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
Thursday 20 September 2007
Sunday 16 September 2007
Chitwan
I’ve decided that this is the laziest country in the world. I have no doubt that people work like slaves in the rice fields and the Pepsi factory, but everyone else seems to spend most of their time watching Indian Idol. I arrived in one of the world’s poorest countries apprehensive about the six-day weeks, but soon discovered that ‘six days’ conveniently translates into ‘as few days as possible’. Strikes, religious holidays and minor occurrences (such as Father's Day) have resulted in multiple days off every week I’ve been here, with two work-free days last week and three this week! Oh, and from October 12th there is a month long Hindu festival, during which the Buddhists – in the name of religious tolerance – have also decided to shun work. In a single calendar year there are over two hundred days where children don’t attend school. That’s six-and-a-half months!
Last Thursday was a day off in commemoration of a student who died in the bomb blast. I should add that this was a student from a disconnected school on the other side of town…just have two minutes silence and do some bloody work! I returned to my jobs on Friday, though I ended up simply playing Hangman and Simon Says all day. In the evening I caught a taxi to Thamel for a night on the town, starting with dinner followed by a sheesha place, then onto a jazz club playing upbeat techno and a reggae bar playing Elton John. On Saturday we booked our flights into Lukla (first point on the Everest trek) for the 22nd September and back on the 9th October. I tried to watch England vs. Israel in the evening but was thwarted by the inevitable powercut. The next few days were pretty uneventful, though the family had a party on Tuesday night. They taught me how to make momos (which are buffalo meat or mixed vegetables wrapped in flour and water dough), painted a red spot on my head and put flowers in my hair. I felt like a Nepali princess.
Oh, and the momos were followed by my first dessert in a month: RICE pudding.
On Wednesday, Lucyna and I went to Chitwan National Park. After waking at 5.45, flagging down a taxi to Thamel, completing a sweaty six-hour coach trip, picking at a lentil-based lunch, sitting through a one-hour bus transfer, wading through deep mud and kayaking down a fast-flowing river, we arrived at the resort. I thought it was very nice, though my standards have lowered so much that this judgement was predominantly based on the fact that the bathroom had a toilet seat. Anyway, we were soon sent off on a nature walk. This began with a ten minute scare-the-crap-out-of-the-whiteys lecture on what to do when various animals attack. If a rhino charges you simply run around a tree trunk at close quarters, mocking their Volvo-esque turning circle. With tigers you maintain eye contact and slowly back away (probably into her hungry family), and with bears you simply die with as little fuss as possible. Thankfully we saw bugger all! The trek was followed by dinner and a yawn-inducing black and white slide show of big cats that nobody seems to have ever seen – I’m sure they just shipped in a handful from India, took a few snaps and sent them back, and they've been living off gullible tourists ever since. We spent the evening in the bar with some other guests then hurried back to our cabin for lights out at 9.30. We were hurrying as ‘lights out’ is literally ‘power out’, and we didn’t fancy weaving through trees and beside a river in the pitch black.
The next morning we were up at 5.30am for an elephant-back ride through the jungle. I’ve never really seen elephants in action before; they’re so beautiful but so powerful. It was an amazing two hours, if a little uncomfortable, and we even saw a rhino bathing in the mud. After this we had breakfast and went for a nature trail along a nearly identical route. We saw ‘another’ rhino, suspiciously in the same place and with the same lack of enthusiasm, and spent some time ploughing our way through eight-foot grass (I felt like I was in a Vietnam film). After lunch we bathed with the elephants in the river. This was absolutely incredible – we sat on their backs and splashed them with water, and in return they filled their trunks and sprayed us back. I tried to stand up on the elephant’s back but slipped and landed on my right testicle. I didn’t try again.
In the afternoon we had another elephant-back ride (I think they were running out of ideas) and saw the rhino yet again. I had a much needed hot shower and remembered how nice it was to actually be submerged, rather than simply standing to the side and dabbing cold water over your vital areas. In the evening we witnessed a Tharu stick dance – which was not unlike morris dancing, but infinitely more appealing with attractive local women in place of bearded Brits – and had a few drinks in the bar, until the clock struck 9.30 and we all legged it back to our rooms.
On Friday we were up at 6am (three early mornings in a row!) to trek upstream and catch a boat across the river. We waded through mud, caught a transfer back to the resort centre and had breakfast. Lucyna caught the coach to Pokhara and I caught the (one hour late) coach back to Kathmandu. The journey was pretty uneventful until we were 30km from the city and high in the hills, where we hit a traffic jam. After an hour of no movement and no information, some of us decided to walk ahead with all our gear and investigate. After about 6km we came to the blockade, which was a single tree-trunk deliberately felled across the road, with several Maoist demonstrators making sure that none of the drivers dare move it. We jumped on a severely overcrowded bus just past the blockade, where I had one bum cheek perched on an armrest, and the other on the sturdy lap of a Nepali woman. The bus climbed higher and higher for about 4km then came to another standstill. We jumped off again and hiked about 5km to the second roadblock. We managed to convince a white van man to drive us some way towards Kathmandu, then managed to pick up a taxi to Thamel. I finally arrived at 6.30 (having agreed to meet other volunteers three hours earlier) and had a lovely dinner comprised of three steaks with a side of pork. I made a cursory effort at a few bars, but soon headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Yesterday was mostly spent sorting out trekking equipment. I went shopping with South African volunteer Marian and I ended up buying a quality knockoff down jacket, gloves, a water bottle and two walking poles. We stocked up with some dried fruit, nuts and cereal bars, as we had read about a couple on a twelve-day trek getting through thirty Mars Bars. We also stocked up on medicine – everything in Nepal is available without prescription and Marian was like a kid in a hypochondriac’s sweet shop.
And last night I had an epiphany. I’m going to Japan. I feel the need for a comfort break and it makes sense to go to the expensive country while I have some money to spend. Also, getting from Nepal to China is a visa nightmare and only possible through Tibet (at extortionate cost). Therefore, my new plan is to fly to Japan then South Korea then China. But, as I have no restrictions, it is liable to change. I might go to Tahiti.
I’ll keep you updated,
Joe x
Last Thursday was a day off in commemoration of a student who died in the bomb blast. I should add that this was a student from a disconnected school on the other side of town…just have two minutes silence and do some bloody work! I returned to my jobs on Friday, though I ended up simply playing Hangman and Simon Says all day. In the evening I caught a taxi to Thamel for a night on the town, starting with dinner followed by a sheesha place, then onto a jazz club playing upbeat techno and a reggae bar playing Elton John. On Saturday we booked our flights into Lukla (first point on the Everest trek) for the 22nd September and back on the 9th October. I tried to watch England vs. Israel in the evening but was thwarted by the inevitable powercut. The next few days were pretty uneventful, though the family had a party on Tuesday night. They taught me how to make momos (which are buffalo meat or mixed vegetables wrapped in flour and water dough), painted a red spot on my head and put flowers in my hair. I felt like a Nepali princess.
Oh, and the momos were followed by my first dessert in a month: RICE pudding.
On Wednesday, Lucyna and I went to Chitwan National Park. After waking at 5.45, flagging down a taxi to Thamel, completing a sweaty six-hour coach trip, picking at a lentil-based lunch, sitting through a one-hour bus transfer, wading through deep mud and kayaking down a fast-flowing river, we arrived at the resort. I thought it was very nice, though my standards have lowered so much that this judgement was predominantly based on the fact that the bathroom had a toilet seat. Anyway, we were soon sent off on a nature walk. This began with a ten minute scare-the-crap-out-of-the-whiteys lecture on what to do when various animals attack. If a rhino charges you simply run around a tree trunk at close quarters, mocking their Volvo-esque turning circle. With tigers you maintain eye contact and slowly back away (probably into her hungry family), and with bears you simply die with as little fuss as possible. Thankfully we saw bugger all! The trek was followed by dinner and a yawn-inducing black and white slide show of big cats that nobody seems to have ever seen – I’m sure they just shipped in a handful from India, took a few snaps and sent them back, and they've been living off gullible tourists ever since. We spent the evening in the bar with some other guests then hurried back to our cabin for lights out at 9.30. We were hurrying as ‘lights out’ is literally ‘power out’, and we didn’t fancy weaving through trees and beside a river in the pitch black.
The next morning we were up at 5.30am for an elephant-back ride through the jungle. I’ve never really seen elephants in action before; they’re so beautiful but so powerful. It was an amazing two hours, if a little uncomfortable, and we even saw a rhino bathing in the mud. After this we had breakfast and went for a nature trail along a nearly identical route. We saw ‘another’ rhino, suspiciously in the same place and with the same lack of enthusiasm, and spent some time ploughing our way through eight-foot grass (I felt like I was in a Vietnam film). After lunch we bathed with the elephants in the river. This was absolutely incredible – we sat on their backs and splashed them with water, and in return they filled their trunks and sprayed us back. I tried to stand up on the elephant’s back but slipped and landed on my right testicle. I didn’t try again.
In the afternoon we had another elephant-back ride (I think they were running out of ideas) and saw the rhino yet again. I had a much needed hot shower and remembered how nice it was to actually be submerged, rather than simply standing to the side and dabbing cold water over your vital areas. In the evening we witnessed a Tharu stick dance – which was not unlike morris dancing, but infinitely more appealing with attractive local women in place of bearded Brits – and had a few drinks in the bar, until the clock struck 9.30 and we all legged it back to our rooms.
On Friday we were up at 6am (three early mornings in a row!) to trek upstream and catch a boat across the river. We waded through mud, caught a transfer back to the resort centre and had breakfast. Lucyna caught the coach to Pokhara and I caught the (one hour late) coach back to Kathmandu. The journey was pretty uneventful until we were 30km from the city and high in the hills, where we hit a traffic jam. After an hour of no movement and no information, some of us decided to walk ahead with all our gear and investigate. After about 6km we came to the blockade, which was a single tree-trunk deliberately felled across the road, with several Maoist demonstrators making sure that none of the drivers dare move it. We jumped on a severely overcrowded bus just past the blockade, where I had one bum cheek perched on an armrest, and the other on the sturdy lap of a Nepali woman. The bus climbed higher and higher for about 4km then came to another standstill. We jumped off again and hiked about 5km to the second roadblock. We managed to convince a white van man to drive us some way towards Kathmandu, then managed to pick up a taxi to Thamel. I finally arrived at 6.30 (having agreed to meet other volunteers three hours earlier) and had a lovely dinner comprised of three steaks with a side of pork. I made a cursory effort at a few bars, but soon headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Yesterday was mostly spent sorting out trekking equipment. I went shopping with South African volunteer Marian and I ended up buying a quality knockoff down jacket, gloves, a water bottle and two walking poles. We stocked up with some dried fruit, nuts and cereal bars, as we had read about a couple on a twelve-day trek getting through thirty Mars Bars. We also stocked up on medicine – everything in Nepal is available without prescription and Marian was like a kid in a hypochondriac’s sweet shop.
And last night I had an epiphany. I’m going to Japan. I feel the need for a comfort break and it makes sense to go to the expensive country while I have some money to spend. Also, getting from Nepal to China is a visa nightmare and only possible through Tibet (at extortionate cost). Therefore, my new plan is to fly to Japan then South Korea then China. But, as I have no restrictions, it is liable to change. I might go to Tahiti.
I’ll keep you updated,
Joe x
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