More Chitwan River Life

October 11, 2014October 11, 2014 / wrightsolution / 10 Comments

I just made my fourth trip down to Chitwan for a few days, staying at our favourite spot, Sapana Village Lodge. There’s lots of things I like about Sapana, but one of its greatest attractions is how it makes me comfortable with hot water showers, comfy chairs and places to relax, but doesn’t cut me off from local life. From a comfortable reading spot, I can watch everyday life going past me on the river. Locals are washing clothes, fishing, or just using the river to get around. Abundant bird life hovers overhead. Majestic cranes, ibis, storks, hornbills, sunbirds, night jars, and the beautiful asian paradise flycatcher are all here, swooping down to the water to drink. (We come to Chitwan to see the amazing elephants and rhinos, but for sheer variety and volume, you really can’t beat the birds.) I find it so relaxing. I love the wild life and the river. They keep me coming back for more.

This was our first visit during the rainy season, and the river was very swollen. Recent flooding had washed away the small bamboo bridge that was here before.

The swollen water raced by. It wasn’t very deep, but it was fast, rushing reeds and branches away in its current.

One of many white ibises that stopped by for a visit.

He caught something. I didn’t see what it was.

Back from his early morning chore of collecting feed for the other elephants. What tusks!

Mom and baby are still fine since our last visit and still loving their daily baths!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Dreamy

October 10, 2014October 10, 2014 / wrightsolution / 15 Comments

Sitting from a terrace, looking out to the Himalayas is the most dreamy scenario I can possible imagine:

Langtang from Namobudhha

Especially when the valley below is hidden by clouds that look like an etheral lake:

A completely dream-like vision. This cat obviously thought so too!

For more dreamers see: Weekly Photo Challenge: Dreamy

Daily Prompt: Upturned Noses!

October 8, 2014October 8, 2014 / wrightsolution / 4 Comments

Today’s Prompt: Even the most laid back and egalitarian among us can be insufferable snobs when it comes to coffee, music, cars, beer, or any other pet obsession where things have to be just so. What are you snobbish about?

I like a cup of excellent coffee or quality tea, but it is absolutely wasted on me unless it is served correctly. And by “cup”, I actually mean “mug”. But not just any mug. None of the giant, chunky, statement mugs for me, with slogans like “The World’s Greatest Mom”. I have to drink it from a narrow, thin-lipped, bone china mug. Preferably one with a lid. The pattern is irrelevant (although I do like colourful modern designs)… it is the design of the mug that is paramount: A thin lip delivers the coffee to your mouth gracefully. It seems to accentuate the flavour. There’s no clumsy clunk of heavy, cheap, earthernware on your teeth.

Fine bone china is so elegant. You can sip and relish the drink. But….it has to be a mug. Bone china cups are for old ladies in tea parlours and the wide surface area of the cup cools the drink way too quickly. The pokey little cup handles almost force you to raise your little finger as counterbalance. No thank you. It has to be a friendly mug. Who’s making me a cup of tea?!

A Word a Week Photo Challenge: Spray

October 8, 2014October 8, 2014 / wrightsolution / 1 Comment

Nothing says “special time and place” to me more than sitting on a Greek kaiki, watching as the boat cuts through the deep, extraordinarily blue water, leaving a light misting of spray and foam as contrast against the sea and sky. Heaven!

Ding! Ding! Round Three….

October 6, 2014October 6, 2014 / wrightsolution / 4 Comments

Ladies and Gentlemen! In the right corner, still wrapped in a heavy duty robe, the voluminous State Department rule book. Let’s hear it for the bidding process! And in the left corner, coming out blindly swinging, are this year’s bidders. Let’s hear it for this year’s suckers!

I can’t believe we are at this again! Its foreign service bidding time and round three for us. Which country will be next?! For the last two locations we’ve have been on directed tours, which simply means that we get to say what our preferences are from the list of available posts but, ultimately, the powers that be pick our next location uncontested. You’re going to Manila. You’re going to Kathmandu…and like it or lump it, off you go. I didn’t love that routine, but I am as starting to look at it with nostalgia, as the selection process for the third post is a whole different ball of wax. What was originally touted as “from the third tour onwards you can pick your own post” quickly became a series of reality checks:

You have to pick from the series of posts available when you are. That drops options radically.
You have to interview for the position and compete against what can be a considerable number of other candidates
“Who you know” starts to pay a big role. Getting a good word in from other colleagues is important and this can really go against you if you are bidding on a post where you have no connections.
There are all sorts of rules on which post you can bid on depending on your grade or where you are located right now
And –probably worst of all – once you are made an offer you need to make a decision quickly. If the offer is from a less favoured post, you have to decide whether to accept it, or reject it in the hopes that your number one option will pick you (or not) Ugh!

Does it sound like fun yet?! Its very weird to have a job and still have to interview and compete for your next position. Very unsettling. I can’t disclose the countries that we are bidding on, but really hope to be able to announce somewhere next month. Fingers crossed!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Signs

October 4, 2014October 5, 2014 / wrightsolution / 3 Comments

I was excited to see this week’s Photo Challenge theme on Signs. I’ve always had a thing about signs and what they have to say about different cultures. I actually have a section on my blog devoted to them. They offer little insights and clues into a culture’s priorities, buying preferences, or sense of humor. Sometimes all three. I love noticing what they have to say about where I live, or at least the questions they raise. Often they leave me stumped too.

Take today for example: Stuck in a small developing world airport, I was delayed for hours, waiting around inside a concrete box with no internet connection, a dead battery, nowhere to charge, and no book… People watching ran its course. I studied the bad paint job. I kept looking at the broken clock. I peered regularly out the window hoping to see our plane land. After a while it was just me and the signs staring back at one another. Here are the two that graced the airport’s walls today:

The Greenply company manufactures commercial plywood. Quite why they would have a public stance on bad language is a bit of a mystery? In fact, what they are trying to say is a bit of a mystery too. After hours of uncomfortable staring at an otherwise blank wall, I’m still not clear on the point? Suggestions welcome!

My other choice was this one. How to even begin?! Thinly veiled sexual innuendo, blatant false advertising (where is the “serving suggestion” label)…since when do Nepalis eat Thai noodles?… very odd indeed!

Beach Life

October 4, 2014October 4, 2014 / wrightsolution / 4 Comments

The other kind of beach life that is… I thought this would be the best way to close all the stories from Greece this Summer: a short glimpse at one of our favourite beaches, Kounoupi. There’s plenty of other kinds of beach life going on with beer and friends and food. But if you step away and find a quiet spot, here are a few portraits of life on a beach… Bye Spetses…see you next year!

Hike to Zogaria

October 4, 2014October 4, 2014 / wrightsolution / 1 Comment

The peaceful wide trail at the start of the hike

The trail to Zogeria is one of the longest on the island and has been on my hiking to-do list for years. Zogeria is on the northern tip of Spetses and starts with the usual hike up to the ridge road, and then takes a right-hand turn towards the Church of Agias Ilias, the highest point on the island. Latham and I stopped there for a small breakfast and enjoyed the views from the row of red chairs that look out to the sparkling early morning sea. From the sterna of Agias Ilias you can see out to both sides of the island (reminding you how small the island really is), but our peace was broken by the bees were up early too, so we grabbed the map and figured out the start of the new northbound trail that we hadn’t taken before.

The first part was easy to follow but finding the turn off was harder. When we found it, it looked very narrow and rarely used. Pricker bushes grew over the path or threatened to catapult across your legs, armed with thorns that looked like they could pierce leather. It was easy to believe that we had taken a wrong turn, but we moved carefully onward and it brought us to the right place, an obscure point on the main ring road which I had never noticed before as a trail head. Had we been on a motorbike, we would have turned right and taken the wide dirt trail directly down to the sea and followed the path a bumpy 1-2km to the beach at Zogeria. Our pedestrian map told us to turn left and walk a short way along the concrete road, turning right on to a long narrow trail that paralleled the lower coast road. It kept us high up forever, winding back and forth. Now three hours into the hike, the sun was getting higher and hotter in the sky. I was starting to wilt and the most challenging part of the walk was upon us: spiders! Lots of them. Strung out across the path from tree-to-tree. You couldn’t see the threat of their invisible webs until they were upon you. If your attention waned for just a few moments, suddenly there would be the caress of an elastic web string pulling across your face, a pregnant pause, and the veil of the web would land in your hair with the promise of a very large spider in the middle of it! We tried to tread waringly.

Latham grabbed a stick to serve as the Spidermaster 1000, and waving it ahead of us Harry Potter-style, he caught almost all of the invisible webs before they caught us. A few slipped through the wand’s magic powers and we batted our heads and waved our arms, screaming the spiders out of our hair. After forty five minutes of this, I was exhausted and wobbly, but happily the path started to descend towards the sea. All I could think of was how I was going to throw myself in the ocean headfirst.

We cooled off in the sea for a blissful 20 minutes, then started the final, easy hike along the coast road to Zogeria Beach. It had been a 4.5 hour hike with the swim stop. I’d do it again, but next time I’ll be turning right!

One of the terrible spider beasties – out to get us!

Wielding the Spidermaster 1000 against the evil spider army

These people arrived by boat on Zogeria beach. No spider-battling stories for them!

The reward of a greek salad at the end of the hike.

Hara Chapel

October 3, 2014 / wrightsolution / Leave a comment

Leading from the side of the Hara home are the remains of a pretty mosiac path that winds through the pine trees. The trail clearly promises some kind of discovery at the end, although we didn’t know what. With curiosity, we followed it to discover a small chapel that was is need of some TLC but was pretty good structural condition otherwise, but it had no front door. The paint was peeling off the exterior walls, but the inside was still a blaze of colour.

And inside someone was still tending the place. Candles burned at the icons of mother and child, the floor was swept, and garlands of olive branches decorated the walls. An old plastic chair in the corner must have been the caretaker’s private spot to enjoy the quiet and peace of the place. We sat a while and looked up to the ceiling. It was a blaze of blue with stars looking down on the pretty ochre walls and wooden carvings.

So sad that the chapel sits there so lonely most of the time, but its I’m glad to see someone still takes care of it a bit. Wonder what happened to the doors?