Trevie Bear & Lazy Baba Go to Kathmandu by Carolyn Smith - HTML preview

 

 

TREVIE BEAR & LAZY BABA GO TO KATHMANDU

By Carolyn Smith

 

Chapter 1

      The little plane was flying high in the sky. Trevie Bear had his nose pressed against the window. He could see the white, fluffy clouds beneath the plane as they flew. This is amazing he thought.

 

     Suddenly as if out of nowhere he saw them, the majestic Himalaya Mountains.

“Wow! Lazy Baba, Look! Can you see them?” Trevie Bear was pointing out of the window. Lazy Baba was also completely breath taken by the mountains. They were beautiful. They stood tall and proud against a clear blue sky.

“Mummy, which one is Mount Everest?” asked Becky. She was sitting in the seat next to the window with her little bag at her feet. She had taken Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba out of the bag when they had boarded the little plane, so that they could see.

“Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world Becky,” Mum said turning to look at her daughter. Mum and Dad were sat in the seats in the row in front of Becky.

“But, it’s not easy to spot amongst these other mountains. Can you see the mountain which seems to dip in the middle? There is a darker, pointier one behind it? The pointy one is Mount Everest.”

The Himalayas are made up of more than twenty mountains. Trevie Bear thought they were all beautiful. He was really enjoying himself.

 

     When the flight was over and they started to land, Becky put Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba safely back in to her bag. She loved her two toys very much and she didn’t want to lose them.

     She out her bag on her back and carefully climbed down from the little plane. It was so little that Dad had to duck so as not to hit his head on the ceiling.

The cold air hit them hard when they climbed out of the plane. It was -3 degrees outside. It was December and Himalayas were covered in crisp, white snow.

 

     Mum, Dad and Becky were all wrapped up in their warmest clothes and thickest jackets. Dad was wearing his big, thick green jacket today because he said it kept him warmer than any other. They all wore gloves and scarves to give them extra warmth. Becky’s scarf was a very bright pink. Dad said he had bought it for her so she would always stand out and he wouldn’t lose her. Lazy Baba thought that this was a very good idea.

Becky had even made little gloves and scarves for Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba. She had been taking knitting classes at school. Trevie Bears gloves and scarf were a dark blue colour, which was his favourite. Lazy Baba was wearing a red pair of gloves and scarf, which kept her very warm. She was glad because she hated being cold.

 

Chapter 2

 

     Once out of the airport Dad flagged down a rickshaw. Lazy Baba thought rickshaws looked very funny. It was a bicycle with a big carriage on the back for people to sit in. The carriage was decorated in bright colours with flowers and strange shapes all over it. Some of them even had flower garlands draped over them, they found out later that this was for good luck.

Becky, Mum and Dad climbed in to the rickshaw and sat down. Becky put her bag on the floor by her feet.

 

      The rickshaw driver started to cycle. The carriage must have been heavy with all these people in and getting started was slow, hard work.

Eventually they were on their way. The rickshaw was picking up speed and was winding in and out of the traffic. The ride was bumpy and Becky’s bag was getting jolted about this way and that. Poor Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba were very uncomfortable.

 

     Trevie Bear heard Mum and Dad talking. They were on their way to a place called ‘The Monkey Temple.’ He told Lazy Baba and she got very excited, she loved monkeys. She had seen some in the zoo once and thought they were very funny and cheeky. She was happy now; she was excited at the thought of seeing lots of monkeys.

 

     The ride got bumpier and bumpier as the road changed from smooth tarmac to gravel and rocks. Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba had nothing to hold on to and as they turned a particularly sharp corner and the rickshaw leant over on one side, they were thrown from the bag on to the road. They sat in the dust on the side of the street and watched the rickshaw with Mum, Dad and Becky in, drive away at great speed.

 

Chapter 3

 

    Trevie Bear stood up and brushed himself down to get the dirt out of his fur. Lazy Baba looked up at Trevie Bear in a daze. She was in shock. What had just happened? How had she ended up on the side of the street?

 “Well Lazy Baba,” said Trevie Bear, “looks like it has happened again.”

She sighed and held out her hand. Trevie Bear helped her to her feet. She quickly brushed the dirt off her dress and looked around them.

“Yes, here we are again. Lost,” she said in a heavy voice.

“No we’re not lost this time,” Trevie Bear said confidently. “Look, the Monkey Temple is just at the top of this hill. It’s not far and that is where Becky is. We’ll be back with her in no time.”

 

     Lazy Baba looked up in the direction that Trevie Bear was pointing. He was right. At the top of the dusty hill was a tall golden tower. It was a big white dome with a golden cube sitting on top of it. Rising up out of the cube was a very tall oval shaped tower with black and gold stripes.

They started walking up the hill towards this strange object. They passed many houses and little stores on the way. People were sat in the street talking, resting, buying and selling. It was quite a busy little street.

As they got closer to the temple Lazy Baba noticed that the cube had two eyes painted on it. When she asked Trevie Bear why this was he told her that they were peaceful eyes providing peace and tranquility to the people.

 

     They finally reached the bottom of the temple. The temple itself was sitting at the top of a huge flight of steps. Lazy Baba guessed that there must be more than one thousand steps leading to the temple.

There were lots of people at the bottom of the temple selling garlands of flowers and necklaces with the two eyes on. They had a quick look around, but they could already see that Mum, Dad and Becky were not down here.

“They must be in the temple at the top of these steps,” said Trevie Bear. Lazy Baba groaned. She was already tired from walking up that big hill. She really didn’t want to have to walk up all those steps as well.

“Don’t be so lazy Lazy Baba. We have to walk up those steps to find Becky.”

She knew he was right. She took a deep breath to prepare herself and followed him up the steps. He was racing ahead, eager to find Becky.

 

Chapter 4

 

     They had walked up what felt like more than one hundred steps and Lazy Baba was tired. She was struggling for breath so she stopped and sat down for a rest. As she sat she saw a family of monkeys running up and down the steps. She smiled to herself as she watched them running, jumping and playing. There were three large brown monkeys with four little baby monkeys. The babies were being naughty and jumping all over each other while the adults looked on.

“Trevie Bear!” called Lazy Baba. “Come and see this.”

Trevie Bear was much further up the flight of steps than Lazy Baba because he had not stopped for a rest. He didn’t want to go all the way back down again. He looked at the steps above him and saw what must have been more than thirty monkeys sitting in rows looking at him. They were blocking his way through and they were all much bigger than him.

 

     “Oh no!” thought Trevie Bear. One of the monkeys moved forward towards Trevie Bear. She sniffed at him and poked him with a long sharp finger. Trevie Bear almost lost his balance with the force of it.

“Lazy Baba, stay where you are!” he shouted to her. He was starting to worry. What were they going to do? He had heard of monkeys being vicious before, but he had not expected it here.

 

     Lazy Baba had not heard Trevie Bear shout to her and had walked up the steps to join him. She had seen the monkeys sitting in his way and had come for a closer look.

“What did you say Trevie Bear?” she asked as she came to stand beside him.

“I told you to stay down there,” he said in an angry voice. He was angry because he knew the monkeys were going to hurt them and he wouldn’t be able to protect her now.

    

     The monkey which had poked Trevie Bear gave a loud scream and the others all started to move from their positions towards Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba. They moved slowly with menace in their eyes. Trevie Bear gulped.

“Grab my hand Lazy Baba and when I say run, run.”

All of the monkeys were screaming and chattering now. The noise was deafening and very frightening. Lazy Baba had never imagined that monkeys would ever behave like this. She was very scared. She took hold of Trevie Bear’s hand, just like he had instructed.

     The monkeys had surrounded them now. They were literally everywhere. Trevie Bear didn’t know what to do. There was nowhere to run. He clung to Lazy Baba’s hand and squeezed a little too tight. She yelped in pain.

 

     Suddenly one of the monkeys pounced and grabbed hold of Lazy Baba. He had pulled her off her feet and was shaking her up and down like a rag doll. She felt sick with the movement. Another monkey grabbed Trevie Bear and turned him upside down. The monkey was banging Trevie Bears head against the step. It hurt a lot and he cried out.

“Owwwwwwwwwch!”

“Trevie Bear!” screamed Lazy Baba. There were two monkeys fighting over her now. They each held one of her hands and were pulling in both directions. She was terrified that they were going to tear her arms. She couldn’t go back to Becky broken.

 

     Then without warning the other monkeys scattered as if they had been scared by something. The monkeys holding Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba threw them as hard as they could down the steps towards the bottom of the temple before running off to join the other monkeys. Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba bounced down the steps, screaming with every thud as their heads and backs banged against the hard stone steps.

They didn’t stop until they reached the bottom step. They sat there for a good few minutes in a daze.

 

Chapter 5

 

     Aching all over Trevie Bear slowly stood up and winced as pain ran up and down his back. He helped Lazy Baba to her feet and they looked at each other in dismay. Trevie Bear’s fur had been pulled out in some places so he had patches here and there. Lazy Baba helped him smooth them over so it was not so noticeable.

Lazy Baba had lost her scarf in the fall. This made her sad because Becky had put so much effort in to making it just for her. Her hair had been pulled out of the pig tails and it was sticking out in a very strange way. Trevie Bear helped her smooth it back down so it didn’t stick out so much. They looked at each other again, they were not perfect, but this would have to do.

 

     They had not managed to find Becky and they knew they could not go back up to the temple now for the monkeys would attack them again.

“Lazy Baba, I have some very bad news,” said Trevie Bear. Tears welled up in his eyes. “We are lost!”

“No we’re not,” said Lazy Baba with excitement. Her eyes were twinkling and she was smiling.

“What do you mean?” asked Trevie Bear.

“Look!” she said pointing behind Trevie Bear. Hanging loosely on a tree was sign which read; ‘Meet the Living Goddess Kali today only in Durbar Square.’ Draped over the sign was Lazy Baba’s red scarf.

“We can go and see this Goddess Kali and she will help us find Becky. Goddesses have magical powers,” said Lazy Baba.

 

      Trevie Bear walked over to the tree and was about to start climbing when a small gust of wind took the scarf and blew it gently to the ground. It landed at his feet. He picked it up, thinking. Lazy Baba was right. This was their only chance and just the idea of the Goddess and brought Lazy Baba’s scarf back.

“Ok. Let’s go to Durbar Square and meet the Goddess,” he said. With that they linked arms and trotted happily back down the dusty hill. They knew that Durbar Square was somewhere in the centre of town. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find.

 

Chapter 6

 

     They had been walking for about an hour. There were signs everywhere pointing them in the right direction. Their mood was light and they walked happily knowing they were on the right track. They turned a corner and came to an extremely busy road. There were rows and rows of cars, taxis, buses and rickshaws all stopped. The road was completely jammed. On the pavement where Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba were walking there were hundreds of people all queuing and pushing to see something.

“I wonder what is going on,” said Lazy Baba. “Can we go and see?”

“Yes. I would like to know too,” said Trevie Bear. He took her by the hand and guided her between the legs of all the people. At the front of the queue there was a man selling tickets. People would take their ticket and then a small gate would open, allowing only one person through at a time. Trevie Bear waited for the gate to open ad then he sneakily squeezed himself and Lazy Baba through.

 

     Once through the gate they could see a huge field. Around the field were tents of all shapes and sizes. Each tent was selling something; food, drinks, snack, souvenirs etc. At one end of the field there was a stage with a man talking into a microphone. He wasn’t speaking English so Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba couldn’t understand him. He was dressed in long red and yellow robes wrapped around him like an ancient Greek toga.

In the centre of the field were six massive elephants. They were standing in a row swaying from side to side. Their ears were flapping to get rid of the flies which were buzzing lazily around their heads. The elephants were happily munching on straw as they stood there.

 

     “Wow! Look at those elephants!” exclaimed Trevie Bear. He had never seen a real life elephant before and now here was standing in front of six!

The elephants were all dressed up. They had colourful paint on their trunks and were wearing sparkly jeweled head bands over their heads. They looked lovely. Each one had a different coloured blanket draped over their back.

“I wonder why they are all dressed up,” said Lazy Baba thoughtfully. She didn’t have to wonder for too long because just as she had said it the man with the microphoine stopped talking and some music started. It was extremely loud.

 

     As soon as the music started the elephants stopped eating and took hold of the tail of the elephant next to them. The elephant on the left hand side led them in a circle twice with his trunk held high in the air. Once they had stopped the elephant behind the leading one put his two front feet on his back so he was standing on his hind legs. The other elephants did the same. It was very clever and fascinating to watch as the elephants did a variety of tricks.

 

     This only lasted for a couple of minutes though because the elephants were then used to give people rides around the field. There would be up to four people sitting on one elephant as it paraded them around the field. After every trip the elephant was given treats wrapped up in vine leaves. Lazy Baba wished that she could have had a ride on an elephant, but she would not have been able to climb that high up.

 

Chapter 7

   

     They stood and watched the elephants for a little while longer before returning to the busy street to continue their journey to Durbar Square. Lazy Baba had been getting tired from all the walking and had welcomed the little break. But she knew they must continue or else be lost forever.

 

     As they walked the streets changed from extremely large, loud and full of traffic to very small, loud and full of traffic. Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba were finding it difficult to walk without being pushed and shoved as it was so busy. There were people everywhere and very tall buildings on both sides of the small road. Every building had lots of bright, colourful signs hanging off them. It was difficult to tell what they were advertising because there were so many. The height of the buildings and the sheer number of signs blocked out a lot of the sun light, so the road was quite dark as they walked down it.  They were sure they must be getting close to the town centre then, where Durbar Square was sure to be.

     

     Soon the road opened up into a small clearing; there were not so many buildings and signs. The road branched off into five different directions and there was a small statue of a monkey in the middle of the road. The cars were treating this like a roundabout as they decided which direction to drive off in. In each direction the buildings grew tall and the roads were small and dark again.

“Which direction do you think we should go in Lazy Baba?” asked Trevie Bear as they stood looking out at all the chaos.

 

     The cars were coming in all directions, beeping at each other to move out of the way. People were walking across the street in front of the cars as they honked and beeped and swerved to miss them.

“I think we should continue going straight. That’s what the last sign told us to do,” said Lazy Baba.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try going left?” he asked. “I have a good feeling about that road to the left.”

“Oh no!” thought Lazy Baba. Here we go again. He is always doing this, whenever they get lost anywhere, he always wants to go exploring. Why can’t Trevie Bear just stick to the directions given by the road signs?

“No Trevie Bear. We are not exploring today. We are trying to find the Goddess so she can help us find Becky.”

“Ok!” sighed Trevie Bear grumpily. He liked exploring. Sometimes it was fun to go the wrong way and have to find your back again. Lazy Baba did not agree.

 

     Having agreed to go straight, they stood on the side of the road waiting for a gap in the traffic. There was so much traffic it didn’t look like there would ever be a space. Luckily a rickshaw had got stuck on his way around the little statue. He was blocking the whole road so no traffic could get through at all. The noise from all their beeping and honking as they waited for him to free himself was ridiculous.

Trevie Bear and Lazy Baba held hands and took the opportunity to run across the road safely to the other side and start walking down the next small, dark street.

 

Chapter 8

 

     This street was quite foreboding. It was selling mostly meat. There were empty cages lined up against the sides of the buildings and a very strange smell came to Lazy Baba’s nostrils. She didn’t like it. When she mentioned it to Trevie Bear he told her to keep looking straight ahead and not to look at the stalls and shops at all. She didn’t know why, but she did exac