Blogs from Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia - page 14

Friday October 3rd We were met this morning by Amrit from Nepali Cooking Course http://www.nepalicookingcourse.com/ I'd been looking forward to today for months after searching for a good cooking class in Kathmandu and finding his course on Tripadvisor. We try and do a cooking class in every country we visit as not only are they fun but we normally learn some great tips and tricks and we love the interaction with the locals running them! We walked to the local 'old' market and along the way picked up another 2 small groups of girls who we'd be spending the morning with. There is something about local food markets that I just love. The variety of beautiful, fresh produce always amazes me! This one was no exception. Set in the dusty streets alongside temples and gorgeous old ... read more

This morning Isaac and I went to Thamel from brunch, this wasn't entirely our intention but it's what happened anyway. We found ourselves in a restaurant called New Orleans just hoping to have something cold to drink and were presented with the most in depth breakfast menu we've seen since arriving here and were powerless to resist. I was first drawn to the Mexican breakfast which warned that it was on the large side so Isaac dissuaded me from ordering it on the grounds that I would never finish it and would feel bad; so he ordered it with the promise of sharing and I ordered fruit. What arrived shortly after can only be described as the best beans on toast ever: Instead of standard toast there was toasted corn bread Not just simple baked beans ... read more

We have arrived safe and sound! Kathmandu is crazy crazy! Never seen anything like it on the road, mopeds I have seen cutting up but there's people just walking in front of cars and then randomly in the middle of the crazy moving traffic there's a traffic warden directing traffic!! Fuji hotel is lovely it's so close here though about 26 degrees and no air!!! Lightning storm at the moment which is cool as we're on the 6th floor. I've learnt three Nepali phrases namaste is hello, ha-Zur is yes and Dhan-ya-bahd is thank you. On the flight from Oman to Nepal there were only four westerners on the plane the rest were Nepalese. Lovely people met a great guy called Ne-ma who we were chatting to in the airport and he was sat by us ... read more

I came home yesterday to find these 3 just happily munching on some grass at the end of our driveway.... read more

I popped down to the Post office today to send a parcel to New Zealand. Posting a parcel in the UK is a fairly easy affair, so I thought how hard can it be in a place like Nepal? 2 forms, and as many hours later it was sent. Lets just hope it gets to New Zealand. The central post office in Nepal is a big sprawling compound with 4 or so buildings and with my limited Nepali it took me several attempts to find the correct building. Once inside, I was directed to fill in a form that I presume was a custom declaration. When I handed this back i was required to pay 150rs (0.90p) that went straight into his pocket, and he very kindly showed me to the next stage. Sitting around him ... read more