Farewell at Adelaide Airport
2 Comments »10th April, 2007; Category: Adelaide
Last Sunday we travelled to the Adelaide International Airport to say farewell to our daughter. She was on her way to Ireland for two and a half weeks. We would have liked to have gone with her, but for the “extras” she was taking with on this journey. Those “extras” were sixteen of her students.
The view from Adelaide Airport
Our daughter is a high school teacher at Clare High School in the mid-north of South Australia. As part of her work there she organises the international programme in her school. She has already taken a group of students to Japan on exchange. She has also coordinated a visit by Japanese students to Clare.
Clare High School delegation to Ireland
This is the first time the school has organised an exchange to Ireland. In 2005 when she was teaching in England she visited St Joseph’s school in Spanish Point in county Clare. This was preparation for the visit this year. I think she is a very brave girl with the responsibility of organising such an exchange.
The parents I talked to while waiting for the time to board the plane all agreed that it was a wonderful opportunity for their children to participate in such a programme. I couldn’t help but think of the stress it must have caused her. Goodness, I used to get paranoid about organising a day trip excursion to the beach or wherever when I was teaching.
Adelaide International Airport
Just as a little aside, I noticed a large sign in the airport entrance while there. Adelaide International Airport, barely two years old, was voted the second best airport in the world recently. In small print there is a rider to that claim. The award was for airports with 5 to 15 million passengers annually. Still, little old Adelaide is pleased with its recognition.
Adelaide International Airport
Street Food Vendors in Kathmandu
Food vendor in the streets of Kathmandu
One of the things that amazed me about both Bangkok and Kathmandu was the huge numbers of street vendors selling food. In fact, one of the guides on a bus trip I took in Thailand said that he and his wife rarely cooked their food – they most often bought their meals from the street vendors. His apartment was too small to have a kitchen anyway. While I didn’t ask anyone in Kathmandu about this aspect of life, I daresay it would be true of many parts of the capital city of Nepal too.
In fact, it may well be true of many larger cities of the world, especially in the inner and more populated parts of cities. I just haven’t travelled enough to make judgments on this sort of thing. In rural Australia where I live to eat out is the exception, not the rule. Most people here cook their own food and eat at home. To go out for a meal is a special treat, though that concept is changing in our larger cities.
The food vendor in the photo above was unusual in what he was selling. He had pop corn for sale. His bicycle was converted to make it a mobile kitchen complete with a gas bottle and gas ring.
Beautiful Kathmandu
Buddhist Stupa in Kathmandu
The building in the photos on this page caught my attention due to the beautiful paint work and the interesting architecture. These buildings are a part of the Buddhist Stupa complex within central Kathmandu. While many of the buildings in Kathmandu – and other parts of Nepal for that matter – look run down and poorly maintained, these looked immaculate.
Buddhist Stupa in Kathmandu
Birding in Nepal – some frustrations
Feral Pigeon in Kathmandu
One of the aspects of visiting Nepal in 2006 that excited me was the prospect of seeing many birds for the very first time. This was my first trip overseas and for months before I studied field guides to help me identify the birds, first in Thailand and then in Nepal.
At first I was quite disappointed with the birding I was able to do. I soon realised that watching birds was not my main purpose in visiting these countries, so any birds I did see were a bonus. Secondly, I realised very quickly that identifying birds in a strange country is not easy. Even though I had studied the field guides for many months, getting an ID for some birds was very hard. Third, trying to identify and photograph a bird from the back of a moving elephant, or in the lurching back seat of a 4WD or bus, or while gasping for air when staggering up the track towards Mt Everest IS NOT EASY.
So, in that context, the photo above was a bonus. This Feral Pigeon (Rock Dove) posed for me beautifully on a the ledge of part of a temple in Kathmandu. Still, I didn’t exactly travel a third of the way around the world to see and photograph a common bird I can see just by stepping out my front door at home. [Sigh]
Related articles:
- Himalayan Monal – national bird of Nepal.
- Another rhinoceros – and some birds too
- Canoe trip – and many birds
- An early morning birding walk – it’s hard in the fog!
- Royal Chitwan National Park – complete with a list of birds I saw.
Link:
- Trevor’s Birding – my blog about birding in Australia.
Birds in Central Kathmandu
Near a Buddhist Stupa in Kathmandu
Wherever I walked in Kathmandu there were temples and special religious monuments everywhere. In many cases these are very colourful and so become focussed on by photographers like myself. Other structures are significant for other reasons.
This building is part of the Buddhist Stupa complex in central Kathmandu. The reason I took this photo was for the birds on the roof of the building. In this open public area near the temple there were literally thousands of Rock Doves (also called Feral Pigeons). They seemed to be everywhere in great numbers. It was therefore inevitable that one of them wanted to buy my hat – it left a deposit on it.
And so my hat needed a wash when I arrived back in the hotel.