Days 75 and 76 Chitwan, Nepal

Day 75 - Hers
This was a travel day - and quite strange for me because I had made the same journey a month ago.....but it was the rainy season then - horridly hot and sticky with landslides to negotiate.  This trip was dry and dusty, still hot, but the lower humidity made it reasonably pleasant - only taking 7 hours, rather than 9 1/2. It was quite fun recognising places- I was glad that we didn't stop at the restaurant with the suspect cheese sandwiches for our tea break.  We stopped at a similar place that seemed much more hygienic - but I only had coffee and a packet of Oreos to ve sure.  We stopped for photos at exactly the place my rafting trip had finished - so I was able to show Rob where we had been.  The river is quite a lot lower now.  They are probably using the Trisuli instead.... We arrived at Chitwan at around 2:00 and it was quite strange....The lodge manager remembered me (or so he said- I suspect Bimal may have pointed me out...) and everything seemed familiar and sweet.  The woman at the corner shop did remember me - and was most impressed when I was able to speak to her in Nepali.  The Koftey vegetable momos at the Royal 'Restaurent' were as good as I remembered and the lodge gardens as beautiful.  Elephants strolled down the main street and water buffalo grazed by the river.  Rob and I had a leisurely dinner and then retired to our lodge, reading to the accompaniment of crickets, Mosquitos and a local acoustic band, playing at a hotel nearby.  A few days chilling here would be bliss.


Day 76 - His
As far as I can see, the whole point of Chitwan is to see the wildlife and ride an elephant, which is exactly what we did. We got up at half six and grabbed the usual breakfast of coffee under a tree and waited for the rest of our group to get themselves together. Groups are both good and bad to travel with. One the one hand they can be a lot of fun to share the experience with. Unfortunately, they take ages to get themselves together to do anything and the larger the group the disproportionately more time they take. So, it was eight O'clock before we loaded ourselves into the large open back truck that had arrived to ferry us to the game park. We are actually staying in the park itself so the drive to the reserve was about five minutes. We arrived to fine half a dozen elephants waiting for us. I have never ridden an elephant before - but then who of us has?  We rode four to an elephant on a little wooden platform called a 'howdah' strapped to the animals back. The mahout was armed with a little wooden stick that he would rap the elephants head with as he kicked its ears to indicate the direction. I think it was the most uncomfortable ride of my life by utterly fantastic. We swayed and rocked and plodded through the jungle keeping a sharp eye out for wildlife. Everyone of us was hoping to see a rhino or tiger but all we actually saw was a few deer and a huge amount of weird butterflies. One group claimed they saw a tiger attacking a deer but we think they were just pulling our leg. I have to say I wasn't the least bit disappointed. To my mind it was all about the ride and seeing the animals was a bonus. After the ride we went back to the hotel and as Patti had been here before we were forewarned. So, we rushed back to our room and changed into swimming gear and hurried down to the river. We got back at half ten and at that time everyday the mahouts bring their elephants down to the river by us and bathe them. For a few rupees they let you ride on the back of the elephant as it washes itself. It was huge fun. The elephant sprayed me and itself with river water form its trunk and after a few minutes of this it decided to roll over and I fell off. I can tell you the water was cols. Patti had her own elephant and was a little upstream from me. She stood up on hers and the elephant happily sprayed her head to toe. We were both soaked. But, as it was only a short walk back to our room and a hot clean shower neither of us minded that much. To my mind bathing with the elephants has to rank right up there. It is one of true highlights. The place we are staying in is a little basic but really cute. It is a series of little lodges strung out along gravel paths that absolutely teems with large snails. These things are as big as my fist and in the night the crawl over the windows. We are a stone's throw from the river and just on the edge of a tiny village that serves the tourist. The village is not much just a cluster of small shops and little family run places to eat - it is nothing like the tourist towns of say Greece. They only have one bar and I think it closes at ten. As I said it really is all about the animals. Well, until the evening. The hotel manager had a arranged a troupe of dancing boys. The boys dance traditional Nepali dances and the ticket price helps pay for their university. I think he does this for every group of tourists. But, even so it was pretty cool and the meal afterwards - though very reminiscent of dal bhat - was pretty good too. The Aussies crept off to the local shop to buy cheap beer - something I consider to be quite rude - and spent a great deal of the time concentrating on getting drunk and asking the staff if they had washed the veg in ,safe, water. I have begun to wonder if I really want to visit Australia. 

Day 74 - Kathmandu, Nepal

Day 74 – Hers.

Rob is forever trying to get me to schedule ‘chill’ days into our trips – so I had done exactly that for today.  I wasn’t feeling all that great (maybe he’s right and I’ve been overdoing it a bit....) and I must admit that a lazy day was quite nice!  We got up around 10 and had brunch in our room, taking advantage of the availability of power, internet and television.  We caught up on the BBC World news, CNN and then watched two films before the power went out.

Sanju from Quest popped over to see us so we stirred ourselves for coffee in the sunny hotel garden  - which was really nice.  We told him that we have already started marketing Quest – we told all the people in our new travel group of 19 about it – and several said that they might like to volunteer in the future. 

We sorted out our packs in preparation for a month’s travel, bought water and biscuits for a long bus journey tomorrow and had yet another Western dinner – that should hold us for awhile.  I’m certain we can now manage a month of the local delicacies as we travel from village to village to town to village through southern Nepal and India.  We have no idea what the internet access will be like – so have patience and we will upload the next instalment when we can!

Days 72 and 73 - Chovar and Kathmandu, Nepal

Day 73 – His.

 Quest offices are a mix of offices, kitchen and bedrooms. The volunteers who work for quest are encouraged to come down to the offices in the weekend and recharge their batteries in the company of their fellow volunteers for a day or two. It is a homely and comfortable spot with soft pillows, good cheer and lots of coffee if you want it. We got up late, had a warm shower and breakfast with Sanju and two girls who had been working in an orphanage.

They have internet there and Patti spent quite a while uploading the blog, reading e-mails and checking facebook. We finally made a move after lunch and chucked ourselves into a taxi Sanju got for us. After more hugs and goodbye scarves we were back at the Shakti and were pleasantly surprised to find the staff here actually remembered us. It was a bit like a homecoming – very odd. So we settled ourselves into our room and I went to pick up our washing. As part of our home stay we were expected to wash our bed linen so I had walked up from Quest last night to drop it off in a laundry near our hotel.

When I got back it was time to attend our group meeting. There are 19 of us – the group is huge and not inclined to listen. The leader had a hell of a time getting the information across as people kept chatting to each other and basically ignoring him. No doubt they will have a lot of questions later. Again they are mostly Australian and girls. There are a few couples, a couple of New Zealanders, a couple of Colombians – who spent most of the meeting looking confused – and an American woman who i fear is best described as having an interesting world view. They seem like a nice group but I strongly suspect we are not going to see much wild life on this trip as I suspect there are quite a lot of squealers amongst us. I have decided to adopt a pragmatic approach as they are only with us for 6 days and then we split into three trips and there will be only 9 of us travelling on through India.

Patti and I are quite tired. It is amazing how much you have to concentrate when you have no English speakers around you and getting back to the hotel has fairly knocked us off our feet. The plan, as far as we are concerned for the rest of the day and for the first day of our new tour is to chill. So we left the group to themselves for the night and we won’t be joining them tomorrow either – they are going to see a couple of temples we have already seen – so, after the meeting, I took the washing off to Quest where I spent half an hour having a coffee and saying more goodbyes. How many goodbyes can you say?

Dinner was a quiet affair, by ourselves, in a sweet little place that served continental food – weeks of Dal Bhat have made me appreciate my home food.

Day 72 – His

Well, this is our last day in Chovar. We were asked to make sure we got to school by nine thirty and when we arrived the headmaster had called an assembly. The school assembly had been suspended because of the building works and only resumed yesterday and today’s was in our honour. It was very sweet. The kids were in neat rows and after they sang the national anthem and done some whole school PE by numbers the vice principal gave a little speech to thank us for what we had done and the head presented us with good luck scarves – a real tradition here – the scarves are cream silk with Nepali words of good fortune woven into them – and little golden trophies with a token of love written on them. If we weren’t standing in front of a couple of hundred people I swear I would have cried. After the thanks and gifts we were called upon to say a few words – Patti’s little speech was great, mine was rubbish and Steve’s was clumsy. But, we were incredibly sweet. Assembly broke up and Patti and Steve went off to teach and I went back to working on the school roof.

At half eleven the school bell rang for a minute and all the kids came running out of the classrooms with their bags on their heads. It turns out they had arranged an earthquake practice drill. Just like we have fire drills they have earthquake drills. Of course, I have never seen such a thing. It was great. Just like a mummery. The kids were clearly loving it as they came out smiling and giggling. After they had assembled the older boys were armed with hard hats and stretchers and went hurrying off in search of the injured. Some of the younger kids had been held back and dressed up in fake blood and rubber wounds. The ‘injured’ kids were rushed to the staging area – doing their best to look injured – and treated to first aid by the teachers. It was truly brilliant and very well done.

The assembly and earthquake drill didn’t leave much more time at school – Nepal’s weekend is a day and a half and starts Friday at one and includes Saturday – So, I went back to cleaning the rubbish up from the front of the school. All week I have had a Nepali guy helping me. I have no idea who he is. He just turns up and works quietly beside me for the day and then disappears. Nobody really speaks to him and I have begun to worry that he isn’t really there and just a figment of my imagination. But he works hard for a figment. So we worked on clearing up until ‘coffee girl’ came up and invited Patti, Steve and me for a good by tea. – I think she wants to make sure Steve comes to say goodbye – Today is certainly going to be a day of goodbyes – personally, I hate goodbyes. But, I guess they have to be done.

We said our final school goodbyes – which took half an hour – and went to ‘coffee girl’s’ coffee shop and swigged back our tea – which was lovely, she had added some secret ingredient X that she wouldn’t tells us, but it certainly made a difference to the taste – so, we finished as quickly as was polite so we could leave her and Steve alone. It turned out Steve changed his plans so he could spend more time with her – young love is so sweet – and a little thoughtless.

As we walked back I realised I had forgotten the ladder. All week we had been using a long wooden ladder we had borrowed from the village. It was waiting by the wall for me like an accusation. The only problem with the ladder is that it was heavy. Stupidly heavy and I wasn’t looking forward to dragging it up the hill to the village, particularly up a set of steps that leads into the village. A set of steep stone stairs I had begun to have a deep dislike of – I think they hated me too as I was always knackered when I got to the top and I could swear I heard them laughing every time I climbed them. As luck would have it one of the village boys was still at the school and offered to help me – i could have kissed him. Nepal is full of examples of these little kindnesses. We could certainly learn something from them in England.

We had done most of our packing last night – actually, we had randomly stuffed our belongings into our backpacks as we expected to leave at two. We, in fact, sat around until three – Nepali time at play.

There is nothing worse than sitting around waiting to leave. The family were most sad we were leaving – particularly Patti as she and Camilla have formed a real friendship – and when the taxi finally arrived we were treated to tears, hugs, hard boiled eggs and a blessing. It seems it’s a Nepal tradition to give a departing guest a hard boiled egg and press a deep red mashed vegetable into their forehead. I have no idea what the vegetable is but it stains the skin purple red in a thumb sized spot on the forehead. Patti had wanted one of these since we got here – there are plenty of holy men on the streets of Kathmandu who will give you one for a few rupees but Patti wanted a real one. Well. She got her wish.

Day 72 - Chovar and Kathmandu, Nepal

Day 72 – Hers.

A day of goodbyes.  I had a muzzy head after last night’s farewell dinner at Robin’s home and then farewell drink with our host family.  We had told them that we don’t drink – but it is rude to refuse completely – so I had drunk two small glasses of the local homemade firewater (Rob emptied his second glass into Steve’s cup; Steve didn’t notice and Rob felt fine today...) and I was feeling it today – I am a complete lightweight.

We had our last breakfast of dal bhat and hurried off to school where there was an assembly to celebrate our achievements in the time we had been at the school.  The school gave us scarves and little trophies that say ‘Token of Love’. We each also had to make a little speech. It was quite touching.  I then had ½ a lesson with Class 10 before the school held an earthquake drill – complete with pretend injuries, stretcher bearers, the works.  It was quite amazing to see.

We said our goodbyes to the children and staff, then went to Steve’s friend ‘Coffee Girl’s’ shop for a last cup of tea before trudging up those ridiculously steep steps to the square for the last time.  Rob had to bring the ladder he had borrowed back up as well – it was very lucky that one of the nicest class 10 boys was still around.  He offered to help – and with the two of them carrying it, they were quicker up those steps than I!

We had a coffee with Camilla, Yemen, the baby and various assorted neighbours on the balcony, finished our packing and waited for the taxi Sanju had arranged to take us back to Kathmandu.  It was very sad to leave our little village.  Camilla and her friend made us promise not to forget them and prepared for us the traditional tikka blessing for a safe journey.  Rob and I each were given a red splodge at the top of our forehead and a hard boiled egg to eat.  We gave English air kisses in return, loaded our packs into the taxi and set off.

Kathmandu is just as dusty, crowded and chaotic as we remembered.  We were dropped at the Quest Volunteers’ HQ where we are to spend the night before returning to the Hotel Shakti tomorrow to begin the next leg of our adventure.  Rob took our laundry into Thamel – over 8 kilos worth, even though I’ve kept back the things I can easily wash by hand and later we walked back into Thamel to the New Orleans cafe for dinner.  Rob had a burger and I had creamy chicken and vegetable pasta – not a plate of dal bhat in sight, thank God.  It is delicious – but quite repetitive and I really needed some Western food to restore my equilibrium.  We also went to the tourist supermarket for coffee, razors, sugar  - and furniture polish for Camilla’s new table. (I was actually quite surprised to find it – I had looked all over Chobar and Kirtipur; fancy it being available in a tourist shop....)  The power cut took effect at 7:00, so we walked back in the dark, gave our excuses and retired gratefully to our room.  The bed here is still hard – but the pillows are soft – hurray, hopefully a good night’s sleep lies ahead – and tomorrow we will have access to the internet!

Day 71 - Chovar, Nepal

Day 71 – His.

This is our last full day here and although the day has been pretty much like the other days, there is a definite air of sadness about it. We will be sorry to be leaving. Our host family have never hosted before and as we are their first they didn’t really know what to expect. But we clean the pots every now and then, help to look after the baby and this morning we cooked them a breakfast of French toast, honey and cinnamon sugar. It really wasn’t to their taste. They ate it dutifully and thanked us but you could see they would rather have had Dal Bhat. Even so, these little things seemed to have endeared us to them and we are now part of their family. I know this because in the night, after we returned from dinner with one of the teachers they poured us rum and told us a little tearfully that we are part of the family. I genuinely feel they are going to miss us – and it was at about the same time i realised i was going to miss them – well at first – to be honest I am a little bit of a sociopath and not likely to remember them a week from now – my loss I guess. But Patti has a little more feeling for humanity than I do so I am thinking she will do enough missing for the both of us.

Dinner at the teacher’s was an interesting affair. We were walked over by Sanju who showed us the temple of Ganesh and the Chovar caves as we walked over. After dinner we walked back in the dark to our rum session on the balcony. Unfortunately we had to get up at half six to prepare our breakfast and all the walking – miles and miles – Nepal seems to consist of nothing but stone stairs and most of them are up – I am tired and want very little more than to go to sleep.

Patti organised a little exam for her students and she is stuck with a few hours marking because of it – her dedication is a lesson to me – that doesn’t mean i won’t read for a bit and fall asleep as she is doing it – but i certainly admire it.

Our host mother suggested we go over to her father’s at midnight to see a buffalo being slaughtered for the festival and although the idea was tempting for a bit we soon realised she was offering to organise it for us by having her brother run us 22km across Nepal and they weren’t coming – so we said thanks but no thanks – it all seemed like too much and bed sounds much more promising at the moment. Steve was a little disappointed but our host mother decided to send him there with her son tomorrow so he was happy and I get to sleep.

Day 70 - Chovar and Kirtipur, Nepal

Day 70 – Hers.

An eventful day, given how quiet life is in our little village.  Dressed in my new kulta and sulwa, with matching scarf and bangle, a tikka dot on my forehead and my hair suitably clipped up in a twist, I made quite a stir – first at breakfast (somehow I managed not to get dal bhat down my front; I’m making progress...)-and then as we arrived at the school.  ‘You look gorgeous, Ma’am,’ said several of the girls. ‘You are looking very nice, Miss’ said some of the boys.  It was all quite sweet.  The outfit is beautiful – and comfortable to wear.  I don’t think I’ll get away with it England, though, except maybe for fancy dress....

My lessons went well.  Class 10 made their videos convincing volunteers to come to Nepal.  Class 9 put on their play and then debated whether ‘love’ marriages or arranged marriages were more likely to lead to happiness.

Rob finished his work for the day at lunchtime (He patched the holes in the roof over a second classroom.), so we set off together on the half hour walk to the shops at Kirtipur.  I needed to buy the ingredients for French toast (We are cooking breakfast for the family tomorrow.) and Rob needed ‘white cement’ – which seems really to be plaster - for the next stage of his little project.  Have you ever tried to describe cinnamon using mime?  It was interesting – I did manage, but it is sold here as the actual bark, so later I had a lesson from Camalla in using a mortar and pestle to reduce the bark to powder....

Rob purchased 25 kilos of plaster which the shop owner split into two plastic carrier bags.  We discussed getting a taxi back as Chobar is pretty much around and up a large hill from Kirtipur – but Rob decided he would rather spend the taxi fare in Hira’s coffee shop and carried the 25 kilos manfully with only two short rest stops....  We had a cold drink and a coffee at Hira’s and returned home with our purchases.

By the time we had unpacked everything, Steve arrived home with ‘coffee girl’ – he had taken her out for coffee (Their second ‘date’) and brought her home at Camalla’s insistence to meet the family.  We all sat on the balcony as is usual for the late afternoon – the baby running around hitting people, neighbours popping in and out, everyone chatting in a mixture of languages, laughing a lot and drinking tea. 

Sanju rang and invited Rob, Steve and me to his house for dinner.  He lives on the opposite side of the square – so a bit later, we walked through the temple to his home for yet more multilingual chat, laughter, tea, television (oooh – THAT was a novelty – and great until the electricity went off at 7:30) and, eventually, an enormous plate of dal bhat.  We sat on mats on the floor, as we had at home before the arrival of the dining room set and ate by candlelight.  Cilla, another of the Quest staff who lives across from Sanju, joined us after dinner and we again chatted and showed off our party tricks by candlelight until the festival band arrived in the square – marking the end of the day.

 

Day 69 - Chovar and Kirtipur, Nepal

Day 69 – His.

 

Life in the village sinks in your head without you really realising it and though we have been here for such a short time we have become a regular sight on the streets and already everybody knows about us and who we are. Equally the village routine has to a degree become our own and we go about our daily tasks without really thinking about it or noticing a day has passed – consequently very little seems to have happened today. We went to work, I cleared out a new section of the old school building ready for the renovation work and everybody said hi as we went by. That in itself doesn’t seem like much but you try saying Namaste a hundred times a day as you press your hands into a lotus and bow – wondering all the time if the degree of your bow shows the proper respect and see if you feel it some small thing.

The section of work I had to do today was larger than yesterday so I worked past Steve and Patti and had to catch up with them in the village cafe as they were just finishing a coffee. But bless them they hung around for me to sit a while and enjoy a cup with them. I have taken to changing at work – which is just as well as the sweaty poop stained clothes I have been using absolutely reek and they are fit for the bin – at least they will be when we leave – which is in just a couple of days time.

Patti and I have mixed feelings about this – one the one hand it will be nice to have a hot shower and something different for breakfast than spicy rice – but on the other we a going to miss our host family who really seem to have taken to us – particularly Patti. She most certainly has a new friend here.

Patti’s new dress arrived today and we had the obligatory showing off and photo session on the roof – she looks most beautiful in it and I think she plans to wear it to school tomorrow – this will certainly cause some comments but I think she will carry it off famously.

Over dinner we taught our host father a new card game and sat for an hour or so playing it. He had huge fun – which I am glad about because he seems to want to get to know me better but the language barrier is just too great (For him at least – our host mother is quite happy to mime and use a dictionary – maybe it’s a pride kind of thing.) Whatever the reason it was nice to spend a little time with him having fun.

The work I am doing at the moment is pretty tiring and after dinner – though more cards had been suggested – we all went to bed and I cannot say I am unhappy about that. A little reading and lights out early, I think.