The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of my favourite books when I was a child. I had trouble sleeping last night and found it in the bookshelf here at my parent's house. This is such a wonderful story of hope and new beginnings.

Trekking in Nepal - a traveler's guide

Trekking in Nepal - a traveler's guide by Stephen Bezruchka (ISBN 0898865352) was one of the books we purchased at Nomaden a week ago. It's exactly the kind of book I wanted, giving very detailed descriptions of everything you need to know (it seems). The first edition came out in 1972 so I have the 7th edition from 1997 (5th reprinting from 2004). The author must have been very early with his views on how to travel in the most environmentally friendly fashion to cause the least negative effects on both nature and communities. I believe this book will be invaluable while in Nepal. It tells you how to dress as not to insult the locals, that local food is the most energy efficient to cook and therefore preferable, how to hire porters (carriers of luggage) if you should require them, what to expect, how to treat them and so on.

My friend and I have discussed the issue of porters and both feel we want to carry our own load. Should this turn out to be the wrong decision we can hire a local porter along the way. This is actually the best way to hire porters and guides because the money then stays within the local community instead of going to a trekking agency abroad or in Kathmandu. "Trekking in Nepal" says that you some places can even find female porters and guides. The author recommends a female porter if you travel with kids since she will often look after the child and play with it.

http://basia.blog-city.com/international_childs_play.htm

Hiring a porter, Stephen Bezruchka says in his book, is the best way to get a real insight into the Nepali culture, language and way of living. We'll see what happens along the way but hopefully being only two girls trekking we have a greater opportunity to get close to the Nepali way than a larger party would.

It's going to be so exciting seeing how people live in such a different way to what we're used to. We wish to travel in the most sensitive way we can, hopefully learning as much about Nepal and the Nepali people as possible. And I believe that will also give us the best experience!

Christmas Present

These days most people have started shopping for Christmas Presents. When giving away things to people you love and care about why not help someone else at the same time? There are lots of Organic (Økologiske), Ethical and / or Fair (Rettferdig Handel) products out there. An example of how you can help someone by choosing your gifts wisely is the book pictured above - Det hvite hotellet ("The White Hotel") by Jo Nesbø. The money from the sale of this book goes to Redd Barna ("Save The Children"). You can buy the book at http://www.reddbarna.no/ or one of the following shops: Akademika, Ark, Bokklubbene, Haugen bok, Libris, Norli, Notabene, Tanum and Tronsmo bokhandel.

Shakespeare

Claire Danes in Romeo + Juliet (1996)

O Romeo, Romeo!

wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

William Shakespeare

(http://www.william-shakespeare.info/script-text-romeo-and-juliet.htm)