Day One &amp; Two

After a mental weekend of stressing, buying, back pain and packing, a doctors note and one relaxing massage, and a mad dash to the airport with three minutes to spare I have made it to Kathmandu!

Last night I didn't sleep too well. Our room is ok but stinks of damp n the sheets feel a bit wet and it was hot and I swear every dog in the city was barking it was so loud! I woke up at some god awful time this morn n also thought I might be sick last night. So not feeling great today as back still hurts but I've drugged up n hoping for the best!! I am writing in the outdoor breakfast area its 9.30 (nepal is something weird like 4.45 hours ahead of UK) we are about to head out to the project visit to see a school Childreach has helped, paint some walls and meet the kids!

Breakfast was ok, managed some toast n strange croissant n few spicy potatoes n pineapple juice! Few weird things though.

So Nepal is crazy. First impression from airport in a bumpy bus with back pain, hot dirty dusty everyone wearing those medical face masks to walk along the road, constant beeping no road markings so its bigger car wins, and lots of playing chicken! Cars bikes and mopeds cyclists people and animals like cows and dogs fighting for road space. Monkey hanging from a wire and it was very cloudy but warm like 22c. Cant see past the immediate city too cloudy to see mountains. The electric wires are all over the place I need to take a photo it is scary that people really live like this!

So, I was last to the airport and ran in with a quick goodbye to the family, then we were on the plane, Jet Airways, India. It was only 7 hours to Delhi and it was even nicer than Virgin! Seats were more comfy and we got drinks and an Indian snack of salty seed things tht were nice and dinner and breakfast. Dinner was a curry (I got veg) and was nice with nice pineapple mousse type pudding, brek was fruit and a chocolate muffin with the biggest chunks! Yum although I didn't really want it as it was 4am! I watched scary Movie 4 (quite good!) Crazy Stupid Love and 3 new modern family's!

We landed in Delhi and waited a while in security (separate for girls and guys, I swear they just love feeling us up!) then killed a few hours in the shops and food court. We got a MaccyDs, no pork or beef there so we got spicy Mcchicken meal which was very spicy. I got some indian rupees as change (different to Nepali rupees just to confuse things). As we sat down two guys were laid out sleeping on the bench the other side of the table and I put my tray down and my coke went everywhere! All over one guys leg and he woke up so fast haha oops! Very funny. On the next flight it was 2 hours or so but I slept and missed a second curry (thank god, two curries and a McDs within a few hours of eachother, and a third curry that evening=stomach hell). At Kathmandu the time difference was another 15 mins, which is pretty weird as I though it was always hour increments. Once we got off we had to get our bags and my back really hurt from an uncomfortable second flight so I felt sorry for myself! We got in a dodgy bus and headed to hotel. It was crazy!

Hotel is ok nice enough. Rupees to the dollar is 104 to 1! This dropped to 97 or so by the time we were back in a few weeks. So I have about 12,000 Rs. right now, rich! Yesterday we had the project visit where we sanded wooden window shutters and painted with them primer and met the kids who said 'what's your name ?' And then 'nice name ' to me when I first got there. I thought that was lovely! then I realised they were saying it to everyone! I felt betrayed they didn't really like my name!

Up at 5 am today to fly to Lukla. It's 7 now and we haven't left yet!

In the last few days we've also done a bit of shopping ( I hired poles for $12 inc deposit and bought a waterproof bag and a nice turquoise $1 bangle and a notebook with elephants on!) And had two dinners very similar one was Nepal style and the other Indian (50 Cent ha) but nearly the exact same!

There was one long group table and a stage at both with traditional dancing, and loads of courses like fried potatoes and spicy pickle (aka chips n curry sauce) then fried mushrooms, spicy dumplings, lentil soup and some other soup then the main was like 5/6 things rice fried fish curry veg mutton curry (ew) and some paneer thing among other stuff! Then fruit for dessert in one and mousse stuff at the other!