Emma J
I am about to leave on a four month gap year trip to Nepal to volunteer as an English teacher and explore the country a bit. Enjoy my blog!EmuAbroad
Travel Blog Posts
May 20th 2011
So, here I am back at home in the UK after four amazing months in Nepal - I am definitely going back! There is no question that I was extremely sad to say goodbye to my lovely host family, Godawari, and the school Cresent Academy where I was volunteering, as well as the rest of the group, but it was nice to see my family again. It is strange being home as nothing here has changed, so it is hard to believe that four months have passed. But then I think back on all the amazing experiences I've had and the great people I've met and I realise that these last four months did certainly not just disappear, far from it, they were probably some of the best months of my life! Anyway, I'll briefly talk ... read more
May 7th 2011
The weekend before we went to Chitwan we did a bit more sightseeing around Kathmandu. One of our visits was to Swayambhunath, or the monkey temple (so called because lots of small monkeys live nearby the very long stairway up the hill to reach the stupa on top). Using the map and directions in the guide book I managed to lead us to the temple without any difficulty - so we had a nice walk (over a very smelly river!) to the stupa - and saved on a taxi fee! Giant stautes of Buddha greeted us at the base of the hill, and as we climbed the hundreds of stone steps, lined with handicraft stall, more impressive stautes appeared. We did see some monkeys on the way up, but not nearly as many as I was ... read more
May 7th 2011
After returning from the community work in Lubhu, we had one free day in Kathmandu before beginning our 10 day tour of Tibet. On the day of our departure we were up early to leave from the hotel at 6am and start the 4 hour drive to the Tibet border. As we grew close, we could see the Tibetan border town in the distance, and the influence of the Chinese authorities was very clear by the bland, concrete uniformity and regularity of the buildings' appearance, a huge contrast from the Nepali buildings I have grown used to. When we eventually arrived, the whole process of crossing the border was very lengthy and made very official by the Chinese authorities. As we crossed the border, which was marked by a red line on the ground in the ... read more
April 15th 2011
After rafting and Chitwan we had one day to recover in Kathmandu before heading off to the village of Lubhu to do some community work. This is one of the villages where two of the other volunteers are teaching, so all the girls stayed with one of the host families while the two guys stayed with the other. Our project for the week was to paint the walls of a hostel attached to one of the schools. It is where either orphaned children live, or those whose families are extremely poor and can't are for them. When we first arrived the walls were bare concrete and it was very dirty - our job was first to paint it all white, then paint the lower half of the walls brown so it wouldn't show the dirt so ... read more
March 26th 2011
I have just got back from four adventure filled days, which were amazing, if extremely tiring!! Last Tuesday we set off early on a bus which would drop us at the starting point for some white water rafting along the Trisuli river on our way to Chitwan in the south of Nepal. We spent Tuesday afternoon rafting, then camped over night on the river beach, and then rafted again for a couple of hours on Wednesday morning. It was really really really fun - I definitely want to do it again one day!! The rapids weren't particularly big or dangerous, but considering that none of us were very experienced, they were big enough. Two people in my boat fell in during one of the rapids and they were absolutely fine - in fact it was more ... read more
March 20th 2011
Saturday 18th March was the long awaited festival of Holi - a festival of colours which celebrates the triumph of good over evil- I spent it in Thamel and it was absolutely crazy, but so, so, so fun! The festival is basically an excuse to havd a massive water and powder paint fight, so practically the minutewestepped out of the hotel in the morning we were mobbed by hoards of paint and water bearing locals and tourists who didn't let our clothes stay clean for long. Luckily we were all prepared though, and had all dressed up especially in older clothes - that paint is not coming put! We had alsoarmed ourselves with water balloons, bottles and water guns (which the local kids tried, and succeeded to steal) so we could fight back. When we first ... read more
March 18th 2011
Four weeks ago now, on the day before we went to Bhaktapur, I went with my Nepali family to a wedding - it was definitely not what I was expecting. When we arrived the bride and groom were sitting near a holy area full of offerings while guests queued up to give them gifts and wash their feet. Apparently they just have to sit there like that for most of the day, while their guests make the most of the huge buffet. There seemed to be a lot of eating and talking to family involved, no dancing or big ceremony, and as Gunjan didn't recognise most of the guests, we just sat for a bit, then ate, then sat some more, and then left! It was definitely an experience, but I think I prefer English weddings! ... read more
March 18th 2011
We spent the weekend after Pokara back in Kathmandu so we could explore more of the city. On the Saturday we wondered around the areas outside Thamel (the tourist district) which turned out not to be the best plan as water balloons had just come on sale in preparation for the festival of Holi (which is actually tomorrow - March 19th) and the local children were a bit over-excited, and were throwing the balloons at unsuspecting passers-by (particularly westerners) so we got hit a number of times - before becoming suspicious of any child who said 'Hello'(and even those who didn't!) and hurried past. In the evening we made another trip to Bodnath (the big Buddhist stupa) as there were meant to be celebrations there for Tibetan New Year (although when we arrived there was just ... read more
March 18th 2011
Last weekend two other volunteers and I made a day trip to Patan's Durbar Square. This was much closer to home than Pokhara, in fact just a five minute walk from where we have to change buses to get into Kathmandu from Godavari, so we stayed in the village until Saturday morning. It seemed that the square was slightly smaller than Bhaktapur's Durbar Square - or there were more temples in Patan, as there was less open space. The collection of temples was still pretty impressive though, and as well as the usual tiered pagoda style wooden temples, there were a number of ornately carved stone ones. The Patan museum (housed where the old palace used to be) was excellent - so much more informative than the one we visited in Bhaktapur (although it was much ... read more
March 18th 2011
Again this entry is a bit out of date - we went to Pokhara 3 weeks ago now... Anyway, we took a long weekend to Pokhara as the bus journey either was takes a whole day. So we left early from our hotel in Kathmandu on Friday morning to catch the 7am tourist bus to Pokhara. Since we had been advised to take the tourist bus, rather than the local bus this time, our journey was very different to our bumpy, cramped ride up to Langtang for the trek. There was no one standing in the aisles or sitting on us, and the seats were much more spacious! The journey took us just as long though as I think the tourist buses drive slower or something... We stopped twice on the way at roadside shops for ... read more
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