Day 61 - Kathmandu, Nepal

Day 61 – Hers.

We awoke when we felt like it and had a lovely, leisurely breakfast in what must have originally been the palace ballroom.  We were then collected by Devendra at 9:30 and taken over to the Quest Volunteers’ office for our first day of orientation.  We learned about the aims of the project, what is expected of us as volunteers and where exactly we are going.  The village is called Chopra and is atop one of the ridges outside Kathmandu, 8-10 kilometres away. We saw photos of our host family and the village – then settled down for 4 hours of Nepalese lessons, broken only by a lunch of dal bhat eaten with our hands – but at a table, not on the floor as will be expected with our host family.

We returned to the Hotel Shanker about 3:30 – we walked from the Quest office – it was probably quicker than a taxi given the traffic, then had a swim to wash off the dust and exhaust fumes – and sat in the walled garden oasis, sipping coffee and preparing ourselves for what is likely to be 2+ weeks of hard work.

 

Day 61 – His.

 

Swimming, lazing by the pool and dinner of hamburger and soup. Not much, but a superb day when you consider what we have up and coming. My hikers' cough stubbornly refuses to go anywhere and i would worry about it if it weren’t for the fact that just about every hiker we have met who comes down from the mountains has exactly the same cough. The streets are full of tired faces hacking just like me. It is almost a badge of honour. We cough and nod at each other as we pass in the street. A sort of mutual recognition. Well, it saves me having to buy a badge for my rucksack. Tomorrow we move to our new hotel before going onto our host family the next day so internet access is going to be a bit fraught Gin so the chances are the next updates are going to be a few weeks from now when we get back from the village. A different kind of adventure than Everest or Chitwan – but one that is going to need a similar amount of grit to see through I feel!