Illness and our first Dahl Bhat!

So there we are, safely in Pokhara, and yet neither of us are feeling 100%. After dinner that first evening at one of the many cafes in town, and as we were walking back to the hotel, I am waffling on to Ewan about the fact I have a much stronger constitution than him (he was sick last time we were here and when we were trekking in the mountains too, poor thing) and my stomach can cope with most things...only to find myself wth my head over the toilet only a matter of hours later.

Yes, I had been in Nepal for just over 48 hours and here I was already, sucumbing to sickness. So I spent most of the night alternating between head down toilet, or lying on the floor outside the bathroom wrapped in a blanket while Ewan did his best to offer support, but to be honest, I was happy to try and deal with this on my own. Joy.

Anyhow by mid morning, with absolutely nothing left in my system and thanks to the help of grapefruit seed extra I was able to move again. No lying around where Ewan is involved, and actually maybe it is for the best. So we pottered very slowly around town, reading the local papers and trying to settle my stomach with a banana lassi (all that potentially good bacteria of course).

It is cold over here these days. Well it is cold during the early morning and evening and yet really rather warm with the heat of the mid day sun, so you can never quite work out what to wear, I am only pleased I brought my coat with me from the UK as I have certainly needed to wear this every evening.

In the evening and feeling a little better (although Ewan of course worried that he is also going to end up ill) we walked up to Narayan's new house, which is actually his new hotel, for dinner and to have a look around. It is quite incredible really, how hard Narayan has worked and continues to work to create this reality for his family.

It is a lovely building with a few rooms he can rent out to visiting tourists thereby having another income flow to add to the Hotel Celesty Inn and also his travel business. He has battery power for when the electricity is unavailable and from this they are able to run a fridge/freezer (a luxury for any woman in her kitchen ovr here) and also a computer with WIFI.

We ate dinner with Narayan and his brother Netra, who was visiting from his village, and his two youngest children. I always find this rather odd over here in Nepal that the women take the time to make the dinner and yet do not eat until everyone else has finished. And things are done the other way around over here. You have a cup of tea or a soft drink and sit around chatting before the meal and then when the meal has finished, this generally marks the end of the evening.

We ate Dahl Bhat, the first of many. This is the main Nepali dish which is generally eaten by most Nepalis twice a day every day of the year. Everyone's Dahl Bhat seems to taste a little different but generally they all include a combination of rice, vegetable (or chicken) curry, spinach, dahl (lentil soup to mix with the rice), pickle, salad, curd and poppodum. Perhaps it is simply because we are visitors, but you always get offered a little bit more of each dish and it is encouraged to accept a little bit more too - but with a dodgy stomach I did well to finish most of the food on my plate and must admit I felt beter for it too - Dahl Bhat is cooked fresh using fresh local vegetables and spices and have a feeling some of these help to settle one's stomach.

So an early night. We are back into the routine because as long as there is electricty then we can lie on the bed and entertain ourselves with a cut price DVD while drinking herbal tea. Life is really rather simple for us over here!

xx

Arriving in Pokhara

So we made it to Pokhara, taking the easier (although much more expensive option) of flying - 20 minutes versus the 7 hours on a coach!

It was great to be back, Pokhara is so wonderfully laid back in comparison to the seeming madness of Kathmandu. The skies were incredibly clear and the views of the Annapurna mountains were simply incredible as we stepped off the plane. Apparently we have been lucky - most of November and one of the main trekking times, was cloudy and the mountains could rarely be seen. They are simply stunning.

Set on the edge of Fewa Lake, Lakeside is where it is all at in terms of tourists over here. I quite like it. Although it is changing. It has been about 18 months since I was last here and I am amazed how many more motorbikes and taxis are on the roads, plus the amount of building work taking place around town...clearly there has been some economic change for some over here.

Alas the same can not be said about the government as such. I must admit that as much as I try and follow the national political situation, it is rather complicated. There is stuff going on at the moment and I know there is some concern about the UN pulling out on 15 January 2011, with so much still unresolved in terms of political stability on a long term basis (or even short term basis). In any event the public are still suffering as a result of to this unresolved situation - load shedding is still a major issue here and you just never know when there will be the next road strike (which grinds the country to a halt).

This load shedding is ridiculous. Basically there is not enough electrical power to serve the country as a whole on a 24 hour basis. Thus there are only so many hours of electricity available in a day and the times change daily so you never quite know if you will have power or not. Rumour has it that this figure will reduce to a mere 4 hours of electricity a day in the new year, which is just insane.

Imagine for a moment how much you use electricity at home. I mean it is always there right? We just take it fore granted. Here it gets dark at about 5.30pm these days and sunrise is not until 6.30amish, so that is rather a long and dark night without electricity to provide light. And it is cold here too in the morning and evening, but of course an electric fire would be a total luxury.

Many people and businesses now have generators and batteries, at additional cost, to provide power when the national system is off. Just imagine trying to run a business out here. No power means no Internet, which means no email, which is one of the main ways we all correspond these days. Let alone trying to use anything which requires power. This is the reason you always get hand written bills and tickets over here. And the reason you need to be careful about what you eat in terms of lack of refrigeration. Plus of course most cooking is conducted over gas or indeed wood.

I mean you get used to it and it makes you that much more aware, but it is sad for the people as how on earth can they progress their businesses and how can children do their homework by candle flame without hurting their eyes. And how ridiculous that sometimes the reason there is no electricity is simply because Nepal has had to sell some of their supply to India. And how ridiculous how easy it is to control a country by reducing their access to power and making life so much more difficult.



Anyhow. Lakeside is getting busier and more and more houses, hotels and businesses now have generators. WIFI is now a huge thing. All over the place hotels and cafes are offering a free WIFI service, even in our hotel it was installed while we were staying. Which means that the Internet cafes are no way near s busy as they were last time I visited. Funny how businesses affect each other by the services they provide. I must say it is great to get WIFI in the hotel, and the speed is really rather good, no more days of spending hours in an Internet cafe on a very slow connection.

We went straight to the hotel - Hotel Celesty Inn - where I have stayed on most of my previous trips. I am friendly with the staff and particularly Narayan, whose daughter I set up as a pen pal with a girl back home in Guernsey who came to my children's Yoga classes. Narayan was waiting for us and presented us with a welcome scarf and also a tika on our foreheads (red paste with rice). He showed us to our room with views of Fishtail mountain. I have come home.

We pottered that afternoon and went to see friends - Bijay in the cafe, Moniek, a Dutch woman who co-runs Hearts and Tears, a motorbike touring company out here with her British partner, Rick, and Devika and the Project. How strange to be back, it is like I never left. Same people hanging round their shops, the same Tibetan ladies who sit on the pavements and try and sell their Tibetan wares, same guys in the razor shop. Amazingly people recognised me as I recognised them too. Like friends really, all those smiling faces and exchanges of "Namaste and Sanchai chah".



The Project has made so much progress. Devika has sorted a rental on a shop just down the road from the hotel. There are now 7 ladies working with the Project (which is now being registered as a Trust in Nepal) and the products they are making are high quality. It is lovely to witness all the progress and the smiling - and indeed less shy - faces of the ladies themselves.

And how wonderful to sit on top of the hotel roof at sunset and stare at Fishtail and the Lake and just feel really rather content.

Kathmandu - hoorah we made it!

Namaste!

Well here we are back in Nepal - the country of Never Ending Love and Peace.

Kathmandu is as crazy as ever, lovely to have Ewan meeting me the other side, and this time I was the only foreign person on the flight from Bahrain (the rest of the plane was full of Nepali people going home from the middle East where they work, or England where they now live or study) so immigration was a breeze compared to the normal hour long queue to get your visa. It was quite a strange feeling, it is now so familiar to me that it feels a little bit like coming back home again.

Fresh from the airport and we walked into the hotel at Lazimpat, the expat and Embassy part of the city, and bumped straight into a girl from Sark, who I know from surfing many years ago. Small world. Straight out that night for something to eat at the nearest eatery, which happened to be an Irish bar with a few expats inside. We didn't stay late, not our scene, but eases you into a new culture gently.

The next day and we totally threw ourselves into it, walking about 1.5 hours along the dusty, dirty and pollutant ridden streets of busy Kathmandu down to Patan, a suburb of Kathmandu with the spectacular Durbar Square with the rumoured finest collection of temples and palaces in Nepal. It was certainly a sight.

I can't really begin to describe Kathmandu as it hits all the senses. There is the sweet smell of incense, the rancid smell of the Bagmati river strewn with plastic rubbish and no doubt human waste, the disgusting smell of the public toilets under some of the bridges, the pungent smell of cooking spices, and then the "hits the back of your throat and congeals in your nostrils" smell of all the many, many traffic fumes, which literally coat the city in a haze.

Then the noise. I have never seen traffic like it, it gets worse each year, and with it an increase in noise pollution as everyone loves to beep their horns over here. There is the horn to warn you that another vehicle is present, a horn to warn you that you are about to be overtaken, a horn to say "hi, Namaste" and a horn just for the sheer hell of it. All the time, beep, beep, beep. If you don't beep your horn at least once every 30 seconds then you shouldn't be on the roads, simple as that.




Walking back to Thamel, the tourist capital of Kathmandu, was an experience in itself as managed to time it perfectly with rush hour. Lovely. So not only were the cars bumper to bumper but still the bikes try to weave in and out, a chorus of beeps filling the air and the stench of the fumes causing a few breathing problems (believe me, one is trying to breathe as little as possible in such circumstances) but we were now having to fight our way through (in a peaceful way of course) the throngs and streams of people everywhere. And it was getting dark. And there is not much outdoor lighting over here, I mean they only have electricity for around 8 hours a day at the moment, so you kind of have to go with it past all the many people with their wares laid out on the busy pavements, all manner of things from fresh vegetables (covered in fumes of course) to watches and clothing too.



Of course we finally made it to Thamel, the tourist are of Kathmandu, small streets full of shops selling the same stuff - trekking gear filled with fake labelled trekking clothes, pachminas and shawls, hippy clothes, cheap CDs and DVDs and tons of jewellery - and noisy and busy and hectic so with that we took sanctuary in Sam's bar, run by a Dutch lady. It has a chilled out feel to it and gets you off the streets and away from the many hawkers trying to sell you all manner of things, mostly tiger balm (how much tiger balm can one own), and mini wooden violins (what is that all about, never, in the 5 times I have visited Nepal, have I seen a single visitor strumming up a chord on such things), and marijuana of course, although this question, whispered as they pass you close by, is always directed to Ewan not me.

You see with Ewan here, I have now become rather irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, all questions are directed to him, I have lost my equality over here (not that I have ever been a fan of feminism but strange the difference when I am travelling here on my own) although I do still try and barter my way through it all with relative success - Ewan is, admittedly, now much better at it than me.

Later that evening, when the streets had calmed down and with the generators providing power we had a great laugh dancing with some young Nepalis in one of the music-orientated establishments, something I have never done before in Thamel. In fact I have never really gone out and socialised in Thamel on any of my previous visits so this was quite an experience and makes me realise how much the country is changing, well in terms of the younger generation in the city in any event. I could have been in London, same music, same choice of drinks, the girls wearing jeans and short skirts - only that of course the price was much different! There is clearly a new generation with money over here though, and a push for Western living to an extent.

So all good fun. Nothing like throwing yourself into it. Not a late night of course, all bars and restaurants are closed by midnight at the latest over here, so just enough time to shake off that jet lag and excess energy before our flight to Pokhara, to chill out with the spirit of the mountains and get stuck into real Nepal the next day.

xx

Travelling to Nepal

I am in London staying with Hayley, I am so pleased I changed my flights to leave Guernsey on Monday and join Ewan rather than leaving today, because I would now be sat at home feeling most upset that I would be missing my flight to Nepal tonight with all flights to Gatwick cancelled!

Here in London it snowed a little yesterday but today it is just really very cold. Great for me - thank you Universe, I am indeed most grateful - as means I should have very little problem getting to Heathrow (positive thinking) and before I know it I will be joining Ewan in sunny Kathmandu. Actually it won't be sunny as it will be night time, but it should be much warmer than here. By my calculations, Ewan should have arrived by now,lucky thing!

I hope the snow is not too bad the next few days. Hayley and I have been watching the news and seeing how ridiculously covered they are South and indeed North of here. Clearly nature is really trying to get our attention and create as much disruption as possible this year, what with snow in January and the ash clouds during the summer. It just goes to show who is in control...

Anyhow I hope to be safely in Nepal when I send my next update.

xx

Beautiful sunrise

And yet more snow!

I drove home from my parents' house last night in the hail, I have never seen anything quite like it! Then by the time I finally got to bed the snow was falling with big snow flakes.

It has been rather challenging figuring out what to take to Nepal, it is difficult to imagine it being warmer than here, but we are not going trekking in the mountains this time and will be going down nearer to the Indian border instead to see the animals in the Chitwan.

Anyhow just hoping the airport opens again later so I can at least get myself to London and catch up with Ewan, Hayley, Hannah and Vicki.

Beautiful morning.

x

Winter wonderland

Wow, I couldn't believe it when I woke up yesterday morning to open the blinds and find a white world outside. All rather exciting especially as there was not any ice, which meant I could still get out in the car and fulfill my teaching commitments.

It is all melting here today unlike Edinburgh where they are experiencing snow storms. The skies are incredible here, not sure if it is a change of light, but the clouds are rather mesmerising.

I am off to London tomorrow to meet Ewan before he flies out to Nepal on Tuesday and me on Wednesday. I am so excited, especially as I get to see Ewan again. I am now living on my own, which was strange initially, but now I am into the flow of it again - complete peace and quiet and a tidy environment! Mind you cooking for oneself is not so much fun and I have enjoyed having friends around the last two nights so I can cook for someone else too!



I am getting proficient at lighting the fire, which does seem a waste when it is only me here, but all the same it is really rather warming on these cold and dark winter evenings. The cat doesn't seem that fussed, in fact I believe she is missing Ewan as she does not visit so much.

Anyhow time to go and practice. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and I hope to be in touch from Nepal if we get the chance.
xx

Edinburgh and onwards

I have just spent a wonderful extended weekend in Edinburgh, staying with my friend Rachel and visiting her sister and my best friend Lou, who has recently given birth to the lovely Matilda. Great also to spend time with Lou's 17 month old son, Ronan, her husband Dave and also her sister, Sarah, and my surrogate parents, Barry and Carol - thank you all for a lovely time and many a nice meal.

Rach was incredibly hospitable and accommodating and as well as cooking me meals and making sure I felt totally at home in her own home, she also took me to the Scottish parliament building where we had a look at the debating chamber as well as walking around the bottom of Arthur's seat and along the Royal Mile to the Castle and around town. We even managed a walk by the sea with incredible sunset views and some mad tree stump. I was there for full moon too, what better place than Scotland with all its Wicca history!

Edinburgh is a stunning city, admittedly cold, dark and rather wet at this time of year, but full of lovely people and some great angel/crystal/alternative type shops!! I didn't manage a Yoga class this time, although poor Rach was rather patient with me practising each morning before we went out!

Back here in Guernsey it has been a strange week. One of my neighbours died at a young age and I have seen a rainbow from the house each day (thank you). Ewan left the Island today for his world travels until March. KIt is kind of strange being in the house on my own although the cat from next door seems to have moved in (not sure this is ideal, I mean ideal for me and company but not ideal when I am off on Monday and perhaps the neighbours miss her being in their own home - mind you someone said to me that cats will always go where they want to go...) so I am not totally on my own...and yet when are we ever on our own!



It is strange huh, I have lived on my own and travelled on my own many months at a time, but all of a sudden being on your own, through no choice of your own, is kind of weird. Silence. Which is great to be honest, but takes a bit of getting used to. Plus of course now there is no one else to cook for, which is a shame as I love cooking! Still the Universe does what it does and we adapt as we do. Life goes on, it transforms and with it so do we.

I have managed to light the fire all on my own and the house is certainly clean and tidy and with all the washing done! I have the whole weekend ahead filled with friends, Yoga and fun...plus packing as I am off to London on Monday to meet Ewan before he flies out on his birthday on Tuesday. I fly out on Wednesday to meet him in Nepal, novel for me someone being there to meet me the other side. Hoorah, I can't wait, I am so excited about the Nepali energy and trying to learn a bit more of the lingo, plus catching up with Devika and all my friends out there.

I hope everyone is looking after themselves, enjoying their quiet time and yet enjoying the company of others.

I am hoping for a swim in the sea before I go and with snow on its way, it will surely be warmer in the sea than in the open air!

Lots of love

xxx

The moon and sun at the fairy ring!

I felt particularly grateful and fortunate for my life on Monday when I was able to meet my friend Sarah after work for an afternoon walk out at Pleinmont.

In complete contrast to the weather a few days earlier, Monday was stunning - admittedly a little colder than it has been, but bright sunshine and that wonderful Autumn light as the sun drops down towards the horizon.

We walked out to the fairy ring and sat and chatted on the bench with views of the Hanois in one direction and Lihou in the other, the sun warming our faces and the smell of the sea filling the air.

We managed a walk around the fairy ring and I was delighted to notice the moon rising ahead of us as the sun was setting to the other side of us (check out the moon in the photo). How magical. not so however was the collection of empty beer cans and bottles littering the fairy ring, nor the 3 bags of dog poo we passed on the way back to the car...surely it doesn't take too much energy to carry these with you to the nearest bin (of which there is an absence, bins that is, I will admit, but still no excuse surely).



Back near the kiosk we stood and watched a small fishing boat coming into shore, the sea gulls flying past doing their usual thing and reminding me again of the flow to life and the going with approach, which certainly makes ever thing smoother and more joyful somehow.

So thank you Sarah for a lovely walk, and thank you to Ewan for going with the flow and joining me for a warming steam and energising swim at the Grande Mare before a drink in the lovely cosy Fleur.

xx