One Month in Nepal

Well, we have now been here a month. I suppose exactly 4 hours ago we were actually on a plane, or in Hong Kong airport getting ready to leave on our last plane destined for Kathmandu. I haven't updated this blog in a little while because I don't know what there is to update. I believe at the end of my last we were planning on going to Gorkha for the weekend.. or perhaps those plans were still unsure. Anyway, we did not end up going to Gorkha for the weekend because Friday night - the night before we were scheduled to leave to catch our early 8am bus - I woke up in the morning with the inability to keep dinner from the previous night down. Unfortunately, I didn't get any sleep until after sunrise and, wisely, we chose to stay at home to let me rest. I felt terrible (both emotionally and physically) because we didn't get our weekend away so we figured, why not leave during the week? There's no rule saying that we have to go on a weekend. Well, that also didn't happen because we had other things to take care of - me downloading my textbook, which still has not happened and is the reason I have internet right now, and Charles taking care of other important issues back home. Now we have decided we will take a full week off of volunteering and go to Chitwan, Lumbini, and Gorkha. We were going to leave tomorrow but then we found out there was open tours going on in the universities of Kathmandu which would be a pretty cool experience to see and still I don't have my textbook and I would really like to write my midterm within the next week. I do have a funny story about the first time we were trying to go to Gorkha though so we have had some entertainment this week:

So we decided we were going to buy our bus ticket early to ensure a relatively comfortable (to Nepali standards anyhow) 4-5 hour ride to the bottom of the valley that leads to a hike to Gorkha. We took Friday morning then to go to Boudha - the stupa that always pops up when you google Nepal - and go to a travel agent to book the ticket. Well, apparantly the two we went to told us that we couldn't get a ticket through them and had to go to new bus station (which is really an old bus station that still goes by that name, or another slightly cooler name - Gungabu). So we figured we'd take the trip and get it done. We got there and told the guy Muglin - another stop off before Gorkha, and I guess through the mispronunciation and confusion we ended up buying a ticket to a place called Bugaloo - or something like that - which is probably 10+ hours and beyond Pokhara! Of course, I wasn't even sure of the name that Charles was saying originally so I thought, ok, maybe he was pronuncing it way wrong and it actually starts with a "B" not an "M". So we went back to the clinic after having spent about $15 on a bus ticket. At lunch time I figured I would ask the doctor to confirm the place that we purchased and thankfully I did because he (and every other Nepali there) told us that we had payed way too much and were going much farther than we wanted. Then, Dr.Ramgi said he would call them and proceeded to call the number which I had given the bus depot - Tika. Then, Tika answered the phone and there was some confusion between the two of them before Tika turned around and they each realized that they were talking to each other! We ended up getting it sorted out in the end and Tika took me back to the bus station to get me a ticket to Manakamana for 500 rupees total - about $7 - and so because we didn't end up going we only lost half of what we had originally paid! If I was feeling good we would have either gotten off early and wasted the original money spent or we would have been on an unintended 10hr bus ride!

Now, I am not sure when we will be leaving, my stomach is still fussy about what I put in it but so far I am doing much better than I was last weekend, and it's proving to be extremely frustrating to get this textbook downloaded due to poor internet connections everywhere - and last night, when I got more than 80% downloaded, the internet cut out with the power, and the download started all the way from the beginning! After spending 4 hrs sitting at a cafe, drinking and eating expensive food, getting a taxi there and from, all with the hopes that it will be worth it if I have my text. But oh well, c'est la vie. I have learned now that if I want to do an online course from Nepal I will download the textbook and work out the kinks AT HOME or I will not do an online course from Nepal at all. Today has been another day, 3 cafes later (though the first I didn't spend any money) and both I did spend money on were still too slow to download.. so I figured I might as well update my blog while I was here.

Whether or not I get the textbook today, I am looking forward to some time away from Kathmandu and might just write the midterm with the knowledge I have and can obtain from other websites just to get it over with. I will surely send updates on my times in Chitwan, Lumbini, and Gorkha, and am still enjoying the volunteer experience with the disabled patients of Shanti Sewa Griha. Hope all is well in Canada!