I always wished for a white Christmas. Even though it is not snowing in Kathmandu, I am having a cold Christmas here in Kathmandu unlike in Australia where it is hot and muggy during Christmas.
So from a far far land called Kathmandu, Merry Christmas everyone. May the Christmas spirit keep you warm and full of joy this holiday season.
Kathmandu has changed a lot in the past decade. When I was growing up here, there was hardly any sign of Christmas seen in Kathmandu but these days every shopping mall is decorated with Christmas decorations and every shop has a Santa or mannequin dressed in a red. From the only Hindu country in the world Nepal has changed to be a multi religious secular country.
My Facebook is full of photos of people from Nepal celebrating Christmas eve and Christmas, It is nice to see globalisation (in every aspect) happening in Nepal as well.
I also got this picture from my boss; it is of my desk at work full of gifts for Christmas. It was really nice of her. I am eagerly waiting to go back and open them 🙂
Talking about Christmas I couldn’t help but notice that Bangkok is adorned in fairy lights and Christmas decorations.
According to Wikipedia, 94.6% of Thais are Buddhists followed by 4.6% Muslims which leave less than 1 percentage of Thai to be Christian. But if you are in Thailand, especially Bangkok, you will be forgiven if you think Thailand is a 100% Christian country. It looks like Thais love Christmas. As soon as early November rolls around, every year, up go the Christmas trees, the Christmas lights and the Christmas decorations all over Bangkok. We saw Christmas decoration in every shopping mall, every department store, every shop and even many schools and offices decorated for Christmas. It’s actually quite wonderful if you’re a Christian living in Bangkok, as it’s hard to be depressed and miss your family when there’s Christmas cheer everywhere in Bangkok.
Here are some decoration from Siam Paragon, Central World Plaza, Amarin Plaza and other malls and walkway around Bangkok.
The trip is going good so far. The flight to Sydney was 8 hours and 30 minutes and I rested well during the flight.
We got a window seat and the one next to it for our journey. When we checked in online the day before, we realised that the flight was quite full and we had someone next to us. We always wish to have a seat next to us empty so we can move freely but it had not happened for a while. So when the captain announced for the door to be closed, me and AS both were looking at each other delighted as there was no one next to us which meant that we got 3 seats to ourselves.
As soon as we took off, we were served lunch. Most people complain about air plane food but I am OK with it. I know it is not great but they are not bad either. We choose to eat Thai chicken curry with rice.
While having lunch, I watched the movie Bourne Legacy, which I had been thinking to watch for the while. Without Matt Demon, Bourne seems a bit weird but it was not bad.
When I finished the first movie, we still had almost 6 hours before landing. Even though we flew in the morning I was feeling very tired so I decided to sleep. Sometimes being small is an advantage as I could easily sleep on AS’s lap with my leg stretched over 2 seats. I couldn’t believe that I slept for almost 2 hours without waking up in between as it was really comfortable.
AS couldn’t sleep in the plane so he was still watching some movie when I woke up. After that I watched one more movie called Hope Spring. It was a bit slow but very educational for married people. I am glad it is too early for me and AS to be in that situation but I really hope we will be in better place in our relationship when we will be at that age married for more than 30 years. Do watch it when you get some time.
After the second movie it was only few hours before we were to land. We were served a light meal and it was noodles with prawn and some dessert. I really didn’t want to do anything else so I watched Just for Laughs for a while. I really love that show. Look at some of the great gags they have when you have time and I am sure it will make you laugh too.
Just behind our seats, there were 3 people travelling separately becoming fast friends. I know it is bad to eavesdrop but they were talking loudly so I could hear everything. One of the guy was 25, a woman 34 who is travelling international for the first time and an older man. It was nice to hear their conversation about each other and their travel plans :). They exchanged mobile numbers as well so they can hang out in Bangkok.
The flight was on time so we landed at 3pm Bangkok time. As soon as we came out of the gate, I could feel the Bangkok humidity. I was wearing my leggings and I was feeling really hot. I almost forgot how hot it was when we came here last time. Seriously even at that time, it was so hot that I had to run for the shade.
A bus took all of us to the terminal from the plane. From there we cleared immigration and took our bags were off to a taxi stand.
While waiting for our bags, I saw this sign at the Suvarnabhumi Airport which was very confusing for me. Would anyone voluntarily go via the red channel? Would you? 🙂
It took almost an hour due to traffic for us to reach our hotel. We were booked at Chateau de Bangkok. We stayed at the same hotel last time and we loved it so we booked it again.
Once in the hotel, we checked in and were happy to rest for a few minutes before changing and going out to discover Bangkok all over again.
The room was nice and clean as I remembered from last time.
I meant to write this post yesterday but I have been really busy this week. So finally I got some time to write this morning.
Right now I am at Sydney International Airport waiting for our flight to Bangkok. We checked in, passed immigration so nothing else to do but wait. AS is busy on his mobile playing Sudoko while I am browsing the net and writing this post.
This week has been really busy as my brother with SIL and little nephew left for Nepal. Then the whole week at work I had meetings and trainings that kept me very busy.
Anyway I am just glad that we are going on a holiday. Luggage wise I didn’t have much problem. I think it is better when I fly out from Sydney but coming back is always a problem with so much stuffs that I bring with me. We have more than 30 kgs in our luggage which is only gifts for my family and AS’s family. I always think I haven’t bought much but when we started packing, OMG there is so much. I really hope everyone will love our gifts as we spent lots of time on them.
First stop will be Thailand where we will spend 4 days going around and shopping in Bangkok. We will also meet AS’s cousin with his wife and little girl (she is under 2 and this is the first time we will be meeting her) so that is really exciting. After that we will be in Nepal for the rest of the holiday.
Really looking forward to spending a good time with our family. All the fear I have expressed in this blog before has gone away and I am really looking forward to having a great time.
I will have a cold but not a white Christmas this year so that is completely different than Christmas in Australia as I have mentioned in my post here, no BBQ, no beach.
I will be updating my blog and reading other blogs less frequently until I come back to Sydney so till then take care everyone. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Sydney is so multicultural that every weekend there is some traditional celebration going on in different parks across the city. Two weeks ago we went to Parramasala and last weekend we were able to attend another amazing cultural event called Loy Krathong.
Loy Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. It is also called Thailand’s “festival of lights” and it is the time of year when the waters around the country come alive with candlelight and look not unlike a massive fairy ballrooms.
The history behind the festival is complex, and Thais celebrate for many reasons. The main rice harvest season has ended and it’s time to thank the Water Goddess for a year’s worth of her abundant supply, as well as an apology for polluting the waters. Some believe that this is the time to symbolically ‘float away’ all the anger and grudges you have been holding onto, and including a fingernail or a lock of hair is seen as a way of letting go of the dark side of yourself, to start anew free of negative feelings. If your candle stays alight until your Krathong disappears out of sight, it means a year of good luck.
To celebrate this occasion, Sydney’s largest water festival, the Loy Krathong Festival, was held in Parramatta at the banks of the river by the same name. The festival attracted more than 12,000 people from Parramatta, Greater Western Sydney and Asian communities from all around Sydney.
The festival started at 5pm but we were there by 7 pm. By then, there were lots of people on both sides of the river.
We started our journey from the main stage where there was some dancing going on. We watched a few shows and then started to look around to find out what else was going on.
I was really drawn to the crowd where there were tables and chairs set up to make your own Krathong that you could put in the river later in the night.
There is no equivalent word in English for ‘krathong’. You may hear people referring to it as a small boat, vessel, receptacle or container. In the run up to the festival, many shops and market stalls will display ready-made Krathongs, or in parts so you can assemble and decorate as you wish. In the past, krathongs were made from natural materials – usually a section from a banana tree trunk, crafted into a lotus shape by using folded banana leaves, and these can still be found for sale around the main festival sites. More recently, Thais have become more creative in their craft and design the krathongs from coconut shells, flowers, baked bread, potato slices, some breaking with the conventional lotus leaf shape in favour of turtles and other sea creatures.
It was really fascinating to see kids and adults trying to make the Krathong. I joined the crowd and here are some of my photos AS took during the process. I really didn’t know what to do but I was happy to watch people and learn. It was fun and it took around 10 minutes to finish it.
I guess at the end it turned out great. What do you think? 🙂
From there we looked at the stalls and check out lots of traditional jewellery making, umbrella making, the art of painting umbrellas and masks, weaving, making a lotus lantern, as well as other stuffs where there were beautiful ladies in traditional dresses explaining what they were doing.
Then we moved on to the food stalls where there was a long queue. We did manage to get some curry puffs, spring rolls, taro spring rolls as well as duck salad and Thai green curry with rice.
With all this food we took a seat on the grass by the river and enjoyed the food and waited for the launching of Krathongs.
Once the official Krathongs were launched , I joined the queue and put mine into the water as well.
The river looked really beautiful with so many different designs and sizes of Krathongs floating on the water.
After that we went to the main stage where we watched Golden Lantern Dance, Candle Dance, Fighting Cock Dance as well as a Thai Puppet Show. All of them were really interesting and fun.
After the show we went and crossed the bridge to go to the other side of the river where they had set up a Thai village as well as amusement rides for children.
At one corner there were fire dancers performing and there was also some free face painting going on. We also heard people singing Loy Karthongs songs in the competition.
Finally we finished the tour of all the stuffs and decided to sit at the top of a slotp on one side of the river and waited for the fireworks to start.
At 9.55, they started the fireworks and it went for more than 5 minutes. It was a really beautiful display. Finally we headed home after a good evening out.
Last weekend we went to the festival in Parramatta called Parramasala.
Parramasala is an international contemporary arts festival that celebrates the global impact of South Asian arts and cultures. The city of Parramatta comes alive with vibrant art and entertainment including music, dance, theatre, comedy, film, markets and visual arts from around the world.
Parramasala is also designed as a destination in the state of New South Wales for tourism and business development. The festival is at the forefront of the promotion of Parramatta as a great city in which to live, work and play.
We went there around 2pm and waited for the program to start in main dance area. In the mean time we went and found lunch which included samosa, masala dosa and chicken biryani. I have to say that the food was not tasty as it supposed to be but I guess it is normal in fairs like this.
There were lots of stalls setup to sell items like Indian style jeweller, Manchester, Indian outfits, book stalls and henna painting area. I wanted to get a henna but then I was going to have a massage afterwards so didn’t seems like a good idea.
The dances were good with some Bollywood, Indonesia, Indian Classical dance as well as modern dances. There was some Tablatronics program as well which was interesting.
We had fun.The audience for the festival is all embracing, and attracts a wide a varied audience.
But the day was really cold so we decided to leave at 7.30pm. The show was on till 11pm.
