29th September:- Dishain Festival

The VIN office was going to be closed for over a week for the Dishain festival. VIN had decided to hold Party. It should have been on the 30th but as usual, it changed. They only decided to inform everyone on the day, so I had lessons planned in the evening. It was due to start at 3:00pm. In Nepali time that probably meant 5:00pm. We all arrived and were fed and watered. It was A surprise to see alcohol too. I had a couple of beers. Most of the Vin staff were not drinking. Quite a few of the male members of the staff were also drinking. It was not long before they were quite pissed, especially Bhupi. His eyes were rolling, it was quite amusing to watch. As it got towards 5:30 I decided it was time to leave. Bhupi tried to get me to stay longer but I didn't want to let down my students. "it doesn't matter, cancel he told me" . " I can't do that, they are expecting me" . "it doesn't matter, just don't go". I wasn't about to do that so I wished everyone a happy holiday and set off to the ring road and get the microbus.
One of the problems with the festival was that everything was closed. I had by now sussed out a few more places to eat. I had met up with a couple of the other volunteers and had dinner during the week on a couple of occasions and been ton the Bamboo Cafe, great food, just limited choice. The food and drink in Swoyanbhu was about half the price of Thamel and there was no service charge or tax out of the city. That actually added another massive 23% onto the price of anything.

Disdain is a Hindu festival so although most things in the Hindu world come to a stop it did not affect the Work at the monastery, they did however have exams which gave them a few days with no lessons and they were to use this time for preparation. I helped and for the three days leading up to the weekend I sat in the courtyard and was constantly met approached by someone or other with a question. Perhaps the most bizarre was from one of the class five monks who had his account exam on the Monday morning. He asked me the night before if I could explain what the profit and loss account was. I suspect he did not get the required mark.

Travelled back to the city and the hotel premium on the friday afternoon for my usual hot shower. The owner looked quite pensive as I walked in and pointed out a sign at the reception. The cost of a room had gone up from 500 rupees to 600 rupees. An increase of 20%! This was due to the fact it was now officially high season. People would arrive in their droves to do the various treks and adventure trips. Kathmandu would become (more of) a hole and the mud of monsoon would be replaced by the dust . The only consolation is that it is a bit cooler, certainly in the evening. I accepted the rise in prices at the hotel. It was only 80p ! More annoyingly though most of the restaurants had produced a new menu and they had increased their prices by 20 or 25% too. The restaurants annoyed me. The service was generally poor and the food was quite expensive, as was the beer. I had not eaten the other tha than the first week or so and on a weekend but to be honest, the young lad at the hotel cooked as well and the beer and food were roughly half price.

Exam time came and went. I still continued to do my afternoon and evening lessons and actually went in to the temple where the exams were held and helped out giving paper out. Some of the monks quite cheekily asked for answers and while I was there I was constantly getting cheeky smiles from them.

One of the main celebrations of Dishain, which actually seems to go on forever, is the ritual slaughter of literally thousands and thousands of animals. The run up to this mas slaughter was interesting as all around you creatures, goats, ducks, chickens were being led around. I guess you have to appreciate that some people had walked literally days to get to a place where they could slaughter their animal and make that all important sacrifice to the gods. Originally I had intended going to one of these places but as it got closer to the date I decided I wouldn't. Instead I sat with the monks in Puja for the souls of the animals that had been slaughtered.

Finally the long last the festival was over. I was so pleased, mainly because it meant that I could have my coffee, masala omelette and potato curry with tibetan bread in the mornings. I had so missed that. Also, it meant I could once again get regular access to the Internet. God knows what we did before wifi and the likes.

Tragically the first morning after dishain I visited the cafe. Unfortunately I couldn't have my sisal because most of the staff had not turned up for work. It was actually quite typical of the youth. ladpath had given them quite a good holiday, a good bonus but told them when he needed them back. Of course they had probably long bus journeys and walks to get to the village but both waiters had decided to push their luck and extend their holidays.

Like I say, the youth of today. Never used to be like that in my time!!!
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Location:Balaju, Kathmandu

A well earned rest......

I'm taking a well earned break. Teaching takes it out of ya!
I've booked a weekend away at Chitwan National Park. Im here and it is beautiful. So much nicer than the hustle and bustle of KTM. It was an early start on Saturday morning. The rickety bus left Kathmandu at 7:00 am (Nepali time so it was more like 7:30!) the journey took nearly 6 hours but we passed through some lovely countryside. The $100 I paid for the three day, two night trip was a bit of a bargain. I'm sure you could do it cheaper if you tried but for the price you get accommodation, transport, food and tours.

I was supposed to be met by someone from the 'jungle safari resort' when I arrived but guess what? No one there. Fortunately there was a cab, for Nrp100 I got dropped off, arriving just after 2 I got a very nice lunch and then a trek into the jungle at 4:30. We didn't see much save a few elephants. It was very cloudy so the opportunity to sit at 'sunset point' and see a sunset was lost. I sat and had a beer anyway. The place I'm staying is nice. Looks like a first. A shower three days in a row! The evening meal was tasty and was followed by a show of traditional dancing. The Chitwan area is very different to other parts of Nepal. Very interesting place!

This morning I was up at 6:00. Breakfast at 6:30 and by 7:00 a small group of us were floating down the river passing peacocks, kingfisher, crocodiles (huge fuckers) then a walk the the government elephant breeding centre. The elephants are bred so they can work with the Nepali army patrolling the national park ensuring the population of Cheetah, Royal Bengal tiger and one horned Rhino are protected. Before lunch I spent an hour in the river bathing elephants. A brilliant experience.

This afternoon we have an elephant safari. Hopefully we will spot rhino. Maybe even a tiger. Photos to follow......


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Location:Baadreni Rd,,Nepal

23rd September:- Chitwan - A weekend away.

Chitwan was a marvellous experience. The bus journey from Kathmandu is around five hours. Bhupi has an arrangement with a travel agent and on our induction course had advised that he could get 'discount' tickets for most things, including a 3 day 2 night trip to Chitwan national park. I was reluctant to go on the first trip as I had only just started teaching and I thought it would be a bit rich just buffeting off 3 days after arriving. I decided I would take the trip while the kids were taking exams, there was a short holiday for them and it would get me away from the hustle and bustle of KTM for a few days. I paid $100 for the trip, it turned out that the going rate was more like $50!
The day before leaving for Chitwan VIN had a meeting, it was hopelessly disorganised and a complete waste of time. After the meeting they had planned go out for dinner, I was up early the next day I decided that I would give it a miss.

I was up early on the day of departure. Most buses leave Kandipath at 7:00 to 7:30 in the morning. It is a long road and there are literally 100's of tourist bused heading to Pokhara, Chitwan and more obscure locations. The buses are of various quality, some look as though they would struggle to make it out of town. Mine, fortunately looked in semi decent shape. As I was walking down the line I asked a hawker where my bus was and he pointed me I. The direction,then offered to show me. I am now savvy enough to know he would no doubt want money. As I got by bus I offered to buy one of the bottles of water he was selling. "How much?" I asked. "100NRP was the answer." " I'll give you 50, I said, you could buy it for 15 in the shop!" with a bit of moaning he agreed to this.

The main highway out of Kathmandu is probably similar to a country road in the UK, but in worse condition. It takes a good hour to get out of the city. The road then snakes up the valley and then down again. It is quite hairy with some spectacularly high drops into the gorges and river below. Apparently about one bus a month tries to take a short cut with disastrous consequences!


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Location:Chitwan National Park- Nepal.

19th September, an earth moving experience

My teaching is going well, now I am over my upset stomach, I am really enjoying it. I am even used to getting washed in cold water, the rather basic living conditions and doing my own washing. the after affects of the food poisoning are pretty awesome. I'm not sure how much weight I lost but most of the clothes are hanging off me now. I have made the decision that when I leave the monastery I'm going to throw my stuff away. Most of the shirts were pretty cheap and they are beginning to look pretty grotty with the hand washing. Buying new T-shirts and shorts is not going to break the bank.

I am really bonding with the kids, whenever they see me they come running over to say hello. Often in an afternoon I will sit in the courtyard and. Chat with a couple of them or some of the older monks. They older ones are interested in knowing where i come from, and am I married. That's a question that always comes up.

Sundays is usually pretty boring in that my favourite cafe is closed so there is no sitting down for hours chatting with the owners or checking on the Internet. This particular sunday will stay with me for some time. I still can see the episode in my minds eye.....

It was just before 6:30 and I was in the middle of my lesson with Lodehayer in the ground floor classroom. We were doing a lesson on the two auxiliary verbs 'be' and 'do'. I was giving some examples and then going through some exercises on the whiteboard. As I was writing on the board I felt a strange experience. It was as though a train had gone past the building. Which of course was impossible. I looked at Lode and he looked at me and almost simultaneously we said 'earthquake!' and rushed outside. The large monastery courtyard was just full of screaming monks running outbox the various buildings like headless chickens, robes flying in the wind. It was over in about 30 seconds but you could actually see the building move. Within minutes the chaos had turned to excitement with the chatter of the monks as they realised what had just happened. At that point the electricity went out too. I'm not sure I'd like to go through that again.

The following morning Rangjung showed me the newspaper, apparently it was a biggy. 6.9 on the richter scale. The biggest in Nepal for almost 25 years. The paper said if it had gone on for another 10 seconds the city would have been devastated. The epicentre was to the east of Nepal, just over the border in the Indian state of Sikkim, not far from Gantok which just happened to be the place I was headed after Nepal. I might need to rethink my itinerary !

On the Monday I was meeting Sumadp and Michiel to go to visit one of the new volunteers in a monastery just on the outskirts of Kathmandu. I had got instructions on where to meet them and it happened to be quite close to where Ram went to college so I jumped on a Microbus and headed off into town with him. I had expected quite a big college but in reality it was a few rooms on the third floor of an old building. Ram is studying for his IELTS (International English Language Testing System) this is the accreditation you need to get a study visa for any English speaking country. I had been helping him and was becoming quite expert. The accreditation includes writing,reading, speaking and listening. I had done quite a bit of research on the exam and had a few applications that were helping him.

Because his lesson started at 8:00 and in was not meeting the others till 9:30 I sat in the lesson. I'm beginning to think I may start to teach this myself.

After the lesson we walked to Rattan Park where in was catching the microbus. The monastery was about 45 minutes out of town and then an uphill walk of about 2 hours. It's funny, no-one in Nepal talks distance. When you ask how far, the answer is always, it's 3 days walk. The main highways in Nepal are not numerous and every few hundred yards there are small tracks that lead into the hills and the villages.

The weather was warm and the walk up to the Monastery gave spectacular views over the valley and the city. I hadn't had breakfast so stopped for a couple of samosa (wrapped in the usual newspaper). We eventually got to our destination at midday. It was a pretty impressive place. I would liken it to a Resort monastery, it was pretty new, all the monks were clean and it even had a canteen. All it was lacking was a pool. Josh expected the whole of Kathmandu to be flattened by the earthquake and seemed a trifle disappointed to learn that the only collateral damage was a fallen wall at the British Embassy which had killed five people.
I ha an interesting conversation with the Guru there and we left for the long walk back down the mountain after an hour and a cup of sweet tea. Unfortunately the monsoon had not quite finished and we we treated to a downpour on the way back. The micro returning us to the city just happened to go back past Swoyanbhu so I jumped off there. Later Ram told me in would have been better going the opposite way around the ring road. I was still back in time for my two evening lessons.....



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Location:Kama Samten Ling Monastery, Swoyambhu, Kathmandu

4th September:- Working in the Monastery.

I have been working really hard, about 7 hours teaching every day. Three hours in the morning with the youngsters, out for breakfast at 10:00 and the. Starting at 2:00 while 4:00 then 6:00 while 8:00. I'm mostly in bed reading by 9:00pm as the day starts early.

The youngsters are amusing. Always happy, always more interested in games and videos than learning. Like most kids. The challenging class is Class one. Apparently the kids are streamed according to their ability in Tibetan. Hence, the age group in class one is 6 to 14. Quite a difficult spread, especially as their skills in Tibetan don't always align to the skills in English.



On Fridays we have a treat. Games and a video. Last week was Bingo. Foolishly rather than pre-preparing the cards I asked them to draw a 12 number grid and populate it themselves. Off we went. When a "full house" was called the little monk came up to have his numbers checked and claim the prize of a pencil, sharpener and eraser. Unknown to me, while I was checking the numbers the rest of the class were busy erasing their numbers and putting the numbers already called into their cards. Suddenly, everyone had "won" .
I've had to break up more than one fight, they are constantly kicking and punching each other. A couple of the monks in class three were going at it like 'gud-uns' the other day. I promptly separated them and we got on with class. As we finished, I'd cleared up and was just leaving the classroom when an iron chair went sailing past towards one of the protagonists, fortunately it missed. The other party had decided that the score still needed to be settled. Most of the little ones have scars somewhere from their mishaps or fighting. Barely a day goes by with one of them coming to school with something wrong. One on class two arrived one morning with a broken nose. He had fallen down and smashed his face in. No hospital visit, I have a feeling he may have a bit of crooked nose...



My 1-1 lessons are going really well. I do five now, the latest addition is actually the odd job man in the monastery, he is really eager.

One of my students, Ranjung is a 25 year old Monk. As skinny as a rake and when he first asked me to teach him I thought he looked quite unwell, in fact, I was chatting with one of the other monks one day and he was standing behind me, he coughed and some blood speckled spittle landed on the book, to be fair never thought anything of it...

Arriving at the third lesson with Rangjung, which we do in his room, there was a hypodermic needle on the side. "what's that " I asked. His room mate pipes up. "It's his medication, he's had TB." Fuck me I thought.... Hope it's not catching, that's the last thing I need.

"There is money in them there Monasteries....." The head monk, I've been told it is a Guru but everyone refers to him as Lama, has just returned from Manang where the Samten Ling have another monastery. When asking where places are I'm used to the response. "you go to such and such then walk for three days" I was quite surprised when the head man tips up in a brand new 4WD. I was chatting to his helper and naturally asked, how long did it take you. Not long was the reply, we came by helicopter.... Bloody hell, There were about 6 of them in the entourage.

The guys I'm doing private lessons with vary in competence so the lessons are quite interesting. Ram has been a monk since he was 6, some 18 years ago and Ranjung is the same. He is a lovely guy, I met him the first day I arrived and was taken by how thin he was, he really looked ill. A few days after I had been working with the kids and agreed to help with Ram 1-1 lessons on his IELTS preparation.

I was also approached by Lodehayer. He is in his mid 20's and is very smart but doesn't speak English very well. I'd asked him to meet me later on in the evening and tell me what he wanted to learn. He was very clear, he had a text book and would be having an exam sometime in November and wanted to pass. He was very focussed and we had some great lessons. The format was very similar to IELTS but significant more complicated. Lode was great at reading and comprehension so we spent a fair amount of time on speaking, indeed I became quite an expert on Phonemics and the phonemes. I really enjoyed the 1:1 lessons and it gave me lots of experience that hopefully I could use at a later date.

Sumadp, one of the workers at VIN did a lot of running around visiting the various volunteers (unlike my co-ordinator who did none) occasionally, in the afternoon when I didn't have lessons she asked if I would like to go along. One thing I did want to see was the "village" where most of the projects that VIN were involved in took place. I arranged to meet her and we took the micro bus out into the hills visiting the medical centre and the schools, it was a very interesting afternoon.

The following day a Czech girl, Maria who had been working with VIN teaching in a monastery for just a month was leaving to go home. I'm really not sure how she had found time to do any teaching as in the month she had been in KTM she had done visits to Pokhara, Kathmandu and been paragliding and bungee jumping. On her last day we had a bit of a leaving party in Thamel. The venue was the shisha bar in Thamel. It was a great night, live band, beer and good music. We even had a coked up 60 year old man dancing to entertain us.


My monastery is a bit out of town, I had been used to taking my washing into Thamel on my day off but the fact that the weather at this time of year is so unpredictable and that the washing is dried in the sun it sometimes wasn't ready for when I left. I made the decision that washing your own clothes in a bucket of cold water couldn't be that difficult. Actually it isn't, it's the rinsing that is difficult, getting all the soap out when you don't have any running water is a real ball ache. That said, I did it, I have to say, in the whole of the time I was there I did not have dirty clothes. They are pretty much ruined though. I guess I will have to start again, definitely before I get to Australia. I'm pretty sure, if I tipped up with some of the stuff I have, they won't let me into the country.

I'm now starting to think about the next steps of the journey. My plans at this stage are to head west towards India and the kingdom of Sikkim. After that I'll be heading south to Darjeeling and then west to Varanasi, New Delhi and then Agra. I haven't got into the detail yet but the plan was to do the vast majority of the journey by bud and train. I had mentioned what I was doing to one of the younger monks. He is Nepali but his mother is living in India.
" Oh no sir, don't go on the train, they will steal your money and shoot you"
" Who told you that" I asked.
" My captain, he is very good, he protects us from the devil"

He then went on to tell me that quite often the devil tries to come into the monastery and the captain of his room, the older monk has been telling him that the devil comes in an tries to take their souls. I'm really not sure what part of Buddhism this is!





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Location:Samten Ling, Swoyanbhu, Nepal

1st September:- A whinge.

There have been days when I have really questioned why I am here. The place is quite frankly a hole. The food is shocking and these poor little mites are really not cared for. Most have some type of skin infection. Their robes are filthy, but in the main they look happy and everyone is so friendly 'good afternoon sir' echoes through the courtyard every-time I pass. The thing that really gets me down is the lack of cleanliness. It's appalling. I have a bathroom which rarely, very rarely has running water. While appreciating that is a luxury in some areas, here it appears to be as easy as filling the tank. The state of the bathroom us something to behold.



Given I am volunteering, and the monastery get money for that, you would have expected it would be reasonably clean. It reeks. The problems of no water were exacerbated when I was struck by food poisoning. After each (of many visits) to the loo you, obviously have to pour water to get rid of the waste. This meant many trips down three flights of stairs to a tank that did have water, to collect it for the essentials. There are several hundred monastery's in the city. They all exist on donations. Their residents are taken from villages and orphanages and they are educated by the monks. There are, in addition to this two full time teachers. I suspect there is competition and I would not be surprised if , in order to cut costs and do other things, that corners are cut. Corners that include health, hygiene and food. Maybe I'm being a little cynical....



I was laid up for 2 days with my food poisoning, it was not a pleasant experience at all. Other than to visit the loo I didn't get out if bed for 36 hours. I was quite surprised of the lack of interest initially from my 'programme co-ordinator' I sent her a text before classes three days ago. Received no response, emailed Bhupi, got a reply. A hope you get well soon and that us the last I have heard from the office. I feel more than a little put out given that I had put hours of work in, even before my placement, to help out in the offices.

For the first couple of weeks I went into the office every day to see if there was anything I could do. I've stopped doing that now. I stay up here at the monastery, grim as it is, and am taking extra classes 1:1 with some of the older monks. Ram, whose 23 and studying for his IELTS which is an English course was the first to approach me I give him 30 minutes in the afternoon and then an hour in the evening. I have now collected another two. I have the first lessons This afternoon. So far I am teaching.
7:20 - 8:00
8:00 - 8:40
8:45 - 9:30
2:00 - 2:30
2:30 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
7:00 - 8:00

And that's 6 day a week. It's bloody hard work. I guess, after 3 weeks of my 8 weeks done, I'm only staying because of the boys. If I did it again I would check out the Monastery myself and make sure it has half decent. I would also sidestep the volunteer organisation. I realise they are doing good work in other areas but they are not very supportive towards those working on the the main programme and don't appear to have done any 'due diligence' to make sure the facilities are acceptable. The ongoing support is non existent. I have not seen my 'co-ordinator' since she dropped me off here and her lack of contact while I've been sick has been worrying.
I would feel much more comfortable giving my cash direct to the Monastery. This one certainly needs it....


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Location:Z St,Kathmandu,Nepal