Thamel

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post as you probably won’t hear from me for three weeks.

I went back to the orphanage on Sunday and a new, three-week-old baby had arrived in my absence. It’s heartbreakingly tiny, and makes the other ten-week-old baby look massive. I’ve also been teaching at the school and monastery all week, and after my last monastery class yesterday I joined in with the chanting. It’s a very relaxing atmosphere, though quite surreal when all the monks bow into their laps, simultaneously muffling their voices. I was getting into the chanting when I noticed one of the kids has eleven toes, and my attention was lost. After an hour of counting and re-counting I took Parshant and Madhap to see Transformers in a surprisingly good cinema. In fact, with the good image and sound quality, comfy seats with cup holders and wailing toddlers I could have been in any cinema in the UK – that is until I looked to the empty seat on my right, where a rat was enjoying the flick. After this we went for a late dinner in Baneshwor then walked home. Parshant and Madhap were telling me all about Dasain (the month-long festival) and I’m quite disappointed that I won’t be here. On Fulpati, the seventh day, every household sacrifices a goat; they behead it with an authentic Gurkha sword then slice it straight down the middle. There are also buffalo sacrifices in the main Durbar square and many businesses make sacrifices to ensure a successful following year (Nepal Airways sacrifice a goat on the wing of each of their planes). When we got home we watched England get stuffed by India in the cricket, though Yuvraj’s maximum over was still great to see.

I have also booked my flight to Japan. After a long walk to the airport on Tuesday, where I discovered you cannot buy flights from airlines directly, I went to a travel agent. So, after arriving back in Kathmandu on the 9th October, I fly to Osaka on the 12th. I arrive in the afternoon so will have plenty of time to find a hostel.

So there you go. I leave for Everest very early on Saturday morning for eighteen days and it’s pretty unlikely I’ll be able to post en route. So I bid you adieu until my next (undoubtedly bloody long) entry.

Take care,
Joe x