Rice, rice and more rice!!
Trip Start
Oct 19, 2011
1
2
8
Trip End
Dec 12, 2011
Pokhara, Nepal
Friday, October 21, 2011
We arrived into Pokhara at around 3pm, to be met by Naresh (Insight Nepal coordinator). He took us to his house, where we drank Nepalese tea (very much like english breakfast but with LOADS of sugar!) We ventured to our host father's house a little later, he is called Uma - a very intelligent man (Law Degree, BA, MA and PHD from Oxford) we have also had the opportunity to proof read his PHD thesis which is extremely interesting. For a Nepalese family they a pretty liberal, and although traditional, they accept and welcome a certain amount of change. They are very open; Uma was not shy in telling us that he was taking on the cooking duties because his wife was having her period! Ross and I are sharing a twin room in a big house! The family are of the top Nepalese caste so they are relatively wealthy. We are able to have hot showers every day which is really nice! However, there have been some cultural shocks! They do not use toilet paper, they use a power hose instead!! They also do not use cutlery - hands are best in their eyes! I am yet to master the art of shoveling food into my mouth with my hand!! In terms of the food we are eating, it's rice, rice and more rice!! For every meal we eat Dhal Bhat - rice with a lentil stew, last night we were so relieved to have bread (exactly the same as our pancakes) with the lentil stew! We are yet to have any meat, as devout Hindu's refrain from eating meat and anything produced from an animal. We did however, in sheer desperation, venture down to the lakeside (tourist area) and had steak and chips! We also any get two meals a day - breakfast and dinner.
On Saturday the 22nd we started the orientation program. At 10:30 am we had our first language class, this involved learning the basics of the Nepalese language, as a language it is very easy to learn, we are yet to conquer their alphabet! We were also taught the cultural do's and don'ts, such as not eating/drinking with your left hand, no pointing, no physical contact in public. Later that day we took a trip down to the lakeside, where we visited a waterfall and some underground caves. We headed back to our host family at about 5pm, and had dinner (more dhal bhat!) at about 8pm.
Sunday 23rd we woke up at 6am to watch the sunrise. The view from the house is probably the most incredible I have ever seen - the whole Himalaya mountain range surrounding the house. We look directly at Mt Annapurna (8061m) one of the top 10 tallest mountains in the world. As the sun rises it reflects off the snow capped peaks, it is magical. We had another language class before heading 'down town' to the local markets, and Pokhara's museum. There is also an Australian girl on our program called Jodi, we both had two traditional Nepalese dresses tailored for us with our own choice of fabric, we pick them up tomorrow. We are excited to wear them this week for Diwali (festival of lights).
Monday 24th - another language class. This was our 'sort out day' - buying sim cards etc! Nothing too exciting. Tomorrow we are heading to Sarangkot - the number one place to visit in Nepal (as quoted in the Lonely Planet guide!) It provides some of the best views in Nepal. We are also (if we have time) thinking about going boating on the lake, and visiting famous Budhist temple. We head to our placement on Thursday.
Will try and post some pictures soon too. Apologies if the english is poor, we have very little time to use the internet. Would love to hear how you all are etc, keep us updated with things back in the UK.
Comments
Glad you guys are having an amazing time. I worry for Ross if he is only being fed twice a day- he must be wasting away!
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Really interested to hear from you both, glad you had the steak and chips, Ross can get pretty grouchy if he is deprived of red meat. Look forward to hearing what you actually end up doing when the sightseeing ends tomorrow> Keep well. Much love from us all.
Great to see the photos. Sarangkot has fabulous views. Very relieved now that you are feeling better Naomi after days and days of not being able to keep anything down. Your only recent views tho' were of the toilet - is that why you included it in the slide show? Ross must have been very happy to eat your portions even if it was rice, rice, rice!
Looking forward to hearing about the project work.
Lots of love and our thoughts.
In Nepal it is rude to share off each others plates so most went to waste - much to Ross's disgust! Will put more pics on soon. Lots of Love xx