Weight problem?

My own news today is that I've decided to head for Sauraha in Chitwan province the day after tomorrow - at the invitation of Chuda and his wife. He works at a college there, but seems to have various business interests too - as well as his trusteeship at the Namuna school. He is building a fish-farm, which is at the stage of having the diggers do the excavating. Fish farms seems to run in the family - 'cos his sister-in-law (who I also met today) has one too. Chitwan's principal claim to fame is as the home of Nepal's main wildlife national park (with tigers and rhinos and elephants, and lots of smaller animals too). So it should make a pleasant change from the city.
I'm finding the Nepalis very welcoming people in general. Sumita, the polis I met a few days ago, is married (to another polis), and they invited me to have a meal at their home the other evening. I don't know why she was so interested in my marital status!

On the Nepali politics front, of course the news is just what has been expected about the declaration of a republic and asking the king to move out of his palace. All this seems to have gone off pretty peacefully, and in fact the air in the city is of celebration more than anything else.

And now to the weighty matter. My pal Tom reminded me very recently that I had stated that one of my main objectives was to lose a bit of weight while on my travels. The truth is that I rather feel that I have remained exactly the same weight - but I decided to check it out today. The first attempt was with a fella whose business idea is to squat on the pavement with a set of bathroom scales in front of him, charging a couple of rupees for a go. It's a competitive business though; there are about half a dozen of them all rather too close together. My man had expanded into combs and shoelaces. At any rate his machine read 85kg - which would represent a 1kg loss since my day of departure. A little disappointing considering the litres of sweat I lost going round Annapurna, I thought! His machine did look a bit rusty; so I decided to seek a second opinion from a hi-tech machine at the Kathmandu Mall - which isn't quite as grand as it sounds. This promised not just to give me my weight reading, but height, horoscope and some words of worldly advice - as well as my lucky numbers for the next lottery. Not bad for 5 rupees! I was a bit more encouraged to get a reading of 83.6kg, but somewhat offended that the machine had the cheek to tell me that in its humble opinion I was slightly overweight. All will be forgiven if the lucky numbers come up!
By the way my maths tells me that the average of the readings is that I've lost 1.7kg. Not a lot, but better than nothing I suppose.
Tom, I hope that answers your question. Apologies to anyone else who found that all pretty uninteresting!

End of an era?

I don't want to say too much about politics in this blog, but it is difficult to ignore the subject completely at the moment in Nepal. Tomorrow is the first meeting of the new constituent assembly (CA) - when the Maoists are expected to come out leading some kind of coalition government, and to declare the country a republic.
I feel a bit sorry for the Nepali people just now. What they need is a Mandela or a Gandhi kind of figure - and they seem to have ended up with a pretty tawdry bunch instead.
But the new lot can hardly do much worse than the outgoing team. As an example, the new school term has been under way for 6 weeks - but schools all over the country still haven't received the text-books which should have been distributed weeks ago. As a result, students have been protesting and the government has now announced that all state schools will be closed for the next two weeks. The Namuna School is a rare exception. The streets are full of school-kids today trying to raise money for their studies by selling pens for 60 rupees. I've bought two so far. The other new big street presence is the army and armed police, just to make sure there are no big demonstrations from one side or the other. The atmosphere isn't particularly threatening though, and life is otherwise going on as normal.
Expect Nepal to feature somewhere in the news in the next couple of days as the "New Nepal" begins to emerge.

Rafting action

Bod, one of the kayakers with us on the rafting trip has sent me a whole pile of photos - showing a bit more action than I was able to, 'cos he has a fine waterproof camera. I attach a small selection here to give you a general idea. I'm one of the people in the purple helmets.

Many thanks Bod!

Another Monday in Kathmandu

Well I'm still here in Kathmandu and showing no signs of moving on for a while yet - except maybe for a day or two in Chitwan or back in Pokhara. The main thing is that I'm working away on the Namuna Mahila school project, primarily with Chuda Dhakal, one of the trustees. This is a specialist school for adult women who have missed out on any real education so far. The school has been established for 3 years and has 250 students, but they have a lot more that they want to do and they need to raise money. I'm helping them with a document which describes what they are all about and the sorts of projects they want to undertake. They have no web presence at the moment; so we want this to be the basis of a website eventually too. My routine is one of meetings with Chuda, sometimes at the school, but usually in the garden cafe of the Kathmandu Guest House, and then nipping off with my USB drive to an internet cafe to do some work on the document. Many thanks to my sister Moira for her help with some important formatting matters by the way!
Kathmandu is a slightly dangerous place to have some free time - because the shops are full of stuff at bargain prices. Today I sent a package home (all 14KG of it), containing some of my acquisitions as well as my mountain boots and sleeping bag - which I don't think I will need again in the next few weeks.

By the way I have now moved from the Kathmandu Guest House to another hotel (the Potala Tourist Home). The KGH remains a favourite place for all sorts of reasons, but the fact is that the neighbourhood is too noisy - the worst thing being roof-top rock bands playing late into the night in the area. I tried a few different rooms but it is difficult to escape from the noise altogether.

Final snippet her is that my blog is now listed on the "Northern Scot" website - the local Elgin and Moray paper. Maybe some old pals will be interested to catch up with my movements - and even let me know what they are up to too!

More garlic soup?

Maybe it's time for a brief update on the main subject of this blog.
Up in the hills garlic soup is always on the menu, and I took it at least once per day while I was on my treks. In the cities it is far less common but often available if you just ask.
So far I haven't had a day of illness here (either stomach upsets or any real problem with altitude), and I am pleased to attribute this to the good old GS - and maybe to a bit of iodine in the water too! I was still slower on the treks than I would like to be, and the soup doesn't seem to have speeded me up any.
As the GS recipe which I posted earlier shows it is basically very simple, but it is worth noting that I have found several variations which I like - mostly involving adding other vegetables or ingredients; e.g. add small bits of chopped tomato, onion, spinach, ginger, chopped or shredded potato etc. when shallow-frying the garlic. And some folks just use a curry powder for flavour rather than the masala.
I'm afraid that I didn't get around to photographing the best-tasting examples but here are a few offerings, including one which I suspect used Heinz tomato soup instead of water. Best one so far was undoubtedly at Jharkot - on the return leg of the Annapurna circuit - where I also ate their garlic pizza. I had a lot of space for several days after that!

Nicked

Now I have to admit to having been apprehended by the Kathmandu polis today. I was found loitering near Durbar Square looking for an internet cafe and questioned by a very helpful polis-person called Sumita.
She took me into custody at a nearby momo-bar and interrogated me at length about my marital status. I was eventually released after I had bought her a plate of veggie momos and a Fanta.

Going mobile

I should confess that I got myself a mobile phone for Nepal a couple of weeks ago - once I realised that I'd probably be here a little longer than expected.
I deliberately didn't take a mobile with me from home - partly because I'd end up paying a ridiculous premium for all sorts of incoming calls. But there is no doubt that a mobile is useful in managing lots of day-to-day stuff - particularly when there is a job to be done, even if it is voluntary. Chuda, my main contact for the Namuna school project spends most of the week in Chitwan province.
The handset cost me about UKP21 and I'll be able to reuse it in the UK. The SIM card cost about a fiver, all of which I get back in credit. So I can persuade myself that it is costing effectively nothing.
The number is +977.9803.88.29.86 in case any of you want to spend loadsamoney to send a text. Just don't expect a reply till July.
POSTSCRIPT TO THIS: I now know that the mobile network I'm on (Mero) has no international agreements with Europe for the exchange of texts. Voice calls should work, but I don't expect any calls from far away. It is just intended as a tool to help with day-to-day stuff locally.

Strike!

When I emerged this morning to stroll to one of my favourite cafes I was rather surprised to see what looked like a protest march going by. These were mostly young males, and most were carrying sticks. The police were obviously taking an interest, but letting it pass . I knew it was something significant when I saw one of the marchers make a point of grinding a Maoist flag into a puddle with his feet. Given their (Maoist and Young Communist League) history of violence and intimidation this is a provocative act.
I now discover that more-or-less the whole of Kathmandu is closed down today, and that it is all part of a continuing protest against the murder of Ramhari Shrestha (the same matter which brought traffic to a standstill the other day). Virtually all businesses are closed, except for some of the restaurants and internet cafes. A very few shops have remained open - but it is clear that they are ready to pull the shutters down at short notice. And there is hardly any traffic on the streets apart from a few rickshaws. This, at least, is good news, and the air is more breathable than usual.

To update you on the Namuna school project, I have agreed to do some work on the documentation for the School and the Trust which has established it. I have overcome the computer access issue by buying a 4GB memory stick and spending even more time in internet cafes. I've found a few which charge just 20 rupees per hour (that's about 15 pence). I'm just a bit envious though of those folks who can sit in the sunshine of the garden at the Kathmandu Guest House with their laptops and a cup of coffee.

Sunday in Kathmandu

I had an enjoyable two hour breakfast this morning with Linda, who was due to leave for home in Holland later today. She counts as nearly Scottish, because she likes the place and her boyfriend is national bagpipe champion in Holland. Maybe we will meet again when the two of them are in Scotland this summer for the piping festival in Glasgow and for some of the Highland Games competitions.

This afternoon I had a two hour meeting with Chuda of the Namuna School trustees. He seems to be in agreement with my proposals regarding how I can best help. There is a small issue of access to computer facilities, but we are meeting again tomorrow to take things further.

Some clarification today on yesterday's road blocks. It seems that Gyan was right, but didn't have the complete story. Apparently it was all part of a protest here against the killing of a businessman by Maoist thugs. I'll include a link to a newspaper story rather than repeat it here.
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullstory.asp?filename=aFanata0sa2qzpca4Sa4pa.axamal&folder=aHaoamW&Name=Home&dtSiteDate=20080518
I do worry slightly about the future here. There has been great expectation of the "new Nepal", but there is increasing uncertainty about this. The people have elected the Maoists as the largest party, but they seem to be having difficulty throwing off their past as bullies with their own brand of justice. The parties are supposed to come to an agreement about the new government in the next couple of weeks. One thing seems to be for sure: it probably isn't a good time to be king here, at least if you expect to hang on to your position!

Nagarkot

Things didn't quite go according to plan today, but worked out OK in the end.
I met Gyan at 9 am at the KGH and we started heading for Nagarkot by "microbus". This is the kind of bus the Nepalis generally use, but there is no way I could use them on my own. If there are any destination signs they are all in Nepali language and script, but mostly they get their passengers by shouting from a side door.
At any rate, we got somewhere near the outskirts of Kathmandu, to be told that the roads were blocked; so we got off and walked about 2 or 3 miles before we could continue the journey. Why the roads were blocked I still don't really know, but it seems to have been down to some kind of demonstration. At least there was a string of women hand-in-hand blocking the road at each end, and men starting to burn barricades of old tyres. Gyan told me it was something to do with a man having been killed, but I'm sceptical about that. It certainly caused a lot of chaos. Maybe I'll find something about it in tomorrow's paper. We continued the journey in 2 microbus stages, first to the ancient city of Bhaktapur, and then on to Nagarkot. This last bit is all uphill through hairpin bends, and I'm pleased to say that it was my first rooftop bus journey here. I've been meaning to do that for ages, and I can assure you that it is far better than sitting inside. As good as a rollercoaster any day - and probably even better on the way downhill.
After some lunch we started the mostly downhill walk. The weather was fine for about an hour and then the heavens really opened. We took shelter with a calf and a couple of sheep for a while (in one of those primitive homes where the animals are on the ground floor and the people above). Finally we were able to continue a very fine walk, through the temple town of Changu Narayan and then down to Thaligaon and some other very tiny villages - in the dark by this time and in the middle of a power cut. Power cuts are more-or-less daily occurrences by the way.

I've now added a couple of pictures, firstly of the rain from our shelter. That's the road we were walking down a few minutes earlier, and then some time later when we had continued and the rain had stopped. And one of some boys playing football in the temple courtyard. They had all taken their flipflops off and the shoes were piled up as goalposts, while the boys were all kicking the football with their bare feet.

I bumped into Linda (Aga's pal from Holland) this morning and have arranged to meet her for breakfast at the Bistro tomorrow, and then I'll be heading for the Namuna School to try to make a more detailed plan of what I can do to help.

Monkey Temple

I've been back to being a tourist again this afternoon - after putting some effort into the Namuna School project in the morning.

Gyan (our guide from Annapurna Circuit) is in Kathmandu and got in touch. We talked about the possibility of another trek - but it is maybe geting a bit late in the season. At any rate we decided to head for Swayambhunath Stupa today, a complex collection of mainly Bhuddist temples (and some Hindu) on a hill on the outskirts of Kathmandu - commonly known as the "monkey temple" after some of the regular inhabitants of the area.

My pictures don't really do it justice, but I'll attach some big Bhuddas, a view over some of Kathmandu, and a mother delousing her baby!

There is still a fair number of western tourists here, but the impression I have is that this part of the season is largely over for them - with the monsoon probably just a few weeks away. On the other hand it seems to be the right time for the arrival of hordes of tourists from India - perhaps escaping the scorching heat down there at the moment. They were arriving by the coach-load at the monkey temple anyway.

On the way down we passed a group of Tibetans and sympathisers on a 24 hour fast in protest at some of China's policies there. There is quite a lot of this relatively peaceful protest about Tibet going on here. Nepal probably needs to stay good friends with China (and India too); so the local polis have been taking a fairly hard line - at least to the extent of locking up Bhuddist monks and nuns for a day or two.

At the end of a long wander Gyan and I agreed to a "1 day trek" tomorrow, for which I will pay him as a guide. We will get the bus to Nagarkot (about 30km east along the Kathmandu Valley and at nearly 2000 metres) and walk back some of the way. I hope I'm right in thinking it should be mostly downhill.

Volunteer work

I had a second meeting yesterday with Philip Holmes of the Esther Benjamins Trust. This is a highly impressive organisation which is very actively engaged in rescuing Nepalese children from dire circumstances and in providing them with comfort, security and hope. I have also met recently with some of the trustees of the Namuna School (and many of the staff and students). Their mission is to provide an education for adult women who have missed out on this so far.
It has been a difficult choice, and I have to recognise that my time is now pretty limited. There is of course lots of work to be done at the EB Trust, and I think Philip would let me have a go at some of it. But I think that where I actually have the best chance for good use of my skills now lies with the Namuna School. I think I can help them improve their overall mission statements and the documentation supporting these - hopefully using this as a basis for a website. At the moment they have no web presence. They certainly need to raise funds, and the web is a key vehicle for that objective these days. Besides, I think I can get started on this in Nepal and continue once I have left - apart from the fact that I might still get to fit in another trek while I'm here.
The Esther Benjamins Trust is doing some amazing work, and they are already on the internet - at http://www.ebtrust.org.uk/. I'll include the link in the side panel. The website also has links to Philip's own blog and to the EB Trust on Facebook. To all you Facebook detractors, I think that it was there that I found the organisation in the first place! At any rate, even if I'm not going to be able to help them in Nepal this time around, I'm pretty sure that I'll be spreading the word here and in other ways - e.g. with the Children's Panel community in Glasgow. Philip is from Northern Ireland and already has some connections in Scotland. His folks are planning a West Highland Way fund-raising walk later this year, maybe in August; so I have promised to take part in that.

Sad news

I am extremely sorry to report that my very good friend Elaine told me today that her father passed away yesterday. I'm not going to say any more about this here except of course that Elaine, Nicola and Chloë are very much in my thoughts at this time, and I regret that I'm not closer at hand to be of some better support.

Report from Kathmandu

I'm pleased to report that I have finally managed to meet the first Scots of my trip - a couple of fine young ladies from West Linton, called Sally and Rhona. They are at the KGH for a few days before heading for Everest Base Camp. It has been nice to talk about some familiar people and places for a change - including some folks we know in common (Hi Duncan & Anne and team!). Last night the 3 of us and Merryn (from Hastings) had a good Thai meal at the Ying Yang restaurant. The waiter took the picture!

I'm currently looking at a couple of volunteering opportunites here - i.e. spending some time with the organisations to learn more about what is required and how I can help. It is all very interesting and I'll let you know more in due course.

In the meantime the nearest I've been to a tourist in recent days involved a visit to Pashupatinath. This may not fit with everyone's idea of a tourist trip though. It is a holy Hindu site on the river on the outskirts of Kathmandu, and is a major site for public cremations. I sat on the opposite side of the river for 2 or 3 hours watching the whole process. It is intended to be totally public; so I didn't feel too much like a voyeur. It was certainly all very interesting and thought-provoking. I confess that I took a couple of long shot pictures, but will steer clear of posting them here.

Aga, Proguanil & Kirtipur

A couple of days ago I met Agnieszka (or Aga) from Poland at the Pilgrim (half bookshop, half restaurant). This is is one of my favourite places in Kathmandu - comparable to that converted church in Inverness where Alistair and I had lunch not so long ago! Our common interest was in locating a supply of Proguanil pills. This is an anti-malaria pill, as recomended by pharmacists and doctors in the UK. I have supply for another few weeks, but trusted the Glasgow pharmacist's advice that I would be able to buy more in Nepal and India. As it happens Aga is a pharmacist (currently based in Sheffield, UK), and she came here with exactly the same view. Trouble is that she was due to head for Chitwan - which has a greater malaria risk than here in Kathmandu or in the mountains (where it is zero). So we agreed to set off on a joint mission and tried lots of pharmacies without success. Eventually a doctor advised us to go the to Bir Hosptal (Kathmandu's main hospital) where there is an extra large hospital pharmacy, and lots of smaller pharmacies. A taxi delvered us to the Bir - at the A&E entrance (where the big pharmacy is). I won't go into detail here, but the bottom line is that we failed to get the proguanil, and we had the extremely interesting experience of witnessing A&E proceedings for a while. I can assure you that we each came away with a thankfulness for the sort of hospital services that we have at home!
Aga has now gone off to Chitwan for a safari trip (and with a supply of an alternative anti-malarial which I won't bore you with here). Yesterday we went together to Kirtipur, an ancient Newar village near Kathmandu. This was a genuinely fascinating experience - almost as a living museum, e.g. with women manually threshing grain using ancient methods and tools. We seemed to be the only tourists in town, and had one of the best meals of our trips so far.
I'll include a pic of the two of us at lunch, me eating from a plate made of leaves (and our Newar waitress), and of a Kirtipur temple.


By the way, I welcome any comments you care to make on the blog. The way it works is that I'm notified by email and have to accept or reject the comments. The commenter is usually identified - but I cannot see the email address. I didn't come away with much of an email address book with me; so I am unable to reply to many individual comments. Sorry about this, and please don't take my lack of response as ignoring you in any way. I'll also be pleased to hear from you by email at alanmacw@yahoo.com.

Kathmandu again

I could have chilled in Pokhara for longer, but decided to get back to Kathmandu. I made the journey yesterday - by "tourist bus". This is the relatively luxurious option, the main advantage being that the bus isn't touting for additional passengers all the time. The journey was perfectly enjoyable for 6 hours until we reached the traffic of Kathmandu. There are a couple of painful bottlenecks here which add about 2 hours to many journeys. Kathmandu is another (much more frenetic) world after the peace of Annapurna and Pokhara - but I do like the place. I'm back at the KGH and will be looking into some (volunteering and travel) options over the next few days. I was pleased that Tika came by to see me off in Pokhara - even at the early hour of 7 am. Here's a picture of the two of us having some breakfast at the Be Happy restaurant just before I left.

ABC and back

Well I'm back in Pokhara after a memorable trek to Annapurna Base Camp. Tika (or Tika-Ram to give him his full title) proved to live up to the recommendation given and seems to know most of the people living in the Annapurna area. Events took a slightly unexpected turn on the second day of the trek when I decided for some reason to spend the day working in the corn-fields of the lodge at Tolka where we had spent the night. To be honest I think that the reason was simply that I was really impressed by the women of this household (Rada and Samita), and I was happy to accept their invitation to work with them. They really work so hard from dawn till dusk: cutting grass to feed the buffalo, milking, mucking-out, all sorts of field work, cooking, cleaning,... and all with the best of humour. I think the men mostly do a bit of carrying, and some praying - maybe a bit of strategic planning! My bit of weeding the corn wasn't much but it was a great eye-opener and gave me an added level of acceptance amongst the locals (even a modicum of fame which seemed to reach about 3 villages away!).
The rest of the trek went more or less according to plan, generally with very early starts and mid-afternoon finishes because of late p.m. downpours.
The whole route is pretty hard work, with lots of ascent and descent. ABC is a mere 4130 metres, but I calculate that getting there and back from Phedi involves over 5700m of ascent and descent. It is extremely interesting though, and the ABC area (or "sanctuary)" is a very special place. Up there you are surrounded by all the mountains of the Annapurna range and it seems to put the whole "circuit" trek into context. To add something special for us the weather decided to snow quite heavily on the afternoon of our arrival. At dawn the next day everything was crystal-clear again.
After the essential photo session we came down pretty quickly and got back to Pokhara today. Up at ABC, by the way, there is a party of serious mountaineers (joint Canada/Russia expedition) who have been there for the last 6 weeks waiting for the right conditions for an attempt on A1 south face. This should be the best time of year for this, but climate change seems to be making these expeditions even more difficult to plan. I'll include some pics taken at ABC (me and Tika posing with A1 in the background) plus some assorted pictures from the trek, as well as the field work at Tolka with Rada and Samita and having a joke with some other Annapurna ladies taking a break from their toils. I hope you are getting the impression that the Nepalis are a hard-working but good-natured lot! And there are some good mountains and other things to see too!

It has just dawned on me that my 8 week visa has just 2 weeks left to run; so I need to do some thinking about what to do next - an extension being a possibility (though not necessarily straightforward). Watch this space!