Mahesh accompanies Lisa to the rice fields for a couple of days. The
engineer side of him really likes the process of finding &
filling the crab holes, and he takes it one step further by changing
the water flow into one of the fields (basically by opening up a
“hidden” source). However this new flow completely diverts the
stream so it's not ideal, especially if there is only time for a
short visit to the fields. Normally we would just leave the outlets
from the streams to the top fields open on those occasions – the
other rice farmers would be sure to come & close them for us –
but now that won't be a viable option and also our final set of
fields will not get any water! There's a bit more investigation
needed to stem the flow to this new watercourse.
One
morning, Lisa and May (the dog) head to the rice fields alone, and when they
are passing through the village Lisa receives an invitation to
breakfast from the man who runs the tiny shop. He presents her with
a banana, then finds her a chair (Nepali people generally sit on a
bamboo mat on the front porch or on the ground, but they seem to
think that foreign guests need chairs!). Finally he gives her a cup
of masala tea (sweet and milky, yum). Another man stops by and is
asking about Lisa – she manages to make out something about her
being a volunteer teacher at the school – and then he sits down to
enjoy a cup of tea and continue talking about her ;-) They are soon
joined by one of our regular visitors, “chicken grandma” (grandma
is the term used for all elderly ladies, and this one is very
chatty hence the added adjective!).
Lisa has been filling in at the school now that we have less volunteers. One day, Niki Miss must take her baby for some immunisations so Lisa covers her classes - she learns the word "arko" from the kindergarteners (it means next, different or another - depends on the context; in this case it was crayons!); teaches B class about "the cycle of rain" (irritatingly, they keep drawing pictures of bicycles while she's talking about this!); and has a long discussion with C class about creatures that live in the sea or ocean (largely influenced by "Finding Nemo"). On another day, Niki Miss brings her baby to school and it seems that Lisa is expected to look after him! Since she's never looked after any child under 2, this doesn't seem like the ideal time to start, so the other teachers take turns and Mahesh has a go as well.
We also remember that we're living in the jungle when Lisa gets a strange bite on her hand. Maybe a spider, or maybe some creature that she's never encountered before....but the huge oozing blister is certainly impressive, anyways! Luckily it doesn't get infected - it just bursts and then scabs over, and within a week or so it's only a little scar - "here's where some weird Nepali bug bit me" ;-)
On Friday, Manu & Mahesh accept an invitation to dinner at a house "up the hill". We are going to Pokhara for the weekend and want an early start on Saturday, so we offer to stay behind and keep an eye on the school & farm. It's kind of eerie being there on our own, and we're not used to sleeping in the main building (although it ought to feel more secure than a bamboo hut in the woods!!) so we are aware of every little noise - and there are a lot! - not exactly a restful night. It is fun chasing up all the hens & chicks to put them to bed though, and we're impressed that the other chickens & ducks know when & where to go to sleep!
So, five o'clock the next morning sees the intrepid pair setting out down the hill to town. It's pleasantly cool and misty, which is lucky as it's a two hour walk to Damauli. We totter through Beltari and pick up the section of road that is slowly being tarmacked. We eventually get to town and get a seat at the back of the bus to Pokhara (typical!). We don't have a schedule as such but it is still a surprise when, not far outside of town, the bus stops and most of the men get out to change a tyre.
Apart from that, it's a smooth (by Nepali standards) ride to Pokhara. We arrive in the early afternoon at the locals bus park, which means it is a fair trot from the centre of town. This is where Chris learns the danger of Nepali pavements as he manages to twist an ankle within the first few minutes of hitting town!
We enquire at a guest house only to be told that they have no room but her husband runs a place in Lakeside. He, and a friend, duly arrive on their motor bikes to pick us up and take us to the Celesty Inn. After week in a bamboo hut this room seems palatial. It has something that's pretty close to a mattress and it has warm water. Woo hoo! We make a conscious decision to have a 'short nap' and then re-surface in the early evening to check out the goodies available in town. We happen upon a lovely little organic cafe that we duck into just as it starts to rain, and rain, then hail, frickin' big hail, for about half an hour. Good call! Lisa orders an americano, the availability of which changes several times as we have a series of mini power cuts. We both have items from their bakery. It's like food porn after so long on a daal bhaat diet. After a constitutional wander we round off the evening in the 'Newari Kitchen', which serves traditional Newari (Kathmandu valley) fayre. They even have a sparrows' nest in the restaurant. Still not missing tv!
The next day we go to the Pumpernickel Bakery (one of the many 'German' bakeries' in Nepal) for breakfast. We continue our food odyssey by ordering yoghurt and muesli, with two yak cheese sandwiches to take away for lunch. The bakery is right on the lakeside and has a wonderful view of the surrounding hills, with mountains in the distance, sometimes hard to distinguish from the pale clouds.
After a very leisurely breakfast we make our way to the dock and get one of the boatmen to row us across to the opposite shore of the lake, where the Peace Pagoda tops the hill. It's a hot day and a steep climb. We bump into several groups of children on the way up and on our way down who seem overly used to tourists. The first group wants us to take their picture but then asks for money or, failing that, chocolate. There was a belligerent little fellow who demanded our sandwich and a little girl who wants us to give her a 'writing pen'. We felt bad that these children weren't learning a bit more pride in themselves - they probably get quite a lot of food, chocolate etc by begging and it doesn't encourage them to work or learn in order to make their own opportunities for the future. Lisa even encountered a chocolate-begging child near Beltari one day - how he had the chance to learn that white people = handouts was anyone's guess!
The Peace Pagoda itself is a grand affair. The original pagoda was torn down by the city government in 1973 and only rebuilt in 1992, with assistance of the Japanese and Nepali Prime Minister & Defence Minister. The Japanese have pledged to build 100 peace pagodas around the world; the other in Nepal is at Lumbini, Buddha's birthplace.
We take the more gradual route down from the pagoda and pass by the dam that gives 'Damside' its name. There's much fishing and many boys swimming in the lake. It looks cool but I would hesitate to take a dip. Lisa was annoyed that girls are excluded from a lot of things in Nepal - the closest they got to swimming in the lake was standing in the shallows doing the laundry!
As there is a bandh going on, the roads are quiet and there are groups of what we later found out to be 'strike enforcers' hanging around. However, our real reason for being in Pokhara, the immigration office, i still open. We arrived, are asked searching questions and are told that it will cost the same to extend our visa for 3 days or 15. It's quite a painless process though and we leave with the immigration official's wish that we come again, maybe next year! American immigration, you could learn a few things.
That night we learn that there will be another bandh on Monday but we need to get back to school! Luckily our hotelier tells us there will be a 'tourist bus' leaving at 7.30am. We duly buy a ticket for that and settle in for another night in the town of brownies and milkshakes. We figure we'll just have to make the best of it. This time we indulge in a pizza and a quasi-Greek salad. We are also treated to an alfresco film about ecology and then an unplugged session on a stage under a tree in the middle of the main street (remember, bandh equals no cars). We even see a dog sleeping in the middle of the road and a helpful stranger tells us the dogiss probably on strike too!
Early Monday morning we are following other pale people towards the tourist bus park. When we get there we see that it will be a convoy of tourist buses accompanied by police. The tourist busiss a bit of a luxury. It is spacious and has air con! Once we finally get going we are stopped several times exiting Pokhara and at each village along the way. There would be a barrier of some sort across the road (rocks, tyres, something burning) and a large group of young men. One of these gets on each bus and checks if there are any Nepalis on it (Nepalis cannot travel during the bandh and may be subject to rough treatment if found). A German fellow on our bus keeps shouting at the roadblock groups to stop "slowing us down" (personally, we think he ought to stay quiet!) but actually meets with the approval of one bandh enforcer when he shouted that our bus had been stopped and checked only two minutes before - the guy looked rather smug that the enforcement was so thorough. On one occasion a group of young children had set up their own road block too. Cute! The checkpoint in our 'home town' of Damauli resembled something more like a music concert - they seemed to be having fun in a good natured way. Unfortunately, the bandh also meant no bus or jeep up the hill - at least we manage to convince the "tourist bus" driver to let us off at the end of our road, but it's still a long hot walk up the hill to the village!
That night, Mahesh and Manu are proud to show us their new invention - pupati. It's their answer to our missing bread products, and is a pan-fried bread which is somewhere between a puri and a chapati (hence the name). They take over the kitchen and make a fantastic (although washing-up-intensive) dinner - the pupati and it's brother, an aloo (potato) version are delicious!
Manjil hasn't been able to get back from Kathmandu because of the bandh – obviously, the tourist bus is not an option for him. He is also keen to visit the eastern school and thinks it might be easier to do this from Kathmandu, so he arranges to send Surya (now recovered from his chicken pox) back to our school. This was on Tuesday – as of Friday, all we have heard is that Surya is stuck in a town with an ongoing bandh, not far out of Kathmandu...
Time is running short so we are trying to arrange to see everyone and
do everything we wanted to do around the village. Lisa goes for a
craft lesson with the grandmother of one of the students (Krishna B)
on Thursday after school. It's a really neat and quite simple craft
made from “laani” (something like a thick, dried long grass –
apparently it grows in the jungle) and strips of old plastic bags.
Grandma shows her some finished products: a small bag, a bowl and a
pot stand (maybe not for hot pots, seeing as it's made mostly of
plastic ;-) ).
On Friday, Lisa runs the morning assembly. She and Chris go around
the circle giving “good morning” hugs (normally, each child hugs
their neighbour, and some of them still do this). Then everyone
sings “Father Abraham” with all the actions – it's a big hit
and Lisa hears some of the children singing it later that day.
Finally, A class performs the Maya Universe version of the national anthem, and Lisa records it so she can put it on YouTube & Manjil
can promote it =)
By walking with Mahesh, Lisa is getting a bit more insight into what
the neighbours are saying about her. One woman is astonished that
this foreign woman is tending the rice fields ;-)
 |
| May Sir |
The talk soon turns to a favourite Nepali subject...does Lisa have
any children? The answer is always a surprise to them – here, it's
impossible to imagine a married woman without any kids. There is
really no way to explain our choice to people here (sometimes it's
difficult enough to explain to people from our own countries) so Lisa
just shakes her head and smiles at the resulting discussion. It ends
with the visitor asking her age (he manages to get his point across
by miming his own age – 35 – with his fingers) and then offering
her one of his 3 children ;-)
Our excitement about the 3 new chicks is short-lived when 2 of them
drown in the same bucket that nearly claimed another chick 2 weeks
ago. Lisa is really annoyed that this bucket remained in place to
pose a risk to the new chicks, and since we have lots of rainwater
for the pigs at the moment, she empties the bucket and removes it
from the sink. We have only 4 chicks remaining of our original 7 so
we need to do everything we can to keep them safe until they are old
enough to have some common sense.
Lisa has been filling in at the school now that we have less volunteers. One day, Niki Miss must take her baby for some immunisations so Lisa covers her classes - she learns the word "arko" from the kindergarteners (it means next, different or another - depends on the context; in this case it was crayons!); teaches B class about "the cycle of rain" (irritatingly, they keep drawing pictures of bicycles while she's talking about this!); and has a long discussion with C class about creatures that live in the sea or ocean (largely influenced by "Finding Nemo"). On another day, Niki Miss brings her baby to school and it seems that Lisa is expected to look after him! Since she's never looked after any child under 2, this doesn't seem like the ideal time to start, so the other teachers take turns and Mahesh has a go as well.
We also remember that we're living in the jungle when Lisa gets a strange bite on her hand. Maybe a spider, or maybe some creature that she's never encountered before....but the huge oozing blister is certainly impressive, anyways! Luckily it doesn't get infected - it just bursts and then scabs over, and within a week or so it's only a little scar - "here's where some weird Nepali bug bit me" ;-)
On Friday, Manu & Mahesh accept an invitation to dinner at a house "up the hill". We are going to Pokhara for the weekend and want an early start on Saturday, so we offer to stay behind and keep an eye on the school & farm. It's kind of eerie being there on our own, and we're not used to sleeping in the main building (although it ought to feel more secure than a bamboo hut in the woods!!) so we are aware of every little noise - and there are a lot! - not exactly a restful night. It is fun chasing up all the hens & chicks to put them to bed though, and we're impressed that the other chickens & ducks know when & where to go to sleep!
So, five o'clock the next morning sees the intrepid pair setting out down the hill to town. It's pleasantly cool and misty, which is lucky as it's a two hour walk to Damauli. We totter through Beltari and pick up the section of road that is slowly being tarmacked. We eventually get to town and get a seat at the back of the bus to Pokhara (typical!). We don't have a schedule as such but it is still a surprise when, not far outside of town, the bus stops and most of the men get out to change a tyre.
Apart from that, it's a smooth (by Nepali standards) ride to Pokhara. We arrive in the early afternoon at the locals bus park, which means it is a fair trot from the centre of town. This is where Chris learns the danger of Nepali pavements as he manages to twist an ankle within the first few minutes of hitting town!
 |
| Huge Newari dinner |
The next day we go to the Pumpernickel Bakery (one of the many 'German' bakeries' in Nepal) for breakfast. We continue our food odyssey by ordering yoghurt and muesli, with two yak cheese sandwiches to take away for lunch. The bakery is right on the lakeside and has a wonderful view of the surrounding hills, with mountains in the distance, sometimes hard to distinguish from the pale clouds.
After a very leisurely breakfast we make our way to the dock and get one of the boatmen to row us across to the opposite shore of the lake, where the Peace Pagoda tops the hill. It's a hot day and a steep climb. We bump into several groups of children on the way up and on our way down who seem overly used to tourists. The first group wants us to take their picture but then asks for money or, failing that, chocolate. There was a belligerent little fellow who demanded our sandwich and a little girl who wants us to give her a 'writing pen'. We felt bad that these children weren't learning a bit more pride in themselves - they probably get quite a lot of food, chocolate etc by begging and it doesn't encourage them to work or learn in order to make their own opportunities for the future. Lisa even encountered a chocolate-begging child near Beltari one day - how he had the chance to learn that white people = handouts was anyone's guess!
The Peace Pagoda itself is a grand affair. The original pagoda was torn down by the city government in 1973 and only rebuilt in 1992, with assistance of the Japanese and Nepali Prime Minister & Defence Minister. The Japanese have pledged to build 100 peace pagodas around the world; the other in Nepal is at Lumbini, Buddha's birthplace.We take the more gradual route down from the pagoda and pass by the dam that gives 'Damside' its name. There's much fishing and many boys swimming in the lake. It looks cool but I would hesitate to take a dip. Lisa was annoyed that girls are excluded from a lot of things in Nepal - the closest they got to swimming in the lake was standing in the shallows doing the laundry!
As there is a bandh going on, the roads are quiet and there are groups of what we later found out to be 'strike enforcers' hanging around. However, our real reason for being in Pokhara, the immigration office, i still open. We arrived, are asked searching questions and are told that it will cost the same to extend our visa for 3 days or 15. It's quite a painless process though and we leave with the immigration official's wish that we come again, maybe next year! American immigration, you could learn a few things.
That night we learn that there will be another bandh on Monday but we need to get back to school! Luckily our hotelier tells us there will be a 'tourist bus' leaving at 7.30am. We duly buy a ticket for that and settle in for another night in the town of brownies and milkshakes. We figure we'll just have to make the best of it. This time we indulge in a pizza and a quasi-Greek salad. We are also treated to an alfresco film about ecology and then an unplugged session on a stage under a tree in the middle of the main street (remember, bandh equals no cars). We even see a dog sleeping in the middle of the road and a helpful stranger tells us the dogiss probably on strike too!
Early Monday morning we are following other pale people towards the tourist bus park. When we get there we see that it will be a convoy of tourist buses accompanied by police. The tourist busiss a bit of a luxury. It is spacious and has air con! Once we finally get going we are stopped several times exiting Pokhara and at each village along the way. There would be a barrier of some sort across the road (rocks, tyres, something burning) and a large group of young men. One of these gets on each bus and checks if there are any Nepalis on it (Nepalis cannot travel during the bandh and may be subject to rough treatment if found). A German fellow on our bus keeps shouting at the roadblock groups to stop "slowing us down" (personally, we think he ought to stay quiet!) but actually meets with the approval of one bandh enforcer when he shouted that our bus had been stopped and checked only two minutes before - the guy looked rather smug that the enforcement was so thorough. On one occasion a group of young children had set up their own road block too. Cute! The checkpoint in our 'home town' of Damauli resembled something more like a music concert - they seemed to be having fun in a good natured way. Unfortunately, the bandh also meant no bus or jeep up the hill - at least we manage to convince the "tourist bus" driver to let us off at the end of our road, but it's still a long hot walk up the hill to the village!
That night, Mahesh and Manu are proud to show us their new invention - pupati. It's their answer to our missing bread products, and is a pan-fried bread which is somewhere between a puri and a chapati (hence the name). They take over the kitchen and make a fantastic (although washing-up-intensive) dinner - the pupati and it's brother, an aloo (potato) version are delicious!Manjil hasn't been able to get back from Kathmandu because of the bandh – obviously, the tourist bus is not an option for him. He is also keen to visit the eastern school and thinks it might be easier to do this from Kathmandu, so he arranges to send Surya (now recovered from his chicken pox) back to our school. This was on Tuesday – as of Friday, all we have heard is that Surya is stuck in a town with an ongoing bandh, not far out of Kathmandu...
On Wednesday, Manu is scheduled to leave for the western school. He
wants to teach one more art class with each of A, B & C classes
so that they can finish their projects on “the human body in proper
proportions”. Lisa covers E class (like junior kindergarten) for
him in the morning so that he can pack his bags. Really he is happy
to have an excuse to avoid E class – they barely listen to the
volunteers, since they're so young, so we are effectively babysitting
a class of little ones that we can't understand; and they don't
understand us either, although everyone knows the word “naughty”!
But at least they are hearing a lot of English, and hopefully a bit
of it is sinking in.
Wednesday turns out to be a really hectic day. Four of the boys in C
class arrive at school but then disappear before class starts. The
mother of one shows up and says he didn't come home on Tuesday night.
She says that if he does something bad, or anything happens to him,
that the school will be held responsible. We ask some of the other
students what they know, and eventually find out that another boy
(not from our school) has arranged a picnic in the jungle; the
general consensus is that they have probably gone there. This theory
is supported by Chicken Grandma, who shows up and says that they
stole some rice and her spoon.
Meanwhile, Vishnu appears (he was not at work on Tuesday) and we all
have a discussion about food for the pigs. It's rather frustrating
that we only ever seem to buy one bag at a time; each bag only lasts
3 days so it seems like we are constantly running out, and with the
current series of bandhs this is particularly awkward. After lots of
back and forth, it's decided that Lisa will go to Damauli and pay for
the pig food (which we've managed to order by phone) and also buy
some much-needed vegetables and spices for our own meals. There is a
limit to what is grown locally and we're getting pretty tired of
tomatoes & bitter gourd!
It's pretty unusual for anyone to be walking around at 1:30pm (too
hot!) so Lisa makes a nice spectacle for everyone to stare at while
she walks down the hill to the highway. She envies everyone who is
relaxing under a nice, shady tree. But at least she lucks out on
transport – while she takes a quick water break at the highway, a
jeep comes by and two others jump into it. It's going the right way
so Lisa hops it too – it's that, or another 4km of walking! She
arrives safely in town and heads straight for the animal food store;
we've agreed that if we can get more food on the 3pm bus, then we'll
get an extra bag of pig food and some duck food. It's 2:45 so she's
just in time...although it doesn't actually arrive at the school, and
we later find out that the bus was too full and refused to carry it,
doh! She does manage to get some spinach (Mahesh' favourite), some
goat meat (ah, meat, a rare treat), and all the spices on the list
(after many giggly conversations with shopkeepers). It's quite a lot
to carry from the jeep stop at Beltari, but everyone is so pleased
with the new ingredients that it's all worthwhile.
 |
| Krishna's Grandma |
In return, Lisa teaches Grandma how to make knotted string bracelets.
Krishna & his family are also interested, so they all learn;
Krishna and Grandma are particularly good at it. Lisa gives Krishna
a macrame-style bracelet that she has started, under the conditions
that he must finish it and give it to his best friend.
On Thursday we sent a note home with each student, asking the parents
& other guardians to help us weed our rice field. Lisa is very
impressed when she arrives on Friday morning at 6:45 to find 5
parents already there! They seem to be having a good time (well, as
much fun as you can have weeding a very wet field) with lots of chat
and gossip.
On Friday, Lisa runs the morning assembly. She and Chris go around
the circle giving “good morning” hugs (normally, each child hugs
their neighbour, and some of them still do this). Then everyone
sings “Father Abraham” with all the actions – it's a big hit
and Lisa hears some of the children singing it later that day.
Finally, A class performs the Maya Universe version of the national anthem, and Lisa records it so she can put it on YouTube & Manjil
can promote it =)
Chris' final history class is a big test for the students about what
they've learned. He and Mahesh painstakingly wrote out 10 copies of
the test, the night before (ah, for a printer or a photocopier!).
The prize for the top mark is a knotted string bracelet made by none
other than “Lisa Miss”, which explains why all the students in A
class were admiring her wrist while she was teaching on Thursday.
The teachers also like the knotted bracelets, so we have a little "how to" class on Friday at lunchtime. It stretches out a bit longer than an hour, and the kids are restless because it's Friday, so in the end we have a 2-hour lunch break and just 2 classes in the afternoon. Lisa manages to teach A class the rest of "Blowing in the Wind" and is really impressed with how well they remember the first verse from our lesson on Thursday! B & C classes have learned "You are My Sunshine" but are not so good at following a tune ;-)
During the last class, Lisa goes to the spring to get water and manages to carry 3 buckets at once for the first time =) This is great since it hasn't rained for 4 days and we have no rainwater left for the pigs. In fact, all the animals are dry - some water she gave to the dog & some of the chickens earlier was very gratefully received, and one of the ducks was swimming frantically in the little pool of water which the pigs receive every lunchtime. So that evening, we decide to treat the ducks - we have always wondered why they stay on our waterless farm - and pour them a dish of water to share. You have never seen such happy ducks!!
We have a nice chat with Mahesh over dinner and we all retire early - it will be a busy weekend for all of us, in different ways (we are travelling, and Mahesh will be alone with all the farm chores). On Saturday morning, we wake up early for our last trip to the rice fields - Chris hasn't seen them in a while & it's also a nice chance to say goodbye to the villagers. It's a lovely morning for a walk and we stop for tea & biscuits at the shop house, then get a load of free cucumbers from our favourite farmer (the last of the season, apparently). Chris is impressed with the progress of the rice, and Lisa works harder than she planned to plugging up the crab holes - it's almost 9 by the time we head back home. Consequently we miss the bus, and after packing & enjoying the breakfast that Mahesh kindly made for us, we walk down the hill to Beltari. In retrospect, walking downhill on a hot day with heavy backpacks is NOT a good idea - several days later, Lisa's knees and Chris' ankles are still complaining!
It didn't help that the next jeep from Beltari was at 5pm, so in the end we walked all the way to the highway, much to the amusement of the local folks who are far too smart to walk in the heat of the day. But at least we don't have long to wait until a mini-bus passes by on the way to Kathmandu; and we are even more in luck that it's a fairly comfortable mini-van with some decent tunes (mostly dance/club music, but a good change from loud Nepali or Indian music) AND the front seat is free so we are not jolted around too much =) We even stop at the tasty place that we stopped at on our way to Damauli the first time (when Chris was feeling too dodgy to eat - this time, we have some bhaji & pickle - have we mentioned how delicious Nepali pickle is??); and we stop for a toilet break at the "cable car" that goes up and over the hills - we had seen the signs and wondered what it was, and now we have a chance to have a good look. Basically it seems like an opportunity for non-hikers or those in a hurry to have a chance to enjoy some views!
Soon enough we are back in Kathmandu, and having the usual discussions/negotiations with taxi drivers about the price to our hotel. We get the price from 600 rupees down to 400 so off we clatter down the road to Thamel....
 |
| "A" class |
During the last class, Lisa goes to the spring to get water and manages to carry 3 buckets at once for the first time =) This is great since it hasn't rained for 4 days and we have no rainwater left for the pigs. In fact, all the animals are dry - some water she gave to the dog & some of the chickens earlier was very gratefully received, and one of the ducks was swimming frantically in the little pool of water which the pigs receive every lunchtime. So that evening, we decide to treat the ducks - we have always wondered why they stay on our waterless farm - and pour them a dish of water to share. You have never seen such happy ducks!! |
| Lisa and her rice "weapon", the codalo |
 |
| In our spare time, we organised the "library" |
 |
| His house = village shop |
It didn't help that the next jeep from Beltari was at 5pm, so in the end we walked all the way to the highway, much to the amusement of the local folks who are far too smart to walk in the heat of the day. But at least we don't have long to wait until a mini-bus passes by on the way to Kathmandu; and we are even more in luck that it's a fairly comfortable mini-van with some decent tunes (mostly dance/club music, but a good change from loud Nepali or Indian music) AND the front seat is free so we are not jolted around too much =) We even stop at the tasty place that we stopped at on our way to Damauli the first time (when Chris was feeling too dodgy to eat - this time, we have some bhaji & pickle - have we mentioned how delicious Nepali pickle is??); and we stop for a toilet break at the "cable car" that goes up and over the hills - we had seen the signs and wondered what it was, and now we have a chance to have a good look. Basically it seems like an opportunity for non-hikers or those in a hurry to have a chance to enjoy some views!
Soon enough we are back in Kathmandu, and having the usual discussions/negotiations with taxi drivers about the price to our hotel. We get the price from 600 rupees down to 400 so off we clatter down the road to Thamel....
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