Woke up through the night coughing and eventually got up at 8.15. Showered in bucket of cold water (great to get back on budget) and met Miranda at the Language center where she has Nepali Lessons everyday from 8-9.We had coffee (proper pot of coffee :-)) and tea at a small cafe next to the center and chatted with a few friends of hers. We then took ourselves off to the Freedom Cafe to have breakfast and use the fast wireless internet. It is one of the most expensive places but very lovely and has great views of the lake. It has little wooden huts and a moat in the middle.
Miranda has some work that she had to complete but then we had a good natter. It was great to catch up with her and find out what she has been up to over the last few months and also to see where she has been living and working. Miranda was traveling here a year or so ago and started volunteer work at a center for Empowering Women of Nepal.The organization's goal is to improve the lives of disadvantaged women in Nepal. They do this by training women in tourism and to become trekking guides and porters so they can be in control of their own income.
Through her work with the center she traveled to different parts of Nepal and learnt a lot about the culture and the plight of women here. She came up with the idea to do a documentary about her experiences and 1 year on is now still volunteering at the center (for the last 3 months) and also doing research and fundraising for the documentary. She will be starting filming with an editor friend of her's in November. Her work is really impressive. Please help this cause if you can.
www.indiegogo.com/Daughters-
After breakfast I took a walk into town to find a bike service center that had been recommended by one of Miranda's Nepali friends. It turns out that both the front and back rims of my bike are broken! It really was one hell of a bang. They said that they can replace both wheels by tomorrow evening. I decided to go with the rims they have in stock rather than waiting an extra day for new Mavic rims to arrive from Kathmandu. As they also do trekking, rafting and paragliding trips I spent a while with them planning my next few days. I have booked to go paragliding tomorrow morning at 11 and I will then go trekking for a few days after that. I will then go rafting on the way back to Kathmandu. The rafting will break my trip back to catch the flight to Hong Kong to meet Jacob.When I got back I was too late to go swimming with Miranda as she had to go to work and so I went on my own. She had mentioned that she had swum across the lake the other day and I then really wanted to do it. The views of the lake really are fab and it is very hot in the middle of the day. Perfect place to swim. Apparently the lake is much more polluted than it used to be but not really bad. Loads of tourists and locals swim there. Miranda pretty much goes for a midday swim every day.
I saw a boy that I thought was about 1/4 of the way out and swam back and forth to it 10 times to work out whether it was possible for me to go across the lake and back (without a boat to bring me back). It was not a problem and so I am now planning on doing it tomorrow morning. Miranda has persuaded me to go with a boat just in case through.
After my swim I popped in to see Miranda's work and find out about trekking etc and meet her colleagues. I then went for a run along the lakeside. I did not get very far though as I am not back up to full strength with this cold. I still have a sore throat and can't breathe properly..... Arrgggg.After a shower I went back to Freedom cafe but found that there was a power cut and so the Wi-Fi does not work and so I walked to another cafe (called "My Favorite Restaurant)" in the middle of a thunderstorm. The second cafe was supposed to have Wi-Fi even when the power is off. I got drenched on the way and found that for some reason the Wi-Fi was not working. Arrrgg.
Nepal has major infrastructure problems at the moment. There are regular power cuts (off for 8 hours at a time pretty much daily), major petrol and fuel shortages and nationwide strikes every couple of weeks. This is just part of daily life for people and they just find work rounds.
The weather here is very similar to Kathmandu. Sunny mornings and warm and then around 2 or 3 the thunderclouds arrive and then it pours really heavily for about 3 hours. The pre-monsoon season is about 1 month early this year. Apparently down to global warming....
Where does all the time go? I have no idea how I ever managed to fit in a full time job. Right now I still have no desire to head back to England and settle down again. I am enjoying traveling too much. I miss my close friends and family but I have made several close new friends along the way that I think I will stay friends with for a very long time.
I did not manage to catch up much on my blog as it took ages to exercise and then faff and get connected once the power came back.
Miranda and I went for an OK just down the road from the guest house at a restaurant called Night and Day.I had a wood oven baked pizza and a buffalo salad. Ummm..... A good day exploring the area and organising the next few days.
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