Karen - Nepal, Egypt and Italy

From the Himalayan mountains of Nepal to the sands of Egypt, it continues to be an amazing journey even now. One of the things that stands out for me is the special meetings with all kinds of people, who all care about our world and its problems, all working in various ways to conserve resources and the environment. It's a real privilege to see the faces of listeners as we retell stories about other people and countries; problems and solutions. It's a real comfort to them to know other people are facing similar problems and finding solutions.

I also see it firing the imagination of our girls, the next generation, so I feel grateful for that and hope for the future ..How much more powerful a documentary would be with each person interviewed, reinforcing each other in so many countries and different languages. It's very exciting to be a part of. Gavin is doing a great job of linking people together for mutual support by simply listening, recording and sharing peoples stories about their local environments.

I had an amazing experience in Nepal and then slept in the loud silence of the desert, outside under the stars for the first time. I got up before sunrise to take photos and was mesmerised by the changes of light on the shapes of rocks in the White Desert and the horizon. Now we are in greenery like New Zealand again, in Umbria, Italy ... still with climatic problems and making positive connections.

Tomorrow we leave Nepal after being here for just over a month. Yesterday I gave a presentation to the core climate change group in Kathmandu, with representatives from the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), WWF Nepal, IUCN, Winrock International and Practical Action.

The bulk of our time here has been spent walking the Annapurna circuit and doing what we could to interview local people along with dealing with illness and other challenges. Before we left I shared some information on the Annapurna Conservation Area Programme (ACAP). I think up to about 10 years ago this was a very strong programme for protection and enhancement of the Annapurna region.

The disruption with the Maoists and the assassination of the royal family has created greater instability and a weakening of efforts by ACAP and others. Because of associations with the royal family the ACAP presence has been significantly affected, for example the Maoists destroyed the ACAP offices in Ghandruk village three years ago. This political instability along with political pressure from China and India are some of the main reasons why the road is happening in the Annapurna region. My main message to the climate change group yesterday was the need to focus efforts on supporting wise, local leadership in developing and implementing future visions.

As I've already said here, we found good local people who simply need more support to encourage reafforestation programmes. In villages like Marpha and Ghandruk there are strong local communities at present, but they are facing challenges. Now is the time to act. We're not going to solve the major issues of our time sitting around tables. We truly need to get beyond the talk and focus our collective efforts on positive, proactive change. Ecological restoration is a fundamental necessity, everywhere. As Michung Gurung from Thorong Phedi said to me, if we could channel things away from guns and wars into planting trees we might actually make some serious progress towards a truly sustainable future. As simple as it seems I believe it truly is this simple ... if only we can get enough people to be more aware and focused on small, simple, practical actions.

Tomorrow we leave for Cairo, via Bangkok. After some days of anxiety I have finally heard from my contact in Egypt. I have been communicating with people from Sekem (see www.sekem.com) a very strong and positive initiative in Egypt that I am very interested to learn more about and share. Egypt will be very interesting and another dimension to the story, after 11 weeks in Asia. So far we've travelled from the south coast of Thailand, to hill tribes in the north, by the Mekong, to the lowlands, then on to Viet Nam from north to south and the Mekong Delta, and to Nepal walking high into the Himilayas. Now to an arid, desert region and the Nile basin. We only have 10 days there, enough to develop some impressions and meet some good people.

After getting to Jomsom

I saw some amazing views of the mountain peaks and ranges, donkey trains with bells jangling, villiages, and some awesome experiences, like crossing very high suspension bridges, with rushing water VERY far below us, (very scary for me who is not keen on heights). Also scrambling down steep mountain sides on narrow donkey tracks also scary for me.

Highlights were the flight to Jomsom, all the above, seeing the different villiages and talking to Tibetan women, seeing the friendly strength of the people, seeing the sunrise over the Pokhara mountain ranges and the beautiful lake and bushclad hills, the jeep, the bus ride back to Pokera, stopping at the shrineat the top of the highest point of the ranges between Pokhara and Kathmandu and seeing the bull statue and talking to the old man weaving by the shrine.

I would recommend it to anyone, even though I came back a bit earlier, myself. I know Gavin and the girls have some awesome experiences as well.

One week left in friendly Kathmandu. I love the unique Nepali art and architecture, and want to see more places. Then off to Egypt then we see Emma in Milan for 2 days (I can't wait).

Safely back in Kathmandu

An email from Karen in Kathmandu to Emma in Switzerland

Hi Emmy,

Safely back in Kathmandu now, I had a good 6 hour bus ride to Pokhara, which was a beautiful place. I stayed by the lake and read my book, walked around and got befriended by 2 little boys who didn't realize I couldnt speak Nepali, but loved looking at my map.

Stayed in a lovely hotel called the Moonlight. Joined Gav, Lena and Ali, in Jomsom, ( they will be back here in 2 / 3 days). I loved the flight to Jomsom, saw fantastic views of the mountain peaks above the clouds, and little villiages down below, like little square boxes and took photos with my little camera. I had a good but scary flight on a small 16 seater ( I think) and was met by Karma our guide.

The others were just getting up at 7.30 am, then a quick repack and we were on our way after breakfast. We quickly walked to the road and onto the river bed of the Kali Gandaki valley, scrambling over river stones for 11/2 hours,and got to Marpha, a lovely villiage, which I took photos of from the air. Gav interviewed a man there and he showed us up the hill/ range behind the villiage. It was a mad scramble up sheer cliffs, very scary for me especially in the high wind. The others are used to this by now. Ali even climbed in her jandals.

The next day we walked for 6 hours, it was very exausting for me as I wasn't used to it, 4 hours were good, but the last 2 were very tiring, limping with my blisters down sheer cliff faces on tiny goat trails down to the deepest gorge.

Happy Nepali New Year

I'm safe in Pocora, Gav is now in Jomsom so fly to meet them tomorrow from bye 4 now love k

From Karen in Kathmandu

It's a beautiful day here this morning, after last night when we had another thunder and lightening storm. I was listening to a street party with live music right outside the hotel room, but after cheers, it went quiet with a power cut over the whole city it seemed to me. The music was good too. I haven't heard how Gavin and the girls are going yet, but hope to any day. I am sure they are loving their mountain adventures.

I have been wondering the streets, getting lost among the tourists, looking at all the beautiful hand crafts for sale. I would love to buy lots of things but it would be hard to carry them around and back to New Zealand. As Gavin has already said the people who are looking after us in Nepal are great, Karma, Gavin's guide on their trek right now, (who was also Alice's teachers guide), and Chandra, the general manager of Independent Himalayan Adventure Ltd. have both been excellent and so kind looking after us for our time here, and especially when we were sick.

Chandra took time out from his busy work schedule to take me around the Monkey Temple, which I really enjoyed seeing. I would recommend anyone who wants to come here to trek in Nepal, to go through them.

The people are lovely and friendly here , even if it is a busy tourist area. I enjoyed exploring the local second hand bookshop and meeting some interesting people who obviously have a great love of books. I also got asked to listen to see which bell sounded the best by another teacher, who worked in the international school in Bangkok. I hope she liked her choice in the end.

I haven't done too much sight seeing as I have been sick, but am almost better at the moment. Its been very good for me to stay close to the hotel and relax. More later when I come back from meeting up with Gavin and the girls on 25th.

I bus to Polera then fly to Jomsom to meet them which I am looking forward to.

06-Apr-2007 18:35 (NZ time)

Hello all,

I can do the blog again after being sick, I am OK again now. Yesterday, Gavin and the girls went off in their van to go trekking - it was strange to be waving them off and staying in Kathmandu by myself for 10 days. I will join them in 10 days time, for the downward part from Jomsom.

It has been nice just to stay put and read and be still for a while, not filming, travelling or being a tourist.

Even so, I went to the Monkey Temple yesterday and walked up lots of steps and saw the beautiful white Buddhist Stupa with the big eyes painted on the side of it. I saw lots of small monkeys scampering around in the surrounding trees. The prayer flags are hung everywhere and look great fluttering .

A couple of days ago it was full moon and hundreds of people were up there at night to see and join in walking around the temple three times. As Gavin has the camera I got a small one though forgot to take it when I went up there, so we will all have to go up again,

At the bottom of the hill there are prayer wheels all around set into the wall. Lots of people walk around touching each one. There are even some gigantic ones that you can walk around and turn. Before the others went trekking, we walked to Durbar Square, to see lots of temples and I took some photos.

My internet time is running out so bye for now.

From Karen in Ho Chi Min City

Hi, back in Ho Chi Minh on our last day here, then we fly to Singapore for 2 days, then onto India to Nepal. We have had an interesting few days down on the Mekong Delta. The highlight was going on a boat ride on one of the "nine dragons" of the Mekong river and along one of the many canals. The local name for the Mekong is the "nine dragons" river, which refers to the nine branches that feed out from the Mekong river to create the delta.

It was interesting walking around on one of the islands and visiting a durian tree grower. We also saw a floating market, but were too late to see many of the smaller boats that would have been there very early in the morning. It was relaxing sitting by the Mekong in the evening in a hammock, drinking coconut milk , watching life go by, an endless assortment of boats and produce.

During our time in the delta we were able to film and take photos of the whole rice harvesting process from harvesting by hand, machine threshing, drying it out on large concrete pads, following the sacks of rice as they get put onto boats to go to the storage sheds and then trucked to the main cities. When we eat rice, I never realised there was so much work that goes into producing it.

Love to all Karen

Hi from Ho Chi Min City

Hi everyone, we here in Ho Chi Min city in Vietnam, after a 20 hour train ride from up north in Hue. We had a mad scramble to get off at 4.30 am as we thought the train got in at 5 am. We walked around to find breakfast and will send some photos for blog. We saw the big church. I have not typed for the blog for a while, as we have to pay by the minute and have only 1 computer at times, and time is often scarce.

HCM is VERY busy like Hanoi, lots of motorbikes, markets selling EVERYTHING imaginable. We managed to get some interviews with people back in Hue, a family where the 2nd youngest son stays at home to help his parents tend the family farm and also a community of farmers who had never had European people visit them in their homes before.

No doubt the girls will mention I was so desperate for some jam I wasn't leaving a cafe until I had managed to open a jar of mango and pineapple jam to go with a croissant, which no one else could open ( The girls thought this was really funny).

It was nearly 40 degrees in Hue but luckily a bit cooler in HCM. We saw amazing landscapes from the train, marble mountains, great boulders with houses nestled into the steep slopes, broad flat landscapes, deep forests and yesterday the train went right beside the beautiful coastline, we all stood out in the passage, looking at the sea washing over big boulders as our train went in and out of tunnels.

We are off to the Mekong river delta for 4 days tomorrow, so will continue later Hi to all, we are all well, we all say hi to Emma too. Cheers Karen

Blog from Vietnam, 6th March

Hi everyone, we have been in Vietnam 3 days already, in Hanoi. My first impression of northern Vietnam is that it looked greener than Thailand, at first glance. There are lots of green rice paddies very close to the airport, whereas Thailand hadn't had rain for 4 months in places and lots of land was fallow, waiting for the rainy season to plant more rice.

The houses in the old quarter of Hanoi have a definite French influence and are tall and thin in lovely bright colours as you come in to Hanoi city. There have been a lot of new high rise buildings in the last 5 years.

We are in a lovely hotel in the old quarter, called Church hotel, very new and we can step outside into a mass of life going on, people selling everything you can think of, ladies carrying heavy baskets of food as you can see in the blog photo, millions of motorbikes. It was very scary for me trying to cross a busy road at first, but I am already used to doing it, walking very slowly, (Gavin says the secret is to think of it as like crossing a river, and the bikes just gracefully go around us )...hopefully :).

Gavin is now busy sorting out our next move so we have walked around the streets and the girls have enjoyed doing a bit of shopping. I have taken a few street photos. The girls got conical hats on and held two baskets of food for photos. We should be moving down south soon, towards Ho Chi Min, where we fly from next, we will know more soon.

Love to all xo ** Karen

A last word from Thailand

Hi all, just got back to Bangkok from Ayutthaya, the old capital. We were there 3 days, with Yai, our host,a lovely lady. See Gavin's blog for all the names and details.

We interviewed some farmers and one lady farmer in particular, who did things alone, an awesome example of energy and commitment, to farming more naturally.

In a short time, we had some great experiences, ...saw amazing Wats or temples, and Buddhas, a monk blessed us and gave us all bracelets, we were very careful not to touch him, as a sign of respect.

We saw a sunset over a temple ruins and of course I took lots of photos.

This morning , we gave flowers and food to the 4 monks at a temple, to celebrate the full moon. It was very moving. We have had dinner at the busy markets by the river and had lunch at a vege cafe and were recommended some lovely peanut food by David from Michigan. Saw and tasted rambutans for the first time.

Now we are up 5am to fly to Vietnam, I am looking forward to it but a little sad to leave behind such lovely people we have met so far, I will miss Thailand and its beautiful, gentle people.

Thankyou everyone, Sa wa deeka, kob khun ka love karen

From Karen 23-Feb-2007 Bangkok

We're now back in Bangkok for a brief rest before beginning our final week in Thailand. Since visiting the Karen village we have been to two Lisu villages, an Akha village, a lowland farmer near Chiang Rai, stayed by the Mekong for two nights, had a boat ride on the Mekong and talked with Uncle Sao (77 year old wise man of the river), visited a Lahu village, two community forest projects in the Mekong catchment.... back to Bangkok last night then straight to a small monastery 2-3 hours north-east, talked with a Buddhist monk this morning then back to Bangkok to our 'home away from home" at the Phranakorn-Nornlen hotel. We've met some wonderful people and done a lot more filming. I'll be writing a more detailed update and sending some photos to post tomorrow once I've had a good sleep!!

Email exchange Karen and Emma

Circle dancing with hill tribes people, interviewing farmers, foresters, looking after the Mekong river, a boat ride down the river to an old fisherman's place, caught and they ate the fish, so many new experiences in a short time. Love taking photos, the camera never leaves my side. So good flying to Chiang Rai instead of 12 hours on a bus after 7 hours the 2 days before, we would have been shattered. Last nite, stayed in a monks temple, on a woven mat on the floor, really sore right now but a good experience. woke up to photo sunrises, really beautiful, yesterday over Mekong on Chinese new year. Well will rest here for 2 days, so try to chat Emma if on line too. Love to all Karen

hey mum dat all sounds awsome!!! yesterday i saw a bit of the carnivale in 1 of the nearby villages.. its kinda like the blossom parade but EVERYONE dresses up not jst the people in it. and its soooo colourful!!!!!! well e-mail when you can k ciao xxxxxx

E-mail to parents Bill and Barbara in NZ 11:37AM

Hi good to get your mail, we are all good, so busy and tired but exited doing stuff. I'm taking lots of photos, check blog every day for more. We will be out of reach for tonight, seeing the Lasu hill people celebrating the Chinese new year. Yesterday, we saw my namesake, KAREN hill people clearing a fire break, looking after the rain forest, where they live. Gavin interviewed the head man of the Karen in the forest, with his daughters, they had a great grasp of climate change and the need to preserve their environment. They are doing some great things.

by the sea, it was great to see all that the organic farmers were doing, working We have been eating lovely Thai food, and I have seen amazing new things at at the markets, buckets of eels, massive crabs, fruit I have never seen before, and have tasted spiky red fruit with white flesh and tiny black seeds, I will try to find out names.

The Thai people are so gentle and graceful, even riding their mopeds 3plus, weaving in and out of massive traffic jams in Bangkok, they are so relaxed, I would freak out... After our 6 hour train ride down to Chumphon - working co-operatively, and recycling etc. Woke up early to walk on the beach and take the sunrise, saw a special needs Thai group on beach, amazed. well I'll say more soon.

Love to all **Karen

Bangkok 11:36 AM local time

Brisbane

We have had an enjoyable time in Brisbane city, we traveled in on the new bus only road system, which has encouraged more people to use buses, it was great to see such good initiatives from a major city. The girls cooled off at the inner city 'beach'/pools. The inner city with lots of people, views and food smells - getting us used to what we will be going to in a couple of days - flying to Thailand on the 11th.

A quick chat with Karen

In Brisbane now, great flight, all well - girls sleeping - Gavs sleeping so beta go rest 2 - great to chat, its all worth it on gmail, a good move Michael, hope 2 chat again b4 leave Auz, will try to send photo.

Each family member has their own email account to keep in contact with friends and family. We are using Gmail which comes with a Google Account which one signs upto to establish a Google blog -which this is - if more than one of us is online at any one time we can chat from within Gmail - which is how the above message came into being - hence Karen's txt mode. Oh and just in case you were wondering - a full backup of the blog is stored as it is created - you were wondering that weren't you? (Michael)

Almost packed

Almost packed, last minute things to do, all calm and happy, a beaut last day here. Bye to everyone for now, see you in mid July. Thanks to everyone who has helped us to get where we are now. Well, getting up at 5am tomorrow, flying to Auckland, then Brisbane to celebrate birthdays proper, 3 Aquarians, Gav, Ali in Auz, me and Lena in Thailand. I will send photos, xo k

Serious count down

Serious count down, two days left, busy packing packs, cleaning up for new family coming into our place. ( See the two group photos from Karen here - Gavin, and here - Alice ).

Karen's gift to Gavin