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Published: August 10th 2010
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Boudnath stupa - Kathmandu valley
One of the largest in the world and an important buddhist pilgrimage Hi Everyone
Sorry it's been a while since our last update but you know we've been busy......
Anyway in our last update we were just leaving Sri Lanka on our way to Nepal via a stopover in India. On paper a fairly straightforward exercise, in reality not so much!
A few months ago Indian visa laws changed allowing NZer's and citizens of a few other countries the ability to get a visa on arrival for $50US each. That made things nice and easy for us as we were having to fly from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Chennai, India, then on to New Delhi, India before flying out to Kathmandu, Nepal. As we were flying into and out of India we needed the visa. On arriving in Chennai however we were told it wasn't as simple as turning up and being given one, even though it is! The friendly (wanker!) immigration officer told us there is no such thing as a "visa on arrival" and the only way to get into the country was to pay $100US each for a 2 day emergency visa! Our hands were tied as our next flight left in an hour so we were
Buddhist shrine
Inside a Tibetan temple at Boudnath forced to pay. To top it off the "emergency visa" he stamped into our passports was actually a visa on arrival visa!! Welcome to India the land of the corrupt!
So we got into the country and flew to New Delhi where we had a 12 hour stopover and stayed in the scummiest $150 per night hotel room imaginable! Luckily we were so tired it didn't bother us too much. The next day we had a fairly unremarkable flight to Nepal.
When we arrived in Nepal we discovered we didn't have enough cash on us for the visas! No problem though, just leave your passport with customs, stroll through the airport like you own the place and go out to the carpark where there is an ATM. Get out the required amount and stroll back through the airport, the wrong way through security and go pay immigration for your visas!! Love Nepal already!!
So after we got through customs we were picked up by Tej, the director of the volunteering organisation we were going to be doing some work with. He drove us through Kathmandu to the suburb we staying in called Pepsi Cola! Yip Pepsi Cola,
Love this shot
Taken at Boudnath there is a Pepsi factory there so hence the name!! He dropped us off with our host family who didn't seem to expect us and showed us our room, a storage room with a makeshift bed!! Even though our seemingly unexpected arrival had thrown them a bit they were nice and friendly and fed us straight away which endeared them to us immediately!
We chose the organisation that we did as when we were inquiring they had told us that we were able to work with street kids. We really wanted to do this as there are literally thousands in Kathmandu. Unfortunately, for reasons unexplained to us, that wasn't to be the case. We were told that in the mornings we would be helping in a school they ran and in the evenings in their orphanage. Not what we had signed up for but a good cause still. Or so we thought.
Pepsi Cola as it turns out is a very wealthy suburb by Nepalese standards so it was a bit strange sending us to a school full of rich kids to help out. They also didn't really explain what was expected of us or what we should
be doing. So we spent the first hour standing in a class of 6 year olds looking at them staring with open mouths at the giant white people. We eventually got into the swing of things though and helped them with what the teacher was showing them. Luckily for us all but one of their lessons is in English so that made it easier. Nevertheless I did think it was a bit of a waste of time us being there us we were way more of a distraction than a help so I didn't end up going after the first day. Geena continued to go everyday though as she really enjoyed it and was really good with all the kids.
The orphanage was much more fun and rewarding. At the moment they only have 11 kids as they don't currently have room for anymore. They range in age from 5 years old to 12 and were a mix of boys and girls. They were the friendliest, happiest, most welcoming bunch of kids you are likely to meet, which is amazing considering the circumstances. A lot of this has to do with their Aama (house mother) who truly loved them
Cows have right of way!
Traffic in Kathmandu avoiding this stubborn guy all and had infinite patience with them.
We spent everyday that we were in Pepsi Cola with them and had loads of fun. We would meet them at the house after school and help the little ones change out of their uniforms. Then they would have tea and bread then it was homework time. Homework time was a little stressful as of course they didn't want to do it! Playing was much more fun! Once that was done we would all head to the field to play football, again incredibly stressful!! As soon as you mention that we are heading to the 'ground' all the kids go into overdrive! They all start yelling "Sir sir sir" or "Miss miss miss" to get us to help with their shoes. When they are on they are off out the gate and down to the park. Once there they pretty much entertain themselves, which gave us a little break! Once they had burned off a little energy we took them back to the house for their dinner and headed off to our house for our own.
So after a week it was time for us to leave. We would have loved
to stay longer but it's actually really expensive to volunteer and time and money were starting to become more of a factor for us. It was really upsetting to say bye to the kids even after only a week with them. Each of them sung a song for us and then piled onto us with kisses and cuddles.
We moved out of our homestay and moved to Thamel which is the backpacking area of Kathmandu. We stayed in Thamel for a few days and had a really good time there. We visited Durbar Square (good) and the Royal Palace (boring). The palace building was amazing but they had turned the entire thing into a dark and dusty museum that had no escape! I likened it to an Ikea store as once you were in you had no choice but to follow the passageways all the way to the end. The first minute looking at photos of their former kings was OK but the following 20 minutes of shuffling forward staring at similar photos was a little trying! Not to worry though the architecture in Durbar Square made up for the museum.
The highlight of our time in Thamel
View from our Kathmandu homestay while volunteering
The area is called 'PepsiCola' due to the large Pepsi factory nearby though was definitely a flight over the Himalayas and Mt Everest. The plane that we flew on was a tiny dodgy little thing but the view was amazing. It was a little cloudy the day we flew but the mountains are so huge they came out the top which, I think, made them seem all the more impressive. We all got a turn up front with the pilots as well where the view was even more amazing! We didn't get as close to Everest as we'd hoped but, you know, it's not like you can miss it or anything so we were both pretty happy!
Our next stop was an amazing little place called Pokhara. It's only 200kms away but due to the state of Nepals roads it took us 6 hours to get there and on the way home another 9!! The effort was really worth it though. Pokhara is a little town built on a lake. Small mountains surround the place and behind them, when it's not cloudy, the Himilayas peak over the top. There's not a lot to do here but it's so peaceful and relaxing you can't help but enjoy it. We were lucky enough
'The Ground' in PepsiCola
Every afternoon after we had helped the orphans with their homework, we took them here to play to catch the same bus as an American couple who had been at the same volunteer organisation as us so we spent quite a lot of time with them.
After Pokhara it was back to Kathmandu for one more night before catching a flight back to Thailand for our final month of travels. Due to a number of reasons (heavy monsoon, depleting funds) we unfortunately have had to skip India. We'll definitely make it a priority to start saving for a trip there another time :-(
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