Tori, tori...boyo...pugio!!

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There are 6 gorgeous boys here at Happy Home. The eldest is David, then Sushil, Ram, Ashok, Pemba and Bishant is the youngest. For the "boys only" day out we took them to the Tika school playground where we played frisbee, football, catch and went on the climbing frame for a few hours. They were all so excited - the kids work really hard at school and back at the orphanage so any time that they get to run around and act as children is very valued.

We all ate loads. The kids went kind of crazy over coca cola and ate chocolate at an incredible pace. The next day the kids were due to start their exams, but got an impromptu holiday as the corrupt/genius/passionate/evil (depending on who you talk to) important government guy died. We thought this was incredibly bad timing on his part, since we were due to go to Thamel for a couple of days when the kids would be at school and not missing us too much. Instead we left the kids with their downcast faces and caught the 10p, ridiculously crowded bus via everywhere else in Kathmandu. It turned out to be one of the best days so far!

We really love Thamel and are feeling like we know it pretty well now. We have a bizarre collection of friends here including a guy who sells violin-like instruments at extortionate prices, a rickshaw man, some trekking guides, a man in a random clothes shop and the guards at the Kathmandu Guest House.

We already have a regular cafe at Namao Buddha were some of our friends work. It's so awesome - Its off the main road and you sit on the floor and eat momos for basically no money. You struggle to spend £1 on a full meal with a dudh chyia and a sweet lassi. Most of the Nepali hippies we know through Courtney eat here so we ended up eating with Mukesh, a seriously hot trekking guide who is so kind to us.

We are getting to know some more handy Nepali phrases, such as (sorry about spelling):
"How much does (milk tea) cost?" - "Yo (dudh chyia) ko kati paisa ho?"
"How are you?" - "Tapai lai kasto cha?"
"I am fine" - "Me lai san choy/tike cha."
"Just a little" - "Tori, tori"
"Enough" - "Boyo"
"I'm full" - "Pugio"
"Yummy food!" - "Mito cha!"
The food related ones are by far the most important here.

Having left it just a little bit late, we are urgently trying to sort out our 3.5 week trek (Annapurna circuit and the sanctuary trek to ABC). Therefore we went into Shona's Trekking in Thamel to get some advice. In the store we happened to meet a man called Chris Beall (who we later found out is famous in the trekking world and has a detailed mention in the Lonely Planet guide to Nepal). He is primarily a photographer as has spent the last 20 years photographing the Annapurna’s. We spent a good hour talking to him and his advice was invaluable. Every time he got a bit passionate, e.g. the new road built at Jomsom, he would start swearing horrendously in his unbelievably posh British accent.

We decided to spend the night in Kathmandu Guest House, which is basically a landmark in Nepal and an institution for the backpacking community - definitely worth a visit! We got a basic room with a shared bathroom and a great and welcomed, hot shower. It has a luxury garden with a swing seat (which we hijacked) and a rare to come by green lawn! But their dudh chyia is ridiculously expensive.

We dumped our bags and began our half hour walk to Swayambhanath (Monkey Temple - Buddhist stupa on a massive hill overlooking the entire Kathmandu valley). It was a searing hot day with temperatures of up to 35 degrees, but it was still a lovely walk and you got a good perspective of the extent of the urban sprawl (OCD geography reference).

We asked a guy for directions to the monkey temple, who then proceeded to invite us for a lift on his motorbike. Clare thought this was a decent offer from what seemed like a pretty nice guy, but Rosie being the brains of the bunch wisely refused. He followed us anyway still giving us "helpful" directions to the giant Stupa, which had been clearly visible to us for the past 20 minutes.

We reached the entrance and began to ascend the vast number of extremely steep steps, passing begging children, bead sellers and the odd Buddha statue. Relieved to reach the top, we were completely astounded by the view. Below us were millions of densely packed homes, the ever present haze of pollution and the incredible backdrop of forested mountains. It was just a beautiful sight.

It consists of a central Buddhist stupa with various temples around it, coated in families of monkeys (one of which launched a viscous attack on a tiny monk boy right in front of our eyes. A lady whacked it with a stick and all was well - Soooo funny!). One of the highlights was the numerous colourful prayer flags covering every inch of sky, stretching from tree to tree.

This stunning scenery was somewhat marred by the reappearance of our motorbike riding stalker, who had followed us all the way to the top. It was when he said, "You girls are so beautiful!" that Rosie stomped off ahead, whilst Clare "naively" (read "being a kind and sociable person") hung around chatting to the man, who said he wanted "pretty, foreign friends". After about half an hour of Rosie's cold shouldering, he seemed to sense Rosie was slightly pissed off by his presence. So he proceeded to apologise for bothering us, then left.

Clare thought Rosie was mean... Rosie thought Clare was stupid.

After our adventurous excursion, we returned to KGH to get ready for a night out on the Kathmandu town, a little dubious about what to expect. We decided to pass on yet another meal of daal bhat and went to Dolce Vita for an amazing Italian meal. Rosie had gnocchi with mozzarella and tomato sauce and Clare had veggie lasagna and a half frozen chocolate cake. Just such a great meal!

Annoyingly just as we had finished, 4 rather minging guys on the next table, who had been staring at us for the whole of our romantic meal for two, asked if we wanted to sit and share a bottle of wine with them. We politely refused, hurriedly got the bill and left. We headed for Sam's pub which had a really nice relaxed atmosphere, until the 4 guys swaggered in. The most horrible, disgusting and pompous of all 4 started talking to us and he turned out to be the most racist arsehole known to man!

After we had shaken them off, we found an authentic reggae bar on a roof with Bob Marley and hash posters everywhere. We sat on the floor around a low table and met four really lovely guys. Two were Thai/Nepali and another was a Tibetan ex-buddhist monk. After a lot of pungent cocktails and Tequila shots, we had an "interesting" evening. At one point, Clare temporarily lost Rosie, turned to the Tibetan guy for reassurance, who coolly said, "It's fine...you're safe...I'm a Buddhist". Just genius!

The best cure for a hangover is the cinnamon swirls from "Hot Breads" the bakery.

After our day of being followed by various groups of perseverant men, we reflected on the fact that in this country we seem to be surprisingly admired. This is crazy considering our lack of personally hygiene, increasingly grey dirty clothes, pasty white skin and Clare's gangrenous mozzy-bite ridden foot. Oh well, whatever floats their boat...we're not complaining!

That night at Happy Home, we got back into our old habit of Daal Bhat, eating with our right hand in proper Nepal fashion - we're getting pretty good but don't reckon we'll be progressing to using our left hand as a bum wiper....trusty toilet paper any day!

Every minute of the kids day’s at the moment are devoted to their exams - some of which last for three hours despite the kids being an average of 8 years old. The kids will have done brilliantly though - they knew the answers inside out when we tested them and are so very clever.

We have basically given up on school. Now it's exams there's nothing to teach so we spend hours sitting with the Principle Manoze in his office while he speaks crazy fast Nepali largely ignoring us.

We've been helping organise a party for Saturday 27th March to raise money for Happy Home. Clare sold tickets in Thamel for half an hour, getting sympathy from the street sellers when noone bought anything.

We had a brief episode this week when we found that one of the girls had discovered the hiding place for our money and had been sneaking cash here and there. We found out later that she was relatively new to the orphanage and had done similar things in the past to fund her cigarette and drug habit - so sad as she is so young at just 9 years old. It was a big wakeup call as to us they just seem like very happy normal children and you rarely consider the fact that many have truly horrible pasts of being screwed up by adults, abuse and left to care for themselves and their siblings on the streets.

All in all this week has been a hilarious one - the kids couldn’t be funnier if they tried. All too often Rosie and Clare are reduced to fits of laughter as Ashok does his stupid dancing dressed as a girl, Bishant produces ever more wacky faces and all the others splatter phlegm and spit on your face in greeting in a delightful mixture of coughing and kissing. We love them so, so much!

Our bedroom is currently a pit - we litter/kop khun/phlegm everywhere and the room has become a hotbed for mice, spiders, geckos and most recently mosquitoes. Basically it has become a place our mothers would be ashamed of.

We will try and update you guys one more time before we begin our trek. We can’t wait, so fingers crossed we can arrange it in time.

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