Friday 24th July Today was my first "real" day of teaching in a school even though I am only doing one lesson. I walked round to Phil's and he called a taxi. He asked whether there was anything else I needed before we went to the school and I mentioned that I had broken my glasses frame this morning while wiping the lenses so we went via an opticians where he negotitade a price of 1100 rupees to put my lenses in a new frame which I thought was pretty good (that's less than 10 quid). Some notes on Nepali currency: the current exchange rate is around 122 rupees to one pound sterling. Most money is banknotes going from 5 rupees up to 1000 rupees so the 5 rupee banknote is worth about 5p. I have ... read more

Because there is virtually no rail network in Nepal, buses are extremely popular and busy. It takes 3 men to run a bus - a driver, a fare collector and an "usher" who jumps off at every stop and tries to round up custom, shouting out the destination and touting any people who look as though they might be wanting a bus. When everybody is on, he bangs on the side or whistles to tell the driver to move off. Eventually, when he can be bothered, the fare collector goes around asking for money, holding a big wad of bank notes in his hand. There are no tickets. Local buses are pretty basic - typically about 16-18 seats but they try and squeeze on everybody who wants to travel. The first one I caught was already ... read more

It's now 6.20 pm and I'm in another internet cafe, this time in Pokhara. I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday evening - more relaxed and more time now I'm at my final destination so I hope I will write something a bit longer and more interesting than yesterday's. Yesterday was a long day (well 2 days really since it started midday Saturday) and I was a bit jaded by the end of it and also conscious that I would have to be up very early the next day. This evening I'm feling much more relaxed. Everything about the travel went according to plan. I got a bus into Birmingham, then a National Express coach to Heathrow, then flew Air India to new Delhi, then finally Indian Airways (slightly different airline apparently to Air India) to ... read more

Now only 6 days to go before I leave. Did some final shopping in Birmingham City Centre yesterday, now I've just got to start packing and keep within the weight limit. I fly from Heathrow on Saturday 18th July, 9:30pm Mike... read more