Celebrating Chinese New Year

After celebrating Chinese New Year for the last 3 years, we wanted to do something for the occasion even though it's not celebrated here (though Tibetan New Year is I guess, next year we'll look into that).  

We started our day at Namo Buddha with mountains and "xīn nián kuài lè" (happy new year). Not a bad place to start your day!

When we got back home we did some stuff around the house that reminded us of Taiwan.  We had our New Years posters up, including the one from the year of the rabbit when Tegan was born.  We looked at some books we have in Chinese (this one is from Mo Willem's series Elephant and Piggy) and the book I made Tegan about being born and living in Taiwan.  We listened to a children's New Year song on YouTube and finally ended the day with a red envelope (I had to make out of Nepali paper because I forgot to bring them from the states with me, but the red fish paper was fitting I thought).

It all wasn't quite the same, and we missed amazing meals we've had with friends in the past (and I'm afraid to admit I in particular have been missing the cheesey 7-11 New Year characters and gimmicks - Hello Kitty anyone??) but we had a wonderful day none-the-less.

Happy year of the snake everyone!

Balthali to Namo Buddha

For Tihar we spent a few days away from home.  Along with 2 other couples we hiked into Balthali resort (the term "resort" applied very liberally), spent the night then hiked to Namo Buddha resort where we spent another night.  The first hike was only an hour or so (with 2 kids under 3 years old) while the second day took more like 4-5 hours.  The views were amazing and we loved Namo Buddha resort with its little hobbit-like houses.  We will certainly go back!

Scary bridge

View from our room at Balthali

Balthali morning

Tihar decorations

Prayer flags and Himalaya mountains

Namo Buddha knows what kids want

Hobbit house doorway

Amazing views!