Namaste!!
Today we went down for breakfastand after yesterdays MASSIVE breakfast (2 slices of toast, a croissant, an apple and a spanish omlette...each) we asked if we could just have a single slice of toast each which was greated by laughter. And then even more laughter as he went into the kitchen to recount our request to his family. Of course, we got out one slice of toast each but they were concernedwe weren't eating enough so then brought out cake, bananas and apples too. We then met Patemba, our sherpa guide to discuss our plans. We'd be meeting at the Asmita tomorrow and because Tumlingtar airport is closed, we'd be going by bus. FOR 42 HOURS. (rather then a 45 minutes flight to Tumlingtar). We nearly cried. But it's all ok.We went and bought 1300 rs worth of food (nothing healthy whatsoever!) and then went shopping to drown our sorrows (we're now the proud owners of walking poles, adaptors, stationary and matcing maxi skirts) We went out to Thamel House (a gourmet restaurant by Nepalese standards) looking really cool in our matching skirts and for 750 rupees for the 2 of us (about 3pounds each) we enjoyed a delicious meal accompanied bysome Nepalese dancing and music.
However the highlight of our day. SUN. Yes blue sky and sun! We went a whole morning rain free, then there was a outburst of rain at midday, and then it happened! It was amazing (we have pictures to prove!)
Whilst we're on the subject of photos, we would really like to upload and share some photos BUT about every minute we get virus warnings on these computers so we'll have to wait till we return!
This will be our last post till we disappear off the radar till about the14th of September! Bye!!!!
lots of love, Millie xxxxxxxx
sun
Wednesday 25 August 2010
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Day 1.
NAMASTE!
It's stopped raining...so heavily! Umbrella are still needed but we're not as risk of drowning if we step in a puddle anymore!
After our MASSIVE dinner and breakfast (even Sanchia couldn't have finished it up) we decided it would be a good idea to walk to Durba square. About 5 minutes later we'd already been greeted by about a million nepelese people trying to convince us to get in their rickshaw, buy some weird musical instrument, take photos of them or try to impress us with their wonderful (if not slightly out of date) knowledge of the UK ('Your queen she is Elizabeth, your Prime Minister Gordon Brown) and then tried to make us buy them milk!
About an hour later we finally arrived in Durba Square. We initially turned down the offer of a guide thinking we could manage. About 10 metres later we decided that we actually had no idea what we were looking at and so maybe a guide would be a good idea. Durba square is full of old temples such as the Alcohol God every year they put a pipe in his mouth and strong men wrestle to put their mouths under the pipe to drink some beer. There's also a small fish in the beer which if swallowed, will give that man a lucky life. Ew.
Our guide was especially keen to show us the Karmasutra temple which featured lots of lovely ornate carvings of...well... "you see this women, with 2 friends, the're fisting, you know...and here...is horse karmasutra"..um yes. (pictures to come later!)
We then went and saw a painting workshop where they paint with gold dust! We also saw the temple of the Living Goddess (she's selected when she's 3 and has to fulfill about a million criteria. She's then not allowed to leave her house except when she's carried around 13 times a year and she's not allowed to touch the ground outside until she leaves when she's a young teenager!)
We're now sitting in the internet cafe whilst Vikki reads every single story about the nepalese plane crash and is slightly freaking out! (We're probably going by bus anyway!)
We're now heading back to the hotel where we are due to meet Patemba, our Sherpa in the next 24 hours!
If anyone want to contact us by text, our number is 9779849660422
Right, better go drown in the rain again!
Lots of Love, Millie xxx
(p.s. Well Done Georgina on her results!)
It's stopped raining...so heavily! Umbrella are still needed but we're not as risk of drowning if we step in a puddle anymore!
After our MASSIVE dinner and breakfast (even Sanchia couldn't have finished it up) we decided it would be a good idea to walk to Durba square. About 5 minutes later we'd already been greeted by about a million nepelese people trying to convince us to get in their rickshaw, buy some weird musical instrument, take photos of them or try to impress us with their wonderful (if not slightly out of date) knowledge of the UK ('Your queen she is Elizabeth, your Prime Minister Gordon Brown) and then tried to make us buy them milk!
About an hour later we finally arrived in Durba Square. We initially turned down the offer of a guide thinking we could manage. About 10 metres later we decided that we actually had no idea what we were looking at and so maybe a guide would be a good idea. Durba square is full of old temples such as the Alcohol God every year they put a pipe in his mouth and strong men wrestle to put their mouths under the pipe to drink some beer. There's also a small fish in the beer which if swallowed, will give that man a lucky life. Ew.
Our guide was especially keen to show us the Karmasutra temple which featured lots of lovely ornate carvings of...well... "you see this women, with 2 friends, the're fisting, you know...and here...is horse karmasutra"..um yes. (pictures to come later!)
We then went and saw a painting workshop where they paint with gold dust! We also saw the temple of the Living Goddess (she's selected when she's 3 and has to fulfill about a million criteria. She's then not allowed to leave her house except when she's carried around 13 times a year and she's not allowed to touch the ground outside until she leaves when she's a young teenager!)
We're now sitting in the internet cafe whilst Vikki reads every single story about the nepalese plane crash and is slightly freaking out! (We're probably going by bus anyway!)
We're now heading back to the hotel where we are due to meet Patemba, our Sherpa in the next 24 hours!
If anyone want to contact us by text, our number is 9779849660422
Right, better go drown in the rain again!
Lots of Love, Millie xxx
(p.s. Well Done Georgina on her results!)
Monday 23 August 2010
Well HELLO THERE Kathmandu!
We are officially in Nepal.
Ohmydays.
After sleeping for about 3 minutes in total having hijacked the sofas in costa coffee in abu dabhi airport for about 8 hours we finally boarded our plane to Nepal. Basically, we've been awake for about 30 hours with intermitent power naps and 2 meals at weird times. So forgive us if this reads funny.
One observation was the weird smokey steam stuff they pumped into our plane at Abu Dhabi. I was seriously concerned. DO THEY NOT REALISE THE CABIN IS FULL OF SMOKE?? But I think it was just stuff to cool the plane down. Abu Dhabi is literally in the middle of the desert and it was 31 degrees at midnight. So very hot.
Anyway, first impressions of Kathmandu. As soon as we got off the plane it was HOT and HUMID. like REALLY hot and REALLY humid. Obviously no airconditioning in the airport so we melted for a good hour while queing up for a visa. Millie then managed to lose hers while trying to buy a sim card. but she found it. So don't panic, Ruth and Kevin. We also both have our passports. Just so you know.
We got an extremely battered taxi which had net curtains as seat covers which took us to the AsmitaGuesthouse. Obviously, our in-car salesman who sat in thefront passenger seat alongside the driver was having none of this, and spent the entire journey trying to persuade us to: Stay in "his" hotel, book plane tickets, book chitwan, have a guide round kathmandu, etcccc. But as headstrong youngwomen we managed to say NO and to getaway without any 40% discounts to dodgey safariparks.Thank you NHS. Again the driving in Nepal is compltely mad. They drive on the same side "apparently" but I'm pretty sure wejust spent the entire hour weaving in and out of near death experiences on either side of the road.
Our guesthouse is really,really lovely, and we acquainted ourselves well by spilling a bottleof nepalese fanta over theguestbook in the first five minutes.
Now we're just passing the time till supper in an internet cafe with a REALLYDODGEYSPACEBAR. But for 60p for an hour we can't complain.
Hope everything is OK back home. We heard it was very rainy last night. Don't start. Monsoon season. It has rained solidly since we arrived and is SO HUMID.
By the way, a weird virus popped up on our screen, so if weird stuff starts appearing on our facebook and this blog, just ignore it!
Lots of Love,
Vikki
xxxxx
Ohmydays.
After sleeping for about 3 minutes in total having hijacked the sofas in costa coffee in abu dabhi airport for about 8 hours we finally boarded our plane to Nepal. Basically, we've been awake for about 30 hours with intermitent power naps and 2 meals at weird times. So forgive us if this reads funny.
One observation was the weird smokey steam stuff they pumped into our plane at Abu Dhabi. I was seriously concerned. DO THEY NOT REALISE THE CABIN IS FULL OF SMOKE?? But I think it was just stuff to cool the plane down. Abu Dhabi is literally in the middle of the desert and it was 31 degrees at midnight. So very hot.
Anyway, first impressions of Kathmandu. As soon as we got off the plane it was HOT and HUMID. like REALLY hot and REALLY humid. Obviously no airconditioning in the airport so we melted for a good hour while queing up for a visa. Millie then managed to lose hers while trying to buy a sim card. but she found it. So don't panic, Ruth and Kevin. We also both have our passports. Just so you know.
We got an extremely battered taxi which had net curtains as seat covers which took us to the AsmitaGuesthouse. Obviously, our in-car salesman who sat in thefront passenger seat alongside the driver was having none of this, and spent the entire journey trying to persuade us to: Stay in "his" hotel, book plane tickets, book chitwan, have a guide round kathmandu, etcccc. But as headstrong youngwomen we managed to say NO and to getaway without any 40% discounts to dodgey safariparks.Thank you NHS. Again the driving in Nepal is compltely mad. They drive on the same side "apparently" but I'm pretty sure wejust spent the entire hour weaving in and out of near death experiences on either side of the road.
Our guesthouse is really,really lovely, and we acquainted ourselves well by spilling a bottleof nepalese fanta over theguestbook in the first five minutes.
Now we're just passing the time till supper in an internet cafe with a REALLYDODGEYSPACEBAR. But for 60p for an hour we can't complain.
Hope everything is OK back home. We heard it was very rainy last night. Don't start. Monsoon season. It has rained solidly since we arrived and is SO HUMID.
By the way, a weird virus popped up on our screen, so if weird stuff starts appearing on our facebook and this blog, just ignore it!
Lots of Love,
Vikki
xxxxx
Sunday 22 August 2010
Hello from Abu Dhabi!
Hello!
Just landed at Abu Dhabi airport (which is amazing by the way!) it's all very shiny and new! Flight was fine! Spent most of the 6 hours watching trashy rom-com films and reading the free magazines! It's 2am here and our flight to Kathmandu doesn't leave for another 8 hours. Should probably try and sleep a little in that time! Managed to get both the typewriters we're taking out for the charity through although the heavier one had to go into hold (&will probably be returned to us in a thousand pieces!)
Apparently it's 31 degrees celcius here! Looks very sandy outside (unsuprisingly!)
Hopefully we'll be able to find an internet cafe tomorrow when we arrive in Kathmandu!
Millie xx
(if you want to contact us, you can leave a message/comment below!)
Just landed at Abu Dhabi airport (which is amazing by the way!) it's all very shiny and new! Flight was fine! Spent most of the 6 hours watching trashy rom-com films and reading the free magazines! It's 2am here and our flight to Kathmandu doesn't leave for another 8 hours. Should probably try and sleep a little in that time! Managed to get both the typewriters we're taking out for the charity through although the heavier one had to go into hold (&will probably be returned to us in a thousand pieces!)
Apparently it's 31 degrees celcius here! Looks very sandy outside (unsuprisingly!)
Hopefully we'll be able to find an internet cafe tomorrow when we arrive in Kathmandu!
Millie xx
(if you want to contact us, you can leave a message/comment below!)
Saturday 21 August 2010
What we're doing...
Namaste!
We're off to Nepal between August 21st and Monday 20th of September. We'll be spending a few days in Nepal before heading of (either by plane or jeep) to Tumlingtar. We'll then be walking with a guide and porters to the village of Yaphu which is a 3 day walk from the nearest road. We'll spend 6 days there during which we'll be teaching English in the village school and visiting the health care centre which Nepal In Need funded.
We'll then walk across to the village of Tamku where we'll be teaching in the village school for 5 days before walking back down to Tumlingtar (another 3 days). We will then have 6 days in Kathmandu and are hoping to do a safari and everest flight!
We'll use this blog to post what we've been up too although only whilst we're in Kathmandu (no internet/signal anywhere else!) so there will be a big 2 1/2 week gap in posting! Sorry!
For more info on the charity Nepal in Need visit their website, http://www.nepalinneed.org/ You can also donate to the charity on their JustGiving page http://www.justgiving.com/nepalinneed
Lots of love, Millie & Vikki xxx
p.s. You can email us at MillieVikkiNepal@hotmail.co.uk
We're off to Nepal between August 21st and Monday 20th of September. We'll be spending a few days in Nepal before heading of (either by plane or jeep) to Tumlingtar. We'll then be walking with a guide and porters to the village of Yaphu which is a 3 day walk from the nearest road. We'll spend 6 days there during which we'll be teaching English in the village school and visiting the health care centre which Nepal In Need funded.
We'll then walk across to the village of Tamku where we'll be teaching in the village school for 5 days before walking back down to Tumlingtar (another 3 days). We will then have 6 days in Kathmandu and are hoping to do a safari and everest flight!
 |
| The Sankhuwasabha region where we'll be teaching |
We'll use this blog to post what we've been up too although only whilst we're in Kathmandu (no internet/signal anywhere else!) so there will be a big 2 1/2 week gap in posting! Sorry!
For more info on the charity Nepal in Need visit their website, http://www.nepalinneed.org/ You can also donate to the charity on their JustGiving page http://www.justgiving.com/nepalinneed
Lots of love, Millie & Vikki xxx
p.s. You can email us at MillieVikkiNepal@hotmail.co.uk
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