The Sun, Warm Clothes & Hot Water Bottles

By Crivenica

Winters in Nepal are on the borderline of being unbearable. Compared to other cold places, it may seem nothing. The temperature doesn’t get lower than 1º C (34º F) at its lowest nor does it snow here in the Kathmandu valley where David and I live, but the winter here can be really tough.

Cloudy winter day in Kathmandu

Every winter, we hear news that a certain amount of people have died due to winter cold in Nepal. This winter alone, the number has reached over 80 people (there are several figures in the dailies). And with the cold spell that has been on us these past few days, I won’t be surprised, but very saddened, if the number rises.

These deaths are mainly caused by the lack of access to heat. Poor people rely on burning wood, but those are not always readily available. More fortunate people may have access to portable gas heaters or electric heaters. However, LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) that is used for the gas heaters can be pricey and it’s not seldom that its supply diminishes in the winter months. So you think, use electric heaters, right? Well, electricity is also scarce in this country with its daily rolling blackout. As of this week, we lose 12 hours of electricity per day and we may lose more as the winter continues. Last winter, we topped at 16 hours of daily blackout. Oh, and people whose houses have fireplaces are lucky! Our rental house has a fireplace, but of course the structure of the chimney makes it dysfunctional so we cannot use it. It would be so great if we had a working fireplace.

So what do you do to survive the long cold winter days? We worship the sun during the day. I am a girl from the tropics and most of my life I took the sun and its warmth for granted. Never again. Like most Nepali people, I camp out under the sun in the daylight because it gets really cold inside the house. Some people often complain that they can’t find some government officials at their offices in the winter because they all will be somewhere outside sunning themselves. I don’t blame them, really. Who can concentrate on work when you’re freezing your tushies off? So, I really did miss the sun when it disappeared these past few days. And for its role in keeping me warm during the winter days, I would say that the sun is on my list of surviving-Nepali-winter must.

I bet many of you who live in subzero winter area, like my sisters Louise in Chicago and Annette in Stavanger, would say somewhere along the line of “34º F is nothing! Grow a pair!” I can understand that. I’ve lived in Illinois and Wisconsin for years myself, so I know all about bad winters. The thing is I also always had central heating in the house that kept the inside temperature in the comfortable range of 18º-21º C (65º-70º F). We don’t have that luxury here in Kathmandu. At night, the temperature inside our house is as cold as the outside temperature, while during the day, the inside temperature is colder than the outside. Imagine working, living, showering and sleeping in constant temperature of 1º-6º C (34º-44º F).

This is me at home.

We could remedy it with gas heaters, except that we don’t like smelling the gas fume. We do have electric heaters, but every time we fired up those machines our electric bill goes through the roof and we don’t have electricity most of the day anyway. So we survive by putting on many layers of clothing. I am writing this wearing a pair of leggings under a pair of jeans, wool socks, wool shoes, a Patagonia Capilene, a Patagonia Better Sweater, David’s Italian wool sweater, a pashmina scarf and an over-sized men’s thick and cuddly cashmere sweater that my father-in-law, Steve, gave me. Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m also wearing a wool hat. I am a sight. I wear less clothes than this when I go out! Surprising, right?

Our cat, Sfac, bundled up.

However, even wearing this much clothing I still get cold after the sun disappears and the temperature drops significantly. This is the time when I whip out my last arsenal against the frosty temperature: hot water bottles. These are heavy duty rubber “bottles” that you fill with boiling water and keep close to your body for warmth. I usually fill up a couple of these bottles and place them under a blanket on the couch when David and I are watching TV. And when we’re about ready for bed, I would heat up more water and place three to four hot water bottles in bed under the down comforter and two fleece blankets. They are placed strategically on the foot of the bed and each side of the bed. They can keep us warm all night once the heat is trapped under the blanket. Even Sfac, our Indonesian tropical cat, gets a mini hot water bottle under her blanket in her cat bed.

Hot water bottles

These little hot water bottles are heaven sent. At least for me they are definitely one of my winter-top-shelf items. They provide long-lasting warmth and are cheap, sturdy and environmentally friendly (because I'm not wasting a lot of gas and electricity). I recommend them to all my friends here. And I even would recommend them to those people who have constant heat in their houses or apartments. They are a good way to save on that gas/electric bill! Even when/if we move back to the US where heating shouldn’t be a problem, I will still keep these hot water bottles with me because you never know when that furnace may just fail you on those freezing winter nights.

On top of that, for our female readers, these babies are also great to help remedy those backaches and cramps that visit us monthly. So I would definitely say get one! They come in different colors and some even have cute flannel or silk covers so they won’t burn against your skin. I got mine at our local supermarkets, but I’m sure you can find these in stores near you. If not, check out amazon.com.