A busy day at the office

This morning I was going to visit the Volunteer Initiative Nepal offices which were about 2km from where I was staying in Thamel. I was up bright and early and wandered into the main area to grab some breakfast. I'm acutely aware that the diet both in Nepal and Thailand was sadly lacking in fresh veg and fruit so, in addition to taking my supplements. I'm also aiming to have at least a few of my 'five a day' this started with a fruit salad in the curry kitchen. When it arrived and I looked at the amusingly 'pale' colouring, the waiter said "sorry, we only have apples and bananas" nevertheless less it was more healthy than an american breakfast (though not as filling).

On my way to way to the curry kitchen, as is often the case, in was 'accosted' by a street seller, this one introduced himself and a "shoe doctor". Hen had noticed that my hiking shoes were in need of some attention over an above a good clean. Thats what you get spending days trekking in the deepest jungles of Borneo and hiking around the hill tribes of Northern Thailand. I hoping he had found some other custom). Quell surprise, he was still there when I came out so, good as my word, I let him have a look at the shoes. I asked "how much" and he was reticent to give me a price without a full inspection.
After sitting on a step in a small alley off the main street he gave me a could of insoles to put my feet on and gave the boots the once over. He decided that stitching the rubber that was coming away was the "cure". For this and a clean he wanted to charge me 950 NRP. About £9.00. "You can bugger off, I could buy a new pair for that. Besides , you said it would only take 10 minutes. At an hourly rate that is more than I used to get paid!"
He was clearly chancing his hand and as I was putting my shoes on he graciously accepted my only price. 500NPR, still not cheap. I was still concerned that stitching was not a good idea but he convinced me that he was the doctor, and if I was not happy, I didn't have to pay. Fifteen minutes later we were done. I couldn't pay him there and then he told me, but further down the road as he had sneaked onto someone else's patch!






After the shoe emergency room, I headed for a taxi to the offices VIN. It was only 2k but the taxi isn't cheap here and charged a couple of quid.
Now I know the way, which is really straightforward, I'll walk next time.

Once there, I met a couple of other volunteers, a really nice guy from Nottingham who was working in an orphanage and a really irritating girl from California who was doing something in health education.
I had arranged to meet the executive director of VIN who wanted to use some of my business expertise on a couple of things they had in the pipeline. By the end of the couple of hours in had agreed to look at the business plan for an orphanage they were planning to build and open in 2013. Bhupi wanted a document that could be used to "sell" the project to potential donors. I also agreed to look at another project and create the same type of document and review their funding model for the core business. I'm going to be a bit busy.

I was there most of the morning and left back for my hotel at around 2pm after having a delicious lunch of Momo's a steamed parcel filled with veg and a spicy sauce. Lovely.

I decided to push the boat out in the evening and have dinner at the place that served delicious chicken tikka masala. It turned out to be quite an enjoyable evening, a teacher from east anglia was on the table opposite and we ended up sharing a table and had good conversation. It wording though that I seemed to know more about English grammar than he did. After a couple of Everest beers I was a bit squiffy and made it to my bed at 10.30.





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Location:Paknajol Rd,Kathmandu,Nepal

Another nice morning - We'll soon change that!

It was a lovely morning, again, bright sunshine and quite warm. I was up early. The plan was to do some sightseeing.
I had breakfast, a full English, at the curry kitchen. It was a great location, overlooking the tiny streets of Thamel and the hustle and bustle of a sunday morning. After a nice relaxing couple of hours I set out to the supermarket to get toiletries, shampoo, body gel and deodorant. I had left stuff at Chiang Mai to save carrying it. Back to the hotel to drop it off. Took in 3kg of washing and was about to get a cab to Durbar Square when the heavens opened. I'm still in the room now at 5.30. Got quite a lot more of the transposing done though, and updated the blog. Hopefully I will get out later. I still haven't had a beer in KTM and it's my third day!


















I did get out later, much later due to the weather. It seems to piss it down every single day at about 5.00pm. At least the power stayed on. Hungry at about 9.00pm I hopped, (in the rain) across to Thamel. I didn't fancy a meal but I could have killed for a few Pakora. Could I find any, could I fuck. Eventually I settled for a bag of crisps and a bottle of chilled beer from the little shop in the alley between my hotel and Thamel. I could not resist his pitch " why pay 160 when you can pay 14o here." Why indeed!

The evening was spend writing up my course notes between swigs of "Everest" beer......

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Location:Paknajol Rd,Kathmandu,Nepal

First day spoiled by the bank....

Now I'm not so distracted training to be a teacher I will spend more time keeping the blog up to date.

My first full day in Kathmandu gave me a first hand experience of the monsoon season. Fuck, did it rain,and, and rain. Warm rain, but every bit as wet as the stuff back home.



The frog chorus I had come to know and love has been replaced by pigeons. Hundred of the appear to live in Kathmandu. To be fair, they are not the nasty, often deformed, rats with wings that you see in the UK . More like cooing doves....

I awoke to a fine morning, the sky was blue and you got a really nice view of the Kathmandu valley from the rooftop garden at the hostel I was staying at.
My first task of the day was to get some cash. I had no local currency so need an ATM. There are not hundreds of them in Thamel, very unlike Thailand. The first one didn't work, the second one kindly told me that my card was "closed" great! I found a money changer, changed my last sterling into grubby Nepali rupees and then headed back to my hotel to try and find out what "card closed" actually meant. Having incurred around £30 in mobile charges the last time I had to call the bank, I decided that I would try and use skype. That was a test in itself. The first attempt didn't connect, the second attempt I got as far as explaining what had happened, finding out that my card was still active, and being transferred somewhere or other. Then the connection went down.



Third time lucky! After running through the scenario again in was put on hold, being transferred to "control". After a wait of some ten minutes and some serious praying that I didn't lose the connection again. There was non"warm handover" and I was eventually barked at by some shit who proudly announced belonging to the "fraud department" hmmm. That's encouraging. He would have made a good security guy at Manchester airport. . We went through the security questions again and he told me that my card had been suspended due to suspected fraudulent activity.

I hate that, as if isn't worrying enough that your card doesn't work. Surely they could brief their people to use better words. "Hi, my name's John. Could I just check a few things with you" would be so much better. Or why can't they text me like MasterCard do, and ask me to call them, instead they just block the card and wait for you to call them. I guess I should be grateful that they are protecting my interests, except they're protecting their own.
A couple of recent (2 weeks ago) had been flagged up as suspicious and the computer had said "no"

Anyway, after convincing them that a 100 withdrawal a few days earlier and payment to my MasterCard credit card were of my own doing, he said he would lift the block. I thanked him for his help, grateful I had got through the conversation without getting cut off again. Till next time you Fuckwit!

My guesthouse, the Hotel Premium, is a couple of hundred yards from Thamel, the touristic ( is that a word) part of Kathmandu. It is like a rabbit warren. Once the card was back and working I set out to have a look around. As is my want, I didn't take a map and ended up getting hopelessly lost. It took me a good couple of hours to get back, picking a few Nepali touts, trying their luck on the way. And in the pissing rain too. I eventually, luck rather than judgement, found my way back and deposited some bits in the hotel before heading out yet again for a late lunch. I chose a quite classy place and had a delicious chicken tikka and nan. Not cheap but this is not a cheap area, making the most of the tourists. The shops are same same but different. Every one of them is selling either pashmina, trinkets, tours and treks or trekking and mountaineering gear. Quite cheap too. There is something a bit romantic about the fact that thousands of Everest climbers have passed through this area. Indeed, one restaurant will allow you to eat free for like if you conquer the peak!

In the evening, it being Saturday, I would go out for a few beers. The best laid plans of mice and men. I was scuppered. I experienced the first of the fairly regular power cuts at 6.30. Its called "load shedding" and happens pretty much every day. Its not that there isn't ample electricity, its that the Nepali government sell most of it to India and China, especially China who they appear to owe a lot too in terms of economic support.

All dressed up and nowhere to go. As it went dark, and I'd used up the remaining battery on my iPad, ( although surprisingly the ADSL worked during the power cut, they must have battery backup) I decided at 9.00pm in would go to sleep. At 11pm everything came back on again. By that time, although wide awake, I didn't feel like going out.

In an effort to cut down on the weight of by backpack, I had undertaken to transpose all the notes and handouts from the last months TEFL course into word documents. That kept me busy for a couple of hours. I have broken the back of it now having done a couple of hours a day for the past couple of weeks. Probably saved about a kg of weight too. I should have been smarter and offered to sell the documents on to my fellow students. It would have been worth at least a few beers.

There is plenty to see in Katmandu and tomorrow I plan to do a bit of sightseeing.



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Location:Paknajol Rd,Kathmandu,Nepal

Top of the World

After an very enjoyable six weeks in Chiang Mai, it was time to move on. The next destination, Kathmandu, Nepal. I had been accepted on a two month volunteer placement at a buddhist monastery teaching English. This in fact was the while reason behind my doing the teaching English course with UniTELF. Originally I thought to only fair, if I was going to sign up to teach English, then I should St least be competent and know the difference between a conjunction and preposition. Having done the course and enjoyed teaching kids I may well continue.

At 9.00am on 4th August, nearly two months since I arrived in Chiang Mai, I made my way down the soi that had been my home to get the Sontel to Chiang Mai airport. The next 24 hours were going to be a bit tiring, I was flying at midday to Bangkok. At 7.00pm I would fly to Delhi in India and then on to Kathmandu in Nepal the following morning. Arriving at Tribhuvan international airport at midday on the 5th August.
All went to plan, no hold ups or delays on the first stage of the journey. I had hoped to get checked in early for the flight from BKK to New Delhi but good old Air Asia had other ideas . I must have flown 50 times with the airline in the last 12 months. Only in Thailand are they unhelpful. Nevertheless, no sweat , Emirates had an office in the airport, I would use the time to change my ticket. I had booked my flight in December 2010 and, because you cant book more than 12 months in advance, my return flight was for 8th Dec 2011. My intention was to return in July 2011. I was informed that the ticket had only a 12 month validity so the latest I could return was 8 June 2012 and I would need to pay £75 . This makes a nonsense of the 12 month validity rule. Unless I had booked on the day I flew it would not be valid for 12 months without paying the charge. Oh well. Cie la vie.
I eventually got checked in and wandered through to the departure lounge. I continued my Fast Food Frenzy. KFC yesterday, Burger King this morning and now Pizza. The 5kg I had lost since I arrived in two months would be back on very quickly at this rate...

An hour before the flight I wandered towards the gate sitting down I glanced at this absolutely HUGE Indian man. The 'I hope he's not sat next to me' went through my mind. In my speed to book the flights, I had mistakenly booked a premium seat. To get a six month visa and the Indian embassy they needed to see evidence of the flight in and out of India. It was 2:40 on Friday and they shut at 3.00. Hence the best seats in the house and priority boarding. Well, priority boarding didn't happen but when I did get on the plane the two seats next to me were free. As lucky as I am, the next bus arrived at the plane, disgorged the fat man who promptly came and sat by me. By the time we got to India I was nicely moulded the window and Walls of the plane. Not my best flight ever.

My memories of Delhi airport from the last time I was there are it was a skip. How things change, it is very nice now. Terminal three was build for the commonwealth games (although not completed till they we're over) . I was departing from terminal three and had 10 hours to relax. SpiceJet, an Indian low cost carrier flight SG41 was leaving at 7.40 for Kathmandu, a short 2 hour flight. As expected the check in didn't open till 3 hours before the flight. After making a short trek to the terminal, going through security I was in Terminal three. I have never seen so much security and so many automatic and semi automatic weapons. I found myself a corner and made a nest to get a bit of sleep. At 4.00am I checked in and made my way ti ti luxury of airside and a very tasty McDonalds chicken wrap. For obvious reasons beef was off the menu.

The plane left on time and 2 hours later, having adjusted my watch for the odd "15 " minutes time difference I was at Tribhuvan airport queuing for my ridiculously priced $100 dollar 90 day visa. That took about as long as the flight!



I was supposed to be being met at the airport by Bhupi, the executive director of VIN, the charity I was working for in Nepal. Coming out of the terminal I looked for the sign, nowhere to be seen. There are loads of taxi and hotel hanging around hassling you. I firmly said I was meeting someone an proceeded ti text him. Speaking to a guy I met, he kindly offered to call him on his phone. It turned out that the traffic was bad so Bhupi suggested I get at taxi to the accommodation and he would meet me there. I said goodbye to Santos, promising I would call by his office, he ran a travel agency at some time in the next few days and jumped into what could only described as a skip on wheels for the 20 minute drive into town. Bhupi was waiting outside the hotel, he huge me and presented me with a silk scarf. What a nice touch. After checking in, we had a wander around. He is a charming man. Very committed to the charity. He took me on a little orientation walk around Thamel and we had a cup of "chai" while I asked about the charity and what they were doing. He had suggested that I might be able to help while in was there as they had seen quite a significant drop in volunteers and revenues. I agreed to call by his offices on the Monday after a weekend of relaxing. I was staying I. The Hotel Premier, at £5 a night there is very little 'premier' about it but the beds are comfortable, itnhas wifi in the room and is comfortable.
I'm getting a nice feeling about Nepal


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Location:Mandala St,Kathmandu,Nepal

Back to school

Well, the course is over and what a month it was. At the same time this has been one of the most rewarding and most intense month for a very long while.

TEFL certification does not come in a cornflake box. It's bloody hard work, hence the lack of blog updates in the last four week. When you get it, you know you've earned it. And I got it .....

The course is over four weeks. Each of the weeks contain two teaching assessments which are carried out at real schools teaching real students.



My first week was a bit of a challenge, at the risk of sounding think I just didn't get it, at all. After being sent off to prepare fir the first lesson I had a bit of a moment and seriously did consider if this was what I really wanted to do. I had problems assimilating the model and then applying it into creating a real lesson. I have to congratulate Pete, the head trainer and Judy, the assistant. They were incredibly patient and supportive and I got to the first teaching assessment with a cogent plan which I sort of understood. The requirement is to pass six of the eight 50 minute teaching practices. After a night of little sleep I got to the first lesson, delivered it and really enjoyed it. I was as nervous as a nervous thing but I had as much fun as the kids. And it got better.... Again, not without it's challenges. I can't remember how many times I came out of Pete's office having had a bit of coaching only to be back there 10 minutes later with a 'sorry, I still don't get it' . As the door opened for the third or fourth time, I'm sure Pete was thinking, oh fuck, he's back again. But it didn't show and eventually the model was pretty much engrained in my rather thick skull. Which is good. As I started it was probably taking me around five hours to prepare and plan for a 50 minute lesson. Thick as I may be it didn't take that long to work out that this type of planning to delivery ration did not stack up. Fortunately I drove bat down somewhat.


The great news for me is that I came out with 8 passes in the teaching assessments and a pass in the exam.

My marks were:
2.25
1.75
2.0
2.0
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.25

I was well pleased, especially with the 1.0 mark. The required mark in the exam was 70% and I logged an 88% not the best mark, but achieved my objective. I really fucked up on the Phonetics and the sentence structure but I know where I went wrong and the I-Pad apps available that cover the subjects are now all safely installed on my I-Pad.



I'm now an ESL English teacher. yippee indeed

My fellow students were a great bunch. A wide range of ages from 21 to 62. I wasn't even the oldest. There were good dynamics, the normal dramas as we went through the Norming-Forming-Storming-Performing process. It would have made a very interesting 'fly on the wall' documentary. I'm pretty sure of that.



I have claimed the award for first sale. I managed to do a deal with an Ethiopian at the bar we went to for the end of course celebrations. 6 hours 1-1 English tuition at 150bht an hour. You can take the boy out of sales but can't take sales out of the boy.....

A new chapter and an exciting one at that......

Location:Suthep 5,Mueang Chiang Mai,Thailand

A bit of R and R

My first week Chiang Mai was relaxing. Lots of reading (for pleasure and swotting on my English grammar as well as a bit of sight seeing. The weather was a bit dodgy, in fact for more than three days I never ventured out, such was the rain.







The morning was fine. I had breakfast of fresh fruit I the guest house then walked into town stopping off at various 'Wats' to take pictures. I had been given a map of the city on arrival and had a rough idea of my bearings. I headed towards the Thae Pae Gate. I thought it would be interesting to find the night bazaar Market near where I stayed in September. Chiang Mai is quite sprawling but the main commercial areas are quite close together. In no time I was walking down 'walking street' This is when the rain started and it didn't stop. I took shelter then made my way back towards the guest house, stopping off the the obligatory 'Chang's on the way. I actually sat there in this little restaurant for a couple of hours, watching the world go by. I'd not seen again like this since Borneo and it didn't look like it was going to stop any time soon.







Around me the night markets traders were beginning to set up.it's really amazing what you can do with a sheet of polythene and a few bulldog clips. After another beer and some delicious chicken fried rice I made my move. Not wanting to shell out on a cab or tuktuk, I headed back to the guest house. One hour late, much to the amusement of the lady on the desk I arrived back looking like a drowned rat. At least it was warm rain!

Over the next three days the rain just did not stop. I never even got time to try out the swimming pool!







Sk2 great place. So friendly although after a few days cooked up was hoping for the rain to stop.





Great food though . The massaman curry was just delicious.



After fours days the guesthouse was 'besieged' by English 'gap year girls. Loud, excitable sharing stories about how many men they had shagged and how many buckets they had drunk at the Koh Phangan Full Moon party.


When the weather had finally brightened up I was able to walk into town and look around for my 'school uniform' the dress code for the classes was 'smart casual' but the expectation for teaching, quite rightly was smart. I found what could only be described as the Thai equivalent of 'T K Max' and searched around for their bargains. I ended up with three short sleeved 'work shirts', a pair of black trousers, some socks and a nice pair of black leather loafers, all for just over £30.



The walk down to the market was a little under an hour but the sun was shining and it was quite humid. By the time I got to the shop I was sweating like a bacon pig. To make matters worse the shop (being 'budget') did not have any aircon. The sales assistant thought it highly amusing. An Englishman looking for cheap clothes while leaving a dripping mess and soaking wet through. As I made my way back to the guesthouse I was feeing very dehydrated. Beer o'clock?








I stopped off for a large Chang. Ice cold, went down a dream. I realise now that is more than a little unwise. Even before I had finished it I was feeling the effects. Being both overheated and dehydrated then pouring 660ml of freezing cold beer down you neck is not good.







I spent the next two days unable to leave my room with a terrible upset stomach. Every day a school day.





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Location:Chiang Mai, Thailand

Time to move on

On the 29th of June I moved close to where I would be studying. The Sa nguan Malee Mansions were a little bit out of town, not far from the airport and just across the road from Chiang Mai university. It was cheap and the training course was going to be held in the building so it was very convenient. I had booked a deluxe room. At just 600bht for the month this was very reasonable. It was a 6 floor building and my room was on the 5th floor overlooking the jungle and hills surrounding the city.

The only disadvantage was that building was being erected next door. No complaints though. The room was OK. Had a small balcony, a TV and Air Con. Wireless was available in the lobby but only wired Internet in the room. Shit, I knew I should have brought my net book! The price of the room did not include electricity, the weather closer to the hills was a tad cooler so I made a decision that I would be conservative with the Aircon. My little savings plan for OZ.

I got my bearings pretty quickly. A short walk and there were shops and restaurants. The now ubiquitous 7-11 was also not far away. I found a nice little grill bar and for the first couple of nights had dinner there then spend the rest of the rime relaxing and reading. It was nice with the patio door open at night, laid or sitting reading and listening to the sounds of the jungle outside.

July the 4th would be soon here and I had a feeling that it was going to be hard work...


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Location:Suthep 5,Mueang Chiang Mai,Thailand