Children

I thought I would put some photos up of some of the lovely munchkins we have been playing with at a local orphanage on a Saturday afternoon the last couple of months... They're such great kids, are fun to play with, and constantly remind me how amazingly lucky and privileged I am... which is a good thing! The simplest things make them smile - a big contrast to some kids at home I think.

Sex Appeal

This is classic...

'Jovan Sex Appeal'
Aftershave/cologne for men.

Sex appeal.
Now you don't have to be born with it.
This provocative,
stimulating blend of rare
spices and herbs was
created by man for the
sole purpose of attracting
woman. At will.
More than the usual
promise in a bottle.
It's more like a guarantee.
Splash it on your face,
your neck, your chest. The
more you use, the better.
Because it is truly
Sex Appeal. (And man can
never have too much.)
Sex Appeal by Jovan.
For the first time in the
history of the world...
We bottled it.


Yes this stuff is for real... Photos below to prove it :O)

a palace and a camper van

Today I went for a lunchtime walk around the edge of royal palace, it gets so dark inside the office during these power cuts that getting out into the sunshine (and traffic, pollution and horn honking chaos) is the only way to stave off depression...
The palace (perhaps soon to be known as the People's Palace if the Maoists have their way) is mostly fenced by a brick wall, but round the front there are some huge iron railings so you can catch a glimpse of the gardens (lovely) and buildings (rather crematorium-esque if you ask me). Today as I walked past there was this amazing smell - the smell of freshly mowed grass. mmmmm so green and fresh smelling now that is NOT a smell you ever smell here... it reminded me of summer in England... lovely!

Also at the weekend some friends and I went up onto the valley rim to Nagarkot where you get an amazing view of the Himalayas and can laze in peace and quiet in the sun, and most excitingly can see many many trees and other nature type things. It's perfect. Nepal really is beautiful outside of smogville. On the way back down we passed a French camper van going up. Which I can only conclude means they drove to Nepal from France. Put my mind in overdrive thinking of all the epic routes they could have possibly come... I'm guessing they did Russia, Mongolia, China, Tibet and down into Nepal... but perhaps the camper van had superdooper bullet proof lining and they came through Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India and then into Nepal... that would make them true legends, given the conflicts going on... either way those people have to have some epic stories!!

Pebar

Last night I went to a rather entertaining wine tasting session... much wine was tasted, and I probably learnt more than I did at Vinopolis... anyways you can imagine that I didn't want to wake up early this morning.

alas

ringringringring
argh telfy wakes up and sees it is 7.15am
she drags herself to the phone
'hello'
'hello mam it is Pebar can I come and clean?'
telfy mentally curses Pebar 'hello Pebar it is 7.15am'
'yes mam'
'isn't today a holiday for you?'
'yes mam but I dont play Holi'
curses, the I'm a nice employer letting you have a holiday line didn't work.
'can you come tomorrow?'
silence
there is only one thing for it... tell the truth.
'Pebar I went out last night I want to sleep'
'OK mam I will come at 8 o clock'

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so well yes, he came at 8 o clock... I seriously think sometimes its more of a pain than its worth!!

Stockpiling food and Burning tyres

I thought I would attach this exciting photo of the tyre burnage that occurred outside my office yesterday! Alas I only caught the end of it, but I think the tyres must have been spread out across the road. Why was tyre burning going on? hmm apparently cos we have water shortages... that is nothing new, I'm guessing it was a localised dispute but who knows!!

also I think I mentioned how some people are stockpiling food because of all the strikes/blockades in the south of the country stopping imports from India. I haven't really been too sure what the best policy is... I mean stockpiling seems drastic, and there are no signs of shortages yet (well aside from petrol and gas), anyways today we got an official email from the highs upon high at work recommending we get in 6-8 weeks of supplies. Crikey!

So, well better safe than sorry... I toodled to the shop on the way home and bought up a stack of rice, flour, tuna and pasta (shells, twists and bows - I resisted the children's pasta with cars, and tractor shapes... it was highly exciting, but twice the price!) Not enough food for 6-8 weeks (I don't think I could carry that much food home from the shops!) but I don't think I will starve, I mean I could always break into my earthquake preparedness kit which has even more supplies in... and I figure I'm coming home in 12 days so worst comes to worst I will export tesco pasta back here when I return!

another strike... would you belive?

oh, have I mentioned that we have lots of strikes here?!!
hmmm

well yes, another national strike today... so with great happiness I cycled to work on pretty traffic free roads. The protesters seemed more grumpy today tho... in a couple of places they made us get off the bikes and walk about 10 metres (not sure why - flexing their muscles?)... there were signs of broken bricks everywhere indicating rock throwing had taken place... and we saw a group of protesters letting down the tyres on one man's motorbike - because he was defying the bandh (strike)... bit of a bummer to have a motorbike with flat tyres me thinks!

oh yes, and this weekend is the 'Holli' festival. I am seriously considering NOT leaving the house on Saturday, people are already throwing water balloons and they're not thrown in a fun lets-all-have-a-jolly-festival type way, more lets-see-how-many-women-we-can-harass-by throwing-water-balloons-at... its not nice, and pisses me off. Fortunately no one has had a good aim yet.

The King...

Last April's people's revolution saw the King stripped of his fairly extensive powers (he had had taken direct control of the country in 2005)... he is not particularly popular, especially as many people think he was implicated in some way in the murder of the previous (popular) King (his brother) and various other family members...

Anyways Prachanda and the Maoists are constantly calling for Nepal to be declared a republic and for the king to be stripped of all entitlements... more likely there will be a referendum, which would be interesting as traditionally the royal family were seen as divine incarnations of a Hindu god (not sure which one off hand as I'm not too up on my Hindu gods). So I'm guessing there would be a fair few people (particularly in the Army) who would want to keep the King as monarch.
In the mean time the government is considering how best to nationalise land and property belonging to the Royal family, and has also decided to replace the king's image with that of Mt Everest in Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination notes. In addition the Royal crown in the transparent part of the notes will be replaced by the national flower - rhododendron.

So I wonder what the King is doing? Perhaps trying to liquidize assets and shift them off shore before they can be nationalised?!

mini bus drivers....

Ok, so today’s excitements involved trying to get to work unsuccessfully due to (yes you guessed it) a protest… apparently a Maoist killed a mini bus driver (mini bus is a major form of transport here), and so most of the mini bus drivers in Kathmandu decided to protect about this by parking all their mini busses in front of the Maoist headquarters, which unfortunately happen to be next to a bridge which is a major entry point into Kathmandu… and my route to work. We tried to divert down backstreets but everyone else was doing that, including the school busses. I may have mentioned the narrow-ness of streets here. They are too narrow for cars really, let alone school buses. So we sat in some very big jams whilst cars, motorbikes and school buses tried to cram themselves along the narrow streets. In the end I gave up, came home, and got out the bike, which meant I could cycle past all the protesting mini bus drivers… squeezing through gaps between mini busses. What fun. Pictures attached below.

The only downside was that although I live less than 4miles from work, and morning traffic isn’t too bad, coming home at 5 or 6pm on a bike significantly decreases your life expectancy (in my opinion). I think there are 3 death scenarios:

1. Although not an instant death, lung cancer caused by inhaling the filthy air can’t be fun…
2. Death by moving vehicle. There are a range of options including, bus, truck, car, taxi or motorbike. There are also a range of death scenarios… head on collision (people like to drive on the wrong side of the road), squished between 2 converging moving vehicles, knocked off into the path of another moving vehicle etc etc and we must not forget the Nepali law which means if you run someone over you pay for either their medical expenses, or funeral expenses if they’re dead. Funerals are cheaper and so most people go back and finish the job off – just to make sure they don’t get lumbered with a huge bill!
3. Death by a Nepali lynch mob when you run over a pedestrian/slow cyclist who isn’t looking where they’re going or is toodling along in the middle of the road.

Fortunately I avoided all of these possible events and came home safely.

More thoughts on strikes

Apparently there has been one strike or another in Nepal every day for the last 3 months, but I am not sure how accurate that information is... anyways this strike seemed to amuse me... like I said the whole country is striking...

The Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) has called for Nuwakot Bandh (strike)for an indefinite period starting from 22nd Feb protesting the police ban on sale of alcoholic substances.

I don't think I have been here long enough to even have a very wise opinion about what on earth is going to happen to this country, it's really hard to make sense of the various rumours you hear in various places. Some people say we should stock up on provisions big time in case the current strikes in the south start to hit more than just petrol and gas supplies... some people think the Maoists will take over... some people think the prime minster will die causing even more political chaos (he is in his 80s and ill)... some people think the King will try to retake power in a coup, I don't know, no one is very optimistic about anything, and so many different groups are protesting, its too complicated to envisage a solution... and yet it is possible to toodle along in Kathmandu without too much distress. Running around buying up all the pasta and tuna in town seems extreme, but then I don't know perhaps it isn't? hmmm interesting times.

Good news!

Good news! The strike by the rubbish collecting people has finally been called off! Apparently the government have met all demands of the people surrounding the rubbish dump:

• Health post in the village,
  
• Start the process of electrification for the area,
• Provide vacancies for 20 teachers at local schools within the next seven days.
  
• Provide Rs 1 million for the construction of a road,
  
• Send technical human resources to run a veterinary hospital,
• Formulate necessary laws relating to solid waste management.

So they weren't asking for much (?!!) ... I don't have a problem with the government sorting out these things for people living near the rubbish dump, but its like I have said before, giving in 100% to every group who protests is not a sustainable policy - well not here, where every group with any issue about anything seems to be protesting at the moment, and where the country is pretty much the poorest in the world outside of Africa, and therefore does not have infinite financial resources.

According to le newspaper over 4,200 tons of solid waste remains piled up in Kathmandu, officials said it could take at least one week to clear the city streets!!

Fingerless gloves

Fingerless gloves are brilliant, one can wear them in the workplace during a power cut, resulting in ones hands not freezing, in addition ones ability to type is not hindered.
Amazing.

religious experiences

Friday was a public holiday as it was a large Hindu festival Mahashivaratri...

In the morning I decided to go visit a Buddhist temple that I had been meaning to see for a while. I thought I might cycle, which wouldn’t have been a bad thing if I knew where I was going, and if every other person on the road wasn’t a Hindu on their way to the Hindu temple and so of course knew nothing about the location of any Buddhist temples… I cycled round the ring road which is the main road going all the way round Kathmandu, it runs past Pashputi Nath temple where all the Hindus were going. As there were so many people on the road it was effectively closed and so I had to walk, trying not to bash people with the bike, and trying to avoid Sadhus determined to put red dots on my forehead for ‘luck’. As I was going up the hill I saw 2 large helicopters circling the town with large red flags hanging off the bottom of them… for a while I thought perhaps the Maoists were staging a coup or something, but I don’t think the Maoists have air power… in the end I figured they had to be something to do with the festival… but I’m not sure what. Finally back riding I got totally lost, but somehow found the temple, after having a minor head on collision with a motorbike, as I was overtaking a truck… so yes possibly it was partly my fault… but its so frustrating when my bike can go faster than half the vehicles on the road, I end up cycling like Nepalis drive (all over the place), which possibly is a recipe for disaster. Somehow he only clipped the side of my bike, but I really don’t know how I stayed on as it was quite a whack. Anyway the temple was beautiful – well I suppose the prayer flags against the blue sky were beautiful. I got rather carried away on the photo front which if you have a squizz at flickr you will see. Its like a different world out there as most of the people living round the stuppa are Tibetan refugees. Most marvellously I discovered they sell arrul (or the Tibetan equivalent)… mmm dried curds… mmm just like in Mongoland. After ambling around with the monks and tourists I got back on me bike and cycled home.

On the way I ran into a huge procession of people wearing white. White puffer jackets, white saris, white shirts… white everything. There were thousands of them and I cycled past them all… past tuktuks ferrying small child goddesses - very ‘made up’ as if going to a beauty pageant, past flags, past loud speakers, past a marching band, past small children carrying vases and wearing inordinate amounts of eye make-up, until I came to the front of the line and started talking to a man, who if I didn’t know you couldn’t convert to Hinduism, I would have thought he was trying to convert me, the way he went on about the father of my soul, and fingers pointing to heaven etc. We walked alongside a holy ‘linga’ (phallic statue) which was sitting in a flat bed truck, surrounded by more holy people and covered with flowers and other offering looking things. For some reason that I couldn’t work out it was being transported to a park, so I went with it to the park, and then went home. All very random.

But the day got more random, when I met up with my friends and we walked down to PashputiNath to see what was going on there. I had been forewarned about the ganja smoking sadhus (and there were rumours that some would be naked – but no naked men were seen). Even so it was kind of surprising to see thousands of people crushing into the temples to be blessed and then coming outside and smoking dope sold or given (I don’t know which) to them by Sadhus (or holy men). Seriously it was surreal; I had never smelt so much of the stuff in such a small area. It seemed like it was mostly men smoking… and smoking lots of the stuff, despite it being illegal in Nepal, it seems no one minds during this festival as there were police all over the place too, trying to herd crowds and stop people pelting the king’s car with stones when he came to be blessed (police seemed fairly unsuccessful on both counts).

Then we saw the snake charmers and my friend got to wear a snake round her neck and pose with a cobra on her head, whilst other sadhus played whistles and got stoned. I think the snakes were stoned too, they didn’t seem to be doing much. It was all so random – especially when you try and relate it to any religious festival in the UK. The other thing was that the festival was at Pashputi Nath which is where they cremate people, in full public view… so the smell of dope is intermingled with the smell of burning bodies, which is masked by incense. Seeing people being burnt on the ghats is a strange thing. Death and body disposal are very much away from public view at home, but here the bodies burn just across the river, and telfy the tourist and other tourists took photos. Which in itself is slightly odd… I mean why was I taking photos of burning bodies? (albeit at a distance)… I’m not sure, but you can see them on flickr – don’t worry nothing is very distinguishable and you probably wouldn’t know what it was unless I told you…

So all in all a random day of Buddhist and Hindu religious experiences!

A strike....

Today another strike was called, this time by an ethnic minority group wanting the government’s ear. If there is one thing I have learnt from being here it is that if you want something all you have to do is strike. People were told to stay off the roads – blocking all transport is basically how strikes work here. For one reason or another it was thought unlikely that the strike would be observed in the valley and so we drove to work… which was fine, not many other cars about tho. As the day continued we heard (via those snazzy UN VHF radios) that the strike was being enforced and that in certain areas men with big long sticks were beating cars and drivers who failed to keep off the road (nothing like a bit of hospitalisation and abuse of private property during a strike). So faced with the choice of hanging around work till 6 or 7pm and then trying to get a lift home, a colleague and I decided to walk. We walked pretty fast and got home in 55min which wasn’t too bad… on the way we passed:

Policemen in battle dress hanging around (conclusion: policemen in battle dress are always miles away from any action)…

... piles of rotting rubbish (the rubbish collectors also still being on strike)…
... virtually no cars (although bikes and motorbikes seem to be able to get around)… The road in the photo below is usually 4 lanes of solid traffic.

...actually the cars there were, were interesting, most had large flags waving from the front to clearly identify to protestors they were an ambulance, UN organisation, or tourist bus… in fact several ‘tourist busses’ had huge hastily written banners stretched over the bonnet, just so there was no mistaking the fact… Oh yes and the World Bank people sped past with a flag and a police escort just to be on the safe side – although I’m not convinced what good the police do – they certainly don’t stop strikes…

one of the best things about walking home was seeing the mountains – I think I mentioned yesterday that the combination of rain and fewer cars on the road due to strikes and petrol shortages is great in that respect! For those of you who have walked up the hill from the Bagmati towards the Himalaya Hotel you will know that the mountains in this photo are VERY rarely seen!

I think its fair to say that I am not someone who thinks that foreign investment and free markets are the ONLY way poverty can be reduced, however just seeing how crippling to the economy a month of strikes in one part of the country or another can be makes me think how on earth can this country get anywhere if things continue like this. Even at a local level who would want to invest in a small business when 6 hrs every day there will be no power (sort of rules out anything requiring a good electricity supply), when strikes cause huge petrol shortages and shut down all the shops, so you might not be able to do business, when the government appears to give into the demands of anyone who strikes long enough, when there is minimal law and order so people can get away with trashing private property (in the name of a strike)… basically an economy cant function very well like this, and although it must be a million (perhaps billion in the case if Iraq) times better than many other countries in the world… I don’t think it’s an ideal situation for economic growth or for the happiness of the population who unlike me don’t have a nice little red EU passport which means I can get out of this place and breathe some fresh air in 4 weeks time…

Perhaps that sounds a little down and gives the impressing I’m desperate to leave… in fact my Grannie said to me she thinks I don’t like it here. But I do like it here, its random, the people are lovely, the food is yum and outside of Kathmandu it is so very very beautiful, when you see those Himalaya Mountains it’s more than magical. I guess its just not a holiday (like the bodge?), but that doesnt mean I dont like it... I think perhaps next time I blog I will make an effort to write about something good and happy going on in Nepal…

snow and darkness

Today it snowed in Kathmandu for the first time since 1952… or something like that. Alas it was nothing more than a few snowflakes, and possibly could be best described as sleet… and indeed I didn’t see it at all as I was working in the dungeon that is my office. However the aftermath of 24hrs of rain (and 5 minutes of snow) is amazing. The temperature has dropped to freezing and the air is crisp, cold and best of all FRESH (except around the piles of un-cleared rubbish, as rubbish collectors are still on strike). I have been doing pleanty of breathing… oh and it tastes sooo good. The extent of the pollution here was hit home again this evening as we drove back from work. Looking out of the window at the view I have looked at everyday coming home from work these last 3.5months, there in front of me were some wapping huge big mountains… now I had never seen these mountains before today as the smoggy-haze just hid them from view. It was incredible, surprising and disconcerting to see them, a curtain had been lifted and the previous reality was suddenly not reality but a smog induced illusion.

So I think I mentioned that load shedding (power cuts) are increasing. Today the power was on-off-on-off at work and I found myself using my head torch at one point to be able to see my keyboard – it was that dark. The local papers report that we will be having 6hrs power cuts 2 days per week and 7hrs power cuts 4 days a week, and then the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) seem to expect us to be grateful that one day per week we will have no power cuts… the NEA call this a ‘load shedding holiday’. Apparently some power is being imported from India, but they are unable to bring it very far into the country because of “technical reasons … that would entail a lot of transmission losses". Apparently current load shedding is not saving enough power, and people are just shifting electricity consumption to different times of the day, hence the need to deprive us of so much electricity that we cant help but use less. Load shedding may increase to 8 or 9 hrs per day in March, should the situation not improve. It is an interesting experience, especially coming from a society where any power cuts are met with distress. I think it spurs on my desire to live in an eco house, or someplace where I am not dependent on supplies of non-renewable energy…

blog blog blogedy blog

Well it has been a little while since I last blogged, mostly because ‘blogger’ have finally made changing your sign in procedure a pre-requisite of blogging and I didn’t have time to do that until now!

So life is good. I have put some more photos on Flickr, of mountain biking last weekend, and of the Maoist rally that I went to today - celebrating 12 years of glorious insurgency amongst other things I believe. Prachanda the great leader himself was there, not that I could get anywhere close enough to spy him. Thousands upon thousands of red flag flying people were surging around Ratna Park in town trying to get close to the action. Maoists were dishing out free water and it was all very jolly – the red paper ‘Maoist’ visors worn by every other person made me feel as if I was in a surreal communist theme park… and I desperately want to find exactly where you can get vests with Prachanda printed on them in a very Che Guevara-esq pose.

The petrol update is that there is now petrol (a 10 day halt to the strikes and blockades in the south was called)… however there are still fairly huge queues – back log I guess. Electricity cuts are increasing to 6hrs per day starting tomorrow. At work we only have back up power for PCs and so there are no lights during the power cuts. Its soooo dark and depressing! Oh yes and as if this wasn’t enough the people who collect the rubbish are striking about something or other - they have learnt that if you want anything in this country you just have to strike and then the government is fairly likely to give into most of your demands and you can all live happily ever after… well until the government realises that this really isn’t a very sustainable way to function… so yes rubbish collection people striking is actually more tragic than you might think, as basically most people, especially in market areas, just throw the rubbish onto the street and then someone else comes along and sweeps it and burns it and manky dogs run around it all and get excited… so basically certain areas always look rather grim, or so I thought until the rubbish collectors went on strike… and now they look really grim… but the dogs are happy at least.

The other weekend we went to see a bollywood movie. Its interesting, very rarely are western films shown here. I think Casino Royale was shown in December, but with all sex scenes edited out, which makes you wonder if the Bond-ness of the Bond film was lost. So, yes we went to see a bollywood movie, which was a 3 hour epic with no subtitles… despite this quite easy to follow… the liberal interspersing of ‘I love you’ and other English mixed into the Hindi helped. There was plenty of singing and dancing… the movie was split between Delhi and ‘London’… well it was supposed to be London, but when one actress ran round the corner of Trafalgar square and past the Bodleian Library in Oxford I decided either something was amiss or I had been out of the country too long. Just sitting in the audience was an experience, people brought their whole families along, babies and toddlers included, fortunately the sound system was incredibly loud – to drown out screaming kids I suppose… my friend was sitting next to a Nepali who tried to have several conversations with her during the film, and asked her if she wanted to take part in some sort of rally car event he was setting up. Random.

Friday is a holiday. Apparently a big Hindu festival will be celebrated with (naked!) Sadhus chanting, smoking dope and waving live snakes about the place… it all sounds a very random ceremony and one not to be missed. Perhaps some good photos?!

That’s all from me I think.

Love and power cuts x x x x

Petrol crisis

Currently in Nepal there is a bit of a crisis in the (Terai) south of the country, with certain ethnic groups wanting more political autonomy and greater representation in parliament. Quite a few people have been killed by the police which is only fanning the fire of discontent… there are blockades and curfews in many parts of the Terai and as this affects the main import routes from India there is now a huge nationwide gas and petrol shortage (with other shortages to follow I suppose as we seem to get many things from India or the countryside – both of which require fuel to get into Kathmandu). Most people (including me) cook using gas bottles, and as Kathmandu is smogville central I can assure you petrol is in high demand. Some petrol is getting in but they are rationing it to 5litres per person. One of our drivers at work queued for 6 hours at the weekend to get fuel for a car… the queues are crazy, this afternoon I took some pictures fairly close to my house (see below), they just show the queue for motor bikes, the one for cars snaked for a couple of miles down the road…

The only good thing about all this is less cars on the road, but so far there is no noticeable improvement in air quality, and my now almost permanent cold persists… grrrr

Saturday night and I'm feeling flammable

July 2012: I found this in my drafts... probably from 5 years ago, but it amused me to look back on this... highlight?? ... of my time in Nepal. So I am going to publish it retrospectively, hopefully filed in the right year if I can work out the blogger wizardary! x


______

Soooo have you ever washed in kerosene? Probably I imagine the answer is NO... it is like asking if you have bathed in petrol... not really a very nice idea. However I have just completed washing myself with kerosene and I thought I would like to share the experience with the world.


So yes I was cycling home in the dark and I noticed that the path I was about to cycle on was freshly tarred. When I say fresh I mean that 6 hours previous it was dirt and no workmen/ steam rollers were in sight. I actually stopped my bike and considered cycling the long way round. But no I am lazy and thought it cant be too tragic... it was a gloriously smooth cycling experience. No potholes... wonderous.


I noticed a fair amount of tar was flying up into the mud guard and some onto my legs, but it was too late to do anything about it. After lugging the bike up the 2 floors to my flat I had concluded that both bike and I were fairly black. The solution was obviously to put bike in the bathroom and hose it down. doh. This had the effect of spraying tar all over my bathroom, and the rest of me that wasn't tared all ready... it also had the effect of inducing mild panic as I tried (unsuccessfully) to wipe the tar from the walls and floor and toilet and sink and washing machine, and only succeeded in making more mess in the process. WHAT would my landlord say? What would people at work say when they saw I was covered in black oily smears? panic panic panic. I then decided to try and see if a bit of washing up liquid would remove the tar, this involved walking into the kitchen to get it... and yes traipsing oily wet marks all through there too... the situation was deteriorating. everything i was touching was turning black... i was a mess, my house was a mess, and no washing up liquid does not remove tar. Panic levels were rising even more.


Then I remembered. My kerosene... the ultimate bike degreaser when bike degreaser isn't available. I went and got the bottle from the balcony. Wonder of wonders it worked a dream, the tar just rolled off... the bike was cleaned, the bathroom was cleaned, the floors were cleaned... all that was left was me... and no amount of scrubbing with soap was getting the tar off. The only thing for it was to dip the flannel in Kerosene and use it like shower gel... (urgh)


It worked... but I am not sure at what price. I cant smell anything but kerosene, I am probably the most flammable person in Kathmandu, and my skin is tingling like it may be allergic to kerosene despite much scrubbing with non-kerosene shower gel and moisturising with non-kerosene smelling products...


dum de dum...


on the plus side my bike is looking sooooo spangly, and I don't look like I have been rolling in tar!

The Guardian says...

Today the 'Guardian' say-eth:

"Women who live in areas of high air pollution, exposed to invisible particles from traffic fumes, coal-fired power stations and wood fires, are at increased risk of heart disease and death, according to a study in one of the world's leading medical journals today."

Lucky me... I reckon I have never lived anywhere so polluted. When I come home I think I shall be doing some serious breathing in wooded areas or by the coast or something... mmmm just the smell of fresh air would be most wonderful.

Of kerosene and weddings

This weekend saw me hunt for several random – non supermarket items. Firstly some kerosene with which to clean my bike chain, which the ever wise internet assured me would do in the absence of branded bike degreaser. Seeing as every other Nepali has kerosene stoves and it is winter you would have thought kerosene shops would be numerous. However I couldn’t find any anywhere until one shopkeeper volunteered a small boy in his shop to show me a kerosene shop. There followed a silent walk of about a mile down winding lanes until we came across the kerosene shop – which looked like every other shop, but had some tanks of kerosene out the back. Fortunately kerosene is sold by the litre (in old coke bottles) and I didn’t have to lug a huge tank of the stuff back to my house. Kerosene seems to work very well as a de-greaser, but it stinks, and is best administered outside me thinks.

The other item I was looking for was a crow bar, as there happen to be bars on all my windows and this is rather prison like and in a fire or an earthquake or armed robbery, or indeed any other calamity that could befall me, a crow bar could be most useful for prising open the bars and making an escape – should the normal exits be blocked… however I soon realised that not knowing Nepali for ‘crow bar’ made finding one impossible and so I gave up rather fast and returned home – cycling up the hill I encountered a hoard of Maoists waving red flags and chanting something (alas not directions to the crow bar shop) which was quite exciting given they had stopped all traffic…

The other excitement of the weekend was a Nepali wedding… some friends and I were invited to our Nepali teachers, brothers wedding, and we thought it would be an interesting experience so we decided to tag along, despite not knowing the bride and groom, and indeed not really knowing the Nepali teacher either. I was expecting some sort of lengthy Hindu wedding ceremony with Saris and people chanting and puja-ing all round, but no, randomly it was a Christian wedding, in a massive church – which even looked like a church at home… well if you ignored the large painting of Mt Everest underneath the alter cross and the fact there were no chairs. So we sat down on the floor, at the back, after beating away about 5 ushers who all thought the foreigners really should have pride of place at the front, even tho they knew no one in the church. The groom and our Nepali teacher sat on a platform at the front along with about 5 Nepali pastors and a couple of musicians. The wedding started without the bride… firstly there was praying (female members of the congregation covered their heads with their scarves) then there was very jolly singing (all done sitting down to ensure maximum pins and needles)… then at last the bride comes down the isle on the arm of her sister (?) and was wearing a most glorious satin white wedding dress – think very white, very shiny, very over the top, the bridesmaid also wore a white dress. It was weird they wore white as here it is the colour of death so kind of an odd wedding colour choice – although perhaps they saw ‘4 weddings and a funeral’ on star movie channel? After the bride had reached the stage and sat down in a chair her father wandered down the isle on his own, and then handed her over to the groom. All the time about 8 Nepali men with a range of photographic equipment (huge TV style video cameras, mobile phones, digital cameras, 35mm film cameras) rushed around recording and photographing every single exciting moment. Half the time you couldn’t even see the bride and groom as they were surrounded by a mass of cameramen! When you could see the bride she looked as if she had a cricked neck. Not once did she look up from her shoes, not during the 17 sermons (it was a long wedding), not when saying the vows to her husband to be, not when he lifted the veil from her face, and not when they walked back down the isle and out of the church to their dhal bhat (lentil and rice – traditional Nepali food) reception. I found this interesting as she didn’t smile either. Seriously, looking as if you want to top yourself isn’t a look people go for in weddings at home. However apparently here, if she looked even a little bit happy it would be ultimate disrespect to her family. The bride is supposed to look terribly sad that she must leave her family and join her new husband’s family, and so showing signs of pleasure at getting married is a big NO-NO. Sometimes city life is so westernised I actually find myself surprised by cultural differences – although this probably has something to do with the fact that after a while you are no longer surprised by many things that would surprise you if you just stepped off the plane from London.

Later that evening (about 10pm) a Hindu Nepali wedding party/procession set off from my street with much playing of trumpets, banging of drums and singing. 10pm would seem an odd time to start a wedding however the timing of strict Hindu weddings is decreed by an astrologer who works out the correct time based on details about birth-dates/times of the bride and groom. Apparently 10pm isn’t actually too bad a time, some weddings start in the middle of the night at 2 or 3am. Not sure ill be volunteering to go to any of those ones!

Oh the Joy

There will be power cut timing increment from this Friday 26 Jan 2007. Every household will face 3 hours of power cuts everyday amounting to 21 hours’ per week. This power cut duration is likely to be increased subsequently to exceed more than 40 hours per week.

Strikes

There seem to be a lot of strikes in Nepal, today was no exception - the 2nd day of a transport workers strike. They have called a national level strike because they want the government to compensate them for the damage caused to their vehicals during other strike action by other people.
This means that they block the roads and burn tyres and apparently deflate the tyres of people who try to defy them... tyre burning is a big thing in Nepal. Alas I dont have any photos of my own, however Mel got a great one (from a different strike) which I will attach below!


So, because there was a strike I had to cycle to work It was nice as there was virtually no traffic, which is my main reason for not cycling normally - fear of death by tuktuk/motorbike/Suzuki maruti taxi/land cruiser/bus... oh and fear of killing some cyclist or pedestrian by going too fast! Seriously it was so nice with no traffic that I am really hoping the 'infdefinate' strike will be indefinate so i can cycle everyday... or at least I'll think that until the food starts running out in the shops...
I took my camera with me thinking there would be exciting photos of tyre burnings, rocks on the roads... but alas nothing... just some soot on the ground where tyre burnage occurred yesterday. I think all the excitment was on the other side of town ;o(

I was thinking tho that all this talk on the BBC about British Airways cabin crew protesting could be brought to new levels if they took some tyre burning lessons from here.... How about 'cabin crew burn tyres in British airways planes'? or if that is too much like arson, perhaps they could burn tyres (plane tyres?) on the runways, outside all BA offices, and perhaps on the M25... i mean to say the lesson here is that tyre burning shouldn't just be limited to those directly affected by the issue being protested (which is often unknown)... the objective is to cause as much disruption to as many people as possible. The M25 would be a good start.

More photos...

I've put some more photos on Flickr if youre interested!

Pebar and the gym

Today is saturday... Pebar day. Now, i decided i should clarify once and for all whether he was a minor or not. Employing a child would be slightly tragic... so i said "Pebar how old are you?"... I held my breath, if he said 15 it would be awful - i'm not sure the landlord would appreciate me sacking Pebar because he was too young... so Pebar says 'I'm 20... I think...' so it turns out he doesnt actually know how old he is, but he thinks he is 20... so i think I'm fairly safe on the child labour front. The reason he doesnt know his age is because like manymany other people in developing countries his birth wasnt registered... in his case because his father died and his mother abandoned him, and so he has lived with my landlord for the last 11 years... interesting.

other news is that i went to a gym. I am not sure i will return. for 200 rupies or £1.40 I had the joy of using the following equipment:

1. 2x running machines – working fine, except the gradient was not changeable
2. 2x ski bikes – functional but not able to change the resistance – and there was no resistance as such so not much good.
3. 1x bike – lacking in one pedal but otherwise functional
4. 1x stepping machine – out of order

So, it was great value?


I'm off for some sightseeing now - I feel I need to be a tourist and find out what there is to see in this part of the world... I shall upload some more photos today or tomorrow

over and out

Earthquake proof???

so, i think i mentioned before that the chances of an earthquake striking Nepal are fairly high... in fact quoting my 'preparing for earthquakes' book that i got given yesterday it sayeth: " the last major earthquake in the valley [Kathmandu] came in 1934 and the statistics indicate that another devestating earthquake is not only inevitable in the long term but also highly likely in the near future".
Now, there are some people around and about who optimistically hope that the earthquake in Pakistan last year relieved some of the pressure on the fault line... however most people seem to just accept that an earthquake is going to happen, and that it will be worse than awful when it does... I think estimates are 40,000 dead and millions displaced... but i could be wrong. The thing is you cant live every day in total paranoia that your house is going to fall down and that you may be squished or be swallowed up into the earth... however I have now been pursaded that some preparation is required. So at the weekend my friend and i went out to buy some largish plastic barrels... we then went to the shop and bought all sorts of junk that i would never normally buy - tins of baked beans, tins of sardines, tins of fruit, tins of soup, tins of vegetables (all stuff that could be eaten cold)... cream crackers, digestive biscuits, peanuts, rasins... i also got in lots of baby wipes, loo roll, soap, liquid detol, a towel, pleanty of bottled water... (this seems like a lot of stuff but it is nothing like as comprehensive as the book suggests)... then i am supposed to put this barrel in the safest place in the house - preferably in an outside shed... well i live on the second floor - i dont have an outside shed... and how on earth do i know where the safest place in the house is should an earthquake strike. currently the barrel is by the front door, but i cant think that this should be a permenant solution... perhaps the back balcony - but thats where the gas cylenders are... oh the decisions. i figure if i am lucky to survive an earthquake in one piece then this stuff will be useful, but if my house falls down then the location of the barrel will be irrelevant...
other excitments are that i have a work permit now, and this means that i am registered with the UN in case of emergency evacuation... although whether i would be a priority of theirs i am not sure, as its not like i work for them... anyways they have the exact GPS location of my house, amongst other things...

I think that is all for now!
over and out roger roger?

Saturday in Kathmandu

Hello.

Today saw the return of Pebar - the cleaning boy. He had disappeared to the countryside register his birth or something… this seemed to take a month, and I am sure you can imagine my distress at actually having to do some cleaning for the first time in the last year. After realising I had been abandoned by Pebar I had to venture out and buy things like brooms and buckets and cleaning fluids… which interestingly I couldn’t find, and so I moped the floors Nepali style – using washing detergent… Anyway as soon as Pebar returned the landlord was on the phone demanding Pebar come over and clean, so he did, and he even did the washing up too. Most excellent.

After he had cleaned and I had done the washing I went out mountain biking with Callum, who is exceedingly fit (unlike me who really hasn’t done any exercise to speak of for the last 2 months). It was so nice to get out of smogville and into the hills, and of course test out the spangly new bike. The bike did good… I did ok… but I found the off paved-road uphills very hard, you have to concentrate so hard on all the rocks and bumps… coming down isn’t much better. I feel as if I have been well and truly shaken up. The views were a bit hazy, but it was so nice to breath fresh air and see village life… and I made it home ok, if rather slowly… We shall see how stiff I am tomorrow!

a pink hatted taximan

I thought I should write a block as an ode to the most lovely taxi driver in Kathmandu. On the whole you get into taxis and they smell, are covered in a selection of stickers that usually include Hindu gods, bollywood stars, Britney and Avril Lavine stickers. Then the driver storms off at top speed and proceeds to try and rip you off for the privilege of a near death experience in his bashed up piece of metal - that would never pass for a car in the UK.

Not however my lovely pink hated taxi driver. If I have to get a taxi to work in the mornings he is always around, so whilst my usual ‘drivers’ have been on holiday I have been getting a few taxis and have become more and more amused by this lovely taximan!

Firstly the pink hat is very cute, and I haven’t seen him without it… then there is his spangly new car – still a Suzuki maruti, but it is new… then there is the fact his meter is very accurate… oh and perhaps because the car is new he drives very carefully – this is very unusual in this country… people hooon it around like no ones business.

He is very polite and speaks good English… one time his mobile rang and he actually excused himself before answering it. When he came off the phone he said he had been speaking to his mum who was like his mother, father and best friend all rolled into one!! Another time he started singing a song ‘… lonely I’m so lonely…’ and explained his wife and sons had gone to Darjeeling and he was missing them very much… now this man doesn’t really look 30… but he has 13 and 8 year old sons. He met Anthony whilst he was here and so after the singing of ‘lonely’ he proceeded to commiserate with me that Anthony wasn’t here anymore, and that he wouldn’t be able to be without his wife for such a long period of time…

Other traffic related news is the discovery that here in Nepal if you run someone over and they are injured you are required to pay all of their medical expenses, however if you kill them you just have to pay funeral expenses. Apparently it is a frequent occurrence that drivers who knock someone over but don’t kill them deliberately reverse, or go round and hit them again as funerals are cheaper than medical bills. This almost sounds too horrible to believe, but it really is true.

load shedding

So, here in Kathmandu we have load shedding. This means official power cuts. It seems to be fairly predictable. I get mine every sunday from 5pm - 7.30pm, and the timing is spot on. So you know when the majority of the powercuts are coming and that is fine.

However, today I discovered that as we are heading into the dry season most of Nepal's hydro electric power stations are at too low a level to work and so load shedding will be increased. As of this week we will have no power between 5am-8am 1x a week and 5pm-7.30pm 2x per week (i know not what days)... so thats ok i guess 8 hrs of powerouts per week is fine... but oh no it shall get worse, apparently by the end of the month we will reach 40hours of scheduled power cuts per week (eeek) - and this is announced by the national electricty company, and it happened last year too... so seems fairly reasonable to expect it will happen! It seems Nepal cant buy more power from India as the systems arent totally compatible, and so we shall have to wait for the rainy season I suppose until full power is resumed!

I have a lantern and many candles and wine-bottles-holding-candles and candle holders so all shall be well... and my shower is heated by gas and i cook on gas. But you know it seems strange to be in a capital city with so many power outs... I remember in mongoland in the winter it got rediculous - we had more power cuts than power - but i wasnt in the capital city then, and the problem wasnt suply, rather a dodgy power station. There is a lesson here somewhere, and I guess it is that we in the west are so used to 24hr electricity, that it befuddles us when we dont have it... stumbling around in the dark, feeling cold, no TV, computers, music and so many other electrical appliances that we use etc... however if some predictions about the future are realised it is something that people in the UK may have to deal with in my lifetime... interesting.

internet

hello,
I've added some random internet links that I like to the side bar... might be worth a look xxx

Christmas in Chitwan

Aside from the afore mentioned glorious tree, some delicious mincepies - courtesy of (imported by Anthony importers) Fortnum and Mason mincemeat, and some carol concerts, it really didnt seem that Christmasey here. For starters we (Mel, John Anthony and moi) woke up on Christmas day and headed down to Chitwan National Park, to an island jungle place where there were absolutly no signs of Christmas other than the 2 aussies in the room next door randomly singing Christmas songs lound enough to be audible through the wall - which wasnt hard as the wall was made of reeds/straw or something like that...

At Chitwan we learnt many things about asian elephants. For example an elephant eats 250kg of food per day, drinks 150 litres of water per day, has a foot circumference which is half its height etc etc. I have decided elephants are amazing... very very lovely, but totally impractical as pets. We went on several elephant saffaris, the perpose being to spy rhinos in the wild. We actually saw 4 which was very exciting - pictures to come on flickr. The elephants just stamped through the jungle - nothing got in their way, so ducking and diving large branches and trees was essential when on their backs! One day we went out with the elephant herders/riders (?) to help collect the elephants food. It was sold as 'grass cutting', but seemed more like hacking down the tops of trees and loading them onto the backs of elephants to me... this involved a bit of bareback elephant riding (you discover muscles in places previously unknown to have muscles), and also involved clinging to the back of the elephant whilst the keeper was up a tree and the elephant decided that it was a bit hungrey and would really quite like to knock over a few trees to get some yummy vine from the top of one...

We also went walking in the jungle looking for Rhinos again with some sucess - once the rhino was spotted the guide had to call (making a bird noise) to signal the elephant riders to bring the elephants forward, we then all followed the elephants who were following the rhino. apparently rhinos dont charge elephants, but might go for humans - if annoyed - which they probably would be, being woken up by 7 tourists flashing cameras at it.

Generally we climbed onto the elephants via a wooden platform, however we learnt how to climb/be lifted up their trunks... it takes a while to adjust to the fact that elephants have very thick skin and arent in the least troubled by heavy walking boots stamping all over them! I was fairly crap at getting on this way, however it was easy in comparison to the time when in the jungle i was told the elephant had a bad trunk and so i would have to climb on via the back legs. This involved being shoved very hard from one end by a bemused Nepali and pulled up by another whilst my legs flailed wildly around... not very attractive!

We also did a boat trip to spot crocodiles and ate much food - especially Mel who seemed very keen on the 'eat a much as you like' buffets.

We made it home unsavaged, and in reasonably good time despite hanging around due to a strike/road blockade, which was fortunately called off after about an hour. When Anthony and I went up to investigate we saw that tyres had been burnt (traditional) and that the road was blocked, but asking around it transpired none of the teachers (who were protesting about pay) were there at the moment... random, a strike and blockade without those who were striking... not really sure how it worked!

The glorious felt tree

hi hello and happy new year for tomorrow. Please think of me as I go to work (I really dont understand why I have to work on New Years day)...

I think I'm going to have a bit of a blogging and photo uploading blitz today, I have various things to write about but I think I will put things under different headings.

Firstly a slightly dark photo of the most glorious christmas tree... Anthony got it from a garden centre (of the Nepali variety - not quite like Hilliers)... it is decorated with many lovely felt items. My favourite is the felt Yeti on the top of the tree. Every tree needs a yeti right? There are also felt elephants, felt bells, felt stockings, a christmas chili (?), a felt yak, a felt sheep, a felt santa, felt baubles and some felt reindeer... Nepalis dont really go in for christmas but there is most certainly a tourist generated market for felt decorations...

Pokhara mini-break

Well we had a great mini-break in Pokhara. The sun was shining, the Himalayas were magical and snow capped, the lake also looked lovely - although not up too close as there is a fair bit of pollution. We had a good time lazing around, eating food (and then being very ill if ones name is Anthony – I retain the stomach of steel award 2006), going cycling, going boating, climbing up a big huge hill etc… Most exciting however was my foray into extreme sports.

As many people know I really don’t like flying, so it was a slight surprise to me that I agreed to go paragliding. We went up a huge hill called Sarankot, and then I ran off the hill and into the skies for 50min - at the highest point we rode thermals to 2,200meters above sea level - which I can assure you is very high when you're only attached to a Swiss man and a kite (even if it is a big kite). The views of the lake and villages were amazing, although we didn’t have a clear day so the Himalayas were hidden – very frustrating when you know they are there and how beautiful they are. I did ok on the fear-front. I wasn’t ill and only stifled a scream once when we went rather too close (in my uneducated opinion) to the paraglider Anthony was with and my ‘pilot’ started shouting ‘hello darling’ in a dodgy Swiss accent… we didn’t crash and were probably nowhere near doing so but I felt unnerved! A strike by Maoists grumpy at not being included in selecting Nepali ambassadors meant that we could not land in the proper place and so had to use a very small rice field with many horses in it, needless to say on landing I fell flat on my face pulling the Swiss man down with me... ooops.

We have some nice photos and videos so I will try and upload some dans le weekend.

We rode the bus home, which made the 25min plane journey seem great value as it took nearly 8hrs (still 3hrs less than Mel’s trip up which was delayed by Maoist strikes and tyre burning students)… However I learnt many things:
1. Nepal has many suspension bridges.
2. Nepal has many other areas, which are in need of a suspension bridge, but instead of this they have some sort of tightrope wire set up which small children haul themselves across, and boxes on pulleys are winched across. They would not meet health and safety regulations.
3. The roads and very narrow and the ravines very deep and the drivers drive fastfast and there are a distinct lack of safety barriers. In one place we saw the remains of a truck at the bottom of the ravine, in the river.
4. People like to wash their clothes and dry them on pig stys, piles of hay, suspension bridges, piles of gravel – but rarely washing lines. I am wondering if this procedure could be counter-productive.
5. I am not in anyway an animal rights activist but I actually shouted at a man in the restaurant we were in for kicking a small cat… poor cat.

a strike and a delay

holo,
on Thursday i went up to Nagakot in the mountains just on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley, as part of a work conference type thing... it was really beautiful, and we could even see mount Everest in the distance... just seeing those tall tall mountains is amazing.

Coming back i got dropped off in town and then caught a taxi home, what should have been a 20min journey turned into an hour nightmare and my first Nepali strike/protest experience. So we were driving around the ring road and we run into loads of huge trucks just blocking the road, so we bump off the road down a side track and then get back up onto the road further along and all is well until we hit more trucks and this time its pitch black, there are no lights and there are lots of big men wandering around the small small taxi and I was feeling a bit scared as although i sort of knew where I was I wasn't totally sure, and the men weren't letting us go anywhere. We were forced off the road and onto this track and ended up in one of Kathmandu's narrow, walled streets, in a huge traffic jam, which would be fine anywhere else, but here everyone is shouting and honking at everyone else, despite there barely being room for 2 cars buses, bikes, motor bikes, people, trucks and buffalo were all trying to surge past each other in the que... i think you had to be there to understand... the smell of pollution, the confusion about where i was, the dark, the noises, the lack of car movement was all slightly distressing... but i survived and made it home in time to pack some things together for my mini-break to Pokhera...

the reason for the strike was because apparently some man got run over by a truck and people decided to protest about that by blocking the main road around Kathmandu... hmmm

so now i am at the domestic airport waiting for the plane, which is delayed due the fact that the lucrative 'everest flights' were delayed by fog, and we cant go until they come back. This place has a very nice internet cafe, which you pre-pay for and get an exciting envelope which when you open it contains a code and password for the internet - which all seems a bit unessesary. despite such hieghts of technology security is decidedly lacking (I was able to walk out of the checked departure lounge area, back into the main departure check in hall and then back to the departure lounge without anyone checking me or batting an eyelid - the reason I needed to go back outside was to claim the points on my Buddha air gold card!!!)... also despite the presence of 2 cleaners in the ladies toilets they are SERIOUSLY disgusting... almost enough to make one vomit. yuk...

Anthony is well and is happily watching dodgy small planes take off and land. He still insists he isnt a plane spotter, and that he doesnt have a spotter jotter, but to be honest I think he is enjoying the fact we are delayed as he can sit around watching planes...

photos

Time is flying by and now its nearly Christmas... crazy.

Im right now uploading some photos of my apartment onto flickr so you can see what its like... (click on the link on the right hand side of this page) I feel like I am settled now in, but also feeling quite poor as the majority of the stuff I've had to buy... oh for a relocation allowance...
anyways it shall be cheap next month!

this week I discovered that post from Mongolia to Nepal is twice as quick as post from England to Nepal. Random... i also bought the most fandabulous mountain bike (possibly another reason for feeling poor?!) now there are plenty of mountains, I just have to get fit to ride up them... there is a group of what I imagine to be hardcore men (why else would they go out at 5.45am?) who go out in the mornings 3x a week... I think it will be some time before I manage to get out of bed at that hour, especially as its cold in the mornings at the moment... aside from mountains, the bike will be useful for pootling around and exploring places. I havent really seen much of Kathmandu aside from the areas around my house and work...

Anthony is arriving tomorrow which is most excitabling, especially as he is bringing me some hair straighters... the perm wont go away and now looks a shaggy mess. Hair straighters be the only answer...
almost as exciting as that is the discovery of pesto in a supermarket. I had resigned to not being able to eat pest for a year as i couldnt see any, or the ingrediants to make it, but yesterday I saw 2 small jars gleaming amongst the jars of tomato paste. hooorah... on reflection i think a large part of my diet is pasta, vegetables and pesto (and paneer - Nepali cheese substitute)...

thats enough for now...

Chaupadi

I was reading about the practice of Chaupadi which takes place in many parts of Nepal - to various extents. I found it both interesting and scary, so I thought I would write a little of what I read.

Devout Hindus will practice Chaupadi, which seems to be the placing of certain restrictions on women during menstruation and childbirth when they are considered ‘ritually impure’. As such some women may be prohibited from cooking, in more extreme cases women are prohibited from contact with other people, including their families, and often have to go and stay in an outhouse. There are also restrictions on the food the women can eat during these periods of time.

This can have awful consequences. For example women can become nutrient deficient at a critical period of health; teenage girls may withdraw from school (particularly if sanitation facilities are non existent); and giving birth alone in a dirty cold outhouse doesn’t do the maternal and infant mortality rates any favours.

Maternal mortality ratio = 540 per 100,000 live births (UNICEF)
Infant (under 1yr) mortality rate = 56 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF)

Just as comparison, the UK data is:
Maternal mortality ratio = 7 per 100,000 live births (UNICEF)
Infant (under 1yr) mortality rate = 5 per 1,000 live births (UNICEF)

Therefore you are 77 times more likely to die of a childbirth related condition in Nepal than in the UK.

This practice also explains why many (but not all) domestic ‘helps’ are male. If girls are seen as unclean during menstruation, they may also be considered unable to work, because they need to be isolated for a certain period each month, and are thus less attractive to employ. Hence I have a houseboy??? Possibly not.

a twin tub

This weekend has been really clear. The Kathmandu haze seemed to lift revealing tall, snow-capped mountain peaks, which although distant, are breathtaking and tantalizing all in one go. I cant wait to get closer to them.

Other excitements involved shopping in fandabluous craft shops, going to a Nepali film festival and most exciting of all playing with my new twin-tub washing machine. Although a washing machine is more expensive than a didi (washing woman) for various reasons it seems a lot less hassle to do it myself. However spending loads of cash on a automatic washing machine seems pointless so I have the cheap skate option - A twin tub. Now I am fairly experienced in the ways of twin tubs, growing up we had one which I remember constantly flooding the utility room… and of course Ro had one in Mongolia which seemed the height of luxury every time I went up to UB. Basic principle of a twin tub involves transferring washing between 2 tubs depending on whether youre washing/rinsing/spinning.
According to the brochure my tub has the following features:
· ‘updated squelch technology’.
· ‘Beautiful design of outlook’.
The brochure also warns me that ‘clothes of puff’ must go into a washing net bag and that laundry should be able to ‘gyrate enough in the wash tub’.
What more could a girl want????

Ps Pebar the houseboy is well worth the money. The place sparkles!

A house boy...

Last night I popped round to see my landlord cum next door neighbour to give him some money... for the last week he has been pestering me about 'what on earth am I going to do about cleaning my flat?'. I had been putting him off on this one, however last night I realised that resistance was futile and that not employing the services of his 'boy' could be more hassle than its worth. So I have acquired a house boy. Which seems quite comedy to me, in the sense that I am sure I am more than capable of cleaning my flat... but never mind. Fortunately he will only appear once a week (although in saying that at 7.45am this morning he seemed to be sweeping outside my flat), apparently he will clean all the windows, floors, balcony etc etc...

Some interesting facts about the 'boy' (landlords words not mine).

• My landlord says he is 'like a son' to him. He also describes me as 'like a daughter'. Therefore in some ways perhaps my houseboy can be considered my brother?
• Pebar (the boy) is, according to the jacket he seems to live in, an 'American Ski Instructor', I shall have to be asking him for some tips on my parallel turns...
• Despite being called a 'boy', I am fairly certain he is well over 18 and that I am not engaging in the child labour market.

getting a mobile phone in Nepal

today i had to sign some forms that will enable me to get a mobile phone. The procedure was even more crazy than opening a bank account.
On the forms I had to give:
1. My fathers name
2. My paternal grandfathers name (doesnt matter that he is dead).
[i am interested to know what value these names add to the application... if you have a father or grandfather with a notorious name are you denied a mobile phone?]
3. A map of where my work place is. Dont think that i have mentioned the distinct lack of road names round here. In Cambodia even tho the roads numbers were eratic there were at least numbers... on the whole in Nepal there is nothing, people just describe the place. So i live at one end of 'sheep lane' because there are always sheep down the bottom of the lane, not because its actually called 'sheep lane'. Anyways I guess the lack of road names necesitated the inclusion of a map in my application.
4. a copy of my passport.
5. [This is the MOST comedy] 2 thumb prints!!

I await the wise decision of the mobile phone company as to whether I will be granted one.

Monday-o

Hello!

Much seems to have happened since I last blogged, and now i have been here 2 whole weeks. Time is zip-zapping by.

It was in someways a very British weekend involving a quiz at the British embassy (after leading most of the rounds we came 3rd and won a free meal at the embassy as opposed to some swanky hotel... never mind) on saturday i went to a 'garden party' where there was trampolening and croquet and scones and cream and people that looked like they had stepped right out of 'Absolutley Fabulous'... a very sureal other world of ex-patness... then went to a 'dance festival' which appeared to be fairly rubbish and very male dominated (it seems nepali women dont go to dance festivals... perhaps theyre busy cooking and cleaning as all good women should be)...

I did find time to move. So i am now installed near to the 'Jew' (zoo) and sleep to the sound of animals making random noises - although i think this originates from packs of stray dogs rather than enraged-caged animals.

When i arrived there was a minor crisis when there was no bed... and then a bed appeared with no matress... so the driver from work (not my personal driver I should add) and i went on a mission to find a matress. Seeing that saturdays are public holidays this proved to be rather hard. In the end we commissioned a man to make me a sort of wadded pad (a bit like a futon matress) i went to collect it 2 hours later and stupidly made the mistake of not measuring it in the shop and the bally man short changed me and it is all a little small for the bed... but could be worse. After buying the thing a comedy moment ensued with a small nepali man lugging the matress the 5 min to my house and me, feeling every bit the colonial master, striding out ahead... I'm not sure that it was a particulalrly comfortable experience, and i ended up carrying the matress up the stairs as I felt so guilty/lame...

When i get organised with home internet i will upload some photos of the place. Its really nice, and 'cream' (which is good as the alternative is floral dingy)... i need to acquire a few more things like a heater and a water filter and another heater for my shower and a spare bed for any guests that wish to come ...

that shall be all for now i think...

Maoists

Rush hour
Kathmandu
Traffic surging, pushing, shoving, near colliding, stalling, stopping, starting, polluting

Over the road
Large truck
Loud speakers blaring
Also surging, pushing, shoving, near colliding, stalling, stopping, starting, polluting
Red flags flapping
Must be Maoists

Yellow papers flying
Propaganda distribution
Who knows?
Squiggles are indecipherable

Close encounter with some of Bush’s terrorists?
Not exactly sure.

Thursday!

Yesterday I applied for a local bank account (with an international bank it has to be said)... on the application form I had to enter the usual details, along with my fathers name, my fathers address, and the details of the father of whoever I left the contents of my bank account to 'should I die'. I just think its interesting what a male centric society this is. At least it didnt ask for my fathers permission to open a bally bank account...

So life is toodling along and I feel quite settled even tho I havent yet managed to get out of the hotel and into my apartment near the zoo.
A lack of exersise and many curries are making me feel most rotund, but hopefully I shall acquire a bike soonsoonsoon.
I am starting to get used to wearing random 'jesus sandals' at work... where you cant wear your shoes in the office, and instead must wear sandals or slipers. I have been issued with a pair (albeit they are different sizes) of horrible black sandals... I've seen some exciting pink felt slippers with pompoms on in a shop, so perhaps i can get some of those to wear at work? slippers in the worksplace... hmmm we need duvets too perhaps...