You Know You've Been in Nepal when...

- bal bhat just isn't the same if not served on a prison plate

- 'yes' is wobbling your head from side to side, not nodding

- a price is quoted, you immediatly offer half

- a bus stopping for 10 mins for no reason doesn't even register on your radar

- you answer when complete strangers call you sister

- $1.50 for breakfast and $3.00 for dinner is normal

- you expect to wait at least an hour at the restaurant for dinner to arrive. When it's faster than that it's cause for comment

- being offered pot in Thamel five times a day is normal

- you're happy to find a squat toilet because they're almost always cleaner than a western

- bring stared at and laughed at is part of life

- you haven't had pre-packaged food in four months

- 9am is sleeping in, 6:30-7am is normal to get up, and 11pm is late

- car horns are just part of the background noise

- not walking on the road is a luxury

- a hot shower is a rarity and a luxury

Maoists and Strikes - May 4, 2010

Ok, so here's the situation: I'm bored. And I don't mean year everyday garden variety bored, I mean BORED!!

Today is the third day of an indefinite strike. The Maoists were elected into government a few years ago. They were unable to write a constitution, so a transition government was set up. This government also promised to write a new constitution, and set a deadline. However, Constitution Day, as it has come to be called, is less than a month away and there's no way they'll finish on time. Needless to say, the Maoists are pissed. They want the government to resign.
For several weeks party members from around the country have been heading to Kathmandu. On May 1 they held a protest in the valley, asking the government to step down. Unsuccessful in this, they enforced an indefinite nationwide strike, to last until the current government resigns.
The country has been brought to a standstill. No shops are open, nobody's going to work. All transportation has been shut down and school is closed. Students taking their SLC exams (equivalent to British A levels) have been stuck at home as well. The streets, normally congested with cars all over the place and ceaseless honking, are quiet. The entire city has become an almost vehicle free zone - no cabs!
Three days in and the newspaper is carrying reports that those living in the rally camps are starting to get ill from lack of sanitation. Hospitals are apparently treating lots of heatstroke and water-born diseases. Emergency vehicles are among the few allowed on the road (vehicles with tourist plates, press vehicles and essential services as well) and today's paper carried an article on the prevention and treatment of heatstroke.
The streets are the most noticeable difference, with no cars or motorcycles. The only civilian vehicles you see are bicycles, and there are fewer of those. All the streets have become pedestrian walkways, and impromptu cricket and soccer games have broken out everywhere.
Today we went for a wander around this part of the city. The main streets are filled with people, but the side streets, where the shops are, are much quieter than usual. Durbar square, usually hopping with people, is almost empty.
Even during a strike the people have to live. So the shops and restaurants are open for two hours each evening, so people can shop for food. These two hours are especially important in Thamel, as the only option for cooked food is from a restaurant. There's time to get any errands done, and I have lots before leaving for India.
The restaurants have been operating on limited menus, and prices have been increasing as ingredients are increasingly difficult to come by. The bakeries, unable to get the usualy delivery of fresh goods, haven't been open at all. The first two nights we were able to get a good evening meal, but tonight we couldn't find a single open restaurant; they can't get food.
For breakfasts we've been finding the hotels that have restaurants. Some have opened a side door half or all the way, allowing us to find an open one. With 2 decent meals per day, the first two days weren't too bad. With the restaurants closed tonight though, I'm prepared for breakfast here.
The supermarkets have been doing fantastic custom these past few days. The first two days it felt like every tourist here was buying enough food to last a day, and tonight it was even busier. With no kitchen, it's been meals of snacks; instant noodles, cooked and raw, crackers and jam, biscuits and candies have become my meals.
There's nothing to do, as everything is closed, so I've become an expert at being bored. I've read a ton, and gone through all the settings on my camera. Julia with dark skin, and five seconds later, Julia with pale skin. Fuck, I'm bored.

May 27: A quick update on the strike. It ended May 7, one day after I left Nepal.

Headfirst off a Bridge

I jumped headfirst off a bridge. 160m above a river. Freefell for about 3 seconds.

I should probably mention the elastic tied around my ankles, because April 29 was bungee day!

All six of us decided to do Asia's highest bungee jump, 160m above a river. So accordingly at 6am we were on a bus heading out of Kathmandu. 2 hours later, we arrived at the resort that runs the bungee, and relaxed with some mango juice while listening to the instructions. The most important things to remember: leave your brain behind, and walk like a penguin, fly like a bird.

I was in the second group to go, so I headed to the viewing area to watch Caitlin, Julia and the rest of that group. Both had huge smiles on their faces when they had hiked back up the hill. One woman was clearly not sure, she was fully flailing when she bounced up again!

The jump is done from a suspension bridge, by far the most secure one I've been on in Nepal. It did have steel cables attached to both sides of each end though. The whole group went out onto the bridge, and one by one were given the harness and strapped in. The elastic is attached at both ankles and waist; ankles for weight-bearing, waist as a back-up. Hence walk like a penguin. And then it's time to jump!

There's a little platform jutting off the side of the bridge, from which you jump. So when it was my turn I stepped out onto it, and immediatly felt the weight of the cable. It's a lot heavier than it looks! Then a countdown from 3 and it was really time to launch myself off. This is where leaving your brain behind is a good idea. I didn't want to think too hard about what I was about to do.

I leapt off, and immediatly began freefalling headfirst. My immediate though was 'shit, why did I decide to do that', but then the view and adrenaline kicked in, and the rest of the fall was amazing. Seeing the cliff faces on either side fly by, and the river coming closer. And all so fast! It was over too quickly though; 3 seconds falling and about 20-30 bouncing around before you're lowered down to the ground. It was completely worth it, but I wouldn't do a shorter one, and I think once may be enough. Paragliding was a ton more fun; lasted longer. I did enjoy the feeling of freefalling though. Maybe skydiving next?

Everest Base Camp

I'll write more here eventually, but not right now. For now, I trekked to base camp. It took 7 days up, 2 down. Tons of fun, some really beautiful scenery (better than Annapurna!), big hills, and high altitude that made it difficult to climb those big hills.

More later.

Kathmandu Traffic Jam

The traffic in the Kathmandu Valley is crazy. There is only one main highway heading west out of the city towards Pokhara, and it's only two lanes wide. As is one in each direction, along a twisty, windy, ill-maintained mountain road. The roads in the city aren't too good, so everyday hundreds of trucks bring repair supplies into the valley and city. The trucks are overloaded and in dubious condition to begin with (we saw one that had no front, the pedals were literally hanging in mid-air), and on a road that can't support that volume or weight of vehicles, so it's super slow going getting into the city on the best of days. This is a traffic jam where you park. There is even a guy selling ice-cream along the side of the highway.
All the little vehicles (ours included) are weaving around the bigger ones whenever possible, but nothing can go fast. Even the emergency vehicles are hampered by the gridlock. This road sees it's share of cars and trucks going over the edge too. Right now I'm looking across the valley to the road on the other side (which we still need to get to, and then some more) where a truck is pointing straight down the side of the ridge. It's been winched up from where it fell to, but it doesn't look good!
The day after finishing ABC, I headed from Pokhara to Kathmandu with Caitlin and everyone from Gorkha. Just our luck, it was the day before a strike. And just like that first week trying to get from Shivapuri to the Riverside Inn, everyone and his brother was trying to get into the city that day, as they wouldn't be able to the next. Caitlin, Hari and Ed were supposed to have another day in Pokhara, but had to change their plans and come to Kathmandu a day early. So here I am sitting in a parked microbus that has every window open but is stull really hot, writing this because there's nothing else to do. Luckily the six of us, together with a few of our ABC guides, rented a private bus, so it's not as bad as it could be. Still hot and boring though. We even managed to play a few hands of rummy while the bus was stopped.
You can tell that the monsoon is getting closer. It's still a couple of months away, but already it's far far dustier in the valley than it was even a month ago when Caitlin and I came down for the weekend. It's gotten hotter too. Trucks, buses, cars and microbuses all have doors and windows wide open. It might just be because 4 days ago I was in the middle of a circle of mountains where it frosted overnight, but it's definitely gotten hotter. I'm having the same feeling as Lumbini, where I could handle the heat because I knew I was going somewhere cooler in just a few days. In this case it's Everest Base Camp, and it's looming; we're leaving in just 3 days. For once in my life I can't wait for cold weather. I don't even want to think about how hot it's going to be in India. It's already too hot to be hungry here. It's too hot to do anything.

Annapurna Base Camp - Too Much Rest is Bad for the Health!

Teaching done, all 15 of us met up in Pokhara on March 31 to prepare for a then go on the safari portion of the trip. The year it's a trek up to Annapurna Base Camp.
The Annapurna range is comprised of four peaks; Annapurna I was the first peak above 8000m to be summitted, in 1950. The trek to base camp is known as the Annapurna Sanctuary, as the Annapurnas have a few other mountains around them so the only way there is to walk along a valley, up into the mountains.
Caitlin, Kirsten, Amy and I left Laxmi on the 6am bus that morning. We were ready to go by 5:30, and so had 20 mins to sit on the roof and reflect on the past 3 months. It was the perfect way to end our time there.
In Pokhara that night we celebrated Pippa's birthday, and the next day headed to the Immigration Office to extend our Nepali visas, which were set to expire on April 4. The pre-trekking brief was that evening, and we headed out the next morning, April 2.
As far as trekking goes we were a huge group. 16 people (15 volunteers plus Gaurav), plus three guides and seven porters. Everyday we ate lunch all together and slept at the same lodge. When walking we spread out into various smaller groups based on how fast you wanted to walk that day.
The days were all pretty much the same, with a few things that changed it up a little. The scenery changed too, going from green fields to being above the treeline with only rocks and mountain goats around. - on a side note, apparently Himalayan tar, or mountain goat, are fascinating to see. There were several times when about 6-8 men were standing in a group all pointing in the same direction, trying to show each other where the goat was. Quite amusing for those of us watching. Probably more amusing than the goat itself! - We were up for breakfast around 6:30, and headed out around 7:30-8. Lunch was usually around 11:30, and for me was always dal bhat - easier to make for a large group - There were some really good ones along this trek, among the best I've had.
Because the group spread so much, there was inevitably waiting involved at lunchtime so everyone could eat together. It provided a chance to really sit back a relax after walking all morning, although it did sometimes mean lunch breaks that were as long as the morning walk! The rest was always welcome though. Walking for the day was usually done by about 3:30, so we had the rest of the day to shower and relax. Mostly relax, cold showers aren't that welcome when it's already almost freezing outside.
In terms of walking the days felt mostly the same, but there were a few exceptions. The third morning we were close to a viewpoint called Poon Hill, so at 3:30 (!) am Magnus, Julia and I got up to walk up this hill by moonlight. It was super early, but well worth it once the sun came up. Together with a few of our guides we were the first ones there, and it was pretty magical, albeit cold. We had a perfect view of the Annapurnas, and were able to watch the first rays of sun hit each mountain. They were far enough away to get a good view of the whole range at once, but still close enough they felt like they were almost right there. The only negative thing about the morning was the huge throngs of people that showed up. I swear there must have been about 150 people by the end. It was funny to watch them walk up in full light with torches though, having come up by moonlight ourselves.
The way up to base camp is along a valley, with mountains on both sides, until you eventually reach the end of the valley, and that is base camp. There's a left turn just past Macchapuchhre Base Camp, so by the time you reach ABC the valley itself has been obscured and it feels like you're standing in the middle of a circle of mountains. Really awesome. There wasn't enough space for everyone to stay at either MBC or ABC, so Caitlin, Magnus, Julia and I opted to stay at ABC, while the rest of the group went back down to MBC (about an hour's difference). Staying there that night really made the whole trek worthwhile, as we were able to chat with some other trekkers and watch the sunrise. This one was even better than Poon Hill, as the mountains were so close. If I though I could touch them at Poon Hill it was nothing compared to ABC. They were RIGHT there. In fact, they were so close they almost didn't look real. Weird as that may be.
Fittingly, the sun hit Annapurna I first, and slowly crept over to the others before finally breaking into sight. It did have to rise high enough to be above Macchapucchre to be seen though.
On the way down we stopped at Jhinu, a town close to another river, where a hot springs has been constructed. It was our last full day, of nine, and basking in the warm water next to a raging river with lots of beautiful trees all around was wonderful. To get there we followed a few of the porters down; with no packs on their backs they're FAST, we were practically running to keep up!
The porters along the treks (Annapurna and Everest Base Camp, which I did next) were invaluable. Most are several inches shorter than I am, and small in stature, but are they ever strong. They carry huge heavy loads up and down the trails, and make it look easy. Mules were also used to about halfway to ABC, but from there it was either helicopter ($$$) or humans to get any and all supplies higher. Food, fuel, building materials, you name it, they carry it. On EBC it was yaks instead of mules, and again tons of people.
For us the porters were so invaluable as they carried our large bags. There were 8 porters for 16 people, so Caitlin and I put our stuff in one bag and just carried daysacks. It made a huge difference on the hills.
After 9 days of walking, six up and three down, we finished. A bus picked us up in Naya Pul and drove the hour to Pokhara. Once there everyone split to various guesthouses to prepare for dinner. I didn't realize how dirty I was until I saw Hari and Ed (Hari got acute gastroenteritis halfway up and had to come down early) who were clean. Then I realized just how much of my tan was actually dirt!
After a farewell dinner of dal bhat from the trekking company and some drinks at the bar afterwards (thanks Gaurav!) everyone split into our respective free travel groups and said the first (although we didn't know it at the time) of what would become several goodbyes. The AV planned potion of this trip is over, and now we're on our own!

Bugs, Spiders and Other Small Animals

So, small critters of Nepal.
By far my favourite, and the one that is most visible, is the little green geckos that inhabit our living room. They're only a few inches long, including tail, and bright green. We first noticed them in the dining room, where these were at least half a dozen in the first week. They are always on the wall or ceiling, almost never the floor, hiding behind the curtain. Over time we found them in the kitchen, Amy and Kirsten's room, and eventually mine and Caitlin's room. Affectionately christened with various g names - we had no idea about male and female, and couldn't tell them apart, so first randomly assigned a name - they were the most constant animal presence in the house. The sound they make became quite reassuring after a while; I usually heard it in the evening or at night when getting ready for bed.
In addition to geckos, there are numerous spiders and little bugs with way too many legs. On average the spiders are larger than the ones at home, and these are two that have stuck in my memory. The first was about 2-3 inches wide (including legs), and had a face off with a gecko in our kitchen. For a few minutes they both advanced and retreated until the gecko backed down - yes, there is so little to do sometimes that this qualified as entertainment.
The second spider was found under the sink of the kitchen in Gorkha. With legs, it was easily as big as my hand. And the legs weren't very long. It looked like a dock spider on steroids. It was news for several weeks.
Like everywhere else in the world there are cockroaches. Our house managed to avoid them for over a month, and only found 3 or 4 in the course of 3 months. We didn't actually find any until Pip, in Besi, sent a text asking if we'd had any. We found the first two within five minutes of receiving it! They're fun to kill though - lots of Raid.
And bedbugs. I managed to avoid them for almost 3 months, but my luck ran out in Lumbini. The first night I slept under my sleeping bag, with my calves on the blanket at the bottom of the bed. In the morning it looked like I had chicken pox! Thankfully they didn't itch.
There's sometimes some sort of flying insect that also looks like it's on steroids, and is surprisingly heavy and a noisy flier. Caitlin killed one in our room one night - said the only way it would die was under a heavy book.
On the whole, the bugs and spiders aren't that different from those at home - they're just bigger. Interesting bugs are just part of the walls, sometimes fun to watch. Down in the Terai mosquito season has unfortunately begun, but what's spring with no mosquitoes?

April

April. Month 4, the first without any teaching. It was a huge change to go from school every day to travelling around all the time, but it's been tons of fun.
I arrived in Pokhara on March 31 to prepare for trekking, and left on April 2 for Annapurna Base Camp. The trek finished on April 10, and on the 11th I headed from Pokhara to Kathmandu with Caitlin, Julia, Hari, Magnus and Ed. It was a full day on a bus, but we got there eventually.
After 2 days in Kathmandu I left for Everest Base Camp with Magnus and Julia. That trek lasted 10 days, plus an extra day at the finishing town because there were no flights. So we returned to Kathmandu on the 25th and met up with Caitlin, Hari and Ed, the only 3 left in Nepal, as everyone else had gone to India. We spent the next nine days with them, until they went home on May 3.
And that was April in a nutshell. More detailed posts to come.

Fun Spellings/Pronunciations

Here are some of my favourite English mis-spellings, pronunciations and sayings from Nepal. No particular order.
-e-school, e-sprite, e-stretch. Just about any word that begins with 's' is pronounced with a long e at the beginning. Many people won't understand what you're saying unless you include the extra syllable!
-'Thank U' written on the cake we gave to the teachers. I wrote out the full word when we ordered it, but we got this anyway!
-in a textbook, 'qwessicums' instead of 'questions'
-"are you boring?" actually means "are you bored?"\
-Welcome is always written 'wel come'. Yes, two words
-English names have endless versions. Caitlin = Catlin, Caitin, Catin, Edward = Eteewad, Julia = Joellyea, Jully
-A bus labelled the 'of road express'. One 'f'

Nepali Familiarity

The men, women and children in Nepal are all very familiar with each other. People often call unrelated friends and aquaintances brother, sister, aunt, uncle etc. The Nepali words for brother and sister are different for older and younger, so it is a sign of respect for someone older as well as familiarity. Often the person's name isn't used, just 'bhai', 'dai' 'didi' and 'bahini' for older and younger brother and sister respectively. Bhai and didi were the two I heard most commonly, although I often heard dai as well. After a while it just became natural to respond when someone said didi as to my own name!
The familiarity extends to physical as well. I've noticed it mostly among children and young adults. It doesn't cross gender lines, but seeing two people of similar age walking down the street hand in hand or sitting with their arms around each other is normal. It's not a sign of homosexuality, but rather a way of showing friendship. The sense of personal space here is much smaller, but I quickly became used to the female teachers putting their arms across my shoulders or the children leaning right over me. This is one arena in which it's a little better to be female, as the guys in the group seem to end up with arms across their shoulders or people wanting to hold their hand down the street. The Nepali men won't do the same with a woman, and the Nepali women don't tend to show this familiarity unless they already know you.
All together it just goes to show how friendly and open Nepalis are, that they consider so many people family and aren't afraid to demonstrate they care.

Moving On

P.S. (at the beginning) I wrote this the week after leaving Laxmi, so although it's taken me 6 weeks to get it up here, it reads like it was written then, not now.
My three months of teaching have flown by, and now it's time to pack up our house and move on. Having been in Lumbini and Bandipur for a week, I had 3 days in which to pack up my life and prepare to leave.
The most prominent feature of the 3 days was laundry. Boo. With no washing machine I've done everything by hand the past three months, and this mega wash was no exception. This was the last chance for a completely clean wardrobe without paying for it, so I took full advantage. It took two days, but I got it all done. Between the 4 of us the roof is covered with drying clothes. We went through 500L of water in 3 days!
After laundry was organizing and packing. I loathe both these things, so it was a trial. It took constant encouragement/brow-beating from Caitlin for me to finish.
Packing has been quite sobering. We had full, settled lives in this house, and called it home. These three months haven't felt like travelling. We had a home routine, the same as I have in Canada. When Caitlin and I came back from Kathmandu, it was really like coming home, not more travelling. Seeing everything from a full like go into two small-looking bags was weird. I didn't honestly think it would all fit! (it did)
The house was brand new when we moved in in January, so we're the first people to live here. We decorated, and really made the 6 (the roof counts, I called it upstairs) rooms our own. Durga even commented how she was happy that we had decorated her house so much. She is going to add a second story this summer, so future AVs will live upstairs, while her family is on our floor. It's nice to think we're the only AVs to live in these rooms - it makes them more ours.
Leaving Laxmi is difficult. I love this village, and don't like thinking that I will no longer have a home in Nepal. I'll miss the roof the most, but also the feeling of having a proper home to return to every night.
Quick forays down to Nice Lady's Shop for last minute dinner ingredients, being recognized on the bus, afternoon trips up to Gorkha and a hundred other little aspects of life here are ending. There are some things I won't miss, like clothing disapearing off the washing line (I lost my lulus ! :( ), but overall I'm not ready for it to end. My and Caitlin's room looks so bare.
The house has been scrubbed as clean as we can make it, and all the bags are packed. Without our belongings strewn about it no longer looks like our house, so now it's time to shut the door and say goodbye.

Looking Back at School

It's been about six weeks now since the teaching part of my trip ended. I recently found the notebook I used at school, and looking through it was like reliving the three months. It brought back a ton of memories, so I though I'd share some.
-I did lesson plans for all my classes until mid-February. I didn't realize I did them for so long; I was better organized than I thought! There's conversations we had Class 2 act out, ever-changing topics for Class 1 as we tried in vain to find something in the book they hadn't done yet, and day after day of either the exact same plan as the day before or a note saying see an earlier day, as classes were seemingly randomly cancelled
-the essay on human rights that Caitlin and I did scant research for and made up the rest from our general knowledge (think lots of bullshitting, this is what I learned at school!) is in here. We discussed the topic one period with Class 10 (with one day's notice to write the essay!), and I was very impressed with their English writing skills. Each student was to write a paragraph during the period, and some wrote some really good ones. We had to explain most of our keywords, and I made a horrible mess with Amnesty. Caitlin had to rescue my explanation, which had gone horribly south.
-Class 7 really got going when we introduced the past tense wordsearch. It got them eager to come up to the board, which lasted the rest of the semester. The second time we did one it wasn't finished when the bell rang, but they wanted us to stay until it was done. Seeing everyone so eager made us more than happy to comply!
-my notes go from a wordsearch on February 18 to our schedule for exams. I guess that's when I stopped making lesson plans and just went with the flow. That's the end of the front of the book, everything else I used the book for started on the last page and worked backwards.
-the first (last) page has my and Caitlin's Nepali names. The teachers decided to name us, so I was Uma and Caitlin was Parbati. Both are incarnations of the same goddess (please don't ask which one). Being given the names and learning to write them in Nepali was the gesture that made be really feel accepted by the teaching staff.
-there are several pages of class lists. At first I thought lots of the kids were related to each other, as there are disproportionate numbers of Ales, Magars, Thapas and Gurungs. Then I remembered that a Nepali's last name is actually their caste, and so isn't entirely indicative of familial relationships. I was glad to remember that, for about 30 seconds I was seriously worried about just how related 30 9-year olds were to each other.
-when the school was being painted and I was teaching outside there were no blackboards available. For the most part I either taught without writing anything or prepared poster boards in advance, but the first day I had nothing as it was a surprise to be outside. I ended up using my notebook as a blackboard, so there's page after page with one word on it, written big enough that the kids could just see well enough to copy it down. A slow way of doing things, but it worked!
-about 15 pages have been torn out to make flash cards (and more from Caitlin's book) to we could quiz each other on Nepali vocab. Some of the teachers were extremely helpful when we made the cards, and together with the older students were wonderful with quizzing us. My favourite word: oofranu, to jump. I love the way it sounds
-there are page after page of word games. With four free periods a day, Caitlin and I had lots of time to fill. We played snake on her cell, read, chatted, and played game after game. Our favourite, the one in my notebook, was finding words using the letters of longer words. 'President' was the best, with almost 200 words found. 'Adventurous' and 'despicable' were runners up.
-lots of pages revolve around food. I used the notebook to copy recipes from the internet (as it was the only thing I always had on me when going to the internet cafe). There are several pancake recipes as I looked for a good one to introduce Caitlin, Amy and Kirsten to North American pancakes. In the end though, I still bow to the master. Uncle Dave's are still the best, and everyone I made them for enjoyed them.
-the final entry is a list of ideas for the poster boards we made for the Jubilee. We ended up making six of them. Never saw them again though!

Laxmi and Gorkha Shops

Unlike at home, shops is Laxmi and Gorkha don't have storefonts, large displays, or even front doors. They're on the main floor of the buildings lining the road, with apartments above, and the fronts are open to the street. Once you've got past seeing everything crammed together on display, both in the shop and on the stoop, there's all sorts of different shops - dry goods, spices, material, stationary, pharmacy, vegetable and fruit, and many more.
There have been two shops that stood out in particular - Nice Lady's Shop and Chocolate Spread Shop.
Nice Lady's Shop is in Laxmi, and was the shop we frequented the most. A dry goods/general store, we went there the first night in our house, when we were still in some culture shock and buying our first vegetables. The woman running the shop was extremely patient with us, and from that evening was christened Nice Lady.
From that day onward, I don't think a single day passed that at least one of the four of us didn't go to her shop. As the only foreigners in the village, she quickly knew us by sight, and always had a smile ready when we walked up. Over the course of the three months we met the rest of her family as they ran the shop together. Our eating patterns were pretty predictable, and it didn't take long for her to be able to anticipate what we needed. It didn't hurt that we bought bread almost every day and a kilo of potatoes roughly 2 out of 3 days.
While packing to leave Laxmi, Amy and I compiled a list of everything we bought from her shop, and came up with 26 different items. The list ranges from rice to potato to beer/rum to candles, batteries, chocolate bars, lighters and everything in between. Other than vegetables (excluding onions and garlic) and stationary we went to her shop first, and we're pretty sure she knew it. It didn't take long before we started getting discounts (price 100 rupees, for you, 90 rupees - prices are usually printed onto the item, so we knew exactly how much packaged things cost). When we left at the end of March she gave each of us a chocofun, everyone's favourite chocolate bar.
Chocolate Spread Shop is in Gorkha, and was so named as it's the only place in town to get chocolate spread. In addition the shops sells jam, peanut butter, ketchup, honey, the biggest selection of biscuits I found outside Lakeside and Thamel, and even baking powder! The only drawback was that these items aren't too popular with Nepalis, so many things were out of date. It's a bit daunting to buy something that an inch of dust has just been blown off, but I got used to it. As long as it's close to being with the expiry date it's fine.
Check not only expiry dates though, but seals as well. Once Ed and Magnus bought a tub of chocolate spread, only to open it at home and realize that someone had carefully spooned out a chunk from the center of the tub!

Food

Having spent four months in Nepal I have been exposed to all sorts of new food. Some good, some not so good, and some that was just damn fantastic.
The traditional Nepali dish, which most of the population eats twice a day, is dal bhat. It's rice (bhat) with a lentil soup (dal), some form of curry and usually pickle. To eat you mix everything together. As such most families eat off plates with a lip, so as to not spill over. Even in restaurants it usually comes on such a plate, often with various compartments for each item. Think prison plates. The curry and dal vary by region, and are generally quite good. Plus, when you order it in restaurants you get refills until you're full, and when its served in a private home there's a mound of rice. When Caitlin and I stayed with our students we had to be careful not to put all the curry and dal on the rice at once, as the bowls were immediately refilled without our asking, so we'd end up with far more food than we could possibly eat.
In my house we ate dal bhat with cabbage and cauliflower curry most nights for dinner. Our dal was very different from the typical dal (not in taste, it was just WAY thicker than it should be), but we liked it. There's often lots of twigs and small rocks in the lentils, and therefore in the dal. There's a distinctive crunch when you find one, but after a while you stop noticing and a small pile on the side of the plate is normal.
In addition to dal bhat we made lots of fried rice and fried noodles, other staples of Nepali diets. To complement dinner I sometimes made chapattis, momos and alu parotha. All three involve dough made from flour and water. Chapattis are the most basic, being simply dough rolled very thin and fried. Alu parotha is two layers of dough with curried potato in between. It should be fairly thin, but I usually made it rather thick, as it was often the main course of picnic lunches.
Momos are my favourite. They're a Tibetan dumpling made from dough with either meat or vegetable mash inside. Steamed (momos) and then sometimes fried (kothey), they're my favourite Nepali food.
The most common snack eaten by the children is chow chow, which is dry ramen noodles. There's all sorts of brands, usually chicken, vegetable or shrimp flavoured. It's an excellent snack for on the go. If you have a little more time there's chock pot, which is noodles with lots of spices and fresh coriander. It can be spicy, but it's also really good.
Sweets and biscuits are really cheap, and there's lots of variety. Sau-roti is my favourite hot sweet - rice flour, flour and sugar made into a dough, then deep fried. In terms of biscuits, the coconut crispies and pineapple creams are the best. Not the ones labelled chocolate, they don't taste a thing like it.
Unless in a tourist area, it's best to stick to local food. Attempts at western fare are a gamble. Sometimes it's really good (like the burgers and spring rolls at the Gorkha Inn), but other times it goes horribly wrong.
Now that I've left Nepal, I'm craving one more dal bhat like crazy. I'm pretty sure there's a Nepali restaurant in Ottawa, so I'll be making a trip once I'm home!

Durga

Durga (pronounced Dulga), out landlady, was the first person to make us feel comfortable in Laxmi. A petite woman, at least a foot shorter than me, she has a warm and engaging smile that immediately puts you at ease. For the first two or so weeks she visited us every morning to make sure we were dong alright. As time passed her spontaneous visits decreased, but she was always at the other end of a phone call if we needed her. As it turned out, we needed her fairly often. From a blocked bathroom drain to a thief in the house to requests for household supplies, she was always there. Sometimes she was like Santa, appearing with curtains, a mortar and pestle, and even a bona fide carpet for the hallway. Once it was a bag with about 20g of hash, homemade on her family's farm! Overall, we couldn't have had a better landlady. Always cheerful, she and her two young children were wonderful to have around. Next year's Laxmi house will be a lucky group.

The Neighbours

My little pink house is up on a hill, and there are two families that we share the little rise with. Standing on the roof, looking out at the road, both live to the left. I have no idea how many people actually comprise these two families (Nepali homes typically include 3 or 4 generations). Between the 2 families there are people ranging in age from a few months to very elderly, and everything in between. I think there are around 12-15 people bewteen the two houses, but I'm really not sure.
We quickly struck up a relationship with the family immediatly next to us. From the beginning we gave them the contents of our compost bin, which they fed to their goats. Usually we did this every 2-3 days, as they didn't like it when the compost started to compost. In return they knocked on our door every so often with plates of food - various Nepali snacks. I have no idea if they enjoyed the food we put on the plate when returning it each time (pancakes, onion rings...) but the exchange continued until we moved out.
The two families have a few young boys (or at least one whose friends come over a lot), who often come peer through our windows, usually the kitchen ones. If the windows are open they will often talk through them. Once I was in there making momos and ended up being quizzed on Class 3 social studies, the exam having been that morning. I have no idea if I got any right, but judging from their reactions I didn't!
It's not just the kids that peer through the windows; the adults do it too. Even after 3 months it sometimes feels like living in a zoo. When the Besi house visited for Holi, they were a little shocked to have people peering in at 11pm. I'd never known it to happen at night before, but I guess the zoo never closes! There were times during the day when everyone would unabashedly look through, even knowing one of us was in the room.
As important as the neighbour people are the neighbour animals. Mostly goats, there are also a few buffalo and some chickens. We never bothered to name the chickens or adult animals, but the babies all got names. In January there was Lucy, a little grey goat, and Harry, a buffalo. Harry disappeared all of a sudden though, and we don't like to think about why.
We thought Lucy was small and cute, and she was. I mentioned the lack of entertainment before - once I watched the rooster chase Lucy around the yard for a good 5 mins - I think it was the highlight of the day. She certainly was sweet, and very inquisitive. That might be what got her in trouble with the rooster! But Lucy grew.
But then spring began, and with it came a slew of baby goats. First there was Holi, so named because of the day of her birth, and then Molly while I was in Bandipur. They're adorable, especially when the play together, which they do often. We're not actually sure as to the gender of these goats, but just made gave them whatever names they looked like.
During the final days in the house, construction on the house to the right reached the point where the house was habitable. The owner and his wife and son moved in, so for those few days we had people on both sides.
As the only AV's to live in a house with nobody else on another floor, it was nice to have neighbours. They offered a window into everyday Nepali life, which was fascinating to watch.

Laxmi

Laxmi Bazaar, the little village where I lived for three months, became my home away from home. When it came time to leave I was sad to say goodbye. At first I thought the village was far too small for me to live happily there, but as time passed I fell in love with it.
It gets bright early, so the village wakes up early. Everyone is up and about by 6, to make the most of the daylight hours when power cuts aren't as debilitating. Much of morning (well, all day) life happens outside, as the shops are opened, steps washed and chores completed. And it's loud. Crying babies, bleating goats, loud voices and even chopping wood (all this about 2 ft. from my head and at 6am!)
The village isn't big, but its small feel is somewhat deceptive. There is one main intersection where the buses stop, around which the majority of the shops are located. It runs along the top and side of a ridge, with houses and fields down either side. There are two roads off the main road. One goes up a hill, and is where Maha Laxmi is located. The other runs off the intersection, along a small offshoot ridge. It has some shops, lots of houses, and ends in farms.
There's always lots of people around during the day. There are people in the fields, in the shops, hanging around near the shops and houses and generally just everywhere. Nepali life, as I'm sure I've said before, takes place outside.
Except where it rains. As soon as it starts, the village appears to close. Shops do stay open, but the little hut shops along the road are closed. All of a sudden there is nobody outside, and the usually bustling village appears deserted. As soon as the rain stops though, everyone is right back outside.
I've never lived anywhere smaller than 100,000 people, and I thought that was small. Laxmi has maybe 2000 people, includes the outlying farms. At first I was irked by the number of things that aren't available here, but you can get in Gorkha, like jam and toilet paper. After a while I got used to it though, and going up to Gorkha - which really isn't an inconvience, it's only 10 mins by bus - to get supplies didn't feel like any sort of imposition. After a few weeks I settled into the rhythym of the village, and by February I loved it there. I see the same people around all the time, and recognize a lot of the villagers. And I've figured out some of the little things about the village, like how fresh bread rolls are delivered around 2pm, and who lives near the upper bus stop.
As the day starts early, so too does it end early. It gets dark around 7 (in March, in January it was more like 5:30), and the village appears to go to sleep around 9. That's deceptive too though, there's a lot of activity still going on!

Sitting on the Rocks - Besi

The last stop of our week away was in Besi Sahar, to visit another group of volunteers. We arrived in the late afternoon, and went down to the river for a while. Bupu, Will and Pippa's school, was on the way, so we stopped to visit.
It's a private school, and by far the nicest of all the AV schools I've visited. It's English medium, and huge. A large hostel, several staff rooms, and even a garden. The garden had rope fences around it though, I guess the kids would pull it apart otherwise!
We spent about an hour down on the rocks next to the Marsangi River, clambering around and skipping stones. Well, not me, I've never been able to skip a stone no matter how much I try. There was even sand amongst some of the rocks, which felt lovely on my feet.
There was a significant storm that night, complete with lots of loud thunder, bright forked lightening and rain. The Besi house has a patio (up on their floor, the second) covered by a pavilion. We sat underneath it to watch the storm, and what a storm it was. At one point a lightening strike hit the top of the ridge just above Besi, complete with sparks and everything. Amazing.
The power was on and off, much more off than on, all evening due to the storm. It was like being back on the roof at home (Laxmi), but with the added bonus of the storm.
Besi is a more prosperous town that Gorkha, probably because it's the start of a trek. It feels cleaner, because the gutters were covered over so you can't see the garbage. It's flat too, instead of always going up on downhill.
We left Besi in the early afternoon of Saturday, after a nice leisurely morning. Got home to Laxmi to get ready to move out.

In a Tree - Bandipur

While we were in Bandipur, while going for a walk along a ridge, Magnus and I found a tree. I have no idea what type of tree is was, but it was huge. It has large, flat branches, and lots of places to lean back and relax. By far it was my favourite place in Bandipur.
It's located along the top of the ridge, with a view along both sides. Located alongside a small shed, it's an informal resting place, for people walking longer distances, and those looking after a herd of grazing goats. A couple groups of people stopped to take a rest underneath; also to give us quite a few stares, white people in trees not being a common occurence.
While sitting up there a husband and wife came walking along the path hugging the ridge, carry large loads of leaves on their backs/heads. The wife was in flip flops, and the husband was barefoot. We had walked to the tree in flip flops and thought that was pretty Nepali (especially after seeing two people come by in full trekking gear), but barefoot with that load was impressive!
We went back the next morning with everyone, having stopped on the way at a large rock with a 360 degree view. You could see down onto the whole of Bandipur. And kudos to Hari for doing that walk, partly bushwacking, in a skirt!
At the end if the trail back to town, along a trail that hugs the ridge instead of going along the top, there is a small outskirt of Bandipur. It's tiered fields with some houses. That morning, there was a tractor churning up one of the tiers, making a road.
After the heat of Lumbini, catching the breeze in the tree was wonderful. I went back in the afternoon with Mangus, Julia and Ed, and it actually got chilly! It's not as hot here as in the Terai, but it's still plenty hot enough to really enjoy a breeze. The tree is big enough that the four of us could easily and comfortably all lean back, with room to spare.
Heading back to the guest house that afternoon, we again passed by the construction, which had progressed a surprisingly long way. There was a crows of people standing by watching the progress - as there is when anything happens in Nepal. They also helped us get on the right path, as the original was being churned up into a road.
Just like Lumbini, it was nice to get out of town and see some more of rural Nepali life. That's the real culture of the area, and much more like what I find in Biren Chowk.

Bat Cave - Bandipur

After Lumbini we headed to Bandipur, a Newari town just up the mountain on the south side of the main highway. The only way up to the town is by jeep, along the hairpin curves, and affording beautiful views of the valley.
Bandiur is clean. Very clean. Immaculatly clean. NGO (we're not sure which one, but prevailing opinion is either the UN or UNICEF) has put quite a bit of money into cleaning it up, and the results are obvious. It's the cleanest place I've been to in Nepal. There are signs everywhere reminding people to keep the place clean, put rubbish in the bin , and my favourite, announcing that Bandiupr is a defecation free zone!
The town feels like a European village, with a stone paved street, restaurants with outdoor tables, and guest houses with shutters opening onto the street and flower gardens along the side of the road. The entire time we were there we didn't eat a single meal inside. We stayed in a small guesthouse family run where the rooms were once occupied by the owner's children. My room had a balcony looking out over the valley. By far the best guest house so far.
The first morning in Bandipur we went to the Siddha Cave, the biggest cave in Asia. It was about an hours walk downhill to the cave, so the cool and dark of the cave was heavenly. The inside was HUGE. We climbed down two ladders into a massive chamber, with smaller chambers off it. There was a small shrine in a little alcove, and bats overhead. Not very many though. Lonely Planet said there are tons, but I was dissapointed. There are more bats on the roof in Laxmi.
Julia, Magnus and I walked back up the really steep stairs (I hate stairs) back to Bandipur, while Caitlin, Hari and Ed walked the rest of the way down to the highway and took a jeep back up. It had to stop halfway up to pour water on the engine to cool it off. Oh the vehicles in Nepal - they're not the most reliable.
The rest of the time in Bandipur involved the tree, until Friday morning, the day we were leaving. That morning we all went to a silk farm. It was fun, and we saw all ages of silkworms, but I learned more a the silk farm in Turkey. Still, we ate mulberries, the food the worms eat. It was a fun outing.
And from there we headed to Besi.