Holidays, trekking the Annapurna Circuit and 3 months in!
The holiday is almost over now and this morning and last night I spent some time looking at some of the photos from this month taken in the Annapurna Conservation Area as well as Pokhara. So much has happened in the last few weeks and the bus we took from Harpe to Pokhara already feels like a long time ago. My Nepali has definitely improved in the last month, thanks to our wonderful teacher in Pokhara called Indra and the help of Eli whose spoken Nepali is really good (he says his method of learning is just talking to lots of Nepali people and learning from them). I’ve learnt the script now and I enjoy just driving past shops and walking past places and being able to read the words out phonetically. We’re now in Kathmandu, and we’re spending the last few days of the holiday just relaxing and enjoying the rest of the break. We’re off to Jazzmandu this afternoon, which is a jazz festival that takes place in Nepal every year - there’s also a jazz workshop on Monday and I’m quite excited by the prospect of joining in with my flute, since it’s also free entry.
Update: We never made it to the jazz workshop, but we did go to a cool Tibetan concert and I’m now trying to write this blog on an incredibly bumpy bus, so I may make some mistakes/the writing might not be as smooth as usual. We’re in a bus going back to Burtibang so we can celebrate Tihar in Harpe with Oscar, Kieran, Eli and Eli’s friend Kieran who has come to visit.
This month has been a month of contrasts, and I think it was a bit of a shock to Ashvi and I to arrive in Pokhara after living in the village for a few months. The first thing that hit us was the height of everyone; in the village as a 5ft 4 person I feel quite tall and Ashvi is only slightly smaller than me, so when we arrived in the tourist area of Pokhara it felt like we were in a city of giants. We were staying in Pokhara’s “lakeside”, which is effectively the touristy area of Pokhara, where there is a much higher density of tourists than locals. Since everything was so last minute, we found a guest house to stay in from the Lonely Planet guide the night we arrived in Pokhara after a quick call to check availability. Looking back now, I’m not sure if the guest house was that bad, but I think the culture contrast combined with the demographic at this guest house made it feel quite creepy, hence we moved out when the other volunteers arrived in Pokhara. In those first few days in Pokhara, we ended up walking around the shops a lot and maybe spending a little too much money; by lakeside there are so many shops that draw you in, and after eating daal bhat twice a day for so long we were definitely tempted by the offers of pasta, smoothies and even beans on toast (this was the first meal we had on the morning after we arrived). There is also a really nice book shop in lakeside called Mandala Books which had a great bestseller pile, so Ashvi and I ended up spending quite a few hours in there, just looking and buying books (Ashvi has run out of books to read, and has now finished Eat, Pray Love so she bought about ten). There was also a great downstairs section, with massive stacks of books kind of looking like a maze. It was definitely a weird feeling to go from the bus ride, after having walked from our village down to Burtibang with our heavy bags, to this weird, European feeling tourist destination (they even have shops selling the ice cream rolls which you can watch being made). This was the first warm shower that we’d had in months though, so although parts of being in this touristy place felt weird, it was definitely nice to be clean again. The first few days in Pokhara before the others arrived definitely felt strange, but we managed to get some language lessons after one or two days being in Pokhara, and we began a routine of having a few hours of lessons with Indra (a teacher at the university as well as a shop owner in Pokhara) every morning, beginning at 7.30am.
I feel like so many things are connected in Nepal and the story of how we found a language teacher is a strange one. When Oscar and Kieran were out to Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve they came across a man named Prem who works for Karma Flights. Karma Flights is an adventure agency that runs paragliding among other activities like treks (we booked our Annapurna passes through them) and 40% of their money goes towards schools in rural areas like the Gorkha region and also West Baglung which is where we’re working. It actually turned out that last year Prem worked with the volunteers in Arnakot (a village fairly near us, on the opposite side of the valley) last year, because he was helping to build a library at the same time they were teaching. He guessed that Oscar and Kieran were Project Trust volunteers and gave them his number so when they got to Pokhara they could contact him. When Ashvi and I were on the way to Pokhara, I decided to look up and see if their were any language schools in Pokhara, so we could learn a bit more and get some practice in. We found Cosmic Brontosaurus Language School and the first day we were in Pokhara we decided to go along and see what it was about. It actually turned out that Prem was the main guy who runs this language school (we had no idea before we turned up that this was the guy that met Oscar and Kieran) and he mentioned meeting some Project Trust volunteers earlier. Since he was off to Kathmandu to do some work, he said we could learn with Indra, another teacher at the school. Prem’s family also own a hotel, which we moved to soon after (we wanted to leave the creepy vibes behind), so we moved to their hotel and started getting language lessons for 3 hours every morning. It was really interesting to learn about other NGO’s working in Nepal and we actually later found out that Prem might be working with our primary school later in the year. It’s really inspirational to see so many organisations working on similar things and it’s definitely inspirational to hear about the bigger educational picture and how different organisations are contributing in rural areas. After hearing about all these library projects, I definitely want to set up a book club or something to use the library more, since the library in our school stays locked for the majority of the time and doesn’t really get used. In this holiday, I’ve also learned a bit more about the effect and impact of the earthquake in Nepal and the rebuilding of schools and villages in the last few years which I think is valuable knowledge to have, being teachers here in Nepal.
We moved from Peace Eye Guest House to Prem’s hotel at the same time the Pyuthan volunteers turned up -Oscar and Kieran turned up later because they broke up from school a bit later and also went to pick up our passports from Kathmandu which we needed for the trek (they saved us 20 hours extra of bus journey). It was really lovely to see the other volunteers and go out to cafes and return a bit to the world we’re used to. I think when the other volunteers turned up, Ashvi and I had got a bit more used to the culture contrast, meaning we could relax and enjoy the holiday more - it was also fun to see the reactions of the other volunteers towards ice cream rolls and vegan creme brûlée (I bought this and it tasted so great). We definitely all got the feeling of entering into this weird, privileged European world where nothing really reminds you of the real Nepal and the Nepal we’ve been getting used to or the last three months. I’m still not sure if this contrast was a wholly positive experience for all of us - although it was nice to have hot showers after cold bucket showers from the tap for months, Eli mentioned his unease at feeling like a tourist in a country we’re volunteering in and I think a lot of us felt the same. We felt a weird disassociation with the tourists in Pokhara, since a lot of them had actually only ever visited lakeside, not even the main city. We did however still have a great time in Pokhara and especially since we stayed at a hotel which felt more like a friend’s home than a touristy guest house (the volunteers were really the only people there). We rowed boats out on the lake a few times and had a swim and we also visited the peace pagoda which had a beautiful view of the city (and also a beautifully cheap veg chowmein which was greatly appreciated by me). We also went on a few nights out at the Busy Bee (a cool bar with a small dance floor), and although this made some of the 7.30am Nepali grammar lessons a bit more difficult, it was definitely worth it. One night we went out we ended up dancing all night and although Shape of You came on seven times in total, it was actually a great night out - I was so tired at the beginning of the night, but after dancing until 2, I finished the night feeling much more alive. Dancing is one of my favourite things to do no matter which country I’m in and I’ve found that Nepali people are really fun to dance with. Overall, the week with the other volunteers was great and with the language lessons I went from barely knowing Nepali characters to being able to read and write (Ashvi and I had about twenty hours of language lessons in total). It was also really nice to hear about the other volunteers experiences with teaching and ideas - Adelaide inspired me with one of her games she uses with her students called noughts and crosses.
Indra (our language teacher) also invited us to his house for Dashain, where Ashvi and I wore our new Kurtas that we had bought in Pokhara (the bit that’s not lakeside). It’s so crazy how you can take a ten minute bus ride out of lakeside and suddenly the atmosphere is so different; you’re taken back to busy streets full of people, maybe even more people than in Oxford street, as well as bustling shops and street sellers. The demographic completely changes again and Europeans or Americans are in a very small minority. Again, when we went to Indra’s house for Dashain we saw another side to Pokhara. We walked to his house and along the way passed some pretty houses and residential streets to arrive at a beautiful grassy area with colourful houses popping out from the ground. I think this is a more well off area of Pokhara and these houses were so lovely, almost like fairytale houses (I’ll attach some photos later). We were almost not going to stay in Pokhara for Dashain because we wanted to get off on the Annapurna Circuit, but since the festival was on we couldn’t get a bus to the beginning of the circuit anyway (Besi Sahar) and in retrospect I’m really glad we stayed the extra day to enjoy the festival.
The highlight of this month has definitely been trekking the Annapurna Circuit with Ashvi, Kieran, Oscar and Eli. It was definitely challenging and we all got a bit ill at points (two vomited, I think all of us had dodgy digestion at points), but we made it through and were rewarded with some amazing views and experiences. We also met a lot of people along the way, of whom I’ll talk about later on. We decided to go it without a guide because it was peak tourist season anyway and also as long as Thorang La isn’t snow covered, it’s a pretty easy trek to follow and also very well signposted. We also carried our own bags around because it wouldn’t have felt the same having someone carrying our things for us and also it’s a teahouse trek so there are no need for tents or too much food because you can get both good food and accommodation the whole way. I think the trek reminded me a lot more of village life, but then with tourists along the way, so it was nice to feel a bit more like we were in the Nepal that we’ve got used to. I’ll try to only mention the key moments, because if not this post is going to become very lengthy. We ate some great apple pies along the way (Annapurna Circuit is also known as the apple pie trek), which became more expensive as you walked your way up.
The Annapurna Circuit is a great route for trekking because it encompasses all the seasons and colours. You travel through the beautiful, rolling and bright green big hills of Spring or Summer, where the weather is warm during the day, through to autumn, where the mountains get steeper and the landscapes get more dramatic but there are also hints of orange leaves and you get that autumnal feeling where there’s a slight chill to the air but the smell is crispy. Winter season then comes on, where the mountains are stark white against the arid surroundings, where hats, gloves and lots of layers are all necessary. In the beginning it seemed like we were just walking around Baglung and to Burtibang where we live; the trek starts at Besi Sahar which is only at 800m. By day three, climbing up towards 2000m, the views very suddenly started to change, with the hills around getting steeper and more jagged. Some significant moments in the first five days or so definitely include meeting some English grandparents. There was a massive group of people of grandparent age and they were travelling at the same pace as us more or less, so we kept crossing over them and taking it in turns to walk past each other (they were surprisingly fast, also we liked to take lots of breaks). It was so funny to hear such classic British voices and one night we even had a sing with them in a hotel, with Eli and his guitar which he got on the evening of day 4 (he bought it for 1000 rupees - a pretty good deal even with a string missing). Day 4 was really lovely, because it was the day that turned into Autumn and I also felt really good climbing up the steep hill. I was chatting to a porter along the way (it was good to practice a bit of Nepali too), then at the top there was this amazing shining mountain peeping over the top of some other hills. On this day, we also started to see houses that looked much more TIbetan, so there was this new atmosphere to feel wonder at as well.
Our most adventurous evening was definitely deciding to wild camp on the circuit, which we did on the night of day 5. We were walking past a guerrilla outpost which had quite a few shelters and two empty rooms, when Eli suggested that we slept there. Kieran seemed up for the idea too - initially I thought they were both joking, but we took a vote on it and although Oscar wasn’t keen at first we managed to convince him that it would be worth it. We were now over 3000m so it was starting to get pretty cold at night. Kieran and I walked to the next town, which was about 20 or 30 minutes further on to get supplies for dinner (biscuits, noodles etc) and by the time we got back, Oscar had built a raised bed in one of the rooms and they had all got a fire going just outside the room (apparently they had tried to light a fire in the room but it got really smoky). We sat around the fire and had a jokey sing of some scout campfire songs and we heated up water and had noodles, hot chocolate and biscuits. It was definitely very cold once we got into the room and the fire was out, and I can’t say that the wooden bed was the most comfortable thing I’ve ever slept on, but we all made it through the night and it was definitely a good time. I wore almost all my layers (and I had brought loads with me) and I think it might have dipped below freezing that night, but we all squished onto the raised wooden bed panels and had a night to remember, even though I think it probably contributed to the fact that Kieran was quite ill the next day. The morning sunrise through the trees where you could also see the mountains was special and because of the night in the hut we also made it off pretty early. Kieran vomited on day 6; he’d been under the weather anyway so this was a difficult day, also because none of us had slept that well. There was also a lot of climbing to be done; we made it to 3700m in altitude that day before climbing down a bit again and so there were some steep journeys up hillsides.
Day 6 was the day of arrival to Manang, where we saw yaks (yaks live at 3500m or above) and this is the village that everyone goes to before they begin climbing past civilisation, to places where there are no permanent residents. We arrived here around midday and so we had the day to go to the altitude talk and relax a bit. I’m not sure if the altitude was actually a positive thing for me, because the things I took from it were “treat it hard, with any pills you need”, so I took the preventative measure of altitude sickness pills plus a bit more on the way up (I really wanted to avoid the horrible sickness descriptions that the woman described), so in the days following the pass I had a strangely buzzing face and mouth, with pins and needles. I think the talk made me worry when I probably would have got over the pass; I managed to avoid any headaches or even small symptoms of AMS but the side effects of the pills weren’t too great. In Manang, we went to see a film since they were showing films every evening in different places. We decided to go to the showing of Seven Years in Tibet, which was definitely a cool experience in itself. We were a little late and were trying to knock on the door to the place that was showing it and no-one was answering the door, then suddenly the door opened and we were shown into this dark room with a big screen and tiered rows of benches at different heights. We were then given popcorn and tea at half time. I don’t think my descriptions are doing it justice, but it was so weird for us to see a little Nepali cinema in the middle of a trekking town with popcorn and tea as a really cool luxury bonus. We didn’t even know how much it would cost, and were again surprised to find out it was only 300 rupees each for everything. I also really enjoyed the film; I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to experience a bit of Nepal/Tibet through cinema. The boy who played the Dalai Llama in the film also really reminded me of one of my class students, which was quite funny. This experience honestly just felt so strange; none of us expected there to be a cinema in Manang, being a small village and stop on the way to Thorung La. In Manang it was really cold and I wore almost all of my layers; as we walked further up it started to get really cold in the evenings (I think it was a few nights later that I wore seven layers on top and four layers on bottom and was still cold).
The day we climbed over the Thorung La pass (5416m) was definitely the most challenging day for us all. A lot of people wake up really early (maybe two or three in the morning) in order to get over the pass, but because it’s so cold it’s really hard to leave that early because the sun hasn’t risen yet. We were some of the back stragglers in the end, which actually ended up being a good thing because we met some really interesting people along the way. We did try to wake up early but (as usual with our group - definitely mine and Ashvi’s faults a lot of the time) we ended up about 6am (we’d planned to leave at 5am so it wasn’t too bad). Eli was actually sick that morning so he did great by pulling through after that. I had a cinnamon roll, then it was straight up the really steep climb to high camp. That climb was pretty difficult because at 4500m breathing becomes difficult, so that and climbing at the same time is hard. After we got to high camp, it was a long winding path round really arid desert, apart from the snow-capped mountains. Some highlights of the climb up were reaching the teashop where Eli played a few tunes on the ukulele and also meeting some Australian children who were only eight, twelve and fifteen. The eight year old was going to be the youngest Australian to go over a pass of that height (I think I remember her saying this). We all thought it was pretty incredible that children as young as that made it over the pass (5416m high), when, as eighteen and nineteen year olds we all thought the pass was a pretty tough feat. Other people who were travelling at the same slow pace as us were an Israeli guy we’d met before with his father (who was actually missing a leg which he lost in war). They had a lovely Nepali guide who helped him get over the top and watching this guide with the father was just such a lovely thing, there was such care and love there. On a stop on the way down, I gave a guided meditation (kind of accidentally - someone suggested it then I just went for it), which I was surprised to hear was actually pretty relaxing - I think Ashvi actually went to sleep. The Israeli guy Yonathan made us some Israeli coffee when he caught us up after we had stopped to lie down and chill for half an hour or so (all the pace we had made on the hill was squandered by this break, but well worth it).
The final stop on the day we walked the pass was Muktinath; we almost weren’t going to walk to Muktinath because the pass had been so tiring but we’re now very glad we did. We stayed in a hotel called Bob Marley Hotel and that evening I had a really nice hot shower and a filling daal bhat and apple crumble; the best way to end a day on the Annapurna Circuit. We didn’t realise before that Muktinath was such a popular place for tourists; people go on pilgrimage to Muktinath and it has some really beautiful shrines to visit, so the following day instead of continuing on to the next spot we decided to spend another day in Muktinath. This actually ended up being our final stop and we decided to get a bus to Jonsom rather then walking there and then a bus to Pokhara. I think the pass really tired us all out and after the pass it was like we’d conquered the big part of the trek, so we just wanted to relax. The wander around Muktinath was really nice and we watched a Harry Potter film (!!) at a cafe in the evening (I love Harry Potter - big nostalgia for me) after a really beautiful sunset where you could see Dhaulagiri (the mountain you can see from our bedroom in Harpe) from the other side. Ashvi, Eli and I stayed up late into the night talking which was a really lovely ending to a great time with some great people, also meeting other interesting people along the way.
The bus day following the trek was such an enjoyable experience for me, you’d think strange, since it was the one bus journey which we didn’t have seats booked because it was really full and one not only this but one of the bumpiest. It was also incredibly dusty and after the ride my hair was matted with dust and dirt. Originally I was kind of tired and fed up so I was definitely against the idea of getting a ten hour bus with no seat, but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. The journey actually began with Ashvi thinking she’d lost her camera, so the bus waited whilst we ran back to the bus stop to see if we could find it (I actually ended up finding it under the bus seat), so the finding of the camera began the journey on a high. We actually got seats for maybe the first ten minutes (and we were all thinking classic Nepalis giving us the wrong information), but we were then told to get off the bus when we reached the main part of Muktinath, where a load of people piled off the bus whilst we saw our seats disappear before our eyes. One of the people who got on the bus was actually one of the porters we’d met much earlier on in the trek, so it was cool to see a familiar face from the trek. He was together with some other porters and four of them were sharing two seats at the front of the bus (they were effectively all sitting on one another). I couldn’t help but admire the bromance (I’m not sure why, but in my head I kept saying to myself “the bromance is real”) that these guys had; they basically sat hugging for the whole bus journey, which was an all day thing. It made me fall a little bit more in love with the Nepali culture and the really close friendships which seem to exist everywhere. That, along with the fact that the porter that I had talked to before was only nineteen, this was his first time being a porter and he’d just carried a heavy load of luggage on his head over a pass that we all felt was an achievement (5416m high) made me remember again how strong and honestly just amazing Nepali people can be. After moving to the floor of the bus, we all arranged ourselves in a row in the middle of the bus and Eli whipped out his guitar and played some songs which was fun (some people were making some requests too). After alternating between standing and sitting for a few hours, someone offered to get up and give me their seat for a while which was really nice of them; we’d told them that we’re volunteers and teaching in Nepal for a year, and after the second offer for a seat I couldn’t say no - it was getting quite tiring standing up on the bus. These guys were from Kathmandu and the guy I was sat next to was telling me that he’d just finished his degree in Engineering and that he’d always lived in the city. It’s really interesting to meet people from the city and Nepali tourists because it gives a different sense of the way of the life in the city, where there is better education and much better medical services. He was showing me some pictures of Ice Lake and Tilicho and they looked really incredible (we’d skipped those day treks because we had to get back to Kathmandu to meet Eli’s friend Kieran), but I would definitely love to see them at some point. The Nepali guys I was talking to had met a guy called Sanjiv along the trek and they were hanging out together on the bus and I’m not sure how it all started, but we started belting out well known English songs and then later on he was teaching Ashvi and I some Nepali songs (meanwhile the bus continued to rock and at one point had to be pushed? I didn’t get out of the bus so I’m not sure). I feel like our singing may have been quite loud at points (as some of the volunteers pointed out when we got out for a toilet break), but I don’t feel too bad since the bus wasn’t an overnight one and although it was dark, it wasn’t that late. I didn’t actually sleep at all the whole way, which meant I crashed once we were back in Pokhara, but the singing was a lot of fun and I’m not sure how easily I would’ve slept on the floor anyway. Later on, Sanjiv told me the story of how he was heartbroken and his life in Kathmandu, which made me feel sad for him. He had vaguely mentioned earlier after singing John Legend’s most famous song (I can’t remember the name), but he told me the story later. On the whole, I didn’t feel bored at all on the bus, which is praise to Nepali buses because I know that on a National Express I would be trying to work the WiFi (which never does seem to work) or trying to find new ways of sleeping or curling up on the sticky plastic chairs.
We spent a brief half to three quarter day in Pokhara and even there something special happened (showing the common theme of spontaneity…). We had decided that morning to get the night bus to Kathmandu so we would have some time to rewind before taking another long-haul bumpy bus journey. In the evening, Eli and I got out the guitar and flute right by Fewa lake and were playing for a while when this Nepali guy called Ashish (I think that’s the spelling) came along and sat and listened. What I wasn’t expecting when he asked to play Eli’s guitar, was that the sounds coming from it would be really fine-tuned and delicate; he was a really good guitar player (and the guitar only has five strings). I played flute with him and in that time some other people came round to listen, one person even asking if he could join in (he was playing a traditional Nepali instrument that makes boing sounds - I’m not sure how to describe it but I’m pretty sure it’s Nepali). The guitarist actually said afterwards that he didn’t have his own guitar, so he’d got this good by just playing ones he’d found. He seemed quite spiritual and he left by saying maybe we’ll meet again and the whole thing just came across as mysterious but interesting too. He was describing the way he felt about the business of Pokhara city in comparison to the quiet of the village outside and he said he was in Pokhara to practice his paragliding.
The original plan for Ashvi and I was to stay in Pokhara after trekking Annapurna and then meet the other half of the volunteers and hang out with them, but they ended up doing a three day rafting trip that pretty much coincided with the days we were going to be in Pokhara, so we decided to head off with Kieran, Oscar and Eli to Kathmandu, where Oscar had plans to stay with his family friend Isabelle. This actually turned out to be a really positive experience and we got to see a different side of Kathmandu to the touristy Thamel side we saw when we first arrived in Kathmandu. Isabelle has a really beautiful house in the Tibetan area of Kathmandu and she lives in Kathmandu for most the year and then returns to the north of England (where Oscar lives) in the holidays. She helps to run a school for American students taking a semester off to do Tibetan studies and the place that she lives adjoins onto a beautiful study area, with a really nice library, study rooms and also gardens. The students come to Nepal for about five months and they learn the Tibetan language, learn about the culture and spend time living with host families. They then pick a topic that they want to research about Tibet and then they plan their trip to go and find out more about it. It’s actually easier to find out about Tibetan culture in the northern areas of Nepal, up in the mountains, since China has affected the culture of what used to be called Tibet. This programme is really interesting, since there are so many pieces of original research to be found in the library by undergraduate students and there are people who have explored healthcare or even the Tibetan flute and learning how to play these instruments. We actually got a bit of a snapshot into Tibetan culture when we were on the Annapurna circuit, particularly as we climbed higher and you can notice the change in the way the houses are built and the differences in the way the villages look. It was fun to meet some American students our age as well and since we were staying near this school for a few days, we also got to listen to some traditional Tibetan music (they were holding a concert) and also watch Harry Potter with them on a big screen in the classroom (I have definitely missed watching Harry Potter). Isabelle also talked a bit about the earthquake, since they had to rebuild some of the buildings that were affected. She mentioned how you can never know when an earthquake will hit and that there will be another one, but no-one knows when. It’s kind of scary to think about the impact that another earthquake would have on Nepal.
We weren’t in Kathmandu for long, but we did go to a festival that was on whilst we were there called Jazzmandu. It was nice to go to a festival again, and as the evening went on the bands got more lively so there was a lot of dancing. I didn’t really imagine before that there are festivals like this in Kathmandu, and it really reminded me of the UK, particularly with the way it was set up, selling burgers and classic festival food. There were a lot of expats there (I think the expat population in Kathmandu tends to go to these sort of events), who work in places like the British School in Kathmandu amongst other things. The trip to Kathmandu was lovely, and we got a bit of time to just sleep in and relax in the hostel and also rewind after having such an intense two weeks on the Annapurna Circuit. We met Eli’s friend from home Kieran and then before we knew it we were back on the bumpy bus heading back to Burtibang. In Burtibang, Ashvi and I got matching ear piercings (I think on the rook) and I got a nose piercing when we met up with Bishnu. The piercing place was really cool because they mould the gold in front of you and then you sit outside the place and they sharpen the gold and then put it straight through your face/ear - it’s pretty painful but an experience I won’t forget.
We’ve actually now been in Harpe for some time now, so some of the comments made earlier might be a bit off time-wise because there’s been so much to write about this last month (I know I said the other posts were long, but this is going to be even more than the last ones, so well done if you got this far). An exciting new update is that two new Project Trust volunteers have arrived in Nepal because their project in India was cancelled, so they also came to Harpe for Tihar. Lauren I met on my selection course so it was good to see her again, although she’s really sick at the moment and has been for about a week now so I hope she feels better soon. They’re based in Rukumkot, which is about another five or six hours bus ride further than Jhimpa, so they came quite a way to visit us (we’ll definitely visit them at some point too). The five or so days coming back to Harpe have actually been really hard because I’ve been quite ill, and that combined with the shock of having to cook for ourselves or else we don’t eat any nutritious food as well as having so many visitors to cater for has made for a pretty challenging experience. Ashvi has been ill too, which means both of us have found it difficult to find the energy to cook, and me to even get out of bed. This has been made more difficult with the lack of electricity and running water at our nearest tap at peak times for cooking and being around the house/ Again, as there always are, there have been some positives and beautiful moments to the last few days - there are always things to make you laugh and cheer up in Nepal, including Tihar amongst just generally having a great sense of us being welcomed back to the community (even the kids coming to the door asking for our flute, or anything else they like to play with has been a familiar sight). Although I only just made it (still feeling a bit feverish), we had a lovely time at Tihar. Tihar in Harpe involves going round the village with a group of people and visiting all the houses (we only realised this after we started following people who told us to come with them). We ended up with a group of students from the school as well as some other people and a big speaker is brought around all the houses. At each house you do the same routine of dancing in a circle and doing call and response singing (where one person sings the verse or the main part, then everyone responds with “Deusi-re”), then either one person does an individual dance to a song, or a group of maybe four people do a dance. Afterwards, the house you’ve visited give your group a plate of money, rice and special Nepali roti, which is like a doughnut type of roti, made of ghee, flour and oil. I feel like this was the first time Ashvi and I have actually been around a lot of the houses in our village and we went to places that we didn’t know were there before, so this also helped us to explore a bit more. We also did the same thing around Rajkut the next day, so the same thing happened here. Lauren and Bethany came out with us on the final day of Tihar and everyone was asking us to dance, so Bethany and I attempted to copy the Nepali dances. It was definitely a lot of fun, but I think I preemptively thought I was less ill than I actually was, so the next few days after the festival I had to stay in bed quite a lot.
Again, even though I was a bit under the weather, when we dropped Bethany and Lauren down in Devisthan so they could make their way to Rukumkot, on the way back up we were invited into several houses for tea and food and were given spinach and roti. When we were almost at the top, we were then invited in for tea and also for dinner by the family of one of my class 2 students. It was really lovely to feel so welcomed and again it made me feel happy even though I was unwell. I had an interesting conversation with the father of the girl who I teach about his job in Qatar. He was saying that he works there for ten to eleven months of the year and then comes home for the holiday and that he’d being doing that for 4 years now; his finish year is 2022. I had realised before that Nepali people left to work abroad, alike to many other developing countries, but what I hadn’t realised was that in Nepal some people do this in order to be able to move to the city, so Kathmandu or Pokhara. The Nepali man was saying that in 2022 he would stop working and he would be able to move to Kathmandu so his family would have better access to healthcare and education and therefore would have a better standard of living. He would then have a small business and he feels he would be able to better cater for his family. In Harpe, the nearest access to any medical facility is in Burtibang and even then this is tiny and more like a pharmacy compared to UK standards. Equally, in the cities the education and schools are much better and much better equipped. What I’m interested to find out is the impact that this will have on the villages and the village way of life if many people follow this route.
Each day I’ve been gradually feeling better and we managed to mud our floor and do a complete cleanup of our room which made me feel a lot better. To finish on a funny point, we were given some limes (amilo) earlier when we were on a walk and we asked Pulmati (our next door neighbour) if she wanted some, which she did, so she went out to get some chilli (I might have mentioned before, but you usually have limes with chilli, sugar and salt here). We managed to eat some with just sugar before she brought some chilli in. She put a load in (when we said ali ali which means a little), tasted some, then put even more in because apparently it was too sour! Ashvi and I both tried some and we couldn’t even cope with one - we had to pour some sugar in our mouths for relief (she was smiling away, but then again, she does eat chillies whole just for fun).
Something I quickly want to add is that after the holiday and particularly the trek, where we met so many people from other countries, I’m even more sure that I want to study languages at university. On the trek and in the holiday I practiced a bit of Spanish with a few Spanish people I met and I remembered how much I love speaking Spanish. Then, after talking to Jonathan (the Israeli guy we met) who can speak Chinese fluently and also write it I am now even more inspired to study a language with different characters. Nepali has such a beautiful script and I would love to learn other scripts and delve deeper into other cultures so I am also excited about my place at Manchester University next year, where I will study Spanish and Chinese.
I wrote this post a while ago, so sorry it’s taken such a long time to get it online! It’s all been so busy with school and with cooking and tuition for class 4 that I’ve been going to bed really early and don’t have time for much else. I managed to finish God of Small Things and one night Ashvi and I read each other folk and ghost tales from Western Nepal (which Ashvi bought in Pokhara) which was a fun evening. God of Small Things was a very sad book; I think I might try to read something a bit more uplifting next time, but the descriptions and writing style is really interesting. In the last few months in Nepal I’ve managed to read a lot more than back in England during A Levels (despite being so busy) which has been really nice. It’s now been a year since I began my Project Trust journey on the Isle of Coll at my selection course and since I decided to go on a gap year (the year anniversary was a few days ago) and so I just want to say a big thank you for all the support everyone gave me to get here and thank you to all the charitable trusts that donated money. I’m so grateful to have this opportunity and a few weeks on, I’m really enjoying being back to village life; I’ll probably update what’s been going on in the next blog post but bye for now. Sending love to all my friends and family back home.
We took so many photos on the Annapurna Circuit so I thought I'd just give you the links to me and Eli's Google albums if you want to look - there are even more on Ashvi's camera that I'll probably share at the end of the year.
This blog is a personal blog written by Orla Fawcett, therefore the views expressed in this blog are those of Orla Fawcett and not those of Project Trust.
Update: We never made it to the jazz workshop, but we did go to a cool Tibetan concert and I’m now trying to write this blog on an incredibly bumpy bus, so I may make some mistakes/the writing might not be as smooth as usual. We’re in a bus going back to Burtibang so we can celebrate Tihar in Harpe with Oscar, Kieran, Eli and Eli’s friend Kieran who has come to visit.
This month has been a month of contrasts, and I think it was a bit of a shock to Ashvi and I to arrive in Pokhara after living in the village for a few months. The first thing that hit us was the height of everyone; in the village as a 5ft 4 person I feel quite tall and Ashvi is only slightly smaller than me, so when we arrived in the tourist area of Pokhara it felt like we were in a city of giants. We were staying in Pokhara’s “lakeside”, which is effectively the touristy area of Pokhara, where there is a much higher density of tourists than locals. Since everything was so last minute, we found a guest house to stay in from the Lonely Planet guide the night we arrived in Pokhara after a quick call to check availability. Looking back now, I’m not sure if the guest house was that bad, but I think the culture contrast combined with the demographic at this guest house made it feel quite creepy, hence we moved out when the other volunteers arrived in Pokhara. In those first few days in Pokhara, we ended up walking around the shops a lot and maybe spending a little too much money; by lakeside there are so many shops that draw you in, and after eating daal bhat twice a day for so long we were definitely tempted by the offers of pasta, smoothies and even beans on toast (this was the first meal we had on the morning after we arrived). There is also a really nice book shop in lakeside called Mandala Books which had a great bestseller pile, so Ashvi and I ended up spending quite a few hours in there, just looking and buying books (Ashvi has run out of books to read, and has now finished Eat, Pray Love so she bought about ten). There was also a great downstairs section, with massive stacks of books kind of looking like a maze. It was definitely a weird feeling to go from the bus ride, after having walked from our village down to Burtibang with our heavy bags, to this weird, European feeling tourist destination (they even have shops selling the ice cream rolls which you can watch being made). This was the first warm shower that we’d had in months though, so although parts of being in this touristy place felt weird, it was definitely nice to be clean again. The first few days in Pokhara before the others arrived definitely felt strange, but we managed to get some language lessons after one or two days being in Pokhara, and we began a routine of having a few hours of lessons with Indra (a teacher at the university as well as a shop owner in Pokhara) every morning, beginning at 7.30am.
I feel like so many things are connected in Nepal and the story of how we found a language teacher is a strange one. When Oscar and Kieran were out to Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve they came across a man named Prem who works for Karma Flights. Karma Flights is an adventure agency that runs paragliding among other activities like treks (we booked our Annapurna passes through them) and 40% of their money goes towards schools in rural areas like the Gorkha region and also West Baglung which is where we’re working. It actually turned out that last year Prem worked with the volunteers in Arnakot (a village fairly near us, on the opposite side of the valley) last year, because he was helping to build a library at the same time they were teaching. He guessed that Oscar and Kieran were Project Trust volunteers and gave them his number so when they got to Pokhara they could contact him. When Ashvi and I were on the way to Pokhara, I decided to look up and see if their were any language schools in Pokhara, so we could learn a bit more and get some practice in. We found Cosmic Brontosaurus Language School and the first day we were in Pokhara we decided to go along and see what it was about. It actually turned out that Prem was the main guy who runs this language school (we had no idea before we turned up that this was the guy that met Oscar and Kieran) and he mentioned meeting some Project Trust volunteers earlier. Since he was off to Kathmandu to do some work, he said we could learn with Indra, another teacher at the school. Prem’s family also own a hotel, which we moved to soon after (we wanted to leave the creepy vibes behind), so we moved to their hotel and started getting language lessons for 3 hours every morning. It was really interesting to learn about other NGO’s working in Nepal and we actually later found out that Prem might be working with our primary school later in the year. It’s really inspirational to see so many organisations working on similar things and it’s definitely inspirational to hear about the bigger educational picture and how different organisations are contributing in rural areas. After hearing about all these library projects, I definitely want to set up a book club or something to use the library more, since the library in our school stays locked for the majority of the time and doesn’t really get used. In this holiday, I’ve also learned a bit more about the effect and impact of the earthquake in Nepal and the rebuilding of schools and villages in the last few years which I think is valuable knowledge to have, being teachers here in Nepal.
We moved from Peace Eye Guest House to Prem’s hotel at the same time the Pyuthan volunteers turned up -Oscar and Kieran turned up later because they broke up from school a bit later and also went to pick up our passports from Kathmandu which we needed for the trek (they saved us 20 hours extra of bus journey). It was really lovely to see the other volunteers and go out to cafes and return a bit to the world we’re used to. I think when the other volunteers turned up, Ashvi and I had got a bit more used to the culture contrast, meaning we could relax and enjoy the holiday more - it was also fun to see the reactions of the other volunteers towards ice cream rolls and vegan creme brûlée (I bought this and it tasted so great). We definitely all got the feeling of entering into this weird, privileged European world where nothing really reminds you of the real Nepal and the Nepal we’ve been getting used to or the last three months. I’m still not sure if this contrast was a wholly positive experience for all of us - although it was nice to have hot showers after cold bucket showers from the tap for months, Eli mentioned his unease at feeling like a tourist in a country we’re volunteering in and I think a lot of us felt the same. We felt a weird disassociation with the tourists in Pokhara, since a lot of them had actually only ever visited lakeside, not even the main city. We did however still have a great time in Pokhara and especially since we stayed at a hotel which felt more like a friend’s home than a touristy guest house (the volunteers were really the only people there). We rowed boats out on the lake a few times and had a swim and we also visited the peace pagoda which had a beautiful view of the city (and also a beautifully cheap veg chowmein which was greatly appreciated by me). We also went on a few nights out at the Busy Bee (a cool bar with a small dance floor), and although this made some of the 7.30am Nepali grammar lessons a bit more difficult, it was definitely worth it. One night we went out we ended up dancing all night and although Shape of You came on seven times in total, it was actually a great night out - I was so tired at the beginning of the night, but after dancing until 2, I finished the night feeling much more alive. Dancing is one of my favourite things to do no matter which country I’m in and I’ve found that Nepali people are really fun to dance with. Overall, the week with the other volunteers was great and with the language lessons I went from barely knowing Nepali characters to being able to read and write (Ashvi and I had about twenty hours of language lessons in total). It was also really nice to hear about the other volunteers experiences with teaching and ideas - Adelaide inspired me with one of her games she uses with her students called noughts and crosses.
Indra (our language teacher) also invited us to his house for Dashain, where Ashvi and I wore our new Kurtas that we had bought in Pokhara (the bit that’s not lakeside). It’s so crazy how you can take a ten minute bus ride out of lakeside and suddenly the atmosphere is so different; you’re taken back to busy streets full of people, maybe even more people than in Oxford street, as well as bustling shops and street sellers. The demographic completely changes again and Europeans or Americans are in a very small minority. Again, when we went to Indra’s house for Dashain we saw another side to Pokhara. We walked to his house and along the way passed some pretty houses and residential streets to arrive at a beautiful grassy area with colourful houses popping out from the ground. I think this is a more well off area of Pokhara and these houses were so lovely, almost like fairytale houses (I’ll attach some photos later). We were almost not going to stay in Pokhara for Dashain because we wanted to get off on the Annapurna Circuit, but since the festival was on we couldn’t get a bus to the beginning of the circuit anyway (Besi Sahar) and in retrospect I’m really glad we stayed the extra day to enjoy the festival.
The highlight of this month has definitely been trekking the Annapurna Circuit with Ashvi, Kieran, Oscar and Eli. It was definitely challenging and we all got a bit ill at points (two vomited, I think all of us had dodgy digestion at points), but we made it through and were rewarded with some amazing views and experiences. We also met a lot of people along the way, of whom I’ll talk about later on. We decided to go it without a guide because it was peak tourist season anyway and also as long as Thorang La isn’t snow covered, it’s a pretty easy trek to follow and also very well signposted. We also carried our own bags around because it wouldn’t have felt the same having someone carrying our things for us and also it’s a teahouse trek so there are no need for tents or too much food because you can get both good food and accommodation the whole way. I think the trek reminded me a lot more of village life, but then with tourists along the way, so it was nice to feel a bit more like we were in the Nepal that we’ve got used to. I’ll try to only mention the key moments, because if not this post is going to become very lengthy. We ate some great apple pies along the way (Annapurna Circuit is also known as the apple pie trek), which became more expensive as you walked your way up.
The Annapurna Circuit is a great route for trekking because it encompasses all the seasons and colours. You travel through the beautiful, rolling and bright green big hills of Spring or Summer, where the weather is warm during the day, through to autumn, where the mountains get steeper and the landscapes get more dramatic but there are also hints of orange leaves and you get that autumnal feeling where there’s a slight chill to the air but the smell is crispy. Winter season then comes on, where the mountains are stark white against the arid surroundings, where hats, gloves and lots of layers are all necessary. In the beginning it seemed like we were just walking around Baglung and to Burtibang where we live; the trek starts at Besi Sahar which is only at 800m. By day three, climbing up towards 2000m, the views very suddenly started to change, with the hills around getting steeper and more jagged. Some significant moments in the first five days or so definitely include meeting some English grandparents. There was a massive group of people of grandparent age and they were travelling at the same pace as us more or less, so we kept crossing over them and taking it in turns to walk past each other (they were surprisingly fast, also we liked to take lots of breaks). It was so funny to hear such classic British voices and one night we even had a sing with them in a hotel, with Eli and his guitar which he got on the evening of day 4 (he bought it for 1000 rupees - a pretty good deal even with a string missing). Day 4 was really lovely, because it was the day that turned into Autumn and I also felt really good climbing up the steep hill. I was chatting to a porter along the way (it was good to practice a bit of Nepali too), then at the top there was this amazing shining mountain peeping over the top of some other hills. On this day, we also started to see houses that looked much more TIbetan, so there was this new atmosphere to feel wonder at as well.
Our most adventurous evening was definitely deciding to wild camp on the circuit, which we did on the night of day 5. We were walking past a guerrilla outpost which had quite a few shelters and two empty rooms, when Eli suggested that we slept there. Kieran seemed up for the idea too - initially I thought they were both joking, but we took a vote on it and although Oscar wasn’t keen at first we managed to convince him that it would be worth it. We were now over 3000m so it was starting to get pretty cold at night. Kieran and I walked to the next town, which was about 20 or 30 minutes further on to get supplies for dinner (biscuits, noodles etc) and by the time we got back, Oscar had built a raised bed in one of the rooms and they had all got a fire going just outside the room (apparently they had tried to light a fire in the room but it got really smoky). We sat around the fire and had a jokey sing of some scout campfire songs and we heated up water and had noodles, hot chocolate and biscuits. It was definitely very cold once we got into the room and the fire was out, and I can’t say that the wooden bed was the most comfortable thing I’ve ever slept on, but we all made it through the night and it was definitely a good time. I wore almost all my layers (and I had brought loads with me) and I think it might have dipped below freezing that night, but we all squished onto the raised wooden bed panels and had a night to remember, even though I think it probably contributed to the fact that Kieran was quite ill the next day. The morning sunrise through the trees where you could also see the mountains was special and because of the night in the hut we also made it off pretty early. Kieran vomited on day 6; he’d been under the weather anyway so this was a difficult day, also because none of us had slept that well. There was also a lot of climbing to be done; we made it to 3700m in altitude that day before climbing down a bit again and so there were some steep journeys up hillsides.
Day 6 was the day of arrival to Manang, where we saw yaks (yaks live at 3500m or above) and this is the village that everyone goes to before they begin climbing past civilisation, to places where there are no permanent residents. We arrived here around midday and so we had the day to go to the altitude talk and relax a bit. I’m not sure if the altitude was actually a positive thing for me, because the things I took from it were “treat it hard, with any pills you need”, so I took the preventative measure of altitude sickness pills plus a bit more on the way up (I really wanted to avoid the horrible sickness descriptions that the woman described), so in the days following the pass I had a strangely buzzing face and mouth, with pins and needles. I think the talk made me worry when I probably would have got over the pass; I managed to avoid any headaches or even small symptoms of AMS but the side effects of the pills weren’t too great. In Manang, we went to see a film since they were showing films every evening in different places. We decided to go to the showing of Seven Years in Tibet, which was definitely a cool experience in itself. We were a little late and were trying to knock on the door to the place that was showing it and no-one was answering the door, then suddenly the door opened and we were shown into this dark room with a big screen and tiered rows of benches at different heights. We were then given popcorn and tea at half time. I don’t think my descriptions are doing it justice, but it was so weird for us to see a little Nepali cinema in the middle of a trekking town with popcorn and tea as a really cool luxury bonus. We didn’t even know how much it would cost, and were again surprised to find out it was only 300 rupees each for everything. I also really enjoyed the film; I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to experience a bit of Nepal/Tibet through cinema. The boy who played the Dalai Llama in the film also really reminded me of one of my class students, which was quite funny. This experience honestly just felt so strange; none of us expected there to be a cinema in Manang, being a small village and stop on the way to Thorung La. In Manang it was really cold and I wore almost all of my layers; as we walked further up it started to get really cold in the evenings (I think it was a few nights later that I wore seven layers on top and four layers on bottom and was still cold).
The day we climbed over the Thorung La pass (5416m) was definitely the most challenging day for us all. A lot of people wake up really early (maybe two or three in the morning) in order to get over the pass, but because it’s so cold it’s really hard to leave that early because the sun hasn’t risen yet. We were some of the back stragglers in the end, which actually ended up being a good thing because we met some really interesting people along the way. We did try to wake up early but (as usual with our group - definitely mine and Ashvi’s faults a lot of the time) we ended up about 6am (we’d planned to leave at 5am so it wasn’t too bad). Eli was actually sick that morning so he did great by pulling through after that. I had a cinnamon roll, then it was straight up the really steep climb to high camp. That climb was pretty difficult because at 4500m breathing becomes difficult, so that and climbing at the same time is hard. After we got to high camp, it was a long winding path round really arid desert, apart from the snow-capped mountains. Some highlights of the climb up were reaching the teashop where Eli played a few tunes on the ukulele and also meeting some Australian children who were only eight, twelve and fifteen. The eight year old was going to be the youngest Australian to go over a pass of that height (I think I remember her saying this). We all thought it was pretty incredible that children as young as that made it over the pass (5416m high), when, as eighteen and nineteen year olds we all thought the pass was a pretty tough feat. Other people who were travelling at the same slow pace as us were an Israeli guy we’d met before with his father (who was actually missing a leg which he lost in war). They had a lovely Nepali guide who helped him get over the top and watching this guide with the father was just such a lovely thing, there was such care and love there. On a stop on the way down, I gave a guided meditation (kind of accidentally - someone suggested it then I just went for it), which I was surprised to hear was actually pretty relaxing - I think Ashvi actually went to sleep. The Israeli guy Yonathan made us some Israeli coffee when he caught us up after we had stopped to lie down and chill for half an hour or so (all the pace we had made on the hill was squandered by this break, but well worth it).
The final stop on the day we walked the pass was Muktinath; we almost weren’t going to walk to Muktinath because the pass had been so tiring but we’re now very glad we did. We stayed in a hotel called Bob Marley Hotel and that evening I had a really nice hot shower and a filling daal bhat and apple crumble; the best way to end a day on the Annapurna Circuit. We didn’t realise before that Muktinath was such a popular place for tourists; people go on pilgrimage to Muktinath and it has some really beautiful shrines to visit, so the following day instead of continuing on to the next spot we decided to spend another day in Muktinath. This actually ended up being our final stop and we decided to get a bus to Jonsom rather then walking there and then a bus to Pokhara. I think the pass really tired us all out and after the pass it was like we’d conquered the big part of the trek, so we just wanted to relax. The wander around Muktinath was really nice and we watched a Harry Potter film (!!) at a cafe in the evening (I love Harry Potter - big nostalgia for me) after a really beautiful sunset where you could see Dhaulagiri (the mountain you can see from our bedroom in Harpe) from the other side. Ashvi, Eli and I stayed up late into the night talking which was a really lovely ending to a great time with some great people, also meeting other interesting people along the way.
The bus day following the trek was such an enjoyable experience for me, you’d think strange, since it was the one bus journey which we didn’t have seats booked because it was really full and one not only this but one of the bumpiest. It was also incredibly dusty and after the ride my hair was matted with dust and dirt. Originally I was kind of tired and fed up so I was definitely against the idea of getting a ten hour bus with no seat, but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. The journey actually began with Ashvi thinking she’d lost her camera, so the bus waited whilst we ran back to the bus stop to see if we could find it (I actually ended up finding it under the bus seat), so the finding of the camera began the journey on a high. We actually got seats for maybe the first ten minutes (and we were all thinking classic Nepalis giving us the wrong information), but we were then told to get off the bus when we reached the main part of Muktinath, where a load of people piled off the bus whilst we saw our seats disappear before our eyes. One of the people who got on the bus was actually one of the porters we’d met much earlier on in the trek, so it was cool to see a familiar face from the trek. He was together with some other porters and four of them were sharing two seats at the front of the bus (they were effectively all sitting on one another). I couldn’t help but admire the bromance (I’m not sure why, but in my head I kept saying to myself “the bromance is real”) that these guys had; they basically sat hugging for the whole bus journey, which was an all day thing. It made me fall a little bit more in love with the Nepali culture and the really close friendships which seem to exist everywhere. That, along with the fact that the porter that I had talked to before was only nineteen, this was his first time being a porter and he’d just carried a heavy load of luggage on his head over a pass that we all felt was an achievement (5416m high) made me remember again how strong and honestly just amazing Nepali people can be. After moving to the floor of the bus, we all arranged ourselves in a row in the middle of the bus and Eli whipped out his guitar and played some songs which was fun (some people were making some requests too). After alternating between standing and sitting for a few hours, someone offered to get up and give me their seat for a while which was really nice of them; we’d told them that we’re volunteers and teaching in Nepal for a year, and after the second offer for a seat I couldn’t say no - it was getting quite tiring standing up on the bus. These guys were from Kathmandu and the guy I was sat next to was telling me that he’d just finished his degree in Engineering and that he’d always lived in the city. It’s really interesting to meet people from the city and Nepali tourists because it gives a different sense of the way of the life in the city, where there is better education and much better medical services. He was showing me some pictures of Ice Lake and Tilicho and they looked really incredible (we’d skipped those day treks because we had to get back to Kathmandu to meet Eli’s friend Kieran), but I would definitely love to see them at some point. The Nepali guys I was talking to had met a guy called Sanjiv along the trek and they were hanging out together on the bus and I’m not sure how it all started, but we started belting out well known English songs and then later on he was teaching Ashvi and I some Nepali songs (meanwhile the bus continued to rock and at one point had to be pushed? I didn’t get out of the bus so I’m not sure). I feel like our singing may have been quite loud at points (as some of the volunteers pointed out when we got out for a toilet break), but I don’t feel too bad since the bus wasn’t an overnight one and although it was dark, it wasn’t that late. I didn’t actually sleep at all the whole way, which meant I crashed once we were back in Pokhara, but the singing was a lot of fun and I’m not sure how easily I would’ve slept on the floor anyway. Later on, Sanjiv told me the story of how he was heartbroken and his life in Kathmandu, which made me feel sad for him. He had vaguely mentioned earlier after singing John Legend’s most famous song (I can’t remember the name), but he told me the story later. On the whole, I didn’t feel bored at all on the bus, which is praise to Nepali buses because I know that on a National Express I would be trying to work the WiFi (which never does seem to work) or trying to find new ways of sleeping or curling up on the sticky plastic chairs.
We spent a brief half to three quarter day in Pokhara and even there something special happened (showing the common theme of spontaneity…). We had decided that morning to get the night bus to Kathmandu so we would have some time to rewind before taking another long-haul bumpy bus journey. In the evening, Eli and I got out the guitar and flute right by Fewa lake and were playing for a while when this Nepali guy called Ashish (I think that’s the spelling) came along and sat and listened. What I wasn’t expecting when he asked to play Eli’s guitar, was that the sounds coming from it would be really fine-tuned and delicate; he was a really good guitar player (and the guitar only has five strings). I played flute with him and in that time some other people came round to listen, one person even asking if he could join in (he was playing a traditional Nepali instrument that makes boing sounds - I’m not sure how to describe it but I’m pretty sure it’s Nepali). The guitarist actually said afterwards that he didn’t have his own guitar, so he’d got this good by just playing ones he’d found. He seemed quite spiritual and he left by saying maybe we’ll meet again and the whole thing just came across as mysterious but interesting too. He was describing the way he felt about the business of Pokhara city in comparison to the quiet of the village outside and he said he was in Pokhara to practice his paragliding.
The original plan for Ashvi and I was to stay in Pokhara after trekking Annapurna and then meet the other half of the volunteers and hang out with them, but they ended up doing a three day rafting trip that pretty much coincided with the days we were going to be in Pokhara, so we decided to head off with Kieran, Oscar and Eli to Kathmandu, where Oscar had plans to stay with his family friend Isabelle. This actually turned out to be a really positive experience and we got to see a different side of Kathmandu to the touristy Thamel side we saw when we first arrived in Kathmandu. Isabelle has a really beautiful house in the Tibetan area of Kathmandu and she lives in Kathmandu for most the year and then returns to the north of England (where Oscar lives) in the holidays. She helps to run a school for American students taking a semester off to do Tibetan studies and the place that she lives adjoins onto a beautiful study area, with a really nice library, study rooms and also gardens. The students come to Nepal for about five months and they learn the Tibetan language, learn about the culture and spend time living with host families. They then pick a topic that they want to research about Tibet and then they plan their trip to go and find out more about it. It’s actually easier to find out about Tibetan culture in the northern areas of Nepal, up in the mountains, since China has affected the culture of what used to be called Tibet. This programme is really interesting, since there are so many pieces of original research to be found in the library by undergraduate students and there are people who have explored healthcare or even the Tibetan flute and learning how to play these instruments. We actually got a bit of a snapshot into Tibetan culture when we were on the Annapurna circuit, particularly as we climbed higher and you can notice the change in the way the houses are built and the differences in the way the villages look. It was fun to meet some American students our age as well and since we were staying near this school for a few days, we also got to listen to some traditional Tibetan music (they were holding a concert) and also watch Harry Potter with them on a big screen in the classroom (I have definitely missed watching Harry Potter). Isabelle also talked a bit about the earthquake, since they had to rebuild some of the buildings that were affected. She mentioned how you can never know when an earthquake will hit and that there will be another one, but no-one knows when. It’s kind of scary to think about the impact that another earthquake would have on Nepal.
We weren’t in Kathmandu for long, but we did go to a festival that was on whilst we were there called Jazzmandu. It was nice to go to a festival again, and as the evening went on the bands got more lively so there was a lot of dancing. I didn’t really imagine before that there are festivals like this in Kathmandu, and it really reminded me of the UK, particularly with the way it was set up, selling burgers and classic festival food. There were a lot of expats there (I think the expat population in Kathmandu tends to go to these sort of events), who work in places like the British School in Kathmandu amongst other things. The trip to Kathmandu was lovely, and we got a bit of time to just sleep in and relax in the hostel and also rewind after having such an intense two weeks on the Annapurna Circuit. We met Eli’s friend from home Kieran and then before we knew it we were back on the bumpy bus heading back to Burtibang. In Burtibang, Ashvi and I got matching ear piercings (I think on the rook) and I got a nose piercing when we met up with Bishnu. The piercing place was really cool because they mould the gold in front of you and then you sit outside the place and they sharpen the gold and then put it straight through your face/ear - it’s pretty painful but an experience I won’t forget.
We’ve actually now been in Harpe for some time now, so some of the comments made earlier might be a bit off time-wise because there’s been so much to write about this last month (I know I said the other posts were long, but this is going to be even more than the last ones, so well done if you got this far). An exciting new update is that two new Project Trust volunteers have arrived in Nepal because their project in India was cancelled, so they also came to Harpe for Tihar. Lauren I met on my selection course so it was good to see her again, although she’s really sick at the moment and has been for about a week now so I hope she feels better soon. They’re based in Rukumkot, which is about another five or six hours bus ride further than Jhimpa, so they came quite a way to visit us (we’ll definitely visit them at some point too). The five or so days coming back to Harpe have actually been really hard because I’ve been quite ill, and that combined with the shock of having to cook for ourselves or else we don’t eat any nutritious food as well as having so many visitors to cater for has made for a pretty challenging experience. Ashvi has been ill too, which means both of us have found it difficult to find the energy to cook, and me to even get out of bed. This has been made more difficult with the lack of electricity and running water at our nearest tap at peak times for cooking and being around the house/ Again, as there always are, there have been some positives and beautiful moments to the last few days - there are always things to make you laugh and cheer up in Nepal, including Tihar amongst just generally having a great sense of us being welcomed back to the community (even the kids coming to the door asking for our flute, or anything else they like to play with has been a familiar sight). Although I only just made it (still feeling a bit feverish), we had a lovely time at Tihar. Tihar in Harpe involves going round the village with a group of people and visiting all the houses (we only realised this after we started following people who told us to come with them). We ended up with a group of students from the school as well as some other people and a big speaker is brought around all the houses. At each house you do the same routine of dancing in a circle and doing call and response singing (where one person sings the verse or the main part, then everyone responds with “Deusi-re”), then either one person does an individual dance to a song, or a group of maybe four people do a dance. Afterwards, the house you’ve visited give your group a plate of money, rice and special Nepali roti, which is like a doughnut type of roti, made of ghee, flour and oil. I feel like this was the first time Ashvi and I have actually been around a lot of the houses in our village and we went to places that we didn’t know were there before, so this also helped us to explore a bit more. We also did the same thing around Rajkut the next day, so the same thing happened here. Lauren and Bethany came out with us on the final day of Tihar and everyone was asking us to dance, so Bethany and I attempted to copy the Nepali dances. It was definitely a lot of fun, but I think I preemptively thought I was less ill than I actually was, so the next few days after the festival I had to stay in bed quite a lot.
Again, even though I was a bit under the weather, when we dropped Bethany and Lauren down in Devisthan so they could make their way to Rukumkot, on the way back up we were invited into several houses for tea and food and were given spinach and roti. When we were almost at the top, we were then invited in for tea and also for dinner by the family of one of my class 2 students. It was really lovely to feel so welcomed and again it made me feel happy even though I was unwell. I had an interesting conversation with the father of the girl who I teach about his job in Qatar. He was saying that he works there for ten to eleven months of the year and then comes home for the holiday and that he’d being doing that for 4 years now; his finish year is 2022. I had realised before that Nepali people left to work abroad, alike to many other developing countries, but what I hadn’t realised was that in Nepal some people do this in order to be able to move to the city, so Kathmandu or Pokhara. The Nepali man was saying that in 2022 he would stop working and he would be able to move to Kathmandu so his family would have better access to healthcare and education and therefore would have a better standard of living. He would then have a small business and he feels he would be able to better cater for his family. In Harpe, the nearest access to any medical facility is in Burtibang and even then this is tiny and more like a pharmacy compared to UK standards. Equally, in the cities the education and schools are much better and much better equipped. What I’m interested to find out is the impact that this will have on the villages and the village way of life if many people follow this route.
Each day I’ve been gradually feeling better and we managed to mud our floor and do a complete cleanup of our room which made me feel a lot better. To finish on a funny point, we were given some limes (amilo) earlier when we were on a walk and we asked Pulmati (our next door neighbour) if she wanted some, which she did, so she went out to get some chilli (I might have mentioned before, but you usually have limes with chilli, sugar and salt here). We managed to eat some with just sugar before she brought some chilli in. She put a load in (when we said ali ali which means a little), tasted some, then put even more in because apparently it was too sour! Ashvi and I both tried some and we couldn’t even cope with one - we had to pour some sugar in our mouths for relief (she was smiling away, but then again, she does eat chillies whole just for fun).
Something I quickly want to add is that after the holiday and particularly the trek, where we met so many people from other countries, I’m even more sure that I want to study languages at university. On the trek and in the holiday I practiced a bit of Spanish with a few Spanish people I met and I remembered how much I love speaking Spanish. Then, after talking to Jonathan (the Israeli guy we met) who can speak Chinese fluently and also write it I am now even more inspired to study a language with different characters. Nepali has such a beautiful script and I would love to learn other scripts and delve deeper into other cultures so I am also excited about my place at Manchester University next year, where I will study Spanish and Chinese.
I wrote this post a while ago, so sorry it’s taken such a long time to get it online! It’s all been so busy with school and with cooking and tuition for class 4 that I’ve been going to bed really early and don’t have time for much else. I managed to finish God of Small Things and one night Ashvi and I read each other folk and ghost tales from Western Nepal (which Ashvi bought in Pokhara) which was a fun evening. God of Small Things was a very sad book; I think I might try to read something a bit more uplifting next time, but the descriptions and writing style is really interesting. In the last few months in Nepal I’ve managed to read a lot more than back in England during A Levels (despite being so busy) which has been really nice. It’s now been a year since I began my Project Trust journey on the Isle of Coll at my selection course and since I decided to go on a gap year (the year anniversary was a few days ago) and so I just want to say a big thank you for all the support everyone gave me to get here and thank you to all the charitable trusts that donated money. I’m so grateful to have this opportunity and a few weeks on, I’m really enjoying being back to village life; I’ll probably update what’s been going on in the next blog post but bye for now. Sending love to all my friends and family back home.
We took so many photos on the Annapurna Circuit so I thought I'd just give you the links to me and Eli's Google albums if you want to look - there are even more on Ashvi's camera that I'll probably share at the end of the year.
This blog is a personal blog written by Orla Fawcett, therefore the views expressed in this blog are those of Orla Fawcett and not those of Project Trust.
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