SANTANDER; THE FABULOUS EXPERIENCE OF CANTABRIC SEA

When I was in school I read a travelogue written by the painting maestro of Nepal, Lain Singh Bangdel, Spain ko Samjhana (memoirs of Spain) Bangdel has brilliantly crafted in words how in the fifties he traveled to this beautiful country, those days he was studying in Paris. The first city from where he starts his Spanish journey was SANTANDER, a northwestern beautiful city which lies on the coast of Cantabric Sea, Santander is the land of the anicent caves of Alta Mira where the prehistoric paintings are painted in the caves, When I arrived in Spain I wanted to visit the same place which Bangdel has visited sixty years back. So I choose one weekend to travel Santander. Working as a tour guide in Nepal I had worked with so many people of different parts of Spain, I had an address of a client in Santander, I just had a phone number and email, I had forgotten the face of the client, it normally happens, the clients came from different part of the world and they leave their address, all these years I have worked with so many clients and It was tough for me to remember all. I decided to call him, I called him and said I am here in Valencia, again it was a dream for my clients. Nobody from the first world ever think that the guide whom we meet across the half of the world some day will come to knock our door, though they say if you ever come you can come to us but in reality nobody even thinks of hosting their guide, when somebody comes like this they are happy, they even call their neighbors to show how their guide look like, it happened to me in the beautiful city of Lainsingh Bangdel Santander.

The center and south of Spain is dry but the north is beautiful. The landscapes are amazing. We drove from Santander to Asturias. Asturias is another northern province of Spain and is famous for its milk. The sheep grazing on the landscapes, the little huts on the vast fields and snowy mountains are the attraction of Asturias. Little far from Asturias there is a famous church of Santiago. There is a pilgrim route from France to Santiago the route crosses almost the whole north of Spain. In Spanish they say “Camino de Santiago” which means the path of Santiago. The journey starts from France and ends in Santiago. Now days it is not only limited to religious purpose, it has converted into a tourist route. Like in Nepal we do trekking this route is the same in Spain. The whole route takes a month but many people walk on this path from different points. There are nice hostels on the way for the walkers; they are taken very good care. If one completes 100 kilometers of the way then he/she is given a certificate that he/she has done Camino de Santiago. After walking so many days when the people see the church of Santiago de Compostela sometimes tears welled in their eyes by the emotion. The church of Santiago is one of the beautiful in Europe and Spain. Now a day in this route we can see many Japanese and Korean tourists.

Bhutan Trip
I was on a trip to Bhutan from 21 july to 01 August, it became a fascinating journey. During the visit i tried to collect my feelings in writing.Bhutan : A Journey of TranquilityArriving Paro is a memorable experience, the hidden valley which is tiny and nestled around the hills. As I landed in the airport of paro, I was excited to see this beautiful neighbouring state of Nepal. Coming out from the airport a straight road takes us to the other side of the airport, beautifully designed and surrounded by the trees, we then took a u turn and started climbing on the hill, as we approached on the top we can see the paro airport right next to the river, the place where it is situated is unique, an airport right next to a flowing river, in Nepal it definitely would look like an airport on the bank of trishuli river. After a drive of half an hour we arrived to Kichu Resort which is one of the best resort chain in Bhutan. It is situated near to the bank of the River Pa Chu.As the night stepped in the tranquility started, I did not heard any unsusal sound whole night, it was like a meditation room. Because of its low population Bhutan is very quite, there is only one disco in paro and that also opens on weekend only. As the night was tranquil, the morning also seemed the same, with some sounds of passing cars but it was totally quite, I feel the Bhutan’s second identity is tranquility. Paro is a fertile valley and famous for its rice. At the dinner we were served the rice and pork, the rice looked very white and different with a good smell. Next morning we had a visit of paro, we were taken to the national museum of paro, which had the history of Bhutan in detail, even they have the pre historic redord of Bhutan, then we went to the Paro dzong, dzongs in Bhutan are the headquarter of monastic body and administration. The population of paro is only 50000, so it looks quite.The land management is done properly in Bhutan, they have very strict rules of making houses, one can’t construct the house wherever he wants. Because of the proper land management the city and town look beautiful.Arriving thimpu was another good experience, when I entered thimpu and saw an overhead bridge where cars are moving, I became convinced that development has taken place in Bhutan, I never thought that there would be a flyover, I remembered the chaos of kathmandu, till this date in kathmandu nobody has even think to build a flyover, I felt sorry for our lawmakers, we could have make kathmandu one of the beautiful city of south asia but, with a rough population of one hundred thousand thimpu has managed well, there are clean and wide roads, with lined well constructed houses, the markets, all are properly managed, even they have boards in many places which says “election bill pasting boards” they even tried not to stick election posters randomly,I feel that nepal needs to know a lot from the process of development of Bhutan, the very first thing that people seem to be aware that they are responsible for their duties. The rules and regulations are very strict in Bhutan, though there are ironies about the rules but there is a proper system.We then left thimpu and headed towards wangdi, a small town on the north east, the road is nicely built, we arrived wangdi in the evening. Wangdi is situted in the small valley near by the river. There is a resort near by the river, it seems cut off from the rest of the world, it has a small market and that’s only town of wangdi. The following morning we visited the wangdi Dzong, which is the headquarter of the district, then we proceeded to Punakha, there is another big and beautiful Dzong. The system of Dzong is intresting, half of the dzong is used by the administration and half of it is used by the religious body of the monks. In evey dzong there is a religious leader called lamthen, under him there are few hundred monks are residing. The chief of the administrative part is called Dzongda under him there are nine people who are called mandals, the job of the mandals is to go to the village and collect informations from the people, they report the dzongda about the complaints of the people.I saw a residence of Dzongda near by the dzong, it was nicely built and in the parking there was a brand new land crusier, this shows the value of the dzongda. The most important part I saw about the used of Nepali language in Bhutan, from paro to thimpu and even in the remote place wangdi, I didn’t have a language problem, after the elimination of the refugees from Bhutan in 90s, Nepali teaching had been stopped but still the language is used by the people. I met nepali spaeaking people but now they are quite prepared, all of them know dzongkha and were wearing Bhutan’s national dress which is compulsary in offices and schools. The vast nepali speaking majority now is well versed in dzongkha and some of them even speak other indeginious langauage of Bhutan. It was good to see the status of Nepali speaking people but still they have the problem, the relatives of the refugess living in Bhutan are not given no objection certificate, that means they are not allowed to work for the government, but I feel that the system is changing nepali speaking people are now hopeful that they will get the NOC. People in Bhutan told me that in terms of learning dzongkha the nepali speakers are faster and they picked up the language very well. This is a good sign for the futuere generation of nepali speaking people.The signs of economic prosperity in Bhutan are now visible, in wangdi the town is near by the road so the government is preparing to shift the whole town from the road and has already planned a new town little bit far, the ploting has been aleady done. This was unsual thing in Bhutan few years back but now it is going towards prosperity. We then started our journey from wangdi to Bumthang, bumthang is a remote valley in nothe east Bhutan. The journey from wangdi to Bumthang is about nine hours, on the way we have to pass Trongsa where there is a big dzong and the place is the ancestral home of the wangchuk dynasty of Bhutan. The nine hours journey takes us to to Bumthang, it is a nice valley resembling to switzerland. The valley is beautiful with its nice landscape. The Bhutnese government is planning to bulit a STOL airport here to bring more tourists. The properly planned government policies are the pillars of the development of Bhutan. Here nobody can do anything weird, everything should go through a proper channel. This system of controllling is good. We in nepal also have nice valleys and places but the uncontrolled construction has made them so ugly, lets take an example, the ghandruk village was built in typical style the houses were made in proper gurung ethnic models, by seeing the photo of traditional houses many tourists came to ghandruk, but now in ghandruk there are huge concrete building coming up, people think that if they built big concrete buildings they can attract more tourists, but nobody will come to see those ugly concrete buildings in ghandruk. If that had been done in Bhutan it is certain that nobody will arrive. The most important policy of the Bhutnese government is to construct their own style buildings in the villages, they can modify there houses and can bulit concrete buildings but they have to follow a certain style which reflect the originality.We then headed to see the hidden valley of Ura in Bumthang, it is 49 kilometers from Jakar. The valley lies in the lap of beautiful hills on the road to Bumthang- Samdrup Jongkhar, the border town near to India. There is a monastry in Ura, which was built in 17th century, it is an old and widely respected. The monastries and lakhangs are the important part of the Bhutnese culture. In Jakar there are three ancients Lakhangs, Jambay, Kurjey and Tamshing, the Jambay is the oldest which was build by the tibetan emperor Shrongchong Gompo in seventh century. The Bhutnese cultural tourism focuses on dzongs and monsatries. Walking inside the dzongs is like to be in the sixteenth century again, however the similarity of all the dzongs and the similar stories can make tourists monotonous, that thing Bhutan should keep in mind. We drive miles away from one place to another to see the thing which we have already seen.I feel that Buddhism in Bhutan is in its original state, it is not touched by the modernity as we do have in Nepal and Tibet. To be in the monastries and lakhangs of Bhutan is a meomorable experience. The signs of purity and divinity still exist in the tranquility of Bhutenese monastries. Coming back to wangdi from Bumthang there is another excursion, the valley og gangtey and monastry of gangtey. The valley is famous for Black neck cranes the migratory birds who arrive here in the month of october, The Bhutnese government has taken another wise step to preserve the bird sanctury, it has prohibited to construct houses inside that sanctury. It seemed that the government is conscious about every activities in Bhutan.New hotels are coming up in Bhutan inspite of its high rate policy, it is an expensive country, and without buying a tour package we can’t travel to Bhutan. The Taj group of hotels has opened its hotel in thimpu. Another singaporean chain Aman – Cora has opened its luxrious resorts in most of the travel routs of Bhutan. A night in Aman Cora would cost around 800 dollars, I was amazed to know that its business is good and this is full of tourists. Many celebraties around the world have choosen Bhutan as a destination for their holiday and relaxing because the valleys in Bhutan are remote and out of reach from the media. it i tried to write all the travel experiences, the thoughts from Bhutan.
Posted by train of thoughts at 8:43 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

thoughts about India
visiting India is my frequent routine, and i tried to write my thoughts while i was there, and thought it worthy to published in my blog.INDIA EPICThe very first day when I landed in Delhi, from the airport I was taken to my residence, after a bath I cam out from my flat to take a look of Delhi street, somebody asked me an address which says about a house number, I’m a stranger I don’t know I just arrived here I said, the guy went with a worried face, he looked like a “Delhi Walla” but even he is worried about a address in his own hometown, this reflected that everybody in this city is a stranger, if we take an auto rickshaw and say where to go the driver will ask about the place, but who cares this is Delhi and on its lap it has given shelter to the whole India, even Bangladesh, Nepal and many other, in the airport I saw an Airliner from turkey and Ethiopia, Turkey looked quite familiar to me but when I saw Ethiopian Airlines preparing to fly to China from Delhi it became quite clear to me that Delhi’s lap is very big.Wandering on the streets of Delhi I decided to call Kathmandu our so called capital which has till now shown not a single quality to become a capital, I entered in a phone booth and asked the man in the reception to get me Nepal, Nepal ? He almost screamed his eyebrows raised, he looked at me as if I were a convict, sorry sir to call Nepal you have to deposit a copy of your valid passport, and then I asked him what happens if I want to call Pakistan. He laughed and said you won’t make it sir no booths allow a single person to call Pakistan. Poor Pakistanis if ever arrive in India they will know their motherland is so strange for them, it allows a Nepali with the passport details but Pakistanis who once were Indians have no rights to do that, during the time of August when Independence day is near I won’t suggest any Pakistani to come to India he added, and with a sigh he said what to do sir, our family was actually from Peshawar Pakistan, my father was born their, he came to Delhi during partition.Any way this is India it will carry on, with that tight security by not allowing anyone to call how come the bomb exploded in Mumbai? the authority perhaps ignored the fact that terrorists will never appear in the telephone booth to show their passport, but this is common in India because India will do what it thinks, it doesn’t receive foreign aids because it is self sufficient, India is really emerging, yes the streets are full of people buying and buying, eating and eating then why not the banks land in India, the German bank shines in its blue Colour, HDFC Bank, HSBC Bank, American Bank, Bank of Paris, Citibank, what bank do you need ? But on the edge of these bank a poor father feds his little children, he doesn’t know where to go and what to do? this is really a heart touching scene, people are going inside Mac Donald’s which has a slogan “boost your career by joining Mac Donald’s” selling Burgers and chips is a career ? But yes it is.The deprived people who wander nearby Mac Donald’s never seemed to be looking it properly and they never know why so many people are going inside, but the people inside with their car keys and mobiles, that’s life, girls with big hips and flat back almost open and ladies wearing their traditional dresses eating Mac Burgers as if they are eating rice and curry, this is India how dare you teach those ladies the table manner? No you never will and you can’t because the mentality of government of India is theirs. It will change others but never change itself. Another thing in Delhi is construction everywhere, as if they are constructing just to construct. Nepal we don’t have construction and I wish we could have construction like Delhi to beautify our capital, but in Delhi it's too much of construction. They have a nice highway from Jaipur to Delhi, but on the same highway they are constructing fly way too, the distance is same and the time also is same of the highway, then why to construct the concrete monster of 260 kms ? perhaps below the giant pillar some more poor people will find a shelter. Under the flyways pillars we can see lots of poor family with their lovely kids with extremely beautiful big black eyes. The money for that unnecessary concrete monster could be used to uplift the life of those people, but no; India does what it thinks, for India development means construction.In the IGI airport everybody is boarding. It seems if delhi eats whole Delhi looks like eating and if it flys whole Delhi seems to be flying. An old gentleman and his very decent wife are standing at the gate looking their grandson, grand daughter and daughter in law, their sons seems to be waiting them in an airport halfway around the world. Looked like they are going to join the popular service of India after IPS and IAS, NRI service. The kids ran to them, they were really sad, their daughter in law is happy inside but pretends to be sad. One can easily notice the happiness of that daughter in law. The little kids finally hug their grandparents and poor old grandparents burst into tears. Standing near to them my eyes also became wet, but its a common scene in IGI, Santa cruise, Bangalore or even in Amritsar Airport. The old couple looked totally dejected but what happens? India is emerging it wants a permanent seat of the security council of the UN meantime it presents its candidacy ignoring the fact that the permanent security council members have no right over the post of the secretary general. The very next day came news that India's prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh asking US president George Bush to support India's entry in G8 as a member. Is it the time for India to enter in G8 when Sri-lanka's per capita income is challenging to India's, not even Sri-Lanka, the semi colonized country by India, Bhutan is on the verge to challenge India's pr capita income.Why so many aspiration at a time ? UN security council seat. secretary general, G8. Does the G8 membership stop those kids who were leaving their grandparents ? does the permanent security council member status change the lives of the people who sleep below the fly over ? But who cares; India has its own diplomacy. It hated King Gyanendra of Nepal and advocated the democracy in Nepal but it loves and admire the Bhutnese king Wangchuk who is the only fossil of polygamy and example of genocide, a dictator who seldom travels outside except India having fear to be asked why he married four wives at once.India called Mushraff (the then Pakistani general cum President) a dictator but doesn't say anything about Burmese Junta. Even it has send its the then President Abdul Kalam to Burma to strengthen the "ties" between two countries. After all India does what it thinks.
Posted by train of thoughts at 3:21 AM 0 comments
Thursday, May 15, 2008

summer thoughts
nothing new,haven't been able to write for along time. The summer is on rise and there is not much to do. working as usual, working as a freelancer gives some kind of pleasure in these summer days, if there is work its done, if there is no work then getting late in the morning, eating late in the afternoon and a little nap,evening time is for a walk and sit with a friend in a tea stall, this is summer schedule, we want to stay in a good park with sounds of birds inside the green trees, but our city kathmandu has yet to make this type of park, i have written in my previous blog so i guess no need to write.because of sufficient time these days, i get into the news of Bollywood, the veteran actor Aamir khan said another veteran actor Shahrukh a "dog"aamir was not scolding shahrukh, he was giving an example to the people that he is in aplace where there is a dog named shahrukh !! he tried to make a joke, but i guess he shouldn't do that, a personality like him should not make this kind of cheap jokes.i think aamir is too jealous about shahrukh's success, and he got this cheap idea in the name of joke to insult shahrukh, (i'm not a fan of shahrukh and not defending him)I used to admire aamir khan a lot, but after this episode i changed my view on him, now i will know him as a man with lot of complex, a man who i think is a very uneasy person, who can come to this level to express his hostility ??this shows that such reputed actor who thinks thrice to do something can do this without thinking once,these are the sumer thoughts, aamir's episode has taught us a lesson, i heard shahrukh khan saying "there is no copyright for my name" its a very soft answer, srk hasn't shown any anger, he has come to a status beyond these type of comments or jokes.if this is happening to a highly reputed actor like aamir then i guess he has to sit and think why he has done so ?
Posted by train of thoughts at 11:57 AM 0 comments
Thursday, February 21, 2008

apology
on 20th of february i wrote about the house of a nobleman of kathmandu, i wanted to say that i'm not saying that the nobleman did the same but by mistake i wrote ' the nobleman did the same"want to apologise for that
Posted by train of thoughts at 6:39 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I was reading the daily newspaper few days ago, there is a section in the paper which features a stylist, posh and rich houses around kathmandu, our capital city.the house they have featured looked like a small castle with all the modern aminities and facilities, well equipped. It belongs to a nobleman, the fossil of yesteryears Rana regime. Looking it was a pleasure, anyone will be fascinated by seeing it.many people who read the feature must have thought of making that house some day. I think the feature has created a kind of depression to those who are not able to own it, the business of the newspaper is done, the paper wanted to give a different taste to its readers,i have gone through many dailies of abroad, europe USA and even in India; but in their newspaper i don't see this type of section. There are lots of houses in Beverly Hills california or Pali Hill in Bombay which are thousand times better than this nobleman's but we get to see them only in "rent" or "sale" items,where we are heading by creating such pathetic journalism ? i urge the newspaper to feature our city kathmandu where the house is situated, there are no roads in kathmandu which we can say a "straight" road, our city has the history of almost thousand years but till this date we have only two lane roads, even that two lane is not a complete, the corrupt constructors and officials always leave few inches in that two lane to make it dirty and ugly. The money of those few inches on both sides goes to their pocket and the same people build big houses with modern facilities.I'm saying that the nobleman who owns the featured house did the same, he is a decent gentleman having his own business but there are many people who make the city miserable to live by chopping few inches of a two lane road. Yes that happens to our city every day but the newspaper reporters are more keen to enter in an extravagant house to carry their feature and talk with the owner, have tea coffee in their house and walking off to the same old dirty road which is never repaired.We don't have any consciousness about the public property, we should be sensible towards making a fine atmosphere around our city. The foreigners who come here they ask me if they can go to a nice park and sit for a while, its a simple desire but our city kathmandu is not able to fullfill that mere desire of a tourist who has come all the way from Europe to see our city ? what do we do then ? should we take him/her to that nobleman's house and say see we have this in our city ? people are walking in the streets in our city spitting without any reason, littering everywhere, what should we tell the foreigner who asks ? we have no answer.that's why, instead of featuring the nobleman's the responsible body like media has to cover what's going wrong ? the reporters here should capture a person spitting on the street or pissing on the street and ask him if he has gone back to the stone age ?I asked a person outside the domestic airport in kathmandu yesterday, the person was pissing below the tree, in front of him there was a huge sign which says Toilet !!! i asked him what made you pissing here right next to you is a toilet ? he answered smiling with some guilty feelings that in the toilet he has to pay one rupee here below the tree its free ?? he looked like an educated person who at any means looked like a person who doesn't have any problem to pay one rupee.what can we get from these type of ridiculous person ? what happens if same person comes to power and given the responsibility to handle the country ? where will he go ? what will he do ?i came back from the airport with these feelings and wanted to share.should the newspapers then feature these type of people or not ? if they feature them people will have a lesson.
Posted by train of thoughts at 6:18 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, February 5, 2008

walking in the streets, i see busy people, rushing and pushing each other as if they are going for a royal ceremony ? or they have an important business meeting of millions of rupees deal. in reality if we stop the person rushing and check his/her pocket it will be empty. but the same person acts like a rich businessman,
Posted by train of thoughts at 9:33 AM 1 comments
Monday, February 4, 2008

writing something is always exciting, writing with some reasons is worthy but what happnes when we write without any reasons ? without any pressure ? you just write, you see things near you, things may be right or wrong, what happnes if things are wrong infront of you and you have nobody to complain, sometimes you complain but you are not listened, you feel that you have to say something, but you are not listened, then for your consolation you write: that's why i right, those feelings which are simple. those feelings if i send to a newspaper the editor will never publish because the editor doesn't require those feelings, those can't be stunning news neither they can be frontline story, so i urge all the peole who are want to write to join and form a group so we can read about each other.
Posted by train of thoughts at 8:01 AM 1 comments
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Europe,

before i was in Bhutan i got my conformation of the scholarship from spain and i had only a week to preapre myself, i was given visa only a week beore my flight, it was too rush and i left Nepal on such rush.

And thus I started a long journey from kathmandu Bangkok to Madrid. I had a transit in bangkok for five hours but the plane from kathmandu flew too late and we took almost the whole time of transit of bangkok in kathmandu waiting for the plane. In bangkok I arrived just one hour earlier before to board the next plane to Madrid. Finally I got into the thai airways boeing 747 I was luckily seated next to a spanish couple who had visited Nepal thirty years back, they were amazed to hear me speaking spanish with them. Then the plane took off, in plane I am always intrested to know about the countries which we will cross enroute, people after getting into a plane for a long flight mostly wait for meals to be served and large drink then take out a book for a while and try to sleep but I have different idea, why not try to see the world from the window of a plane ? and now in the flight they have large screen which shows where we are flying at what altitude and which is the place below our plane, Thus I was awake and trying to see under the window, fastly we crossed into myanmar, into dhaka, and delhi. These places were familiar to me but when the plane flew above lahore and afganishtan I tried to see more of these hidden lands but I couldn’t see anything but I guess I saw some deem lights somewhere in afghanisthan. We crossed afghan territory and now in the airspace of turkmenistan, I thought of the powerful USSR days, we crossed turkmenistan and we were flying above turkey, the ancient roman city the constantinapole, I think we flew over the port of Istanbul,I saw long port lights and guessed that was Istanbul.

I was hoping to see Iran the old persian empire from the plane but the plane was not taking that route. It was dark night and we were flying over mediterinnean sea and dark light of the night was slowly turning into light red thus I guess we were near to the dawn but europe was still dark because asia had seen dawn behind us and europe was still waiting for the dawn. I was excited to know from where the plane will get into europe, was it bulgeria because I thought it is near turkey, was it romania ? but we get into europe from Greece, the old ancient land of alexander and plato. Now we were flying over europe, I tried to see from the window but the dawn was still approaching and there were clouds in greek territory, thinking of their beautiful city Athens we crossed greece and now where ? now we were flying over mediterrinean sea, the sea was visible from the plane, the dark blue mediterrinean sea, what next ? then I was amazed to see on the screen that we are now above Naples Italy, and Italy was totally visible, I saw few villages of Naples, the great Roman empire.

The people were sleeping in the plane now started getting up and wanted the breakfast to be served, Thai served a nice breakfast, by the time we finished our breakfast the plane had almost reached spanish territory it was now flying over Valencia, the spanish city where I had to go and live for next one year. I tried to see my location, I saw from the plane, it was exciting to get into the land which you have imagined so many times, and now the plane was approaching the Barajas airport in Madrid.

I took my camera and took pictures of approaching Madrid, finally at nine past two we landed in Madrid. Madrid the city of movement, night life, the city of art and culture, the city of bars and bullfight seemed quite in the morning. Now we were in Madrid, as we were about to board off from the plane we heard and announcement that we must carry our passport in our hand, we followed the rule thanked thai for their great hospility and came out. In the tunnel gate there was a whole regiment of police force as they were searching for a convict. Everybody passed when my turn came I handed my green Nepalese passport to the police officer he threw me a look from top to buttom and just asked me to stay in a corner, I followed. I waited for a while and he came to me I asked him in spanish “is there any problem” amazed, he asked me do you speak spanish ? I said yes, perfectly. Then he said are you here to work ? I said no I am here to study, then he said you can go. I came out and waited for my luggage but it was missed, they said they will send by next flight.. Then I came out of the airport, the city was new for me but not the people. Working with spanish for a long time I have made so many friend in spain who were more excited than me about my arrival.

Two of my friends were waiting me at the gate, they at first couldn’t believe that I’m there, I now believed that I’m in europe, at least now I can see few famous places here. We then started our drive from airport to home, the city is amazing, organized, the nice public buses, not like ours where a “khalsi” is shouting and almost pushing the people into his bus. Within ten minutes we were in the house of my friend, in kathmandu that same distance would have taken forty five minutes because of wild traffic, but here you can hear the sound of speeding cars but no sound of horns, blowing horn is offence here but in kathmandu it’s a matter of pride. Kathmandu should learn from the system of europe, off course our politicians and beurocrats who come to europe and take photos with their wives, at least they should try to make a good syestm. Seeing roads and informations of madrid I feel india has something common, slowly I came to know the road signs in Delhi ( written in blue board) are similar to Madrid’s, that means the planners from delhi had done research in europe, and they are now making Delhi beautiful.

But we nepalsese are always involved in politics, the congress, communists, maoists, all fighting and not taking responsibilty and the local people aggressive, always ready to fight, if something happens they first destroy the railings of the street and while the people breaks railings there is like a celebration, they smile and shout and take out the ralings and nobody will repaire those, the tendency of cheating has increased a lot in Nepal. You are cheated everywhere even the government offices tried to cheat you, the shopkeeper tries to cheat you, the same packet of biscuit you can find for ten rupees in one shop but two meters away another shop has a different price fot the same biscuit. I bought a kilo of peach in madrid it was two euros per kilo, the same I bought in valencia for same two euros per kilo, had it been in nepal it would have definitely be different. When we will learn these, the public buses in Nepal stop in the middle of the road to take the passengers, if a traffic comes and takes the licence they creat a havoc by blocking the way in the middle, nobody is procupied. Here it is different they are prepared for everything, for an example: if a handicapped person wants to board into a bus in Spain, the the bus has a hydrolic system, the whole bus gets down and a plate rolls out from the door making the pathway for that person to get into his/her wheel chair inside, its amazing, have we ever thought of these ? to get into metro there is a lift for handicapped, old and pregnant women, all the bus stations are made by crystal clear glass, nobody takes enjoyment by breaking the glass. When we will learn to respect our public properties ?

Thninking these I came to valencia, it is almost four hundred kilometers from madrid but we took only three hours to reach, a friend took me in his car, in Nepal four hundred kilometers is a long distance, it takes a whole day, but here in special road which even absorves rainwater reduced it into just three hours, they are not even satisfied by this, they are building the fast railway track which will take only two hours.

The second day of my arrival I went to see the old part of valencia, was amazed to see hundred years old bulidings in the same and more beautiful condition than before, in Nepal people watch and celebrate while they bring down a centuries old building and creat an ugly concrete structure, people think renovation is only for temples. All the old houses are restored to their own glory, if looks beautiful with beautifully made street lights. Thus these are my first impressions of europe. Next I have to travel as many countries as I can and collect more ideas about the development.

Barcelona

The name says all, the famous city of spain I always wanted to visit, luckily I got five days of holidays and I was in front of the raliway station, I got my first eurail ticket from valencia to barcelona. I knew much about barcelona but yet to visit the city. I called one of my spanish friend and he was waiting me at the railway station. The railway from valencia to barcelona goes by the sea shore and almost the whole route it follows the sea which was a brilliant scenery, crossing big orange fields, small hills and sea after three hours I was in barcelona. The romans had the original name for barcelona, it was called barcica, from barcica it became barcelona. The first day of my arrival I went to my friend’s home, his parents welcomed me with an open heart, then the same day we started the tour of barcelona. We visited the famous street called la rambla, which is roughly a kilometer long footpath between the road, it is a place where most of the tourists start their tour, rambla is full of immigrants, specially the pakistani immigrants, at some point it looks like islamabad, there are shops and bars on the both side, people normally walk through rambla to the port. The port of barcelona is one of the busiest on the mediterrinean sea. The very first day I had a clear picture of barcelona,


We walked the whole street, we saw the old church, the time stops in europe specially if we are walking into the narrow allys of the church. We also saw the very famous food market in barcelona where they sell most of the food at one place, like our ason but highly organized. I saw people begging too but with dignity, a man was playing violin, the sound of the strings of violin was so powerful and the echo was helping the sound to come like in a concert, he looked like a man who plays in opera but he was a beggar, I asked my my friend how we see beggars in europe ? the highly developed world, he replied me that this happens everywhere, he also told me an intresting thing, these musicians beggars have to get a permission from the municipality to play their music and collect money, they have to give the proof that they have nothing but the skill of playing instrument, when they are cleared of this the municipality grants them a special place where they can play music and beg,

This was the height of control, even the beggars are granted permission to beg. Traveling like this we can get so many informations like this. The second day we visited a famous mountain of barcelona where the virgin of the province is situated, the mountain is called montserrat. The route is almost like going to nagarkot but there is a special train to carry the passengers there.

Train in such mountian, yes it is possible. Our leaders in Nepal say it is impossible to make a railway track in mountains like nepal, but here infront of me there was a long winding railwaytrack which took us on the top of the mountain. There is a church dates back to tenth century.

On the same days we visited a small village of the same province, my friend took me to his old house in the village, the house is three hundred years old.
Most of the spanish villages are reknowned for their authenticity which they bear even this period. It was a small village 100 kms away from barcelona with population of only 80 people, the tranquility in the village was amazing, it was so peaceful like the meditation room in a tranquil monastry. I also wanted to visit some old spanish villages and I was totally satisfied of the visit. The four days in barcelona I was fully occupied, the city is happening and beautiful. I came back to valencia with a desire of going back to barcelona.

Sleepless Spanish Nights

The spanish time table is strange, they work from eight o’clock in the morning to two, they take rest of 2 hours, and from five to eight they come back to work again. While in the other part of the world people are going back home happily after five the spanish are running again for their work, this time table is now a part of their culture and nobody seems to be protesting for this.

After coming to home at eight what do we do in Nepal ? it is too late to go out neither we have nightlife, Here in spain people come home after eight, take some rest and go out again then the next arrival is ancipated more or less at twelve or little bit more. If it is a weekend then coming home is at five in the morning or later then sleeping whole day and coming out in the evening. Non of other european countries have such schedule.

The food is another pride of spain, there are hundreds of varieties of meats, vegetables and breads. What do you want ? its all ready for you, the normal is TAPAS which means snacks, if we go to the bar we can choose our snacks which are already prepared. Wine plays another great role in spanish culture again, there are many bars where we can see wine barrals, all these barrals has taps, we can open the tap and fill the wine in a glass as if we are drinking water, early morning in the bar we can see people drinking wine. The drinkers are not alcoholic, they are normal drinkers and satisfied after one or two drinks.

Comida means food in spain, the food is served properly everywhere in spain whether we are in a big city like madrid or a very small remote village. The same quality of food and drinks are maintained. After seeing this I would like to recall our eating scene in Nepal: we mostly say this restaurent is good that another one is worse, “kya jhur khana dinchha tya, tya hoina hya jane, we have to go through a heavy discussion in Kathmandu if we are preparing to go to a restaurent. If the discussicon goes long then someone says “ lets prepare and eat in home” then we land up in a kitchen of someone and enjoy.

This is because nobody thinks that fooding means hygiene, people do so many tricks with food in Nepal, they put colours, they mix powders, they try to cheat the clients by cooking left overs but here in europe if we go to the smallest restaurent which sale food for one euro or sometimes less than one euro, the place and food are fully hygenic, these smallest shops are also under full control, fi somebody is hungry he/she can get into any of the restaurents.

So much we should learn, more than the government of Nepal I think the public should be aware of their responsibilites.