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