14 hours in a car

Do you remember how some Nepali teachers had all been trying to persuade me to go to Pokhara - a city West of Kathmandu - and how I'd been like "oh, no, I can't, I won't have time while I'm here..."

Well.
I made it to Pokhara!

Christine was doing a maths training there on a Friday evening/Saturday morning, and it was actually her publisher (the one organising the training) who suggested she should take me.
I wasn't teaching any music classes on the Friday, so I was given permission to take the day off school in order to go with Christine.

We left early on the Friday morning, arriving in Pokhara after 8 hours in a car (thankfully a very comfortable one!) in time to do the training in a Catholic girls school with teachers from all over Pokhara.
I stayed and helped out with this and chatted to the teachers. It was fun - they were making pretty symmetric pictures and things.

Christine and I then spent Friday evening at the Lakeside - we walked along the main street of the Lakeside area, and Christine told me loads of stories from when she'd lived in Pokhara (for 5 years).
It was beautiful. A really nice evening with a beautifully clear sky. And the moon was huuuge.
And Christine's stories are so inspiring.

The next day was all mine.
I was free to wander around Pokhara, soak up the sun (which I did to the point of some pretty bad sunburn - on my legs and hands, because I didn't really think they were worthy of sun cream), do a little bit of shopping, chat to random Nepali people and just take in the views whilst Christine trained, before heading back to Kathmandu.

Some highlights included:

Meeting a couple of adorable little Nepali boys who I chatted to (half in Nepali and half in English) - they showed me up a hill to where their horse was kept and fetched their kite to show me, too!

Walking along the lakeside. Oh, how I had missed water. (Ironic, in a monsoon - but I'm meaning clean water...)

Having time to just chill out and relax and read and walk about.

Just being in such a beautiful place. The whole "I'm in Nepal" experience...feeling a bit touristy - but battling that by being able to speak a little Nepali to the locals!

Some interesting things that I saw on the way to and in Pokhara:

- proper, actually-used, swing foot bridges
- a wild giant snail
- comedy menu translations, the best of which was "chocolate craps" (meaning chocolate crepes)
- a veeeerrryyy long, winding traffic jam on the only route out of Kathmandu towards India: the main trading route
- 2 cute little Nepali girls dancing and singing on an up-turned boat by the lake
- a pile of leaves with legs (someone carrying them from behind)
- transit lorries which are so beautifully and brightly decorated!
- a monkey run across the road in front of our car!

But best of all:

The time spent in the car, and then eating in a local, friendly cafe, and just walking around with Christine.
This lady is pretty much my hero.
She has done so much with her life.
And so in the 14-hour car journey, I got to ask her so many questions, and find out about all the different places she has been to and worked in.
And she showed me things that meant a lot to her in Nepal - like the tree on top of a hill that marks the spot of where the village is that she taught in for her first 5 years in Nepal - 30 years ago!
She is a legend.

Retrospect

I have now been back in Scotland for 2 weeks, but still have a list of things I wanted to write about about my time in Nepal, and so I will still do this, but now writing from the other side.

My experiences in retrospect.

(Shortest post ever?)