The dust has settled. Another 3 days off work and a chance to escape the hustle and dust in Kathmandu, all though the last days have been pretty pleasant dust wise since we had some great thunder showers a few nights in a row which makes a tremendous difference on the dust level. I decided to go to Pokhara a bigger village 206km west of Kathmandu, close to the Annapurna mountain range, so a real shame I couldn't stay longer to do some more trekking higher in the mountains, that being one of the most popular places to go trekking, but mind you not at this time a year, the air is to hot and hazy and the visibility is not the best no great mountain view as there would be in the colder season, like when I first came here, even from the plane I had an amazing view over the whole mountain range at my arrival to Kathmandu. I decided to take the bus again to see the beautiful countryside, were driving along a river most of the 8 hours it took. I walked to the bus park at 6:00am on April 22nd, arrived in Pokhara at 3:00pm found my hotel, Blue Heaven, along Lake Fewa Tal a pretty big lake and relatively clean, I hired a rowboat with a guide and it was very peaceful to be on the lake for about an hour before we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance and clouds started moving in on us.We agreed to head back just in case, we noticed big raindrops further out and eventually falling on us.. made it back to shore just before a massive hail storm that lasted quite a while. The next day I wanted to take a taxi to see the sunrise and to do some hiking, but there was a forced strike by the Maoist's so everything was closed all shops, no cars, motorbikes or busses allowed, so everything was very peaceful, a most welcoming brake from the constant honking of horns on the roads every day. I will elaborate on that later, how the many strikes they have here work. I then rented a bike and rode around again with a guide partly for company and to make sure I didn't miss anything interesting on the way, everything was so quiet with no motor noise, very pleasant. There were big groups of Maoist supporters walking down the street with their big sticks to make sure everybody had their little shops closed. Later in the day we went back to the lake to row to the other shore to hike up to the top of the mountain there to see a Buddhist Stupa, World Peace Pagoda, when we arrived after a hot midday hike up to the top after watching the monkey's jumping trough the treetops over and along the trail, one of the monks was hitting and pushing one of the visitors away from there and was quite mad with him even though he apologized profusely, only for us to see them later back bowing down in front of Buddha under the supervision of the monk who ordered them to do so, not sure what they had done wrong to get such treatment. The temperature there was 36C so I was sweating buckets and wish I could have gone for a swim in the lake but was afraid it wasn't maybe as clean as it appeared to be. Back to an even more hot room, with no air condition, but with a fan they call air condition on the 5th floor, which seems to be my floor whenever I am in a hotel and there are of course no elevators, but lots of stairs, but what can you expect for $ 12 a night, everything here is very inexpensive.Saturday the strike was lifted and I could again be transported somewhere, so I went to see some bat caves, which was pitch black, but with the help of a guide and a light and four young men that latch on to me to not have to pay for a guide to get them through it, I made it out alive, the exit was extremely tight and upwards so we had to snake our way out through a slippery, seemingly way to small passage to get through, found out my arms are so much weaker than my legs, since I had to pull myself out as there was no room to move my legs, as if I didn't already know that, my boys are mortified that I can't do push up's, and have on many occasions showed me how and instructed me to practice it, but to no avail. Pokhara is a real hippy town so I had fun chatting to and watching all different kinds of people there, I enjoyed everything to the fullest. The best part is that I can travel around on my own and I feel totally safe with no fear of anything or anybody, well maybe apart from the two elephant sized cockroach's that was in my bedroom, that was pretty freaky, I had somebody get rid of one only to discover another on my headboard. So sleeping was not the easiest after discovering that. Guides are very inexpensive as well so at times I go with one of them, there are lots of nice one's here. Then there are a stream of other young guys who are very friendly in hope I will give them all some money if they are extra nice to me, even though I tell them I am working as a volunteer and giving money to the orphanage and am not making any money, but I sometimes get very interesting conversations out of it. Later in the afternoon I went by a small plane back to Kathmandu again which was only half an hour. The last three days, and by the sounds of it probably the rest of the week, the schools the kids go to are closed, meaning I have to teach again every day. There are big political problems here, still lots of controversial's with the Maoist party, right now they have decided that the private schools charge to much and forced all of them to close, there are 8000 schools closed at the moment, they have a lot of private schools here because the government schools are not that great, and even the private are way below our standard, the real reason might be that the Maoist are against private schools so by forcing them to lower the price they might go out of business, and the timing right now could be because they will be having a major demonstration on May 1st here in Kathmandu, so Maoist supporters from the whole of Nepal will be here, so they need places for them to sleep. They have so many strikes here, but mostly forced by the Maoist's , they decide from day to day that now they are not happy with something so they will let us know that tomorrow you are not allowed to work, so everything is at a still stand, no busses or taxis driving, no stores, airport or business's open so if you have your trip planed on a day like this you are out of luck. Everybody obey's nicely, feeling they have no choice in the matter since if you don't you are attacked by the Maoist supporters. I was reading in the paper yesterday that the police seized a truck load of wooden sticks heading here to be used by the Maoist demonstrators on May 1st.The strike in Pokhara was because of a Maoist supporter that had beaten somebody up at the airport and was arrested so they wanted him free, and everybody are afraid to go against them so they usually get their way. Here before another government party decided that the Nepali passports should be made in India so we had a day strike because of that, because the Maoist 's didn't agree with that, so now they are made here. As you see the meaning of the word strike here is a little different than we are used to. Sleeping here has been difficult because of mosquitos, it is so hot so I need my window open, but now I sleep under a mosquito net so all is perfect again, it keeps other little creatures out as well, today a little lizard was testing it out. I have meet lots of nice people but mostly tourists which then is just a fleeing thing, and then all the locals, I am looking around to maybe find other places to support, since the needs here are endless!!! OK I will stop now before you get bored to tears, and have me excused of any mistakes, since I am short of time when I write, will try some more pictures, but downloading is very slow here.I feel really great!!! Cheers Inger
PS and please do write me as well it is always nice to know what is going on with you all. Thanks.
