Nepal, 2007

Day 1 - 12th April 2007 – Thursday

After an almost teary farewell to Ray I headed to the airport to begin my journey. I had pretty much done this route before when I went to India so I knew where I was going. Dublin to London, London to Doha and then Doha to Kathmandu. Nothing much happened on the way over, just chilled on the plane, watched a few movies and speculated what life would be like for the next two months.

Day 2 - 13th April 2007 – Friday

Arrived in Kathmandu early that morning and was met by a guy called Macha. He was to show me where my new home was going to be for the next while. The taxi ride from the airport was very exciting. There was chaos everywhere and they drive in Nepal the same way they do in India. Manic. There was people selling their stuff on the street. Chickens and meat covered in flies lying in the sun. Cows on the road. Gorgeous looking fruit in stalls, rotten looking fruit in stalls, poverty, Tibetan monks and nuns and so much more. Over in Ireland I was talking to a guy called Dave Cutler and I was under the impression I was going to a place called Gorje which is in a valley in Nepal. They have a school there and I was going to teach the kids. As it happens not many people knew I was arriving in Nepal and was put into the main orphanage in Swoyambu. There was an old office there and Macha showed me to an empty room which had a mattress on the floor and badly stained walls. I thought for a brief moment that I was in over my head here but the mattress looked so inviting as I hadnt slept since I left Ireland a day and a half before. Macha offered to show me around but I declined saying that I needed to get some sleep. I lay on the mattress trying to get some sleep but the brain was racing thinking of what was in store. About three hours later there was a bang on my door, there was a bang on a few doors and I opened it. A few people met out in the hall of this building. Kelly from Ireland was the first person I met. Typical. I fly half way around the world and I meet an Irish person. There was also Dawn from Singapore and a couple from France. Kelly was the volunteer co-ordinator and had no idea that I was coming over. Turns out that it was New Years in Nepal. The year 2064. She was trying to organise a meal in Thamel which is the capital of Kathmandu if you like. I was tired but I thought it would be a great way to get to know people and try to learn the ropes. I got ready and in true Friday the 13^th style I locked myself out of my room. Nice first impression Kiera and not only that but I left my wallet in the room also so I had no money and no where to sleep.  Thought a drink might do me some good anyways.  Went out and headed into Thamel.  Got a taxi there and it cost around 80 cent to get there.  Thamel was pretty much westernized but its a great place to discover the 'real' Nepal from if you ever wanted to stay there.  I wont get ahead of myself and talk about Thamel yet though.  We went to a restaurant called OR2K.  It was an Israeli restaurant and it means Light to Kathmandu.  This turned out to be my favourite resturant in Nepal.  I couldnt really get involved in conversation.  Everyone I met was all talking shop, which is natural enough really but I didnt know what they were talking about.  Met Cris from Peru, Martin and his girlfriend (cant remember her name) from France, Kelly was there and then met a girl called Jen from California.  Before we went for dinner Kelly was saying she wanted a party person and was tired of everyone going to bed early all the time.  I dunno, everyone at the table looked pretty nuts to me but I knew what she meant when at 9pm they all decided to leave and head home to get some sleep. Myself and Kelly had another drink and that led us to Ben and Jerry's.  The local 'Irish@ bar (supposedly!).  Kelly was telling me that her cousin Nyrian (dont know how to spell his name) was going to a party in a called Liquid Lounge.  Would I be interested in going?  Didnt think I would end up in a club first night in Nepal but sure i'll give it a shot.  The Liquid Lounge is for the beautiful people of Nepal, the weathly kids and the fashionable ones.  There was an empty swimming pool which I thought was quite kewl and people were dancing around in it.  Big place, plenty of people, myself and Kelly the only two white people and we got ourselves hammered.  Had my camera with me which I only opened on the plane and tried to work out how to use it. Plenty of pictures later and a stint in the DJ box and I was happy.  We met some Nepalese people.  Kale, Shaggy, some guy who shall be forever called Moon Face and Lisa (Shaggy's girlfriend).  Nice people.  Liquid Lounge ended and we got talked into going to a hotel with an underground dance venue.  Dancing and drinking away it turned into an old skool rave.  Plenty of familiar music which I was surprised at.  After that I thought home might have been on the cards, it was around 4.30am or 5.00am.  For some reason we all ended up in a car on our way to Nargacot.  This it turns out in one of "the must see" places in Nepal.  The best time to head up is at sunrise as the view is amazing and you can see mountains for miles.  We went up and there was a heavy fog.  We all parted company for some reason and walked in pairs around the place.  I was tired and hungry.  There are little tea shops all around the top of Nargacot.  People live in these little huts and they sell tea and food from their houses to make a living.  It was odd seeing moon-face knock on doors and ask people to get up and make us food.  There was one place we went into and there were 3 people all piled into a bed sleeping.  I thought it was kinda rude to be doing it but I was assured that it happens all the time and sometimes they are only too happy to get up and make people food as its quite a poor country.   Some tea and some food later and I was a bit happier but at this stage I was dreaming about pillows and how they felt.  I didnt care about the sunrise and I didnt care where I was, I just wanted to hit the sack.  Eventually grabbed Kelly and we went back to Kathmandu to the Umbrella Foundation.

Day 3 - 14th April 2007 – Saturday

In a jock and myself and Kelly were sitting outside on the steps of the office while Esterage, the local caretaker, was breaking into my room.  The sun was hot and like I said before Nepalese people start their day about 6am so everyone was up and running around.  I met some of the kids while I was waiting but didnt want to talk to them too much as was drunk and didnt want to be around them like that so kept my distance.  Eventually the door opened and I was soooo happy.  Crashed like a chopped down tree in a forest on one mattress and Kelly did likewise on the other mattress.  Dont know how long I spelt for as time dosent mean much over here.   When I woke up eventually Kelly was gone.  I didnt know where to go or what to do so I stayed on the mattress and dozed.  After a while there was a knock and Kelly arrived in with a packed suitcase.  My buddy in crime had moved in with me for the moment.  Kelly brought me to one of the seven orphanage houses.  I'm in the old office as I said and that was only temporary until all the volunteers moved into the volunteer house .  By law volunteers cant stay with the kids.  Tried to email home to let them know I arrived but the electricity here is a bit hit and miss and so was not able to.  I had my first ever meal of Dahl Baat.  This is what the kids eat for breakfast and dinner.  This is also our foot.  Ate it, hated it.  It was like cold curry vinegar but I had to eat it as I was late and it was made especially for me so every mouthful I was eating was being watched.  After that we went to Gauri Shanka which Kelly is the volunteer.  Met Gopal, his wife and some of the kids.  The call the female volunteers "Sister".  "Morning sister", which i thought was very cute.  Went back to the office as was still wrecked, left Kelly where she was.  The power was still out when I got back there and had to feel around to get to my room and my bed.  As I lay in bed wondering was I in over my head there was a knock at the door and there was Dawn from Signapore who offered me a torch.  We talked for a little bit and then I tried to go to sleep.  The french couple next door moved out today and so Kelly moved in there.  We now had a room each which I was happy about and not expecting.  I was so tired so tried to get some sleep.

Day 4 - 15th April 2007 – Sunday

Could not sleep a wink for the whole night.  Head was racing as everything was new and I didnt know what to expect and I was just thinking about everything.  Million different questions and no answers.  I didnt really know what to be doing with myself at this stage.  To be honest if it wasnt for Kelly I would have been fucked.  The kids get up very early, in fact everyone gets up really early in Nepal.  Get up, wash, have breakfast, do some study, put on uniform and then be in school for 9.30am.  I knew Dawn always got up early to have breakfast with the kids so made it my business to go over to her at 5.30am and we could have breakfast with some of the kids together.  It was up to me to make the effort.  Went and had some chi which I loved. Hot, sweet and milky. And the dreaded dahl baat which actually tasted much better this morning.  I got a small portion and it was hot and the curry vinegar stuff wasnt in it, plus I was starving and a little starry eyed from no sleep.  Met some the kids and they were all madly in love with Dawn so I just took a step back and watched.  Turns out my name in Nepalese means "Banana", lovely"  There was a volunteer meeting after the breakfast and I was glad I was there for it as I didnt know that there was a meeting on.  Apparently though every Sunday there is a volunteer meeting.  I wish I had known a bit more about what went on here before I arrived but it was my fault for not doing any research on the place.  Just dived right in.  Turns out that had its advantages too though.  There is another part to the Umbrella project called Gorge.  I think thats how you spell it.  Apparently this is where the hard core go.  This is where I was supposed to go originally and am glad I didnt.  They are looking for two people to go out and I wont be one of them when I heard the word "rats".  Anyways met an Israeli man called Meecra (dont know how you spell it) and it turns out he is doing Nepalese classes.  Myself and Kelly signed ourselves up.  I think it would be great.  Might as well get everything out of this trip as I can.  Myself and Kelly then headed to Thamel.  I wanted to get some cash out and we went for food.   Thamel is a great size and a great location to see temples, monastaries and sights of Nepal.  Its ideal to walk around, although you might get some hassle, and haggling is the main currency which you get used to after a while but can be a pain in the ass if your tired.  There are plenty of shops selling western products (shampoo and stuff) which I sepnt a fortune on in Heathrow so at least I know now.  Tibetan rugs, silk scarves, total shoppers paradise, plenty of restaurants.  Its very vibrant and always busy.   We had some food in a place called The Roadhouse.  Lovely food and I had some wine.   Went back to our village in Swayambhu and back to where we were staying.  I was so tired and i hit the sack for a power nap at 3.30pm.  Ended up sleeping until 3.30am - bloody jet lag!

Monday - Day 5 - 16th April 2007

Yesterday I found a toaster in the little kitchen where we were sleeping and in Thamel I bought some groceries.  It was great to have some toast for breakfast.  Myself and  Kelly then hit Gauri Shanka again and played and met some of the children.  They headed off to school and myself and Kelly hit Thamel again as we decided to decorate our rooms and make them more homely since we were going to be in Nepal for a while.  Also the walls in my room were disgusting so I wanted to get some posters to cover it up.  The place where we were staying was filthy and we decided to clean it up, rubber gloves, bleach, the works.  Also the toilet situation was not a happy one.  There are squat toilets in Nepal and the plumbing is not something in abundance out this side of the world.  Toilet paper does not go into squat toilets or else it blocks it up and you also dont flush them, you pour water down them.  So when volunteers arrive and dont know this they use toilet paper and flush them which resulted in our toilet completely overflowing and basically up to our necks in shit.  There was just myself and Kelly in the office as Dawn had left and there was no way we could use this situation. Also the shower didnt work.  After spending the day cleaning the kitchenette, our rooms, yours truly got to clean the toilet and bathroom, got the shower fixed and lit incense everywhere, it felt much much better and we were happy if not dirty campers.  I havent seen anything of culture yet and havent really spent a lot of time with the children or done anything of value yet (except the toilet) but am here for two months and am just going to ease my way in and live like the locals do.

Tuesday - Day 6 - 17th April 2007

Woke up after having a bad dream about Ray.  I hope he is ok.  Not missing Ireland much at all at the moment I hafta say. Just the people in it.  So different here.  Chilled in the sun for a little while.  Myself and Kelly got some water in the local village and she told me about a buddah place that was just a few mins walk up the road.  Also I want to check out the Buddah Temple which is also called The Monkey Temple.   Its the oldest temple in Swayambhu.  There are a load of people going trekking on Thursday so it will give me time to myself to check out the area.  Want to sort out my Nepalese class for tomorrow also.  Myself and Kelly are getting it at no cost which is great since I heard it was a couple of hundred euro.   I decided to head up and see the 3 buddahs that were just at the top of the village.  its at the Amitabha Park.  I walked up and I dont like the way everyone stares here.  But I'm a white girl in a non white country so I got to learn to live with is.  Lots of povery around the area and a few people were very deformed also.  They sit on the steps at the temple looking for money and food.  One child looked like he had this legs on backwards and walked on all fours.  It was disturbing.  I didnt give any money as you would be followed around for the rest of the day I was warned.  You give a donation at the temple to get in and I gave 100 rs which is €1.00.   Amitabha Buddha Park, Swayambhu, Kathmandu, Nepal was the address.  It was interesting and you walk around temples clockwise all the time.  I didnt realise this until I had walked anti-clockwise around it.  Came back to the orphanage and as it was mothers day the kids were off school and planning a mothers day celebration for their female volunteers.  I didnt have a house yet to volunteer in so I visited house to house.  I went to Sagarmatha (which is the Nepalese for Everest).  I think its very cute the way the houses are named after the mountains in Nepal.  The kids were dancing and giving Viva flowers (who is Umbrella's mother) and tika's.  I got a call from Kelly to go to Gauri Shanka and when I got there she was covered in tika.  All over her clothes and face and hair.  Hilarious!  We went back to the office later and had a few drinks.  Tomorrow I start in Machapuchare which is going to be my house.  Am a little nervous about it but what dosent kill me will make me stronger - fingers crossed!

Day 7 - Wednesday 18th April 2007

Woke up early as today was the first day of my Nepalese speaking course.  Was looking forward to it.  Went over and I met the group of Israeli's that had also come to Nepal to volunteer.  Really nice people who all seemed to get on really well, wanted to learn Nepalese cooking and the language and basically seemed a lot more into the experience than I was.  Made me doubt myself a little but fuck it.  The house they were staying was lovely and it was nice to use a proper toilet for a change.  Met a lovely Nepalese woman called Deepa who was to be our teacher for the next two weeks.  She was telling us some of the Nepalese culture and how they treat women.  Her husband was a general in the army during the way with the Maoists a couple of years before.  She actually heard the explosion that killed her husband.  She was left with two small children and no money.  A widow has to wear white for a year, she can never wear a tika again in her lifetime.  They can never wear the colour red again as it is a holy colour.  They cannot touch items in shops and are not allowed to go to social events for a year.  Friends shun them, they are not allowed marry again and they are shunned from social events.  They are pretty much treated like lepers.  It is very much a man's world in this country.  After our class I was happy enough as it went well and came back to my room and then got myself ready for going up to my new house.  When I got there, there was four little fellas.  Two were off school as they had a holiday (not all kids are in the same school) and two had skin infections on their head and had just been in the hospital.  We had great fun and I really enjoyed being there for the few hours.  I stayed there and at dinner had some dalh baat.  At this stage all the kids had come home from school.  This is where I started feeling uncomfortable.  Machapuchare is the only house with all boys and they range from 4 to 17.  The older kids were speaking Nepalese and very obviously about me and tried to hold my own as much as I could but....  Went back to my room later and read.  Couldnt stay awake.  Dont like sleeping here.  Lots of bugs and insects and the sound of dogs at night in unreal.  Glad I brought ear plugs with me.

Day 8 - Thursday 19th April 2007

Went to Nepalese class this morning and didnt enjoy it at all.  Nothing was sinking in and from the blank look on Kelly's face, it wasnt sinking in with her either.  After that I went to Thamel myself.  It was a bit of a feat as had to haggle with cab driver to get there and just to make sure I knew my way around but i thought just give it a shot!  Went to a place called the Pilgrims Cafe which I think everyone who hits Thamel visits at one point or another. http://www.pilgrimsbooks.com/. I was trying to get some information on a trip to Tibet which I have been trying to get to for years.  It was looking more and more possible which was great.  Went to the internet cafe, spoke to family and got some more food.  I am now living on toast covered in peanut butter.  Went back to the village and got completely lost.  Ended up at the Monkey Temple (although I didnt know it at that stage) and had to get another taxi which cost about 10 times as much as it should have.  Anyways got home and called up to the two kids that were on holidays yesterday.  Their names are ** and ** and they are brothers.  I bought a deck of cards and we played cards for hours.  Then the rest of the kids came back from school and when the tutor came in took the cards off me saying that they were forbidden in the orphanage.  Ooops!  I watched tutor teach the kids and then helped them with their homework.  Seriously, these kids cant get any cuter!  Later we watched Ice Age 2 which I bought them in Thamel that day.  We all had great fun watching it and I had about 6 kids sitting on my lap.  Was then forced to eat some more dahl baat at about 9pm when the kids went to bed and the Raja and Menuka were there with the tutors.  Thats when the adults eat.  I was stuffed leaving the place.  They eat a lot of food.  Came home and hit the sack.

Day 9 - Friday 20th April 2007

Went to Nepalese class this morning and at least it wasnt as bad as yesterday.  We were learning about vegetables.  Who cares about fuckin vegetables.  Came back and washed my clothes.  Well washed them as much as I could with the water here.  Went to Machapuchare with some lolipops with the kids.  I would love to bring them some board games or something but apparently thats not allowed.  I brought over some crayons, markers and paper when I arrived in Nepal but they seemed to have been locked in a cabinet and we couldnt colour either.  I see why the kids dont really like holidays, cause they can get quite bored sometimes.  The schools over in Nepal have holidays for everything, at least once a week there is a holiday for something.  Played with the kids, had some tea and waited till the rest of the kids came home from school.  Made my first little enemy today.  Little girl (one of the Didi's daughters) was doing my hair and managed to get some string all knotted up in it.  The housekeeper took it out but gave out shit to the little girl.  The girl thought I was giving out and when I asked her to come over and play she had her nose stuck up in the air.  Ah well.  Head was a little wrecked over it actually lol.  Came back and I got ready to go out.  We were going to hit the town tonight.  I was ready and Kelly turned out to be 2 hours late cause they were going to see some Guru.  This really is the land of karma here and I fully believe in it now cause little things happened all over the 2 months. Like while I was waiting for Kellly to come back there was two bugs on my wall.  I killed one (cause the fucker would have eaten me alive in my sleep) and I couldnt reach the other one so I stood on a stool to kill me.  Just as I swatted him the stool went from under me and I landed on my back.  I lay on the ground for what must have been 2 minutes thinking about the last week.  Kelly eventually turned up.  I understand now about Nepal time and that it is vital to have a mobile phone here.  I left mine at home so had to get a new one here.  No one is ever on time here, EVER, and your totally out of the loop if you dont have a phone.  Met an American girl called Sarah and we went to a Japenese Restaurant in town.  The food was nice, you wouldnt write a review about the place but after dahl baat it was great. Hit the liquid lounge then.  It was an invitation only party and that night we were hanging out with the elite of Nepal apparently.  The people that owned the Japanese restaurant had the invitations.  It was a bit weird seeing my surroundings now considering where I woke up that morning.  Had fun but its not why I came to Nepal so not going to dwell too much on it.  Met the guys we met on New Years Eve which was good fun.  We behaved ourselves tonight and was in bed by 4am.

Day 10 - Saturday - April 21st

Felt shite this morning when I woke up.  Sunlight streaming through the window at 7.30am.  Got to make a curtain of some kind.  The kids were off school today and on Saturday's I took that day off as they were there to amuse themselves.  My guys had a sort of field outside their house and they dominated the field playing football.  I dont play football, cant run and they laughed every time I tried so I left them to it on Saturdays.  Borrowed the Lonely Planet from Kelly and did some research on Nepal.  Talked to Kelly about Machapuchare and my fears that I wasnt doing a great job.  The last volunteer was supposed to have been just amazing and thought the guys were comparing.  Tried to learn some Nepalese and didnt bother cause I hate it. lol

Day 11 - Sunday - April 22nd

Had Nepalese class this morning.  Really hate these classes but because we got them for free and Meecra did us a favour by letting us do them, we cant very well miss them. Went to the house later on and did some schoolwork with the kids.  Learned about juto in Nepal as well as eating and drinking customs.  If I drink from a bottle no one in Nepal will drink from the bottle after me.  If I touch anything with my salivia then it cant be touched afterwards cause it would be Juto.  Not just me, but anyone.  Thats why you will always see them pouring the water into their mouths and not drinking from a bottle.  Interesting!  Also you always eat with your right hand, never your left.  Thats for wiping your ass in the toilet lol.

Day 12 - Monday - April 23rd

More Nepalese classes this morning.  Cant wait for these to be over.  Spent most of today with the Israeli's.  Had a volunteer meeting with Jackie in the Israeli house.  That man loves to talk and at one stage I think my head went numb.  Two hours of chatter.  Brought Amalia and Tom around to our office where we stay.  Had another meeting then.  Didnt spend much time in the house today with the kids as there was plenty of meetings.  There is a picnic tomorrow which am looking forward to.  Volunteers are expected to contribute to these events so I gave my contribution.  The picnic is starting at 4am so went to bed early that night hoping to get some sleep in.

Day 13 - Tuesday - April 24th

Bought a shitty little alarm in the village yesterday and every time I tested it, it didnt work.  Was raging so I didnt get a wink of sleep cause I was afraid that I would just sleep though and miss the kids picnic.  One of the kids came up to get me anyway in the office and off we went.  Got to the house and *** had hurt his leg and was not able to go.  The tears were rolling down his face.  Anyways to cut a long story short, there was promises of not overdoing stuff and we all took off.  We walked down to the village where the bus was going to take us.  We were going for a picnic at Nargacot (which is where I was the first night) and we were to watch the sunrise.  The bus was two hours late (i told ya, Nepali time is unreal) and no one seemed pissed off about it except me.  We watched the sunrise sitting on a little wall in the village.  All the kids were dressed in their best for the picnic (which was their school uniforms) and they all looked adorable.  The weather on this day was so hot it was not funny.  I was dressed in jeans and a black top (since it was so cold getting up this morning) and knew my atire was wrong for the day.  It was short sleeves and I didnt bring anything to cover myself up with.  I had Factor 40 though so thought I would be alright.  We got there and the had our picnic.  Trying to feed 56 kids in the middle of nowhere is no mean feat and fair play to the Didi's for doing it.  The kids seemed to have a good time.  There are two tutors there and I was a bit uncomfortable around them and thought they were making fun of me but maybe it was just paranoia.   Gave my camera to the kids cause they love taking pictures of themselves and seeing them on the digital.  They wanted to take a video of themselves and its hard to say no when your brand new and everyone is asking.  After a while the kids came back and to my horror discovered that they had deleted all my previous photos.  I had 197, from New Years and previous days and they were all gone.  What do you say??  I didnt really enjoy the day, it was too hot, there was no shelter, I was tired from lack of sleep, my photos were gone and I wasnt gettin on too great with the kids etc.  I found a small tree where I sat under for some shelter and the kids didnt come near me cause they thought I was in a bad mood cause they deleted my photos.  Came home and Kelly could see I wasnt in great form.   She went out and managed to get a bottle of vodka and some chocolate.  Going to keep her!

Day 14 - Wednesday 25th April

Didnt go to Nepalese class today.  I just said fuck it.  Didnt want to see anyone actually.  Washing my clothes, tidied up the house a bit and went back up to Buddpark to re-take some of the photos the kids took.   I then went to the Buddah Temple in  Swayambu which is also the Monkey Temple which is the biggest temple in Nepal.  It was very interesting.  To go through the Eastern Gate is the best way to go.  Its called Monkey Temple as there are hundreds of monkey around the place.  Dont make eye contact and dont let your camera flash if your taking their picture. Plenty of Hindu visitors, loads of women in beautiful sari's, Sadhu holy men.  Central to the Temple is the large Buddah eyes with the nose as a question mark.  There are plenty of Tibetans at the top of the temple selling their goods and meditation bowls.  Lots of incense and craftwork.  You get to see the whole of Kathmandu from the top of the temple which was once a valley.  Its a very interesting place to go.  After that I got a taxi to Thamel.  I dont know, maybe I was feeling a bit homesick.  Talked to Ray for about an hour and half on gmail and it totally made my day.  Got something like a headcold and Kelly was saying that the kids pass on colds all the time.  Got some medicine in some chemist for it.  Was a bit wary about taking it after what happened to Carina in India but it turned out to be ok.  Came back to the office and my skin started to itch.  Put some after sun on it.  It was bright pink after yesterday and was hoping it wouldnt peel.

Day 15 - Thursday 26th April 2007

Woke up this morning and my skin is just in pieces.  This was Factor 40 on my skin, i couldnt understand it.  Just shows you  how hot it is here.  Went to my Nepali class.  Boring.  Went to town.  I got myself a mobile phone.  €25.00.  Went and got Shrek for the kids in Machapuchare and had some problems with the DVD player but we managed to get it working.  Would be very hard telling a room full of eager beautiful children that Shrek was not working and they would have to go to bed instead, whew!   Half way through Kelly came in and we ended up going back for a few drinks to the office to chill out.

Day 16 - Friday - 27th April 2007

Another Nepali class, another one over.  Couldnt take it any more at one stage and told Deepa that I had a meeting and that I had to leggit.  Kelly was watching me go out the door thinking she should have done the same.  The water went off in the house last night (apparenlty thats just as common as the electricity) and washed this morning out of the village well.  I didnt mind it, thought it was kinda fun actully.  Friday night is the night for going out in Thamel and even though I didnt mind washing out of the well for the week, not for hitting a bar.  Wandering through the village and spied a little hair salon.  Imagine that, in the middle of nowhere.  It turned out to be beside this tiny little bakery.  This bakery is a small miracle.  It actually had muffins (tiny little ones) and breads and stuff you would find in a bakery back home.  After talking to the owner he said it was difficult to find ingredients for the stuff and thats why his items were expensive.  It was something like 5cent a muffin.  He said he relied on tourists and business men as locals could not afford him.  I was delighted to have found the place.  They also did vegetable burgers, vegetale patties in burger buns with salad.  This was to  be one of my stable foods in Kathmandu.  Anyways back to today, got the hair washed and dried which took 2 hours due to no electricity for the hair dryer.  I was just glad to have clean water to wash the hair.  Cost me a grand total of €3.00.  We went out to the Japanese restaurant where Lisa was the owner.  Met a few new volunteers there and we had a few drinks.  Conor, one of the volunteers who has been there for years, was telling me that his mate had a €500.00 camera which a kid stole from a different orphanage than the one we are in now, and swapped it for a chicken.  Thought it was hilarious.  Anyways few of us went to Tom and Jerry's which is main street Thamel.  Kelly was talking to a few Nepalese guys that she had hung around with before.  All married and all loving the white girl.  Kelly knew this and is not stupid but thought they were good fun.  I didnt.  I spotted what looked like some Dutch people and headed over to them.  Yes, they were Dutch.  We ended up a club called Fire which is above an Irish Bar, main street, Thamel.  Dancing away and then Kelly came in and soon Kale, Shaggy and Moon Face arrived.  During the week Kelly was telling me about a Jazz gig that was going on in a place called The Last Resort.  This jazz gig goes on about once a year and for €20.00 that was our transport down, accommodation, the gig and all our food.  And they have the biggest bungee jump in the world, 500 FEET OF AN ANIMAL.  So here we are out on Friday and its 2am and we are absolutely drunk as skunks on local rum.  You dont know how quickly that stuff hits you.  I'm thinking home would be good since we are up at 6.00am tomorrow morning.  We hop into Kale's car and are driving towards Swayambu and and a car starts following us.  Before we know whats happening the car has pulled up in front of our car and a girl jumps out.  She runs over and starts kicking the car and screaming in Nepalese.  I am sitting in the front and I havent a clue whats happening and neither does Kelly.  We are the only two English speaking people there.  Kale takes off in the car again and after discussions with Shaggy and Moon Face he pulls the car over.  She is again in the car, which a full car load of people mind you. and pulls up beside us again.  Again kicking the car like crazy and before we knew it she practically jumped through the back seat window and tried to claw Kelly's arms.  Eh ...nutter!  We tried to ask what was going on but you never get told the full story from Nepalese.  To cut a long story short I though going home was the best option and the guys pulled into a closed bowling alley in order that we could drink some coffee.  Why?? I havent a clue.  Explaining that I was leaving I ended up in a screaming match with Kale as he thought i was leaving due to the girls actions.  I didnt know what went on, I still dont really. I was going home cause  I was up in 2 hours.   Moon face told me I was over-reacting (again he thought it was about yer woman) and that was the last time I am grateful to say I ever saw Moon Face.  That man needs to get himself a girlfriend and stop creeping on to every female he meets.  Tried to ring a taxi and Shaggy pulled up in the car and dropped us home apologising for the night.  I like Shaggy, he is great fun and I dont think he needed to apologise.  We both gave him a hug and stumbled to bed.

Day 17 - Saturday 28th April 2007

Got up this morning and felt disastrous.  After an hour and a half sleep we had a four hour bus journey ahead of us and also to throw ourselves off a 500ft bridge.  I went in to wake Kelly who didnt even look like herself at this stage.  We were both steaming drunk and we could barely throw some clothes together in a sack.  We left, no shower (no water anyways), last nights make up still on, sweating, feeling rotten and laughing our assess off.  Made our way to Thamel and they joined a group of people as we made our way towards a few buses.  Oh yeah, my skin now at this stage is resembling leprosy.  Its hanging off in chunks, i cant put on any fake tan.  The one place I can go now and wear string tops (your cant wear them in Kathmandu villages - its a sign of prostitution) and I cant wear anything cause it looks disgusting.  After a hilarious 4 hour bus journey where mysellf and Kelly were laughing all the way down...at the state of us... we got there.  Got assigned a tent.  Threw our stuff in.  It was about 1pm at this stage.  Went down and had a shower, it wasnt hot but at this stage I didnt care.  It was clean. It was one of the hippiest, most coolest places on this planet.  There was hippies everywhere.  If I was in woodstock, this would have been it.  After some indie choons and Doors were played, I started drinking straight away.  Kelly's hangover was kicking in and (sorry for saying this Kelly) but the girls a living nightmare to have around when she has a hangover.  I suggested to her drinking away but it took her a while to get into it.  The food was buffet style and not bad (Nepalese standards).  After a while I heard some Irish accents and pretty soon we were united.  There was four lads, two from Ireland and two from England.  They were the best craic.  I thought it was crazy.  A little bit of Ireland in the middle of nowhere.  Partied till 6am as the music didnt stop till the last person sat down so the guys were taking it in half hour stints to keep dancing.  Big shout out to the boys as they made my weekend.  We met some Danish girl who was sound and plenty of Israeli's.  Kelly was in flying form and we a great night.  I crawled into my tent and flicked Kelly on the ass.  Turns out it wasnt Kelly and she said something to me in Italian I think?? whoever she was.  Ooops.  Found my tent eventually and fell in.

Day 16 - Sunday 29th April 2007

Nothing worse than getting up roasting in a tent.  We were woken up by someone going around with a bell at 8am.  Fucker!  Kelly didnt look like she was moving anywhere and any question I asked was replied with a grunt lol.  Got up and had a slice of warm bread as nothing else was edible.  Went back and myself and Kelly put our names down for the jump.  I was watching people jump all morning and I put down the fact that I was not nervous to the lack of sleep and amount of alcohol in my system.   Time came to do the jump.  Myself and Kelly got our faces painted and hit the bridge.  The Irish boys did their jumps before us and were heading off to do white water rafting in Pokara.  Nice!  On the bridge and he asked who wanted to go first.  I definitely did.  I did the bunjee swing (not the jump) and for those few moments before you jump, yes, then I was shitting it.  Its not a small jump lol.  I truly felt like a mad eejit.  Then the bad news was the 40 minute walk (almost vertical) the hot sun back to the camp.  I waited till Kelly jumped but it turned out she was the last one to do so.  There was a lovely cold waterfall nearby and I washed in that waiting for her to jump.  We were both just destroyed by the time we got to camp and nothing for it but to head home after we got some lunch.  Back to the office and there was still no water and no electricity.  Wouldnt have minded a shower and went to bed feeling manky, tired, happy, weirded out and dehydrated.

Day 17 - Monday 30th April

Woke up this morning with every muscle in my body aching.  Going to have a holiday today.  Went to one of the neighbouring houses in the orphanage and had a hot shower.  Forgot what one of these was.  Headed into Thamel, walked in so I could see some sites and do as the locals do and all the benefits of my shower were undone.  Did some communicating with Ireland and always feel better after that.  Talked to Ray for the first time on the phone and he couldnt talk cause he was in a taxi.  I didnt know what, he sounded a bit cold and I got a bit upset.  Thats what happens when your away from the man you love for so long I guess.  He rang back and we talked and everything was ok.  Went to Pilgrims for some food.  Went and designed a top and left it in to be made, will see how it works out.  Came back to the orphanage and the older guys from Machapuchare were there and trying to teach me how to write Nepali.  Will never get it guys, serioulsy lol.  They were laughing at my handwriting and my Nepali accent.  Didnt realise how tired I was until I fell into the bed.

Day 18 - Tuesday - 1st May

Woke up and I am being eaten alive by bed bugs.  Kelly is the same.  I have every contraption plugged in and every spray and cream you can manage and the bugs just keep coming.  Went and spent most of today with the kids.  After the weekend though am on a bit of a comedown.  Want some more adventure.  Looks like its too expensive for Tibet too which is a shame.  €600.00.  In bed tonight at 8pm and I think I'm a little homesick.

Day 19 - Wednesday - 2nd May

Another day.  Yep, I am a homesick.  Its too hot here for me.   We got a new volunteer today from Australia.   His name is Abs.  His parents are Indian so its kinda unusual seeing an Indian looking guy with an Aussie accent.  He spent the night in the office.

Day 20 - Thursday - 3rd May

Woke up this morning to the sounds of people moving stuff.  Today was the day we were moving to the new Volunteer House.  I didnt know that and when my door was knocked on, I looked a disaster but no one seemed to care.   Everyone here thinks we are strange looking anyways.  I moved in and claimed a little room to myself which I was really happy about.   There was no curtains and there was windows on every wall but that didnt matter, i could invent some.  However soon realised that the room was like a glass house and too hot to live in.  I bought a box of muffins from the bakery as a welcome present for all the volunteers (some who i hadnt met yet) only to have them eaten by ants when I put them in the kitchen.  The volunteer house definitely had its teething problems.  No water, no power, people didnt know where to sleep, sorting out rooms, security problems.  Apprently a house full of white people is a shining beacon for junkies in the area.  I have to say when I was told this I was scared but I didnt ever experience problems.  The only reason you wouldnt leave your window open without a screen is the monkeys!!!! Everyone seemed to be in bad form in the volunteer house.  Kelly was out last night so I had to meet a potential volunteer.  It was fun to do something different for a change.  Showed her around the orphanage.  I went to collect the kids from school and again people blatantly look at you and some point and laugh.  I am only here nearly 3 weeks so havent got the backbone yet to ignore it.   Spent time with the kids and managed to find a bottle of red wine (well vinegar) in the shops on my way home and thought we could enjoy it.  It smelt of chemicals and the half bottle was still in the house the very day I left for Ireland.  I took a photo of it in case I needed my stomach pumped at some stage of the evening.  Tried to go to sleep, was too hot.

Day 21 - Friday 4th May

Woke up to my feet being cooked this morning as the sun was streaming through the windows.  Horrible hot sweating room and no water.  Beginning to get really tired of this weather.  Also, how the fuck was I going to get changed.  There are always people around you in Nepal.  Same in India.  Viva was saying that if you take a shit behind a tree, just know that about 50 people are watching you.  And she was right.  I couldnt get changed here cause the fact that we were foreigners also was attention attracting enough.  Went to Thamel and got fitted for my clothes.  Met Kelly and we had some food.  Went to the Kathmandu Mall (s'cuse me?) and had to fork out on some t-shirts, which are expensive there cause they know Westerners buy them cause the clothing attire of the volunteers has to change.   Shoulders covered, no shorts, no low cut tops etc.  It is possible to live really cheap over here but for some reason my money is flying out of my hands.  Went back to the volunteer house and people were still grumpy.   Ok I was grumpy yesterday due to a few things but then you have to get your head into perspective.  Your in a third world country and things are going to be totally different.  If you are annoyed you havent had a shower for a few days, everyone else around you is in the same boat and no point in you all being miserable about it.  You know there is no electricity, get some candles.  Some people moaned a lot and I left them to it.  I suggested to Kelly for the laugh we should stay in Kathmandu Guest House.  Shower, comfy bed with no bugs and a movie.  She was heading out though with Kale and not wanting to be a gooseberry decided to stay in.  Mmmmm my Friday nights might be gone now as Kelly will want to be with Kale.  Its prob a good thing as will save some cash.

Day 22 - Saturday 5th May

Couldnt hack the little room any more.  Abs ended up moving downstairs so the guys are now officially downstairs and the girls on on the middle floor altogether.  Its kinda like a dorm.  There is a small little alcove in the room and happy days, I managed to get my bed in there.  So its like I have a little space to myself.  Had to go to a parent/teacher meeting today.  The kids in the orphanage obvioulsy dont have parent or else parents who cant take care of them at the time so its up to us to head to the school and represent the kids.  For some reason yesterday I bought a pair of Israeli pants and they turned out to be the most embarassing things I ever wore.  Even the kids hated them.  Its weird the stuff you wear when your away.  The parent/teacher "meeting" turned out to be some entertainment provided by the kids which was the most surreal I ever witnessed.  Ater heading down to the school and some of them showing me their classrooms and meeting other students we sat down in front of a stage.  First of all the whole Nepali time thing kicked in and it was 2 hours later when the show got on the road.  The kids were doing the entertainment and the sound system was the first thing that started to go.  It went weird to the point where it sounded like cats having sex.  No one seemed to be minding this except the foregin volunteers who thought it was bizarre.  Some kids came out in costumes to do some dancing and after 7 false starts I could feel my patience with the whole thing leaving me.  This, coupled with the fact that there was kids running around everywhere and shouting didnt make it the best experience.  The hunger was getting to me and God forgive me but I pretended to take a call on my mobile and then I ran like the wind in the opposite direction to the school.  Am sorry I didnt stay around actually cause apparently things got so much worse.  The rain started and came pouring down which resulted in the stage collapsing but the kids were still dancing around on it.  Then the wind knocked over equipment and chairs and to cut a long story short, it was utter chaos.   Oh yeah, a kid from the local village ran in after being stabbed by another child in the back.  Not fatal but enough to freak people out and the cherry on the cake was two 10 year olds dancing to "Do you wanna fuck me" by some American rapper whilst doing sexy moves obvioulsy not knowing the lyrics of what they were dancing to.  Another day in Nepal.  Anyways I got soaked walking towards Thamel.  Bought the kids some movies and hit OR2K for some food. I met up with Kelly and we had a few drinks.  Was feeling happy as had spoken to Ray, Niamh and the folks earlier.  Met up with Shaggy and Kale and we stayed out for a while.  Shaggy gave me a lift home on his motorbike which I have to say havent done in a while and brought back memories.  When I got to the volunteer house the door was locked and ended up ringing the bell and waking everyone in the house up.  Came upstairs and tried sneaking into the room and tripped over Chloe and ended up standing on a wooden flute and breaking it.  So much for trying to be subtle!!!

Day 23 - Sunday 6th May

Woke up and didnt get to do much today except try to get the Volunteer house into some kind of shape with Kelly.  Headed to Machapuchare house and again felt a little awkward sometimes.  I have to try to get a better imagination of what I want to do when I knock in.  I was given a task of organising a competition today which I was happy about.  Basically when Jackie and Viva got married (Viva was one of the founders and met and married Jackie and he puts his heart and soul into the place now), they were given a present from Borderlands (guys who run Last Resort) for a fun day out for 16 kids.  So the task was to organise a talent competition to pick 16 kids out of 256.  Might get me more involved with whats going on so happy enough.  Later on myself, Kelly and Bec ventured towards a bottle of red wine that was pure vinegar but was drank anyways as we laughed at Abs.

Day 24 - Monday 7th May

Was woken up this morning by Adjay who is the "security" in our house.  I do like him but I can see him annoying other volunteers but .....  Anyways I hit Thamel to try to sort out going to Tibet.   Was a bit apprehensive handing over my passport and credit card details to a total stranger but trusted him all the same.   Went back to the orphanage.  Had a meeting with Bec and Jill about the competition and what way we would run it.  Looking forward to it.

Day 25 - Tuesday 8th May

Quiet enough day.  Sorted out the competition and we happy enough with the way things went.  Went to see the kids for a while.  They were on holiday and there was a big football competition set up.  Went to Thamel to finalise details of Tibet.  Have to try to arrange for my Visa there.  Had a big of agro today with a taxi driver on my way to Durbar Square.  Walked from Swayambu to Thamel and half way there decided to get a cab.  I didnt know where the place was and didnt have my book with me.  Asked him how much and he said 20 rps.  Happy days.  When I got to Durbar Square he turned around and asked me for 200 and he said that he said that price.  After a bit of banter and me throwing 100 at him and telling him he was lucky to get even that I left the cab.  I wouldnt have even given him that if I had anything smaller.  Anyways the argumeny followed me when I got out of the cab to the point where we were both shouting at each other outside.  Fuck him.  He knew he was trying to screw me.  I didnt like Durbar Square.  Not this time anyway.  White girl in the middle of the square by herself draws a lot of attention and people were employing themselves as my personal guides and following me around the place.  Decided just to get my pass for Durbar Square for the rest of my stay since I had my passport with me that day trying to sort Tibet out.   Just to note that it says you pay to get into Durbar square and a pass will sort you out but I never got asked for my pass and other people never paid so I wouldnt bother again.  Went to Kathmandu Guest House to book my accomodation there for Friday night.  It was something like €10.00 for the night and had hot water and movie channels so was looking forward to Friday night.  Blood Diamond was playing there that night.  They show a movie every night in a small theatre space and since I hadnt watched TV in ages decided to head into it.  On the way got distracted and ended up on the complete razzle with some Nepalese locals.

Day 26 - Wednesday 9th May

It was definitley the Tequila that resulted in my head screaming in pain this morning.  Got up and for everyone sake I decided to stay away from everyone.  Macha brought us a new TV last night and no one really gave a shit but me.  I was delighted.  We had a makeshift couch which consisted of two mattresses with a blanket over them.  I fell down onto it dreaming of pizza but getting none.  The didi was bored.  She was always bored.  There was always plenty to do but she never seem capable.  She would always sit down and watch what we were watching even though she couldnt understand it.   Couldnt believe my luck when the Incredibles came on.  Was even better luck to find that it was in English.  I got a stare every so often when I burst into laughter and it was even funnier when didi cracked up herself.  She didnt know what she was laughing it but it was amusing to her anyways.  The two of us had a laugh and probably at two completely different things.

Day 27 - Thursday 10th May 2007

Woke up today and collected the kids from school.  They were playing football and I was put into goal.  After a few hours of roaring and laughing I hit the volunteer house and a few of us went to Fire and Ice Restaurant.  Nice place but definitley not worth the raving that came from some people about it.   One of the girls told me tonight that she thought I was the angriest person she had ever met.  Myself and Kelly thought it was funny.  She's fuckin marked now!

Day 28 - Friday 11th May 2007

Slept really badly last night.  I'd say my hydration levels are non existant at the moment.  Have to be good heading to Tibet as dont want to get altitude sickness.  Myself and the boys went swimming today.  We walked to the swimming pool and it was 2 hours walk in the blazing sunshine which I was not expecting.  Was surprised when I saw the pool.  It was olympic size, clean and very blue.  The kids loved it.  Decided that I am going to put together a collection of photos of all the kids and our adventures and give it to them as a present.  Got some great photos today.  Found out how to work the camera a bit better so got some good shots.  Left the kids in the pool after a couple of hours as I had to collect my VISA and passport from the travel agency as was heading to Tibet tomorow.  Got a cab back to Thamel.  There was no way that I was walking another two hours in that heat.  Didnt know where I was anyway.  Got back to the orphanage after stopping at the little bakery to pick up some veggie burgers and get some chocolate brownies for fellow volunteers.    The kids were still away so tried to get into a movie and realised that its once in a blue moon you will get a good movie to watch.  Decided to start making my trip to Tibet a reality and start packing.  Got my shit together and hit Thamel.  Got my VISA sorted, money changed, sent emails, rented a sleeping bag (to be on the safe side (done in any travel place), bought myself a fleece and some food.  Was pretty much all set.  Headed into OR2K for some food and tried to fight the urge to meet Kelly and head out for the night.   Am up at 4am tomorrow so am hoping that I wont succumb to temptation.

Day 29 - Saturday 12th May 2007

Kathmandu to Zhangma

Had a 3.30am wake up call this morning and didnt really sleep in case I slept through the phone.  Was drifting in and out.  Delighted I didnt go out last night.  Got my stuff together and went to the meeting point where everyone was supposed to meet up.  Was nervous and excited.   Once on the bus I got talking to a girl called Sandrine who was French but working in Belgium.  The bus took off (eventually) and we drove for a while and came upon a little restaurant for breakfast.  The view was amazing as we were quite high up.  Plenty of different nationalities and plenty of people to meet.  The food was good and I was a happy camper.  The main problem geting into Tibet is all the paperwork, forms etc that have to be filled out before you get in.  Visa's checked, temperature checked even.  The Chinese government had put a ban on people coming into Tibet for a few weeks and because of this there was plenty of people going the day I was going and so everything took forever.  Didnt mind though, there was plenty of people to talk to and excitment was plentiful.  Just before we got to the border of Nepal and Tibet we had to get off the bus and walk with our bags over the bridge.  We had our passports stamped to say we had left Nepal and had our Visa's to say we were entering Tibet.  It was crazy crossing the bridge from one place to another.  You walk for 2 minutes yet once you reach the other side of the bridge you are in a different timezone (due to the Chinese!) and there is a 2 hour time different.  Anyways.... accross the bridge and into Dalai Lama country!

(TIBET IS WRITTEN SEPARATELY, THIS WILL CONTINUE WHEN I REACH NEPAL AGAIN!)

Day 37 - Sunday 20th May 2007

Back in Kathmandu

Very broken sleep last night but I do feel a lot more rested.  Got up and Finding Nemo was on TV so that was on in the background while I had a shower and got all my stuff together.  My mouth looks dreadful!  Oh yeah, forgot to mention.  When I was climbing that Dzong Castle the sun was beating down and sunburnt my lips!!  I had sunblock pretty much everywhere else but because my lips were so dry I put on strawberry chapstick which actually drew the sun to my lips and burnt them to a crisp.  At the moment they are covered in blisters.  Not atractive!  Kate rang while I was having lunch and we made plans to meet up today so I could show her around the orphanage.  Went to the orphanage and played with the kids.  I was glad to see them all.  Went to the Volunteer house to drop my stuff off and then met Kate at the Monkey Temple.  She loved the orphanage and was talking to some of the tutor's about working abroad.  She knows her stuff and the tutor's seemed fairly interested.  After Kate had some dinner and gave the tutor's email addresses to look into potential teaching abroad we went to Thamel where I brought her to OR2K for some food.  A few of the volunteers were in there and the music was good and I wanted to stay and smoke the erb with a few people but the smoke was getting to Kate so we left.   Went home.

Day 38 - Monday 21st May 2007

The schools are on strike at the moment so the kids are off.  We have new volunteers at the house.  I met one of them in OR2K a few weeks ago and was telling her about Umbrella and she decided to come out and volunteer for a while. Nice one.  Didnt get to sleep at all tonight for some reason.  Tossing and turning.  The phone in the volunteer house was ringing at all hours of the morning and again first thing this morning.  There is constantly dogs barking through the night in Nepal.  They sleep all day in the sun and then come out at night and there is barking non stop all through the night so ear plugs are definitely the way to go.  Bit headwrecked being back after Tibet as a little out of touch again as to what is going on but will be ok in a day or two.  Also someone threw a dead duck over our wall yesterday into the volunteer house.  Some kids messing or some pissed off adults??? Don't know.  The bunch of Israel's that are over have finished their teaching and stuff and are now volunteering in Kathmandu so my house, Machapuchare has two new volunteers (other than myself and Abs).   So I didnt feel guilty about not going up to them today and met up with Kate and Kelly and we went to visit Durbar Square.   This square holds the palaces of the Kings who used to rule the city of Kathmandu.  There is also a statue of Shiva in angry form and apparently its a truth statue and you cannot lie in front it.  Durbar Square also houses the Living Goddess in Kathmandu.  (Kumari).  She is picked is pretty much the same way as the Dalai Lama and is a pre-pubescent girl that looks after the city.  Its pretty weird and unusual for the western race to get their heads around.  She is worshipped by Hindu's and Nepali Buddhists but not Tibetan Biddhists.  She is currently 10 at the moment.  Apparently once she bleeds the goddess spirit leaves her body and she turns back mortal and to marry a goddess is very bad luck.  Methinks serioulsy high maintenance!!!  I was not impressed by her house.  I mean for a living goddess once of the windows in the house was broken, it looks very shabby and in a serious need of a lick of paint!  But she's not my goddess so I dont really give a shit!  Again it was pretty much the same as last time I was there.  Loads of locals coming over and employing themselves as your guide.  Fuck off!  You will find yourself ducking the first temple just to get some peach and walk around the square yourself.  Went to visit Freak Street which was very popular about 40 years ago.  This is where the hippe movement started in Kathmandu.  There was no traffic and plenty of grass around the place.  Grass is Shiva's favourite herb and therefore not frowned upon at all here.  Nepal has the biggest percentage of hippies living in it in the entire world.  Plenty o tree huggers in this side of the globe.  This used to be the centre of town in Kathmandu until Thamel began to thrive.  Its not uncommon to hear Bob Dillon or Donovan playing in Freak Street.   We met some Sadhu's and I took a few pictures.  Lounged around for a while, went for food and then back to Swayambu.  Was in bed early.

Day 39 - Tuesday 22nd May 2007

Made up my mind today to go to Gorge.  The kids schools are on strike and they are all pretty happy playing with each other.  I can lounge around here for a week, playing with the kids at random and go exploring or else I can go to Gorge and work my tits .).) off for a week.  I came here to volunteer to help people so going to head to Gorge.  My phone rang today and it was a girl who wanted to be shown around the orphanage.  She got my number off the guy who runs the bakery.  I do like showing people around cause I get to visit all the houses then and say hi to everyone.  Made a plan to meet her tomorrow.  Also have to organise this talen competition for Friday.   Walking around the orphanage trying to organise the competition and met Macha.  He had been talking to a local farmer who had some horses and Macha was asking him would it be possible for the kids to have a ride on the horse.  Money can pretty much buy you anything in Nepal so I was next to ask.  My number was taken and I was told "we'll see".  Ok so! lol

Day 40 - Wednesday 23rd May 2007

Was up bring and early today and worked on organising the competition for most of the morning.  Met the girl who I was to show around (this girl whose name I cant remember  - I remember she was a belly dancer and had a tatoo on her forehead - thats about it, I think it was Vera).  The plan was to bring Vera around and then inform each house of the competition at the same time.  Didnt happen.  As soon as I got to one house I got a call from Macha to say that if i wanted to bring the kids horse riding, we had to go now.  Went to Machapuchare and all the kids were there watching TV.  Myself and Abs told them we were going to bring them horseriding.  There was great excitement.  The kids loved it.  Vera came with us.  Much to Abs' delight I think lol.  After that I went to Thamel to pick up some stuff.  Treated myself to some pasta in La Dolce Vita and came home.  La Dolce Vita has gorgeous food and is a lovely restaurant but on our last night there (my going away party!) they charged us way over the bill.  Shaggy and Kale were asking why this was and why overcharge a table of tourists.  There was a few angry words thrown and it turned out the waiter said they were Maoist supports and could charge what they liked.  I wont be visiting there again on my next trip to Nepal.

Day 41 - Thursday 24th May 2007

Another shite nights sleep.  Was hoping to sleep a little late today to catch up on some sleep today buy didnt happen.  One of the kids from Machapuchare came and woke me up and mumbled something about going to the zoo.  The kids are still on strike and for the kids that means they can get quite bored.  Fair play to the manager's in the house cause they do try to keep the kids as entertained as possible.  However bringing a pose like that to the zoo means as many adults as possible.  Myself and Abs being the volunteers in Machapuchare were asked to go and we were there with bells on.  The zoo was better than I expected it to be.  The lonely planet said it was a macabre place just for the deranged and students of the grotesque???  Thats a bit harsh.  The kids loved it.  Its a small zoo with a huge lake in the middle that does boat rides.  Its actually a tiny zoo with only a handful of animals but enough to keep everyone interested.  AFter the zoo and lunch (which consisted of a carton of juice and a packet of dried noodles which were delicious) myself and Abs treated them all to a boat ride.  It was not expensive to us really and they kids loved it so you dont mind forking about €50.00 between you for something like that.  Abs is very good and the older guys in the house love him.  He loves them too and he is a more dedicated volunteer than I am I have to say .  I love the younger kids and it works out great for both of us in the house as loyalties between the kids arent divided at all.  Some of the kids go so excited in the boats it was comical.  One thing about volunteering in Nepal is that your always smiling and laughing.  Kids do do the funniest things.  Came back to Umbrella and it was lashing rain.  When it rains in Nepal...it rains! Grabbed a handful of kids and we ran back to Machapuchare.  I was so wrecked at this stage and noticed that I was a little sunburnt.  Still had to inform house managers of the competition details but took the easy way out and rang them from the volunteer house instead.  There was a rescue last night.  17 new children went into the house Ama Dablan.  It was quite emotional I believe.  The kids when they come in dont know whats happening to them and they have to have their heads shaved to prevent the spread of lice.  Most of the little girls who had their heads shaved were creaming and crying and one girl was so dehydrated that her skin was like crocodile skin.  She couldnt lift herself up to drink some water.  Kelly was there with the kids from the beginning and they phoned the hospital and the child was admitted.  Thankfully she was ok and back in the orphanage the next day.  Kelly climbed into bed with the kids to reassure them that everything was ok and this was before the heads got shaved and got head lice as a result.  In fact a few volunteers here got head lice.  One volunteer got heptatitis so if your reading this, get your shots before you come out here.   Hoping the competition tomorrow will show the kids that its fun here and not to be afraid.  Also have to dye my hair a different colour as the clown red keeps clashing with my sunburn and I look like a smartie!

Day 43 - Friday 25th May 2007

Got up bring and early this morning to get some stuff sorted for the competition.  Kelly was up all night with the kids and was still there when I woke up in the morning.  Put my photos from the camera onto CD and got some goodies for the kids.  Met Abs in Thamel and we were thinking of things to get that were for boys and girls and cheap and cheerful.  We came up with Kit Kats lol.  Well Abs did and he bought them too, fair play! I was looking forward to the competition but also the end of the competition when I knew everything had gone ok.  Everything in Nepal takes so long to do and is not always the best organised.  Ah did my best!  Took an hour before the competition to chill out and dyed my hair.  Turned out a crazy plum colour.  The competition had a few hiccups but I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  The boys from Machapuchare did myself and Abs proud.  Abs bought the pots and gadgets the kids needed for their talent!  They are going to miss him so very much.  After the competition everyone went home as we were so wrekced.  Everyone was heading out tonight but I decided to stay in and try to get some kip.  I dont know whats going on but it has to be bed bugs cause everyone is getting the shit bitten out of them at night.  I took my mattress to the top of the roof, kicked the shit out of it for about 10 minutes, karate chops and the works and then brought it back in.  Sprayed with insect spray and climbed in and fell asleep instantly.

Day 43 - Saturday 26th May 2007

I woke up once every hour last night until about 7am when I fell into a deep sleep and didnt wake up until 1pm.  I had no energy though and I looked like a rake of bed bugs had a party on my skin last night, fuckers! Its 30 degrees outside so I reckon a little bit of dehydration is setting in.  To be honest I have drank fuck all water since I have been here.  Had an argument with a monkey who tried to climb in the window but after roaring at him and coming at him with a hairbrush he got a fright and I was able to close the window.  Phew! Did a big clean up of the volunteer house today and did my clothes in the well outside the back of the house.  Got a phone call on the volunteer phone from Ray and it was great to hear from him.  Thats a good thing about this house is the phone is there and family and friends can ring you instead of trying to reply on the poxy mobiles which only work 50% of the time over here.  Then I got a call from my folks so was well happy.  Its's my dad's birthday tomorrow and I forgot all about it.  I felt terrible!  I got to wish him a happy birthday today though although its not the same.  My uncle Mike is doing better from his cancer and that made my day.

Day 44 - Sunday 27th May 2007

Kathmandu to Gorge

Woke up this morning at 4.30am to the didi downstairs "cleaning".  Ha, that woman wouldnt know how to wipe her nose, let alone clean the house.  Had to go downstairs and make sleeping gestures to show her that the house was alseep and told her in English, while smiling, that if she touched another pan i'd wrap it around her neck!  Smiling, she nodded! Climbed back into bed and had to get up at 6am to go to Gorge.  Reckon I am going to sleep for a solid week when I go back home.  Ok there was a strike again in Kathmandu today and that meant all transport were out of action.  Its called a Bandh.  Its a political thing and you are expected to stay in your homes and boycott work. All shopkeepers are to close their shops and all public transport and cars are to stay off the road.  It pretty much brings cities and towns to a hault.  Its fairly serious and people who do ignore it and drive, people come out of their houses and villages and block the car and take the car off their person and in extreme cases burn the car out.  Everyone takes it serioulsy over here.  Ok, myself and Abs are going for a week to Gorge and we have no transportation.  That means a 4 hour trek to Gorge!  COmplete with backpack and 30 degree heat, plus its all uphill.  After the 4 hour trek to Gorge you have to trek for another 2 hours up a fuckin mountain!  Was really really tempted to climb back into the bed and I dont know how he did it but Abs convinced me to go.  I think I pretty much took for granted how well I was looked after in India.  People went as slow as the last person (me!), words of encouragement and Jay dragging me up a mountain and telling me to take smaller steps.  We were with two kids from Machapurchare (well they are 17 at this stage) and they carried my bag which to be fair was a tiny little thing for a girl for a week.  I was out of breath, sweating, cursing, throwing tantrums and the lads though this was hilarious.  Abs was pretending to be my porter all the way since he was trying to blend in with the Nepalese.  He was hilarous.  There was a bus we spotted trying its best to get out of one of the villages so as not to get caught in the Bundh.  It was early enough to get away with it and we hoped on and were brought some of the way.  Then the walk up the mountain!!!  I will never forget it.  It was just roasting.   I didnt have any water, kept falling and just feeling miserable.  Got to a waterfall eventually and drank like a mo fo and stuck my head under it.  Eventually we reached our destination.  We came upon a little tea shop.  We had some noodles with a small bit of dalh baat.  It tasted so good.  The tea shop was full of people who were just staring at us.  Ok, they were staring at me.  The two kids were Nepali and Abs's parents are Indian so he passes as Nepali. Everyone mouthful I took they watched.  This is a very remote part of Nepal and they dont even know about Kathmandu.  They dont even speak Nepali here.  They speak Thamang.  They dont get many tourists here.  After our food we came upon the Umbrella Volunteer House where Shira from Israel, Geera from Isral and Chloe, French/Canadian were there.  Chloe was laughing at me as she knew I hated walking.  Went into the little house which was made of wood and mud but fairly big and walked out onto a little balcony.  You couldnt stand up on the balcony but there was mattresses outside and you could just chill.  Sat down and my feet were just throbbing!  You could actually sit in Gorge for hours and not do anything.  The scenery is the best I have ever seen I think, mountain wise.  The Himalayan mountain range is certainly impressive.  Beautiful autumn coloured mountains and then behind them snow capped ones that went on for miles.  We were also in a valley.  "Gorge" means vally and it was one of the most calmest places I have ever been.  You didnt need to talk, read or do anything, just sit there and look around.  So peaceful!  There is no electricity and I definitely felt one with nature out here.  I read until the daylight was fading.  Went to get some food in the tea shops and again the noodles were very good.  Got some coconut biscuits too.  Nice!  Came back and talked to Shira about her jewish religion for ages.  She is an interesting person and we talked for ages.  After we finished talking I went inside with a candle and got my bed ready.  Just in time to see a big fat rat by the door and as soon as he saw me he scuttered away!  Fuck that!  Dragged my mattress out onto the balcony too.  Ah now I see why the guys were out here and they were laughing at me dragging my mattress out.  All I can say is though thank God for earplugs.  The sounds of crickets and frogs was unbelieveable and I kept taking my earplug out every so often to listen to the chorus of them as I couldnt believe they were so loud.  Hilarious!  Some of the houses on the either side of the village had electricity as you could see their lights on in the distance.  It looked very like a scene from Lord of the Rings as the houses were spotted all over the side of the mountain.  There was fireflies flying everywhere which looked fabulous and I defintely felt like I was in some kind of storybook!  Went to sleep straight away and slept until daybreak.

Day 45 - Monday 28th May 2007

Gorge

Woke up to the most amazing view.  I'd say its very very very hard to get stressed out here. I felt very bohemian.  Its nice here cause you sleep when its dark and wake up at the craic of dawn.  We dont see the sunrise cause we are in a valley but you can climb the mountain to see the sunrise and gorgeous and all as it may be, I am not going to tackle that mountain again unless I have to.   Underneath the balcony was a gaggle o kids.  These are village children who are a lot dirtier and much less educated than the kids in the Umbrella Foundation.   They were all lined up waiting to get their dahl baat into them.  I came down and they are much wilder here and have no problems jumping on you and trying to work out who you are.  Had some breakfast and the kids disappeared and went off to play.  Just like the kids back in Swayambu the schools here were also on strike.  That meant no teaching and the materials for the school hadn't arrived yet so there was very little to do.  Read a book for a while and then we headed over to Jen and Cassan's house.  Few people there was making a little stove.  Out the back of the house there was a plastic sheet with dozens of bricks drying.  These bricks had been made the day before with red mud and water and put into brick moulds and then dried out.   These bricks would then make the stove and cemented together with more red mud paste.  It was interesting to see the whole project come together.  After an hour or two myself and some of the kids were covered in red soil and it turned into an arts and crafts class.  I made a little ashtray out of the mud and some of the kids made bowls and cups and we left them in the sun to dry out.  We went back to the volunteer house and a bus arrived with some of the Umbrella Israeli volunteers to see the project out in Gorge.  After they had their meeting we headed to the tea shop.  Its kinda weird sitting in a tiny shop made from mud and straw drinking orange tea and goats and chickens are brushing off your legs.  Myself and a kid goat munched our way through a packet of crackers.  Think I found a new friend!  The strike is over tomorrow and the kids are back at school.  Dont know what delights tomorrow will bring.  Just before it got dark we all gathered some wood  as tonight we are going to make a bonfire tomorrow.  One of the guys has a guitare.  I defo feel like I am in a hippy commune now lol.  All I did today was talk to people about food.  Its either dalh baat or noodles out here and thats it.  The biggest treat are tiny plums that grow on trees and the packets of biscuits they have in the tea shop.  We seem to have electricity back on which is feckin great.  Can read and write now in the evening times.  Should have brought a pack of cards!!!

Day 46 - Tuesday 29th May 2007

Gorge

Had a shit nights sleep.  Far too much noise (even with ear plugs!).  I think I am suffering from a small bit of hay fever too as I cant stop sneezing.   Got up at 5.30am and washing some clothes.  Its the best time to do it I reckon cause the place will be swarming with children in about an hour.  When the kids arrived they were all wearing their school uniforms and they looked adorable.  Adorable and dirty.  The kids here ALL have runny noses and they run over to you to pick them up and hug them which you do but for me at arms length anyways cause there is just snot everywhere.  Chloe and Shira have taught them how to use tissues which is good but where are you going to get enough tissues for a school load of children out here.  After dalh baat we went to the school.  It was about a 15 min walk.  I nearly killed myself on the steep walk down.  People at this stage just watch to see me falling.  Came upon the school and there was kids everywhere.  Seriously though it  was like a scene from Children of the Corn.  The "school" was a builidng with 5 rooms.  Three downstairs and two upstairs.  Some of the kids are as young as 2 here!  Basically its up to us to teach the children in these classes.  They have an assigned teacher but she moved from class to class and the kids were just copying what she was writing on the board and saying and learning nothing.   Myself and Abs took a class and turns out only 3 kids knew what we were talking about.  Abs was great and very funny!  They kept repeating everything he was saying but in an Australian accent.  We were doing English and basic Maths.  As I say, the kids here are wild.  At one stage I saw Shira running out with a kid in her arms and his nose was pumping blood.   The bully of the class (complete with gansta hat) had punched him in the face.  There was going to be a gang war at lunch time.  These kids are about 6 or 7.  Where do they learn about ganstas and stuff out here???  Back in our class room Abs was doing his best and kids from other classes were trying to climb through the windows and come in the doors just to trash the classroom.  Ok, if ever anyone wanted to make a difference to a few people's lives then go here and try to do something with this school and these kids education.  Myself and Abs were only here for 2 days and the contribution we made was non-existant.  No one seemed to want to learn and after one kid bit me and i got punched and then got dared into eating "tiffan" which was just rotten but thats the kids lunch, I legged it!  Serioulsy people I got the fuck out of there!  Waved goodbye to Shira, Chloe and Abs.  3 hours in that nuthouse was enough for me.  Came back, washed my hair in the spring (no water or showers here!) and went to the tea shop for some food.  I read for a while.  The material have landed at the site for the school and we are going to start building the school tomorrow.  Am glad that we are going to start building tomorrow so I can get stuck into something cause I'll be fucked if I am going near that school again.  Had my dinner at 5.30pm and on the way back to the volunteer house one of the kids gave me a rake of little berries in a leaf.  Taking them gladly we tried to talk to one another (whilst eating the berries!).  When I was down to the last few only then did I notice they were covered in ants.  Looking at the child with a frozen smile on my face I decided I had had enough protein for the day.  I showed her the ants and we both laughed and pointed to our stomachs.  Then there was a casulaty.  One kid (total nutter!) who was naked except for a cardigan decided to throw herself off a hill and split her finger and her nail.  Shira and Chloe got on the case and seprated with tweezers the finger and the nail and started disinfecting and bandaging.   Within half an hour she was throwing herself off another hill.  We all talked for a while.  Talked to Shira again about the Jewish religion and after we made our bonfire and sang kumbiya and all that stuff lol.

Day 47 - Wednesday 30th May 2997

Gorge

After serioulsy restless sleep I came out onto the balcony.  I had decided to sleep inside tonight for some strange reason.  Sleep was disturbed due to "rat" watch at all hours of the morning.  You think i would be over my fear at this stage since I have been living with all sorts of stuff the last few weeks but no.  Vermin are still my enemy! Woke up and the kids could see me on the balcony and started yelling "Banana miss" up to me.  Feckers! Leave me alone, i'm tired!  I have no energy at all today.  My skin is very bad for some reason but vanity really has no place out here.  Today we went to build the school.  This was what we came here for. Went to get some food in the tea shops before our walk to the school and found a wonderful addition.  Mango juice, while even though it was warm was just gorgeous.  It was about a half hour walk to the school which was great fun as there was Santos, Mani, Abs, Chloe, Shira, myself and some other guy whose name I didnt know.  I slipped on the road going down much the amusement of everyone.  Chloe just cracks up now when I fall.  Got to the school and the workers were in full force.  We had to dig up some earth to get the stones underneath which were then put into piles of big stones and little stones.  This was serioulsy hard work.  We were roasting and our water supply ran out quickly enough.  At one stage I thought to myself I would prefer to dye of poisoning than dehydration and started to drink the village water (which is not done if your foreign).  I only drank little bits and it was gorgeous!  I started drinking village water a little every day after this and I never got sick while I was in Nepal.  Not once.  Not even dehli belly so I obvioulsy built up some kind of immunity.  Anyways after a while working we were treated to lunch.  Was very kewl sitting around the loads of locals and food was handed to you in a big doc leaf!  Was tasty stuff and then plums for afterwards.  Worked some more and was a very tiring day.  We all managed to scab a lift in the local bus (a very well worn version of a scooby doo van) and were dropped off at the tea shop.  We had tea and biscuits and every muscle in my body ached.  Am pissed off having a shower out of a hose though.  lol

Day 48 - Thursday 31st May 2007

Gorge to Kathmandu

Had the worst nights sleep ever.  I know I always say this but I just cant sleep in this country.  You would want to see the size of the feckin cockroaches here.  They are bigger than the ones in New York.  I am not messing. Anyways two of the little fuckers thought it would  be great to climb on my face at 1am this morning.  I wasnt asleep anyways and I knew they were there but I didnt think they would come near me.  I was wrong.  My head was racing, full of thoughts about stuff and it was 2am approx before I got to sleep.  Then at around 4am (and I know cause I looked at my watch when the incident was over) Chlow screamed, pointed and said that there was a rat beside my head.  The bottle that was beside my head was still moving from where it had fallen over.  Like flash fuckin gordon I ran inside into the volunteer house, stepping on Geera! I dont know what I expected to do once I was inside cause I couldnt see anything and the other door was bolted.  Turns out it was Santos (downstars!) throwing stones up at Chloe to see if she wanted to get up and see the sunrise.  He missed Chloe, hit the bottle of Chloe in a hazy dream thinking about rats was convinced one was beside my head.   Earlier on that night we heard a bump and a scurrying so "rat" was in everyones head.  I snuggled down and went back to sleep.  Serioulsy, screw the sunrise.  Then at half 5 one of the kids (about 4 years old) came onto the balcony.  I was trying to ignore her so I could get some sleep.  She found a tube of toothpaste on Chloe's mattress and then proceeded to squeeze the toothpaste into my ear!  For fucks sake!! Not caring how adorable she was trying to look, the kid was outa there!  There was no point at this stage, I was awake and didnt even bother trying to get back to sleep.  Didnt bother eathing breakfast, packed my bags instead.  I do like Gorge but I was looking forward to going back to Kathmandu.  The thoughts of semi-clean clothes, a shower and a rum and coke are just calling me.  Went to help build some more of the school but this was at mid-day and was too hot for me so I ended up in one of the schoolrooms playing with Geera and the kids.  We all had great fun.  Fair play to the girls though, Chloe and Shira.  They worked their asses off, breaking rocks and both of them had baskets on their backs transporting stuff.  I was just in tickling children and avoiding the sun.  Later in the day we started our trip back to Kathmandu.  I wasnt looking forward to the travel but it needed to be done.  Through the jungle we went and I must have lost 2 pints of sweat easy and with no shops along the way to buy water, the waterfalls along the way are such a welcome sight.  I enjoyed our trek back though as we all had some fun.  The route had changed though since last week as there was diggers digging the trails up.  Obvioulsy to make room for a road in the future.  Trees were all cut down and we had to climb over several trees (and under) in order to get back on the trail.  After climbing over one tree I grabbed a branch and started doing Tarzan sounds and tried to swing down.  The branch snapped and I landed in the middle of a load of greenery underneath a tree.  Gobsmacked I tried to get up buy my backpack was caught and I looked like a turtle in a shell on its back.  Before helping me up everyone made sure to take a photo.  Abs had his camera on standby for the rest of the journey. When we got to the shop where the bus left from we bought a beautiful can of cold coke and climbed up the top of the bus.  Serioulsy, its the only way to travel.  Just watch out for overhead cabels and your sorted.  Got back to the volunteer house, got showered and changed and went for the food we had been dreaming and talking about for the week.  Meat followed by chocolate moose.  Gorgeous. Was asleep by 11pm.

Day 49 - June 1st 2007

Woke up feeling major dehydrated.  Put it down to all the sweat that I lost coming down the mountain.  Drank 3 litres of water today.  Today was spent purely hydrating myself.  Didn't want to go out tonight but ended up being talked into it and fell home at the wee hours of the morning.  So much for my hydration.  We went to a place called ....fuck it, cant remember it.  It was in Thamel and a little jazz restaurants which was very kewl.   Oh New Orleans cafe, thats it!  Went in and met some of the Irish guys that were at The Last Resort with us.  They were conker brown and saying it was their last night there and they were having a session.  Nice one.  Got scribbed down directions to the party.  Then headed over to our table and had a meal.  Jen and Cassan were there and they were recently married so it was nice to have them out.  Kale, Shaggy and Lisa came out too.  We were all having "a jolly good time" and we headed to Tom and Jerry's.  Had a few drinks and then went to try to find "the oirish".  Found the place but the feckers werent there.  They had all gone out clubbing somwhere.  Was disappointed as hell to be honest!  Anyways we all decided to get a hotel room and a few drinks.  Myself and Shaggy went off to get some supplies and by the time we had come back everyone was fighting.  Atmosphere wasnt the best.  I legged it.  Borderlands were coming tomorrow (well in 2 hours) to give the kids their prize and I wanted to be there for that.

Day 50 - Saturday June 2nd 2007

Got up the morning (didnt even wake up) and felt like the devil himself.  The heat the last few days has been intense.  Sweat is just rolling off everyone around me.  Borderlands rang me first thing this morning to say they were there and ready to meet the kids.  I shouldnt have gone near them to be honest cause I was still drunk.  If I dont lift them they will be grand sure!  The kids seemed farily excited by all that was going on and the winners of the competion (we all picked two or three from our own houses) were treated to a fun day out.  Sweets and treats, assault courses, games, that kind of stuff.  We left them to it and myself, Kelly and Abs (Kelly and me are still pissed and am sure we look shocking) went to the village.  Today was the day I discovered what an amazing fruit mango is.  We bought some after I promised I would make some pancakes.  We managed to get some flour in Thamel and they sell eggs and milk in the village so we are sorted.  Bought some mango and some honey to go into it.  Kelly made an attempt at "butchering" a mango.  A lot of mess, very little fruit.  Abs then became the official mango peeler.  The pancakes were gorgeous and reminded me a little of home.  Its was the first kind of normal food that I had made myself since I got there.  Afterwards we had to hit the sack cause we were wrecked.

Day 51 - Sunday June 3rd 2007

Myself and Abs went to Thamel to sort out the photo album that we are giving Machapuchare as my goodbye gift.  Abs is brilliant and dont know what I would do without him.  As I was waiting for Abs I decided to go for a walk around the place and headed down towards the Fire and Ice.  There are people there selling stuff on the streets.   Its not exactly a market but people do sell stuff.  I was walking around and having a look at a map that I had when I got an almighty shove.  Turning around to start a fight I found a cow walking past me.  Cheeky fecker!

Day 52 - Monday June 4th 2007

Woke up late this mornig after having great dreams.  Didnt want to get out of bed but wanted to say goodbye to Chloe.  Am going to miss Chloe but she is going off to do weird and wonderful things today and join some Tibetan monks for a course in Buddhism meditation.  Went to see the kids and had a ball with them.  Abs came over and the whole day was spent throwing the kids around and laughing.  One of the Israeli girls came over and brought some stuff so the kids could blow bubbles.  The kids loved it.  Am going to miss them when I go and before I started thinking about it read them a story and then said goodbye for the night.  Went to the village and got some groceries.  Peanut butter, jam and toast - stuff of Kings!  Back to the volunteer house and spent the night getting stoned with Kelly.  Am going to miss her more than the kids!!!

Day 53 - Tuesday 5th June 2007

Worst night sleep ever.  Am being bitten to a crisp in this place.  Back is starting to get sore on this mattress also.   After some coco pops (which I managed to find, yay!) myself and Abs headed into Thamal.  I decided to try to sighsee as much as possible for my last week here and Abs is the perfect companion as he looks Nepali and I wont get much hassle lol.  We headed into Java in town to get some breakfast.  Ate loads of crap and then went to Pashupti, central Nepal, situated in the Kathmandu Valley on the Baghmati River, just east of Kathmandu. Regarded as the holiest place in Nepal, it is the site of an ancient Saivite (devoted to the Hindu god Siva) temple of Pasupatinatha (Pashupatinath). The temple is built in pagoda style with gilt roof, and the banks of the Baghmati are paved for several hundred yards. Pashupathinath is Nepal's most important Hindu temple and one of the most important Shiva temples on the sub-continent.  We saw a body being burned in the Baghmati river which was a member of royalty or so the ritual we saw led us to believe.  The Bagmati river is a holy river and is a popular place to be cremated.  It was bizarre to see the way they bury people in this country.  Obviously its hugely populated and with the shortage of gravesites and expense and effort, they burn bodies when people die.   People were washing their clothes and kids were playing in the water just down a bit from where a body was being burned.  I thought it was bizzare but there ya there.  We went for a walk and saw all sorts of things and then managed to get ourselves a little lost so decided to double back on ourselves.  When we went back down a load of steps, there was monkeys on either side.  Huge big fuckers and what do they decide to do, have a row!  Monkeys are loud aggressive little bastards and they jump accross the path and screech and grab anything they can.  That means you if you are in the way!  I was freaked out.  Abs was just laughing (I secretly think he was a little scared too, he had to be!).  After that we hit Boudhanath.   This is one of the holiest Buddhist sites in the Kathmandu area.  Its about 11km from the centre of Kathmandu on the outskirts of the city.  There is a massive mandala platform and its the largest spherical stupa in Nepal.  It was pretty impressive.  I had passed it a few times on my way to the Last Resort and then also heading to Tibet.  Cant believe I only got to see it now.  Its one of the largest stupa's in the world.  There are plenty of Tibetans around here.  There are over 50 Tibetan Monasteries around Boudanath.  Tibetan merchants have rested and offered prayers here for many centuries. When refugees entered Nepal from Tibet in the 1950s, many decided to live around Bouddhanath.  Its also one of the UNESCO World Heritsage Sites.  The Stupa is on the ancient trade route from Tibet which enters the Kathmandu Valley by the village of Sankhu passes by Boudnath Stupa to the ancient and smaller stupa of Cā-bahī (often called 'Little Boudnath').  The Stupa is said to entomb the remains of a sage venerable both to Buddhists and Hindus.  It was impressive I hafta say! Climbed up a bit of it.  Plenty of prayer flags around.   It was threatening rain all day today but didnt.   Happy days!  We had some food and a chat and then we went up to New Road.  Abs had to get his glasses sorted and then we went back to Thamel.  Booked a table for Friday night for a going away meal.  After that we walked back to Chetrepati and Abs made a phone call to his folks.  Was unusual to hear him talking in his parents native language.  Came home, bought some muffins for the volunteers and it started lashing out of the heavens.  I went upstairs to change and the entire room was flooded upstairs.  There is a small balcony area right beside my bed.  The drain had become clogged outside so no water could escape and had flooded under the door and therefore my area.  I had a few gifts on the floor and thank God they were in plastic.  As it was all my clothes were off the floor that particular night and I got away with murder.  Go on the Karma!  We got a new volunteer today.  Her name is Jen and she is English.  Nice girl.  Hope she enjoys herself.

Day 54 - Wednesday 6th June 2007

Another day sightseeing.  Trying to get as much sightseeing done now in the next few days as I can as I am leaving on th 10th.   Want to spend time with the kids also and some of the volunteers.  I will be very very said to be leaving.  I actually really dont want to leave here.  I love it.  Went out today, myself, Kelly and Abs.  Headed to the immigration office to get Kelly's and Abs' visa sorted out.  Then Kelly left us and myself and Abs went for food in a place called Les Yeux.  Nice place, would try there again.  Nice roof top cafe.  Anyways went to Durbar Square, did some sightseeing stuff and again hit Freak Street.  The Lonely Planet guide said it was the best chocolate cake in the whole of Nepal.  You can imagine my disappointment at it.  I even left some of it behind.  There is never any sugar in this fuckin place.  We came home and Kelly suggested going to 1905.  Nice one.    Myself and Abs hit Machapuchar and took loads of pictures of the kids.  I mean loads.  It was a great day.  I cant believe how quickly the time is flying by here.   Went back and got ready for our night out to 1905.  Its a restaurant in Kathmandu not too far from New Road. http://www.1905restaurant.com/.  Nice food, pricey for Nepal standards but you wouldnt go there every day.  Well worth a look.  Jen and Kale joined us.  We got rickshaws from Thamel out to New Road and its just the funniest way to travel.  Ended up in Tom  and Jerry's pub and who did I end up meeting??? The two French guys that I had met in Tibet.  They had managed to get themelves accross the border and ended up in Kathmandu.  Abs stayed out until the death which was very unlike him.  I am going to miss Kelly a lot when I go home.

Day 55 - Thursday 7th June 2007

Woke up this morning and my head was completely pounding.  Abs called to say he was in Thamel and was going to get some photos sorted.  Pretending I was up so as not to appear like a total drunkard.  Spent the morning trying to glue my head back together.  Legged it into Thamel and picked up the final prints needed for the photo album.  Felt all happy today walking around Thamel.  Come back and met up with Jen and Kelly.  The three of us went to the bakery as the guy that owned it invited me to tea since I was leaving pretty soon and might not get time to say goodbye to him.  We had some nice food and a good chat.  Back to the volunteer house.  Abs had not been in bed since the night before as we came home from Tom and Jerry's late and he was back up at 6 so didnt bother going to sleep.  He was running on empty at this stage.  I had had 2 hours sleep and was pretty bolloxed too.  We spent the evening though sifting through hundreds of photographs trying to pick ones for the album.  We headed to Machapuchare and spent time with the kids.   They loved their album and serioulsy when those kids are happy, your happy.  We had dahl baat at 6pm and afterwards a treat awaited me.  All the kids came into the room and a tray was brough in with flowers and tikka.  Then one by one each of the kids put some tikka on my head and gave me a flower.  There are 50 kids in Machapuchare so you can imagine how much tikka was on my head and in my hair.  It kept falling off and landing everywhere.   They all kept clapping and cheering.  It was a lovely ritual (if not a little embarassing) and they do it for all volunteers.  They presented me with a little purse and in the purse was a necklace.  You put a chain on it and the stone in it was tigers eye.  My favourite stone.  I never told anyone here that.  It was just pure coincidence!!  I will always treasure it.  I got a wall hanging from Menuka and Raja which they engraved themselves and all the kids did drawings for me.  After all that and waves of goodbye myself and Abs went back to the volunteer house.   I was covered in tikka - Kelly thought it was hilarous.  We were starving so myself, Abs and Jen went to Swayambu village (after I cleaned up!) and had some grub.  Abs couldnt even talk he was so tired.  We went back home and with a mixture of tiredness and saddness that I was leaving had a silent sob to myself in bed!

Day 56 - Friday 8th June 2007

Today was going to be my last full day in Swayambu.  Woke up and packed all my clothes.  Took me ages to pack but eventually got there.  Was a bit worried about the weight of my suitcase.   Hoping to fuck they let me on with it.  Spent the day arsing around.  Fell asleep again and pretty much had the day to myself.  Mind was racing though with thoughts of the days ahead.  Borrowed some clothes from Kelly to head out tonight.  As usual no one was ready! lol.  Except for Abs (who always ended up waiting for us!) but was out and meeting us there.  I headed into Thamel and up to La Dolce Vita.  People starting arriving.  Had a great meal.  There was about 12 of us.  Kale and Shaggy came out too.  Bit of hassle at the end with the bill.  They overcharged us and apparently thats the norm there for a large group of tourists.  Kale and Shaggy were trying to argue with them but they werent budging.  They were pretty pissed off about it and its their country and dosent give a good impression. It didnt ruin anyone's night though which was the main thing.  Kelly treated me to my meal which was fairly sound as I know she is on limited funds and still has a month to go but she insisted.  Nepal still has a lot of politicial problems and its only going to get worse in the future.  We hit Tom and Jerry's after that and had some fun.  Am going to miss Abs and Kelly so much its not funny.  Going to miss a lot of things.  We fell home and grabbed the blanket off the bed and went up onto the balcony.  Didnt stay long as I kept falling asleep.

Day 57 - Saturday 9th June 2007

Wooke up feeling dog rough and remembered that my gold claddagh ring was on the bed when I pulled the sheet off.  Could not find it to save my life! Kelly was hilarious this morning.  She was getting ready to Chitwan.  One place I am sorry I didnt get too but apparently it was the wrong time of year to go with head and bugs everywhere.  It takes that girl so long to get ready.  The end result is fabulous just takes so long to get there.  She was running around the house in a towel screaming "dont go", "not impressed with ya going".  Gas woman!  Bit of a panic when I couldnt find my passport and then I remembered one night I put it into the freezer of the fridge.  Long story, wont go into it.  Was trying to get a lift to Thamel off Kale but Kelly was still wrapped in the towel and I just couldnt face waiting another hour or so.  It was hard enough to leave without waiting to leave.  Hugged Kelly goodbye.  Hope we stay in touch.  Got a cab to Kathmandu Guest House where I had booked myself in.  Headed to OR2K and there was Abs.  We had a 3 hour lunch together but would have happily stayed there all day.  I had to get a few more gifts for people at home so had to make some kind of move.  Said an emotional goodbye to Abs in Thamel and we went our separate ways.  After saying goodbye did some shopping and then hit the guest house.  Spent the day writing in the garden of the guest house, eating food and then back to watch a movie.

Day 58 - Sunday 10th June 2007

Got up this morning at 4.30am.  Best to stay in Thamel and get a cab no problem from there rather than the volunteer house where there is no chance at 4.30 in the morning.  When I went to pay I realised that I left my credit card in the machine the day before. Bollox!  I luckily had 10 rupees in my pocket (for some reason) and that allowed me to get onto the internet, transfer some cash onto my trusy AIB bank card.  I asked at reception would that card work and was assured it wouldnt.  I have been in Nepal now too long to know that this is probably not the case.  I left the guest house (had to leave my luggage behind) and tried it.  Eh wallah!  Phew!  I honestly dont know what I would have done had this card not worked.  Its 2000 rps in the airport for service charge which everyone must pay if your travelling somewhere.  God was looking after me that day! After major, MAJOR security checks the plane left for Doha!

Left Nepal that day and hoping to return another day!