreciate the things you already have with the health care.
  12. You can catch public transports everywhere. Choose from bus, train, ferry or monorail and you can reach your destination easily. I missed this when I was in US (except for New York). It is like you have to drive everywhere.
  13. Imagine you run out of milk while trying to make tea. What do you do? I just take 3 dollars from my wallet and go down stairs to buy milk. Ya I love it that corner shops are everywhere in Sydney and most of them are open 24/7 so that you don’t have to worry too much about basic necessities. It might be a bit more expensive but it is worth the price in emergencies. I realised it is a perk only after I visited US where you mostly have to drive just to do your groceries.
  14. You know how guys sit outside a corner store in a group and tease every woman who pass by the shop in Nepal, I am so glad it does not happen here. I used to fight with so many of them. They are always a rude crowd. Unfortunately, when I go back to Nepal, I still see such groups.
  15. Being single, young or female is not looked down upon.  I am glad about it otherwise it would have been hell for me to survive here. I was so young and naive but I was able to get a job and a place to live without any problems.
  16. Relationships are open so you can be single, partners living together without being married, a gay couple or just mates sharing a place. No one will judge you. People just accept you as you are.
  17. I still feel safe even after dark in Sydney. Even at midnight I can catch a train home not being worried about my safety. In Nepal, my phone starts ringing as soon as the sun goes down to make sure that I am on my way home. I don’t blame my parents for their concern as it is really not safe after dark.
  18. Religion is not a problem so even if you are Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Jew you are welcome in everyone’s home and can go to their kitchen and none will raise an eyebrow. I have seen in Nepal, they won’t let you into their house or kitchen if you are from a different cast and if you are from a different religion, they will treat you like an outsider.
  19. One of the best things about living here is you don’t feel that you need to show off how much money you have. I am sure lots of people around me are millionaires but I really neither care nor know as it is not important how much you earn or how big your house is. Everyone seems equal when you are together and having fun.
  20. I feel independent and capable while in Sydney. I don’t feel like I am a helpless female which Nepal used to make me feel.

P.S. Don’t get me wrong , I love my background, culture and Nepal but there are so many things I love about Australia particularly Sydney as well that I thought I would share them with you.

17 Comments

Posted in Australia

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Summer of cricket

Posted on January 7, 2012 | 6 comments

As you may already know, summer in Australia is all about Beach, BBQ and cricket. Everyone here seems to follow the game. There is always a Boxing Day test cricket which starts the cricket season for everyone. 

Wikipedia defines Cricket as a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team. A run is scored by the striking batsman hitting the ball with his bat, running to the opposite end of the pitch and touching the crease there without being dismissed. The teams switch between batting and fielding at the end of an innings. 

I think for anyone who is not into sports it might be a very boring sport which looks like men chasing a ball or trying to hit a ball. But once you know the rules and start following the rules, many people enjoy it. 

I started watching cricket in early 90’s and got hooked to it during World Cup 1996. In our house, all four of us, me, my dad, mum and brother were so into it that we scheduled our life around the games during that period. We used to eat early to make sure we got to watch the game. There were some days when we used to get up early while some nights we used to sleep late. As it was winter, it made it even harder to go to school following day. At school everyone discussed about the score and how the teams were doing. Different people supported different teams so we even argued on how the umpire was unfair and so on and so forth.

The World Cup 96 was really great. I was supporting the Sri Lankan team and it didn’t look good for them in the beginning.  I was really happy when they beat India in the Semi finals to reach the Final. They played Australia for the trophy and it was such a nerve racking game. Jayasuriya and De Silva played really well to win the game but Warne was proving to be a really good bowler.Sri Lanka won the game by 7 wickets and there were big celebrations for them.

From then I was even more hooked on the games. When I came to Australia it was good to know that there were many people who followed cricket here. The game is always in the news and there is lots of passion and support for the Australian team. A few years ago, the Aussie team was playing so well that they were winning almost every game they played. They had a great form at that time.

Right now there is a Test match going on. I am not a big fan of 5 day games as opposed to 1 day game but the game is really getting interesting. The day before Ricky Ponting made his first hundred after almost 2 years. It was really cool to see the last run he took for the century (he had to dive for it).

Also history was made by Michael Clarke making 329 not out. 

At my work there is a big TV in the lunch room where everyone runs to during their break to get the scores. Also there are lots of bets going around the office on how many runs Ponting will score, what will the final score for the Aussie team and the Indian team and many

I feel good to see people in support of sport and enjoying the games. One of these days, I plan to go and watch the game live instead of on TV.

Happy Summer if you are on my side of the world 🙂 . Enjoy cricket, the beach and the BBQ.

6 Comments

Posted in Australia, Sports

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2011 in retrospect

Posted on January 6, 2012 | 10 comments

I was just thinking how quickly a year goes by. Actually I can’t even recall a decade sometimes. It feels like just yesterday that I left Nepal to come to Australia and that was more than a decade ago. I still remember the time in Tribhuvan International Airport, in Kathmandu where I stood for the last time with my friends and family before I took a flight to come to this new place. It seems funny when I  think of it now that I had 40+ people there to bid me farewell. I had my parents, my brother, my aunties, my uncles, my cousins ( with the little ones crying ), my friends from school (among them was AS, my husband who had no idea at that time that he would marry me one day) and a few other friends . If I think about it now I feel happy that there were so many nice people in my life who cared about me and came to see me off. Time just flies and life goes by. I just want to take a moment and reflect on my year 2011 today.

The year started with AS and me being together for our first New Year celebration. It was really a wonderful experience to have him in my life, living together and planning our life together. I am so sure now that was what I was missing before he came to my life again. I just loved the feeling of togetherness and unconditional love we have for each other. Even though we have lots of adjustments to make in our individual lives to be with each other, it all seemed like worthy sacrifice when I look at it from this point of view.

I think the first half of my year I was just busy planning for the next stage of our life, our wedding. There were so many ups and downs in the planning. There were stages where I was so frustrated with people that I thought the wedding wasn’t happening as I wanted it to happen. And there were those highs when we talked to our parents about the wedding and saw all their excitement in the preparation of the wedding. Even thinking about it now has my head spinning. All I was thinking about was my dresses, wedding venues, photographer, decorations, food and the list keeps growing longer. It was basically a never-ending list of things to do which only ended after the wedding.  I think all is well if it ends well. So this year I became MRS from MISS.

Also our honeymoon to Vietnam was the highlight of this year. It was a great place to just relax and see beautiful places.  Wonderful memories are flooding my brain now 🙂 . I think June 2011 was the best time of my life so far and will always be in my memory as one of the most important time of my life.

I also got a new family this year i.e. my in-laws. It is really nice to have more people who care about you and look after you. I am really happy that my MIL, FIL and BILs are great people who have accepted me in their home as their own. I feel lucky that we get along well together and now I have a new family who will have a big part in my future. I have lots of cousins from his family side who called me sister-in-law (I feel so old when they call me that but I need to get used to it 🙂 )

Last year, one of my cousins got married and one of my good friends got married too. Both ceremonies took place in Nepal so I missed it but I am really happy to see them happily married to the love of their lives.

Two of my cousins had babies this year. Both had a baby boy and they are growing up so fast. They are in the US so I haven’t had a chance to meet them yet but I just love all their photos in Facebook. Hope I get to meet them soon.

Also two of my friends had December babies, a boy and a girl as I wrote in a post. They are just cute, adorable, beautiful babies.

I learnt to cook in 2011. Last year me and AS started living together on our own so I didn’t have much choice but to learn how to cook a few simple meals as surviving on take away was impossible.  I suprised myself that I can cook some good meals and follow recipes to have something decent on the plate. I should probably say that I became a responsible woman from a headstrong girl 🙂

Also in 2011, for the first time in our lives, both of us fasted together for a Puja ceremony in Nepal before our wedding. I was so glad that AS joined the bandwagon of fasting at my house where my mum had organised a big Puja to bless our wedding. It was kind of nice to see him support me in the traditional aspect of our life.

I managed to tick a few items off my bucket list as well. We travelled to New Zealand, Vietnam and Vanuatu so my list of placed to visit have shrunk a bit. I can cross abseiling and black water rafting off my list as well.

How can I forget to mention that in 2011 I started blogging too?  Nepaliaustralian was born in September 2011 and has been growing since then. I think it is one of the good decisions I ever made. It has given me a platform to share my ideas, thoughts and rant sometimes about the issues and topics that has affected my life. I also got to meet really nice people who share similar opinions and I got to read their blogs filled with creative ideas. Thank you everyone for making me feel welcome in this blogosphere.  Also thank you to those who awarded me various awards . I am honoured to receive 7 awards last year.

There were a few bad news last year. My aunty was diagnosed with breast cancer which is a first in both sides of the family. It was kind of shock to everyone but she is getting a treatment right now and it looks good and she is recovering well. Just want her to be normal soon.

My best friend’s dad passed away and I feel bad that I was not with her when she needed me. I am glad she had her family and her fiancé with her at that time. Hope to meet her soon.

It seems like so much has happened but at the same time I feel that everything happened yesterday. I hope 2012 has lots of good thing in store for me and I want to live this year happily without worrying about stuff that I have no control over (like I always do).

Wishing all of you a great 2012 and hope this year all your wishes come true. Be happy everyone!!!

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Posted in Personal

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Indulgence

Posted on January 5, 2012 | 6 comments

One of the good things while on holiday is that you don’t have to think about what you are eating. First of all, you don’t have to cook and on top of that you can order whatever you want from the menu. No dieting and no stress.  I just want to share some photos of food that I loved while on my last holiday.

 

While in Vanuatu, we found out that coconut crab and lobster were really cheap there compared to Sydney. The crab was $40 and lobster $20. You would never get that here so we enjoyed it all in Vanuatu.

And then after coming back to Sydney, we went for a big lunch to Pancake On The Rocks and indulged on pork ribs and chicken crepes followed by chocolate and orange pancake.  We had ice tea and cold mocha as well. I really don’t know how we ate it all but I remember it was very yummy 🙂

6 Comments

Posted in Foodie

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