How to celebrate the Belgian National Day in India

Okay, so I guess tonight I spend the most surreal Belgian National Day ever…
As you might know, I’m currently visiting our partners in India and see the projects they are implementing for my organisation, WSM. Tonight in the town of Tiruchirappali, we were supposed to meet ten construction workers and discuss their access to social security. Instead, the local parish wanted to welcome us in style, and me in particular as guest of honour.
Now, this isn't the first time for an impromptu ceremonial welcome, with necklaces made of jasmine flowers and shawls draped around you for welcome, but here, around 400 people gathered to watch dance performances, listen to thank you words and speeches and requested I sing the national Belgian anthem (which I of course hardly know the first four lines to). In between, I was paraded everywhere to pose for pictures and winded up with the local version of a Christmas tree (yes, really) on my head…



But at least we managed to speak about the pension scheme and have some people enroll, so I suppose all in a good day’s work….

Thanjavur temple

My work hardly left me any time to do sightseeing, but I did managed to get to sneak away for one hour, to visit the Brihadisvara temple in Thanjavur, one of the largest in India (66m high).

Big statue of Nandi (sacred bull), carved out of a single rock, weighs 20 tons, at the entrance measuring about 6m long and 2m high.                     

Made in the 11th century, the entire temple is estimated to weigh 130.000 tonnes. The top is made out of a single piece of granite, which weighs 80 ton, and the closest source for granite is 60km away! It is believed to have been taken to the top by creating an inclined slope to the height of 66m to the top of the gopuram, most likely pulled by elephants. Oh, and did I mention it only took 5 years to build it?

The outer wall of the upper storey is carved with 81 dance karanas – postures of Bharathanatyam, the classical dance of Tamil Nadu. And luck had it there was a performance of this dance just taking place when I was there.

How pink is Nepal? Seen in the streets of Kathmandu...

These are some graffiti we noticed in the streets of Kathmandu. These three are situated around a park which is a known cruising areas for gays. Now, Nepal isn't the most progressive, but it is far from being the worst country with regards to LGBT rights. Same sex relationships aren't criminal and there's talk of including same-sex marriages and third gender in the next Constitution (if it ever goes through). If you ever come to Nepal, notice how on the arrival and departure forms, it even allows you to check 'other', besides male and female.

Some of this is due to activism and one of the LGBT organisations that receives a lot of attention is the Blue Diamond Society. They do a lot of awareness raising and their founder was even elected as a member of the previous Parliament!

This is not to say everything is pink ;)... Discussing with friends and activists, many cases of bullying and rejection of LGBT still occur. Take the graffiti for instance. Most agree that in India, these would have caused an uproar and would get sullied very quickly. They are unsure whether the fact that they don't cause many waves here is because of 'tolerance' (as much as I dislike that word... I mean, who wants to be tolerated?) or because of 'ignorance'. But no need to look very far, even our Belgian consul referred to some of the more extravagant lady-boys who walk around Thamel on Friday night as 'freaks'...

Getting out of Kathmandu - Pokhara and Tansen

Last weekend, we finally got out of Kathmandu and its traffic and dust. Together with three friends, we drove to Pokhara, lakeside and Tansen, in the mountains.


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It was quite a long drive. Don't believe the 12h from Google Maps, it took us 5h to Pokhara, where we slept. After a morning of boating on the lake and finding a waterfall, we drove another 5 hours to Tansen, where we spend the night in a gorgeous farm, Sirjana, where we slept in a traditional Newari house and ate the locally grown food (and cheese).


The next day was the real sportive part: the walk down to Rani Mahal, the Queen's palace. It is sometimes also called the Taj Mahal of Nepal, not because it is so splendid but because building it in such a remote place must have been a huge challenge. It isn't being used anymore but they're renovating it.  It takes about 3 hours to walk down and another 4 hours to walk back up (the getting back part was the most exhausting one of course).


After an early dinner and some drinks, we adjourned to our hotel for a couple of rounds of Werewolf. And the next day, it was already time for the 7 hour drive back to Kathmandu, where our soft mattress was awaiting us...