Gai Jatra 2007

It was Gai Jatra, one of the other interesting festival, on August 29 2007. This festival is celebrated in the memories of the lost family member during the last year. The word Gai Jatra came from two words Gai (which means Cow) and Jatra (festival). It is also called Saparu in Newari language. The whole city streets are crowded with the parade of the families who have lost a member during the past year parade in a decorated cow around the city. Most of the people send a cow from their house and those who can't find a cow will send their kids dressed up as cows or ascetics and walk in procession along the festival route. Cow has a special place in the Hinduism. It is respected as a god and mostly a given the respect as to a mother. So this day, it is believed that the sacred animal helps departed souls to cross the cosmic ocean in their journey into the after-world.





Humor is another side of the festival. Comic dramas and street shows making fun of government officials are performed. People also roam the city dressed up like lunatics. Newspapers bring out special "mad" editions. From ancient ages people are allowed to demonstrate any critics this day, even when autocracy ruled Nepal.

In Kathmandu, the bereaved families proceed alone the festival route individually whereas in Patan, the participants gather at Durbar Square and then move out together. In Kirtipur, the Jatra starts from the night. Almost every won't sleep at night and on the Gai Jatra night a buffalo is sacrificed outside the Bagh Bhairav Temple. So I felt the Jatra as if it was a night-time Jatra.


The celebration in Bhaktapur is the most interesting one and I personally prefer going there if you want to see the true demonstration of Gai Jatra where there are tall bamboo poles, wrapped in cloth, and toped with horns fashioned of straw are carried around the city in memory of the dead. It seems like the whole city is taking part and all the city streets will be filled with the parade. It might be due to the narrowed streets there but all the city streets are found full on that day.

Cheap Hotels In Paris

The first name that comes in my mind when it comes to vacationing is Europe. If I go deep within the details, the next familiar name would be Paris and London. I haven't been in any part of Europe as of yet but I surely intend to be there somewhere in the future. I have read and heard about many fascinating things and places to visit in Europe and mostly Paris. Some of my friends have also been there who have wide range of experience with them about the place but personally I prefer to find it out myself and experience the journey on my own.

Paris has been my all time favorite place. It is the capital of France. Some of the popular places in Paris can be a place called Louvre. It was formerly the residence of the Kings of France and is situated in the capital of France which has rich past and collections, and renowned as one of the world’s greatest museums. Lido is one of the other popular places. Bonheur, which means happiness, sets the sets the tone for the revue at the Lido this famous cabaret on the Champs Elysées.

Most of the adventurous people go for unplanned for their vacation but I have heard lots of them ending up bankrupt after their vacation. It is mostly due to their lack of knowledge about the booking of cheap hotels in the area where they go. Paris hotels are actually easy to find if you have right knowledge about the internet browsing. I don't want to be caught up in an unknown city and wander around finding out hotels so I have wised up and I went one step further and found it out by myself in one of the sites called hotelclub.net. The site is too easy to use and they have lots of user friendly tools in that site. If you want to find out the cheap hotels in Paris all you have to do is enter the details listed in the site and soon it will find you the best hotel's list with all the details about the hotel like, star rating, price, location, etc. I am sure this site will help most of the people who want to have a peaceful journey and have a nice night without worrying about the hotels when they are there.

To find best hotel for you as there are number of hotels providing travel deals. The Dallas Hotels is among top hotels of America. There is different percentage for discounts on hotels that are provided by hotel companies. For summer vacations in Florida state Florida Hotels are affordable option for you. The hot hotel deals can help you to save your money for tourism.

Janai Purnima (Kwati Punhi) 2007

The season of festival begins and today, August 28 2007, is Janai Purnima. Janai Purnima is the day when most of the Hindus change the janai. Janai is the sacred thread the men wear on their chests. Today is the full moon day and flocks of Brahmins (Hindu priests) can be seen at the holy river banks taking ritual dips in the river and offering ablution to the gods. As a ritual, they then change their holy threads and also tie yellow sacred threads around the wrists of the faithful.

name for this festival iThis day is also important for the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley. Then Newari is Gunhi Punhi. Most of the Newari festivals have special foods to offer. Looking back at the festivals they celebrate, it is not so hard to find out that they celebrate every festival according the foods they produce. All the friends and families gathered around together and offer servings of the foods provided in different season in and they have different festivals for different foods they have. Likewise, the special menu for Gunhi Punhi is Kwati. Hence the day is also called Kwati Punhi, where Kwati is a soup of different beans and Punhi means the full moon day. Lots of Newars do put the yellow sacred threads around the wrists which are to be taken off on the day of Laxmi Puja, another festival in Tihar, about two months after this festival.

In Patan, a richly decorated lingam, the phallic symbol of Lord Shiva, is placed in the middle of the Kumbheswar (Kwonti) pond. This place is located at one of the most popular places in Patan, called Bangalamukhi. It is believed that the pond is to be filled with the water from the holy lake Gosainkunda Lake. There is a well-like place situated there where the people believe that the water comes from the Goshainkunda Lake itself. This day, they have all the water collected in a pond situated nearby the well-like place. In Bhaktapur, a colorful procession known as Jujuya Ghintang-ghishi, a type of king's carnival goes around town in the evening.

Hotels in Guangzhou

If you have read my blog, I am sure you will know that Nepal is a neighboring country of the People's Republic of China. In fact Nepal is landlocked by India and China. I have lots of friends through out the world and in China too. I have heard about beautiful places to visit in China but sadly I have never been in the parts of China as of yet.

Amongst the most beautiful places in China, Guangzhou is one of the most beautiful places. Guangzhou is the capital and the sub-provincial city of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the People's Republic of China. The city is known as an Canton, older English-language name. It is a port on the Pearl River which is navigable to the South China Sea. It is located about 75 miles northwest of Hong Kong. Lots of other information about Guangzhou is there in wikipedia page. I just can't wait to go and find it out myself to the real place. So for the transportation and accommodation to Guangzhou I searched online for the best hotels in Guangzhou. Then I found Asiahotels.com. There I saw Guangzhou city was on their homepage. It was in the top cities in Asia section. I found the site full of everything that a person need for finding out hotels in Asia. Everything is provided with destination guides and if you select the exact city where you are going, like Guangzhou for instance, you will find all the cheap asian hotels situated in that area with the rated stars and the price tag in USD. So if you have same plan of going to Guangzhou and if you want to find out cheap hotels in Guangzhou, asianhotels.com is the website you shall visit.

Naag Panchami 2007

I again missed the festival of Naag Panchami this year. I even missed to post it in the exact date in this blog of mine. It was on 18th of August this year. This festival also has a great value in Hindu culture and as with most of the festivals it also has a story behind it.

In Hinduism, the Naag (divine serpent) is glorified as the giver of rain. On the day of Naag Panchami, devotees paste pictures of the Naag over their doorways and pay homage. Devotees also throng Taudaha (meaning big pond) which is 6 kilometers to the south of Kathmandu. There they worship Karkotak Naag, the serpent-king. Karkotak moved to this dwelling after Lord Manjushree drained the Kathmandu Valley, which used to be a lake in ages past, by slicing a passage through the hills to make it inhabitable. Nagdaha lake is another distination for pilgrims where they offer worship to the serpent-gods.

So mostly this day you will find most of the houses with posters of Naag over their doorways and the market will be full of sellers of posters of Naag. Temples of Shiva (his ornaments is made of live snakes) can too be seen crowded with devotees. Other views would be people feeding milk to Naag brought by mostly Indian snake handler in their bags.

Orlando Villas

Summer break are almost over now. I am sure lots of the people have gone to the vacations to their favorite place and some of you might be just still working. Amongst the one who have gone to the vacation they will surely be remembering that vacation for the rest of their life or at least for one season. But everyone plans the vacations and wants their vacation to be the memorable for the rest of their lives. Choosing the right place is the hardest part when it comes to vacationing and I know how hard it is to plan it.

If I was to make a choice as of now, I would just choose Orlando Villas for my vacation this summer or any occasion either it is Christmas, Spring break, or Summer break. The most amazing things they provide are 52 them parks and the beaches are so close to their place, just within a short 40-minute drive. Orlando is rich for its outstanding resorts and vacation homes and of course the biggest draw would be Disney World which is also in Orlando. Another one beautiful thing is top rated golf courses for the golf lovers and that too within a 40-minute drive. They also have the second largest convention center in the world. Some of you might say, I have already been there in the past years, but you might never know what you are missing. Orlando really is changing and over the past three to five years, they have made lots of competitive theme park business, and they also have been continuously adding new rides and new attractions as there is stiff competition among all the theme parks. They have constantly upgrading the areas of attractions which makes Orlando a great destination for the entire family who comes for vacationing in Orlando.

Send Large Files With Driveway

I am sure lots of who are around the world having the good time of their life vacationing will surely have lots of photographs to share to their friends and families. When we go to a tour or go to any important occasion, we surely have lots of photographs in our digital camera. At the end of the day, it will be time for sending emails to your friends and families. Well then comes the headache and problems. We can send only few limited emails in one single email in most of the emails and uploading too takes too much time and when your emails are send some of the emails just decreases the quality of the pictures we send as it compresses the pictures. Same thing happens when we try to put it in any photo album in the free websites these days. I am sure this troubles lots of the people around the world.

Well I have a perfect solution for all those problems mentioned above. I would just provide the name of the website, www.driveway.com, and if you do visit it you will find what it does. Yes, Driveway is a recently launched file sharing utility in the web 2.0 era. With Driveway, you can easily share your files up to 500MB through your emails, the best thing is it doesn't even require any registration. You just just upload your files and get to share the files just like that. With an ease and in no time, you can send large files till they are of 500MB at this moment. Their newer features include a plugin for faster uploads, folder upload support as a zip file and desktop and web widgets for easy sharing including read/write access. Just check it out and enjoy sharing your files with your friends and families.

Gunla 2007

I have been quite busy these days and I don't have much time to go out and participate in this year's festivals. I really miss it but I just cannot help it. All of my friends and family have also been busy so I had been skipping lots of festivals this year. In these two weeks, I missed two of the important festivals, Gunla and Nagpanchami. Well I just have gathered some information about Gunla, and with my experiences throughout the years I lived and enjoyed I am going to write and share it to this blog of mine. I hope you guys will enjoy reading about the festivals of Nepal.

Gunla is the name of the 10th month in the Nepal Era calendar (Newari Calendar). According to Gregorian calendar, Gunla lies on the 14th of August this year (2007). It is a sacred month dedicated to Lord Buddha. The festival commemorates the auspicious "rains retreat" when the Buddha, over 2,500 years ago, led his close disciples into solitary meditation and preached to them the essence of his principles.

Buddhists spend month in prayer and fasting. They visit Swayambhu and other shrines early in the morning accompanied by musical bands. On August 25, groups of devotees make the rounds of monastery courtyards to view Buddha images displayed for the occasion. The Gunla lakhe (masked dancer) enlivens the festival with this street performances.

I have gone to Swayambhu lots of times in that festival in the past. Not only Buddhist but lots of Hindus go to Swayambhu as most of the Hindus of Nepal do pay respect to Buddha as Buddha was once a prince of Newari family. So you will find lots of Newars worshiping and praying to Buddha. This is the time of the year, where you can find Swayambhu crowded with lots of people and devotees of all ages. Mostly you will find lots of young guys and girls, mostly teenagers, wandering around the road going or returning from Swayambhunath temple. On the way back from Swayambhunath, lots of guys and girls stop by one small cheap restaurant where they serve one of the most popular Newari foods for breakfast called Gwaramari (Fulaura in Nepali). I just had to write about Gwaramari as it is one of my favorite food after momo. Well I am sure I will go at least once this month to Swayambhunath temple anyhow. I just love that place.

DialAFlight To Canada

There are lots of websites these days which offer traveling services. The main benefits that we get from those sites are reservations of flights, hotels, and other travel ideas. Recently I visited a leading independent UK travel company named DialAFlight. It too has lots of features related to travel and comfort in traveling. This site really has it all being a UK based company but it has its service worldwide and has been helping people find their holiday of their dream. Searches for flights, hotels, care hire, and a lot of other traveling issues can be easily found in this single site. Booking can be done by just making a call and speaking with one of the UK travel consultants at DialAFlight who will ensure our requirements are fulfilled.

Through the time of visiting the site, I got lots of knowledge about the country Canada. As I was visiting one of the pages in that site which includes Flights to Canada, I got lot of information regarding Vancouver Flights, Toronto Flights, and Quebec Flights, and other information that anyone would need when they are having Holidays in Canada. They have very cheap flights and lots of holiday offers as well. Lots of famous places in Canada are also listed in that site with details where you can have lifetime experience visiting. Some of them are famous Banff National Park, Calgary, Niagara, and Whistler. Well if you are in that site you will know what I have been trying to explain as there are lots of information regarding it. I would suggest that everyone who are interested in vacationing in Canada should once visit the site for the information listed there and if you are satisfied with the details, as they name of the website says all you have to do is Dial A Flight, mean dial to make a flight to your destination.

Gathan-Muga 2007

Amongst a hundreds of festivals in the valley, Gathan-muga festival too carries lots of details and its own importance. The Gathan-muga festival (known variously as Gathemuangal and Ghantakarna) actually represents a ritual detoxification of the city, when evil spirits are banished outside the urban limits. Lots of the street intersections on the day of the festival can be found with effigies erected of the Gathan-muga (as a symbol of demon). In the evening time, a man wearing war-paint type of color all over his body goes out begging for money in his area of the city throughout the different shops and houses. Lots of other children will follow him with some kind of rhyming song used to beg money in the name of god. At the end of the day, the effigy is taken down. The painted man is made to sit on the effigy and the neighborhood kids drag it away to the river near them, mostly Bishnumati River being closet to the valley. In Bhaktapur, the effigy is burnt in the middle of the street.

Being the native of the valley, mostly Newars celebrate this festival. Householders place pots of cooked rice at the crossroads as food for the demons. Another happening ritual is before locking up the house for the night, nails are hammered into the door lintel because it is believed that the spooks and the demons are supposed to be terrified of iron. People also put iron mixed rings into their fingers to keep the spooks and demons away this day.

This festival can be considered as the beginning of all the other ones, as after this festival lots of others will follow. Newars will have lots of festival going on after Gathan-muga festival. Within a week there will be at least 1-2 feasts going on after this festival and each having their own meaning and a different god to be remembered and worshipped. This year Gathan-muga was on the 11th of August.

Hotel Reservations Made Easier In A Single SIte

Well as you all might have known the beauties of Nepal and the adventures you will have when you are here will just be a lifetime experience. With all this overwhelming feeling I am sure you must be wondering how to manage and seek for all the traveling, food, lodging, etc. Well that will not be a problem once you are here as Nepal has one of the cheapest hotels with cheapest price with high quality comfort and hygienic food available as well. Well for those who are too conscious about making reservations too you will find lots of sites which has lots of facilities stated in a single site. Hotel Reservations is not a big thing with these sites available in the desktop near you.

The competition between the sites which deals with such hotel reservations are as usual very high. There are numerous amounts of hotels which has their own sites and which deals with all the reservations as well and there are those sites which are especially designed to make the hotel reservations easier. Well I have been through lots of those sites and I know how hard it is to find the right one for you and it really takes extensive amount of time dealing and searching for perfect hotels with all the necessary facilities they offer. Well amongst my intensive search, I found out that HotelReservations.com had all the facilities stated in that single site and browsing this site is more easier as well. If you are in United States or Canada or in other European countries, they have this toll free service as well which allows you to call and make the reservations. With the sites help not only will you get the cheapest hotels but you will get all the guides you need and necessary comfort like hotel reservations, flight reservations, cars or other transportation facilities, vacation rentals, and many more facilities that you will need for the vacation you are having. It also has vacation packages which i m sure will just sooth you with such a cheap offer as you can save up to 70% off. So wherever you are you can have hotel reservations to anywhere with HotelReservations.com. Some of the hotels it has on its site are Australia Hotels, Italy Hotels, Asia Hotels, Germany Hotels, Greece Hotels, Belgium Hotels, France Hotels, England Hotels, and Portugal Hotels. It also has a destination guide from which you can research and plan your trip either it is a business trip or a nice vacation. So what you need is to just log in to the site and browse to the country you want to go and start planning your vacation because with this site, you will have the best offerings that any site has to offer in the cheapest price.

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