Chitwan National Park and Janakpur.

We head out of KTM just after new year having not been able to get to Bhaktapur for new year. So 9 hours on a tourist bus wasnt too shabby. but it was hot! And Ed got groped by a Nepali woman feigning sleep. But we got down to chitwan and were immediately set upon by touts and guides for the local hotels. We hopped in a jeep and went to chilax house, pretty basic, 250 a night. cheap as chips.
on the second day we got up and were taken to the ground where we were to get on the elephants. I was bubbling with excitement. even more so when i saw the huge creatures sidling up to the huge mounting block, which consisted of a stair case and a platform, as you can see! I have to say its not the most comfortable ride but it is awesome none the less! Our sightings for the day bought us Peacock, monkeys. deer, warthog AND RHINO! It was amazing. And because we where on an elephant we got right up close! Here are the wildlife photos! Got to love the long lens! best money i ever spent!
In the afternoon we went out on a jungle walk which was not so fruit full it has to be said. we were also a little bit worried because of the prewarning about attacks from animals, it involved a lot of climbing trees which i'm not very good at! Our guide did look like Morgan Freeman though.
Hot night and then round 2, BABY ELEPHANTS! we walked most of the way then hitched a lift off a passing jeep. The elephant breeding centre is home to mummys and babys, and the cutest were the twins who had just come back from gathering food with their mum. This picture reminds me of fluff doing her baby dragon impression.They were seriously squidgy as fluff might say. However they were very mischievous. At around 9 we went and had our breakfast right next to the river. What happened in the nest 3 hours was one of the best experiences in my life. Elephant bathtime. Nothing quite like sitting in the baking sun and then hoping on board an elephant and getting soaked. Our guy (who reminded us of rafiki) has it right "Good shower!". We then spent a lovely afternoon swimming in the river, which was pretty nice actually!
Janakpur wasn't so great. It was very strange and more like India than Nepal, they didnt even speak nepali down there which made life interesting. AND THE FAT MONKEY WAS DEAD. i will explain this when i get home. it made me sad. But the Janakpur womens development centre was really good, and we saw the women there making the mithila paintings. however overall i don't think it was worth the 12 hour bus journey back! HOWEVER, I LOVE ELEPHANTS!!!!!!!! i bought myself a wooden one.

AV HAS A FOOT IN RUMDOODLE!

We have officially cataloged our achievement, well majoritively by putting a foot up in Rumdoodle - a bar for trekkers where once you have completed a trek you can put up a foot. So i made an AV one and everyone signed it. Hope you guys in the office like it! Oh and Richard the bars moved!!! Gaurav's going to go back and check out where they put it.

The real trek

So having heard the end of the tail i suspect you'd like to hear the rest, perhaps with some pretty pictures added in too...? if not well i will anyway!

Day 1: Pokhara - Tikedhunga .We started off the trek in Pokhara, not walking but hoping on to a bus, with our luggage and the porters. We were driven approx. 40km out of PKR in a town called Nayapul and began what was to be the easiest day of trekking, only 4 hours! but this worked well and we actually reached our destination before we realised it was lunch time. Lunch of Dal Bhat (Ed's t-shirt reads "dal bhat 24hrs power" which the guides love!). then continued plodding behind/ then in front of our first Pony/donkey caravan. When we got to the spot we were to stop for the night we were told there was waterfall near by. So Sarah, Julia, Ed, Magnus, Kirsten and I went with Naba (our guide) to this water fall. Everyone apart from me decided it would be a good idea to have a shower in the freezing cold mountain water.Then Ed and Magnus got under the water fall..... don't ask.

Day 2: Tikedhunga - Ghorepani. The day started with Joe being send back with dysentery, not great and having been forewarned that today was epic, and up hill, and majority steps i can't say we were optimistic about the day ahead. Not much to say apart from a hard day, especially as it was just Mahendra (the other guide) for a good 3 hours. Gaurav and Anna had a break down in the forest and lunch was over shot meaning that we didn't know where we were stopping. We also got squished in a huge goat herd on the way up the hill to Ghorepani. Yes there were nice Rhododendron forests, but no i wasn't really paying attention! keeping morale up was the main thing, also plying them with polos and menthos got them there i think! But slowly, slowl;y catches the monkey! Hot showers were a wonderful sensation considering as it was bloody cold outside! In the morning the view was spectacular, the Everest Group (ones going to EBC) got up at 3.30 to go to Poon hill to watch the sun rise!

Day 3:Ghorepani - Chuile. Straight up hill for the start of this and the altitude got to me a bit because of my delightful cough. So i was told to suck on a clove of garlic. In Ed's words it was like following a bowl of really good Spag bol! This time Everest over shot lunch because they were in front of the guide, so we had to keep going for another 2 hours. At the time we wanted to hurt them, but they were so apologetic we forgave them and were quite pleased when the rest of the day was only and hour down hill. This is me at Chuile with the owners daughter. she stole Carmella's pen so i was trying to get it back! On this day it was announced that an extra day had been added to our itinerary, there was some unrest in the group. A fellow non trekker (no names) cried for 5 hours. We thought that was quite impressive.

Day 4 (my last day of trekking with the group): Chuile - Sinuwa (upper). From chuile it was down hill all the way to the river... and in Nepal its not what goes up must come down, it's what goes down must come up! so down the valley, over the river and back up to the same height again all before lunch. At Chhomrong Naba left us due to a calf injury. From chhomrong we descended the steps (hundreds of them) to the river on the other side. Little did i know i was to come back up these stairs sooner than i had anticipated. All the way past (lower) Sinuwa, very deceptive, to (upper) Sinuwa. Just before the storm broke over our heads! We had a nice evening with some traditional Gurung dancing which we were invited to join in. At this point i wanted to go to bed, so i declined!

Day 5: Sinuwa- Sinuwa(on foot) Sinuwa - Kymli (by pony) I do have some pictures from the rest of the trip but i have to say this was where my journey ended with the group. But i did have a nice time clinging to a pony, going back up the Chhomrong steps on a horse, no reigns! Ed walked 8 hours behind this thing, and then the next day back to nayapul. So we did the same root just a bit missed out! Ps. I love my long lense! this was taken on it before i was ill at around 6 am, thats snow being blown off! Sadly the battery didn't last till ABC but julia got some awesome photos before that! one of which is this one.

The others kept going for 5 days, during which Ed, joe and i had a lovely time in the Kiwi Guest house, pokhara!

Roaming in the wilderness - the tale of ABC part one

ABC - or Annapurna base camp. Now those of you that know me well might reel back and laugh at the thought of me trekking for 9 days solid, but i have to say when i decided to do it i was pretty damn set on getting there. It was tough walking for 8 hours a day and as you may have heard i had to come down 2 days short of getting to the top. I was devastated to say the least, but when you're ill you're ill and Ed came down with me. I've got to say that without sounding too over emotional and soppy that i am so grateful that i have a boyfriend like him. Actually it's testament to what great friends i have out here as well. Because not only did Ed come down, Julia also offered. I'm trying to find you a map of our route but i can't find one at the moment. But yeah. So day 5 the other continued up, Ed got me a pony as i was just too weak and it took us 2 days to get down. I'd like to say now thank you to Ed, the porter Krishna, the pony man and nelly the pony (we joined a donkey caravan so it looked like we were going to the circus) who got me down the mountain in time to see a doctor. It turns out i had acute gastroenteritis so i'm glad i got down when i did.

I will do another post on ABC, a long one with pictures but i sent my camera up to base camp so i don't have any pictures, and i don't have enough money on me to stay on here much longer! So love to everyone and don't worry I'm alright now the pills are kicking in. I just rattle when i walk there are so many!

Lumbini, bandipur and Besisahar

After we were dismissed from our schools, we decided not to kill time in the house, and instead head out on part one of our adventure to the unknown. Round 1: Lumbini-birth place of Buddha. After 9 hours on a series of 3 hot hot hot Nepali buses we got down to the terai (flat part of Nepal) and boy they aren't lying. One thing i have learnt out there is that things aren't done by halves. When they say hills, they mean mountains, when they say flat, they mean that on a clear day you can see a good 30 km! We hopped off the bus and wandered over to The Lumbini village lodge, a nice place, although hundreds of mosquitoes (thank god for malaria tablets and executive mosquito net) and in Sarah's case..... bed bugs. Lumbini was nice enough within the walls of the sacred garden and Monastic zones. Really chilled and to be honest i could have sat under the bodhi trees all day next to the monks and various other repeating the mantras continuously. On the first day we went to the Mayadevi temple, which enshrines the exact spot of Lord Buddhas birth, pinpointed by a marker stone housed in bullet proof glass. the wall next to it is covered in gold leaf left by pilgrims. We spent a long time just sitting doing not very much. Apart from anything else it was just too hot. A good 40degrees in the midday sun. On the second day we hired bikes to cycle around the monasteries that are dispersed pretty few and far between. Most of them are still in the process of being built and Lumbini as a sight is pretty shabby, just every now and then with these great beautiful structures rising out of the ground. On the most beautiful was the Chinese Monastery, which apart from the Nepalese one looked to be the only completed one in the West monastic zone. Opposite however was being built the most enormous Korean Monastery, whcih at the moment is still a concrete monstrosity. I think i'm going to have to come back in 10 years and see how it looks! Other than them the Nepalese and Royal Thai Monasteries were the most impressive, the royal thai being made completely white marble. (I dont have a picture of it as my camera is currently up the mountain and Ed went back early so has no pictures on his camera card.)

Our next stop on the magical mystery tour was Bandipur, a defection free zone by it's own admission. The town is a typical traditional Nepali town, however Unicef have stepped in to save it from becoming over ridden by pollution and litter and so now it is remarkably clean! And absolutely beautiful. We had a nice time there visiting the cave, an old haunt for tigers apparently! A bit of a tour around the temples, playing giant chess whilst drinking mugs of black tea, and going on adventure to a random tree in a skirt and flip flops. This happened because magnus and sarah had gone on an adventure once we had got back from the cave and had discovered a huge rock that if you stand on it you get a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding valley (on a clear day). Just down from this rock was a large tree. We were told flip flops were suitable attire. Lets just say the flip flops came off and the inner 7 year old tomboy was released once again when a spot of rock climbing (yes in a skirt) took place. I enjoyed it a little more that i let on at the time!

Back down the hill to Dumre and a trip to Besi to see Pip, Will and Fe. It was nice to spend some time with them, see where they lived and go chill down next to the river. Again i have some photos, but Ed doesn't so hold on 2 days!

And that took up pretty much 1 week, back to Gorkha for the last couple of days before we set off to Pokhara for our next adventure.......!

The Final Curtain

It seems a bit backwards to be writing about the end before ive written about the begging i guess. But its sad to say the concrete walls and dusty playground of Mahendra Jyoti have bid me farewell for the last time. We've entered exam season now and so Magus and i have fallen redundant. Saying that typing the english papers and finding spelling mistakes, ie. ' ansewer any of the following qeeshicoms' (!?- oh my god) i wonder if its the teachers that need some lessons, or a crash course at least!
Our farewell from the kids was short and sweet if a little manic. I entered class for the lasttime brandishing the well loved star chart, a bag of sweets, przes forthe two best in clas (1 boy 1 girl) and all the stickers i possessed- which is not as many as Ed. Mummy Barrie got excited in the sticker aisle we think! So i marched in - Sari obviously on in the correct fashion, I was tweeked and redressed several times each morning by varying members of staff!- handed over the prizes. Then we played pin the post-it on the donkey. That lasted a little while, then the postits went on their heads! i then headed out to the play ground where the free for all began, Magnus had to come save my camera. The stickers went left right and centre, suddenly i see the (new)naughtiest boy in class (the old one is a reformed character) running through the playground, over the rubble, carrying my bag, book and star chart looking so pleased! he got an extra sticker. I dont know where my sticker went they just got rippedout of my hands. Then magnus and i headed up to the staff room brandishing a good bye cake - Nrs 700 well spent! I was then beckoned out of the class room and told that some of my class 4 students were asking for me. Considering they had all disappeared half an hour ago i was rather suprised. Then low and behold there was Sapana, Parbati, Nardavi and Fuisree brandishing flowers and small pieces of papers depicting gods an flowers at me. I then got lots of photos.
What i haven't explainded about my school is that it is the only school in the district to cater for those with severe learning difficulties - or as they say here mentally retarded. We have come to grow and love these children and their snotty ways. In particular 2 of them, the only boys. One of them cannot talk, he is 11 but appears to be a hunched 8 year old withthe eyes of a tired old man. He only communicates through 'uhs' and pointing. So we call him 'uh'. Its very unpolitically correct but here,those things don't exist, getting used to them again will be strange. The other is more coherant but a ittle creepy. You will turn around whilst teaching lessons and he'll just be standing in the door way, with a toothy grin and say 'hellooooo' in a manner many may relate to a deranged axe murder. We've had many funny incidences with him. you can probably guess his name.
The point f this is they interupted my good bye, by they are so funny i didnt mind! you have to love them!

HOLI!

one word colourful. which is fitting as it is the festival of colour i guess! there doesn't seem to be any meaning behind it other than embracing spring. First of all we welcomed in to the bosom of Gorkhathe tribes from Laxmi bazaar (the regulars), Besi Sahar and Bhoti woda, who bravely took the buses here. That eveing Anna, Carmella and i set out in search of powder paint and water balloons, to arm ourselves against the forwarned onslaught. we came back with, green, yellow and green - which turned out to be vibrant pink when mixed with water. i was itching to get the production started! But alas i had to wait a night, spent chilling on our roof and listening to the prison guards screaming. when we woke up production commenced almost immediately- 2 to each colour and magnus on water filling. Then anna and i took over water, more colour on us than in the ballons. The floor was full of burst balloon carcasses! But we did end up with a bucket of ballons and a plastic bag full too. They were our ammo. We were worried that we might be the most prepared people in the town and that holi might not actually be such a big thing! Suddenly Sarah, Caitin and Will appeared smothered in red paint and t-shirt dappled all sorts of different colours. It was on. But before we set out in to town, our first target was those who had yet to arrive at the house ie. Kirsten, amy, Fiona and pippa. Then each other of course, our washing was tinged a little yellow. We then set out, armed with make shift water pistols made out of water bottles filled with dye and water with a hole in the top. As soon as we were out the door the neighbouring boys came at us with handfuls of powder paint and smothered our faces. we were still relatively unscathed until we reached the junction in town, and it just continued from there. Water rained down from the roof tops, as did water balloons. Purple, red, green, yellow, pink and even gold paint was thrown around, usually on to the foreigners. there were a lot of us! i think the community had planned this! When we finally retreated back to our house, and the others dispersed on to buses in various directions we attemped to wash. I mean, we did look like oompa loompas, but the paint was stubborn old stuff. I still have pink hair, magnus has purple hair, julia is multi colour and ed, well he's ginger. Hope you like the before and after shots - My clothes were white!

Paragliding!

Im only doing a small post on Pokhara now but i had to load up some of these phtos whilst i'm here. Yes kids, Hari Deakin jumped off a mountain in to mid air and flew with vultures!It was awesome, if a little dizzying. But hey, what can i say, one of my things to do in life ticked off! It wasn't as clear as i'd have liked it to be, but you can still see a pretty long way. the City in the picture is Pokhara. But i just had to get these up to show you guys i'm not just spending my life in a class room.

GORKHA - our house, in the middle of the field

Now it's time to tell you about our exciting little place called Gorkha , as i guess you want to know what i've been doing for the last 1 1/2 months. Ok well first of all there's our pink house. We live on the second floor, behind a blue grill on rusty wheels. Once you've got our mega padlock off, you trundle up the stairs, retrieve our key for the second padlock from our secret hiding place and effectively kick the door in. then you are in to Chez Gorkha, or the 'upper house'. We've got a kitchen (which is currently leaking, it's Ok, super Dhurba has sorted it in a jiffy). Dhurba is our awesome landlord who works at the Gurkha Inn just up the hill from us. Any way, the kitchen, with our 120 eggs (misunderstanding took place) our gas hob, and sink. We sit in there and just chill eat our food and play the same card games over and over! Then we have our schloo, a shower loo thing, where you can sit on the loo and shower. Although thats not advised as there is no hot water (unless we boil it!). then there's two bedroom, with our newly adorned curtains. Of course mine and Ed's is the tidyest.... ahem. And then there's the room we don't use. It's just sort of a concrete shell that gets not light. At night it turns in to the damp laundry room if clothes haven't dried . And then theres the roof, but thats just the roof really! When its summer, head up there and chill out with the panoramic view of the mountains, valleys and Gorkha. Pretty cool. Next door a school is being built. we've seen two levels go up, so now it's a 3 storey mega building, held up with bamboo scaffolding!

Nepali Wedding!!!

Now i know that this is a wee bit of a change from the afore mentioned itinerary but i had to tell you all about the experience that the group has just had! On Friday Me, Magnus, Ed and Julia woke up at a dedicated 5.45 am to have a big breakfast of potato and fried eggs (which seem to have become some what of a staple food here) and set on our way to Dhinesh's house (Ed and Julia's Nepali teacher, he's wicked) this involved a route across Gorkha stadium and over a little river thing up to his house. We didn't stay for long because we had to get a bus, but before we left he put a Tika (the red and yellow splodge of powder) on to our heads. Cultural experience number 1! So we trundled on our way up to the caretakers house - his son was the one getting married- it was a vision of colour,, triangles of multicoloured flags and bright clothes. we were promptly sat down and given food, sal roti (very sweet things made of rice flour and deep fried, but not as nice when cold) things that looked like marbles, but turned out to be basically compacted sugar, drink them with tea and they just dissolve, and fluorescent pink rice stuff that was exactly like rainbow drops just in long strips. Now out here my appetite has just shrunk dramatically so having had a huge breakfast i was not good at finishing the food. so Ed munched it down. Soon there was a bit of an issue with a tie, none of them could tie it, so Ed stepped in to save the day. Hence the big smiles. The band started up and i don't know the names of the instruments but there is one that sounds like a kazoo but looks like a very small clarinet, cymbals, drums and huge horns that look like they are calling for battle. The groom arrived and was blessed by his mother. He wore a suit and tie (?!) and the Nepali hat , as well as a garland, sunglasses and an umbrella which apparently to keep the bird poo off... so we processed through the village, you can see the image of the procession, with the music still going, until we reached the buses. So rather than sit in the bus, we all fancied a ride ON TOP of the the bus! Oh yes, we ducked and dived under telephone cables and tree branches along with the band who were still as raucous and were actually dancing on top of the bus, which we soon named the party bus, we did have the groom inside so i guess it had to happen! we kept driving through the main part of Gorkha on the way to the brides house, and we kept going and kept going, until eventually we went round the side of the mountain in to the other valley, round the other side of that and then we stopped. and walked. in total around 1 1/2 hours bus ride (sore bum after sitting on the luggage rack) and 1/2 hour walk. During which the band kept playing as we processed through the country side in to the middle of rural hill side Nepal. There were hundreds of people there, crowded in to this small area around the sacred area outside the brides home. Its difficult to describe so i'll let the picture do the talking. As soon as we arrived we were handed more of the same food, which i ate little of, and also a glass of curd, not my cup of tea has to be said,even before i found out about the banana extras! We were also handed an envelope of money, which is usually given to the grooms family. I have to explain here that Westerners are good luck at a Nepali wedding, so i guess having 4 for them was bring on the boy babies (they don't like girls here much). Ed and Julias head man then rocked up and warned us about the food and said that the main meal was fine but don't eat too much of the funky stuff. The ceremony then began with the bride pouring a circle of water around the groom, and then she scurried off again, whilst the brides family then offered tikas to the groom and washed his feet, in an act of worship. This went on for a while so we got up and went to have some lunch. rice, dal, veg curry, mutton, pickle and the curd stuff again. there was very limitedmutton, mostly fat. But it was a good meal none the less. We then ran in to some of Ed and Julias teachers. But that was just a bit of banter and then we headed back to the house. we discovered that the band had set up next to the cow shed and a circle had formed where there were various men, young and old, grooving around in the middle. The song which they sing over and over is like a sing off, where they sing the chorus which is like a statement, and the person in the middle sings a response. and then they dance. We resummed our position across from the bride and groom and watched the rest of the ceremony. Now i don't really understand what went on exactly in the ceremony because we didn't have someone to explain it, and our trip to Dhinesh's house yesterday was put on hold due to Ed's blossoming relationship with the bathroom, so therefore its a little hazy but i have lots of pictures. Predomiantly there was a lot of offerings made to the various different elements around the sacred area, so fire and flowers, and food. In the picture the bride is offering maze and throwing it in to the fire. and then later the bride and groom threw some in together. at one point a red blanket was placed over the bride and grooms heads, and another time a handkerchief was pinned on to the brides head and a white sheet held at one end to her forehead had orange powder sprinkled on it by the groom. Then they walked around the sacred area several times holding on to either end of the white sheet which had had money folded in to it The whole thing was really really relaxed and everyone was smiling, except for the bride who was literally wailing. Not really what i expected at a wedding, but i guess thats arranged marriages for you! After the ceremony which lasted until 5ish the bride was out in to a basket style chair which is carried on the shoulders of some of the men up to the motorbikes which were about half way between house and buses. we then walked the rest of the way and clambered back on top of the bus., along with the band, who had just necked a bottle of whiskey. By nhow the sun was going down but we had the most amazing view straight over the valley to the mountains. We drove back, this time without magnus getting hit in the face by a tree, and with the men dancing on the roof. Mum i have to tell you now you would not have enjoyed the bus, you look straight over a sheer drop of the mountain, and if you're on top you just hold on. The other buys got stuck half way up the hill which was amusing. As we drove back through Gorkha the whole town hung out their windows and came out to see us go by. It was awesome, all the little children were around to the music that kept going the whole waywhen we got back to Saraswoti (Ed and Julia's school, which is next to the caretakers house.) we werer rounded up by some of the teenagers who took us to get food, which was practically the same except that it was bean curry.... seriously good! then we went back up to the main house, where some of the kids tried out their english on us. pretty good to be honest. Then Julia and i got roped in to dancing, not long enough for photographic evidence, but we did it! then we were requested to get the bus back to Gorkha. We were going to walk, but they insisted. Aparently the Nepalese are still afraid of ghosts and night terrors... and that was the reason we had to get the bus. To be honest i was knackered and pretty happy about this. We got home at 9ish, and being the dirtyu old stop out i am, i hit the hay immediately! Poor effort i know! Pretty full on day though, and it was amazing.So happy we got to see a big part ofthe Nepali culture! I know feel like my trip here is complete, everything else is just a bonus! Oh yeah and this is a picture of us with the proud father of the groom! i hope its not as dark as it seems here!

Arrival

We left heathrow T4 on the 3rd but arrived on the 4th in Delhi, A little bit confused about our bags which had promised to be delivered safely to Kathmandu, we were ushered to security where i was probed by security who had a problem with the underwiring in my bra. some serious frisking going on! apart from that a pretty good flight actually, with REAL NAPKINS AND CUTLERY!!! i was impressed by the film selection, so me, the notorious wriggler actually stayed reasonably entertained, so no mum, no enemies made on the way out! flight to Kathmandu was short and sweet, around an hour long, but coming in to land between mountains is an interesting experiance! we get to Kathmandu having been promised snow, so of course its warm enough to strip to t shirts. We then head to the baggage, when i pray to all the gods in Nepal, which is several, that the green slug has arrived. So i wiped my brow when my 21 kilo friend waved at me from across the pile of bags thrown on the floor. Sarah and Carmella were the unfortuate two whose ags seem to vanished from the system according to the airline. Luckily Canadian Sarahs bag has reappeared since.
Bags thrown on top of the bus we set off through Kathandu to the Thorong Peak guest house, richard forgetting to shut the door in the way in who ever was next to the door watched clutching their seat as the 'avoiding' tactic of driving was put in to place.
Having got to Thorong Peak we had our first taste of Nepali chia, which i will put the recipe up here for in due course). Settling in and a trip in the evening to Rumdoodle, a bar frequented by those who have summited everest as well as the other mountains that for the Himalayas. Those groups who arrive successful sign a giant card board foot, which is then stuck in place. there are 40,000 + in this small bar. pretty cool.

Shivapuri - 6th January

On the 6th we head to the outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley, on a rather interesting bus trip. At one point Joe who was sitting in the window was practically looking at the ditch, it's a wonder how the bags stayed on actually! So we off loaded and threw our bags into the jeep which headed up the mountain/ hill thing. In England it would be a mountain, here its merely a hill! But in climbing this thing we climed over the the boarder of the kathmandu valley. And boy was it difficult. For me anyway, majority of the group bombed on ahead and i hung back due to the ridiculous weight i thought was suitable to carry in my daysack. The walking stick was invaluable on this trudge, but everyone was in such good spirits lovely Magnus swapped ruck sack with me. and then i managed to off load this on the Richard and then to Gaurav. Confused? Well it made it up the hill! No leopards spotted despite the possiblity. When we got there greated by chia and lunch. check out the views. It was a little colder up there, but we were bloody high! at night Julia and i had the rather jammy deal of having a fire in our room, which we stoked up before hitting the hay! A couple of days highlighted by a roaring fire (after some parafin), beer and wooly hats! One morning we woke up early to watch the sun rise come up and just hit the moutains, although it was even better aroud 8 o clock when the sun just peeped over the hill behind us. Learning Nepali by day, and playing cards and getting to know each other by night. Although our stay was cut short by the impending Bandh (strike) which meant that we had to leave a day early in order to not get stuck in kathmandu till tuesday. After mine and julias epic fight with the green slug, we set off dow the hill. Now this time i am pleased to add i made it the whole of the way down the hill FIRST! We loaded the bus and set in to Kathmandu to pick up Sarah and Carmella who had been replacement shopping. and the we hit a snag.... puncture. this is Richard hanging outside the bus whilst the bus driver changed what had been a brand new tyre. Rfinally after being stuck in traffic, during which i fell asleep and woke up again in the same place.....we were on our way to Riverside to stay the night before our trip to Gorkha!

January 5th - Tour of Kathmandu

First stop on the tour of kathmandu was the trip to Pashupatinath, the cremation site for hindu peeps. They are insanely open about death, there are concrete plinths set up along the river side, which is pretty dry, and then on these plinths are pyres, just with bodies burning, and just across the river are kids playing foot ball in the ashes basically, and monkeys eating stuff. Further up the river was a ritual washing, with pilgrims coming from India to wash in this sacred river. sat on the steps of this temple, surrouded by these people washing were two bodies covered in saffron cloth. A little alarmed when our guide pointed it out, but i guess thats how it goes here!Our next stop was the buddist stoupa,picture should be in here, very difficult to explain but beautiful. All the prayer flags have mantras writen on them, and each time them flap n the wind a prayer gets sent to the gods. You have to walk clock wise around it though. and there are monks constanly praying and turning the buddist prayer wheels. We were then introduced to Thanka painting which uses real gold, very intricate. http://www.boudastupathanka.com/. Then on the bus again and a trip to Patan which is the city of arts in the Kathmandu valley. beautiful temples, including a small one which if you blinked you'r miss, called the golden temple. Where rats, yes rats roam free. We thenwent behind the temple to the shop with singing bowls. I had a bowl put on my head which s then hit with a soft mallet and left to vibrate. actually very relaxing. might have to go back and buy one!

Some essential bits about nepal

What i've decided to do is to go throught what i've done so far in nepal reasonably swiftly and in several posts. so don't get alarmed, you're going to get a lot of information all at once! oA couple of things you need to know about nepal is that 1pound (no pounds on keyboard) = approx NRPs(nepalese rupees) 120. second thing is that i'm actually writing from the future! although the date is 30th January, its actually the year 2066. we are on the 17th day of the 10th month - called Magh. Despite this, its still a little crazy. weekends here start friday lunch time, but you are back at work on sunday. but you do get a haf day on the last day of the month and there is pretty much a holiday every week!

first blog from nepal

so this is the first blog from Nepal, in Gorkha, so it's going to be short and sweet as i have been on the internet an hour already. So where i am in Nepal is about 5 hours from Kathmandu on a good day and around 2 hours from Pokhara. But where we are is actually pretty self sufficient. we have been adopted by our schools pretty well. My school is half way up the steps to the Gorkha Durbar, google it, pretty gorgeous. my school is
Mahendra Jyoti Higher Secondary School
Gorkha Durbar Marg, Gorkha
Gorkha Nagar Palika (municipality)
Gorkha
Gandaki Anchal
Nepal

So in my house there are 4 of us, Me, Ed Barrie, as you guys probably know, Juia Goddard and Magnus Huus-Hansen. It works pretty well, and we behave pretty much like adults, apart from when julia and i got our kurtha shuruwal shal (tunic and trousers.... soooooo comfy!!) and then we were like small kids! also Ed and i have Gaurav the gecko in our room, and norman the blue (or white tac man) i made a white tack chess board the other day aswell. I was pretty pleased! right signing off for today i should be back soon!!! BYE FOR NOW!!!! xxxx