Christmas day

After the cinema we returned back to the flat to make some food. It took all day – mainly because there were about 5 cooks trying to make several courses on only 2 gas rings. In conjunction with D I made a thai green curry which actually ended up being the spiciest thing on the table challenging even our Nepali guests. I made a delicious mulled wine (Jamie Oliver this time) which went down well. The last guests left around 11pm after much dancing in the kitchen. Above is a picture of me with Ronald in all his festive finery.
In the evening I opened the gifts from my family which taken collectively would surely give anyone a complex about their appearance (sponges for washing my face, make-up brushes and a pair of tweezers!). I also got to watch them open their gifts from me live on skype which was lovely.

All is Well

I finally got to see my first Bollywood film this week. On Christmas day at 8.30 in the morning. I had to get up earlier than I do for work. But it was well worth it – I loved it and it confirmed all my long-held stereotypes about Hindi films:

3 hours long. Check.
Dramatic shots of Indian landscape. Check.
Singing. Check.
Dancing. Check.
Dancing in the rain. Check.
Spontaneous whooping and clapping from the audience. Check.

It was called The 3 Idiots and I would definitely recommend it. It was a very funny but also quite moving in places and I did shed a tear or two. One thing I wasn’t prepared for however was a rape joke – obviously violence against women crosses all boundaries but I was still surprised to hear rape being used as the punch line. I had D as my interpreter and hoped something was lost in the translation but everyone else who went to see it with us said the same thing. And it went down a storm with the audience.
We ended up going back to watch it again today with my current flat mate to take S, the helper in the flat. I think she really enjoyed it.

Meet Ronald

My final post from this marathon update is to introduce Ronald. My current flat mate and I discovered him on the street earlier today, lying in an old bag. I have been told by Philip’s wife that I should take in any puppies that I see, which can then be re-housed to nice owners. So Ronald (named after a footballer in a recent edition of the Himalayan Times) was scooped up and brought back to the flat. He currently snuggled up asleep in a cardboard box. He is also prooving himself to be very clever - so far he has gone to the toilet twice, both times on newspaper - genius! We are slightly concerned that he has a problem with his legs. He does appear to have a Bambi complex and is very unsteady on his paws.

Mosaic Magic

I am partly posting these photographs to freak out my mother, and partly to show you the amazing mosaic that was designed and put up by EBT's resident artist, D (sadly returning back to the UK tomorrow). I helped (in a loose sense of the word) to put it up, mainly by cutting up larger pieces of mosaic into smaller ones, and cleaning the finished piece with toothpaste. It was put up in the school which many of the children at the refuge attend. The scaffolding was (to my mind) a fairly flimsy bamboo structure. It wasn't so bad once you were out but getting from the balcony onto it was pretty hairy.

General strike

This is a photograph from my wanderings a couple of weeks ago during a Nepal bandh. This is when the Maoists call a nationwide, general strike. On these days there are no shops open, no transport running and very few services. Government offices remain open. I find it incredible that the Maoists have the power to bring the whole country to a standstill. A friend of mine had a flight booked for that day and had to walk to the airport.
I was therefore confined to the local vicinity so took the opportunity for a stroll. It was amazing being out and about. The roads were empty - the photo above is of a main road which would normally be packed with vehicles zipping up and down and honking their horns. (I have been meaning to write about crossing the road here which is obviously a risky undertaking. Imagine if you will a real life game of Froggit. There is no chance of getting across even one half of the road in one go so you just have to keep your cool and walk confidently across as cars speed in front and behind you. My top tip is to hide next to somebody else trying to get across - and then swap sides with them in the middle to avoid being the one directly in the line of traffic!). The traffic free city was wonderful to walk around. I found this lovely temple near to Patan Durbar Square and pottered around the back streets. There actually were plenty of small shops open but these were in the back alleys. I understand that if the Maoists come along the shutters are quickly pulled down.
The calling of Bandhs is now more regular although they have also been called off at the last minute too. The one that started today is due to last until Tuesday which will be very frustrating as I am due to go out and about for work tomorrow.
The torch rally's also remain frequent. I watched one from a restaurant window and then we ran into a further one today.

Postal palaver

I finally posted the last batch of Christmas cards (and a few presents) about a week ago and I think I can safely say the postage was far more than the value of the gifts. I quite enjoy posting letters and postcards because the stamps are all traditional ‘lickable’ stamps with lovely designs (usually wildlife) and much nicer than stickers of the queens head. Packages are dealt with differently though and require a post-mark machine. I had to wait as a few pieces of A4 paper were completely covered in 90 rupee postmarks (enough to total the 1600 rupee cost of one parcel) and sellotaped to the packet.
I have also learnt a valuable lesson which is not to package anything until I get to the post office. It took me a long time to wrap everything up and an awful lot of parcel tape. When I got there however I had to not only open up the outer wrapping and take out each present to show the postal workers but I then had to unwrap many of the presents from their Christmas wrapping paper to display them. I apologise for the state of any gifts coming your way.

Seasons greetings

I have been at several different Christmas fairs in the last couple of weeks (selling mosaics). The most surreal of which was at the Hyatt. The hotel itself is enormous and set in beautiful, manicured grounds. The fair took place outside during the day with piped Christmas music, a (rather small) Christmas tree and a Santa Claus wandering around. And there were mince pies and Christmas pudding to buy as the sun shone brightly and people wandered around in shorts and flip flops.

- I was going to post a photo but it will have to wait as it is on a friends camera

Backdated posts

Main road to Kathmandu

Inside the house

I’m writing this off line during a planned power cut. I have a load-shedding schedule which currently shows 4 hours a day of intended cuts. This is ok so far – it is far better knowing when electricity won’t be available than it going out half way through a film. But apparently it gets much worse from here on in and may reach between 12 and 18 hours a day – and often it is not enough to recharge a laptop. Obviously my hair is a primary concern and I will have to draw up contingency plans for hair straightening. If only I’d brought my gas powered straighteners…

The last few weeks have been busy as ever. I have been meaning to post about a pre-Pokhara trip that I took to Hetauda in Southern Nepal to visit a project. I went to see the families of some of the children in the refuge (many of them are from this area which is extremely poor). Visiting the more rural communities was eye-opening. The pictures above are of a one-roomed house (the room on the second storey is for storing produce), both inside and outside. It is located in a field and the family are farmers. 4 people live in this room, along with two goats and a buffalo. I was shocked to see the animals inside. A few different reasons were given – they were young, it was too cold for them outside… One of my colleagues tried to explain that this was normal and the animal waste isn’t so bad since cow dung is often used for cleaning, and for insulating houses. But this is a bit different to having animal’s live in the house and leaving waste in the same room that food is prepared in. I remained unconvinced and felt somewhat vindicated when my language teacher laughed as I tried to describe what I'd seen in Nepali. She thought I was just trying to say that the family kept pets and asked for photographic evidence.

The other thing I was surprised about was the quality of the road surface between Kathmandu and Hetauda which was terrible. While travelling to assess a some local schools the day before we journeyed for a few hours in a fairly remote village down a single track road. We were in a 4 x 4 and despite it being a road I would have said we were 'off-roading'. There were so many twists and turns, dips, pot holes and rocks to negotiate. The main highway back to Kathmandu however was pretty much exactly the same thing. But with a sheer drop down the valley factored in for good measure too.

Birthday Galore

For the first time in my life my birthday coincides with somebody else I know! D, who works in the office, also has the auspicious birth date of 29th November. We had planned for a while to have a joint party, along with S whose birthday falls next week but whose last day in the office was Friday. The party was originally for Sunday but S and I had already planned to go away for the weekend.


At exactly 5pm on Friday I practically ran out of the office to start cooking. I made a lovely pumpkin and coconut stew (a Nigel Slater recipe) and a chocolate fridge cake thing which was delicious if I may say so. Philip came in to see me to give me a birthday gift – a mosaic of my name. I love it – I’ll put a photo up soon. It was a lovely surprise.


I got back to cooking and was joined in the kitchen by various other chefs: D made his chicken curry again, another D had made potato pickle previously but also cooked up spinach and kidney bean dishes, K brought couscous - I may be forgetting something else. And B turned up with an amazing cake (see above) after pleading a lack of culinary knowledge. It was a great night. After the food we went up on to the roof to cut the cake. All three of us took the knife (although you can’t see S in this photo) to cut it! I received some gorgeous earrings from F and J, and a notebook which everyone from work had signed which was really sweet. Later on we all went out to Thamel where (thanks to a friend of K’s) we got free entry to a DJ set with a DJ from Bombay which was pretty cool. I loved the dancing and obviously it was a useful precursor to the satsang.


My actual birthday was slightly more low-key but I had some gifts to open. Mum and Dad sent me a beautiful pair of earrings, and I also got another pair (along with some much needed beauty essentials) from Emma – thank you so much. By the by, should anyone still want to make a small contribution to my birthday fund for EBT please just follow the link ☺

Mini-break

OK – so where to start? The last few weeks I have done a little bit of travelling – some for work and some for pleasure at last. And obviously a brief mention should go to my birthday ☺.


I have just returned from Pokhara which is kind of Nepal’s Riviera. There is a huge lake, a main street filled with restaurants, bars and shops, lots of hotels and a fair bit to do. The bus journey is about 7 hours, made worse by a slight hangover from the party on Friday night. And by the fact that I had to get up at 6am.


Thanks to a recommendation from a friend in Kathmandu I had already decided on a paraglide to celebrate my thirtieth year (or is it my 31st year now?). So Sunday morning was partly spent soaring through the air watching eagles fly around me (there was one) and the awe-inspiring view of the mountains and Pokhara below. You can see me pre- and mid-flight above – the knees add a touch of perspective I think.


Plans for a pony trek were abandoned when we saw some of the poor creatures plodding around. Instead I hired a bike for a little while and A and I took a boat out on the lake. I insisted on taking someone to row for us as I was more interested in the lying around in a boat than any physical labour. I was pleased when we were assigned a woman as I thought I would practice my Nepali with her and get some fascinating insight into the life of women in Nepal. Sadly she could hardly have been less engaging and in the end I remembered that it’s actually quite good fun to paddle around. A and I took it in turns to row so basically paid extra to give this woman a trip around the lake – I’m not quite sure what she made of us.


The highlight of the trip however had to be the one-day yoga/meditation class we took. The three of us (S, A and I) got up early ready for a day of spiritual enlightenment at an ashram. We were looked after by various people in flowing robes and ushered from one area to another for different sessions and therapies. The day began with Kriya yoga. Kriya yoga is all about the breathing and we sat cross-legged while being instructed on the various techniques which consist of several combinations of breathing in or out of each ‘nose’ while closing the other ‘nose’ with your finger or thumb. However we were still waking up in the cold morning and all of us had blocked noses and/or colds. Instead of the noise of quiet breaths and contemplative reflection all that could be heard was laboured inhalation, the blowing of noses and much sniffing. After this was Hatha yoga followed by breakfast at 10 – I did wonder if I would last this long. Happily I did.


The holistic massage was pretty bizarre to say the least and mainly consisted of being squashed all over. There was a slightly disturbing moment which involved the fairly aggressive rubbing of my buttocks and the eyebrow massage was also new to me but I’m sure I’ve grown as a person because of it. I was told after the massage that I was someone who thought too much, found it hard to trust people and was too cynical. I sure Doug at least will find these descriptions less than accurate; naïve optimist has always been more fitting but maybe that is what Nepal has done for me. And it did cross my mind that the very act of allowing someone to give me a ‘holistic massage’ and reiki is surely the antithesis of cynicism.


The culmination of the day for me however had to be ‘satsang’. This was a ‘dance and celebration’ class before dinner. After some brief meditation we were instructed to close our eyes and ‘dance as if no-one was watching’, which obviously they shouldn’t have been. It was absolutely hysterical and all I could think about was the Rainbow Rhythms episode from Peep Show. Being completely sober, wearing 3 layers of clothing and the lack of an R and B beat inhibited me somewhat but I gave it my all and flailed around with much gusto. It certainly made me smile. After the dancing and before dinner we had to listen to a lecture from their guru via a tape. We were given literature throughout the day about this man who has an ashram in India. It is a luxurious place with images of beautiful people walking serenely or posing by the swimming pool. I imagine it costs a fortune. One of the articles was about how the guru helps to alleviate poverty in India. He explains that people have been building schools and hospitals in India for centuries and it has not helped. His contribution is to tackle the ‘poverty of the mind’ through individual enlightenment. I guess they must do an outreach programme in the slums. It didn’t say where the money went. Maybe I am cynical…