Hi everyone
I am just about OK now to tell you all about my massive adventure over the last 4 days. Now I am safe and back at school I will commence.
I left Besishahar on Saturday 19th February to start my 4 day adventure! I trekked up to the bus and managed to catch a micro bus very quickly. I started my journey with a cough that had started just a few days before, but I thought is would be on it’s way out by the time I got to Kathmandu. The journey was absolutely fast, the fastest ever, I was surrounded by women being sick. The Nepalese rarely travel on the buses so it is without saying that there will be travelers throwing up in black plastic bags which are then thrown out of the windows. As I always travel with the locals I obviously am used to encountering this. But still it is not pleasant and I do feel sorry for the sickies! Tourist buses are very different, but of course more expensive. I am restricted by cost being a charity and also prefer to be with the people that I am supporting.
At Kathmandu I did not feel too bad, but not completely on top form. I went back to my previous hotel at 500 r’s a night about £4.50, I was there for 2 nights. I had a common bathroom which meant outside your room. It was all fine until I went into the room and said to Binod oh it has a sink in the room I was so pleased at this extra luxury. Until I heard the drip of the tap ahhh!!! Binod in is infinite wisdom got rid of the drip by swinging the tap to the back. By that morning my floor was wet. I moved the tap back to allow the floor to dry. The following day we worked at our office and did some project planning.
That night as Richard my partner suggested I tied a flannel around the tap so the dripping was not so bad, but it got bad Chinese torture commenced, eventually I put up with the wet floor again. I can’t complain about the hard bed and the tap, as the shower was hot in the common bathroom and this is Nepal!
The following day we were due to go back to Besishahar in the morning. I had asked Binod to bring me a toaster with him that morning to my hotel as we were leaving from there. I had not been able to get one anywhere in Besishahar the excitment of toast was overwhelming!
We caught our bus loaded up with our travelling stuff, and of course my very heavy (wonderful) laptop! My rucky was really heavy but hey ho I was going straight to Besishahar. My cough seemed to be a little better although I still did not feel right. We got to the half way point on the bus and all was fine, I gave my partner a call to everything was going well. WE got back on the bus and 10 minutes later we were stuck and I mean stuck. That road is horrific when it stops it stops. After some consideration and oohing and Ahhhring trying to find out what was happening. We with the other passengers from our bus decided to walk to the next village, our bus driver had decided to go back to Kathmandu by this time. Yes I walked (I never mind walking) with my rucksack really heavy 4 kms. Not far really but my cough and chest were giving up.
We got to the village to see it laden with police officers with batons, guns and riot shields, not really sure what had happened. We were told that the police had shot a member of the public. But ambulances were going back and fore. Perhaps we will eventually find out what it was. I took some pictures, will somehow let you see them when this word press is a bit faster.
We then found a bus that was going to Pokhara if we wanted to to to Besishahar we would have to change again. I was so tired and worn out by this time I just said we will just go to Pokhara and get a hotel for the night. I was beginning now to feel pretty ill. The bus smelt like a cattle truck and it was not much more that one. It bounced and creaked and banged over rocks as our heads hit the top of roof!! Two seats in front of me elevated themselves over a bump and fixed me into my seat. The smell go worse and I could see fluid running down the windows. I was feeling pretty awful and it was getting very late. Suddenly just before Pokhara the bus pulled into a cattle market. I then realised!
Yes! there were goats above us, forty goats were unloaded from the roof, animal rights please do not read this. The goats were pushed off the top of the roof screaming, they were pulled and pushed into a compound. Goats are a really good bit of stock for the Nepali’s as the feed is natural, and one good goat can bring good money at market enough to live on for a year. There were big rams with big horns being unloaded, of course I took pictures, I woke up a little for the excitement.
Back in the bus the smell eased a little and we arrived at our destination. I was by this time exhausted. Off the bus rucky on back looking for a hotel. Found a reasonable room with shower for 800 r’s about £7. Soap and toilet roll were given to me, and I showered washed my hair with the soap. I had not taken shampoo during my trip as I thought my hair would last, but hey ho no chance after sitting in the cattle truck. Of course I also had no clean clothes, but I had what toiletries I had taken. Binod and I then went to a very nice restaurant and had a very good meal. The cost was not extortionate £11. We had not eaten since breakfast so we shared 3 litres of beer, I had roast chicken and chips Nepali style and of course dear Binod had Dhal bat. It was just bliss to be clean safe and somewhere to sleep.
The next day my cough took a turn for the worst. But I still felt it would get better soon. As we were in Pokhara I popped to the Orphanage that I set up in 2006, and was run by the locals from 2008. The children now had grown up and some still recognised me. I had not visited since November 2008. I took some picture, it was amazing to see how grown up they all were.
Binod and I then continued our journey we left Pokhara about 11am and arrived at Besishahar at about 4.30pm. Guess what the bus left us at the top of the village so the rucky still had to be carried. But once through my room door at the school. I phoned my partner to say I was safe, took 2 antibiotics and just about had the energy to take off my clothes. My cough was becoming a chest infection (self diagnosis).
Yesterday I should have gone with Binod to the villages in our project area, but I just could not make it. He has gone up and is making notes and taking pictures to give me feed back. I is now Thursday and I am eventually on the mend. I am still on the tablets I will not stop them too early, got all the instructions from the net.
As soon as I can I will present the pictures.
So join me again for more exciting adventures of my project work in Nepal.
Freda
www.himalayanculturalconservation.org