Thanks to our guest bloggers

I hope the contributions from Josie, Matt and Heather gave an interesting break from my normal drivel. And have you seen the video in Matt's? All the bells and whistles on this site!

Nothing to report really since the visitors left. Sheila helped her boss at a good training for ECD facilitators last week and is off tomorrow to visit a district to see how it is being put into practice. She thinks it might involve an overnight stay so is worrying where they will stay (I think that really means "will there only be squat toilets") and how cold it will be. I'm still churning out spreadsheets to finalise our UNDP project funding. Relations with UNDP are a lot more friendly than last year but the situation is the same; the programme should have started on 1 November and 4 weeks later we still haven't got a contract - cash will take at least another week or 2 after that. Hopefully my colleagues will manage to scrape up enough cash to run some activities on World AIDS Day this Saturday.

Thinking of unreal world that donors work in, I was amused by the following instructions on a World Bank proposal form:

INSTRUCTIONS
1. All questions are mandatory.
2. If you want to leave any question blank, please write NA.

Will stop now before my laptop dies. We have an unscheduled power cut which apparently will last until 5pm (1.5 hours more).

Cheers

Roshan

Guest blog by Heather: Memories

Most annoying: Continual hooting of traffic for no apparent reason.

Most surprising: Ability of battered tempos to carry so many passengers without breaking down.



Most exhausting: Bartering in Thamel.

Most deserving: Declan's boys, who had been living on the streets.




Most exciting: White water rafting.

Most scenic: Deep blue sky and mountains seen at Nagarkot.



Most generous: Thank you Sheila and Roshan so much for putting me up (and putting up with me) for 6 weeks to enable/empower me to experience a small part of Nepal. Loved it!

Guest blog by Matt: Up a mountain, down a valley and over a dead body...

Ok, so I’m no longer in Nepal. Wish I was rather than being back home freezing to death with the happy prospect of work. And yes, I have been nagged to write a guest blog so here, in brief, is a review of my fortnight away…

Trekking: so there we are with our guide and porter venturing forth into the Himalayas. Whilst their names escape me already (Lima? Larma? Darma?) they were very friendly. In fact, they even offered to carry our bags and narrate our journey! How lovely.

As our Nepali and their English was a little restrictive gestures became the main source of communication (not easy when the conversation moves on to discussing Phd in Psychology and the rights and wrongs of Marxist theory). Alas we did manage to gather that, unfortunately, we were told that the weather was the worst it has been since the beginning of time. Not so lovely.

None the less we were assured that some snow-capped mountains lay beyond the thick grey clouds.


Can't completely complain as the poor weather did abate on our way back down and we were left with some really amazing scenery. The landscape in the lower parts of the valley resembled fish scales. It looked really quite surreal.
And yes, I have now got a taste for more trekking - Tibet perhaps?

Kathmandu and Bhaktapur both fantastic: a maze of temples, medieval-like streets, self-assured cows, rubbish and non-stop noise of horns. I particularly enjoyed watching Josie negotiating such items on the busy streets and even more entertaining when dark and using a headtorch to light the way. Needless to say the pavements were vastly inaccessible but quite an adventure!

When off exploring on my own I visited potty-posh-not (Lonely Planet's phonetics??!!) aka Pashupatinath. An ancient Hindu temple, flanked with shadhus, praying temples, burning bodies, cows and beggars. At one point I found myself straddling a dead body, surrounded by mourning family members. Obviously I hadn’t intended to get so familiar with the locals, it was simply a poorly calculated short cut to avoid the wailing family. Apologies!

Obviously there are many more memories; Everest flight, becoming slightly obsessive with prayer wheels at Boudha stupa, Bawarchis veggie and paneer wraps (Mmmm) and so I just want to give a BIG thank you to Sheila and Roshan for allowing me to stay and for arranging so many unforgettable activities. They are both stars. But we knew that anyway!

If not cash, donate some brain power

The FreeRice website I mentioned a couple of posts ago seems popular so I have added a permanent link to it on the right just below the pretty "Going to Nepal" widget (of course you could click that instead and give real cash to VSO so they can keep us in the style we have become accustomed to).

Keep checking for Matt's guest blog. You might have to wait a few more days for Heather's as she is on her way home – the last of our visitors gone leaving us to a cold, lonely winter :-(

Cheers

Roshan

No talk, just pictures

As you've seen from Josie's post, we're back from Pokhara and are enjoying Tihar (Divali) in Kathmandu – the roads may be quiet but the firecrackers (banned by the government but as one of the papers said, not much point making laws if you don't implement them) are very noisy!

A few more photos from Pokhara.

Watch out North Sails, you have competition

A limited view of the boat I took out but you get the idea what it was like

Cows wander freely round Pokhara which, as Josie discovered, you need to watch wear you tread. Interestingly despite there being plenty of vegetation around we saw a couple of cows really tucking into cardboard boxes – a really good recycling solution.

In Kathmandu yesterday we got up early and met one of my colleagues at Durbar Square to watch a Nepali New Year procession. Colourful and noisy!

The intrepid trekkers got home yesterday. The weather wasn't so good for much of the trip but they have got some great photos, I'll let Josie nag them into doing a guest blog.

Another early start tomorrow to go on an Everest flight – hopefully it will be nice and clear first thing.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. You may already have seen this in the news. A website that checks how good your word knowledge is and donates to the World Food Programme for every correct answer (www.FreeRice.com). Be warned it starts easy and gets tougher quite quickly.

P.P.S. Couldn't resist taking a picture of the dashboard of a coach I was on a couple of weeks ago. Nepali roads really get the nodding dogs working.

Guest blog by Josie: We're all going on a November holiday…

OK, as I nag S&R to update this regularly I couldn't really refuse to do my own guest entry!

Now back in KTM following a relaxing few days in the lakeside tourist resort, Pokhara.

Most days spent pottering up and down the main street (avoiding pot holes and cow dung where possible), chattering to fascinated locals who wanted to know how my wheelchair works ("batteries, like car") and tucking into yummy grub (thanks in particular to hospitality of all at Mike's - best brownies by far Mmmmm!). Well I am on my holidays after all!!!

Not a bad spot to stay, Hotel Fewa is right by the water (my usual sunny morning spot to sit with cuppa was just above the man in white shirt on left).

View from the lake (taken by Roshan whilst messing about on a boat!)

However, weather not too kind to us - too overcast for decent spot of the snowcapped mountains. A brief peak of a peak was all I got and even that wasn't as good as this photo mum got…

Alas, should have been like this…
Annapurna mountain range - views from Pokhara seen by Sheila during work visit in Sept

Hopefully cloud cover and mist has shifted enough over last 48hrs or so for Matt and Heather to get a good look. They embarked on a 5 day trek up to first significant spot on Annapurna Circuit, Poon Hill - left at 7am on Tues with guide and porter, walking approx. 10km a day and dossing at teahouses along the way. All being well we expect them to arrive back in KTM c/o bus on Sunday and news of their adventures to follow…

As well as devouring a good book or two whilst sitting beside the lake (Phewa) it was great to watch the local life going on, especially the daily routine of kids coming across the water to and from school. In the mornings they are noticeably more conscious of time but on their homeward punts are far more leisurely and two or three boats full of girls gather mid-lake and seem to float home alongside each other as they focus more on chatter than getting to the other side!

On the way to school…

Now back in Kathmandu it is clearly festival time as bright and glittery decorations and garland for sale decorate shop fronts and firecrackers going off regularly in streets. Four days of celebrations has started, worshipping crows yesterday and dogs today - lucky old Whisky the mutt from upstairs got tikka'd this morning (could this have been something to do with him sitting so quietly beside me - S&R never seen him so well behaved!)

So happy Tihar (festival of lights aka Diwali) and er, Ben please note that Sunday it is time for brothers and sisters to show their love and respect for one another. We may have to do it from afar but I'm quite happy with an IOU: "sisters offer small gifts of fruit and sweets to their brothers while the brothers give their sisters money in return". So dear baby bro I look forward to my return, as I am sure you do too!

More news from dad and the trekking twosome in the near future I expect (and will insist upon!), in the meantime Namaste from me, Josie x

Visitors

Josie and Matt arrived safe and sound this afternoon. Lots of goodies!

Condom Day here tomorrow so if they are up in time I'll take them down to meet my BDS friends.

Cheers
Roshan

P.S. Re the earthquake, I got a mail from someone called Roshan in California where they had a 5.9 earthquake the same day as we did. He found my blog when googling "Roshan" and "earthquake" – spooky eh?