Riots, clouds and a ridiculous amount of walking!

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Hello everyone! Finally I have had the chance to get onto the internet again. I thought I would just let you know what I got up to over the weekend...

This weekend, I went to Nagarkot with a few other volunteers. Nagarkot is basically a region out of the city where you get amazing views of the Himalayas- there is also fresh air, which is something I have been missing for a while! It was such an adventure!

We planned to travel from Kathmandu and intended to stop over in Bhaktapur, where we would be able to catch a tourist bus to Nagarkot. But when you make plans in Nepal, they rarely work! We got to the bus station in Kathmandu to find only one bus left going to Bhaktapur, and it was stuffed with people- so we got on the roof! It was brilliant, got to see everything, although my legs actually went completely numb after about 30 minutes. Unfortunately, on our way to Bhaktapur, there was a huge traffic jam, and we were told that there was a 'bhando'-which means strike, because of the petrol shortages in Nepal right now. So we had to get off and start walking! Was really wierd, because suddenly there were no cars and hooting on the road- just crowds of people. It was pleasant at first, but we had to walk for over an hour, and it got quite tiring. When we finally managed to get to Bhaktapur, we were told that there had been riots the day before- there were broken bricks on the ground that people had been throwing at one another, and there were people burning tyres all over the place. Luckily, I had a cold, so couldn't smell the fumes! It wasn't dangerous, but you could sense that there was tension in the air.

Anyway, so after walking around for ages, we finally managed to find a vehicle with enough petrol to take us to Nagarkot. The drive there was really beautiful- there were green rice fields, and you could see the hills in the distance. Very rural- I was glad to see so many trees! We found a hotel in Nagarkot fairly easily, called Hotel Snowman- which had a delicious chicken and mushroom pizza! (Who said I'd have to eat dalbhaat everyday?!)

The next day, we woke up at 5am, as we were planning to walk up to a watchtower to see the sun rise over the Himalayas. And oh my, what a walk it was! Apart from the fact that it was completely dark, so had no idea where I was stepping, it was also almost completely uphill! Looking back on it, I cannot believe that I actually managed to walk that much- we were walking for almost 1 and a half hours! craaazy. However, when we did get to the watchtower, all I could see was cloud cloud cloud! It was still very beautiful, but in the end I did not get to see the himalayas! oh well, maybe next time?!

Apart from going to Nagarkot, I have not travelled out of Kathmandu yet. Snowland School is really lovely, although out of the 19 days that I have been here, there has only been one school day! (today is 'democracy day'- most Nepalese don't even know what this means!) There are two volunteers now working with me at Snowland, which is great- we are planning on taking some of the kids on a picnic soon, as they hardly ever get to go out.

Anyway, that will be all for today!~

p.s. for those of you who have been tying to contact me through Facebook, I have not been able to recieve your messages, as my facebook does not work on these slow computers! If you need to contact me please just use my e-mail address. 😊

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