"He lived in a pineapple under the sea..."

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After two days of being stuck in Hile with Pasang and our lovely family who forced us to dance for them every evening (and morning for that matter), we discovered that the Maoist strike in Pokhara had come to an end meaning that us and the Irish girls could make our way back to civilisation again. We walked to Naya Pul and bumped into Mukesh from Thamel who has very nice arms. From here, it was a good hours jeep ride to Pokhara - through the hills and down on to a flat, low-land plain which reminded Rosie of a more tropical Napolean Dynamite scene

Pokhara is fantastic - so chilled out, with space and trees and a massive, beautiful lake. It was great to see non-skuzzy city tourists again but both of us really missed the mountains - the scenery, the trek banter, the basic way of life in the teahouses and of course the rush of endorphins from constant walking. We regrouped with the Canadians and went out for a steak dinner as everyone was craving meat by this point - except for Clare who broke convention and had veggie lasagna.

Louise and Deborah had a luxury bedroom which we hijacked for the evening for a movie night before returning to the cheap hole we were living in. Rosie has a ridiculous mosquito phobia so spent every night mummified in her sheet, not sleeping, just swatting blindly at mosquitoes.

On the third day, we all climbed on to the Canadians microbus very early in the morning and drove back to Kathmandu all together. We sat in the back with Drew and Chance, eating, laughing and generally irritating the rest of the bus’s occupants. Chance fell asleep at one point, waking himself up spectacularly with the loudest, most nasal snore.

We are pretty much lice free now as we have de-nitted each other a good few times now.

We are staying at Marco Polo Guest House with the Irish girls and there two friends Beth and Connel. Our room is 400Rs/night double w/bathroom which is a little less than 2 pounds each.

We went to the British Embassy which is awesome. It’s just like a little bit of England - sterile, clean, with a welcoming Union Jack and an air-lock door which seemed just a little over-the-top.

It was so fun to be back in Thamel once more and catch up with all our friends and find out what had been going on.

On May 31st, we were casually informed that thousands of Maoists would be converging on Kathmandu from the mountains to initiate a revolution to overthrow the prime minister of Nepal. It is now May 8th and the Nepal general bandh has just finished after six days of Maoist supporters running up and down the streets with flags, sticks and burning torches shouting “chi dina” (“we don’t need”) and other chants which rhythmically sounded oddly like “he lived in a pineapple under the sea…SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!!!”

Yesterday was the first day it actually became violent in Ratna Park but really for the rest of the time it has been like a giant party for them with music and street food in abundance. However, the political situation here is extremely volatile - the country is literally on a knife edge with both the Maoist and the Nepali government refusing to concede defeat. We love this country and sincerely hope that it doesn’t spiral into a far worse state of political chaos.

From a more selfish point of view, the strike made life for us somewhat dull. Firstly, our diet took a radical downturn. We have lived off one meal a day and compensated for this by eating biscuits with chocolate spread. At 6-8pm every night there was a mass, chaotic dash to the shops for everyone to stock up on food and water before the Maoist closed them down again. Plus, with no public transport, it’s impossible to escape Kathmandu.

And, to add insult to injury, it was raining.

This all accumulated in a slight mental breakdown on our part as we came to the realisation that all the countries we are planning to visit were enduring some form of strike, bombs or terrorist plots. Up until yesterday, we had planned to rearrange 80% flights, a very daunting prospect, however things in Thailand and Nepal have picked up considerably meaning we can extend our Nepal stay to 89 days. We’ll just keep our fingers (and toes and everything else) crossed for India.

As the strike is over now, we are driving to Pokhara tomorrow morning so we can return to our beloved Annapurnas to take on the beautiful Annapurna Base Camp trek. We are literally ridiculously overexcited about this prospect and just cannot wait to get trekking again.

We have spent a great deal of our 14 days in Thamel bumming around, however we were lucky to have awesome company. Two of the Canadians Drew and Janelle were in the city until May 5th when they were due to fly to China to finish their travels. We spent a lot of time in the extremely relaxing “Garden of Dreams”, awestruck to see green grass - a phenomenon in Kathmandu. One day we spent a happy few hours at their trekking guide, Vishwa’s (kindest, most caring man in the world) home, making momo’s with the family. However, after three attempts at momo’s, Vishwa ordered us and Drew out of the kitchen. Janelle was permitted to stay due to her far superior momo-making skills.

A few days ago, Rosie was in hysterics after a bird crapped all over Clare’s “flip flop” and leg. However, she got her comeuppance when today a bird diahorreaed on her head - Clare stopped her returning to the hotel to clean up in order to haggle for a wooly hat whilst a nearby man helpfully pointed up at the sky, cheerily shouting “bird problem, bird problem”. What goes around, comes around/ (as we have learned from our guide’s Buddhist teachings) bad karma.

During the past week we have hung around a lot with our five Irish friends (Deborah, Louise, Beth, Connel and Miraid). We went out for a goodbye meal at a Korean restaurant (only restaurant open in the whole of Thamel down some little alley) with a menu offering a choice of braised or fried buff penis, chicken internal organs or fried buff urinary bladder. All seven of us opted for noodles.

So we leave for trekking once more tomorrow early morning so will be out of touch for around two weeks. It will be brilliant!

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